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Pickle ornament

Ahhh Christmas.  How I love thee.

I love decorating and eating and giving presents(especially homemade Christmas gifts!)   Christmas is seeped with traditions.  My favorite tradition AND my favorite Christmas ornament is a pickle.

When I was a kid my mom would hide the pickle on our tree and my brother and I would spend hours searching for it.  Whoever found the pickle got the pickle present. 

This year my mom hid the pickle for my kids (twice since they are so young) and then again for my brother and me and our spouses...we are still kids at heart.  I have been looking for the pickle for so long it would be weird to not!!

This year my mom bought a mini pickle.  My brother and I were searching away for the 'regular' pickle. We had no chance, thanks Mom!

No matter who finds the pickle it's always fun.  I hope my kids love the looking for the pickle as much as I have.

Harlee and Cheyenne pickle searching.

Harlee with her pickle find.

Cheyenner Nanners so happy she found the pickle. 

These next two pictures are from last year's pickle hunt but I love them so.  It was the first year Harlee got really into it. 

Here is the mini pickle it's about 1.5 inches long.

Cheyenne's two year interview

I decided to try and do a two year interview with Cheyenne because she is a supremo talker.  I had to spread it out over a couple of days and she didn't answer all the questions but she did pretty good.  I can't wait for next year when she will answer all of them!


What is your name?  Me Cheyenne (while proudly patting her chest)

What is your mom's name?  You Mommy!   

What is your favorite color? PIIIINNNNNKKKKKKK
What is your favorite toy? aaaaa puppy
What is your favorite cartoon? Zoomie (Team Umizoomie)

What is your favorite game? game
What is your favorite snack? aaaa fruit snack
What is your favorite animal? a doggie

Which do you like more, hunting or fishing?  Fish
What is your favorite book? story book
Who is your best friend? kitty cat
What is your favorite cereal? Popcorn

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Harwee



I love you Cheyenner Nanners! Cake face and all

Homemade Christmas

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year...well except for all the shopping and spending and hustle and bustle and all the buy buy buying.  In our family makes everyone makes Christmas gifts for each other.  I super love it.

Is it more work? Yes, it a lot of work! That is what makes it so amazing.  When you get a gift you know that person worked hard on it, they took time out of their busy day(or days) and made something just for you because they love you. 

It says I love you exactly 1 million and 2 times more than just buying something, no matter how much you spend.

I remember the first year we did it.  It was abysmal the gifts I made.  I remember making my mom a blob of blue wax candle.  It didn't have any scent, it had an unraveled string for the wick.  I don't even think it had a ability to burn. Even though it was horrid, it was made out of love. (Mom if you still have this please throw it away!)

Every year it gets a little better and a little better.  Now we are professionals.  There has even been some chatter about not buying gifts at all anymore. 

Most years we are all working overtime to finish everything in December.  Every year I say I'm going to make it different and get things made ahead of time but so far I'm not doing so hot.  This year is my year to rock out though.  It might only be January but I'm already scouring Pinterest and making a list.  I've even started buying supplies.

This year will be even busier than ever before as far as making gifts goes.  I'll have mine to do and both of my kids will be making gifts this year as well.  All I can say is thank you Pinterest for making secret boards.  It's annoying when you pin something to make for someone and then they repin it!!

12 Days of Christmas For My Love

I seen this super idea on pinterest of course.  I HAD to do it for my husband.  He does so much for me all the time to let me know I'm special to him and I have been way behind in doing nice things for him.  Here were my gifts:

Day 1 ~ 1 Bottle of Crown
Day 2 ~ Pair of really warm socks
Day 3 ~ 3 Love letters(this one was hard! I'm not a mushy person so coming up with enough material for 3 mushy love letters felt like a stretch.  I wrote one about the kind of person my husband is and one about the kind of father my husband is and the last one on all the good things my husband does.)
Day 4 ~ 4 V neck T-shirts
Day 5 ~ 5 Thirty Minute Back massages(now I'm just afraid he is going to cash them all in at once!!)
Day 6 ~ 6 Candy bars
Day 7 ~ 7 Amps
Day 8 ~ 8 Razor blades
Day 9 ~ 9 $1 Scratch Off Tickets
Day 10 ~ 10 Fishing Lures
Day 11 ~Long Underwear (hey! he works outside all winter!)
Day 12 ~ Chap Sticks

I had planned to give my gifts on December 13th - 24th.  But he was working out of town quite a bit so I started the day after Thanksgiving and gave him gifts when he was home. I even had to finish after Christmas. But that doesn't matter.  The point is that I wanted to make him feel important and loved. Every time I gave him a gift I sang my corny little bit of song ''on the ___ day of Christmas your true love gives to you".  I'm certainly not a good singer and my husband  will likely never admit it but I think he liked me singing it to him.  I caught him more than once pausing the TV just to hear me sing it to him. 

With each passing day of gifts I was rewarded with a big smile and a giant kiss.  For a man that speaks volumes.

Mission accomplished.