A Christmas Wish

Well, if you would ask my mom, there was always one Christmas wish I wanted every year...even into adulthood.

See, I was the youngest of four.  My oldest sister got married when I was 5, so since then I have had Christmas gatherings whenever my family could get together.  It wasn't always on Christmas and sometimes it was only for a few hours.

Well, the years when we knew we would only be together for a few hours and not (at least) an overnight I ALWAYS hoped for a blizzard so everyone would be forced to stay all night and be together for longer than we had originally planned.

We are hosting Christmas for my family next Friday (12/30) and there is a  BIG part of me hoping for a freak blizzard that will force my family to all have to stay at our house.  I picture all of us snuggling together under blankets, sleeping in the living room to stay warm from the heat of the fireplace (because of no electricity).  Yeah...I have really thought through all of these details.

Needless to say...I am very excited to be hosting next weekend, even if we are together for only a few hours.

Well, how early did all of you get up this morning?  Hope's original plan was to get up at 4:30am this morning; however, we were still up at 12:01, so she convinced us to unwrap presents since it was technically Christmas morning.  (Good thing Santa came while we were all in the basement watching a Christmas movie)  ;)  Well, I was all for it!  That meant I got to sleep in.  This may be a new Christmas tradition (especially on years she wants to get up at 4:30 am to unwrap gifts).  LOL!

So, the traditional quarter (in memory of Grandpa Palmer).

She realized part way into unwrapping gifts that she still had her headgear on.  LOL!  She will hate me some day for taking (and scrapbooking) this photo.

I love the reaction for the new hat i got her...

...and the circuit set.  She has had a lot of fun with it this morning.

Joe got Hope a guitar...

...however, secretly I think he really wanted it for himself.  LOL!

And of course, Taylor loved her new tug of war toy.

In the spirit of making sure I am not always behind the camera, even though I look a little scary (Mrs. Claus may have made her sangria a little too strong---LOL), Hope and Joe got me this cork holder.  I love it...I even had several already to put in it.

Hope wanted to stay up and work on her new lego set, so Joe and headed to bed.  Throughout the night I would hear her strumming her guitar, etc. This was the scene when I went to bed (from the clock in the back ground...that was around 12:50am). 

And this was the scene Joe found when he got up this morning  (I have no clue what time that was).  LOL!  That just melts my heart.

We may have had a rough beginning to Christmas Eve, but thankfully it ended on a good note.  Thanks to my sister Dawn for saying the words I needed to hear...thanks for a beautiful Christmas Eve church service...thanks for a wonderful family...that is all I need for Christmas.

To finish off this Christmas post...here are a few more cards and a layout from Christmas past.

Little did I know at the time...but this would be the last time Hope wanted to visit Santa.  I couldn't even convince her to walk down to see the Firetruck santa in the neighborhood (so I took Taylor instead).  

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family (near and far).

Darla

Merry Christmas from the Weber Family!!!

Well, it is late on Christmas Eve, and obviously you didn't get a Christmas card from us.  LOL!  Well, that is one of the things I didn't get around to this year.  Oh well!  I just decided we could say Merry Christmas to all of you through my blog.

And for various reasons...we don't have a family photo to share tonight.  LOL!  Maybe tomorrow or next weekend when we host the Werts family Christmas.  So you will have to settle for Hope and Taylor.

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas without attending a beautiful service at Lutheran Church of Hope candlelight service.  Beautiful music, message and even a few laughs as well.

Yep, if you take a closer look, yes, those are Harley motorcycles on the stage that fired up their engines and rode into the sanctuary.  There was a visit from Santa, who happens to be an Uber driver and delivered a special gift to paster Mike in the form of a life size hatchimal that had one of his sons in it.  LOL!

And lots of great music.  So AMAZING!!!  If you want to see what it is all about, the service will be rebroadcast tomorrow at 11 am on http://www.lutheranchurchofhope.org/west-des-moines/.

Check it out...you won't regret it.

Friday I had to work and Joe needed to go into the office for a bit, so he took Hope in with him.  They had a great time.  She got to visit cousin Jody's office and had a GIANT pancake at the cafeteria.

Then they went to Target and she got to spend some of her Starbucks gift card she got from her church Christmas party.  

And since it had snowed, they decided to pick up a snow board...she is a natural on it!

And of course we say goodbye to these two sweethearts tonight!  That is if we remember to put them away.  LOL!

And since i didn't get around to sending cards, I will share some here on line.  Choose your favorite and assume it arrived in the mail.  LOL!

May you and your family have a Merry Christmas!

From the Weber Family...Joe, Darla, Hope and Taylor

They're BACK!

I don't know about any of you, but last year when Hope figured out "Santa" was actually a relief to me.  I don't have to remember to move the elves this year.  LOL!

Of course she wanted to still do it, but she is the one moving them all around this year (and once in a while Joe and I move them too).  Hope also decided to rename then after our neighbor's dogs..so let me introduce to you Gary and Stella.  LOL!

You never know where they are going to end up...

After they were on our dressers above I caught Taylor with "Gary" on the floor after I dropped off Hope at the bus stop.  It was a good thing I came back to the house before going to work or who knows what shape they would have been in when I got home.  OY!

And I am not sure how we are going to get them down from here, but I am sure we will figure it out eventually.  Otherwise, if you show up in July and they are still there, just roll with it.  LOL!

Well, not much else to share at this point in the month, so I guess I will share some more Christmas cards.

Tis the season...

Darla

So Thankful!

Welcome back!  I am just going to get right to it!  Here is what was up in November...

We had a few last chances to watch our neighbor's dog Charlie.  There were moving to KC and so he got to spend a lot of time with us while they were showing their house and getting things packed up.

Hope LOVES Charlie and so does Taylor.  Who am I kidding...we all Loved having him (and his owners around the hood).

Hope had her music concert at school...can you spot her in the crowd????

I also got a weekend away with my friend Kristi, which gave Joe and Hope a weekend to themselves to decorate for Christmas.  Yep, it is only early November, but they usually want to put the tree up right after Halloween.  So they were running behind this year.  LOL!

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house and we took an early tour of the Jolly Holiday lights while Joe's mom Karen was down for the week.

This was Hope's favorite light display.

It was at a new location and I highly recommend you take the time to go, but get there early or you might not make it to the gate before it closes.

It benefits the Make a Wish foundation.  This is the first year that I have known someone that has benefited from a wish.  They are going to the original Lego factory, meeting the family and lots of cools activities that few people ever get to experience.  I hope they have a GREAT time.

This year may have had some rough spots to work through, but I am SO THANKFuL for health for me and my family, true friendship, a job, a loving husband and a house for us to build many memories together.  

We had these family pictures taken several years ago and I had made a few layouts using them, but I just hadn't been inspired with the right paper lines, etc.  Well, apparently I was finally inspired because I made several layouts now.  And I love them all!!!

This one I used pictures from the photo shoot and from our wedding, since we recreated the "pointing" photo from our wedding.  LOL!

Grandma Deloris was with us that day, so she got in a few photos with Hope too.

I love this moment captured between Hope and I.  Just laughing...I love those moments, even when they sometimes come few and far in between.  

I love this quote from Dr. Seuss and wanted to make a layout to describe Hope.  :)

And while these are not the typical colors I scrapbook with, I was somehow drawn to this line of papers.  I am so glad I picked them up, because they were perfect with these photos.  That large "W" I have had in my stash for years and FINALLY had the perfect use for it.  

And since it is actually December, I should probably start sharing some of the Christmas cards I have created throughout the year.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are getting in to the true spirit of Christmas!  Until next time...December memories (so far)!

Darla