Christmas 2010

This Christmas was a transition year for us as we were in the middle of building a house, so some of our regular traditions didn't quite happen like they usually did.  For example, we usually have two trees - the bigger tree is the Nativity Tree on the main floor which is decorated with any ornaments that remind us of Christ.  Downstairs in the family room is the small tree which is overloaded and very colourful with all the other ornaments we've collected or made over the years.  So this year we have the Nativity Tree ornaments on the small tree because we knew we wouldn't have much space this year.  We also did the small tree this year because we knew that we needed to put it up high so little Miss Mackenzie wouldn't have too easy of a time undecorating it!!!  She did manage to work on the bottom branches though!

Oh, and it usually has the Angel Moroni at the top, but that was too heavy for this little tree.

So Christmas Eve began with Miss Mackenzie being plunked in her chair to watch the preparation from a safe place (so we wouldn't trip over her with our scurrying around - she's short and hard to see!!!)

She was quite happy there watching the food appear on the table, with the occasional morsels thrown her way - cheese, cucumber, tomato, marshmallows . . .!!!

Just looking at this picture is making my mouth water!!!  Can't you smell the bacon wrapped water chestnuts!!!

This is our typical Christmas Eve Dinner - Ambosia, spinach quiche, beef and cheese roll-ups (don't you love the star plate I found at Target?), mini ham/cheese/pickle kabobs stuck in an orange, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, mini weiner wraps, meatballs, veggies and dip, and still to arrive is the cheeseball/crackers platter.  For drinking is our choice of cranberry pop, eggnog and hot apple cider.

If you look closely you can notice a piece of blue yarn above each plate.  They all lead back to the center of the table and one of them has a button tied to it.  After the blessing, we all pull the yarn and whoever is the lucky person with the button attached gets a little gift - usually something Nativityish!!!  Just one of the fun little traditions we love!

Carlee presenting the feast!!!  I love those little stars in the window - found them at the dollar store!

Let the feasting begin!!!  That little plate of meatballs are specially for Jordyn - gluten free!  And her quiche's have no shells.  It was just our family for Christmas Eve dinner this year, but it was extra special because Richelle came home for the holidays!!!  She actually was home for about three weeks as she was doing year end inventory at the Co-op.  Lovely to have her around again!!!

Skip ahead a few hours and everyone is modelling new pajama bottoms or slippers (Mackenzie).  They have their stockings and they're all ready for bed.  You'll notice that I got five stockings cross-stitched and kinda got lazy on the last two.  I'll make them special stockings someday when they're old enough to care.  There is a little sign on each stocking that says "Christmas is for . . ."  Richelle's was the first one I did so I followed the pattern and it says "Sharing".  The next ones say "Caring", "Loving", "Giving" and "Rejoicing".  What should the next two say?

Richie and I modelling his slippers and my pajama bottoms.  And off in the distance we hear the sounds of girls singing "I saw mommy kissing S.C. . . . "  lol 

A special Christmas Eve tradition we have is . . .

. . . gifts to the Savior.  We each have a little shiny box with a tag on it that says "My gift to the Savior.  Love . . .  "  Inside is a piece of paper that we write our gift on for that year.  All our past years are still in the box too so we can remember and re-evaluate what we've done in the past.  These usually go under the Nativity Tree, but this year we put them around the Willow Tree Nativity (my absolute favourite!) 

When we wake up on Christmas morning . . .

. . . we find gifts "from the Savior" under our Nativity tree.  These are gifts that will remind us of the Savior.  Some examples of this years gifts were Temple Tiles for girls rooms, CTR earrings, If the Savior Stood Beside Me board book, I Am a Child of God Necklace, small Hymnbook, Joseph Smith puzzle, etc.  These are always wrapped in plain paper with a scripture or quote applicable to that person and relating to the gift somehow (yeah, it takes me awhile to wrap them!).  Opening these gifts is one of my very favourite parts of Christmas.  It helps us remember what Christmas really is about and usually tears are shed.  We have family prayer at this time too.  Yup - LOVE this tradition - getting teary just remembering some from the past!

Backing up a little here . . . we always start Christmas day with the stockings of course.  We're mean and tell the kids they can't look in their stockings til 7:00am, and they don't!!!  I know they get up in the middle of the night to see if S.C. has arrived, and feel around and peek at the top things, but so far they all say they have never looked in the whole thing (and I believe them because I'm a very good packer!!!).  We open them one at a time with everyone watching.

