More Scenes of Christmas

These are just a few photos I took over the month of December

This is our elf, Jolly Bob Toph. He appears on December 1st and keeps an eye on the 3 Js and reports back to Santa each night. Each morning he's in a new place in the house and it's always a game to see who is the first one to spot his new location.

Jensen left a note and a snack for his arrival.


Jordan had her first basketball game of the season on Dec. 2nd. RMS crushed Crosby 42 - 2!



My Christmas village has really grown. We got our first piece as a wedding gift TWENTY YEARS AGO and now it spreads around my dining room. I love each and every piece and would be so disappointed if the 3 Js didn't go pick out a new one for me for Christmas. This year I got the Historic Chicago Water Tower.



The kids' tree upstairs in the game room.


A sleeping child...there's nothing cuter.


I found this in Jackson's room one afternoon. It cracked me up!


A Christmas craft.


Jensen got to open a present early when a package arrived from Grandma Fuja that contained two live frogs and an aquarium to set up for them.



Goofing around with my camera.


Jackson played in his first middle school band concert. He's the little one in the santa hat.


These are friends Ethan and Haley Harper who are also in the band. Ethan is Jackson's age and Haley is Jordan's age.


Everything is wrapped and ready.


Making cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. Who puts cashews on the sugar cookie? A Fuja that's who.



All I wanted to do was take a nice picture of the kids and this is what I get.


I caught our mischievous elf playing around on our gingerbread house before his departure back to the north pole until next year.

Christmas 2010

It was mostly a techno christmas around here.

Jordan got a laptop from Santa. I don't suppose we'll see much of her anymore.


Santa brought THE FAMILY an iPad...not Jackson...THE FAMILY.


And now Jensen has the iPad and Jackson can't bother to look up for the picture because he's busy playing on another gadget he got...a PSP.


Then there was this little bright spot of non electronic gadgetry.


And this one.


And then there was the clean up.


Thank you to everyone that shopped for, wrapped, and shipped gifts to Jim and I and the 3 Js. Everything was perfect and very much appreciated. Especially the $15 I won on one of the scratch off lottery tickets Jean sent! Were there any other big winners at the Fuja family get-together? Kaity, did you take pictures? We'd love to see them if you did.

A special thanks to my dad and Dyann for traveling here to spend Christmas with us. I'm kicking myself, but I didn't take even one picture while they were here. :-(

Merry Christams to all and to all a good night.

From Christmas to Today: Part 1

That posting everyday in December business really took a lot out of me. And I didn't even make it through the whole month. But I made it to Christmas, which was really the point anyway.

Since Christmas, we've actually done quite a bit so here's the round-up of what's been going on since then.

On December 28th, I had to take Jordan to the orthopedic doctor to look at her foot. She was playing tackle football with kids on the street, with no shoes on, and someone stepped on her foot. This actually happened on Dec. 23rd. Her foot turned pretty black and blue, but we figured it would go back to normal after a couple of days. By the day after Christmas her whole foot was bruised and it was still pretty painful so I made an appointment to take her in but couldn't get her in until Friday. It turns out she had three hairline factures. Her first broken bone(s). They gave her a boot to wear instead of a cast, which is great because she can take it off for showers etc. They said it would take about 4-6 weeks to heal. When we got home, Jim wanted to know if the doctor asked why we waited so long to bring her in. I was definitely feeling a little like a bad parent at that moment!



We took her in for a follow-up after about three weeks and the doc said to wear the boot for two more weeks and come back in. It hasn't really slowed her down much except in gymnastics where she really can't do much of anything except her conditioning. She's only been going to the gym for about an hour each time instead of the usual two hours.

On December 29th, which was mine and Jim's 17th anniversary, we left for a week in Michigan. We had a great visit and the kids got to see tons of snow which they loved and I don't mind if it's only for one week per year! The picture that is in the header of my blog was taken in Jim's mom's backyard. Beautiful.

We had our Christmas get-together with Jim's family on the 30th which was a great time. All but one niece was there...about 18 people in all. My niece, Kaity, gave me an awesome gift. My whole blog up to that point printed out in a book...with photos and everything! She had it done at blurb.com. It's so awesome and I'm going to do this every year with my blog. Thank you Kaity!!

During the rest of our visit we got together with two of Jim’s friends and their families and all went bowling; saw my mother…she’s apparently going to be moving to Phoenix at the end of February. None of us left in Michigan and she’s ready for warmer weather I guess; I took Jordan and my niece Kaity to Somerset Mall one day for a girls’ day of shopping; we took the kids to see National Treasure 2 one evening; we spent a nice New year’s eve with Jean and Jim’s brother Tom’s family. We all played games and watched the ball drop then Jean made us go to bed at 12:05 so she could get some sleep! Jim and I even got out for one night alone and went to dinner and a movie. We saw Juno which was okay as far as the writing and acting went but I was a little disturbed by the story…a 16 year old girl gets pregnant and everything goes so easily and smoothly for her. Wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to see that movie. Our flights to and from Detroit were uneventful which is always good and we even got 2 first class upgrades on the way home. I put a few photos from the trip below and you can see the rest of the pictures here.





This brings us up to about January 6th. :-)

Daily December: Day Twenty Five

Christmas Day and I didn't take one picture!! I've read so many people say, "I actually liked that I didn't take any photos and just lived in the moment." Not me. I really don't like the fact that I don't have any photos from the day. I feel something is missing. I think the reason I didn't take any is because I was just so out of it. The kids woke up at 5:30. A.M. After Jim and I had just gone to bed a mear 4 hours earlier. When Jackson came into our room and woke us up I was in a very deep sleep...the kind where you don't just jump out of bed. I was in a fog the whole morning.

