was my favorite thing that was said christmas morning over and over again, by anna. every time she opened something, or anyone opened something that everyone knew they wanted she would happily proclaim “but mom, how did he KNOW?!”
i never ever want to forget that. such magic. other things i dont want to forget:
mckenna raising her hand impatiently waiting for her turn to open presents.
nathan’s surprised happy face when mima, ron, papa jamie, deb, tiffany, summer, and jason gathered everyone to the kitchen at the end of christmas day and asked “whose birthday is it in two days?” and then started singing happy birthday loudly and brought birthday presents and a birthday cake from behind their backs. he was so innocently happy and surprised that i cried.
drew doing his best to hold onto the magic of santa. i think its time that we let him in on the secret.
the annual wrapping of the whitney christmas presents with jon and robyn, saving me at least two hours of wrapping with robyns help.
jeff and i with our stealth sneakiness on christmas eve, dying of laughter over i cant remember what now, and shushing each other so as not to disturb the visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. i love the secret teamwork on christmas eve. its all so quiet and magical.
the light of the christmas tree with presents huddled underneath. the stockings full to the brim.
making button trees with my aunts and my childrens great aunts, my mom, grandma barbara, and alisha. bowls of buttons and pins on the table and everyone taking turns decorating.
laying on my sister karissas bed after dinner with rachel and karissa and her friends discovering we were in their space and talking and laughing and realizing that one day six or seven or eight years down the road that it will be karissa laying in drews bed and i would not be welcome in his tight circle of teenage secrets and trust. and being okay with that because i have sworn her in as a traitor. she is my spy.
jeff and jason wearing the optimus prime helmets that were meant for our boys during the opening of presents.
sitting outside in the warm sunshine on christmas eve, all of my family sitting in a circle of backyard and kitchen chairs, talking and enjoying the day.
grandma barbara in the shade of an umbrella
the geek squad, caught talking once again about games
aunt hilary, phyllis peeling potatoes
button trees
sweet shane and rachel, my brother and my almost sister
waiting patiently to open presents
tea party for three
our crooked little tree
the rest taken on christmas morning
this morning we slept until 10am. the kids are begging for lunch at dennys. my house is a tornado of wrapping paper, candy, and our new acquisitions. today is going to be my deep cleansing breath. we are going to relax and clean up and organize the new stuff into the old stuff and enjoy being off work and school.
together, as usual.
and so help me, if they tell me once they are bored i will heave the christmas tree out the window.
you won’t believe what Cole said to me just a little over a half an hour ago:
“Well, another boring day with nothing to do.”
I’m not joking.
Where’s the window?
My kids know better than to mention the B word, there’s always housework to be done!
Happy Christmas!
sounds like your family had a blast. we did too. i could email you for this but you had a site in your “check it” section a few weeks ago with a photographer who did the scenes using the kids riding bikes, underwater looking pics, etc with everyone lying down. i thought i bookmarked it but cant find it. can you put it back up for a bit or email it to me. thanks and merry christmas.
ps. did you get your cupboards painted black yet. we did ours and it looks awesome.
cindy
It looks like a wonderful time was had by all.. dont you just love the Magic of Christmas, I sure do
There is just nothing like family + Christmas. And I’m feelin’ ya. If my kids whine or say they are bored, I’m getting rid of toys. No joke. (We need to get rid of some anyway.) I am reading blogs because I’m putting off organizing.
Tara, You are a dear, sweet and talented niece! Thank you for the pictures of my dear little Mom. I love all of your Christmas pictures. Happy New Year to all of you! Debe
No, no don’t tell Drew… get this book on CD instead. Devon last year was telling everyone Santa isn’t real. You know his little logical mind. Well, this year we listened to this book and he is a believer. I am too! Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn, there are 24 long chapters, so start in Dec and listen to one a night… or be like us and listen to 3 hours a night the week before Christmas.
love that one of Drew leaning on the gift – so sweet!
and don’t tell Drew yet…let him believe and hold on to that most precious bit of childhood as long as possible.
How fun, getting to peek in at your life!
Christmas and New Year blessings, Tara,
Donna
okay i wont tell drew just yet- :)
Oh Tara, that picture of your aunt/s peeling potatoes in the kitchen made my eyes water! Beautiful.
You CRACK me up. Hope the Whitney tree was not heaved out the window. Extreme whining and fighting almost had the Kola tree out in the front yard.
P.S. Cards are going out…late and all! THANK YOU!!!
can i get an amen on the bored comment!!
Looks like you had lots of fun.
looks like ya’ll had tons of fun for Christmas…I just can’t believe it’s over already…
Is it me, or has your Mom’s house changed drasticly? Her kitchen looks awesome, and the wall railing and all that…
Loved to see your Christmas morning!
Is Shane engaged????
Glad y’all had a great Christmas. Have a wonderful new year, as well.
oh tara, i’m a lurker of your blog. this is by far my favorite post of yours. it was all so real, heart felt, full of love, spirit and energy. i found myself lost in your words as thought i were watching a movie…each note and picture was my favorite. i especially love your kids faces. the last note was a perfect ending to a wonderful story. loved the threat of throwing the christmas tree out the window! that is so real! you rock tara!
What great memories! I know…. it took me the entire day on Wednesday to clean my house. It was completely destroyed by Christmas Chaos!! :) But well worth it!
Looks like a GREAT time!! My mom has that same exact pot that your aunts were peeling potatos for! Sitting outside with umbrellas and short sleeves…ah, such a different scene than ours! Great post! LOVE the kids (and papa) coming down the stairs too!!!
Tara, what are the beautiful paint colors you used? Gray/green or sage? The houses looked so cozy! You really captured the spirit of the season!
holy cow! I love this post so much tara! i totally want to do a “things i don’t want to forget” section. so cute that anna kept saying “how did he know?” i think brenna is on the brink of not believing, but being a good sport about it nonetheless! i love the picture of drew hanging over the present. the peeling potates is priceless. the button trees look so fun. do you have finished ones you could post pics of? were those just styrofoam trees? fun stuff!
merry christmas….love all the photos. i would love to see the button trees bigger! they look so cute.
Love it all! And that shot of Drew leaning over the red package is amazing!
they were styrofoam trees and you just use straight pins to attach the buttons. i liked the straight pins with balls on the end the best.
oh my god!
that picture of drew!
thanks for sharing your christmas with us, Tara. Loved all the pictures – grandma under the ‘brella, Drew on his gift, the blurry christmas morning shots, all of them!
merry merry!
i’m sure you heard the “bored” comment just minutes after you wrote this. maybe an hour, since you have four children to keep each other company. thanks for this very festive post. love it.
–janice
i am so loving your sunny californina christmas photos… so different from christmas in the northeast. wow.
Those button trees are the awesomest! You don’t have any close-ups, do you? We have all these jars of amazing vintage buttons from my grandmother that my mom and occasionally dig into, but we’ve never been able to come up with any other use for them (since we do digi scrap instead of paper). :)
Those photos are amazing. Now that I’m so much more into photography this year than any other, I almost wish we celebrated in the morning than Xmas Eve because of the better light! ;-)
LOVE the shot of the peeling potatoes….sweet. You have such a great family Tara.
Oh my, I love that photo of the three women over the sink, peeling potatos. Priceless!