Today after a long day of shopping (a few hours, but to the boys, forever!) On our way home, we were fantasizing about how much fun it will be to play or first game of lazer tag in the dark!!! We dressed in black (well, some of us did, some couldn't wait that long), lit a few candles that couldn't be knocked over and the battle was on. We played teams and switched teammates and played solo. One round when Chris was out early, he grabbed the camera and announced he was the journalist :~)
Here the boys are aiming at me, their poor defenseless mother!
Brayton liked the face mask idea, but didn't want to change any clothes.


I won the battle when Chris was the journalist ~ yea!

Here is our family photo after all the battling was done. We went through all the work of setting the camera on night setting and shutting the lights off, but you can't tell with in the picture!
After lazer tag we had a little pizza and puppy chow (finally got it made after Christmas!) and then we played air hockey. We tried all combos of teams and every time Brayton was the common player in the team that won! They were pretty tired after staying overnight at Grandma & Grandpa's house last night, so they are in bed at their normal bedtime! I hope they sleep in ~ Chris and I are watching a movie at 8!

This is the BEST Christmas EVER! (again)

I do believe that our children say this every year (which is a huge relief because Santa doesn't always get them what's on their lists). This year, though, Brayton said he would really see if there is a Santa because he wasn't telling anyone what he wanted for Christmas and Santa would just know. We passed! Even with a few flubs on our part. . . First, Santa wrote a little note explaining why the boys weren't getting what was on their list. This morning when I remembered to have the boys sign a card for their dad, Taite noticed that the same stationary was laying out on my desk and I didn't flip it over fast enough so he wouldn't see it. Secondly, they still haven't made the connection as to why we couldn't park in the garage yesterday, nor have they thought about how Santa got the game table in his sleigh :~)

In any event, we had a few AWESOME games of Lazer Tag and we were all pretty good at it. We did make Brayton so he had to get hit the same amount of times as us to get "done" but in hindsight, that may not have been the fairest. . . We can always change that next time :-) Chris and I played a game of air hockey and pool too (the boys were playing their new Pokemon Gameboy game with their new connector cable). Chris beat me at both games, but it was still really fun! It makes me want even more to get the loft built in the shed for our "game" area and we could add foosball! But, enough dreaming LOL.

Last night we went to the 4:00 church service, late. I thought, 'there are 3 services, so I'm sure this one won't be full' ~ WRONG! We got to the church at 4 and it was packed! After church, we loaded up the eggnog (Chris' homemade is now a tradition) and went Jeremy & Amber's house. They fed us all and then we opened the "people specific" presents. The boys each got a $50 bill from Grandma and when Taite opened his, Brayton said "It must be fake!" He didn't think that they made a $50 bill! We all laughed at that one!

On my side of the family we play the "Dice Game" instead of buying specific gifts for everyone and the boys start talking about playing this, oh, about a week after Christmas! They LOVE it. What it is is we have 5 presents (approx.) for each person that we bring and some are child specific so the boys have something to steal when the time comes. There are two dice and for the first round (until all the gifts are chosen ~ still wrapped) every time you get doubles, you can pick a gift. When they are all out of the center, then we open what we picked. This year Jeremy decided we all had to announce what we picked so when we started round 2, we'd know what we wanted to steal. The key to this round is it only goes on for 10 minutes for you to steal the presents you really wanted from everyone else. Great fun was had by all (except Steph & Brian because they were in Georgia ~ well, at least they didn't have great fun with us!) and with the exception of I "got into trouble" for 'guiding' the boys in what to steal when they got doubles and had already stolen all the "kid" gifts. I'll make amends today :~) Here are the videos of the boys opening their presents (or in the game table situation, the door).




Here I was opening my level. Chris got me the new Black & Decker level that lets you mark where the picture holes belong and then you can mark them on the wall after making sure it's level ~ very cool!!


The boys each got some Bakugon character things and that was one of the highlights. . . Of course they only cost $2.50.

Chris missed out on the wallet in the dice game, but that's okay because I had already bought him one for Christmas :-)

Chris had gotten me the dressier, shorter winter coat I wanted! Please do not look at my hair. . .


Chris was using my new level to level up the pool table. It was still a little off, but we had fun :~)

We're ready. . .

