Tag Archives: Christmas

A Christmas Story & A $300 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

* This is a sponsored post to promote this free giveaway from King of Chrismas. All opinions are my own.*

I shared a little about our family Christmas celebration last week but before we say good-bye to all the Christmas posts I wanted to share this cute story about Esther.

We are in the final weeks of the High Court Order wait of our Hong Kong adoption process. Which basically means now on week nine we are expecting a call any day now from our social worker letting us know we have been approved and that we can begin to make plans to travel a week or so later. Let’s just say this little momma has been nesting like crazy… more on that in a later post.

During these waiting weeks though Mother’s Choice, the orphanage where Esther lives, has continued to surprise us with just how much they love and care for these children. A few days before Christmas we received a six page document telling us all about Esther. Everything from is she a morning or night person, her favorite foods, how she handles stress, does she sleep with a night light, how she falls asleep, and so much more. It really is valuable information that we will be able to use once we bring her home… plus I can put it in her Baby Book.

But the sweetest of all things is the story Mother’s Choice shared with us back at the beginning of December. Remember when I mailed her Christmas presents to her?

I’m still kicking myself for not taking a picture of the gifts before I wrapped them… oh well.

Any way! One of the presents was for her to open before Christmas. The week she received them she had her visa medical appointment. Her caregiver told her that after the appointment she could open a gift from her Mummy and Daddy. So after bravely going to her appointment she got to open her gift.

I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like this gift because it wasn’t a toy but the pictures they sent and the words they shared destroyed any doubt I had about the gift.

What was the gift?

A red velvety Christmas dress with white fur trim… much like Noah’s in our Christmas card picture and a snow flake bow I crocheted for her.

If only I could share the pictures with you! Her smile is beaming from ear to ear… unlike Noah’s above. It is so adorable!

Her social worker said that after opening the gift she wouldn’t give the dress back to the caregivers. It was hers! They needed it back to prep it before she wore it though. I’m not quite sure what that means but maybe they needed to put her name on the inside or something. Anyway they needed it and my little girl wasn’t giving it up!

The caregivers ended up striking a deal with her. She got to take her nap holding the dress and then was to give it to them after her nap.

How sweet is that? This little girl didn’t need a toy, or a room full of gifts but was more than excited about receiving a pretty red dress!

The social worker said they would send pictures of her wearing it. I’m sure then she will have a big smile on her face also. I can’t wait to see them… maybe I will get some next week once our social worker comes back from Christmas break.

I hope this story warmed your hearts. Again, I wish I could share pictures of her with you but I am not allowed to until the adoption is final. At least in the meantime you can fall in love with her sweet personality.

And now for the part you have all been waiting for… the $300 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

King of Christmas is an online Christmas Tree superstore so to speak. They offer artificial trees of all sizes, pre-lit artificial trees, un-lit artificial trees, and giant artificial trees.

Head on over and check them out.. After Christmas shopping is the best time to buy a tree. Snag a great deal and save yourself the hassle of having to buy one early in the Christmas shopping season later this year.

King of Christmas is being incredibly nice and giving away a $300 Amazon Gift Card. Ok, who wouldn’t like to win that? I could think of plenty of ways to spend three hundred bucks. So how do you enter? Enter using the Raffelcopter widget below… you may need to wait a few seconds for it to load. If the box doesn’t appear for some reason click on the link below and it will route you to the drawing entry page. It’s that easy. The giveaway will remain open until Sunday January 12 midnight MST.

Happy entering!

a
Rafflecopter giveaway

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Family Friday: Christmas Recap

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December has officially blown by. So fast that I hardly posted anything at all about our Christmas decorations and crafts. It happens. For the record, the house was decorated…

and we did make crafts.

Sometimes I have the tendency to take on more than I can possibly manage at the time and with my primary job being to take care of Noah every day other things, like blogging, just have to take a back seat sometimes. Besides blogging, one of my favorite hobbies is crocheting. Big shocker right? That’s why I created Color Created Family. Color Created Family has been such a blessing and enjoyment… especially this past month when my scarves for elves became a popular item.

(There are still nine scarves looking for an elf. in effort to clear inventory the price has been reduced to $4 per scarf.)

But as much as I love crocheting for my Etsy shop this year I wanted to spend a little time crocheting for others in my family. I don’t know why but I get giddy thinking about making presents for others. Handmade gifts have their own personalized touch and while they may not cost as much as a store bought gift they still say “I love you.”

On ML’s sided of the family Noah has five cousins.. all three and under. So a couple of months back I started working on their presents.

Zebra hats for everyone! Every hat is crocheted in a different accent color. Instagram followers you may remember Noah’s from this fall at Churchill Downs.

I hope to make Esther one as well. The mane for her hat will be bright yellow.

Once I got all the hats finished I started on a present for my mom.

