Christmas with Nanda & Pop Pop

Alright!  Time to catch up on all my Christmas posts...let's see if I can type quietly enough while James sleeps beside me on the couch.  Hmm.  Anyone who knows me really well knows I'm the loudest type-r on the face of the earth.  :(  A few days before Christmas, we went to Carolyn and Gerald's to celebrate Christmas with them.  While so many people have been extremely kind and generous to us, there is no one who has shown us love like Carolyn and Gerald have.  I'll never forget spending the night at their house after Landon began at Bethabra, but before we moved here, and it being winter time.  Gerald pulled their truck out of the garage that Saturday night because they wanted us to park in the garage that night.  Just one example of how incredible they've been to us.  Here are the desserts waiting on us when we arrived:

And, here's our dinner.  I can't quite remember now exactly what we had...turkey, salad, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn, mac n cheese, etc. etc...some delicious rolls...

James is big time into clicking the straps together on ANYTHING, so I just wanted to capture what he's into at the moment.

James opening a present!

Whoa!  A Ta-ti!!!

Love, love, love Nanda and Pop Pop!!

A Tricycle :)

Oh, oh, oh my.  Ms. Karen came to keep James last night and brought him a Christmas present.  Seriously....it was a tricycle.  I didn't even know they made a tricycle for his age - I thought you couldn't ride a tricycle until you were 4 or so!  But this tricycle is made smaller...perfect for James' size!!  He walked himself around the house with it all evening.  Thank you Steve and Karen - he will get many, many, many (I cannot even count) hours of enjoyment from the tricycle - I can't wait until he can ride it OUTSIDE!!!!! 

 Also, on a funny note.  I look over at the Christmas card holder yesterday and see this: 

James must've found the envelope for the gas bill and put it up here like a Christmas card - haha.  Smart!

Animals & a New Outfit

James is getting big into the "cheese" face.  That is making it very difficult, even with a nice camera, to get a good picture of him.  It's like his eyes are always half shut!  A couple nights ago I grabbed the camera and took a picture of his bed - he is getting into a phase of wanting to sleep with every animal he sees on the way from the living room to his bed.  Winnie always makes the cut - Winnie is the tried and true - always the choice.  See how he is face down?  James lays his head down on Winnie, facing Winnie's bottom, and rubs the tag with his hand - between his fingers - until he falls asleep.  He can also say all the animals' names - Winnie, Elmo, Gingy, Monkey and Bear (I know...original), E.T., and Eeyore - I think I got them all.  It's pretty sweet.  Tonight he wanted me to put his blanket over him and with his head on Winnie, Elmo in his left arm and Eeyore in his right, he was happy to lay there and go to sleep.  Cracks me up.

Landon's mom sent the SWEETEST outfit for James - but it was too small!  I had to go exchange it, and since I couldn't find exact same outfit, I found this one instead.  People at church are going to start thinking all James has are sweater vests since that's all he ever wears (nearly).  They are just my favorite. 

Shirts & Cookies...a Crafty Morning!

Well...this little crafty outing turned out sort of like I thought it might.  James has never had any experience with paint situations.  We bought him some finger paints for Christmas because I want him to like makin stuff and painting and coloring....not to be boring like ME.  I was afraid he would not like how the paint felt on his hands, and sure enough, he didn't.  Can you tell?

We made a Christmas tree on his t-shirt, and I had to add the ornaments because he was OUT...like FORGET it.  I forced Kelli to keep forcing his hand down on the shirt to make the tree, but I just didn't have the heart to make him o the ornaments too...I do have some mercy, you know :)

Kelli & Eric had icing and sprinkles left over from their cookie baking the day before, so they let us play with the icing and sprinkles to do a few of our own cookies.  Now, James was on board with that, let me tell you.  Even right now while I'm typing this, he is pointing at the screen and saying "cookie" over and over.
He was very good at the sprinkles after I iced the cookies!

Amy von Oven, if you read this, don't you think James looks just a little like Gabe in this picture.  I know they look nothing alike, but something about James' face below remind me so much of sweet GABE!

And, here's the finished product!!!  Yeah!  We had a great time with Mandy and Isabelle and Kelli and Carolie.  Wish some of our other friends could have joined us!!!!

Bethabra Staff Christmas Party

What a great blessing to be finishing 2 years at Bethabra.  So many people talked about how scary first churches can be, and we feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family.  Sure, there have been and still are some significant challenges, but on the whole, we could not be more thankful that this is the place God had for us.  We got together Sunday evening at Eric and Kelli's house to celebrate together with Tommy and Mallory, Steven and Amy, Carolyn and Gerald, Susan and M.J....I think that's it!  I had more pictures (since it looks like there were very few people there...) but I cannot post them because I am making the craziest ugliest faces...and I just can't handle it.

Here's James and me...(P.S. the red shirt is like his Christmas uniform)

Sweet James and Caroline

James and Caroline and Nanda and Pop Pop - so thankful for them!!!!

