Hey y'all! I was looking at the stats for the site and I got tons of hits on Dec 26th. What's up with that?
Anyway, I promised y'all pics of my tree like forever ago, and I Took Some! *gasp*
Also got some pics from our family gift exchange on Christmas eve as well as the extended family on Christmas day. There are pics out there somewhere of the big get together we had with my side of the family, but I forgot my camera that night so am awaiting my nephew to send me copies. I figured they'd be on FB by now. I need to poke him.
So, here are the pics!
Notice how the lights are not the same? We got led lights and they only went about halfway down, so I got a couple cheap sets at Dollar tree and they were like a totally different color light. The top ones aren't really blue, they just have a much cooler glow. We're going to get more leds for next year. We already really like having a real tree and we don't have to worry about storing a fake tree. So when the town has their tree chipping at the park, we'll take it over there and have it recycled into mulch for the park. We'll likely get another real one next year, especially since we already have such a great tree stand.
These other two are a couple of ornaments we got at the Dollar Tree that I thought were really pretty. The rest of the ornaments are from packaged sets we got at KMart. We decided to go with jewel tones. I love it.
Since the tree was so tall, it was basically hitting the ceiling, and I just couldn't find a topper I liked. I want a retro one like we had when I was a kid, so I'll keep looking. So I gave the big roll of purple sparkly ribbon from Kmart, to Rhiannon, and she made this great bow and we had one pink poinsettia flower from a bag of Christmas stuff from a thrift store, and it went perfectly in the bow.
There's our ghetto plywood floor but it was sure nice to have so many gifts under the tree this year. The kids were really honestly surprised and thankful for everything.
At the family get together Friday night with my side of the family, we did a white elephant gift exchange, and this is what I got!
A 4' pre-lit tabletop tree! I LOVE IT! It's exactly what the sideboard needed to make the kitchen all festive!
I found my Christmas Dishes!!! They weren't in the storage unit afterall!! WOOHOO! I am so excited that we still have all these. I started collecting them when we were first married. They sold them each year at Kmart in the same pattern and Christopher would always try to get me at least one new bowl or piece to go with it. I now have the whole set! It even has a gravy boat shaped like a sleigh.
Those glasses are what's left of those Christmas glasses you could get at McDonalds years and years ago. I have plenty of other stemware so not too worried about getting new ones just for Christmas. I just like to put them out.
This was the wonderful gift my sister gave Christopher and me as we were leaving the party. Mmm I think I'm going to go have another slice of the banana chocolate chip bread. Mmmmm. Rhiannon freaked about the coffee. She is a huge coffee fanatic. I'm more a tea person. So she's been making it each morning for her and Faelyn. They do seem to be in a coffee drinking generation.
Rhiannon about to play Santa and give out our gifts for our personal family gift exchange on Christmas eve.
Faelyn loves Pikachu lol
We've started a tradition of getting one big gift for the whole family. This year it was Wii Skylander. They've pretty much played it nonstop since.
Excitement!
It's ME! I am IN LOVE with these boots! That weekend Christopher and I went to the mall to finish up shopping, he went into Charming Charlie to get me a necklace which I got to pick out. While I was waiting on him to check out, I found these boots. They are EXACTLY what I was looking for, but didn't even think I'd find anything close to what I was envisioning. I am SO thrilled with these, I can't even tell you!
Zoe showing off her cute little baby giraffe earrings. She also got a giraffe blanket. Yeah she collects them.
The whole clan, mostly. My father in law (Christopher's step dad) took the pic. He didn't want to be in it heh.
Christopher, his Mom and his four girls... and the cat.
Corina and Tyler. She's my oldest. They're living in their own place together and both finally have steady jobs.
I had an epiphany! LOL I knew I wanted to hang the stockings on the buffet/tv stand, but didn't really have money to buy stocking hangers, and I didn't think they'd really hold the stocking in place if they had anything heavy in them anyway. Then I thought since the stocking had long loops to hang them, I could hammer in small paneling nails on the inside of the drawer front and loop the hangers over them. The drawer still shuts as much as ever shut it (it sticks) and I can just leave the nails there to hang them every year! Rhiannon's is the only one we kept from before, as it was in my closet. The rest of us got all new stockings. Zoe's is the knitted one and I HATE it. I thought it was cute til I tried putting stuff inside it. It's a mass of threads. So, she'll get a new one next year.
Well, that's it for the Christmas pics. Sorry they're all so huge and hogging all the bandwidth, but I like big photos :) I'll try to get the portrait style ones that were done at my family gathering on here when I get copies.
Hope you had an amazing Christmas. We sure did. Even though we lost all our decorations, and family heirlooms to a jerk of a storage unit manager, we actually all agree, this was the best Christmas we'd had as a family. There were certainly Christmases when the girls got more stuff, especially when they were Angel Tree kids, but it just felt so good to be able to have a nice simple Christmas with a few nice gifts, great food, and spending time enjoying family.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Patty and the Campbell Clan
Anyway, I promised y'all pics of my tree like forever ago, and I Took Some! *gasp*
Also got some pics from our family gift exchange on Christmas eve as well as the extended family on Christmas day. There are pics out there somewhere of the big get together we had with my side of the family, but I forgot my camera that night so am awaiting my nephew to send me copies. I figured they'd be on FB by now. I need to poke him.
So, here are the pics!
Notice how the lights are not the same? We got led lights and they only went about halfway down, so I got a couple cheap sets at Dollar tree and they were like a totally different color light. The top ones aren't really blue, they just have a much cooler glow. We're going to get more leds for next year. We already really like having a real tree and we don't have to worry about storing a fake tree. So when the town has their tree chipping at the park, we'll take it over there and have it recycled into mulch for the park. We'll likely get another real one next year, especially since we already have such a great tree stand.
 |
| Zoe decorated this one. The glitter glue wasn't the best quality, but that's ok. |
These other two are a couple of ornaments we got at the Dollar Tree that I thought were really pretty. The rest of the ornaments are from packaged sets we got at KMart. We decided to go with jewel tones. I love it.
Since the tree was so tall, it was basically hitting the ceiling, and I just couldn't find a topper I liked. I want a retro one like we had when I was a kid, so I'll keep looking. So I gave the big roll of purple sparkly ribbon from Kmart, to Rhiannon, and she made this great bow and we had one pink poinsettia flower from a bag of Christmas stuff from a thrift store, and it went perfectly in the bow.
At the family get together Friday night with my side of the family, we did a white elephant gift exchange, and this is what I got!
A 4' pre-lit tabletop tree! I LOVE IT! It's exactly what the sideboard needed to make the kitchen all festive!
This was the wonderful gift my sister gave Christopher and me as we were leaving the party. Mmm I think I'm going to go have another slice of the banana chocolate chip bread. Mmmmm. Rhiannon freaked about the coffee. She is a huge coffee fanatic. I'm more a tea person. So she's been making it each morning for her and Faelyn. They do seem to be in a coffee drinking generation.
Well, that's it for the Christmas pics. Sorry they're all so huge and hogging all the bandwidth, but I like big photos :) I'll try to get the portrait style ones that were done at my family gathering on here when I get copies.
Hope you had an amazing Christmas. We sure did. Even though we lost all our decorations, and family heirlooms to a jerk of a storage unit manager, we actually all agree, this was the best Christmas we'd had as a family. There were certainly Christmases when the girls got more stuff, especially when they were Angel Tree kids, but it just felt so good to be able to have a nice simple Christmas with a few nice gifts, great food, and spending time enjoying family.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Patty and the Campbell Clan