New Years 2011

this years new years was very laid back. We basically didnt come up with plans until the night before.

And so few people were in town that we just threw together something! It was still a blast though

Sarah, Drew, Lindsey, & Ryan all came over and we did a "make your own Sushi" night. We had all the fixins for everyone to make their own rolls .. lots off appetizers .. and of course dessert!

First off though .. please check out Miles & Wylder all matchy matchy. (thanks to Bethany for the outfit!)




I LOVE THIS!


Wylder all googly over Miles. Miles checkin out the fan! ;)


Finally everyone looking

The first year we were here and celebrated New Years all together .. Bill set up a Balloon Drop so we decided to do the same. Drew rigged it at the last minute and it turned out great!



Then we all started making our sushi:



















And of course then we moved on to dessert. I made a trifle that Camille made once for Christmas and is AMAZING.

For those who dont know .. Freeland is giving up desserts for 2012. (its a bet with my Dad. Whoever eats dessert first pays the other $100)  So this trifle (along with the AMAZING bars .. like my most favorite dessert ever .. that Sarah made & I didnt get a picture of) was Freeland's last official dessert:





we served them up in these antique glasses that were handed down to us a while ago. I was so thankful to be able to use them.













and then after playing Just Dance, Tiger Woods Golf, and having a major dance party it was finally midnight!

5....4....3....2....1












Cracks me up that bear is in all these pictures!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

our new additions to Christmas this year

Per usual, I wanted to post what we added to our Christmas decorations this year. This actually isnt all of it. I didnt even think to take pictures until we were packing it all up. (that explains why its 2 months later and Im just sharing this) But this is most of it and you get the idea from it all.

The best part is we only spent maybe $5.00 this year on everything we added. Bless Erie for its wonderful junk stores.






antique elf on a shelf (Id love to have a little collection of these guys .. along with a collection of vintage santas)


a mini nativity set. I want a nativity set so bad but havent found one that is like what I have in my mind so Im just waiting.... and waiting..



and for the first time we had decorations in the boys room:


his charlie brown tree, santa mugs, blocks, toys, vintage books .. lots of fun

and a few additions to the tree





there were more but they were packed before I snapped a picture. I also got a bunch of antique ornaments to add to the tree this year. Lindsey also gave me the most perfect mini santa mug to add to my collection!

We were also able to sort through all the Christmas stuff that we dont want anymore or dont LOVE and put it aside for a garage sale later. It felt WONDERFUL being able to do that!

Now I just need to find the perfect advent calendar, nativity set, and a few other things and Im set! :)

our christmas morning as a family

Since we were out of town on Christmas morning we did our Christmas Morning as a family the following Saturday at home. We only had one gift for River. And my mom had one gift shipped here originally so River also got that.

The night before I guess was our Christmas eve. It looks a lot different as parents.. staying up late putting everything together. I loved it. Although, I do enjoy the thought of just waking up and it all being done too!

This year we decided to get River a train table. It was on a mega sale at Toys R Us and has been worth every penny! Thankfully we were able to see Henry play with his train table last year so we had no doubt River would love it too. PS: if youre in the market for a train table I highly recommend this one over the others.

So here is what our Christmas Eve looked like this year:







Freeland built the table and all the pieces while I put the track together. And I seriously had fun doing it. Ive now become a pro at getting it back together in a matter of minutes. Its a slight obsession.





And then "Christmas Morning"




Freelands mom sent this horse for River & Wylder


Wylders first Christmas Morning as a family!





In between waking River up and getting him downstairs he threw one of the biggest tantrums of his life. I have no idea what was going on or why he did it. To be honest it was really hard not to let it ruin my expectations of what the morning should look like. Once he calmed down (and I got over it too) we told him to go look at his surprise at the tree.



and he was instantly in love (they have this toy at the Y so we knew he would love it)






showing his brother how it works





And then we told River there was more. I wish I got his reaction in these pictures. It was cute. He saw the table and just kept saying "choo choo" over and over. Then he proceeded to spend the next hour driving the trains yelling "weeeeeee" as they went up and down the track. Priceless.









And Wylder spent the rest of the morning enjoying one of his gifts from MiMi... the boy loves things in his mouth!



I feel like we both learned so much this Christmas about how we want to do Christmas going forward as a family. Im thankful that the Lord impressed it upon our hearts to make Him more important than the rest of the things going forward. This year was a little tricky since River didnt understand all of it but still had so much fun. But Im really excited for the next few years to teach our kids about Jesus and what Him being born means for them.

I definitely think we will do the "4 gifts" thing going forward. (each kid gets 4 gifts: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read) It was such a blessing all that they received this year. But I feel like as they are both older they will start to expect that much and Im happy to do whatever I can to keep them from thinking Christmas is just about the gifts. I will admit though that this year I had the intention of getting them very little .. and then as Christmas got closer & closer I just gave into the idea that I wanted them to go crazy Christmas morning with gifts and have everything they wanted. (rookie mistake!)  Its hard not to want to give them everything and think that is what makes Christmas special and fun.

But this year my heart really was burdened to make Christmas meaningful and special for them by teaching them who Jesus is and what a gift him being born was for each of us. Im excited to do advent with them and we've discussed the whole "how important should Santa be or what roll does he play in this VS. Jesus" thing. I wouldnt say we've decided. But Im thankful to be able to start to have a plan as we go forward. It really is such an amazing time of year and I think it still can be magical with wonderful memories made no matter how we do it.

End rant. Sorry, I just had to write down the things that we started to learn and think through as parents this year. Its really exciting to be able to decide what is important to us and how we want things to look for our family in the future. So I could ramble about it for a long time!