Christmas Day Snow

This year as we were driving home from my brother's apartment after our Christmas dinner it started snowing.  By the time we got home it was really coming down and sticking to the ground.  The snow was beautiful the next day, but thankfully the roads weren't bad at all since my Dad needed to get back home.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas Day snow:

Christmas Day 2010

We had a very good Christmas this year.  Chad & I keep Christmas Eve as our holiday time together - we have made it our tradition to go to the Christmas Eve service at church and then go eat dinner at Outback.  This year on Christmas Day we spent the morning with Chad's family and the evening with my family.  Here are pictures of all our Christmas Day fun:

Chad & Jessica's Christmas celebration

Celebrating with Chad's family

Celebrating with Jessica's family

Christmas Craftiness

I usually try to make a few Christmas gifts each year, but it really depends on what I want to make and how time-consuming it is to make it!  This year I made a few gifts and also a new wreath for our house.  Here are the pictures of my Christmas crafts from this year:

This is the new wreath I made - I'm learning to knit, so that's what inspired this wreath.

This is the tag blanket I made for Braden.

I cross-stitched this set of tropical fish towels for my Mom & Mike.

Tropical fish towel #1.

Tropical fish towel #2.

Tropical fish towel #3.

I also put together calendars in iPhoto on our computer for my Mom, my grandmother, and Chad's parents, grandparents, and sister.  Even though I put them together I didn't physically make them, so I don't consider them "crafts", but they are still very personalized gifts that I really enjoy making each year.

Christmas 2010 Parties

This year we had Christmas parties every weekend in December before Christmas!  The first party is with a group of friends that we either used to be in small groups with or are currently in small group with.  We always do an ornament gift exchange game and eat a meal together.  Here are some pictures from this party:

Our second party was with our current small group.  Dave was sick, so he and Melanie weren't there and I forgot to take pictures anyway!  This party was the same night as a Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan concert, so one of the couples in our group came with us to the concert too after our party.

Our third party was with the Mint Hill library staff.  Even though I was reassigned away from Mint Hill this year they still invited us to their party!  It really meant a lot to us to still be included - I really miss working with everyone there.  Mint Hill always does a gift exchange game called "dirty santa" that's always a lot of fun.  Chad originally got a gift that included a hand-made ink pen, but it got stolen from him.  Then after the game Donna (the hostess of the party) said that her husband Dennis had made the pen and would give Chad another one.  That REALLY meant a lot to Chad since he really wanted that gift - especially since Dennis made it.  Here are the pictures from the Mint Hill party:

Christmastime Concerts

One of my favorite Christmas traditions now is going to see the Behold the Lamb of God concert at our church.  This year we saw the concert on Dec. 15th and I think it was our 5th time seeing it!  This is a really unique Christmas concert where the songs all tell the story of Jesus from the Old Testament to His birth.  Andrew Peterson wrote the songs, and he has an incredible cast of singer/songwriters/musicans who play and sing with him on this tour.  This year I wanted to take some pictures at the concert, but I forgot the camera.  Here's a picture of the CD art at least!

It's not quite a tradition, but it seems like for at least the past 3 years I've gotten to see either Athenaeum or Mark Kano sometime in December.  Mark is the lead singer for Athenaeum and he is one of the most talented musicians I've ever seen.  This year we were able to see Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan (also of Athenaeum) perform at the Evening Muse on Dec. 10th.  Here are a few pictures from that night:

Mark and Mike.

Mark Kano.

Mike Garrigan.

Christmas Cats

The cats love to check out the Christmas tree - thankfully they don't try to climb it!  Usually Sandy spends a lot of time under the tree, but this year it seems like both cats are hanging out under the tree more. 

They also hang out on our bed more in the winter time.  They love to snuggle on our thick winter comforter, plus it's normally warmer upstairs!

Here are both cats in Chad's lap.

Here is Roxy begging for attention (as usual)!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas is probably my favorite time of year.  I love decorating the house and the Christmas tree.  This year we decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is earlier than we normally would decorate, but we were hosting a party the next weekend, so we had to decorate early.  Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations:

Star 1996 - 2010

For my 17th birthday my boyfriend at the time, Stephen, got me a kitten we named Star.  We adopted her from the Union Co. humane society in September 1996.  She was so tiny, but quickly grew into a beautiful, long-haired cat.  When I got married and moved out she and our family's other cat Panther stayed with my family since I hated to separate the cats and then when my parents divorced my brother took both of the cats when he moved out.  Panther had to be put to sleep a few years ago, but Star made it to 14 years old.  It's actually amazing that she lived as long as she did because I've never seen a cat with more health problems.  She almost died as a kitten from a flea bath at the vet, then she ate a bee and her throat started to swell up, she also had allergies and asthma.  In early October my brother called me to tell me that he had taken Star to the vet for a spot in her mouth that wasn't healing and it turned out to be a tumor.  Since she was so old the surgery would have been too much for her, so we decided to see how long she could make it.  This week my brother said he was scratching at the tumor and that is was getting bigger, plus she was starting to use the bathroom all over his apartment.  We made the extremely difficult decision to put her to sleep so that she wouldn't be suffering anymore.

I was extremely impressed with Fullwood Animal Hospital, Star's vet, and how well they handled everything.  When we brought her in they knew us and knew what we were there for.  They asked if we wanted a paw print momento and one of the vet techs even came in the room to pet Star one last time.  They made an extremely hard situation a little better.  After Star was gone Fielding and I took her and buried her next to Panther out in the woods near our old house where they grew up playing together. 

Making the decision to put an animal to sleep is always hard.  I think it's harder because the animal can't speak to tell you that it's time to go.  But, if you are a good pet owner and you know your pet then you know when it's time and when they are suffering.  I know for sure that Star had 14 great years.  I pulled out some old pictures from Star's prime and scanned them, along with some more current pictures.  Here is a little slideshow of Star's life:

This is the paw print momento the vet made for us.

I made mine into a Christmas ornament.