Hope You Have A Minute!

I'm just warning you ahead of time- this one's going to be long. Christmas for Heather means many many pictures, so you get to reap the fruits of my camera. We started our Christmas festivities on Christmas eve in the night. I had to work until six, so we were a little late getting our santa on. Grandma and I went for a quick visit to a nearby nursing home where a lady from our church lives and gave her a gift. Tracy and I played santa after that, making these stockings which, if I do say so myself, turned out quite adorable.

We had breakfast for dinner-quite yummy! I love my dad's french toast! Then Tracy and I went downtown for a midnight service at the same church that mom and I had gone to the past two years. It's an old (around mid-1700s) church that looks to me like a cathedral. Lancaster is full of these kinds of churches. We came home and hung the stockings and I headed home to finish cleaning my apartment for my mom's arrival. She got there at the lovely hour of two in the morning, and we proceeded to open our jammies and then talk for another two hours. I don't think my neighbor upstairs appreciated it, but oh well. Christmas morning, we didn't even open our eyes until 10:30 and everyone was waiting for us over at dad's. The present fiesta followed.
















Mom and I returned to my place to open a few more gifts for each other, then we started the pie and rolls. After four different trips to four different places, we fianally had all the ingredients for them. I was, needless to say, a little stressed out by the time we finished and got back over to dad's. Dinner was amazing, and that night was spent playing with our new toys.
The next day, mom and I were headed to Target and stumbled upon a beautiful tableaux, so we stopped to have a little mini-photoshoot.





CHEERS TO A GREAT 2009 EVERYONE!

My Two Nephews!!!

Last night, we got the news!!! Little Remy Hite is officially here! He's such a cutie!

Of course, I AM a little biased!
And then today is my other nephew Rees' fifth birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!!! Almost a kindergartener! How exciting!

What better presents could an auntie want for christmas???!!!

O CHRISTMAS TREE

This year, as I've set up my decorations around my small apartment, I've come to realize something: My favorite decoration is the Christmas tree. I have two full-sized trees and, though I'm not quite sure how that happened, I wouldn't want to do without either one. The fuller one sits in my living room, and this year I put it right smack dab in the middle of the room, unlike last year where it was kind of hidden in the corner.

Then there's the one in my kitchen. It's skinnier and fits nicely into the corner where I can always see it. This one just has lights and bulbs.

In addition to my two full-sized, I have many smaller ones around as well. I have two that are made out of fabric and hang on the back of a doorway. You tie candy canes on them. Very fun when we were kids so I just kept the tradition going. There's also a sparkling tree candle and a tree that is made of beads and has lights in the middle. I didn't even realize I had so many trees! Of course, I have other decorations hanging around, but the tree clearly trumps them all.
I don't think the puddy tat likes them as much as me, but I still managed to get a few quick photos with him in front of it.