From what I can remember (without photographic evidence) the kids seemed to enjoy all their gifts from Santa--especially their Nintendo DSs and the basketball goal out in the driveway. Jensen's favorite was her new American Girl doll and the enormous doll house she got.

I got some great things as well. Jim took the kids out one day to pick out charms for my pandora charm bracelet. Jordan picked out a present, Jackson picked out a Christmas tree, and Jensen picked out a bible! They also all picked out some new things for my Christmas village. Jackson picked out the biggest, tallest building there is...the Flatiron building.



And the girls picked out some items that belong to the dockside scene...a lobster stand and a dock worker. They reminded me of Boston which is where we lived when I started my village collection.

Thanks to the early start, we were finished opening gifts, finished with breakfast and on our way to church by about 11:00. After church, we spent the rest of the day laying around and getting ready for dinner. We had cornish hens for our holiday meal along with the requisite mashed potatoes and green beans.

The next couple of days will be spent cleaning up the chaos and getting ready for our trip to Michigan.

I have really enjoyed documenting each day on the road to Christmas. I didn't get every post published on the correct day, however it made me take note of things and to get out my camera more than I would have. Next year, I just have to remember to get that camera ready for Christmas morning!

Daily December: Day Twenty Four

Christmas Eve!! We spent part of the day finishing up our cookies for Santa. We had baked them a day or so ago but still had the decorating to do.





The kids' advent treat for the day was to open one special gift. I had always given them pjs on Christmas eve and they usually got an ornament in their stocking. This year, I put the pjs and the ornament together and gave each child a Christmas book. I realized that after the fire we no longer had very many Christmas-themed books so I think I'll do this for the next few years. Before you know it we'll have a nice library of Christmas books that the kids can take with them along with their ornaments.



After opening the gifts and putting on the pjs we had make-your-own pizzas for dinner. It was a fun, easy dinner and the pizzas turned out pretty good.




After dinner we watched the movie A Christmas Story and about 9:30 it was off to bed for the kids to wait for Santa.

Daily December: Day Twenty Two

Yesterday, the kids' advent calendar treat was to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We picked Jordan up from her gymnastics team party at 7:00 and headed to a neighborhood in Atascocita that Heather had told us had good light displays. She did not steer us wrong. We saw some awesome displays and had a great time.

We then headed over to Heather and Brent's to see them and the kids one last time before the holidays and exchange gifts. They gave us this beautiful James Avery Christmas Dove ornament.



Heather told me that the dove represents peace and that that is what she wishes for our family. I'm so blessed to have her for a friend.

Tonight, I got together with two other good friends, Jennifer and Nancy, to exchange gifts. We had cocktails, laughs, and presents. It doesn't get much better than that. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to have so many people in my life that mean so much to me.

Daily December: Day Nineteen

I picked up the cookie plates the kids made at the Mudpie last week. They turned out cute!

On a sad note, Jim is in Michigan today attending the funeral of his best childhood friend, Ron Defever's, mother. Louise and her husband Roger were like second parents to Jim growing up. She passed away over the weekend from a heart attack after battling cancer. She died at home in Roger's arms. Louise and Roger emigrated here from Belgium and built a beautiful farm in Durand. I have taken many pictures of their barn over the years. It's just such a picturesque building. Our kids always say that one of the highlights of any trip to Michigan is a visit to the Defever farm. They love seeing all the animals and playing in the hay loft of the barn. And Louise always had a sweet treat for them afterwards. She had a great smile and laugh. She was a very fun, happy, unique person and our visits to the farm won't be the same without her.

Daily December: Day Eighteen

One week to go....can you say "panic?"

Daily December: Day Seventeen

These are my favorite new decorations that I added this year. I've been looking at these stockings for two Christmases now and finally decided this year to go ahead and buy them. I love them!

Daily December: Day Sixteen

The kids' advent calendar treat for today was a Gingerbread House kit. We had never built a gingerbread house before, mainly because I always thought it would be too hard, too messy, etc. I have really been depriving my kids all these years because it really wasn't that bad and they had a great time doing it. I built the house for them earlier in the day and then set them loose, along with some of the neighbor kids, for the decorating.




Jensen had actually fallen asleep on the couch that day and missed the main part of the decorating (she was soooo tired after her sleepover at Cameron's during our party). But the other kids made sure to save some of the frosting and candies for her to use after she woke up.



It turned out really cute. But they keep asking me when they can eat it.

Daily December: Day Thirteen

Today was Jackson's 3rd grade musical performance at school--A Penguin Christmas.


That's alot of elves, reindeer, and penguins!

Meet Penguin #9.

Daily December: Day Twelve

Daily posting is hard. Even for the venerable Ali Edwards, who I stole this idea of Daily December from. If she can't even keep up with it, and it's basically her job, then I don't feel so bad. So, on to day twelve...

Wednesday, December 12th was baking day at Heather's with Brandy and our helper Megan. We made tons of cookies which we packaged up in tins to give out. This was my first year doing this with these girls, but it's definitely a must do from here on out. I just need to re-vamp the recipes that I pick for this project. They need to be easy, easy, easy. And no breaking blenders next year!








After school got out, we went to the Mudpie for storytime/pottery painting. The project was a "cookies for Santa" plate. We don't have one of those so I really wanted the kids to do this project. Jackson complained about having to go, but ended up working very diligently on his plate. Jensen and Jordan also did a great job. Jordan even opted to skip gymnastics to go to the Mudpie...a rare event. The plates are ready and I'm going to pick them up tomorrow.