Christmas 08'

Christmas was here and now it's gone!  But here's a re-cap of our holiday season!

We usually kick off December by decorating gingerbread cookies.  In the past we've done gingerbread houses and that was fun too!  Especially to see uncle weston's gingerbread masterpiece!  (Maybe he should be an architect too!)  I think maybe next year we will decorate sugar cookies- those are a lot yummier than gingerbread! Don't have many pics of this event but it was FUN!!  Crazy wes with what I call his "mario and Louigi mustache"! 

I love REAL christmas trees, no fake tree compares to the smell of a real tree!  I don't like the pine needles though, they are a pain! especially the week after christmas and we have to drag the tree out of the house while DRY pine needles are falling in piles across our whole house.  I am still finding needles almost a month after christmas!  (I think it is from our dog bringing them on his paws after being outside on our deck).  Zee's brother Uncle Sebastian (uncle Bubba) and his girlfriend Ashley came with us on our cut down tradition- that was fun to have them there!  Especially when Uncle Bubba who is tall and has very wide shoulders carried the cut tree up on one shoulder with one arm- Amazing (couldn't get a good picture of that, it was getting too dark)!!!  Mt. baker was also a sight to see- so beautiful while the sun was starting to set.  My picture doesn't do it justice!  

Once home, Elise who gets so excited about decorating anything like me when I was a kid, put all of the ornaments on the tree, no joke!  I think I did maybe three ornaments.  It makes me smile to think of the excited feeling Elise gets during different holiday seasons.  When I was little I always wanted Christmas lights up at our house and my parents never did that, so I would take it upon myself to tack (sorry mom) a string of lights in the wood trim in our big front room window.  I LOVED coming home and seeing that window with christmas lights on it!

Since my dad, Mark Lambert's passing was a over year ago, I especially think of him at Christmas time because his birthday was on Christmas eve.  I decided that instead of focusing on being sad about my dad, I would focus on why I celebrate Christmas and it's deeper meaning for me than just the holiday lights, scents, and presents: the birth of Jesus Christ. 

 Sometimes it takes something big, to bring it back to the simpler things.