(Our) Christmas Story ...

Greetings all! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Our was quiet, but nice ... not usual for this military family (at least the 'quiet' part!)

Usually we go home for Christmas. It consists of a week of frantically running from one house to another ... up by 8 a.m., there by noon, to the cousin's house by 3 p.m. and don't forget the grandparents at 7 p.m. Each year I stack and sort all the presents in the back of the Tahoe for the most effiecent method of unloading those to give and loading those we've recieved. It's usually very stressful someone's feelings get hurt, someone else gloats, and I promise that "next year we're not going anywhere!"

Well this year I'm 8+ months pregnant and got my wish!

Christmas morning George was up at 7 a.m., I followed a half hour later and the pup ... well he wandered in sleepy-eyed when he smelled breakfast. I know, it's probably the last Christmas for a while that we'll be able to sleep in, but we had a Soldier injured in South America while on his honeymoon yesterday and George has been trying to help get him back to the states for treatment, so neither of us was able to sleep much.

So back to breakfast. One of George's presents arrived Christmas Eve (I was beginning to wonder if it's ever get here!). I let him get the box off the doorstep because I thought surely it would just be the name of the company on it and he won't know what it is. Well, I was wrong. They put the packing slip in the clear envelope backwards so instead of it having the company's name and return address it said "Texas Waffle Iron" big as day! So he found out a day early. No problem, he opened and played with it and then declared that he was making breakfast Christmas morning. A nice trade if you ask me!



After that we opened presents. Sgt. Major tore into his box and wrapping paper like he was trying to find Charlie's golden ticket. At first he was more interested i the paper ... figures ...



After that was over, he discovered a new bone, two new chew toys, and some treats. He promptly grabbed the liver-flavored bone (YUCK!) and headed to his bed in the livingroom. I guess he wasn't interested in what we got, but he tired himself quite fast! (Must be pregnancy-sympathies because he's napping more than me these days!)



George and I alternated as we opened. Next year will be all about Baby George, I guess. I was so excited to see that he'd gotten me! I started with the smallest box and worked my way up the the big one.

In the first box I got held a certificate for a new bedroom suite! Yeah! (We went and picked out the bed the following Sunday and I'll post a picture when it is delivered.) The next one was a baby sling! I was so excited, I'd mentioned it in passing one day at Babies R Us and he remembered! The next gift was from Baby Jamie, it was a heeartbeat monitor and music player so I can listen to the baby's heartbeat, record my own for him after her is born and play music for him while he is still in my tummy. It was a great gift and we are still playing with it and learning new things. The last gift, however, was the one that I have been playing with non-stop (at the cost of cleaning, so I have to figure out a schedule!) What is it you ask? A Sewing and Embroidery machine! Yep! My mom had given me her OLD machine that she'd gotten before I was born and we've had it a year, but it never worked and with all the moves and such I was never able to take it to be fixed. I was so excited! It was out of the box within an hour (I had to clean up all the mess we'd made first.)



As hubby sat down to play one of his new XBox games, the pup and I headed upstairs to the guest room to see what fabric I had in the craft bins. Most of it was pinks and other "girly" fabrics and I really wanted to do something for the baby. After a bit of searching (and nearly destrying the almost completely organized closet) I found some 6-inch squares of muslin fabric and blue with tan stars fabric. I'd forgotten that at one time I was going to make George a quilt (even though I had no sewing machine!)

Since it matched Jamie's Vintage Mickey bedding set, I brought it downstairs and got started. The next day we went to Jo Ann's after visiting a Soldier in the hospital and I picked up some burgandy striped material (among other things). By the start of the new year, this is where I'd gotten ...



(I'll post more progress pictures on The Teacup Collector's Cottage, my craft blog, but will try to get the final product posted here.)

There were some other projects as well that will be on my craft blog, .

We ended the day by putting together the baby crib and I will post pictures of that later. It actually took us 35 minutes to unpack it and only 20 to put it together. My whole front foyer was filled with a box big enough for us to live in, but Sgt. major seemed to put it to good use until we could put it out on heavy trash day.
He had a piece in almost every downstairs room!



Well, I'm off to upload more pictures and finish other half-written posts. Next is an update on prepping Jamie's room with a comical picture or two!

Until our next cup of tea ...