SparkleShan

My daughter goes to catholic school and every year at Christmas time they put on a show called lessons and carols. This year they changed it to a Christmas show. Each grade sang two Christmas songs, one god one and one traditional Christmas song. They also have to dress up in Christmas clothes. 

I made some knitting related ornaments for my knitting friends! Super cute idea I found on Ravelry. I got these clear glasses ball ornaments from Michael's and added some mini skeins of yarns and cut off the end of tooth picks to make mini knitting needles.

Christmas Eve we spent with Bobby's family. There was lots of yummy food and LOTS of presents. Bobby's mom bought Emma the cutest ensemble to wear that night and Little Ray and RJ had suits! To cute! Emma was so excited to get the Wii that she had been asking for! Then later on, Santa came on a fire truck and brought all the kids presents. After the festivities at the Manfield's, Emma and I went and slept over my mom's house. I didn't have a tree at my place because I was in the process of moving right after Christmas. Normally every year I have to wake Emma up to open present at about 8:30 am. This year she woke up so early at like 6am!! Unfortunately I had to drop Emma off at her dads at 11 :(. Then my mom and I cooked a great meal of Ham, roasted chicken, twice baked potatoes and other yummies. Kellie made her first cheese cake the night before, which was really yummy too. it was really nice to get to spend Christmas with family and people I love this year instea...

On December 23rd my mom's side of the family all got together for a dinner and exchange of gag gifts. Craig's wife, Lea, was in visiting from Germany but unfortunately he is in Iraq. The Gag gifts were so funny. My mother was NOT thrilled with the surprise gift that my sister got!

We did not get a Christmas Tree at our apartment this year, because I am moving this month and I am never there anyway. So we went with my mother to get a tree for her house and help decorate it. We saw Santa the Maple Lane Christmas Tree Farm. Emma was such a ham while decorating the tree!

For lunch we went to the chow hall and they had some amazing butter and ice sculptures. Complete with christmas dinner, I was a bit sad they were all out of egg nog though! In the evening our unit organized a unit Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I am here in Kuwait...still. This is my first Christmas away from my family and my little bean pie, Emma. I miss all my family back home, but I am thankful for a few good friends I have over here that were kind enough to spend Christmas Day with me. On Christmas Eve a few of us got together and watched Christmas movies to try and get into the Christmas spirit. Then this morning Amy and I exchanged gifts. Then at noon a few of us got together and exchanged secret Santa gifts. Our Secret Santa group (minus Amy, she's taking the picture). Perkins opening up her gifts. Amy looks happy with her gifts! Perkins got the perfect present for B, which he loves as you can tell. First Sergeant showing off his Lions presents from Rogers. He got pictures of what he got because the mail is a bit slow here around Christmas time! Natalie modeling the hats I knit her (below and above), she was my secret santa lady! Rogers showing o...

Every year around Christmas time the Sergeant Major of the Army gets famous people/performers together and brings them to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan to entertain the troops. This year they had a bunch of country singers I've never heard of and LeAnne Tweeded and Louis CK. All of of us in the crowd laughing at Louis' jokes. Velez and I being silly (it was so cold out!) Miami Dolphin Cheerleaders LeAnne Tweeden (I really have no idea who she is, lol)

We had to spread some Christmas cheer through the AVCRAD in this hell forsaken country. So the First Sergeant wanted us to set up a Christmas Tree at our Airfield. Amy crocheted some snow flake ornaments for it and the rest came from the PX (yes I find it a bit ridiculous that they have decorations on deployment!). Today we got together and had a pizza lunch and then set up the Tree in the outside break area of the airfield. Everyone got involved, well mostly the girls decorated the tree while the guys sat around and watched. The Crew after we decorated the tree. We forgot to get a star or the top of the tree so someone improvised and put two blue balls as the topper.

When I arrived back at work today, I had a big box at my desk and it was from an organization called Treats for Troops. I opened it up and it had a mini Christmas Tree with lights and ornaments. This is awesome because I love Christmas and decorating for Christmas. So Amy and I set it up in our room and we now have our own Christmas Tree Complete with mini sotckings!

For the past few years Emma and I have made some sort of gingerbread type of arrangement for Christmas. We made this one this year too. I put the walls together and frosted it and Emma decorated it with candies.

It is amazing what companies will us these days to make Christmas ornaments. Today while shopping at Target with my 4 year old. We picked up some small ornaments that she picked out, of Dora the Explorer. The are little figurines of the characters from the show. I have seen this before so I wasn't to surprised. We also have the same type of ornaments with the Characters from Sponge bob square pants. One thing I saw in particular had me laughing. It was a traditional Red Stocking, but on the top was a black Darth Vader Head! There were also other various ornaments or Transformers and other Star Wars Characters.

If you are looking for particular traits in you Christmas tree such as, how prickly are the needs, the smell or needle type. I have outlined several popular trees sold in Connecticut and the Northeastern United States. Fraser Fir The Needles are Soft, blue-green, no more than an inch long. Needle Retention is Excellent. The scent is a Pleasant fir smell. It is Native to Virginia, Tennessee & North Carolina White Pine White Pine needles are very soft, green & 3 to 5 inches long. Needles retention is good to excellent. The scent is mild. Native to Eastern North America. Good for people that like a softer look, but the branches are unable to hold heavy ornaments. Balsam Fir Needles are 1/2 to 1 inch in length, green, silvery-white underneath, fairly soft. Needle Retention is good. Has a very nice fragrant scent. Native to Northeastern and central U.S. & Eastern and Central Canada. Douglas Fir The Needles are soft and usually 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. Needle Retention is exce...

I have been seeing allot of propaganda lately, that Christmas is turning into a Pagan holiday. I was very disturbed by this comment. So I decided to look up how different religions celebrate Christmas. I also wanted to find out where some of the traditions comes from, such as decorating a Christmas Tree. It just bewildered me that at this day and age that people are still or religious ignorance . Especially when thinking what our country was founded on. Catholicism wasn't even allowed in this country in it's first decade of existence! I am a very opened minded person when it comes to religion. I don't believe that one particular religion is more "right" then the next. I actually like to read about these and experience them for myself. I was raised Roman Catholic and went through all the "rights of passage" of becoming a god Catholic adult, first communion, confession and confirmation. I have Wiccans in my family so I have also done extensive reading on ...

This year we got on December 1st . We got our tree from the Lions Club and it cost $70 for an 8 foot Frasier fur! It goes to charity so that was the good thing. I feel bad cutting a real tree, but I love the look and smell. When I have my own house I would like to get a tree that I can plant in the yard after Christmas is over. We decorated the tree with ornaments that we have been collecting over the past several years. I even have some from my childhood that my mom let me have. In 2005 I went to Egypt and I brought back three hand blown glass ornaments.

Every year during Christmas my daughter and I make a ginger bread house from one of those kits that you can buy. It usually consists of her trying to eat all the frosting while I put the house together. Then she decorates the house with candies. This year we had the choice between a ginger bread house, a ginger bread Christmas tree or a ginger bread nativity scene. My daughter choose the nativity scene. Once again she ate most of the frosting while my mother and I tried to make Joseph, Mary, a sheep, a camel and the three wise men out of frosting. We gave up on the wise men but managed to make Joseph, Mark, a sheep and a camel. While my daughter made baby Jesus and two wise men. He actually looked a Little like Chunk from the Goonies movie. His eyes were not parallel. The picture shows our final product. The next morning it looked like a hurricane had whipped through it. My daughter is only 4 and has no self control so she ate Mary's head.