YEAH!! Sunday I finished up some things for Christmas and we made Christmas cookies! I had a gift project to do and then I had to make a sample of the project for Taite's Christmas party (for today). I messed up that (forgot Santa's mittens), but it makes the kids feel good if they can point out a mistake made by an adult LOL ~ I really did it for their benefit. Then we made the cookies. I have to admit, we haven't done this before. I know, I know, I'm normally so cool and would be all over a project like this, but I really don't care for the mess! Plus, I could see it being a project that has a lot of hands to help at the start of the project, but then I would be the only one to finish and clean up. I was surprised by how well our decorating and cutting went! I rolled out the first "bunch" and then the boys just took over rolled what dough they had and it worked perfect! They patiently waited for the cookies to cool so we could decorate them (there was a meal in between). I made two small batches of frosting so they could each decorate in the color of their choice. The baggies with a tip cut off didn't work the best, but for Taite that wasn't a problem ~ just glob as much frosting on as you could! Brayton, of course, was a little slower and tried really hard to decorate, more than "glob". He would add frosting, sprinkles, more frosting, more sprinkles and so on. The one picture of him is where he'd decorated a tree and he had so much frosting and sprinkles on there, it was overflowing onto the table. He picked it up and wiped all the dripping frosting off and licked his fingers :~) At one point (before we started) I was dreaming a "mommy dream" that we could take these beautiful plates of cookies with us as we went to Christmases, but that ain't gonna happen! These are all just for us, but that's okay ~ the boys LOVED it! Oh, yeah, we did have Chris mix up some frosting so we could frost the cookies and I thought he was just going to leave it white so we could use the sprinkles, but we ended up with orange frosting ~ we'll have to remember the recipe in case we make cookies for Halloween!

We survived!!

We survived Taite's sleepover with his friends! He only was allowed 2 friends (that was the trade-off ~ less friends, but they got to sleep overnight!) and it actually went very well! I only had to remind them a few times that just because Brayton is Taite's little brother, he was also part of the birthday party :~) When I got up this morning (thought I was early) at 6:20, they were already awake. They were just in their sleeping bags talking and playing video games (the guests brought their PSP's ~ of course our boys only have GameBoy Advances, which are old). They told me they only slept for 2 hours. I don't quite buy that because they were a little too perky, but I don't believe they got too much sleep! Of course their play time was spent with the Nerf guns and anything else we had that they could shoot at each other. The guns jammed and some weren't happy, but wait until we get our Lazer Tag sets!!! Our house will be the coolest to come too! Oh. . . you didn't hear what we are getting the boys (and US!) for Christmas? We ordered 2 sets of Lazer Tag guns. They are a little spendy, but we read the reviews on this set and everyone (from pro-players to amateurs & families like us) raved about it! Now, after last night, Chris said that he'd almost want one more set! When he was a kid, his friend, Troy, had birthday parties and Troy's dad would chase the boys in the trees and stuff. They didn't have lazer tag, but that's what ours would be fun for. Well, 2 sets will have to work for now :~) If the boys have friends over, I could be the designated photographer and Chris can still be the sniper. LOL We had to take a group picture of the boys at the party with their weapon of choice :)

Andrew is in the blue Spiderman PJ's and Mike is wearing the yellow T ~ they all played SO well together! It was nice to have all 4 of them occupied! We fed the boys supper last night and then Chris and I had a candle lit steak dinner while they played. It was really nice (and GOOD! I tried the new steak rub from Wildtree~ EXCELLENT!!!!)

Snow Day II

We have a snow day again today and it must be the effect the snow has on the atmosphere. . . Brayton got up again and started on a project. Today's specimen? A cup guy (I believe he called it) with toothpick legs and arms :~) We had to do a video of the house and stuff he made the guy because he worked on this for probably 2 hours!

Then, I forgot that I can't pause in my recording, so I had to start it over when he got the snowman. When he started drawing this snowman, I had to laugh because I thought his eyes were so big he looked scared, but Brayton assured me that when he colored in the eye color that he wouldn't look scared anymore LOL!




Okay, have I mentioned how much I LOVE creating things? I was thinking it's probably a good thing that my nephews (and maybe a niece?) will be spaced out as they are because soon my boys will not enjoy making cards and stuff with me, so I can just borrow the other kids! Here are the cards the boys made for teachers, a para & the bus driver. (Stacy if you see this early, you'll just have to act surprised) :)



Taite opted to do the colored pictures. I have to admit that I hated the Santa picture at first, but would you believe that I found some self-stick ribbon (way cool!) to match the colors he had used and added a snowflake sequin type thing and it turned out super cute! I love adding accents like that or colored paper and it makes a simple child's drawing look WAY cute! I had a few options for hand made cards from the Internet printed out to give the boys some ideas.






































