Personality

I have an awesome new neighbor. We love the whole family! Four kids, 2 cats, a dog...crazy house just like ours. We borrow things from each other all the time, feel comfortable sending our kids over to each others houses, and have great chats. On top of all that she's a professional photographer and offered to take our family Christmas photo. However, with both our busy schedules and the rain, we've been unable to connect. Finally on Sunday the planets aligned and it stopped raining for an hour so we quickly gathered everyone up after church and tried to take some pics. Now, this isn't the one I used for my Christmas card - but I have to say it is my FAVORITE picture she took because it captured everyone's personality in my family perfectly!
It probably isn't noticeable to the common eye but I can see everyone's true self just spilling out from the picture. Let me interpret for you.

Emma - Crazy, vivacious, always laughing (when she's not crying), loves life, never stops until her head hits the pillow kind of girl.

Jacob - shy but sneaky. Loves to play practical jokes on people. Is kind of shy and quiet but thinks he is totally funny. Comes up with the funniest comments ever.

Ben - SOOO mischievous. Doesn't that look just scream "Yeah I'm a troublemaker but I'm so cute how can you resit?"

Dave - hates getting his photo taken and being made by his wife to sit in a photo shoot. See that little crooked smirk on his face - it's saying "how much longer do I have to sit through this torture"?.

Me - I can't believe we are all sitting here at the same time and nobody is whining, yelling, or hitting anyone else. Wearing the "boring-white-shirt-because-I-didn't-have-time-to-find- myself-something-cute-to-wear-with-the-getting-everybody-else-ready" outfit. Thinking - good thing this is right after church so I already had makeup on and my hair semi brushed.

I just laugh to myself when I see this picture. Here are some more for your viewing enjoyment:

A little late

That's me this Christmas...a little late on everything. Actually, that's me this whole YEAR! I feel like I'm always two steps behind trying to catch up. I noticed I still have a Halloween picture as the last entry on the blog and it's almost Christmas! No mention of Thanksgiving and thankfulness or upcoming Christmas fun. Two steps behind...I don't even have a tree yet! Can you believe it! I usually get my tree as soon as the the turkey is gone and the leftover cranberries are washed down the sink. I got sick the day after thanksgiving this year and that put me down for a week. On top of that my house has been partly under construction by my dad and it's been rainingn so it's just been hard to get out and get a tree. Now I'm four steps behind on Christmas and two steps on the rest of life. Oh well...

I sent Dave to get a tree with the kids last night and they came home empty handed. Apparently if you wait until a week before Christmas all they have left are 3 ft trees or 9 ft trees. And since I asked him to get a 5 or 6 ft tree he came home with none since he NEVER deviates from what I tell him to do. Honestly at this point I would have been happy with a 3 footer. I'm taking an easy approach to Christmas this year. Since it's a sort duration my tree will actually be up now I wouldn't mind a little one.

I've been enjoying all the Christmas cards immensly - thank you to all of you who are way more on top of things than myself and already mailed them. I may get mine out next week sometime. I do have them...I just have to mail them. It's so fun catching up at least once year with those who live far away. One thing I love about Christmas. Rekindling old friendships. I also love Christmas movies - we've been watching one a day thanks to TIVO and ABC family. I love Christmas crafts - we've also been doing one a day. It's actually cold here right now and we've had several days of rain so it feels even more like Christmas! We actually had hot chocolate the other day and have to wear sweaters and shoes to go outside! I love it! I love decorating for Christmas. I love it so much I've just been doing a little bit each day. Usually I do one day of decorating with the tree, the house etc. Since I don't have a tree yet that hasn't happened. I still have Pumpkins on my porch and a scarecrow out front underneath the Christmas lights (which I did get put up all by myself thank you very much). I plan on stashing away the rest of the Thanksgiving stuff today and going out on a hunt for the perfect-whatever-is-left-on-the-lot tree. I have to say - it's been a little nice going slow this season.

I don't know if I'll be back before Christmas or not so if not - Merry Christmas friends!