pine smell still lingers in my vaccuum...

i really can't believe it's already over. our tree and all things christmasy are packed away already, due to the problem of our tree becoming a very dangerous fire hazard, shedding crispy dry needles if anyone so much as sneezed near it. it was still the most beautiful christmas tree i have ever had. so it's all done, but there are all of the pictures and all of the memories i get to sift through any time i want. and, of course all of the christmas gifts still sitting on our kitchen table, waiting to be put away!

we have housesat during christmas for the past 2 years, and have both decided that next year we will be HOME for christmas. it was quite a pain to lug all of our gifts there only to open them and lug them all the way back. plus, it just wasn't home, you know? anyhow, despite that, our christmas was lovely. christmas eve we had hot chocolate and a fire and watched "it's a wonderful life" as promised, and then josh begged me AGAIN to open just one gift and i said "not until christmas" so he asked if we stayed up till midnight, then could he, and i said "yes" because it was only 10 and we were tired and i really didn't think we'd be up till midnight. so it's midnight and, of course we're up. so i finally consented for him to open JUST ONE present and we opened a package from our friend miriam who lives in victoria. she gave us a glow in the dark thomas kinkade puzzle! (thanks miriam) due to excited chatter & all of that, we finally fell asleep at 1am and then my dear, lovely husband goes and wakes me up at FIVE-THIRTY IN THE MORNING!!! oh. my. goodness. but it's christmas and i can't be a humbug, so off we go to open our gifts together and it was very nice and we took our time and i LOVED the things he got for me (especially the very comfy sweater i got) and it was fun opening gifts that my mom and dad and brothers and sisters sent as well.

then we got in the car and drove up to temecula. we had picked names in josh's family, which makes gift buying so much easier, but josh's mom is famous for her stockings, which she does for everyone. they are not so much stockings as they are huge paper grocery bags filled to the brim with gifts, with a stocking hanging over the top of each just so we know who's is who's. we opened stockings for hours and hours. but it was very fun and we had lots of yummy food...our traditional breakfast plus orange chicken for lunch before we jetted back home to sit and digest for an hour and then headed over to josh's parent's house for dinner. that night i think i fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

now we are finally back to our home sweet home. christmas is over, but i don't feel down one single bit. i think that it mostly has to do with the fact that i'm flying home to abbotsford next month!!! i just found out that i can get the time off, and i'm staying for just a few days the week of my birthday! i am so extremely excited, i can barely contain it! of course, i won't be able to see everyone i'd love to see, since it's going to be for such a short time, but i know that i'm going to try to get my fill of family while i'm there.

well, that's it for now. i'm going to go put all of my presents away now :)

when we arrived at rob and jessica's house early christmas morning, john and kaylee were eager to show us something in the back yard. do you see pieces of carrot on the top right corner of this picture? yes, santa's reindeer left quite a mess of the carrots that john and kaylee left out for them! 

kaylee got to tear into her stocking first. she didn't rush through all the gifts, but appreciated each one, as you can see here. 

john got spiderman slippers and a new blanket in his stocking, which he had to try out right away. 

after the kids opened their stockings, we took a time out for breakfast. i know it all doesn't look that appetizing, but oh my GOODNESS, it's amazing, that's my hashbrown casserole far away and 2 pans of creme brulee french toast. mmmmmm... 

as each person opened all the gifts in their stocking, kaylee was the self-designated helper. she became very good at opening presents that day! 

brad got a whole dvd set of john wayne movies which some people got really stoked about. 

happy about my bubble bath, while kaylee is all ready to help me open another one! 

gramps got the boys a gift certificate for rounds of golf. they got a little carried away in their enthisiasm 

there has GOT to be more presents in this bag! 

we got friends season 10 from jessica! this is what josh looks like when he gets really excited about something. i hope our children inherit my excited look rather than his. 

yes, this is a crying picture, but it's good crying. chris made gramps an album of his trip to gettysburg & he was so touched by it, so they had a sweet little christmas-thankful cry together. 

john liked the book that uncle stew & i got for him. by this time it was around 2pm..time for his nap and time for our's! 

Christmas Day 

merry christmas to all!

happy Christmas Eve, everyone! josh and i are actually housesitting over christmas, and we don't have a computer over there, so i am home for a bit to get some last minute things and thought i'd pop in a blog so you don't all think that i was run over by a reindeer.

of course i work today, and am dreading it immensly since last minute shoppers are NOT happy shoppers and every day closer to christmas they seem to get grumpier and grumpier. for the last time i am SORRY that YOU forgot your coupons at home, but that's NOT MY FAULT! seriously, people.

okay, that's out of my system. today josh is golfing for the second day in a row. he won yesterday's golf game because he is such a stud. he feels sorry for me dealing with mean people, so he has promised me a roaring fire in the fireplace when i come home tonight, complete with hot chocolate and "it's a wonderful life". i'm trying not to count down the hours. tomorrow i am sure we'll be up at 5 or 6 like last year, too excited to sleep any longer. josh has been asking EVERY day if he can open "just one present?" finally tomorrow i won't have to hear that question any more! after we've opened all of our gifts, it's off to temecula to rob & jessica's house where the stewarts are meeting this year for christmas. we're going to have a big fat breakfast with josh's mom's creme brulee french toast as the crowning masterpiece. after that it's presents and snacking and then we're coming back to ramona for dinner at josh's folks' house with friends. it will be lovely.

and i really must stop dreading working the after christmas sale on the 26th.

may God's richest blessings be yours this Christmas.

