Marek's First Christmas

We went to see Santa at the HyVee on Sunday.  Marek wasn't bothered at all!  Maybe he'll think differently next year.

I took this picture a couple weeks ago in our do-it-yourself living room glamour shot studio.  I remember buying that outfit for him last Christmas before he was born.  I swear time just stood still while I was pregnant waiting for him to arrive and now I can't believe how time has flown!

My mother made him a hardanger Christmas stocking and of course we had to put him IN it!  He is such a happy baby.

I put the tree up the day before yesterday and I'm going to leave it up until at least the new year.  I just have not had time.  I wrapped all the gifts I had sitting in the sewing room and set them out.  We are having my family Christmas after the New Year so I have a little time yet.  We'll have our little family Christmas on Christmas Eve.

I didn't go anywhere this year to get any new and exotic ornaments.  These came from Target and I just loved them because they were a little gingerbread family.  I think the gingerbread lady dresses and carries  herself way better than I do!

They didn't have a gingerbread dog so Lopi was kind of sad about that.  She is still the top dog and is so patient and loving with Marek.  Here she is lounging on the couch like a dog.

Brenda and Melissa came to visit about a month ago and we worked on Christmas ornaments using Melissa's Cricut machine.  I was really impressed with all the things you can do with it and all the design options to choose from.  The machine cut this delicate "snowflake" out of adhesive vinyl that was then stuck onto this plastic ornament.

I coated the inside of it with glow in the dark paint so of course I had to go check it out in the bathroom!

Here is another ornament I made with a Nordic sweater themed snowflake.  This one was painted with metallic silver.

Brenda brought these plain wooden frames which we painted and cut embellishments with the machine.  This is pronounced "Go Yule" and is Norwegian for Merry Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas crafts, look what Marek made at daycare!  We got so lucky with our daycare lady and she so pleasantly surprised me when she gave this to us yesterday.  I've been meaning to make some salt dough ornaments of his hand and foot prints and this is even better because I can see and use it every day.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!