It was a great night...except for a really loud game that James nearly had a nervous breakdown during - you know, he doesn't like any loud noises or craziness happening.  We are praying for many, many more years at Bethabra - and we are praying that God will do something AMAZING there.  Something we could not even ask or imagine. 

Too Tasty to wait til Tuesday

Boy, I hate staying home all day.  Landon got up with James this morning and took him to breakfast so that I could work.  I've been working on and off all day today - trying to finish up some things before I end my time with my department at the end of the year.  After lunch, Landon went to play golf for a few hours, James napped, and I worked.  I decided that even though I really wanted to go out to eat, we needed to spend less money, so I decided to try a recipe I found on Pinterest and had all the ingredients to make.  It's cream cheese spaghetti.  Looks good, huh?

It was delicious, and it even got rave reviews from Landon.  Here's the recipe:

Baked Cream Cheese Spaghetti Casserole

12 oz spaghetti
1 (28 ounce) jars prepared spaghetti sauce
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, minced  (right...so...I just sprinkled some garlic powder in it...I don't even know what a clove of garlic looks like...clearly I am no chef)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
In a skillet, brown the ground beef until cooked through; drain fat and stir in spaghetti sauce. Set aside.
Cook spaghetti according to directions on packet. Drain and place cooked spaghetti in bowl. Add cream cheese, Italian Seasoning and minced garlic. Stir until cream cheese is melted and the spaghetti is thoroughly coated. (I accidentally put the garlic powder and the Italian Seasoning in the sauce, and it was great anyway).
Lightly grease a 9x13" pan. Spread a small amount of meat sauce in the bottom of the dish. Put spaghetti on top of sauce and top with remaining meat sauce. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly.

DELICIOUS!!!!

Flashy Festive Christmas Decor

Well, before I started taking pictures of our Christmas stuff, I was super excited about joining Kelly's Korner for her Christmas decor carnival today.  Then, once I started taking the pictures - even though we have a super nice camera - I got less excited.  It seems like it looks much more Christmas-y and festive in person.  Clearly I am not a professional photographer, so it is what it is.  After Katrina happened, we had to start from scratch to rebuild our Christmas stock of decorations.  I'll start our tour in the kitchen...

I got Chef Santa last year from my mom :)  Then, you can see Gator Santa on the left, given to Landon by his mom a few years ago (I think!).

The Mary and Joseph figurine is carved out of olive wood.  We got it while we were in Israel in 2007.  The faces aren't carved because the more intricate the design on the wood, the more expensive it is there.   Ours had to be faceless :)  BUT, still mean a great deal to me to get them out every year.  That was a once in a lifetime trip, and I have so many great memories of it.  Beside Mary and Joseph is my glass block light that my friend Terri made for me!  It is a glass shower block with lights stuffed inside and bow tied around the front.  I was so excited the year Terri made it for me for Christmas!!

 

I just wanted to show my favorite Santa mug.  I bought Momma and me mugs like this a few years ago.  It's my FAVORITE.  BUT, you cannot microwave it because it has a jingle bell on it - trust me, you'll remember you can't microwave it after you do it once.

Here's our table centerpiece.

This is my favorite new addition this year.  A Christmas card holder!

Landon's mom gave this to me a few years ago - it's a BEAUTIFUL nativity.  I have a hard time fitting it on this table, so it may have to find a new home next year.  It's just gorgeous, so I love having it right inside the front door where anyone who visits can see it.

Landon's mom also gave me this angel last year.  I bought the angel for her the year before, and really liked it.  Then, she gave me one last year (I started actually wondering if she regifted hers to me because she didn't really like as much as she said...but I'm thinking that didn't happen :)). I love the angel.  Every morning when we wake up and come in the living room, James points at the angel, the mantel, and the tree - those are the three things we turn on right when we get up every day.

James loves playing with the nativity.  He also loves playing with the train - which I forgot about a picture of in this post, but it's a big, big deal at our house and we play with it about 10 times a day.  No kidding.

 So, I got this idea yesterday that I really want to put a tree in James' room.  This isn't the exact tree I'd like to put in here - I want to put one in the corner that actually has lights but is small.  BUT, you get what you can afford...you know what I mean? So, I got this tree that was half price at Hobby Lobby - it will do until we can get a better one for his room.  I took extra pictures I had of him since he was born and cut them out into different shapes as the ornaments. I think I probably could have done more creative stuff with this, but I'm not sure what, and I haven't had time to check out this idea on Pinterest to see what other people do that is better. 

And, here's the outside...

 Seriously??? Usually I can tell James to stand at the door while I step outside for a minute, but not today.  He bolted out the door with his socks on and started hiking it up the driveway.   Don't worry, I caught up before he reached the road.

So, that's it for me!  I enjoy decorating for Christmas, and I'd like to do more of it - just have to collect more and more each year.  Thanks for reading!