Brayton picked out the Joy card, but decided to color a snowman picture and spent most of his time drawing the picture. It turned out super cute and you'll notice the holly he used in his Cupman's snowman is also used here very creatively ;~) I also had to include the inside of Bray's card because he wrote it all himself. . .





























In the picture, he used the holly for the 'O' in joy and for the cheeks of the snowman, as well as for his buttons. At the top, Brayton had Taite write 1 little, 2 little, 3 little snowmen, 4 little, 5 little, 6 little snowmen, 7 little, 8 little, 9 little snowmen, 10 snowmen learning to read! The snowman is holding the book he is learning to read. The blue snowflakes are falling from the sky and the gold around the snowman's head is because Santa just went by and that's his magic all around the snowman :-)

Aliens Love Underpants!

This is the title of my new favorite book! I just love kids books and the crazy things they can be about. I mean, come on, you know you'd never find an adult book with this title! (Watch, some moron will have an adult book by this title! LOL) Anyway, I asked the boys if they would read this book with me and we each took turns reading a page. We had to remind Brayton sometimes to read and not just look at the pictures, but it was fun!

It was especially funny when Bray decided he would "fix" the phone he got at Sunday school (actually a game in the shape of a phone to keep them occupied when they were done with the Christmas program). The game is one of those you have water inside and rings with pegs that you push buttons that make bubbles and move the rings around ~ follow? Maybe the picture will help you out, no? Anyway, he has these "tools" made out toys ~ you have to use your imagination (they are the red/orange/green, yellow/red and blue/yellow/white things in the pictures) and he's been using these tools around the house to fix things: cracks, non-broken things, etc. (did some "fixing" at Grandma & Grandpa's too!). So he took these tools and "sawed" on his phone. He told us he "sawed" 'Made in China' on the back of his phone. Then he decides he has to get his phone fixed so he can call the aliens to see if they really do like underpants. He finally repaired his phone tonight (we were all waiting with bated breath!) and told the aliens to bring to earth two of the pairs of underpants in the book that had the aliens on them. Brayton and I both thought they were cute. I told Bray to tell the Aliens that we needed one small pair (for me) and one XL pair for him ~ he didn't think that was right, but I said we were just going to wear them on our heads anyway!

I just had to take a picture of this ~ he uses one of those paper cups from the bathroom (for when they brush their teeth) as a cell phone holder. Last night and tonight he had to make sure he had his phone put in it's holder :~)



I remembered one more thing (unrelated to Aliens ~ not so much the underpants, though as Brayton pointed out) both boys got their spelling pre-test words correct today, so they have like a 3 week break from spelling tests! Yea!! One of Brayton's words was "under", so he thought that fit into our Alien story quite nicely!

The Christmas County Spelling Bee

Each year at Church, they are creative in telling a Christmas story. So far, the boys are just part of the "support" cast :~) This video is Taite singing one of the songs. You can see he is trying to stand at an angle because it was a tight fit, but the one girl is standing straight on, right in front of him. Of course he was polite and said it wasn't her fault, it was crowded. Being a mom, that's not how I saw it, she was hogging the show! LOL

Brayton had a boy in front of him the whole time and I couldn't see him! I should have passed the camera down, I guess because everyone else could see him. From where I sat, it looked like the boy had a weird hairline because the boy in front had a little lighter hair than Bray and all I could see was the back of Brayton's hair. I even tried scooting across the aisle to get a better shot of Brayton, but the boy moved to that side when I moved! I couldn't win!

The only way to describe where Brayton is is to say he's to the right of the redhead's right shoulder. The blond boy in the blue shirt is in front of Brayton. They didn't split the 1st graders up by their height ~ the kindergartners were all lined up well, but you can't see Bray and a few other 1st graders because of the taller kids. The redhead is fun to watch though :~)

This song was sung at the end of the program and a lot of the kids were off the risers because they were a part of the nativity scene so Taite wasn't so squished here.

Just prayers, please

I have some videos to post from the boys' Christmas program at church, but don't really feel like doing that tonight. I don't have any still shots because my camera is NOT good for that type of setting (far away and inside) and no matter what I try to change, I can't get it to work.
Anyway. . .

Today we had Christmas at my Grandma's house. It was nice, but meatballs seemed to be the theme :~) Isn't that how it goes? 4 different people brought just meatballs or spaghetti and meatballs! So, while there, my aunt was telling me about her Grandson's friend who is just 16 and has cancer in his bones and they found a spot on his lung. What awful news to find out for someone so young and full of life! He plays hockey with my cousin's son (same Grandson as mentioned above, if you are having a hard time following) and I would just like everyone to remember him and his family in your prayers ~ please!

