Christmas 2012

I know y'all haven't heard a peep out of me about Christmas. You may be wondering, "Did they even have Christmas this year??" Well to answer your question, (never mind that I asked it for you..) yes we did have Christmas and it was lovely. Grandma said it was the nicest Christmas she ever remembers having. Our Christmas celebration as a family was quiet and not at all stressful.

December first...

we went to visit our friends in Louisiana. We stayed for a week and while we were there among all the other everlastingly fun things we did we also went a local fair in town.



They always have the cleverest Christmas decorations. We went there last year as well.

I was very much intrigued by this old style kitchen. The stove is out of context with the rest of the grounds.

The main part of the fair grounds is a few acres upon which old historic buildings, mainly log cabins from the earlier settlers in that area, have been relocated after restoration. This was the only room which was entirely roped off. All the other building you could walk through and look at all the different things they have in them.

Here is a shot of a small part of our group. Put together our two families were seventeen not counting my older brother who is out in Arizona.

We and other fair-goers listened to "Kracker Dan" play a bunch of folk songs. We really enjoyed it and even sang along on some of the songs we knew. They really enjoyed us really enjoying it. The white haired bearded man in the back would come up to us and smile real big. He threw extra beads and candy to us as he played his instrument. The man wearing the black hat and brown overalls jumped on the bench in front of us and as it was part of the song, impersonated a crow and flapped his wings outrageously. The man playing the bass fiddle would make faces he sang in our direction.

Back at Grandmas...

For the first time ever we went out to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut down our tree. We have had live trees in the past but they always came from a parking lot or our own woods. This time we rambled through rows and rows of trees. Smelling the comforting aroma, hiding in the green branches, "That was is lopsided", "That one is too tall." "I like this one!" "No, it's too fat on the bottom." "Ooooh what do you think about this one?" "That kind has sticky branches." Finally we found the one we wanted. We all admired the tree and lavished it with praises so much so that I am sure we must have spoiled the tree and made it vain. It was a large farm and from directions all around we could hear other families making their hunt as well. The only thing this scene was missing was snow and a snowball fight.

Out two year old enjoyed smelling the trees.

We took our tree to the "processing" section and they put it on a special shaker machine and blew it with a leaf blower to get all the dead needles out. Then they bagged it in one of those fancy bagging machines. I have never seen anything like that in my entire life. I've just seen netted trees on top of car roofs but I've never seen them do it.

The Christmas Tree Farm had a live Nativity Scene, a train to ride around the perimeter of the property, and they offered CAMEL RIDES! We were planning on going for a ride but we were there too late. :(

There was also a board with snowmen painted on it and holes cut out for your faces. We took some pictures with those and also rang the big bell they had at the top of a pole.

We read the Christmas Story one night, Dad showed J------ the pictures and then we all sang carols. Each week a new advent candle was lit each week at church, special Christmas songs were sung. I really love the Advent and Christmas season.

We celebrated the Twelve Days of Christmas by opening presents on each day although we did miss maybe two and by the end of twelve days they were almost all gone. I would still like to find out the traditional meaning of the twelve days. I know it has something to do with God.

The baby had a blast helping decorating the tree.

He caught on to the idea very quickly and he would try to put all sorts of stuff in the tree. Fishing bobbers, rocks, his toys.... Once it was decorated though he didn't touch a thing on that tree. He would lay down and gaze at the ornaments but never touching. One of his favorites was a train ornament. He also liked the little rabbit laying in a hammock. We could have hung paper thin glass globes painted with golden designs on the very bottom branches and not have worried about a thing. Except for the cat.

January, 2013

We also attended a Lessons and Carols and a local church which was beautiful. The organ was magnificent the singing was inspired. I really liked it. The baby behaved perfectly, until he spit up from too much milk. Then he was distressed and although he tried hard, he just couldn't help but to voice his discomfort. He was really a good boy but the taste just wouldn't come out and so Mom ended up taking him to another room so he could settle down. She could still hear but it was not the same as being in the same room.

And that pretty much sums up our Christmas season. Enjoy the pictures! ;)