A Warm Fuzzy Feeling

Over Christmas I decided to make Ryan a new blanket.  A few years ago, my mom and I made him a Star Wars blanket for Christmas.  It has gotten worn out and a little on the small side.  I found some Vikings (Ryan's favorite NFL team) fleece and settled on making a tie blanket.  It was super easy to make up, and lots of fun to see the finished product.

The two styles of material I bought for each side.

The finished product.  It's kind of hard to see the ties,
they are on the right side of the picture.

And Ryan loves it!

 Well, actually everyone loves it!  It gets used so much.  It is so soft and comfy and warm.  I started feeling bad about using his blanket so much.  It was time to make another one.  I setup a shopping and lunch date with my friend Diana.  We met up at JoAnne's and picked out some fabric.  Diana decided to make one too.  (She actually completed hers before I did.)

The material I picked out.

The finished blanket.  I love the red ties showing
on the front.

And the dogs even got a treat.  I had a strip of
the red material left.  So, I cut it in thirds,
braided it, tied off the ends and gave it
to the dogs for a chew toy.  They love it.
It's fun to see them carrying it around
the house.

Third Times the Charm!

On our third attempt, we finally made it to the zoo lights.  We got rained out the first two tries. 

On the Wednesday before Christmas, we went to dinner with our friends - Kim, Matt and Shawn.  We took them to Pete's since they had never been.  And literally on the drive over it started raining on us.  While we sat outside and ate, we watched the rain stop and start and stop and start and decided it would be a mess at the zoo so decided no for that night.

Then, we made plans to go the next Wednesday.  Well wouldn't you know it, it rained that day too!  So, instead we wound up at their house because they were having router trouble.  Doug got them up and running.

And then finally on January 7th, we made it to see the Zoo Lights.  They were beautiful as usual.  The weather was great and it wasn't that crowded so maybe it was a good thing we got rained out two times before.

One of the new displays this year - a dragon!  It was
animated showing it's belly getting larger as it got ready
to blow smoke.

Can you figure this one out?

Here is what the image really looks like.

They were handing out these glasses at the door
and when you looked through them this is how
the light displays looked.  The blue is one tree.
They were really fun to look at, but hard to walk
around in.

The Carousel

Another newer display - a giant ball floating over the lake.  It
changed colors.

The highlight of going to Zoo Lights for Ryan is getting to pet the
stingrays.  We always save it for last - not because we are mean
(although Ryan might tell you differently), but because you cannot
help but get pretty wet when petting them.  And that is not fun
for the rest of the evening.

Ryan, Matt and Shawn sporting their super cool glasses.

Christmas Morning

We had a very nice Christmas.  We did not get up super early - about our normal time - 6:45.  We got right to presents and then Doug & I had to get our dishes ready for the Christmas lunch with my family.  Doug made the turkey - which was fabulous this year! - and I brought the sweet potatoes.

Ryan checking out the tree.

The stockings

Ryan passed out the gifts this year.

The newest nutcracker for the collection - a skeleton.

Sam & I.  He was very interested in every single gift that was
being opened - you never know they might be food!

If Sam was a gift this is what he would look like.  Poor guy wearing
some gift wrap.

Ryan putting together his Lego minifigures.

Ryan immediately built his new land speeder.

And here it is all finished.

Like I mentioned earlier, we went over to my niece, Brooke, and her family's house for our family dinner.  It was wonderful.  Plenty of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetables, gravy and homemade rolls.  And please do not forget the pies - apple custard and one of my holiday favorites pecan!  YUM. 

Later that evening, my oldest brother and his wife came by with our gift.  We got to visit with them for a bit and then they headed over to my folks house to give them their gift.  We weren't far behind.  It was nice to end our Christmas day at my parents house visiting and enjoying more Christmas treats.  By the time we made it home, we were so tired and ready for bed. 

Thanks everyone for helping us to celebrate Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

This holiday has been a very smooth one for some reason.  I would like to say it was due to really good planning, but that is probably not true at all.  Really, I think what it comes down to is just getting the stuff done that needed to be done.  I know how very simple that sounds . . . but let's be real, sometimes the simple things are the hardest.  This year, I worked on one or two projects everyday until everything was completed.  And . . well . . . it was super nice to have everything done & ready to go a full day and a half before Christmas Eve.  I cannot tell you how nice it was to spend Christmas Eve relaxing.  I'm hoping that I can do it all again next year - I guess time will tell.

