02 January 2014

Scenes of the Season: Advent + Christmas 2013

Happy New Year!
 
Life has been super busy here the last month or so
(hence the lack of posts).
 
During that time we've had our share of challenges:
a long arctic freeze
(brrr!),
some related house woes
(sigh)
and
others I won't bore you with.
 
 But we've also had our share of blessings:
a HUGE answer to prayer which brought some much needed PEACE to my life,
the departure of the arctic front
(yippee)
AND
some VERY, VERY special visitors!
 
Isn't life always like that?
Challenges AND blessings know NO season.
 
 
Here are two of our special visitors--
you probably recognize the small one...
well the bigger one
('hiding' out in the background there)
is small one's daddy 
AND we had the pleasure of seeing them for almost 2 weeks!
An extra benefit is my kids all LOVE to cook--soooo 
I had almost no cooking responsibility for the entire time.
COOKING VACATION!!
 
In this picture the daddy-daughter team are fixing us lasagna:)
Mmm.
It was very good!
 

Another visitor was Santa's Helper who filled in for Per (our tomte -- elf) who was AWOL
(meaning grandma forgot she left him up on top of the bookcase SINCE last Christmas)
He was a BIG help--
leaving gifts for us to pick up at the store,
leaving ornaments out for the Christmas tree
(our first one in years),
and delivering a few Advent gifts for the small one.
Come Christmas Eve, he promptly disappeared, his job done.
Such a magical season:)

 
Per, our missing tomte.
This year I added two more tomte to my collection
(yes, this season ALWAYS includes at least one trip to a Scandinavian shop)
Santa's Helper,
currently taking a long deserved nap in an undisclosed location, will someday be another tomte--
after a little bit of work on my part.
This season also ALWAYS includes at least one visit to a craft store too:)
 
 
We had some visitors outside too--
two hummingbirds
(thanks to a post by Teresa last year we found out our native hummingbirds
 should be fed during the winter)
AND this cutie
(thanks son for the GREAT photo!)
 
 
As I've mentioned,
it's been a LONG time between Christmas trees...
but Santa's Helper managed to find quite a bit of Christmas ornaments packed away in our house
AND
with a few new ones the DH and son picked up,
we were ready to decorate the tree...
 well except for the fact that I had NO idea where our tree stand was--
AND
there were none to be found in the closest town.
 
 
No prob! Farmer Boy did as his family had done for years when he was a boy--
one LARGE plastic bucket,
quite a few LARGE rocks from the garden,
water
and we were set!
 
 
Yes, I admit--I have a THING for reindeer.
It wouldn't be Christmas for me without tomte with red caps and shiny reindeer--
yep, even when we don't have a tree,
I always enjoy having a few of them somewhere in our home.
This year it was awesome to put them on a tree!
 
 
I leave you with a photo of the small furry one all dressed up in her Christmas sweater...
More later--
if I can that is.
One of those new challenges?
 A problem with our laptop.
 
New Year's Blessings,
Aimee
 
Sorry about some of the photos--
sometimes you just have to capture the moment and can't worry about whether your phone
(or camera) settings are correct for the lighting--or lack of it :)
Sorry also for any unintentional grammatical/spelling errors--
it's been a long, long night of troubleshooting :(
 

15 comments:

Linda W. said...

Your granddaughter is cute! So glad you had her and your son visiting for the holidays. Happy 2014!

Betsy said...

Aimee this was a beautiful post full of love and family. How great to remember a bucket works in a pinch for a tree stand. I would have been at a loss. It really WAS cold over your way. We just came home on Sunday after 9 days in Portland and it was rather chilly the entire visit.
Thank you for sharing your Christmas with us.
Blessings,
Betsy

Lorrie said...

This was a lovely recap of your celebration. Two weeks with those you love is very special. It's way more important to snap the moments than worry about camera settings. You captured some lovely shots.

Happy New Year, Aimee.

Teresa Kasner said...

How nice that your son and GD had a nice long visit with you! And so nice you put up a tree, I kind of like the bucket and rocks thing better than a tree stand. The tree is gorgeous!!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

aimee said...

@Linda~
Yep, we agree:) It was really nice to see them together.
Did you hear about the possibility of snow on our fav mountain?
Blessings,
Aimee

@Betsy!
Thanks! Yep, my DH is pretty nifty at coming up with solutions---and I actually liked it better then a tree stand.
Brrr--hoping we do not get that cold again. Well-unless we get tons of snow to go with it:)
Blessings,
Aimee

@Lorrie~
Thank you! I SO agree--although the perfectionist in me struggles a bit with it:)
Happy New Year to you also!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Teresa~
It was a blessing to have them both together--small one is SO much like her daddy it brings back good memories!
I agree--we will use the bucket/rock again next year too. Glad you liked the tree:)
Blessings,
Aimee

My Dog Sam - Ruptured Disk said...

