Gift Ideas

This year I have to get ten people gifts. So I thought that I would write a blog.

For my mom she gave my sister and I, a list this year which included pajamas and a coffee mug. Since my sister and I don’t have a lot of money to spend we both decide to pay half of a really cute coffee cup that says ‘Best Mom in the World’ (or something along those lines).

For my dad, my sister and I also teamed up to buy a bag of candy peppermints and a cologne for him.

Every year my family does a kids secrete Santa because there are four of us (and my mom has to pay for most of the gifts since my two littlest siblings aren’t able to work yet). This year I got my brother Adam (I have gotten him the past four years as well. It turns out that my sister Anna got my other sister Ella, who also had Anna. Which means that my brother had me. This is the same every year and we even draw out of a hat.) My brother Adam is one of the pickiest human beings on this planet because all of the things he wanted were mowing tools. So I asked the expert what to get him (this is my mom). She told me that the least expensive thing on his list was a pair of steel trim gloves. They were 30 bucks, so my mom said that she would pay a third of the price, if I covered the rest, because they were so expensive.

For my grandma, my sister and I pooled together again to get her lotion.

For my grandpa, my sister and I gave him lots of tick-tacks. (He doesn’t need much).

For my work secret Santa Katie, I got her a Starbucks cup, candy, fuzzy socks, and a five dollar gift card to Starbucks.

For my best friend secret Santa Ashlynn, I got her a perfume, lotion, and two pairs of fuzzy socks.

For my last secret Santa Zander, it was my show choir group. I got him a ten dollar Target gift card and a huge tube of the regular goldfish. (Why are guys so hard to shop for?)

What did you get your family members and/or friends this year? Let me know if you have any suggestions for me. Thanks, Emily.

Family

Every year on Christmas my mom's parents come down to visit us. My dad's parents used to come down, but now they go to Arizona to stay warm. A couple past Christmas's other family friends and relatives have come down to stay with us. Usually we play games, eat lots of amazing food, watch movies, and open presents.

One of my favorite parts is after Christmas day lunch, when everyone is sitting around the table play Phase 10. The game lasts awhile and when everyone is finally done with the game, my grandparents go into the living room to watch TV (they really sleep during this time), my littlest sister Ella will usually play with the toys that she got. (I usually help her set up her toys if she needs my help. My brother will go on his video games or play with his new toys that he got. My next sister Anna, will go put her stuff away and then get out a craft of some kind. My parents are usually talking with the grandparent that is still awake. Finally I will usually help my sister set up her toys like I said or I will go put my things away where they belong and then go grab a craft to do like my other sister Anna. Once everyone has rested for a while, we all head down stairs to the foosball table to play a ton of games against each other. Sometimes if there is a good movie coming out in theaters we will go see that. After our many rounds of foosball we go upstairs to get something to eat. At this time we are eating most of the left overs. Everyone heads to bed soon afterwards to get a good night’s rest because the next day we all do after Christmas shopping. The next day is busy with family members trying to get everything they need for the year. I like to hang out with my grandma and my mom because they usually buy me a few things that I would see in the store. My two sisters Anna and Ella also hang out with my grandma and mom to see if they will get anything also.

What relatives come down to visit you for Christmas? What do you do with them? Are there any fun games that you play? Let me know. Thanks, Emily

Christmas Decorations

Every year for Christmas, I am the person in my family who bring up all of the decorations from the basement and start opening the bins. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is putting up all of the decorations and seeing the final end product.

I start with the living room decorations which include a set of trees that we made by hand (they are red, gold, and green, on the tree we pin up candies.) There is also a Jesus scene that we lay out on a table. On our coffee table we have a cover and on top sits a metal sleigh that has fake plants and bells hanging from it. Near our fireplace we have cute penguins and trees. On our railing going down to the basement we hang our stocking. In the kitchen we have a Santa tree, which includes a Santa photo with all of the kids for the past 17 years. (This is how old I am...) Around the tree we have a soft re skirt. On one wall my mom hangs a crossed-stitched Santa that she had done in her teen age years. Around the Santa frame, we have tall trees with bright white lights and I reindeer candle along the bottom. Along the top of our cabinets we have other Christmasy things. In our sunroom, we have our live/real tree. It is decorated with gold pink and silver. (We just retired our artificial tree to being the 'kids' tree. It is bigger.) In the office we put up the kids tree, which consists of ordainments that all of us kids have gotten as a gift for the past 17 years. Also is the office, is my mom’s nutcracker collection. She has over 40 nutcrackers and at least five of them are over two feet tall. In my sister’s room, which is also on the main level, she has a grey and pink themed tree. She also has a wreath on her door that she made. In my parent’s room, they also have their own tree that is silver and brown themed. In the basement we have another huge tree added to the house. It is decorated with multicolored lights and ornaments. There is also a train around the tree. We also have other misc. Christmas stuff living around the basement. My sister and I also have a wreath on our doors that were made by us. I have a woodland themed tree in my room along with other Christmas stuff.

Let me know what you do to decorate your house for Christmas. Thanks, Emily.

