What I Love About My Christmas Tree

My tree. I love it. It has evolved since Aiden's arrival. I used to be picky about what went on my tree - if it wasn't red, gold or ivory and glittery, it did not go on my tree. Only white lights, no color.

Now, it is brightly light and filled with meaningful ornaments, old favorites, and new ornaments for Aiden.

These are my favorite ornaments from when I was little. The moon is my absolute favorite, just like it was when I was younger. I spent hours looking at the ballerina and thinking it was me, I thought it looked just like me. The ballerina ALWAYS gets a spot at the top of the tree.

I love the birdhouse with a glittery roof and the year on it - 1979. It always has to be under a red light. I don't know why, but I can't change how it has HAD to be for 30 years. The gingerbread house is the ornament we got for Aiden this year, we get him one each year. This one reminded me of my little 1979 bird house and since this year we started the gingerbread house tradition, it was just the right ornament for him (and it has the year, too).

The little wooden train. It is just so darn cute - the funny thing is that I took this when I moved out "just to fill up my tree", now it is one of my favorites.

The ornament on the left is my hand at 1 year old, the one on the right is Aiden's both made out of salt dough. How cute is it that my Grandma had this on her tree for 30 years, saved my hand print all these years and gave it to me? It is so awesome. She is so awesome.

What do I even say about the superman onsie??? It makes me cry. It was given to Aiden by Grandpa Steve and Grandma Trish when he was born and so, so sick. It hung on his isolette and followed him through every hospital transfer and to his new cribs as he got older. It never left his little corner of the NICU for almost 5 months. It is very special to us.

So many of our ornaments just represent us. The martini shaker and glass for me, the electric guitar and computer for Jeremy.

I love that now the bottom is filled with only "kid friendly" ornaments, ones that Aiden can play with and ones that Sara's boys made us. I love that my fancy beaded tree skirt has been replaced by one that has Santa, Reindeer and Snowmen on it.

Most of all, I love that Aiden loves to stare at the lights and the ornaments. The tree makes him smile. It makes him happy, which makes me happy, which is just why I love the holiday season so much!

The Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

The first Sunday in December is always reserved for the annual Walshaw-Ellsworth Christmas tree hunt. Over the years, the hunt has gotten easier.

It went from driving around to tons of tree farms to walking to the Christmas tree farm next door to my parents house.

It went from everyone trying to find the perfect tree to only 3 of us finding a tree (bad fake trees, Ellsworth family, bad).

It went from "Holly, Heather stand by this tree and guard it while we can see if there is a better one" to us being the in charge (oh yes, one day Aiden will be guarding trees for me).

It went from "Dad, can we have some hot chocolate?" to "Dad, where is my JackNog"!

But it has always been FUN! This year was no exception - there was tromping around in borrowed boots in the foot deep snow - with a toddler on me, soaking wet trees and a short time where I lost all sense of direction and could not find my family.

And they're off to find the perfect tree!

All the different types of trees - we were on the hunt for a white fir :)

Me and Aiden - looking all good and happy...no frizzy hair, no wet clothes...yet

Here we are again...still dry

Nana Robyn, Logan and Tanner - Chase was sick :(

So, I am guessing they are saying "Just pick one Heather" - ha ha ;)

Seriously - I wasn't kidding, the trees were soaking WET!

Papa John and Adam getting ready to haul some trees back to the house

And this was after getting lost and getting me and Aiden soaked - he thought it was funny!

 

Adam cut down my Christmas tree this year...he kind of picked it out, too!

After we cut down our trees and hauled them back to the house, we gathered in the kitchen for some good food, good drinks (thanks Adam!) and good times! Aiden crashed out - not sure why he was so tired - I was the one carting him up steep hills and through the forest! We always have a great time, next year let's hope that everyone is WELL and Sara, Chase and Dave can re-join the tree hunt fun!

Nana Robyn, Heather, Gerad, Jackson, Beth and Sue

Me and Heather...and a lovely backdrop of the trailer ;)

Jerry and Sue and their grandkids

The girls...we took some serious pictures, too - but the silly one is my favorite!

Santa Claus Came to Town!

One week in December Santa gets loaded up on his sleigh with Mrs. Claus and some helpers (Folsom police and fire departments) and they tour a different area of Folsom every night giving out candy canes and collecting canned food and toys for needy families. I love that they do this, because I remember when I was a little girl, Santa and the El Dorado Hills fire department (My Dad!) used to tour my Grandma's neighborhood and we would go to her house for chicken and noodles and wait for Santa to come around.

