Tree decorating - only faster!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Ello, Gov'nuh!

At the very beginning of the Christmas season Natalie's thoughtful grandfather sent us a link to a press release from the Wisconsin Governor's office. The governor invited WI children to create homemade ornaments in the theme "In Wisconsin" and mail them in to decorate the Capitol Christmas tree. We're always up for a craft (and supporting Scott Walker) so Natalie and I spent an afternoon making an ornament depicting a black bear riding in a canoe and featuring the words "Up North."
 
In December we got a picture from Jerry and Linda who'd gone to the Capitol, searched the tree for her ornament, and found it! Having no idea how many kids participated or how many ornaments were in contention for the limited real estate we were pleasantly surprised. (I circled her ornament.)

Then last week we received this in the mail - a 4x6 snapshot of Gov. Walker personally hanging her ornament along with a hand-signed card thanking the children! If we were surprised that her ornament made it on the tree we were stunned that the office went to the trouble of photographing, printing, and mailing these personal notes.  It made Natalie's day and gave us the opportunity to teach her a bit more about government with a face to put to a name.  This is proudly hung up in the apartment.

We'll say it all day long - Gov. Scott Walker is great for Wisconsin, he cares about making the state the best it can be, and brings old-fashioned values to Madison.  Thanks, Gov. Walker for your personal attention to our family!

Deck the Apartment

The weather may not be frightful outside but we're in full swing preparing for the holidays down here!

Putting up our Christmas tree.

Attending the Big Spring Christmas Parade with our friends, the Slaydens.  It was a great parade with tons of wonderfully decorated floats - that also threw candy.  There were 4 very happy kids.



Baking the Deschane traditional peanut butter blossoms.

Enjoying Amma and Bapa's renowned Christmas packages with a treat to unwrap each day until Christmas. 

And making LOTS of crafts and ornaments to decorate the kids...uh, apartment.

We hope your halls are becoming festive as well and that you're all excitedly preparing too! 

Happy St. Nick's Day!

The girls must've been good this year because we woke up to shoes full this morning!

In honor of the holiday we dedicated today to Christmas celebrating of all sorts in our house. We baked and decorated traditional Holley Christmas cut-outs (a recipe dating back to the girls' great grandmother, a family tradition, and the true taste of Christmas for my mom, sister, and me).

Notice the ever-traditional Christmas cookie shape - the airplane.  The purple airplane, nonetheless.  Natalie has put her own touch on this tradition.

We also made a Christmas tear-off countdown to help the girls visualize the arrival of the big day.

In other Christmas spirit, last weekend we channeled the Griswold Family Christmas and headed into the woods to cut our own tree.

The girls helped decorate and the house is now well-dressed for the holidays.

Stay tuned for pictures of the house's other new touch!

Happy St. Nick's Day, everyone!

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

We certainly had frightful weather this weekend with our first blizzard of the season! (Do you get more than 1 blizzard a season? Ummm, don't know. We don't learn about mystical things like that growing up in the South.) Winds were 50+ mph, we got about a foot of snow, temps dropped to the single digits, and wind chills dipped well below 0. The worst of it was to start Saturday afternoon so Saturday morning we picked out a Christmas tree.

Natalie and Dad choosing the best one

Reindeer made the tree lot much more festive

Saturday afternoon the storm rolled in but the snow had largely stopped by Sunday afternoon. We took advantage and went sledding - a first for both Natalie and her Texan mom.





Sunday evening we decorated our tree. Surprisingly Natalie hasn't yet tried to undecorate it!




We have many more pictures of our winter fun uploaded to our Shutterfly site. Take a look!

Deck the Halls!

Well, deck the townhouse... We picked up Natalie's first Christmas tree on Monday night and decorated it last night. She's very interested in touching the branches and watching the lights.

Chris and I are very excited about this holiday season - our first as parents and the joy of watching it through a child's eyes. The festivities are underway! Natalie and I head to Texas today for our Holley Christmas celebration and we can't wait to see everyone there!