Christmas Day (Observed) with the Baums

Merry Christmas!

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Sorry this is a bit late in coming. While the girls and Patty went up to Madison Christmas Day (Andy came too, but returned the next morning to work), we didn't celebrate Christmas until the following weekend. Here are a few glimpses into that day, and since there are no pictures of me, you can tell who played photographer.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Daddy helps Maggie open her gifts.

Maggie got some Play-Doh!

Grandma and Aunt Ellie open some gifts.

Grandpa wore his new coat all morning, and there's Hal in the background.

Grandma received a set of nesting bowls in the shape of a lotus flower.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Hanging File Creation

I needed a way to organize my papers: they were beginning to take over my desk. The basket under my desk wasn't working: it was essentially the same as the hotspot on top of my desk -- an unorganized pile of papers, notebooks, keepsakes, and unopened mail. I was fairly certain that the things I had opened or received in the last few weeks were there, but not quite confident enough to be able to declare that I really hadn't lost the generous-amounted gift card my husband had given me for Christmas (gulp!).

Yesterday, I was determined to tackle this problem. I had seen magazine-rack-type things that you hang on your wall. The first ones I imagined would have been made of some sort of metal, but I could conceive of one made of fabric, so I racked my brain. I didn't have the car, and I wanted a solution today! We're also trying to watch our spending, and besides, a home is more interesting when you are creative with storage and what you put on your walls.

I went looking for a pretty sheet. No luck: they were all white, and I'd gotten rid of most of the extras long ago. But I spotted some cream-colored (unbleached) cotton pillow cases from IKEA. They were 99 cents and when they touched your skin, you could tell. No Egyptian cotton here. I played around with folding them in a few different ways. Then I went searching for some ribbon. I found a few, but what I settled on were some pretty neck ties that Andy had given my a while ago for belts or to use in my hair. I don't know if they're exactly "feminine" but I like them and he (apparently) wasn't wearing them. Enter about a dozen safety pins (no sewing here... maybe some day) and here is what I came up with.

And here's a shot to put in perspective.

At first I was really excited about it, but as I looked at it, I couldn't decide if it was cool and "shabby/chic" or just looked like a couple of pillowcases full of papers attached to some ties. It made me giggle when I thought about it that way, and I was sure Andy would come home and burst out laughing. But when he saw it and asked if it just looked like junk, he said, "Oh, it looks like something you got from Kohl's or J.C. Penney's in the 'fake junk' section."

Yes! At least it looks like junk that someone might pay money to put on the wall!

Christmas Celebrations

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these! Christmas is a crazy time of year....

We had matins and liturgy for the Nativity of Christ beginning at 10pm on Christmas Eve and ending well after midnight. With only a late-afternoon nap, Maggie went strong through the whole service, surpassing many an eight-year-old (and many of us adults...) in alertness. I don't have any photos taken during our Christmas service; however, I took this when she finally crashed on Daddy's shoulder and was so soundly asleep that she could be put down:


Being that it was 2am, we went home to go to bed. Maggie, however, did not wish to enter our apartment. We picked her up and carried her in the door, where she stood defiantly with her coat on. When Daddy began to remove it from her body, she flung herself to the floor in what promised to be a glorious tantrum. Our expectations were not to be fulfilled. After the dramatic fall and a very short wail of protest, Maggie was asleep where she had landed:
And there she stayed for a good hour, because every time Daddy came near her to try take off her boots or, in the very least, move her to her bed, she would scream and kick.

The morning was better received by our older daughter than had been bedtime the night before. I think you can guess of what breakfast consisted from the chocolate smear around her mouth -- she is also clutching a DVD of some of the first seasons' episodes of Sesame Street:


Here's another present -- Maggie really got the hang of ripping off the paper this year:


And here's Susannah wearing her Christmas outfit (which reads, "Daddy's little present") and posing with one of her presents:


I'm sure Mommy and Daddy were around somewhere, but we were too bleary-eyed from the night before to bother with taking pictures of ourselves.

When I get around to it, I will post some pictures from "Christmas Day (Observed) with the Baums," having taken place the weekend following Christmas. As for us, currently we are all fighting a cold (even Susannah, poor thing), and we are leaving for Ohio on Friday evening, for the baptism of our little niece, Laurel Annabel Heetland, and returning the following Tuesday. It will be interesting to see how the kids like the car for that long drive!