Projects!

So this morning I had a fabulous idea! Well, I thought it was good anyway. . . My uncle Greg likes to make wood products and I gave him one of the step stools that Taite had gotten as a baby from one of my other uncles as a pattern. Well, when Sonja returned it today, I thought 'Monica could "finish" these and sell them!' She can print out her "stuff" (I'm not sure what you call it Mon, sorry!) and use it as a stencil too, so how cute would these be as gifts for little kids? Here is the one I have for Taite:

We're going to "play" with this idea after the holiday rush! I'm so excited! I LOVE creative stuff!!

Along the lines of "creative stuff" you probably noticed that Brayton's apron was a little snug in the Gingerbread house pictures. . . you didn't?! Do you even read my blog or just come here and skim over things? :~) LOL ~ just kidding (I kill me!!)

Anyway, I used the too small apron as a pattern and made Brayton a bigger apron today with some fabric I had, but didn't know what to make out of it. How cute is this? It's reversible! I LOVE IT!! I haven't finished it because I'm sure my pattern isn't without flaws and the neck strap seems a little long, so I need my model home to try it on before I sew it all up.

Of course if Taite asks for one, I will make him one too, but he could care less about getting stuff on his clothes :-) That's what mom's are for ~ duh ~ to wash your clothes!

Brayton's wish. . .

Tonight I put Brayton to bed and he was trying to get all wrapped up in his really soft Superman blanket (I think that's who's on it). I asked him if he wished they made sheets out of that material and of course he did. I forgot to give him his allergy pill and I ran it down about 20 minutes later and here is how he was sleeping ~ I might have to look for sheets made out of this blanket type of material for his birthday. It might take me that long to find them :~)

Today when I went to help in Taite's classroom, I had my whole group convinced that we have a rule at our house that you cannot laugh. Taite's friend Carlie has been to our house and tried to tell everyone I was just kidding that we can laugh, but they weren't buying it! Needless to say, we did a lot of laughing during our sewing projects!

Tonight we went to TJ Maxx (the boys & I ~ Chris is in Omaha) and every time we went down an aisle with breakable stuff I told the boys not to touch anything. They couldn't look, though, from the middle of the aisle ~ noooo. . . Brayton had to look at it like he was almost blind and I repeatedly told him to step back from the glass stuff! (It was just a few aisles over that he knocked over 3 of these utensil holders, thankfully they were plastic!) As this had gone on for a little while (Bray up-close and me telling him to get back) another customer happened to come over to the boys and tell them what a nice job they were doing standing there while I shopped! I asked her if she just heard me yelling at them to step back and she said she hadn't, just thought they were behaving well and she was impressed! Apparently she'd missed the banging of the utensil holders and my "what the hell?!"

On our way home from town (Oh yeah, filled up for $1.47 ~ $.22 cheaper than the others in Roch) any way. . . On our way home, Taite asks me "Do you believe in ghosts?" I couldn't resist, so here is how our conversation went:

M: Haven't I answered this question like 50 times?!

T: No.

M: Yes, I have! You always start out by asking 'Are ghosts real?' and what do I say?

T: (no idea)

B: You always say it depends on who you ask (I mean Brayton repeated almost verbatim what I say!)

(((Insert my raving about one of my sons listening to me and hearing what I say AND retaining that knowledge ~~~ and here the whole time I was thinking that I was the "invisible" mom and no one could really hear any words that come out of my mouth!)))

M: So then Taite will ask me 'Do you believe in ghosts?' And what do I say?

B: It depends on who you ask (at least he got it the first time)

M: No, this is where I say, yes, I believe in ghosts.

Again, we laughed and I think Taite got my point, but do I think he'll remember if I believe in ghosts???

NO! But that's okay~ he gave me lots of hugs and stuff when we were doing homework, so it's all good!!! :~)

Couple of funny things. . .

School Store
About 2 times a month, the kids have an opportunity to go to the school store (Taite even has to work at it for Student Council). Brayton has been asking for us to send $5 with him to school so he can go to the store. . . Here's how our conversation went before sending money (Monica this is for you :~):
B: Mom, I need $5 so I can go to the school store.
M: I am not sending $5 with you, I'll give you $2 and I'm sure that will be plenty!
B: No, I need $5.
M: I don't think there is anything at the school store that you would need $5 for.
(Brayton tells me some girl in his class always has $5 for the store)
B: I think you pay $5 to get in the door and then everything is free after that.

