Merry Christmas to all

Christmas of 2006 was another great year. It was our first married Christmas, which was not too much different than holidays of the past. We are fortunate enough to have our families living in the same town and celebrations at different times of the day. This makes it a bit of a hectic holiday, but it is nice that we get to enjoy the celebrations with everyone. We had a wonderful time with our nieces and nephew. It really made us miss the days of being a kid at Christmas.


Gracie showed us how adorable baby reindeer can be. Santa was very good to her this year, bringing her a piano and a sports play set.


Natalie and Kendall also had a very busy Christmas. They were busy making yummy cookies on Christmas Eve so Santa would bring them Pixel Chicks.


And Mr. Nolan was just trying to get his hands on any box or toy he could chew on.

We had a great first married Christmas together. We got some great gifts, but most of all we got to spend the holiday with our friends and family.

in my defense...

I feel as though I should post something in my defense. Dennis's posts have made it seem as though I am an evil train-hater out to demolish anything that goes choo-choo. The reasons that I keep kncking over the train are as follows:

1. The lights for the tree are next to the train. I am usually the one to unplug them at night and it is dark.

2. I am in charge of watering the tree. It is a bit difficult to actually get to the tree stand through the train, the ornaments, and the presents. Sometimes one of them bites the dust. I was watering the tree in the picture Dennis posted last time. Oh, and don't worry Ellen I was not hurt, I was trying to get up quickly to avoid being in the picture.

3. I am a klutz. I get this from my mother. 'Nuff said.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!??

So moments ago this happened:

Yes, that is right, Teresa once again knocked over my train. My train that is UNDER the tree and WAS NOT moving.

Why? And all this after spending the last 5 hours at the car shop. What a great Saturday I am having.

What did I ever do to you?

It is Christmas time. When you are decorating for Christmas, you usually go all out. A Christmas Tree is one of the most important decorations that you probably spend the most time and are most proudest of......Well not in our house. In our house there is something more important to me than the tree. What do you think that is? Lights......Nope; Ornament......Nope; Tree topper......Nope; The most important part of the tree display is obviously the train that goes under it.

With this being our first Christmas together we set bar high...we got a real Christmas tree and brand new Lionel train to go under the tree. I purchased the train back over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at Lantz's Train Shop while in Horseheads. To me, the train is much more important than the tree, that after we returned to Buffalo I set up the train in the spot where the tree may go.

Once we added a tree with all the trimmings the train was looking great. Things couldn't be better......

One day after returning home from work, I was greeted with the following Post-It on the computer desk:

I was shocked, stunned and sad all at the same time. My poor, defenseless train had been knocked over. But wait, but this intentional? If you notice the note starts out " I tripped on the train..." It does not say "I accidentally tripped on the train...." I begin to think that she did this on purpose because I was more excited about the train and not the tree. Come on, the train is under the tree, it does not run all day long and it is in a circle....how did you "trip" on it then? Well, this has happened a few more times since this first time. I am not sure what I did to deserve it. But maybe while I was at work this day, this was what was happening at home: http://www.banditos.info/speles/sobersanta2.swf

Deck the Halls

All's well in the Hall household these days. We can't believe that December is upon us already. We had a nice relaxing weekend with not much planned, so what better way to spend it then by decorating for Christmas? We both grew up in houses where we used to get a real tree, and then as the kids got older the artificial tree prevailed. I'm guessing that our parents probably did this because as teenagers, we were not very helpful with all the work that a real tree entails. So, Dennis and I decided to go all out and get a real tree this year with the sap and the needles, and of course that wonderful smell. We didn't really go "all out" per say, we just went to Home Depot. We found the perfect tree in about 5 minutes, (which all the other shoppers were very jealous of), strapped it to the roof of the good ol' Kia Spectra and over the river and through the woods we went.

We brought the tree into the living room into the wonderful Swivel-straight tree stand (which I highly recommend) and we had a very straight tree on a very crooked floor.

Teresa handled stringing the lights up while Dennis tried to understand why half the strand only lights up on 3/4 light sets. By the time we were done, we had 5 strands, with some strategically placed non-working bulbs!

Then, we put up all of our mishmosh of ornaments, the tree skirt, and our new train and all of a sudden it was a pretty darn good looking tree. We were inspired by the bit of Christmas in our home, and continued to...

Deck

The

Halls