More Pre-Christmas

I stayed up late one night wrapping as many presents as I could. I knew John Dickson would be thrilled to see presents under the tree, and I thought it would add to his excitement. WRONG. I mean, don't get me wrong, he loved it, but he was borderline obsessed with opening his, which he immediately idenfied as his, since it was the biggest. Fortunately he was right. He did a lot of laying right in front of the tree and just staring at the presents:



A few days later, I came home from work and found this Christmas robot had moved in:



This was my Christmas present from Adam. It was how he wrapped my gift card. I loved it, and its things like that that make me love him more.

My favorite part of Christmas are these:





My mom cross stitched both of those. They took her about 8 months a piece, and to say I love them would be an understatement. I keep them, along with our photo albums and scrapbooks in the closet next to the front door. In case of a fire, after people and animals are out, those are the next to be rescued. (Of course, this is assuming the fire is considerate enough to start in the back of the house).

My parents have this angel on top of their tree that they got for their first Christmas. They paid less than a dollar for her, she is made of cardboard, felt and plastic, and she is gosh awful ugly. She has been on top of their tree since I was born, and I have been begging and patiently waiting for her to move to my house and live on top of my tree. They cant seem to find the perfect angel to replace her, which is amazing, because almost any angel would be a step up. I think thats part of why I love her so much. Next year I steal her. I don't have a picture, I just thought you should know.

And this is another favorite decoration of mine - its an ornament from Henry's teacher at daycare, who we love love love. I thought this was so sweet and such a great picture of Hen, I had to share!



Henry's godparents, Betsy and Brandon, gave the boys the most adorable bird ornaments for Christmas. My godmother always gave me an ornament every year for Christmas, and while I don't think its in the "godmother responsibilities" list, I thought it was so cool that they did the same for Henry (and John Dickson). I love ornaments anyway - we have a fairly decent collection and every ornament received since Adam and I got married is in a box labeled with whose it is, who it came from, what year, and why its significant. So, the boys got these birds in Columbia, and I was so worried about then getting messed up that I put them in a box with an outfit Henry got. I had to exchange the outfit for a bigger size, and when I went to the store (now in Greenville), I realized the birds were in the box. So I take the birds out and immediately put them in my glove compartment. A few days later, Adam gets something out of my glove compartment and tosses the birds on the seat. The next morning, I am getting ready to take the boys to daycare, and I am still concerned about the safety of these birds, so I take them out, put them on the hood of the car so I can buckle in the boys and run the birds inside...

I'm sure you see where this is going...

I drive off. Birds fly. Except that they cant fly. Its muddy. There's lots of traffic. They are small. I'm sure they are dead. I run through all the options in my head, including calling Betsy to find out where they are from and then replacing them. I decide its too late after Christmas and they are surely sold out. I know I'll hate myself if I dont turn around, so I do, drive all the way back to our house, turn around, drive off again, and I find them. On the side of the road. Clean. Alive. (Well, alive as an ornament can be). It was truly a Christmas miracle.

What is it with me and losing things on the side of the road???? In my defense, I always find them :-)