Christmas at Grandma's

 I always remember my mom having oodles of holiday decorations, not just for Christmas.  Of course decorating is a big hobby of hers but she has always been very festive, and had a beautiful tree.  I like to call this tree the Whoville tree.  It looks like it came straight out of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

 Grandpa broke out the chess bored a couple of weeks ago, well actually I did. But the boys have fun playing with the pieces to capture the king.  I used to play chess once in a while but I've really enjoyed playing it the past couple of weeks.  Even if I loose the majority of the time it's a great game.  I thought for sure after a couple of games playing my dad that I would have no problem beating Jared.  He went right to work killing all of my pieces.  He's a blood thirsty savage.  A bit of a different strategy than I was used to.  Soon realizing that I was in a real predicament, I said, "I can't believe it, I'm loosing to a rug."  My dad starting laughing but didn't realize what the line was from to which I explained, it's from Aladdin when the Genie is playing chess and loosing to the rug.  To which he laughed even harder.  Not because he thinks Jared is a rug but because I thought I could play and beat him no problem.  Nope, he won.

 Bronson and Levi loved helping grandma and grandpa get Christmas set up around the house, and outside.  They can be such good helpers sometimes.  They love following Grandpa around and helping him with projects.  After a few days of a festive up stairs I decided we'd better bring some cheer down to the appartment since there is a good chance we may be spending Christmas here.  My mom had no problem just pulling out some extra stuff to do the job.  I think she has enough stuff that she could really furnish a second house.  She loves having enough of everything to share with whomever may need it.

 the boys did a great job decorating our little tree too.

 We went to the festival of trees this year and by far my favorite part was the gingerbread houses.  So, so cute and creative.  I could have taken a picture of every single one, they were awesome.  The boys had a lot of fun looking at them too.  The trees were great but after about 5 rows out of  . . . . I don't know 25 they had had enough.  We did see some fun trees, my favorite one was a game tree which unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of.  What I did wish was that they would provide a booklet of somekind with the story of each tree, and a picture so you could look at it later and appreciate who the trees were dedicated to.  It's kind of hard to do it when you take kids.  Anyway it was fun and a tradition I would like to continue, perhaps even doing a tree of my own.
 (my skills with frosting aren't good enough to do a gingerbread house :)

 santa's chalet

 I love this one, so simple and fun

 the Once ler's house

 This one was so cozy, I love love it.

 After the festival my mom decided she wanted to decorate another tree.  Sure no problem, she has cute goodies everywhere.  She just whipped out this fishing tree from under her hat.  It is a really cute tree, the picture doesn't do it justice.

 It's actually cuter than a lot of the trees at the festival, as is her one up stairs.

 Bronson and Levi sleeping in their tent.  Ahh, I loved making tents when I was younger, and getting to sleep in them was a huge bonus so I couldn't say no.  I'm just glad they actually went to sleep.

 Santa came to Jared's company party last week.  Bronson was so excited to talk to him.  He is growing up for sure.  Any other time we'd see Santa he'd say he'd want to see him but when it came down to it he'd change his mind.  This is probably the most excited he's been for Christmas.  He has written Santa about 5 letters that I know of and drawn some cute pictures for him.  Hopefully Santa won't disappoint him this year because he asked for a rocket booster skate board.

 And Levi says "I don't like Santa, I just like presents."  He is so bashful but when your alone with him he is such a clown.  I don't know where he gets this from :)

 Bronson and Levi have also done some cute projects in preschool this month.  I think I just may have to get some 12x12 frames and add these to my deco box.  I love all of these, which is unusual for me.  Typically I'm fine to keep a project till the next one arrives then I trash them.  But I think I will hold on to the Christmas ones.  I love 'em!

 the jingling reindeer to let us know when someone is coming

 Bronson's abc pattern candycane

 Levi's all yellow Christmas tree.  I didn't think much of it till I saw Bronson's and realized he had a lot more choices than just yellow, but that is his favorite.  I love yellow too.

and the cute happy gingerbread man, this one is Bronson's.

 One of my favorite things of school is picking Levi up.  He is always so excited and has a big smile on his face.  Bronson used to be the same way, except now if I pick him up he just gets mad and disappointed because he wanted Stephy or Claire's mom to pick him up.  He just doesn't need me anymore I guess.  He always ask to go somewhere or be dropped off or for me to leave him, and says, "Mom I'll be fine."  I like the new independence but it also terrifies me.  Anyway Christmas this year will be at our new house, we will be moving the 21st and 22nd.  "Merry Christmas Kevin!"