Lights

               Christmas lights are amazing. One house in my neighborhood does an amazing job at decorating the outside of their house. They has Christmas trees in the windows along with fake Santas. In the yard they have lights on almost every tree. The have stick in the ground colorful lights that they make a lane with. They have a few blow up inflatables that they have around the front and back of their yard. I love it so much. My favorite part of it is when you are driving to the front of their house and you look up at the second story window you can see a Santa by a beautifully lit Christmas tree. (That is inside decorations so my favorite outside decoration would have to be a huge pine tree that is covered in colored lights).

               This year since we have just recently moved, we don’t have any full or strong enough trees to put lights on. Usually in the past years my dad has put lights on all of our trees and then done the lining of our house with white lights. For finishing touches we have a huge wreath that we would hang above our garage that had white lights and a gigantic red bow on it.

               Usually the day before Christmas my family and I drive around our neighborhood and the connecting neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights. They are so magical and cool. We go by eat house and give then a rating from 1-10. I like the houses with a lot of pretty lights.

               What do you and/or your family do for outside decorations? Can you please send me a picture? I love looking at decorated houses. Thanks Emily.

Traditions

               Every year my family has certain traditions of getting and decorating a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We also make cookies every year. One tradition that goes along with decorating the tree is we have a wish ornament. Every year for the past 5 years my family and I sit down at the table and we are all given tiny sheets to write down what we wish Santa will get us this year. When we are all done with ours we out it in the ornament. Then we take out the past years and read them aloud and see if our wishes had come true.

               Another tradition that we have is decorating the kid’s tree as we call it. It is a tree that we have in our dining room/piano room. Every year since we are born we get an ornament for Christmas. (We also get a few from relatives). So we decorate a certain tree with our ornaments. This year we are going to have to get a bigger tree because we have over 70 ornaments. We take a full night to decorate the tree, while drinking hot cocoa or apple cider.

               Another tradition we have is every Christmas Eve we celebrate by open two gifts, our ornament gift and our PJ’s that we pick out special for that year. Then we all change into the pajamas. Then we sit in front of the tree and take a photo for the scrapbook. After that we sit down with the treats that my family has made including a cheese ball dip with crackers, cookies, salami and crackers, and a few other things. For drinks we have hot cocoa and apple cider. Then once we are all settled in we watch Christmas Vacation. (Even though I have seen this movie a billion times it never gets old). Once the movie is over we all go up to bed and wait for Santa to come.

               In the morning on Christmas day my brother and I are the first to wake up at 3-4 am. (I have tried to sleep in later but it never works) Then it is my littlest sister Ella. Since we are so loud, my mom and grandma will come down telling us to be quiet. After a while my grandpa will get up and get ready, knowing that the bathrooms will be hogged later. My sister Anna comes down with my dad a few minutes later. We can finally dig into the gifts that have been tempting my siblings and I for so long. When we open presents we go from youngest to oldest one at a time so that we can each see what everyone else has gotten too. One of the last gifts that we open up are the Secret Santa gifts. Since my mom didn’t want us to spend all of our/her money we do a Secret Santa.

               What are your traditions that you do with your family? Do you want to start any new traditions? If so let me know what they are. Thanks Emily.

Christmas Cookies

Every year my family and I make Christmas cookies. Everyone in my family chooses their cookie that my mom, two sisters and I bake, but with some cookies we make then no matter what.

The cookies that we always make are sugar cookies that we can decorate with frosting or colored sugar. We usually make 3-4 batches of these because they get eaten so soon. We also make press cookies that are like sugar cookies, just smaller and fatter. We decorate our press cookies with colored sugar. For our press cookies we make anywhere from 4-7 batches.

For individual cookies my dad always chooses the same cookie, or should I say pie. He chooses Tea Time Tassies. They are almost like mini pecan pies. We usually make two batches of these (my dad could eat all of these on his own, I honestly don’t prefer them.) My youngest sister Ella chooses the Almond Cookies. They are so good. I eat almost the whole batter if I am making them (there aren’t any eggs in these so they are safe to eat raw.). My mom usually makes 3 batches. By this time our house is smelling quite good. On to my brother Adam, who choses peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses presses into the top of them. (I forget what they are called) We usually make 4 batches of these cookies. My other sister Anna chooses Frogs Eyes. We only make a double batch of these. Which are triple chocolate cookies with green frosting on top. My mom chooses peppermint bark. We usually have to make a couple batches of these depending on how thick they are. I usually don’t eat this because I don’t like peppermint. Last but not least I choose gingersnaps. They are the best cookies every especially when they are just out of the oven and are all gooey and warm. Since I am the one making these cookies I make around 5-7 batches.

The year that I remember making the most cookies was when my Great Aunt Reva came down to my house with my grandma. We had so many different deserts and cookies that we had tables in the living room set up. We also had pans of deserts and cookies waiting to go in the oven.

What do you make for your Christmas cookies? Send me the recipes and I will try them. Also try mine. If you need my cookie recipes let me know. Thanks Emily.

Christmas Tree Time

For the past couple of years my family and I have gone out and gotten a real tree. We usually get the soft pine needles, but this year, to help keep the bulbs on the tree better and get more bulbs on the tree, we are going to get a smaller rougher pine tree.

