The Many Places of Christmas

I am WAY behind on posting for the Christmas holiday. I started off good by getting up our Christmas celebration with the Ham's (see below), but then it all went to poop. I will defend myself in saying, I have been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks, and, in fact, haven't even been to work in the last two weeks until the start of this week :) So, we had a total of seven Christmas holiday celebrations...1) Ham's, 2) the Ives' at Uncle Troy & Aunt Debbie's, 3) the Shelledy's at Grandpa Jack's, 4) Christmas at home, 5) the Shelledy's at Granny Janet's, 6) the Allee's at Elsie's, and 7) the Walker's at Lahvie & Paul's. I have pictures from them all except the Christmas Eve celebration at Grandpa Jack's...I have no idea how I got out of my house without the camera, but I did! Some of you may say "Whew, that is too much to cram into a couple of days", and use to, I would agree with you...but these days I just say to myself (and my husband, over and over and over and over again - ha!) that it just means that we have lots of people who love us and want to spend the holiday with us, because one of these days, we will be sitting at home wondering how life got away from us and how Braden grew up so fast and isn't at home anymore for Christmas morning. As you can see by the smiles on the below faces, we all got just what we wanted for Christmas and that is was a great holiday! I hope that the new year brings just as much joy to all these faces :)

THE IVES's

Dad, my stepbrother Dallas, and Josh

My stepmom Julie, my little sister Dana, and Dad

Josh, doing what he does best at family functions...he is always the guy that falls asleep where ever he sits after the meal - what a bum! Oh, and he looks like a tree because he had spent the entire day in the woods hunting before the Christmas Holiday celebration that evening!

CHRISTMAS MORNING AT HOME

There is actually a little story that goes along with opening presents this year in the Allee house. After we got back home from Grandpa Jack's on Christmas Eve we had lots left to do in order to be ready for Santa to arrive at the Allee house. So, as soon as we got home, Braden got ready for bed and the rest of us got to work...well, Josh and I wrapped lots of presents while mom and John supervised...mostly mom did this behind closed eyes due to her consumption of her Ambien. It was close to eleven o'clock at night on Christmas eve...and Santa had eaten his cookies, drank his milk, and dropped off Braden's presents! It was time for all of the adults to move upstairs and go to bed as well. However, we hit a snag, just as we were shutting the lights out....Braden woke up to go to the bathroom. I saw him sneak around the corner and peak down the banister...then he turns to me (because I am in the hallway by now watching him) and says "Santa has already drank his milk and ate his cookies!" Then his eyes widen even more when he notices that Santa has dropped off his gifts as well! He is torn, and so am I...we both know technically you are suppose to wake up on Christmas morning and see all the presents and have the excitement of opening presents, BUT here we were at 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve...Braden had been asleep for the past 2 1/2 hours...and now here stands my 7 year old wide-eyed and super excited to open his presents. So, what do I do...do I make him wait - HECK NO! I go and wake up (by the way, I don't even think they had time to fall asleep) my Ambien drugged mom, papa John, and grabbed Josh from smoking his goodnight cigarette in the garage. We were opening presents!!!! It was a win/win situation really...we didn't have to wake up super early to open presents and then get ready to run out the door to the next Christmas celebration...we were able to do it leisurely, which was nice for all involved ;)

Tell me, honestly, does this look like I only have ONE child to buy Christmas for?!?!

Grandma and Papa John got him some rumble tumble remote control truck which was a big hit with Braden!

Santa brought Braden the much anticipated Wii...he has wanted one for a while now...so we finally broke down and let him ask Santa for one this year ;) It has definitely seen some play time, Aunt Terri watched Braden a few days ago here at the house, and that evening when we checked the history for the day it reveled that they had played for over 6 hours in ONE day!

The mess after all the Christmas had been opened, good thing I have a decent sized living room!

It is tough to see if you don't look closely...but on black Friday one of the gifts I was hell bent on getting for Braden was a remote control helicopter from JC Penney's...Josh is flying said helicopter and studying it closely! I have been informed that next year I need to buy TWO of those -ha!

THE SHELLEDY's (at Granny's)

That big mess ='s a very GOOD time with family! :)

Mom & John, Aunt Jenien & Uncle Steve, & Uncle Jackie & Lisa all went in and bought Granny a new stove/oven for Christmas...she was starting to tear up because she has the most fabulous kids in the whole world (well, I think that I am a pretty good kid, but her's are pretty good ones too -ha!) Nick was teasing her and telling her to "let the water works flow!"

