Holiday Season 2008

Well, the holidays have come and gone. They always go by too fast. This year had lots of family activities. My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to take a week off and spend the week of Thanksgiving up in Idaho with Ashley's family. We don't get to spend much time with them, so it was great to get a whole week up there. We also got to spend some time with friends of ours that live in Boise. They have a great growing family and are always fun to spend time with.

One thing I really enjoyed that week was spending time with our brand new niece, Lucy, and her older brother, Benjamin. We don't get to see our nieces and nephews as often as I would like. It was a real treat to spend time with a couple of them.

That week went by in a blur, as all vacations do. December was here in the blink of an eye. My sister and her husband came over a couple weeks before Christmas and we decorated gingerbread trains. They did the first one; my mom and I did the second. It was a lot of fun. We did houses last year. Maybe next year we'll be ambitious enough to actually make our own gingerbread instead of buying the kits.

This year was unique in that Ash and I are still living with my parents. It was fun to be in a place that could be totally decorated for Christmas. My parents have boxes and boxes of Christmas stuff. And it's so cozy to curl up by the fireplace with your family and just enjoy being together. My dad has a fire going quite often during the winter, and especially at Christmas time.

I did miss having my own Christmas decorations a little, especially my village. I've got quite the village collected after six years of marriage. Ashley always tries to get me something new for my village each Christmas.

I did not miss setting up our tree. It's a major pain to put up and it's not pre-lit. I don't mind decorating it once it's up and has the lights and tinsel done, but putting the tree together and"fluffing" the branches isn't my idea of fun. My family always does a beautiful tree. You can sort of see it behind me here. Ash and I spend a lot of time in the family room, so we really enjoyed the tree. My mom was always accusing me of not being festive because I kept forgetting to turn the lights on, but I thought it looked beautiful even without the lights.