Christmas Eve Presents

Family tradition for us dictates Christmas Eve presents. Just one for each of us and of course that one present is pajamas. It is something that my mother did and something that all of my siblings and I have chosen to carry on with our own children. (We also carried on a toothbrush in the stocking, a new ornament per child, and a few other things) I do think that this will be the last year that I will actually wrap the pajamas since everyone is now old enough to know that it will be the same thing and the kids now ask when we will get to "open our pajamas." I hate wrapping so it just makes me smile not to have to do it.

Here are a few pictures of the whole family after we received them and put them on. I must say we got some really cute ones BUT the one of the whole family just DID NOT work out. It seemed like someone was always not doing something right. We must have taken about twenty of them and I was beginning to lose my mind so we had to quit. All done. Hope you all like them.

Maddy's New Do---And Michael Too!

Maddy with her hair down! She loves it straight and much like Sierra has always wished she had straight hair like mine. It has now been down for two days--which is longer than Sierra's was able to stay down. That has caused a bit of bitterness! What can I say? I understand because as I stated in the previous post, it is much easier to deal with. As it stands niether of them can comb their own hair properly because of all the curls. With it like this, they can.

The pictures of Michael are just him chilling out on the couch tonight. His hair has not been cut yet though because he wasn't feeling well when it was time. God bless Julia for all her talent and being willing to showcase that talent using my family. It's funny the people that are in a person's life and how they fit in with some sort of special talent that makes them special in your life. I am fortunate to have three women here that have special talents. Jennifer sews, Cindy is a nurse, and Julia does hair. Two of them also bake--which is not great for my ever expanding butt.

My favorite thing about all of them is their willingness to be honest with me and my knowledge that I can be honest with them and they will know it comes from a place of love. It is good to have people in your life who love you for who you are and despite my unwillingness to use the word "friend" for many, the people I do decide to call friend have nearly always been worth the extra effort that the relationship of "friendship" requires.

I Wish it Were So

Ok, the day before yesterday my friend Julia washed, conditioned, gave a deep treatment to, combed (a job in and of itself), cut, blow dried, and flat ironed Sierra's hair. This was a HUGE job as Sierra's hair is more like her black heritage than it is a naturally curly white girl's hair. She LOVES it. In the two with the blue shirt, she is angry with me that I said she must have it up for bed or it would get frizzy. She wanted to keep it down.

I would have let her but I was sure I was right. As it stands, I WAS right. I actually ended up having to braid it the next day because it didn't stay straight. Madison had hers done last night, put it in a pony for bed and it is still bone straight. Then again, her hair is more like a white girl's--naturally curly and less coarse than Sierra's. I will post pictures of her hair later today or tomorrow. The idea behind my title is that both of their hair is SO much easier to care for when it is straight like this.

They also LOVE leaving it down and long, which is something they cannot do with it natural. I am no good at blowing hair dry and kind of suck with a flat iron. It's too bad Julia isn't our live in nanny or something. :) She is really talented and loves to do hair. She is professionally trained and actually worked in a Paul Mitchell Salon before moving here. I am impressed only because there is no way on this earth that I would go to a salon where it cost 55 dollars for a hair cut. But then again...we make military salary, which isn't so much :)

Winter Wonderland & Santa

Here are a few pictures of the kids, me, and YES...it's big Michael too. As some of you know, we had a great snow last week. So as much as I HATE the cold, I was talked into joining the family out at the sledding hill for about an hour of sledding and about three hundre pictures. There are so many great ones that it was difficult to pick which ones I wanted to post but here they are. We had a lot of fun but I was very cold when we got home. Oh well, it was a great excuse for hot chocolate. Tonight Santa came through the neighborhood on a fire truck (apparently that is how he travels in the off season) and gave out small pieces of candy before posing for pictures. The girls were very happy about that. I did have to go out in the cold tonight too...I feel some more hot chocolate coming on!!!!