Braden and his cousins Kaylea & Khloe getting ready for the presents to be passed out

THE ALLEE's

Dinner time...we made it simple, soup and sandwiches for dinner!

The Snuggie - what a popular gift this year for Christmas!!!

Bakugan's - he has like 50 of these little things now!

He just couldn't get enough of the ripping open presents - and he had a TON of gifts to open over the holiday season!

I just love this picture of Diana and I!

THE WALKER's

Grandaddy was a VERY good boy this year - ha! Just kidding, those aren't ALL his presents, but I am sure he was a good boy ;)

Braden and I posing for the camera together - one of my favorites!!!

Braden had been so disappointed that he hadn't gotten this mega bakugan set from Santa...after all, it was on his list! Poor guy had to wait until the VERY last Christmas celebration on the Sunday after Christmas before he finally got it!

I hope everyone had a great 2009, and I look forward to sharing with you all how 2010 unfolds for the Allee household!

Christmas Time - Cookies and Presents!!!

This past Friday evening, we celebrated Christmas with Terri, Olivia & Ethan. We did this by eating pizza, making and decorating cookies, and opening presents - what could be better really! Terri and I have the best kids ever, they had a blast, and Terri and I had a blast watching them! What a great thing to do with your kids, the kitchen may be a mess, but look at the smiles on those faces - how precious and priceless!!! Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their time together to bring in the holiday!

Just what he wanted- BIONICLES!!! Such a boy ;)

I got to buy a pretty glittery pink Barbie pony for Olivia - she is just too darn cute, and I loved buying the girly stuff!!!

Give a boy a GI Joe and a smile will appear on the face, too cute!!!

Cute faces and smiles...the mess was SO worth it!!!

Ethan was so adorable, he was too little to roll out his dough by himself, so instead he decided to take his hunk-o-dough, break it in cookie size pieces and just eat it raw - mmmmm, mmmm good! We ended up throwing away his dough rather than rolling it out...he had a blast while it lasted though -ha!

Braden got into using the cookie cutters and doing his ALL by himself! He was insistent that he roll out his own dough - which eventually needed a bit of help from mom, but other than that, he did it all himself and I just had the duty of snapping pics!

Decorating time - he is SO proud of this gingerbread man he decorated! Aunt Dana was very proud of it too, she thought he did a fabulous job of decorating his cookies.

Olivia passing off her cookie as complete, who could ask for more than icing and a blob of red and green mixed on top ;)

The kiddos hard at work - so much fun!

Again...kiddos hard at work! Dana had to work Friday evening, but as soon as she got home, she and Braden sat down to decorate MORE cookies!

I know they are hard to see because of the crazy tablecloth, but here are three of Braden's masterpieces! He did such a great job!

Ethan and Olivia's masterpieces!

Terri showing off her Christmas presents...the pink star jammies and her pretty argyle socks!

Me showing off my reindeer antlers - yes I did wear them ALL night! :)

He is a Bobcat!

As many of you know, Braden has begged and begged Josh and I to let him join boy scouts. He hadn't been able to join until he entered first grade, by boy scout rules, so he couldn't do it until this year. Braden hadn't been able to be active until this past month due to his football schedule and other commitments, but now he is going strong with the organization. He LOVES it! As does Josh really ;) In one weeks time, Braden was able to earn his Bobcat badge...I am not sure what that all entails really since this is something Braden and daddy do together, I just know that it is a big honor, and that Braden was recognized at last Thursdays Pack meeting. He received his badge along with me being presented with the mother pins for his achievement. This is big stuff boys and girls, I had no idea it was so involved, and that it included the mom's participation as well, I almost didn't go to the pack meeting until anther mom of one of Braden's friends who happens to be in the same Den as Braden mentioned it to me her a couple of days ago. His Den was presented to the whole Pack and then Braden and I were presented with his honors - because lets face it, I might have the pin, but Braden definitely earned it. Josh and Braden have been working very hard the last couple of weeks on getting Braden caught up, and in fact he surpassed several other boys who have been doing this boy scout thing for four months now. Josh says that it helps that we are such an active outdoorsy family, and that Braden is just whizzing through with flying colors! Braden's Den also earned the Spirit Stick for the month. They won the "Decorate Your Den Leader" competition, and they were so proud! Last but not least, he received the Pine Derby wood kit last Thursday...Braden and Josh are super stoked to start carving that silly thing and putting it together, they have high hopes of making it far in the Derby competition...stay tuned for January's boy scout update...that will have the Pine Wood Derby results!