I found the pattern for this shawl in a magazine and knew then that that was the perfect gift for her. My only concern was would I have time to crochet 32 granny squares plus the trim work in time for Christmas. With less than a month to make it I finished it with around four hours to spare before opening gifts! That may be a close call for some but all that matters is that I finished it and that she loved it. Now that Christmas is over I hope to do a little crocheting for myself. Hopefully. We will see.

What good are presents without a little celebration? This year we were fortunate to visit both families in one four day trip to Memphis and North Mississippi and still make it back home in time for the Christmas eve service at church.

First up was my parents house in all it’s elf glory.

I’m not sure what your Christmas traditions were growing up but my sister and I always received matching Christmas pajamas on Christmas eve so that we would be matching Christmas morning. This year my mom decided after 29 years we might have enough Christmas pajamas by now. She was right. So she decided to buy my sister and I matching Christmas outfits instead.

My sister and I were a little nervous thinking that she might have bought us Christmas sweaters but were more than excited when we unwrapped our gift to find a piko top and Christmas legging instead. Score! I could get used to this new Christmas tradition.

Sunday afternoon we headed up to ML’s parents house for their family get together. Four siblings with spouses and six grandchildren makes for an interesting and fun time. Monday ML’s sister wanted to take her baby to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop. ML and I have chosen not to make a really big deal out of Santa to Noah. She knows who Santa is and waves at him… from a distance but I just didn’t see the need to take her to the mall and attempt the obligatory “Santa Picture” when most likely it would result in crying. Until Monday. We figured why not join his sister in line… and wait an hour to see Santa. Noah liked waving at him from a distance and said she wanted to see him but I knew the truth. She would freak out when it became our turn in line. I was right. But you know what? After waiting that long I sort of felt like I needed a picture to show for it… so here’s proof that we saw Santa.

She is as scared as she looks in that picture but immediately afterwards was so excited that she got a candy cane and tattoo from Santa. Every time we passed him in the store she would wave vigorously at him. So I guess the incident didn’t scare her too badly. But I certainly don’t think she will be up for the Character Breakfast at Hong Kong Disney!

We spent Christmas day at home relaxing and opening presents from each other. It’s a whole lot easier to focus on celebrating the birth of Christ when you are not hurriedly rushing from Christmas dinner to the next and end up spending half the day on the road. This year we opted for the “Four Present” idea for each other.

something to wear
something you need
something you want
something you read

I thought it would be hard to figure out what Noah really wanted for Christmas. I mean we are talking about a two year old who doesn’t grasp the concept of giving and receiving yet but after one trip to Toys ‘R Us I knew what she wanted… a doll and stroller.

I was right. She spent the better part of Christmas day and yesterday pushing that stroller around the house and outside at one point. She loves it and knew what it was before even finishing unwrapping the stroller. It makes me so happy to know that she loves her “something you want” gift. Hopefully every year will be this easy but somehow I doubt that… we still have her tweenage and teenage years to go!

So tell me about your Christmas celebrations? Favorite present? Favorite Christmas memory? Did you attend a Christmas Eve service? We went to one at our church on Christmas eve and one at ML’s parents’ church the day before. I loved the focus of both of them and was moved to tears several times just thinking about the love Christ has for me. So much love that he would leave a perfect and holy heaven to come to earth and lead the perfect life to die for me. What child is this? Christ the King!

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Sneak, Peek, or Look Away?

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Ok, who else is completely surprised that Christmas is only a week away? I know its not just me So if you have any last minute shopping, crafting, or baking to do now is the time to get on it!

Source: 123rf.com via Krystle @ Color Transformed Family on Pinterest

I need to get on all three of the above. There are just a few more people on our list that we need to buy gifts for… thankfully the end is in sight. Some family members will be receiving hand made gifts… crochet gifts and I need to finish those up. Don’t worry men in the family (not sure if any of them read the blog), I promise not to crochet your gift. The past few years I have made peppermint bark for some of my extended family. This year I plan on baking them something yummy but would like to try something different. Don’t worry Aunt Beverly… there will be chocolate involved!

And finally, once it’s all said I done I will actually ned to wrap all these gifts that I have bought. Hopefully, I will get it done in enough time to enjoy them under the tree for a day or two before everything gets torn into. Speaking of gifts… do you ever try and sneak a peek at yours? Do you snoop around the house looking for your gifts? Or do you enjoy the surprise of unwrapping your gifts?

ML never has to worry about me. I love to be surprised and hate knowing even a hint of my gift. For example, I just ordered a gift off of Amazon and while I was checking out I noticed he ordered a gift to Noah and me through my account. I immediately looked awake from the picture and had to fight to keep my eyes from reading the product listing. Now, I am trying to get the glimpse of the image out of my mind because I want to be completely surprised when I unwrap it on Christmas.

What would you have done if you knew you could get a sneak peek at a gift you were getting for Christmas? Would you have clicked on the image and read all about including the user reviews? Or are you like me and would have immediately deleted it? I can’t wait to hear your responses!