Pre-Christmas activities



For us Abrahamsons, Christmas is really a whole season of celebrating the birth of the Savior. One really big Birthday Party. And the week before the big day things really seemed to heat up with a number of fun activities and family get togethers. This year we had to push some stuff back because with her new job, Alesha couldn't get here till the 21st. And since Tressa is our big party girl, and the party girl has been pretty sick( making a baby) we did not have as many events as usual.

We did make Christmas cookies and all the grandkids got in on cutting out some dough.

Brady giving it a try and more in his fun exploring mode below

Alesha and Ryan



Isabell and Ryan having alittle fun.

We did lots of hanging out, watching Christmas movies, and wrapping presents.

Brady doing what he does best- pulling the DVD's off shelf and then opening them.



Melia teaching Ryan how to play califorina speed.?

Madison showing off her Ballerina dance moves

Then we had our 2nd annual Rice Crispy decoration night.

Which is always fun. This is Madison's favorite event I think. She could sit and decorate things like this all day long.

 She's so cute about how she takes her time and puts stuff on her Rice crispy treat house.



Isabell doesn't need hands to eat this stuff.

 

Parker hoping to get some of the good stuff too, while Jesse eats his house.

 All the older grandkids had fun. Generally eating as much of the decorations as putting them on the treats.  The adults seemed to have fun too!
 After a rush of sugar... the next natural thing to seemed to be.... yes that's right- reindeer rides courtsey of grandpa.

Then Tressa thought this would be a good time to give Ellie her Christmas, so she would have them to wear christmas eve.

The lights & decorations

  By the first week of December Doug had finally gotten all his lights and decorations up. Here is brief photo tour ( with the finished Disney train car).

 I hope to put together a video with combo video and photos, to give you a better look.  As a family we all enjoy the fruits of Doug's labor sooo very much!!
 Though we probably don't tell him enough.

  The grandkids seemed really into the lights especially Peyton. He loved having the job of going all around the house and turning on the lights inside and out. And he would stand on the couch and look out the windows at the lights for long periods of time. And for the inside, well I think the bubble lights on the Christmas tree were Peyton's favorite. He loved to watch them ... " going up" as he says.

Thanksgiving and christmas tree farm

Wow, I'm so far behind in blogging. Guess that means I've been busy living life and haven't had time to write about it. This will be lthe first of a couple of blogs to appear over the next couple of days.
  Thanksgiving for us was pretty mellow. Alesha was not able to come home as a bad storm was moving into Salt Lake and canceling flights. So that made it really weird. Tressa (who is expecting again) is in that part where she is soooo sick. We ate and relaxed. Then at midnight Tressa and I went out to check out xmas sales. Was pretty much a bust. All the outlets have better prices on a normal day. Nothing worth staying up late for. We did find some good deals at wal-mart. though our first stop there was so crazy we just left and came back about 3am and still got everything we wanted with out having to wait in lines for over an hour. This pretty much wiped Tressa out for the rest of the weekend. Melia and Spencer went out around 3 or 4 am and I think had a good time. Erica and Nate went out in the morning.

Madison was not too excited about the train ride out to the trees.

  On Sat. The Miller family headed to a Tree farm in Lacey, out toward Yelm, that we had gone to for Halloween. I got to go with them as family photographer/ grandkid wrangler!

It was really fun. They were alittle disappointed. With all the activities going on at Halloween they had hoped for something similar. They still had the goats and gift shop, but not much else. We rode on a train like thing pulled by a tractor. ( horses would have been cooler) to take us out to a area where they could saw down a tree.

The Miller family Christmas tree.

Didn't seem to take them too long to find one they liked and could agree on. It had rained the night before and though most of the experience was lost on Parker and Madison.... they LOVED the MUD puddles!!! I think the photos say it al



Parker splashing in the mud!

Parker and Madison running through the puddles!! So cute!



Nate Laughing at Parker getting all muddy!

Erica and Madison being cute!



It's snowing! It's snowing! & trees are falling!

When the snow started to fall on Sunday, Doug was like a little kid. Hoping for a snow day. He did get a 2hr late start. and then after 2 hrs of school...an early release! So close to a full snow day.
   It snowed alot here in the Onalaska low lands ( and I'm sure lots more in the high lands) on Monday. We have close to 4 inches of the beautiful white stuff!!!

  It really shows off Doug's decorations!! They look sooo cool with all the snow!
  Now to the Trees. it started with two  much heavy wet snow on one of our trees out front. We heard at crack and thud. Yep, a huge branch had been brought now by some snow flakes ganging up on it.

