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.

December '08 part 2

December 18

Jensen and I were invited to a Mother/Daughter cookie exchange. I was struck by how lady-like she looked sitting there eating her snack. It didn't last long before she was up and running wild with the other girls.

December 19


This was the last day of school before winter break and it was class party day. Jordan had a half day at Riverwood so she came up to Shadow Forest with me. She spent a little time at Jensen's party then roamed the school with other Shadow Forest alums...saying hi to former teachers and generally basking in the glory of being middle schoolers.

December 21



The treat for today in the kids' advent calendar was to go ice skating in The Woodlands. They all did awesome! Jensen looks like she's about to fall in the photo but she really did an amazing job! I was impressed with how gung ho and fearless she was although I shouldn't have been. She approached ice skating just like she does roller skating in the drive way...all caution to the wind!

December 22


The kids and I were invited to another cookie exchange at Heather's. It was a blast as usual. I brought those peppermint cookies. Very cute, but very labor intensive. Probably won't make those again. Came home with enough cookies to give to several neighbors plus mail carrier.

December 24

Not sure why I took this picture. Jordan got these converse tennis shoes as an early Christmas present. They arrived a day or so before and she couldn't wait to wear them!

We had a nice, quiet Christmas eve. We had make-your-own pizzas for dinner for the second year in a row and tried to get everyone to bed early. Jim and I made it to bed around midnight only to be woken up at 5:45 a.m. ...

December 25






Merry Christmas!

December 26

Date Night # ? I'm not sure of the number but it's close to 25. We went to Vic & Anthony's steak house downtown. Also celebrated anniversary #18. Delicious meal and a fun night! A great end to a memorable Year of 25 Dates.

December 28

Scrapbook room nearing completion.

December 29

Getting packed up for our trip to Michigan tomorrow.

December 30


Jackson and I enjoying our seats in first class.

December 31
No pictures today but we had a nice new year's eve in Durand with Jean and the kids. Jackson and Jordan made it up 'til past midnight. Jensen tried but fell asleep around 11:00. Shhh...don't tell her. Happy New Year!

December '08

Last year (and by "last year" I mean '07) I gave myself a challenge to post every day during the month of December. I didn't post quite every day, but close, and I really enjoyed looking back over the month.

This year, I didn't do quite as good a job. I did manage to take pictures quite a few of the days but I didn't post even one entry during the month of December '08. I thought I'd get caught up now, on January 4th, with a review of December. As I looked back over my posts from last December, it's pretty funny, how many things happened exactly the same this December. That's both comforting, and a little disturbing.

December 1

I took this photo to illustrate that I still had my fall decorations up on December 1st. Thanksgiving was late this year, November 27th. December 1st was just the Monday after Thanksgiving...and I'm not ready to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving.

December 3

Wednesday I made a trip out to Ikea for the last of the things needed to finish up the cabinets in my scrapbook room. I can't wait to start out '09 in a newly organized scrapbook studio!

December 4

I had to take Jackson to Kingwood Medical Center for an x-ray on his foot. He had hurt it the week before and it was still bothering him. We thought we should have it looked at to rule out a fracture. It turned out not to be broken.

While we were at the hospital, we happened upon this display of Christmas trees in the lobby. I think they were going to be auctioned off to raise money. They were decorated in all different themes and there were some really cool ones.

December 6

Jordan had a community orchestra concert at a local church to play a few Christmas songs during an exhibit of nativity scenes the church has and opens to the public. They had over 400 different nativities from around the world. Certainly not something I had ever seen before.

December 7

This Sunday was our neighborhood "Santa Stroll." Santa arrived in Riverchase on a fire engine and drove around the neighborhood before heading to our pool house to receive visitors. We took Jackson and Jensen but Jordan opted to stay home. She had been at a sleepover the night before and had just gotten home and was a little tired, to say the least. Jackson asked for a cell phone (!) and Jensen asked for "American Girl doll stuff."

December 8

Finally got the tree up and started decorating.

December 10

Jordan's second orchestra concert of the year. In addition to the 6th grade beginner orchestra, we also got to see the intermediate and advanced orchestras. Gave us a little hope for the future. :-) Although, I have to say, the beginners have improved a ton just in the month or so since their first concert.

December 11



Snow! In Houston! And not just flurries...actual accumulation. What a fun night!

December 14

Another season of flag football has started.

December 15



An outing on the Polar Express! This was an Adventure Princess outing but the whole family went along. It was great, and would have been really great if we had lived about two hours closer to the place. It took us 3 solid hours to get to Rusk, TX to board the train. The ride was just over an hour and we drove 3 solid hours home. Even though it was short, they did an awesome job. The train steamed into the station just like it does in the movie in front of the boy's house. There were waiters on board that served hot chocolate and danced in the aisles. We rode to the "north pole" where Santa boarded the train and handed out bells to each child that still believed. A conductor crazily punched our tickets for the return journey. And we sang Christmas songs on the way back. It was fun and memorable but a very long drive...




Two weeks down and two more to go. But the rest will have to wait until I can get the remaining photos downloaded from my camera.