Our Second and unexpected Christmas!

Here are some of the Christmas decorations that I made/got this year! Grant and I went to Ohio for Christmas this year, and were planning on spending my one day off in Austin just hanging out.  This would have been our first time as a couple spending a holiday without family. But alas, life doesn’t happen as you always plan it.

Some of the girls in the young marrieds group and I got together and had a wreath making party. I made a wreath there, didn’t like how it turned out, and completely redid it. I am VERY satisfied with this version. You might notice that some of the ornaments have glitter which is a HUGE NO NO for Grant. Grant hates nothing more than glitter. I found these awesome ornaments that look good for an amazing price at Ikea and the red ones came in shiny, matte, and glittery. Normally I wouldn’t buy anything with glitter, but I really wanted these ornaments and couldn’t afford a different kind. They also had the same ones in silver that I wanted to,but when I got to Ikea all of those were gone. So we had a very red Christmas this year.

This is a candle arch that my parents had.  My mom didn’t want it,and I figured since my taste normally doesn’t like most antique things, I could have this one heirloom from her.

Kira gave me these holders last year for Christmas, they didn’t come with candles, and I have been having a hard time finding ones to fit, so now I could use them.

I am not sure where I got this star from, but it was an ugly yellow, so I spray painted it. I was going to get a different tree topper, but I couldn’t find ANYTHING I liked at all… so until I find something better this will have to do.

Our Tree, it is very monochromatic,but oh well.

With mood lighting , I was so excited about our tree, because we got it on craigslist for 35 dollars. It is an older tree,but because of this it is a lot more full looking than your average fake tree.

My mom was having a surgery right before Christmas which is why they weren’t going to Dallas to be my with Grandparents and my Dad’s family. Well, during her surgery, the doctor accidentally brushes a certain blood vessel that burst and made her loose 4 units of blood which is a lot. At first the doctor’s weren’t sure if she would need a blood transfusion, which of course she didn’t want. Then that same day Julia had to be hospitalized, and they weren’t sure why yet. Raya’s Boyfriend Jonathan, who Grant and I still haven’t met, was amazing and drove Julia to the doctor’s office, and then the hospital. We keep trying to meet him, but end up missing him my hours most of the time.  My dad was at the hospital with my mom and had to switch from waiting for my mom to get out of surgery to Julia who was in her room in extreme pain and on morphine.  I keep getting reminded of the father of the bride 2 movie where the dad goes from his wife having a baby to his daughter having a baby… anyway. Grant and I decided to go to Houston to help out. My dad was in charge of everyone, and we figured he could use a little help.

Here is Grant driving, and me annoying him with taking pictures. We had just gotten our camera, and I was very eager to use it. I hate it when we go on trips and don’t have pictures… like our recent Ohio trip. Granted I was sick for a lot of it,but that is no excuse!

Me messing around more with the camera, nothing special about this car,but it looks like the windshield isn’t there… I thought it was fun.

Once we got to Houston, we found out that my mom won’t need a transfusion after all, but will be weak, have headaches, and it will take her about 4 ish months to completely regenerate all of the blood she lost. Julia had a cyst that had ruptured, and once that was over, she was fine. She did have a mild reaction to morphine, so they had to take her off of it.  So Julia was fine, and my mom was recovering.

Here you can see Julia decorating the Christmas tree in Houston.

The Tree in all its glory.

Jason at his finest welcoming Grant ;p!

This is me making beef stroganoff since while we were there we helped prepare meals, so there was a lot less work for my dad to do or worry about. The reason I have bread in my mouth, is I read on a blog that if you do this, the onion won’t make your eyes water… it worked. If you want to read more about it you can click here.

My mom’s and my favorite flowers are tulips! Jonathan was sweet enough to give these beauties to my mom for her whole surgery and everything. Grant took this beautiful picture. We are both trying to figure out how to use our camera better, so bear with us here.

Again, a picture of me with Grant taking the picture.

In Germany, you don’t hang stockings Christmas eve,but you put your boots out on the 6th of December where St. Nicholas will fill them with goodies. As children, we got tangerines or Clementine(a sign of wealth), nuts, some candies and chocolates. I was quiet surprised as a kid to hear what other people got in their stockings… one of cousins got a palm pilot when this was new technology one year… I felt kinda jipped. Anyway, another tradition is either as a family or each individual child gets an advent calendar. So each day leading up to Christmas the 24th you can get something. Some people have a Lego advent Calendar where you get to slowly build something, the small ones with chocolates, some with little pictures in them, and some just with candy.  So in Germany you get something every day leading up to Christmas, then the 6th your boots filled with stuff, and then on the 24th gifts.

This year, I decided we would do an advent calendar. Above you can see all of the gifts I wrapped that Grant and I would share.  Each was labeled with the number for the day. All of it was candy. Normally we buy the candy I like,but for this I bought all of the candy that Grant likes. Each gift had a little bit of candy for me and little bit for him. We had anything from lemon heads, peanut M&Ms, skittles, twizzlers, peanut butter cups, flipz, gum, and a few I can’t remember.

But on the 24th we got the MOTHER LOAD… Ferrero Rocher!!!!!!! I love this and we ate way to many of them in one sitting.

Grant playing with the Camera, Jessica in focus.

Boots in focus.

Our Camera Lens Cap.

My one stipulation to buying a new camera was that we would get some better pictures of us, but that hasn’t happened yet.. *pout face.*

Me waiting at the table for everyone else to get back so that we could eat!

Julia and I.

Roman and Jason.

Me finally getting Grant in a few pictures, I know how Gail feels. I think she had been trying to get pictures of him since he was old enough to decide he didn’t like them.

Roman and Jason fighting in a brotherly way.

Grant taking pictures of moving objects. Again more brotherly love.

A really cute picture of Raya and Julia.

My mom laughing because she has such hilarious kids ;p

The very fuzzy and warm socks I got from Amanada during “Our” Christmas.

Raya getting something for Christmas, probably money. That seemed to be the gift of choice for almost everyone.

Jason is always funny, and here you can see him getting his gift.

Roman opening his gift.

I don’t know what was so funny, but obviously Julia and I got it… Raya on the other hand didn’t ,but she never does ;p

Papa opening a card… I think from Grandpa and Grandma… not sure.

Julia got a really cute, red fleece from Land’s end.

This is Mama opening Zhenya’s gift which was packed full of goodies from Aldi in Ohio (we don’t have that yet here in Austin or Houston… Dallas is just getting them.) We all appreciated this gift since Mama is so good at sharing.

After this we spent some more time with family, and then went back to Austin. Overall, it was a fun even if unexpected trip,and we are both really happy that everyone is doing better or slowly recovering.