 I had Ellie so Doug and Melia headed out in the cold to finish sawing the branch off and hauling it away.



When the wind started to really blow Doug and Melia ducked into the wood shed.
Didn't seem to bother Isabell too much. She wanted to eat the snow.



Isabell had been begging to go out side Papa finally braved the cold and wind and took her out.

Later as we were just settling into a Christmas movie and I had just put Isabell in the bath tub, out went the lights!!! Talking to Mark ( Melia's father in law) seems trees and branches were going down all over the place and taking power lines down with them. We were working on preparing for a long, cold and dark night. When after 2 hrs the lights flicked back on . As I write this wind is still blowing hard. We may still lose power again. But as for now we are warm and have light!

Light shopping with Peyton

Always being on the look-out for good lighting deals I hit the road on Saturday to see what I could find to put up around the place.  I had thought about going out on Friday night and taking Tressa with me but she wasn't feeling up to it and I was really more in the mood to stick around and work on painting some of the new decorations for the girls places and the super hero tree.  The rain Sat. morning convinced me I should look around a bit.
    This is where Peyton comes into the story.  He likes to go shopping and will stick with me pretty well and is a great traveling companion, plus he does like to ride in the pick-up, so off we went.  The first stop was K-Mart to check out their stuff in anticipation of their 50% off sale.  While there we looked at the Christmas decorations which Peyton just stared at for a while then a trip through the toys to see the Toy Story stuff.  Then it was my favorite part about taking Peyton, he knows where the good food/treats are at.  He selected an Icee so we got the biggest one they have to share it. 
     Next we headed to Fred Meyer as they had some lights on sale.  Peyton must be working on his left and right at school for he kept asking which direction we were going next.  Once we got inside of Fred Meyer I thought I would let him lead the way to burn off some of the Icee.  He kept calling out a left or right and then would turn that direction and head down another aisle.  It's hard to make much forward progress when you take a left or right at every aisle intersection.  Sadly I did not get any lights there for the sale wasn't a very good one.
     Being the super light shoppers that the two of us are we headed back to Chehalis and Home Depot. Peyton liked their display and counted the number of large Santas (blow up etc.) before we headed for the lumber section to smell the wood and pick up some to hang the welcome sign from.
     All in all the shopping was a bust except I got to spend a couple of hours hanging out with Peyton and was able to make it a complete day by getting to see all six of the grand kids.  Then it was back home to continue putting stuff up and painting.  The plan is to have it all done by Thanksgiving.  At least thats the plan.

making christmas

Doug had to clean up leaves before he could get decorations out and Peyton wanted to help.

Tressa working on a decoration for her house.

This past weekend all the gang showed up to give Doug a good start on the outdoor decorations and to do some painting on their own decorations.

As everyone was outside working Peyton declared that "Papa was Making Christmas!" It was really cute. The weather held up better than we had thought and they got alot done.



Moving the train to front Yard. had to roll/push it up alley etc.



  Nate worked on the roof of the train. Everyone else help get all the figures out and some lights up.
Poor Tressa was really have a time with her shoulder joints so she was the job foreman, telling everyone what to do.

Tressa in her foreman job

Jesse sporting the ever popular shorts and rubber boots look.

Ellie (2-months old) did her part by taking a 4 hrs nap

 I was the baby wrangler and cook. We had bacon, chicken and ham sandwiches for lunch and pulled pork and baked potatoes for dinner. Tried to keep it simple as 6 kids-(1-3yrs, 2-2yrs, 2-1yrs and a 2 month baby ) is pretty crazy.  Luckily all but Peyton took naps at various times. I even managed to whip up a batch of chocolate chews. It really was fun to spend the day with the grandkids! And since weather was nice we spent some of it outside.

Isabell & Madison had lots of fun on Tramp!



Brady- "AKA the FLASH!" Kept me on my toes whenever we let him outside.





Parker's mom must have thought a blizzard was blowing in. He did have fun.

Had to watch Brady by the pond. He just kept trying to walk right in it. No matter how many times I told him no or pulled him away. and "In charge Isabell "kept Peyton and Madison busy. One time they were playing in train and Madison wanted to come up and play too. She was having trouble climbing up and Isabell climbed down and grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up. was so fun to watch.

  Erica and Madison stay till 9:30pm to get some painting done.

Madison wanted to help paint too!

Erica working on a snowman for her house.

  Now Doug will work when he can to get more lights up. I have a few more things to do inside and then on to the 2 major things -trees and village.