So Katia is holding her new little horse (it's not a toilet plunger) and Mackenzie wants it too!

Jenna thrilled with new socks!!!  Just like Mr. Bean!!!

Jordyn with Calvin her moose - notice Calvin's lovely earrings!!!

Jasmine really wanted Ritz crackers!!!  Must be basketball season - notice the water bottle and athletic tape?

Richelle ecstatic with Strawberry syrup for her milk!!!

And I'm simply DELIGHTED with new rubber gloves!!!

(Notice my lovely Nativity stocking?)

So after we're finished with stockings, we all play with stuff for awhile (and eat treats and oranges) and cart it off to our rooms, get dressed and make our beds etc.  Then we come back to open our Gifts from the Savior.  After that we all work together to make breakfast - usually Belgian Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.  Once that's all cleaned up, we open our gifts.  Last Christmas, gift opening didn't start til around 1:00pm because we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive.  Grandma still has lots of difficulty getting around because of her leg so they couldn't travel too far away this Christmas - lucky for us!!!  This is another one of my favourite parts because our girls are so creative and thoughtful.  They start planning what they're making for gifts back in the summer.  Everyone gives gifts to everyone - so do the math - we got lots to open and we all watch each other.  Yup, it takes a few hours!!!  But we can do that because another one of my traditions is NOT cooking a turkey!!!  We do another feast similar to our Christmas Eve one - much easier to prepare and clean up.  Don't know about you but spending hours in the kitchen on Christmas is not my idea of fun!!! 

We don't seem to take many pictures on Christmas day - too busy I guess!

Mackenzie with her new doll which she loved.  We knew she liked it because she played with it in the store while we were shopping!

Grandpa, Mackenzie and her new doll snuggling, and my new purple mittens.

See, not many pictures on Christmas Day!  Didn't even get one of Grandma, but she was there.  She could take her velcro cast off while sitting there on the couch but we had to make sure not to bump her.

I delight in Christmas - everything about it!!!  The tastes, smells, sounds, sights, surprises and all the thoughtfulness.  And I delight in the reason for Christmas - to celebrate the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know He lives - and I delight in that knowledge!

House - Mostly the Roof

This is what our house was looking like as of December 1st.  Most of the trusses were in place - the big ones anyway!  Looks like we might have a white Christmas!

Richie is attaching the peaks - piggybacking.  He was really fast at this.

Attaching the peaks on the garage.  Jordyn, Carlee, Jenna and Katia came to help by picking up scraps.  But first they had to bury Hazel - Jordyn's hamster in the white box she's holding. 

And here's a close up view so you can see all the details of how it actually goes together.

I love the front piece of the garage.  Rich is framing in the garage doors now - and the garage is still not backfilled - it's still a hole.

Rich the Builder

That roof line is looking pretty great now!!!

And this is the view from behind the house.  I'm on the road zooming in across the field.  One white horse is visible.  Got some girls excited to have horses right next door! 

Shingling time!!!  Snow was being forcasted soon so they did the north roof first and then the west roof.  The east roof they covered with some tarps so they wouldn't have to be shovelling snow off the roof before they could shingle it.  This picture shows Rob, Chad and Richard B. 

Another shot I like - Richie through the tree.

Oh yeah - I'd love to be up there walking across an 8/12 pitch roof carrying plywood!!!

Some colder and snowier weather moved the work indoors to the garage.  Electrical is done, insulation is done, two garage doors are installed, so time for drywall.  We got it in the states for half the price of Canadian stores - yay!  That's Roger helping - he came down for his Grandma's funeral. 

Building is really an illusion - it all looks so small until the drywall goes in and then - poof!  It's huge!!!  I'm gonna have lots of room for crafting here.  Richie will even have room for his mounds of tools and equipment.  See that pile of scrap wood - I can't bear to have it taken to the dump because there are so many things I could make out of it!!!

Back to shingling - in shorts and t-shirts!!!  We've had some beautiful weather - sure makes the shingles more pliable and easier to work with.

Rich was wondering why he looks like he's in pain or scared in this picture. 

Maybe it's because he's on the edge of a roof!!!

And the roof is almost shingled - the front side anyway.  They got the back side done really quickly.

Can you spot the difference between this picture and the next one?

Okay, besides the colour of the sky!!!

Windows!!!  This is the sight that greeted me this afternoon - Dec. 15

Now the house looks awake!

And the back view!

