Happy Birthday/ Anniversary

Yesterday was a BIG day around here. David and I celebrated 20 years of being married to each other and he celebrated his 4_ Birthday. He said in 2 more years he will have been married to me as long as not being married to me, so you do the math.

We always do Something for our anniversary, but it may not BE on our anniversary. Being the big 20 this year we had high aspirations to go on a cruise or somewhere, but then things we would like to have come along, and soon poof! the trip idea goes out the window. Since the completion of the bathroom the corner has been begging for a TV, so I got David a TV and wall mounter for his gift. We virtually do not have to come out of the bathroom anymore. With the heated floor it has been by far the warmest room in our house lately, so we pull up a chair and watch our favorite Christmas shows in the bathroom, or do like Kamryn & Anna and put pilliows in the bathtub and lay there.

As for me, for the last 5 years I have been thinking that on my 20th anniversary I "needed" to have a new wedding ring. I have waited patiently for 5 years for this time. I gave subtle hints over the last 5 years, which I don't think he ever really got. So a couple of weeks ago I started giving bigger hints, maybe not so subtle. He got the hint. We went ring shopping on Saturday, and I got a beautiful ring that I really love as much as the first one.

I Love You now David even more than when I married you 20 years ago. We have 20 years more wisdom and experience, and now we know each other so much better than when we married. We know just what each other needs to be happy, we know how to help each other through stress and hard times. You are my best friend that I turn to with good news and bad. I look forward to the next 20 + years!

David's work took him to lunch at an italian family style restaurant, then I made chinese food for dinner. He was full, but ate dinner to be polite. He wanted a simple chocolate cake this year, so that's what he got. Then of course he has to have ice cream with it. So after 2 big meals this was what he had room for desert.
Happy Birthday David!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Today's photo journal is brought to you by..... (I just had flashbacks to Sesame Street and telling you it was brought to you by the letters M, C and by the Number 8!) Okay, on with the photos.
This is a pre-view of our card we are sending. Benji wouldn't look at the camera, but it was good of the rest of us. Posed, but not too posed.

Yea! This was the year that I finally got my "pretty tree". But not without a lot of grief from my children that their ornaments had been downgraded. I wanted to get a live tree again this year, but the tree on the right was our first artificial tree bought on clearance in 1993. It has had a long life, and spent the last 5 years in our crawl space. It loses needles like water through a hose. David had a Charlie Brown moment and felt sorry for the tree and decided to give it one last harrah, so it became our kid tree this year. I think it is standing a little taller don't you? Even if it is a little bald on some of the branches, with all of the ornaments it looks very festive. Every year the kids get one ornament that says something about things they did or liked that year. So multiply that by 4 kids, with one being 18 Christmases, we have a lot of kid ornaments. Throw in all of the homemade ones from pre-school through Elementary school, and it is loaded. A lot of sentimental ornaments. This year Mikaela couldn't find 1997. She was very distraught that she couldn't remember what it was, so I guess the time has come to make a record of the ornaments lest we forget.

By the way, I love the pretty tree too, it is light green and brown. I got a lot of ornaments at after Christmas sales last year. The photo doesn't do it justice.

The first measurable snowfall, and no one wanted to go out with Anna to build a snowman, so she did it all by herself. Pretty good eh?

Grandma Molyneux brought a gingerbread house with her at Thanksgiving. This has become a tradition each year that we decorate a house. The kids thought up the powdered sugar snow to make it look wintery.

Today we put the lights on the outside of the house. I love Christmas Lights!

This was Kamryn's performance at the Littleton Downtown tree lighting. She disappeared while we were waiting. I found her waiting in line with all of the kids who wanted to go on stage and sing a song while we waited. She was the 2nd to last kid to go up, and she sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" She did a really good job, and wasn't the least bit nervous.