               The morning after Thanksgiving my family and I go out to Wiki Tree Farm and pick out a tree. We roam the tree farm for the perfect tree for our family. For the past couple of years we could only have a tree that is around 8 feet high. This year we were allowed to get a 12 foot tall tree. My dad and brother usually cut the tree down using a hand saw, but this year my brother Adam, two sisters Anna and Ella, my dad and I cut it down together (we each put a few cuts in the tree and then my dad finished it.) When the tree was almost cut down my two sisters and I went on the opposite side of my dad to hold the tree up and keep it from getting all muddy because it had rained recently. The trees needles were so sharp and pointy that my two sisters left it up to me to hold after a while. Once the tree was cut down my dad and sister Anna (whose is the strongest of all of the four kids) brought the tree down to be paid for, shaken (to make sure that Alvin and the chipmunks weren’t living in it), and then have it bagged and tried on my dad’s car. Once we got it on top of the car, we celebrated by going out to eat at Pancheros. Once we got home my dad put lots of white lights all over the tree. We then pulled out the boxes and tubs of ornaments and bulbs and started to decorate the tree. My youngest sister Ella finally put the start on top of the tree. Once the tree was decorated I had made hot cocoa for everyone. While we were drinking our hot cocoa, we were listening to Christmas music on my mom’s IPhone and were talking.

When do you get your Christmas tree? How big is it? Do you cut it down yourself (meaning your dad) or is it artificial? Do you have any traditions? Let me know. Thanks Emily.

Christmas Songs and Movies

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the songs and movies. I love the songs that are from movies like when the radio plays movies from the Grinch. I love the song that Cindy Lou Who also sings from the Grinch. I like the song Last Christmas I gave you my Heart (I don’t know the real name of this song, but I am going to call it this). I also love the Straight No Chasers versions of Christmas songs. One of my favorite songs of the Straight No Chasers is the Christmas Can Can. I also love their version of 12 Days of Christmas. Another one of my favorite Christmas song is ‘Mary Did You Know’. It is amazing song that I could listen to over and over again. The Pentatonic also sing another version of ‘Mary Did You Know’ and it is equally amazing. I also love all of Pentatonic’s Christmas songs.

            One of my favorite Christmas movies is the Grinch (real life version). My favorite part of the whole movie is when he is going over his schedule and is saying “At 5o’clock dinner with myself, can’t miss that again. 6 o’clock, solve world hunger, tell no one.” It is the best part of the movie. Another one of my favorite movies is called Holidays in Handcuffs. It is about a woman who has to go home for the holidays and is always criticized by her family about her life. So this year, she is leaving from her job to go home when all of the sudden she has a great idea of kidnapping a random guy and taking him with her to her parents’ house to be her supposed ‘boyfriend’. She makes him do all of this crazy stuff and the whole time that her is there he is trying to escape. It is a hilarious movie. My favorite animated Christmas movie is the Polar Express. My favorite parts are the songs.

            In my car I only have one radio station that plays Christmas music. It is on almost 24/7(Sometimes it is good to not have all of your radio stations play Christmas music, it gets annoying after a while). My sister and I sing along to almost every Christmas song that we know.

What is your favorite song and/or movie? Let me know what you thought about my options and also listen to my songs they are awesome. Thanks Emily.

Christmas is Here

Christmas is finally here. Many TV programs like ABC Family and Hallmark are starting their Christmas movies and shows. ABC Family is having their 25 days of Christmas. It is finally December and it has already snowed!!! Time for everyone to put up their decorations for the inside and outside of the house, make and decorate the Christmas cookies, get Christmas gifts, see Santa Clause and tell him what you want for Christmas, and of course decorate your Christmas tree.

During the holidays I love watching everyone in my neighborhood put up their lights. When I drive by houses with lights up and running at night I slow my car down and look at all the elaborate designs people have used lights for. Some people go over board and have too many blow up floats. I love the lights only houses, where they are pretty lights in a nice line on the house ends. Another one of my favorites is the house from Christmas Vacation, which has 25,000 lights total on the house.

I also love all of the Christmas commercials that you see on TV.  They are so cute. Especially the Petco commercials that has many different cats dressed in different Christmas costumes!! They are so cute.

During the Christmas season, I feel so good because first it is my favorite time of the year, second the Christmas music playing on the radio, and more. I dislike the kids in high school that I hear saying that they don’t like Christmas or can’t take Christmas songs on the radio. These people are called a Grinch. People Christmas is only for 25ish days. You can live with it. Don’t bash everyone else spirit and use the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all.”

               I love when it snows. I may not like the cold weather, but I love to see all of the sparkly snow on the ground and covering the houses. The snow covers up all of the brown grass and makes it sparkle. I also love the pine trees that get frosted with snow. They look so pretty and with a few twinkling lights and when you drive by at night, they are the best.

               I fell like Christmas is very close but so far away at the same time. I have to go Christmas shopping soon, and I still have to decorate my house.

               Let me know what you are doing to prepare for Christmas this year. Thanks Emily.