Now, don't get me wrong, there were some projects that I really wanted to do this and did not get done.  But these were projects that were more for me to complete than anything.  And so, they will be ready for me next year to work on - because this year they just weren't meant to be completed.  And I am totally okay with that. 

Okay, okay so on to the photos - I mean, I'm pretty sure that's why you are here anyway - and not to listen to me ramble on & on.

As is our family tradition, we went to my brothers house for the evening on Christmas Eve.  We always have Mexican food for dinner, a Christmas story telling - and reenacting - singing and of course our fun family gift exchange.  My father also shared some memories of his childhood Christmases and how very different they were than we experience today.  It was a fun evening.

Our yummy Mexican Christmas Eve Fiesta

Now that is a table full of presents.  These are the gifts from the
exchange.  There were some pretty fun gifts this year - Lego set,
the biggest container of cheese balls you've ever seen,
a reindeer piggy bank, candy, socks and toys.

Another view of that massive pile of presents.

Ryan was the first to pick and got a box of
post-it notes - which got stolen by Kelly.
He then picked his next gift which was two
packages of sparklers.

When we got home, Ryan opened his gift from
his Grandma & Grandpa Harper - Christmas
jammies and a gift card to Walmart.

Ryan setting out some cookies for Santa.  He
was in bed by 9:30 ready for Santa to come
the next morning!

Happy Holidays from the Harpers

We hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season.  As we spend this day of giving and receiving gifts, with family and friends, we look forward to another wonderful year in 2011.  Here are a few images of Christmas 2010.  Several of these images have been featured on my photography website.  Check it out if you'd like to see more.

The Harper's 2010

My Little Curly Q

Flower For Mom

The Face



And finally, here is the gift that I made for my
family this year.  I hope they enjoy hanging
this up for Christmases to come.



One More Day of Decorating

After having to reschedule two weekend in a row, we finally made it over to my parent's house to decorate their tree.  We went over on Ryan's last day of school before Winter Break began.  He had a half day and so off we went.  It was nice to get over there.  Ryan has decorated their tree for the past four years or so.  I'm so glad that this is something he is able to do and spend time with his grandparents.  Hopefully someday these will memories that he will cherish.

Grandma & Ryan getting decorations for the tree.

Grandma gave Ryan this ornament to put on
our tree since it's a French Horn.

The completed tree.

And as a special treat, my mom made
us potato dumplings for lunch.  They were so
yummy and always a special treat this
time of year.

The dumplings cooking.  So good!

The decorating finished with the Coke tree

We spent much of November and about half of December passing a cold around.  First Doug got sick, then me, then Ryan, then Doug again. It was so fun - okay not really.  Not at all.  It was mostly just a cold, but strong enough that it wore you out, but not too strong that you couldn't do anything.  Just somewhere in the middle.  So, we ended up decorating our trees in two different nights - usually we do everything on the same night.  It was very nice to get everything finished up and then just enjoy all the pretty lights.

Doug and Ryan decorating our Coke tree.

And all done!  The star is on and the tree was lit afterwards.

Love The Holiday Candy

Christmas is always such a fun time for new Holiday Flavors in candy.  I absolutely love mint flavored candy - especially mixed with chocolate.  And it seems like every year there are more and  more fun chocolate mint candies showing up at the stores.  Here is one of the new items we just had to try . . .

Mint Musketeers!

Anticipating the first yummy taste . . .

Finally getting that first bite.

Thumbs up!  Ryan and I both loved it.

Decorating our Tree

A Long Time Ago . . . we decorated our house for Christmas.  We actually decorated several weeks ago.  It was a fun weekend getting everything set up just right.



Our brand new pre-lit tree!  So easy to put up!



Ryan & Doug decorating

Getting ornaments out, but I just had to take a break to
pet Sam.

Ryan & I adding more ornaments to the tree.

Even Sota (short for Minnesota) helped add decorations
to the tree.

Ranger sporting the antlers.  I took several pics of both dogs
with these antlers.  This is the only one that came out - they
really do not like wearing them.

Putting the star on the tree.

Our new finished tree.  I love all the lights.