So here are some pictures from Christmas 1 (we have none for Christmas 0).
This is the star on top of the tree. Anyone who knows me knows I love stars, and our star had to be perfect. I really like the filigree on this.
We really tried hard on Christmas 1 to instate some Christmas traditions of our own. One thing we decided to do was make Christmas cookies a few weeks before. I found a phenomenal sugar cookie recipe and it's become our family recipe.
We really tried hard on Christmas 1 to instate some Christmas traditions of our own. One thing we decided to do was make Christmas cookies a few weeks before. I found a phenomenal sugar cookie recipe and it's become our family recipe.
(the only down side is that it calls for 2 sticks of butter...)
We mixed colored frosting and frosted the cookies. I thought we'd have nice simple cookies, but Stephan got ahold of them and they kinda became modern art cookies. You can see below "S Cookie", "I HEART U Cookie", and "Pretzel Cookie". I figured I'd join in if he was going to deface our Christmas cookies and I couldn't stop him. "K HEART S Cookie" and "Rainbow Cookie" are my contributions.
But it didn't stop there. Down left you can see "Kite Cookie", and Stephan's "Accidental Animal" Series. He cut out a dog (well, the dog isn't so accidental), so that's "Dog Cookie", and the three below it are "Accidental Camel Cookie," "Accidental Anteater Cookie", and "Accidental Elephant Cookie". Down Right we also have "Lemon Cookie" (the blue blob in the top right of the rack) and "Stoplight Cookie."
Ah, relief. We also made it tradition to make a big star cookie apiece, decorate them, and give them to each other. I think you can tell who decorated which...
Stephan the Christmas cookie monster.
After the Christmas cookies we waited for Christmas Eve. After church service we came home and popped popcorn, and settled in for a game of Monopoly. (You can tell Stephan was absolutely elated.)
This has never happened before, and hasn't happened since, but I beat him to the point where he only had one dollar to his name. (That's one Monopoly Dollar he's holding).
After Monopoly we cleaned up and made the house look real Christmasy for then next morning. I can't wait to do it again.
Our dining room...
Our great room...
Here's our little tree! Perfect size - a gift from my parents who decided it was unacceptable for us to pass another year without a tree. We piled the gifts beneath it.
Stockings... (most of you hang them on a fireplace - we hang ours on a bookshelf!)
Our beautiful coffee table with some additional treats made since we'd eaten all the Christmas cookies.
And to bed we went. We had plans to get up early...
And go for a Christmas Wassail! Well, we aren't really Wassailing because we don't sing, but we do hike. We intended to get up and go to Sugarloaf Mountain to see the sun rise, but the roads aren't open before sunrise, so we just turned back and went in our local woods. This is my favorite picture from last years Wassail. After this we went home, showered, and went to church (since Christmas was on a Sunday last year!)
Then it was home for our Christmas Quiet time and presents. We always read the story of Jesus birth before we do anything with the presents. There's nothing more exciting than the savior of the world making his appearance on earth. That's the whole reason we have Christmas anyway! So after we read and and prayed, we open our gifts.
It's also tradition to get each other a teacup. These were the teacups from Christmas 1. Mine's the one with the dragonflies on it, but it had a crack in it, so Stephan returned it and bought me one with a cute kittie on it instead. It's equally as adorable.
...It's also tradition to make a horrible mess...
...and make a big dinner! Dinner for Christmas 1 was Rabbit in a cream sauce with fresh herbs, asparagus, dill carrots, mashed potatoes and mulled red wine. You can't see it here, but we had pumpkin marmalade on oaty bread before hand. It was a great meal.
So that was Christmas 1. Christmas 2 is on the approach!
This has never happened before, and hasn't happened since, but I beat him to the point where he only had one dollar to his name. (That's one Monopoly Dollar he's holding).After Monopoly we cleaned up and made the house look real Christmasy for then next morning. I can't wait to do it again.
Our dining room...
Our great room...
Here's our little tree! Perfect size - a gift from my parents who decided it was unacceptable for us to pass another year without a tree. We piled the gifts beneath it.
Stockings... (most of you hang them on a fireplace - we hang ours on a bookshelf!)
Our beautiful coffee table with some additional treats made since we'd eaten all the Christmas cookies.
And to bed we went. We had plans to get up early...
And go for a Christmas Wassail! Well, we aren't really Wassailing because we don't sing, but we do hike. We intended to get up and go to Sugarloaf Mountain to see the sun rise, but the roads aren't open before sunrise, so we just turned back and went in our local woods. This is my favorite picture from last years Wassail. After this we went home, showered, and went to church (since Christmas was on a Sunday last year!)Then it was home for our Christmas Quiet time and presents. We always read the story of Jesus birth before we do anything with the presents. There's nothing more exciting than the savior of the world making his appearance on earth. That's the whole reason we have Christmas anyway! So after we read and and prayed, we open our gifts.
It's also tradition to get each other a teacup. These were the teacups from Christmas 1. Mine's the one with the dragonflies on it, but it had a crack in it, so Stephan returned it and bought me one with a cute kittie on it instead. It's equally as adorable.
...It's also tradition to make a horrible mess...
...and make a big dinner! Dinner for Christmas 1 was Rabbit in a cream sauce with fresh herbs, asparagus, dill carrots, mashed potatoes and mulled red wine. You can't see it here, but we had pumpkin marmalade on oaty bread before hand. It was a great meal.So that was Christmas 1. Christmas 2 is on the approach!
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