christmas 2011 digest

christmas 2011 was wonderful.  it was just what we like for the holidays.  not too busy but fully engaged in celebrating the greatest gift we've ever received, Jesus.

christmas eve we celebrated with john's family via skype.  technology is simply amazing!  we set up the laptop so that they could watch the boys open their presents from them live!  it went smoothly and the boys were thankful for their gifts. 

talking on skype

noodle with a new school jacket

checking out a lego book

 we also baked and snacked on a birthday cake for Jesus.  we've never done this before and this was yet another attempt to remind burrito and noodle to not only think about the presents they were opening, but to also think about the gift of Jesus.  we had fun baking red and green layers for the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and then enjoying the afternoon snack.

mixing up the red and green cake batter

the finished product

singing and blowing out the candle

the inside view

 we headed out to the church john attended before we were married for their christmas eve service.  it is a large church and i wanted the boys (really all of us) to hear christmas carols on the pipe organ.  we set in the balcony because it was quite crowded and because burrito thought this was the most awesome thing ever!  we ended the evening by driving around an affluent neighborhood in dallas looking at christmas lights.

then came christmas morning!  we arose early and john read the christmas story from luke 2 and we hung the final ornament on our advent tree.  then we let the boys open their presents from us.  they each received a new pair of running shoes, a remote control car, and a lego set.  they were thrilled!

love this picture of my man

our advent trees

the long-awaited new zig shoes!

crazy remote control cars

burrito with his lego set

noodle with his lego set

 then we loaded up the car and headed down to mimi and poppy's house.  we opened presents with them, ate some breakfast, welcomed more family later that morning and then ate mexican food for lunch.  the boys enjoyed playing with their cousin porkchop, my cousins and each other.  it was a great relaxing day of food, family and fun.

the cousins!  love these 3 boys!!!

burrito with boxers on his head!

porkchop sporting the new baylor hat

as always, it seems to go by so quickly but we really enjoyed spending time together this year celebrating the birth of our Savior! 

halloween 2011

halloween 2011 brought a new tradition to the rutherford household:  carving pumpkins.  neither john nor i could recall ever having done this as a kid and so we felt pretty uneducated and inexperienced.  however, with a little online research, we had a great time!

we bought two really great, big pumpkins.  they were so cute i hated to cut them up!  noodle's class had carved a pumpkin a few days earlier so he was our go-to expert!  after sawing off the tops, the boys were so excited to reach in and remove the guts!  noodle was totally obsessed with removing all the seeds so that we could roast them later.

love these two!

the perfect pumpkins

john and noodle

burrito

the finished products

this is their scary pumpkin faces!

aren't they cute?

and here's their spooky side!

the trick-or-treating crew

 and we had a blast on october 31 with our friends from church.  we made an interesting group:  a knight, a snow princess, a football player and a parrot!  nonetheless, we all had a blast and have 10 pounds of candy to prove it!

thanks friends for hosting us that night and letting us raid your neighborhood!

and for some regular traditions, the boys participated in a reformation day party at school.  they are asked to come dressed as either an animal from God's creation or a bible character.  we've been a frog and a lion, a penguin, and as abraham and titus from the bible.

noodle as a parrot

this is what he looked like when he actually wore the bird head part!

 

burrito as a roman soldier.  i know it looks more like a knight but use your imagination! :)

all in all, we had a great time dressing up and being with friends and having lots of fun!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

being the part-time working woman that i am, and having had to work over thanksgiving break (the nature of working in a pediatric dental office...you work hardest when the kids are out of school!), seriously put a kink in my decorating style this year.

reading last year's post about decorating for christmas reminded me that i took on that challenge nice and slowly, enjoying every second.  this year was a little different.  i had one day to do it all.  and i always have these grandiose ideas of everyone getting involved and savoring every little decorating detail, knowing that precious memories are being made.  you think i would learn soon enough that this does not exactly happen when you live in a house full of boys.

i am thankful that john and the boys worked on our outside decorations earlier in the week while i was away at work.  i'll have to take pictures of our outside decorations and post those so you can appreciate their handiwork.  but the inside decorating took place on friday, while everyone else in the world shopped till they dropped.

while the actual decorating forced me to exercise the fruits of the spirit (namely patience, love, joy, peace, and self control!), i am quite pleased with the outcome.

here are a few of the things we did:

here's our little christmas tree.  the picture is a little dark because i had to turn off my flash to show the lights.  we decided to do flashing lights this year, something we've not done before and the boys love it.  we have a bazillion hallmark ornaments thanks to john's grandparents and a few vintage ornaments that were my grandparents'.  we have the musical plush characters that hallmark does every year underneath the tree until i get some presents bought and wrapped.  i haven't put batteries in those guys yet though *wink, wink.*

this is a lovely framed nativity print my mom bought for me last christmas.  it hangs next to our tree, and i just love it.  it helps me to keep my focus on Christ and not on the presents underneath the tree.

i put my little santa collection on our bookcase this year.  you can't see them very well in this picture but they include my 12 santas from around the world and the handmade santas that i've had as long as i can remember on the right.