I knew that wasn't the case and only sent $2 and he bought a pen with the 4 or 5 different colors in it. Even trying to figure out how much he paid for that was an ordeal. He kept telling me he got his $2 back plus a quarter! Ironically Bray's teacher sent out the list of prices for the school store the other day (I can see why he thought with $5 you could get whatever you wanted! Can you imagine the armload of stuff that girl comes out with every time she takes $5 to the School Store?!)

Folders –Street Car and Animals ……………………….$1.00
Bookmarks – Twisted Wiskers……………………………..$.50
Bookmarks – Animals………………………………………………$.75
Erasers – Safari………………………………………………………$.75
Erasers – Assorted ………………………………………………..$.50
Eraser – Twist-ease………………………………………………..$.50
Highlighters – Mini………………………………………………….$.50
Notepads – Flip Flops and Power Machines……........…..$.50
Pencils………………………………..………………………………$.25
Rainbow Writer Pencil…………………………………………….$.40
Pencil Sharpeners…………………………………………………….$.75
Mechanical Pencils……………………………………………………$.50
High School Musical Mechanical Pencils……….............……..$.75
Pencil Leads……………………………………………………………….$.50
Pencil grips………………………………………………………………..$.25
Rulers – Bendable…………………………………………………….$.50
Pencil Pouches………………………………………………………….$1.25
Color Click Pens………………………………………………………..$.75
Mini Megafat Pens…………………………………………………..$.50
Megafat Pen……………………………………………………………..$.75

Peanuts
Since my dad has known Chris (approximately 13 1/2 years) my dad has been offering Chris peanuts and the rest of us would say in unison:
"He doesn't like nuts!"
And my dad would say:
"He'll learn to like them"

Well, the other day Chris said "Your dad was right, I do like peanuts!" Now, he has a little snack of salted in the shell peanuts in the afternoons :~)

Snow Day!!

Today the boys had their first snow day of the season! I was expecting the call to come from the school so I didn't sleep well (I don't really understand it myself ~ LOL). When there is a late start or school is cancelled, the automated phone system the school has will call each student's home. I kept waiting for the call and finally one time I looked at the clock and it was only 2:30 ~ yep, I'll sleep well tonight!! I had big ideas to bake cookies and sing songs and stuff with the boys today, but the laundry situation won out and I was lucky to have the milk hot for hot cocoa when the boys came in from outside. The second time Brayton had to ask for it.

The boys played a couple of times out in the snow. The first time I went out to see if they needed new hats to stay warm or face masks or anything and they were playing right where the wind was whipping the snow through the yard! I mean literally the wind was straight out of the north and they were playing between the house and the shed where the snow was drifting up. When I took face masks out to them and told them to play behind the house, Brayton's eyelashes were so full of snow, I couldn't get it all wiped off!

Chris got to play in the snow with the "new" tractor. Of course the blade we have is too small! Well, according to him anyway :~)

Even Baby likes to play in the snow. She runs around and hops in the snow and then smells like she is hunting something ~ I didn't really think she was until she came up with a mouse! It was still moving and quit fat! I went to try and stomp on it (I don't want it in my house!) just as Baby went to grab it again and I stepped on Baby's nose! OOPS!! She looked at me like "What was that for?!" but she never yelped and I repeatedly told her I was sorry and rubbed her nose for her! Oh, and I made a little bigger coat for her to wear outside ~ it covers more of her stomach, but is of the same material ~ had plenty on hand! I tried to make "boots" too, but you guessed it ~ more globs of thread underneath the fabric! UGH that machine!!!

Baby's got a new coat!

Okay, I know I'm a bad mom and should have made this a long time ago (about 2 weeks ago) but at this time of year, my sewing room turns into Gift Central ~ there are gifts, wrapping paper, ribbons, etc. all over my cutting table, sewing machine and floor! But tonight I finally cleared a small spot on my table, cleaned off my chair, used the pattern I got off the internet and some material I had leftover to make Baby a new coat! It turned out super cute despite my #@$#@! sewing machine (it has issues every time I sew ~ tonight I ended up with a wad of thread on the underside of my fabric ~ the part you would see no less!). We even tried it out in the big blizzard we are having and it is definitely warmer and looks a lot more comfortable to me than the polo shirt from Old Navy (or Old Lady as Taite and Brayton used to call it ~ LOL!). Good thing I only paid $.97 for the shirt! Yes, those are bugs on the fabric, but they are cute bugs ~ cuddle bugs!

