11 trees and a partridge!

Well here it goes, all 11 trees up and about two weeks later, our house is definitiely a winter wonderland. Our first tree up this year was Peyton's tree. He has been so excited about having Christmas this year that it was contagious. Maybe that is why we were stupid enough to actually do all 11. For those of you that don't know, Andy and I started this wild tradition after our first year of marriage. We felt that since my birthday was on Christmas and his was on Christmas Eve that we needed some grand Christmas tradition. This is what started. Each year we purchased a new tree. The rules are that you can never add to a tree once you have it, however, we have broken that with Peyton's tree and add all of the ornaments he makes or gathers within that year. It is getting to be a little out of hand and we have purchased small trees the last couple of years, but it is kind of neat once they are all up. All of them have names. I will list them below. Our goal is that after we have been married for a while (which we are getting to) , we will open it to the public for a Christmas tree lane and charge a dollar or two to come and see them. Then we will donate it to a charity of our choice.
This is Peyton's tree. It is pretty cute and fits him...very random and hodge podge. This was also purchased our seventh year for Peyton.(We actually lost a tree in all of our moves and hope to make it up...it was called twig tree and it was made entirely out of twigs. We had it out on our porch and used bird houses and birds and kept it outside). Peyton loves his little tree. He can decorate it anyway he wants and we add a few ornaments for him every year! He informs us that he wants to take the blue snowflake tree into his room next year, but that goes in our room!

This is "Twelve Days of Chrismtas Tree". It has carolers, music note ribbon, snowglobes-each with a different 12 days inside, and then four of each of the 12 days of Chrismtas ornaments. This is tree was purchased our seventh year. This tree below was I and Andy's first tree. It has all of our decorations on it. We purchase a fresh tree for this tree every year. It has all of our first ornaments on it and a lot of homemade ornaments that we like. We like to think of this one as our snoopy tree. That is what we usually like. However, this year was a really nice tree and doesn't look like the snoopy tree.

This tree is a smaller tree and we purchased it the year right before Peyton was born. This was in our sixth year of marriage. It is "Smores tree". It is actually a really cute tree and all of the ornaments and garland are smores stuff.

This tree was purchased last year(number 10) and is a smaller table top tree. It is actually referred to as "Symbol Tree". Each ornaments is supposed to symbolically represent something with regards to Christmas...however I do not have the guide and cannot remember what each item represents.

This is snowflake tree. This was the first tree we got after our real tree. This is actually Andy's favorite tree. It is blue with silver and white snowflake ornaments. It is a cute tree.

This next tree is actually called "Berta Hummel" tree. She is an artist who sculpts and paints little children. I collected the ornaments for about three years. This tree was tree number eight. It is our most expensive tree and matches our living room. Most trees we tree to keep within a lower budget, but after all of the collecting and the price of a flocked tree this one wins that award.

This next tree is angel tree. This tree was our fourth actually tree and it is a good thing we were able build a house because the "Rat Trap" (what we called our old house) didn't really have anymore room for trees. Our home right now, although very full of trees, still has room for some more. We will see how sick of it we get! Angel tree I think is one of our prettiest. The ribbon says Silent Night, Holy Night, and there are probably close to 100 different angel ornaments.

This is a our ninth tree and one of my most favorite. It is just whimsical and cute. It is called Candy Cane tree and is strictly red and white. I also purchased a cheap Walmart white tree and it is just really cute.

This next tree is my most favorite. Even the name makes me smile. This is "Tacky Fruit Tree" with bubble lights. You know the ornaments you purchase at Walmart after Christmas-the ones that no one wants because they are really tacky...well that is tacky fruit tree. It even has the traditional Christmas Pickle on it.

Finally our tree for this year is actually very clever, small, and funny. We call it "Bad Economy Tree". It is about three inches tall and can't even support one bulb. We figured it was all we could afford this year...but the tradition must go on.

I hope you enjoyed the tour through our festival of trees! Merry Christmas!

I'm Thankful...for Thanksgiving!