this is my little red retro snoopy themed tree.  i love any and all things charlie brown and christmas, and i would like to add to this tree with new ornaments every year. 

this is the china cabinet in our dining room.  i like to collect unusual nativities and they are displayed on top.  the wall hanging on the left is vintage, and i picked it up at an antique mall after christmas this past year.  i thought it would be perfect to hold our christmas cards (the 3 little brown rectangles are pockets to slip the cards in).  one of our traditions is to pray at dinner for those families represented by the cards we received in the mail that day.  send us a card and we'll pray for you! :)  on the left is a ceramic lighted christmas tree i picked up at a garage sale this summer for $2.  i love it because it has NO missing lights and most of the lights are little birdies.  the only problem was that it needed a new lightbulb, and the previous owner had glued the base to the tree, making it impossible to access the lightbulb!  after some nail polish remover, a tiny paring knife and a lot of patience, i managed to dissolve the glue and get the two pieces apart.  hooray!  it is quite beautiful all lit!

this is our mantle.  it is tiny and makes me wish for a house with a more impressive mantle that i can really do up....but in the meantime, this is my peruvian nativity.  we really love it and picked it up at a craft fair a few years back.  the people selling it had gone to peru to visit family and brought back a few of these to sell.  the nativity is flanked by two little christmas trees that john and i bought at a garage sale before our first christmas together as a married couple.  they've been with us for 8 years now.

and one day i would like to have a christmas tree this size!  this is at the galleria and we've made it a yearly tradition to get a picture in front of this impressive tree!

after all that decorating, i was exhausted and needed a little treat!

i would love to see how you decorate for christmas!

the year in review

i like days like today. days when i am forced for whatever reason (today the reason being that it is the end of the year of course!) to reflect a bit on the things of the past. it is good to look back and see the faithfulness of the Lord.

we perhaps started a new year's eve tradition this morning by going out for breakfast. we never do that so it was a real treat and so yummy! john received a gift card from one of his fellow teachers that gifted us this rare treat today. the boys even reminded me to take a picture "for the blog."
and they are sporting their new hats compliments of some very generous Christmas money from uncle jimmy. thanks uncle jimmy! burrito has really become interested in watching football games on tv, and it is so funny to hear his running commentary of the game. noodle loves basketball so he's adopted the mavericks as his team.

so back to 2009...i am thankful that the Lord has given us another year to be together as a family, to be healthy, and to be a part of a great church community and a great school/work community. i am thankful for His faithfulness in sustaining john through the completion of his graduate studies.

we are blessed.

praying the Lord's faithfulness and blessings to you in 2010!

decorated.

i love this time of year. for some, this season brings busyness and a never-ending to-do list. for me, time slows down, the things we choose to do are intentional, and we spend a lot of time at home. colder weather makes me want to never leave the house. instead we curl up on the couch underneath a fleece blanket and read. i love it.

tomorrow brings a new year of advent, and we are excited to begin our daily reading and hanging of the ornament. please feel free to join us. i will be posting the scripture reading daily, along with our ornament. we love the anticipation of filling up the tree and celebrating Christ's coming to earth!

we decorated our house in stages the past week. it was really the perfect way to do it. i lugged all of the boxes of decorations down from the attic last monday. that's where it ended. seriously, who has the energy to decorate after doing something like that?

on wednesday, we decorated the inside of our home, along with setting up the big christmas tree in our living room. thursday was full of turkey and counting our blessings. on friday morning, we all decorated the tree while still in our jammies. instrumental christmas music from pandora filled the air, and it was perfect. well, minus the dropped and broken glass ball ornament, and the several other ornaments dropped but not broken. we have 8 trees ranging in size and style throughout the house. christmas is everywhere you look.

would you like to see some of our decorations? you would! great, i just happened to snap a few pictures today.

this is our big tree. we love its little pinecones and sparkly lights. it beat up john a little though on its way down from the attic. those branches scratched up his arms enough to make it appear as if he was in a fight with a feline.

this is our fireplace just to the left of the big tree. the stockings are *drying* by the fire and you can see our advent tree peeking into the left of the picture. on the mantle is my most favorite nativity set we have.


it is peruvian, and i picked it up at a craft fair from a family who brought several sets back from peru. isn't it awesome!?!?

and just in case you thought this was the only nativity set we own, i took a picture to show you the rest of my collection.

and if you know me at all, you know my love for a little retro. so when i spied this tree on sale last christmas, i just had to have it!

and perhaps my most prized christmas possession are these guys. the bigger santa was always a christmas fixture in my childhood home, and the little one lived at my grandparents' home. they are quite unique and eclectic.

saturday brought an opportunity to decorate outside. i tend to be a bit like the griswold's. remember the movie national lampoon's christmas vacation? this is what the outside of our home looked like last december:

and then came the electric bill. ouch! and that wasn't even all of our decorations! so we've scaled down a bit this year and invested in led lights for the house to save on electricity usage.

i think it still looks nice. decorations for me are a reminder to reflect upon the very reason for our celebration. Christ came to earth. God sent His only Son. for me and for you.

many blessings to you this advent season.