Hi Aimee, don't worry about the spelling, grammar or punctuation. We only care that things are going well and that you are too. Sound fair? Happy New Year Aimee. Arctic freeze??? We're up the road from you and it's been fine but maybe a nasty cold front slipped in from northern Canada. We liked the picture of the furry one in her Christmas sweater :)

Gracie Saylor said...

Aimee! It is good to know that you have been having happy times with your family even in the midst of some challenges. I love it when my daughters cook for me, too :)
Our household is still hopping! Last weekend we were a household of 14 people and three dogs!
My oldest daughter's family created a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer picture which they all signed and taped to the family room wall...I kept meaning to take a picture of it, but today we packed our decorations away.
Wishing you and yours abundant blessings in 2014! xx

aimee said...

@Sam~
You are the kindest dog ever! Happy New Year to you and your peeps as well!
Our Arctic freeze was early in December. We got really, really cold--down to the single digits and even lower west of the Cascades. They said it came from Canada--perhaps to the east of you? I am not sure.
I especially included that photo for you Sam:) Hopefully there will be more as small furry one has requested a road trip soon.
Blessings,
Aimee

@Gracie~
Thank you! It was really nice to have at least one of our kids home for the holidays. Wow---14? I bet that you had a great time! I would LOVE to see your Rudolph picture--maybe next year you can get a photo of it.
Our decorations are still up and more to be added soon. They will be taken down after Epiphany (I like doing Advent/Christmas as the Norwegians do).
Blessings (enjoy the sun today!).
Aimee

Willow said...

I was just thinking how much I enjoyed your photos and then I came upon your apology for them . (oh sometimes we are hard on ourselves !) lol




Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Wonderful that you had such a great Christmas! And oh my goodness you raised those kids well...that they all love to cook. I'm deeply impressed!! Obviously your son is passing this talent along to another generation; your sweet granddaughter looks delighted to be cooking.

It really did get unusually cold in Oregon last month didn't it. I don't ever remember snow like what our daughter and other family told us about.

Love the special Christmas traditions. Happy New Year! Thanks as always for sharing.

Helen said...

Happy new year to you and your family.

RaD said...

Aw, no worries on the pictures. The important part is that the story got told and that is the biggest blessing.

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Yay for a cooking vacation! I could use one. We had 6 different families visit us during Christmas break. It was wonderful but I'm ready for a cooking break. Glad you had a fun Christmas. Hope you have a wonderful 2014!

aimee said...

@Willow~
Could not agree with you more says this recovering perfectionist:)
TY for your sweet comment--glad you enjoyed them!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Sallie~
Thank you, thank you:) I am not sure if I can take all the credit, but I will--LOL!!! It was thrilling to watch my son teaching his little one to cook (and the results were most yummy)!
Oh yes--and today we had a huge windstorm that came in two parts! Very, very strange weather this year--keeps me wondering what will be next!
Happy New Year to you too Sallie!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Helen~
A very happy and blessed New Year to you too my Norwegian bloggie friend!
Blessings,
Aimee

@RaD~
What a sweet, sweet comment! Thank you, thank you:) Oh--I just took a moment to check out your blog and I LOVE the 'little hands' post--so touching for this grandma!
Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Jackie~
I bet you could! Just spent time earlier this eve catching up with the happenings at your little piece of paradise!
Can't believe I forgot our 'scottish' celebration this year -- maybe next year!
Happy New Year to you and yours also!
Blessings,
Aimee

aimee said...

@Willow~
Could not agree with you more says this recovering perfectionist:)
TY for your sweet comment--glad you enjoyed them!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Sallie~
Thank you, thank you:) I am not sure if I can take all the credit, but I will--LOL!!! It was thrilling to watch my son teaching his little one to cook (and the results were most yummy)!
Oh yes--and today we had a huge windstorm that came in two parts! Very, very strange weather this year--keeps me wondering what will be next!
Happy New Year to you too Sallie!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Helen~
A very happy and blessed New Year to you too my Norwegian bloggie friend!
Blessings,
Aimee

@RaD~
What a sweet, sweet comment! Thank you, thank you:) Oh--I just took a moment to check out your blog and I LOVE the 'little hands' post--so touching for this grandma!
Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Aimee

@Jackie~
I bet you could! Just spent time earlier this eve catching up with the happenings at your little piece of paradise!
Can't believe I forgot our 'scottish' celebration this year -- maybe next year!
Happy New Year to you and yours also!
Blessings,
Aimee

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