So I know I'm a little behind on the Thanksgiving thing, but I did want to post what a nice vacation that was. As we get closer to Christmas and oftentimes find that Christmas overshadows this holiday, I thought it would be a nice refresher to remember this nice day. As I went into Gram's house, Pam and Steph were doing punch responsibilities. Pam for years has always helped with the punch. I wonder if she still knows how to make the kind Gram used to make. It is also nice to have Sas running Gram's kitchen and making sure that everything gets done. I know that Sas would make Gram proud with the management of this HUGE dinner! She does a great job. Lawrence did his turkey cutting job and actually tried a new method of cutting this year because he read it helped to keep it more moist. I only really care for turkey if I can snitch it, so of course I went and stole a piece after I took the picture. You have to be careful though that Lawrence isn't using the electric knife while you are snitching because I did get my hand swatted. Holly was here for Thanksgiving and set the table very beautifully. We actually had quite a crowd for Thanksgiving and the day after so it was a lot of fun to celebrate this year. As you can see the kids are getting fed up with waiting for the food (especially Adam!). They pretty much did in the olives before we started. Of course they were getting yelled at by all of the adults, so we ushered them downstairs for one of my favorite things to do at Thanksgiving.

Fussball! This was kind of cute because all of the little kids wanted to play. I felt it was kind of like an ushering in of the next generation. We had a little Beebomb (Jaden) Peyts (Me) Jays...(Holly...oh wait she never played!), Bruv (Adam who makes as many comments about others playing as his dad does-I'm sure it is a distraction tactic!...he says exactly what his dad says!). I tried to resurrect an old playing of the originals that I learned to play with (Bee and Jim on one side and me and Bruv on another...but I couldn't manage it) Andy and I spent the most time playing with the kids and it wasn't too bad, but it definitely was a goalie game!
So we finally got to sit down and eat...probably later than we ever have. The dinner was great and I didn't have to sit at the adult table this year and listen to all of the health problems of all of the older people! :-) I got to sit at the kid table and for the most part it was very enjoyable! My most favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is stuffing and jello! At our Thanksgiving, we have about 10 different kinds of jello. I really only like three specific ones, but I will try the new ones. The shot of the one below is my favorite. It is a lemon pudding with whipped cream and marshmellows and pineapple. It is great!

After everyone is finished eating it has been kind of funny for some people who eat too much to play "fat dog" on the couch. That is basically that you go and lay down on the couch and stick out your stomach and moan. Well in the past when Pam has done this, Steph, Sam, Adam, and Shelly would get on top of her. We started taking a photo. This year they reversed the order and Adam got the food all squished out of him...I think! It was pretty funny.

I have for the last couple of years wanted to make a pie for Thanksgiving because it was something that I had never tried before. I decided I would make a fresh apple pie with real apples and everything. I have always been a little intimidated because my grandma and my mom are such wonderfully awesome pie makers that I have'nt wanted to try, but anyway I bought seven different kinds of apples and I did a lot of reading about different ways to make a pie. I had a lot of fun making it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I thought it was really good. I think it was the prettiest pie over there, but my mom still wins hands down on the best pie. You will see below two pictures of my pies and one of her cherry which is still my favorite! Kudos to Marie!

You can see a huge difference with her pie and mine. It just looks lighter and better. I guess maybe in another 20 years, I might be able to master them!

Buried Under Piles of Paper....Help!

So I've felt really bad lately because I have been literally buried under piles and piles of paperwork. I haven't been a very good wife, mother, blogger, person...just a teacher. I don't know what it was, but I had a very hard time getting through my grades this year. The bad thing is, we just switched over to a trimester and I feel like all I ever do is grade anymore. I finally told the secretary today at school that I needed my prep hour and did not want to cover a class because I'm tired of taking stuff home.
I know, I know....my mom never has any sympathy, she just says if you are tired of grading then don't assign it. However if you are an English teacher, there is not doubt in my mind you will have papers. I only had two bigger papers given for my Honors' class but man they about killed me. They take so much time to sift through and to actually do them justice. My husband said to just give everyone A's...but that is not the point. The point is that if they make that effort then I need to make that effort. However, the good news is that I did finish my grading on Friday of last week. I have been pretty much grading non-stop since November 17th. It was stressful, boring, redundant, and awful, but I did finish. I then went home all weekend and did Christmas stuff which was a lot of fun. It has made me want to get way more creative this tri with regards to the assignments I give. I can see why the longer I do this how much nicer looking for another career would be....but I am done for now and will possibly even try to change my blog background from fall to winter...since it has been over for a while. I may even try to post some Christmas posts. But for now, it is my prep hour and I have grades due again in two weeks...so I guess I will go back to the grading funk that is my life!