Christmas 2011- Columbia Edition!

We knew it was going to be difference this year, because it’s our first Christmas far away.  But we were lucky enough to be able to take a whole week to celebrate!  We started in Columbia, because Ruthie was graduating the weekend of the 16th.  Jess even came in from Colorado, and it was great having all 4 of use together! :)

So, obviously we started off the trip with graduation on Saturday.  Despite being a December graduation, the weather was beautiful, which made it much less painful to take pictures around campus!  I guess it’s because I went to school there, but I think MU’s campus is just beautiful, and I love being there.  Lots of good memories, and it just says CoMo to me! :)  Anyway, Jess took most of the pictures, so I don’t have many, just a few of the girls on the columns.  I’ve been wanting to take pictures of them there, because I think it’d be fun to have pictures of them as kids on the columns to compare with the pictures of them at the columns in their graduation gowns, you know, when they graduate from MU. Hehe… a mommy can hope! 

P.S. I’m not really going to be able to use this second picture, because, yes, those are plaid boxers in front of the columns… not our’s.  Apparently someone had a little too good of a time at the columns before graduation… hopefully Jess will have some good ones, or I’ll be doing some work in photoshop! :)

And, gratuitous shot of my girls and their daddy on campus… love my family!

After graduation festivities on Saturday, we went to church on Sunday.  Then we spent the next couple of days just hanging out in CoMo.  We did some last minute Christmas shopping with Jess, went out for dinner with Tim, Mal, & Grandma Jo, and went out for lunch and to see Santa at Bass Pro with Tim & Mal.  And, of course, laid around the house, ate too much, and generally had a good time hanging out with our family. 

Audrey’s favorite thing to do at Grandma & Grandpa’s… maul Sassy!  Sassy is the most tolerant animal I’ve ever seen, she just let A do whatever she wanted.  Which included things like Audrey holding up her back legs and doing the wheelbarrow… yikes! 

A and her favorite toy! :)

Love the Bass Pro Santa, because they give you a free pic, and it’s not an arm and a leg to buy more.  However, I don’t think I’ll be buying more this year.  Here’s the picture I took… yeah, not a framer!  Pretty hilarious, though.  Audrey, not a fan of Santa.

We did manage to get a cute one of the girls in Santa’s sleigh, though!

Audrey got a wicked cold, so she didn’t feel very good for most of the trip.  And she was definitely too worn out for shopping!

Of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a rip and tear session at Grandma & Grandpa’s house!  We all got together on Tuesday night to exchange presents.  We started with breakfast for dinner, of course.  We were cracking up because when we set the table, all of the food was tan- breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, pancakes… carbs, anyone? :)  And it was all delicious!

Laney got the passing out presents job (although, as it was going to take about 4 1/2 years for her to get it done, Ruthie and Grandma helped). 

Before the ripping and tearing, though, Laney had to “open” her big present from Grandma & Grandpa.  Dad had brought in a bike and covered it with a blanket.  After she passed out all of the presents, Dad told her he was cold, so she pulled the blanket off.  She was QUITE excited…

And, of course, she had to take it for a little spin!

Audrey pretty much opened her first present and was done opening.  She was totally content to push the shopping cart from Aunt Ruthie around the rest of the night!

Dad won the biggest present award…

But, it was really just a Black and Gold Auctions car magnet, buried in packing materials… good call, Josh! :)

Anyway, we had such a good time hanging with the Price’s in Columbia.  It was great to have all of the Price kids together, especially since Jess is pregnant, fun to see her all excited!  Can’t wait to see all of the pictures she took, so look forward to more pics… and, of course, Christmas 2011, Springfield and Kentucky editions! :)  Hope your Christmas was as fun and filled with family as our’s!

It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

 

Well, anybody who knows us knows that we LOVE Christmas… so we’re always excited to get the decorating done, and this year was no exception!  Last week we set up our tree and even got lights up on the outside of our house one day that Josh and I were off work and it was nice outside!

The actual decorating of the tree I don’t have many pictures of, because, well, I spent most of the time trying to keep Laney and Audrey from dumping the giant tote of ornaments, tearing apart the packaging, and just generally wreaking too much havoc!  And, really, it was a good time decorating the tree now that both of them were excited about it.  We definitely have some sections at about 4 year old height that are a little ornament heavy, but we’ve never tried to have a perfect tree, and giant patches of ornaments are part of it! :)  Audrey didn’t really get the whole hanging up thing, so she would just set the ornaments on the tree branches, which was also pretty funny!

Once we got the tree up, I did manage to wrangle the girls into a picture, and it actually turned out pretty cute! 

 

And then, because I love a Christmas tree and sparkling ornaments, I had some fun with my camera and some of my favorite ornaments.  The pictures aren’t all great, because I was messing with the manual settings on the camera, but some of them turned out cool…

One of my absolute favorite ornaments.  Love its simplicity.  A good reminder when life gets crazy!

If possible, I would probably cover my entire tree in ornaments from the glass blower’s shop at Silver Dollar City.  This is one of the first ornaments Josh and I bought on our first Christmas trip there, and I still love it!  And, miraculously, the little yellow things in the middle are still attached! :)

Another SDC glass blower ornament… I wasn’t kidding, I’d probably buy one of everything if I had the money!  Love the red, love cardinals…

And, when I ran out of glass ornaments to buy, I would buy about a million of these glass icicle ornaments and hang them all over!

But, of course, there has to be room on our tree for lots of ornaments like this one!  Wouldn’t be Josh’s tree without them!

Our new family ornament from last year… neat to see this one from 2010 and the one with only 3 stockings from 2007!

Funny story about these… when we got married, I got to keep all of my ornaments from growing up, but Josh didn’t.  So there were lots of “Liz” ornaments on the tree, but no “Josh” ornaments.  So, we bought these two matching snowmen, and they always hang together. 

And here’s the final tree!  Complete with presents… I love Christmas!

And our stockings, made by Grandma Judy!  Yes, I know mine is way bigger than everyone else’s… it’s had almost 30 years to stretch out! :)

And the house from the outside… I love having the tree in the front window.  And, yes, the windows look like they’re crying… so I’m not the best at outside lights, but I wanted to do the windows! :)

So, there you go, the Looten house is ready for Christmas!!  Which is good, since Christmas is starting early this year… everything has to be bought, wrapped, and ready to go by next weekend!  Merry Christmas to all…