Christmas & decorating

I'm never quite happy with our Christmas picture, probably because I'm excessively picky, but every year I've framed it in an ornament frame and every year when I hang the previous year's picture I love it. So here's to next year.
Here is Anna with her godparents (she now reaches for Godmama at church which is so sweet). I took the picture and I'm not quite sure what happened. I'm interested in being an amateur photographer, but I think I need to work a little on my timing and chemistry with my subject. I'll have to call Mhari for some help. I tried to take a picture of my nieces and nephews for my SIL's present... more on that later, but Ben's honest comment was, "It's not really that great of a picture, huh?" It definitely takes more than a nice camera to take good pictures. Anyway, I LOVE Anna's Godparents and I'm glad to have this picture for her sake.
Above is our Christmas card, I'm very sorry if you didn't get one, I ran out and when I went back to the fabric store to buy more of the fabric I was cutting the snowman family from they were out. Next year I am buying cards, but I couldn't pass these guys up this year. And to all of you who send pictures of your families and kids every year, thank you, I love them and I love seeing you hang on my wall of fame.I'll not going into the details of this picture, but suffice it to say Anna wanted NOTHING to do with Joachim and Joachim was trying VERY hard to earn his M&Ms. Fortunately, all it takes is a split second to give the illusion of sibling affection. (They really are affectionate with each other, just not when I have the camera)
Since this is our first year in our new house I've been enthusiastic about decorating. It was pretty humble this year, but with after Christmas sales I have visions of colorful icicles and glowing trees in the front yard for next year. Hopefully new siding and window trim will also be in the budget for 2011.

The weekend after thanksgiving Joachim and I decorated the little tree at our door. A week later our neighbors across the street hung a whole bunch of lights and in the subsequent weeks four more houses on our block decorated. This is the first year in the four Christmases that we've owned this house that people decorated.

In fact the block before and after us were entirely dark. Even though we're barely acquaintances with our neighbors I still felt a proud camaraderie with our street.
Below is the gingerbread church Joachim and I made complete with meringue dome. Joachim spent many a meal rambling on telling stories about the church and nativity figures. The church is now in the woods behind Grandma's house hopefully being nibbled on by some happy woodland critters.

Tree cutting

This year I bought our pass the first week the Forest Service sold them and we went up the second weekend of the season. The challenge is to get there before the snow makes the road impassible, which is actually relative to our vehicle. We got to traipse through some snow, but mostly mud.

Below Ben is very nicely modeling the hat I knit for his Birthday.
It's funny, I've only ever had pine trees in my life, jack pines growing up and pinion pines here. They're not a classic Christmas tree and the ones here are obviously not groomed, still we always manage to find a full and nicely shaped tree among all the more ragged, wild looking ones.

Delta Parade of Lights

This is an annual tradition we have not made every year. Cold + wet + kids = just not worth it. But this year it was mild and festive. There were not nearly as many parades where I grew up as there are in this region and never had I been to a parade where the showered you with candy quite like they do here. Joachim came home with pockets full of candy. For some it's a chance to shamelessly advertise their businesses by driving a company truck down the road with a wreath on the front. But some are really quite beautiful.

I have to admit every year one of the floats that is put together with the most care, attention and brilliance is the Wal-Mart float. I don't think this so much a reflection of Wal-Mart as a Corporation, but rather our particular store's relationship to the community and the interest of its employees. Did I also mention they threw lots and lots of candy?Another nice perk is a church that provides free hot chocolate, marshmallows and a mountain of home made cookies. We really like that part. Above is our cups of hot cocoa and Joachim is working on a cookie.