From left to right it's ensuite, master bedroom, great room, dining room.

And in the basement it's bedroom, bedroom, family room.  The plywood covered hole is a door.

Richie plans to plywood up those gable ends tomorrow - he just needed them open to get sheeting up into the bonus room above the garage.

And the first door is installed - garage of course!  And someone is inside taping drywall.  Then we'll throw some paint over the walls and get all our stuff out of storage.

And now for my delight:  I delight in each and every bit of progression as I watch Richie work so hard and be amazing!  And I delight in the sure-footedness of these guys who are up on the roof!!!

House, House and more House!

The last entry ended with wood being loaded onto the floor in preparation for building the walls.

And now we have some walls - the east and south walls to be exact.  Notice that the detached garage is mostly shingled except for a few feet at the top of the back side.

This wall went up really quickly - I hardly had time to snap the picture!!!  Could be because it was one of the smaller walls, and there were a ton of guys there behind it lifting it up - see all the heads?

Richie said this wall was the hardest of all because of the wind.  Lots of help from Vince, Rob, Jas (blue head), Kyle, Richie, Scott, Morgan, Doug and . . .

. . . Sheldon on the outside.  I like all the hands showing through the windows and door.  This is the mud room, kitchen and dining room.  Once the wall was standing and I was gazing out my kitchen windows, I realized that I had a lovely view of a tree - and nothing else.  The next day the tree was gone and now I'll have a lovely view of the deck and kids playing in the back yard.  And there are still lots of trees!

A side view and the nicely shingled front view of the garage.  Dual black shingles again - I like them best.

And I included this picture simply because I like it, and it's my blog!!! haha

Okay, it looks like all the exteriors wall for the house are built - now it's just the attached garage needing walls.  Need to get some serious backfilling done!

It's Elder K helping out - screwing down sheeting.

This was Nov.15 and the next picture is Nov. 25 - brace yourself for a big change!!!!

Snow!!!  And trusses!!!  We got lots of snow and then the weather plunged into a deep freeze.  Fortunately, Rich was sick at this time too (I don't mean it was good that he got sick, but it was good that he got sick when it was too cold and miserable to work outside!)  We took a trip to Lethbridge on one of the cold days.  We were pulling the trailer so we could buy insulation for the garage.  On the way, our fan belt came off and the truck died.  As we were sitting there, we saw a truck going down the highway loaded down with our trusses - a beautiful sight!  And eventually our truck got fixed and our mission was successful!

Okay, so because of the weather, our backfilling didn't happen like we'd hoped.  It's hard to put up the garage walls when the ground is so much lower than where the floor will be - see how low the guys are.  But they are amazing and are lifting a wall!!!

Today's helpers are Richard, Rob, Richie and Brent.

I was out Christmas shopping and got home to take pictures of the crane lifting the trusses onto the roof right as it finished.  At least it was still there for the picture!  We had to have Fred and the big yellow machine come in and clear out snow drifts so the crane wouldn't get stuck - didn't want stuckness added to our hourly crane bill!

And that is Clarence up there helping Richie with trusses.  He travelled great distances on winter roads and gave up his Grey Cup tickets to come and help.  Thank you so much Clarence!!!

Yes, I took this from inside my warm vehicle on my way to do more Christmas shopping!  Can you see the bonus room up there above the garage?  Isn't that great!!!  In case you were wondering, the flat peak of the roof is designed for sun-tanning. 

This is the sight that met me when I returned from shopping - most of the trusses were up, it was dark and it was snowing again!!!!

Richie and Jordyn in the great room - I LOVE the vaulted ceiling!!!

Clarence, Kevin and Drew and the white dots are snowflakes coming down through the trusses.  Richie has shovelled out the house three times now.  These flakes were the beginning of another big snowfall.

Here's that southwest corner view again.  Looking better and better all the time!!!

And I should tell you that the real reason for the flat peaks is because the truss machine doesn't make trusses taller than 14 feet.  Our peaks are another little piece that Richie will attach - called piggybacking.

And a south east view this time - love the cantilever!  That's my bedroom!!!

And there's Richie up there sheeting the roof.  I'm so glad he has such great balance!!!

And now I must tell you that I delight in power tools!!!  Can you imagine nailing all this by hand, or cutting all this wood by hand?  Me either - we'd still be back at the floor joists!

And that brings us to the end of November - exactly a month and a half of house building

(and the detached garage still isn't quite all shingled!).