Christmas and New Years 2017

It was a bit of a different Christmas season for us since Tim wasn't home for most of it. But thankfully he came home on Christmas eve which made the best present ever! 

The night before Tim left for FL he, Nixon and I got our tree.

Putting on the lights

Tim wanted to hang at least one ornament. They were all still up in the attic but we had just bought a Coast Guard one so he hung that.

And that is how the tree stayed!  Just the one Coast Guard ornament.  Seemed appropriate for this year.

Piper and Tucker take turns sitting in this exact spot and they do it every year.  Along with run around the tree and get caught in the lights!

Tucker decided he needed to rest his head lol. That towel is around the base of the tree because Tucker thinks he needs to drink the water, even though it makes him sick.

This year with Tim gone Simon and Maddy were my helpers with the lights.

Pictures just don't do justice.  It looks like white lights but they are all multi-colored lights.

After we were done Simon pointed out we needed the light ups in the windows to balance it out.  He was right!  Kid after my own heart with Christmas lights!

Waiting to see Simon in the Brighton Christmas parade!

There he goes!  He is the fourth one over.

Gotta love Ugly Sweater day!

 Time for some Christmas concerts...

Simon's Jazz Band performance

And the Concert Band performance

Nixon ready for his first ever band performance

Headed out to his spot

Nixon's band performance!  He did great! He was very nervous all day but once he got out there he loved it!

Finishing up some Christmas shopping and wore this kid out! Never too old to fall asleep in the car LOL!

Another day of finishing up some shopping.  He too fell asleep on the way home but was not so nicely woken up by our phones blaring for a flash flood warning!  Not a very fun way to get woken up.  Good thing we got home when we did because where we were was under water the next day!

So for those not from here, we always have had egg nog but here most people actually drink boiled custard.  Both are at the store.  It tastes like a bowl of melted vanilla ice cream.

 CHRISTMAS EVE

Tim flew home about noon on Christmas Eve.  The boys and I picked him up.  Paige was at work.

This was after the candlelight service at church and Paige got home from work.

Opening our traditional Christmas Eve family gift. New PJ pants, mugs, hot cocoa and marshmallows, popcorn and the movie ELF.  We love that movie and watch it every Christmas Eve.  This year there was also a yard (3ft) of twix bars!

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa

Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk,  filled the stockings,  left the gifts and was off to bed.... I mean hopped back in his sleigh.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Opening stockings

Took a break for breakfast before opening gifts.  Cinnamon Rolls.  This time form Cinnabon for Tim.  Those are his favorite so I braved the Mall the day before Christmas eve to get them.  Yeah, that wasn't a fun experience and may not ever do that again! LOL

Never too old for Lightsabers!

Guitar Hero

Happy Piper with her favorite kind of toy!  "Baby Mouse"  there have to be at least 20 of those little things hidden somewhere in this house.

A boy and his cat!  Very Big cat LOL   We love ya Tucker!

Christmas dinner

Happy New Year!  We missed taking a family picture!  Whoops!

So I had this post done days ago and was going to post but life threw in some crazy stuff and I didn't get to publish it.  A quick rundown of this week will explain why and I will post it all later.  Kids have had snow days since Friday the 12th, the first day back will be tomorrow the 22nd.  We had ice and snow and then snow again and really low temps. This last Monday our refrigerator died overnight (still waiting for the repairman to fix it).  Then Thursday with all the freezing weather we had a pipe burst inside the wall of our bathroom and master bedroom closet which flooded our closet, master bath, master bedroom and into part of the living room and hall closet.  So we are currently sitting with loud blowers all over drying it all up and were without water for a few days.  Carpet from bedroom and closet has been taken out, a plumber has come and fixed pipe now contractors will come to fix all the damage to floors, baseboards, and drywall.  Some of which have already been ripped out. Well, I should say I hope they come they told me twice they would be here Friday and were no-shows.  Same thing with the fridge people. No call to say they were not going to make it just plain didn't show up.  Then government decides to shut down. Which means if they don't get it up and running asap we, of course, will not get paid till they do.  Come on on Congress do your job!  The military does their job whether they get paid or not and don't you know my house flooded this week! LOL  I will post more later.  Off to continue washing the loads of towels and blankets I tried to block water with!