Merry Christmas!

We had such a nice Christmas holiday! We were able to celebrate Christmas with so many of our friends and family, all of whom we are grateful to have in our lives.

This was a particularly special Christmas because it was Tate's first. Although he was a little cranky because he was getting over a two ear infections, we still had a nice day.

Santa really came through this year for Nathan, bringing him his "big dinosaur!"

Please enjoy this picture of our family on Christmas day.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

I love this time of year. Over the years I have tried to fill the month of December with lots of family traditions. A few have been handed down from one side of our family or another, but we've also added a few new ones.
One of our favorite family traditions is to cut down our own Christmas tree. About two weeks before Christmas we head over to a local tree farm to hunt down our perfect tree. It's always a great adventure, going from field to field checking out the trees. "How about this one?" or "Well, maybe we should get this one?" are frequently asked questions. Nathan loves helping Daddy cut down the tree. This year, Tate fell asleep in the stroller before we even got to the Christmas trees and missed the whole experience!

Of course getting the tree is only half of the fun. The other half is decorating it. For me, the decorations placed on the tree all hold special memories. There are the ornaments I made in preschool and elementary school, my White House ornaments, and ornaments handmade by my great-grandmother. But my favorite ornaments now are probably the ones belonging to Nathan and Tate which include their first Christmas ornaments and their Hallmark ornament collection. This year Nathan picked out a Buzz Lightyear ornament from Hallmark. The final addition to the tree is always the angel, selected from my collection of Boyds Bear Tree Toppers.

We hope that when the boys look back on their childhood Christmas's that they will have fond memories of family traditions and good times together. Maybe they will even carry on a few of our family traditions with their own children.

Crazy Day!

Today was another one of those crazy days. You know the ones where you try to fit everything into a window of time that you know is too small and then get mad when you end up rushing around trying to squeeze it all in.

Well the day started out by trying to get TJ, the boys and I dressed in our finest and out of the house for a family picture at JCPenney's Portrait Studio in Hagerstown by 10:40 which meant leaving the house no later than 9:30 (the one in Frederick closed years ago so we have to go either to Hagerstown or Columbia). That in itself is not an easy task.

The pictures went o.k. We got one good one of the four of us, but trying to get a great picture of Nathan and Tate together was next to impossible. Tate kept walking off and Nathan wouldn't sit up or look at the camera. The session quickly degraded when Tate bumped his head on Nathan's shoulder and started to cry. I'm hoping to go back after the Christmas rush and get a good one of the two of them.

Enjoy the one good picture from the day!

Next we went down the mall to visit Santa. Thank goodness there was no line! Nathan and Tate actually sat nicely for their picture with Santa (which came out way better than the ones at JCPenney's) and Nathan got to tell Santa he wants a "big dinosaur" for Christmas.

Next was lunch in the food court, followed by a quick trip in to the Bon Ton to look for a nice shirt for Nathan for Christmas day, but we had no luck there. We jumped in to the car, where TJ took a phone call for work. We made a quick stop at the Prime Outlets in Hagerstown so that I could run into Carter's and look for a shirt for Nathan, also with no luck, while the boys sat in the car with TJ. Then it was straight home because TJ had only taken the morning off from work and needed to log on to his computer by 1pm. Well, we almost made it- I think he logged on at around 1:30!!!