~H

kaylee turned 3 years old on december 12. this is the first pretty party dress she wore. due to an accidental spill of root beer, the dress unfortunately had to be changed. 

kaylee is holding her little cousin, baby kaiyah. perhaps you remember kaiyah from a previous blog...she was born extremely prematurely. thanks to everyone's prayers she is healthy and growing! she weighs in at 13 lbs right now! 

one of her presents were the cutest little uggs you ever saw. kaylee's cousin ethan is playing with the karioke machine she received as another present. (how in the world do you spell karioke? 

the Beautiful Birthday Girl. Happy 3rd Birthday, Kaylee! 

saturday was our girl's only cookie baking morning. josh was allowed to attend only as photographer of the event. he also fashioned a lovely apron for me made out of a kitchen towel and newspaper, as you can see. that's my mom in law, jessica, kaylee and me. 

kaylee was the official Sprinkler of the Cookies. notice her particular fondness for the red sprinkles, seen in abundance on the cookie sheet. gran has taken the now empty red sprinkle container as kaylee loads the cookies up with colored sprinkles. 

beautiful mother & daughter 

showing off the finished product with grandpa! 

this is what plumeria flowers look like. i loved them so much when we were in hawaii, that josh bought me a plumeria plant! however... 

this is what our plumeria looks like. it cracks me up everytime i see it sitting there...like a stick in a bucket of dirt! 

mistletoe

on saturday i came home from a long day at work only to collapse into josh's arms and vent about my day (the closer it gets to christmas, the more impatient the customers become...impatient and sometimes downright mean) anyhow, i got up to get some water and noticed this green plant thing laying on my counter. it took me awhile to realize that it was mistletoe! josh was also working that day, cutting down trees and he found some mistletoe and brought it home for me. he hung it up right over the entrance to our bedroom and we tested it out then and there. to me, that gesture was even more romantic than if he had brought home 2 dozen roses.

not only is working retail during the chrismas season wearing on my nerves, it seems to be wearing on my clothes as well. on wednesday evening, i was carrying extremely large, heavy loads of books from the stock room to carts on the floor (i must tell you that i have always been proud of the amount of books little ol' me can carry at once. it really is a sight to see) anyhow, there was a gentleman in the bible section and i was discussing with him the merits of the NASB while i squatted down to unload my books onto the cart. to my complete and utter horror, as i did so, a very loud RIIIIIIP! was heard, not only by myself, but by the customer as well. i dropped the books, and with a hand covering my rear, fled to the staff room to assess the damage. my seam had split exposing my bottom for the world to see (and, in answer to a question i later received, no i was NOT wearing granny panties. quite the opposite, actually) dear little megan was in the staff room and saw me completely freak out. she could not stop giggling. i told her to run and get paula who would surely have a sewing kit in her purse. paula arrived, tears already gathering in the corners of her eyes from laughter. she dug in her purse and AHA! produced a sewing kit! and then she remembered that she had removed the needle from it and never replaced it.

there was nothing to do but go home early. thankfully, i only had one more hour on my shift until i was done anyway. and, even more thankfully, i had a pair of jeans in my locker, so my poor bum could stay warm on the way home. i blame this whole episode completely on the company's new dress code rule which forces me to wash my pants very frequently. so there. it has absolutely NOTHING to do with my weight. (at least, that's what i keep telling myself)

oh yes, and i must take this opportunity to shout from the rooftops that i made my very first batch of christmas sugar cookies and, even though i messed up a bit on the first ones and had to throw them away, most of them turned out lovely and they are frosted and have little red and green sprinkles on them and i took them to work and people LIKED them! that makes me happy. and now i am off to cross off every last item from my christmas shopping lists.

it's beginning to smell a lot like christmas

i have wonderfully exciting news....we got our christmas tree! perhaps i'm a little too giddy about it, but you must understand that i grew up in a family where we were not even allowed to mention the word christmas tree until the middle of december for fear that, as soon as we did get it, it's needles would begin to hurridly fall off. on sunday after church, josh and i stopped at a little tree farm and picked out an absolutely perfect 7 1/2 foot douglas fir. i am completely head over heels in love with it. we meant to decorate it that day, but i mistakenly got 2 different kinds of christmas lights. (thanks to zandra for helping me fix that problem :)) we ended up going to josh's folks house for an amazing filet mignon dinner, then to mike & sara's to watch the chargers beat the raiders. then we came home and josh helped me put the lights on and yesterday we decorated it! of course, "how the grinch stole christmas" had to be playing while we did so. josh even wound some lights around the railing outside our house. it's finally feeling like christmas, even though watching a little girl run around the christmas tree farm wearing shorts was a little disconcerting.

on monday at work, it was simply crazy with lineups at the registers pretty much all day. amidst all of the craziness, i managed to find out the a customer i was ringing up had just moved here from abbotsford a couple of weeks ago! the lady in the next lineup got excited and told us that her daughter just moved to mission. it was a neat little chat while it lasted. i can remember last christmas being so hard. really, it was all of last year that was quite hard, just being away from my family and friends, and everything being different down here. last night josh and i were talking and i told him how thankful i am to God that this year is just so much easier. i am so happy with where i am and where we are in our lives. we have so much to look forward to together and so much that is happening right now. i am just in a very happy place right now.

and now i must rush off to work before i am late

thank goodness my husband is an electrician...when a string of lights burned out, he got his tools out and replaced the little fuse. 

me, stringing on the lights. please take time to notice a very suspicious little cat drinking out of the tree's water bowl, as well the striped christmas socks that i am wearing (much to my husband's horror)