Christmas at Eagle View

It seems like Christmas was such a blur! Only a few more days until I'll be making the trek back to Prince George to slave away at school for another semester. So here's the Christmas activities summed up in one post.

Squirrel!

Brighty, Granny, Mom, Rivey and I. 

Usually we do a big Mexican gift exchange but this year we decided to switch it up and get fireworks and Chinese lanterns, which worked out for the best anyways as the flu hit a bunch of the family and they ended up staying home.

Christmas morning meant a Skype date with J from Belgium. We all opened our stockings and gifts from Santa while she watched on.

Dad has a habit of buying himself a bunch of presents and then just getting mom or me to wrap them up for him, so this year I made the label match who truly was giving the gift!

Mieka was in kitty heaven with all the bows and ribbons and paper scattered around the room, and we all settled into a Christmas coma on the couches. So thankful and happy to have been able to spend time with my amazing family!

Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum!

Finding the tree was half the struggle. Next was finding all the decorations out of the shed, and deciding how to hang the lights. 

Every year we use handmade Christmas decorations that mom made when I was really little. They're all painted by hand, and I think it's the coolest thing because there is so much more detail and more story to each piece than anything you could buy in a store. When I'm finally forced to spend my first Christmas alone, you can bet that I'll be trying to emulate her's! 

Black Santa has always been a favourite of mine and my sister. Every year, we make sure he has a spot in perfect view on the tree. Mom says she doesn't remember making him, but I think he's just the coolest.

The gingerbread man I made when I was three...

...and the gingerbread man Jones made when she was two and a half. Note the vicious fangs coming out of it's mouth. She must have been going for "the Nightmare Before Christmas" theme.

When we first set up the tree it seemed like there was a bit of a lean to it, although we didn't think much of it. Today, a couple days after it was decorated, I was sitting in the living room reading a blog  when suddenly I was watching our masterpiece slowly fall to the floor.  Lots of branches to the face and needles in the hair later, mom and I salvaged it and had it back to its former glory. It was a Christmas Vacation moment!