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

Saturday

In the morning, Grandma invited the boys over to make gingerbread houses. Of course Brayton was very particular in decorating his and most of the pictures show Taite licking frosting :~) Apparently the best kit was from Target, if anyone was interested (she'd gotten one from Sam's Club but it wasn't nearly as nice). I sent my camera because I was busy getting ready for my Wildtree tasting party. Good thing Grandpa was available to take the pictures! The houses turned out really cute!

Brayton insisted he wear his apron because he didn't want to get any frosting on his shirt (not that it was special or a good one even ~ he always has been a little non-boyish in that respect! Doesn't like to be dirty) It looks like it's getting a little small, so I might have to make a bigger one for him :~) I don't want him to stop cooking just because he doesn't have an apron that fits!

Sunday

Yesterday I got together with a couple of other moms from Taite's class to prepare a craft the class is going to do for their Christmas party on the 22nd ~ we were there for 4 (YES FOUR!!) hours! I never would've though it would take that long, but it did and we are close to being done, but not quite yet. When I got home, we ate a few bites of sausage, beer bread and headed out to see the Holiday Train! YEAH!!! Since the DM&E was bought by the CP rail, the Holiday Train made it's first stop ever in Rochester! The newspaper said it would arrive at 6 and to come 15 minutes early. . . We arrived at 5:45 to wait in line in the turn lane to watch the train pull in. It was still cool and we could see pretty good. We parked and walked across Hwy 14 (at the light) to see it up close. We dropped off our canned goods and the concert began! We really had no idea what to expect, but they had probably 10 cars decorated with lights and one car had doors that opened and Santa was on stage for just a short time before the band started singing their version of holiday songs (some we recognized and some they had written ~ one was about a train, obviously!) This is a wonderful food drive as everyone is encouraged to bring money or canned goods who comes to see the train, so the food shelf LOVES the CP! I couldn't take very good pictures with my camera, so we took a little video to capture it all. I wanted to get a picture of Taite and Brayton with a freight car in the background, but Taite wasn't up for it. . . he's getting a little too cool, too soon!

Tonight

Brayton came home from school today disappointed in himself. . . He got 2 wrong on his spelling test! Not that I don't want him to strive for the best, but he can't be so upset when he doesn't "land on the moon". Maybe I need to make sure he gets that glass at supper some night (it says something about that shooting for the moon and missing you are still in the stars ~ well, you know what one I'm talking about, right?) I kept telling him he did great ~ he spelled those (thoes) and there (ther) wrong. We'll have to work on that attitude a little ~ it was just on Friday he was asking me what the poster at school meant. It showed two glasses with exactly the same amount of liquid in them with the phrases 1/2 full and 1/2 empty, maybe I'll remind him of that too!

Since I ruined my son's Christmas by forgetting to ask him to help put the decorations on the tree I tried to redeem myself tonight with a little help from my Grandma! This year for the first time in a long time, we are having Christmas at Grandma's again. We used to do this when I was a kid, but every one's families got to be so big and we just quit doing it. So, I thought with everyone coming to Grandma's she'd want her tree up. I told Chris my plan and he said "You know she'll think it's too much work" (I had to agree ~ she normally would!) Boy were we wrong!! Bray and I took her mail in and I asked her if we could put up and decorate her tree. . .all she said was "You'll have to find it and it's upstairs somewhere" and the hunt was on! We found the tree in the first closet I looked in ~ I was EXTREMELY grateful (thank you God!) because you are never sure what you'll find upstairs in the closets at Grandma's house. . .

So, then we had to try and find the ornaments. Grandma had a few downstairs and then she said to check another closet upstairs. At first all I found were receipts and paper stuff and then I found an old fruit box and I remembered digging it out when I was young, so I knew it was the right one. We didn't put every decoration out, but enough so Grandma & Brayton were happy! I think I redeemed myself ;~)

Yes, the tree is crooked, but I tried to straighten it out (Grandma was looking at me kind of funny ~ maybe it wasn't so obvious to her. . .), but couldn't ~ guess it's kind of a Charlie Brown tree :-) A funny thing is the Christmas Goose on the floor below the tree ~ Grandma said that not everyone has a Christmas Goose and she made it herself. There were a couple of geese on the tree too and Brayton said he didn't think anyone had Christmas Geese because he'd never heard of them!!