Braden and I getting his honors at the Pack meeting

Braden's achievements were aplenty, his had to be presented in a baggie!

Decorating his Den leader...see the shinny red bulb near the toes!

Braden's pack with their Den leaders after winning the Spirit Stick competition...such a great job!

Braden composed the above letter for me to send to Santa today. I was so proud of him, he worked very hard on this letter for the last couple of days. I thought it was just WAY too cute not to post on our blog before mailing it off to the North Pole ;) If you have a tough time reading it, I have reprinted it below:

Dear Santa

I would like a guitar, toy air plane, a picture of you and your reindeer, mega dragonoid Bakugan, Level 2 Bionicle, and a Wii with Mario Cart.

Please bring Patch some toys.

♥ Braden Allee

Short and to the point, not a lot of detail just yet, but writing is still a LONG process. None-the-less, Josh and I were very proud of him sitting down and writing his very own letter to Santa Claus this year.

Merry Christmas to all from the Allee Family!

The Gingerbread Train Creation

On Thanksgiving Grandmother and Granddaddy Walker gave Braden a Gingerbread Train to make for our house. He finally talked me into letting him venture onto the project a few nights ago. He loved the detail work and poured his heart and soul into making it the best Gingerbread Train ever created. He is a perfectionist as well, I have no idea where he gets that from...hehehehe, so he cannot just decorate the train however he wants too, he has to stare at the box the whole time and make it exactly like it looks on there. Dana took a little break from school work to come down and help him, they had a great time getting into the decorating. I loved watching him have fun and concentrating on it creation so much. I am not sure how, but I got distracted during the picture process, and did not get a final picture snapped quick enough of the finished product and its creators...I guess it just looked too good to just sit there and look at...so as you can see in the last picture, the caboose is no longer in one piece, Braden said the cookie was very delicious - ha!!!

Hard at work, so much concentration!

NOTE TO SELF: Get a Christmas table cloth for holiday projects...the spider web one was nice for carving pumpkins, but not so much for Christmas activities - ha!

Dana and Braden comparing their display to the box picture

Notice that the caboose doesn't have a front or back side any longer...as well as the fact that the candy balls that were trimming the top of the caboose on the icing are missing as well ;) As long as he thought it was tasty though - ha!

Christmas in the Park

Every year Longview Lake has a huge Christmas light display called Christmas in the Park. Josh, Braden and I pile in the car and head out at some point during the holiday season. We decided to venture out last weekend at around 10:00 p.m., thinking that we would be able to breeze through the display since we decided to go out so late...we were wrong. There were cars bumper to bumper for miles ahead and behind us. But it is so much fun listing to Christmas music and watching Braden in the anticipation of seeing all the lights...not to mention seeing his face light up when we have finally made it to the display itself! I had Josh take some picks of our favorite parts of the display. The pictures don't do it justice at all, but hopefully you get the idea of how grand of a display it is. We had such a great family night looking at the lights in Christmas in the Park!

This is the face of..."Mom hurry up and take my picture so that i can look at the lights again!" I tried to capture on film the look of excitement, but what i got was the look of irritation because I was interrupting his light gazing time.

Here are some of the cars in front of us...and we aren't even close to the entrance of the display!

This was my favorite display at the park, it was new this year.

I also LOVE the holy arch too...one of my favorites every year to see!

Braden had to have dad get a shot of Santa Claus, this was his favorite display...I love all of the other lights around him in the background throughout the park.

We all thought the gingerbread house and kids on the trampoline was adorable too. :)

Deck the Halls!

We were able to get lights out on the house this year. Last year we closed on the house on November 22nd, which didn't allow us much time to get decorations up and around the house other than a tree. But this year, has been a different story. Josh hung all the lights on the house mid November, when we had a couple of really awesome 70 degree days, and Braden and I decorated the inside of the house one weekend when Josh was in the woods deer hunting. Braden was so much help with the tree, he helped carry up every single box from the basement...including the really heavy box the tree was packed away in. He helped sort all the branches, put the tree together, and also helped with every aspect of decorating the tree. It was so awesome decorating our house and tree with my little man. This year, I felt that I needed a Christmas wreath like I have for fall...but obviously with all xmas colors ;) When mom and I went shopping for the wreath and all the materials, I was BLOWN away by the price of an empty wreath! Mom saw this candy cane shaped evergreen, and we decided it would be perfect in place of a wreath,and a third of the cost! On Thanksgiving weekend mom helped me make my candy cane shaped wreath decoration. I love the way it turned out! I love the way all of our home decorations came out this year - tis the season!!!