For some reason, we miss the Santa tour in our neighborhood every year. This year, Lisa and I were determined NOT to miss Santa. We want our kids to have memories of hearing all the police sirens from around the corner letting everyone know that Santa was there for a quick pre-Christmas visit. So we gathered at her place on a foggy Saturday night and waited patiently for Santa to come around the corner.

We almost missed it, we waited outside for a little while and then, deciding that the sirens were still pretty far away, went back inside. We kept checking to see if we could hear then and all the sudden Lisa said she thought they were getting close, so I ran to the corner and sure enough, Santa was there. So we had to do a mad dash outside with the kids to catch him.

But, we caught him, TWICE! 

The boys waiting for Santa...

And the girls waiting for Santa!

We walked around the neighborhood, checking out the lights - this house was Disney themed

The daddy's drank beers. On the street corner.

I'm afraid in 15 years, these 2 will be doing the same thing as their daddy's were ;)

Here comes Santa Claus and all the fire trucks!

Santa came with his reindeer (Rudolf...on a foggy eve!) and Mrs. Claus, too.

Aiden and Jeremy

Aiden was fascinated - but NOT a fan of the sirens.

Momma Lisa and her little babes

The twins got to meet Santa - look at Ryan staring at him!

After Santa made his way on to another street, we went inside to eat and TRY to get the kids to sleep. We had crab with butter, french bread and salad for dinner. I love crab season. So good.

And Jeremy fell asleep on the couch. Party pooper. In his defense, he was the only one that worked that day. We had a fun evening. Can't wait to do it again next year!

mmmmm...

The beer must have gotten to Jeremy - he was so tired he didn't notice all the toys I put on him!

Placerville Tree Lighting

The day after thanksgiving Aiden and I went up to my mom and dad's house for some turkey soup made from our thanksgiving day turkey leftovers and then went down to the tree lighting in downtown Placerville with my sister and her boys.

It was pretty crowded, but a fun holiday event. They light the big tree by the courthouse on Main Street and all the shops that are all decked out for the holidays stayed open late. There were people on the sidewalks giving out bags of popcorn and some selling coffee and Bailey's (which of course Sara and I enjoyed!).

They had horse and carriage rides, Christmas music and of course, Santa Claus rode though on his sled.

The carriage ride

I got a picture of Logan!

Tanner and Aiden - all bundled up



The crowd - there were a lot of people out that night!



Santa and his elf on the fire truck

Me and Aiden and the TREE!

Sara, Nana Robyn and the boys!

Nana and her boys...and me too :)

We had fun crusing Main street with 4 kids. Logan and Tanner ran into their friends and played and Chase was so darn cute wanting to be with Aiden all night. He helped me push the stroller through the crowds. We bought some candy at the candy store and went into a few shops. After the tree lighting we headed inside for some hot chocolate for the kids and eggnog lattes for the adults. It was a fun way to spend the evening!

Enjoying the HOT chocolate!

Keeping Aiden entertianed by playing peek-a-boo

Homemade Christmas

This year I am doing as many homemade gifts as possible, which is making me a very busy girl lately. I kicked off my first sewing project since 5th grade 4-H. The finished projects are turning out so cute and you can totally tell they are homemade since some of the seams are a little crooked - oh well, adds to the charm, right?

My mom lent me her portable sewing machine - how cute is it? A vintage featherweight singer. It makes me feel very creative, and a little old fashioned. Aiden's therapist came yesterday, looked at it and said "'Um, you might get done with your projects quicker if you buy a new sewing machine, that one looks a little old!" 

 

The interesting thing is that I am using this old sewing machine, but my patterns are online on my laptop, so I have this weird mix of vintage and technology going on. It's kinda funny.

I have several new "best friends". Including the little old instruction manual for the sewing machine (when the bobbin thread ran out, I about had a heart attack about winding it - I did it though, without calling my mom at midnight!), and the cutting mat and rotary cutter - a wise investment, and of course my BFF the seam ripper. Man, do I appreciate that seam ripper!

I stayed up until 2am the other night because I was on a mission to finish my first project. I can't show it to you, or tell you what it is, but it came out soooo cute. I can't wait to give these gifts, because I know that I made them especially for each person. They are very personal to me, much more so than picking something out at the store.

When I was done, I sat there and admired my work, amazed that I just made something and rewarded myself with a nice martini, because even though I am sewing like my mother, I am still drinking like me. Ha ha!

P.S. Mr. Aiden is getting both of his I teeth on top and his 2 year molars on bottom. He has been refusing to sleep until 11pm and waking up around 2am every night and staying up until 4 or 5am before falling back asleep for a couple hours. I have been averaging about 3-4 hours of sleep a night, so the fact that I did not sew my sleeve to any of my projects is truly a Christmas miracle :)