Christmas 2020

For Christmas this year, things were still a little unsettled.  While we had originally hoped to be in a new home by now, we were starting to realize we may be spending an extended time in the corporate apartment.  It also threw a wrench in school planning.  I had full intentions of Brenna attending either Atascocita or Kingwood High School.  Her 8th grade year was quickly coming to a close and if we were in the apartment when that happened, she was getting districted to Summer Creek.  This added even more concern to finding a home quickly because I really didn't want to switch high schools.  The whole point has always been that we would relocate with company as needed until she started high school and then we wanted to stay stationary for those 4 years.  It would be ridiculous that after all these moves she would have to change high schools simply because we couldn't find a house in the place we were already located!  But again, Covid's impact on the housing market was not making this an easy task.

We decided that spending Christmas in the apartment wasn't really what we wanted so we went home to Mississippi for Christmas for the first time since Brenna started Kindergarten.  It was a nice visit after being away for so long in Scotland.  We enjoyed the time with family, visited Christmas in Columbia for some ice skating on Main Street, and caught up with all the cousins. 

A Quiet Christmas

Our first Christmas in Scotland was very slow and relaxed.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, ongoing work at the Jacob's plant has put limitations on our travel.  Because of this, we spent our holiday break enjoying everything that the Edinburgh Christmas season had to offer.  The biggest of those being the Edinburgh Christmas Market.  Edinburgh really is a magical city and it's dripping in history and culture like no where I've ever been before.  Even I've surprised myself at how much I've enjoyed living in a tourist city, but there's something surreal about walking down Princes Street as you pass the Scott Monument with Edinburgh Castle looming on the rocks above you.  That experience was enhance with the holiday cheer of the Edinburgh Christmas Market.  I had always heard about European Christmas markets, but the actual experience is much different than anything I've ever had in the US.  The market runs from mid-November until the first week of January.  All of Princes Street Gardens is transformed into a Christmas revival of sorts, with shows, rides, shopping, and food.  Oh the food!  That's what kept bringing us back again and again.  We probably visited the market a half a dozen times during its 6 week run.  The german sausage, steak rolls, prawns, and crab rolls were incredible, and couple that with Belgium waffles, crepes, and all the chocolate and we would have to waddle out to the bus stop after each visit!  We rode the Edinburgh Eye ferris wheel, found our way through the Christmas tree maze, and shopped all the Harry Potter shops.

We brought over a few Christmas decoration, but I had to order a new tree because the plugs are different here.  I ordered a reasonably priced 6.5 foot tree, and although it clearly stated the height on the box, the tree seemed to be very shy of it's description!  Brenna and I put it up one day and when Jacob got home from work he asked "Where's the rest of the tree?"  Apparently 6.5 ft in the US is not equal to 6.5 ft in the UK.

Brenna kept busy with friends over the break with Christmas parties, ice skating, and sleep overs.  We walked through the Christmas at the Botanics at the Royal Botanical Gardens, which turned out to be a dud.  While the Christmas Market was exceptional, the holiday decorations in the area certainly weren't up the standards we were accustomed to in Texas.  We paid nearly £50 to walk a mile in the freezing cold through flood lights shining up into the trees.  It was a little underwhelming.

Edinburgh Christmas Market

Christmas 2018

As I mentioned on our Thanksgiving post, our time in Texas is coming to close much quicker than we expected.  Thanksgiving and Christmas proved to be challenging as our normal holidays routines competed with other immediate priorities.  We discovered that despite our short time in Texas, we were moving...again.  This is an unplanned change for us.  We had hoped to have a longer stay in Houston (or even just the USA) since it feels like we’ve barely just returned from Canada.  But God had other plans for us.

This time we're preparing for a move to Britain.  Jacob has been transferred to the United Kingdom.  Our new home will be Edinburgh, Scotland.  If fact, Jacob is already there, which is what caused the disruption to my usual holiday routines.  He moved across the pond in early December.  We’ve spent the better part of the holidays managing the mountains of paperwork that goes along with international moves, arranging temporary living for Jacob, applying to British preparatory schools for Brenna, and searching for a new place to call home.

Because of all this, we were just excited to have Jacob back home for Christmas.  We mostly spent our time close to home, enjoying the downtime.  We finished up school with some fun Christmas themed activities and hung out with friends in the neighborhood.  Brenna was excited to be pick for a solo in the schools Christmas Choir Concert and we were also proud to find out that she was selected by the WLMS staff as Student of the Month.

The Rest of Christmas

I'm ridiculously behind on blogging for a lot of different reasons, but mostly because life just keeps getting in the way and I don't take my big camera out as often as I used to.  Still, after nearly 10 years of blogging this journal, I'm determined not to let this digital memory album lapse.  So, in my attempt to catch back up, you get Christmas in July!

The rest of the Christmas holiday was slow paced and laid back.  My Mom and Dad came for a visit. Brenna got some fishing in with Pawpaw at our neighborhood's fish camp and she enjoyed the Christmas themed dress-up days at school. 

Christmas Caribbean Cruise Vacation

We've taken a vacation every summer since Brenna's been born... except this past summer.  Our summer was consumed with the move, temporary living, and building the house.  I knew trying to squeeze in a vacation would be a lost cause, so in early May I booked a cruise for our next school break; Christmas.  At the time, I didn't know that we'd be spending Thanksgiving in the Smoky Mountains with the other McAlister's or that Jacob would be in Dubai the week before the cruise was scheduled.  The end of the year was travel laden to say the least, but given the tough year we'd had with the move, Hurricane Harvey, and losing the cats, this turned out to be a nice break for just the three of us.  

We decided not to tell Brenna about the cruise and save it as a Christmas surprise.  I love vacation planning, and this was the biggest secret I've ever had to keep from her.  There were several moments over those 8 months that I almost let the secret slip or just wanted to give it away anyway.  But I stayed strong, and as Christmas approached a small gift wrapped box appeared under the tree.  We told Brenna it was the only Christmas gift she would received from us this year, and while she tried to be a good girl and say she was fine with it, I could see her emotions bubbling up.  She was crazy curious!

On the last day of school, before the winter break, Jacob took off early and we attended Brenna's class Christmas party.  After the party, she came home with us and we sat her down and gave her a choice.  Since she was only getting the one present, she could open it now, to enjoy during the winter break, or she could leave it until Christmas morning and do things the traditional way.  Just as I expected, she jumped at the chance to open the gift.  Her overall reaction was much more subdued than I expected.  Once reality set in, she was thrilled about the vacation, but slightly disappointed that I didn't include her in the vacation planning like I usually do.

Christmas 2016

At least the first post of 2017 is the Christmas post, even if it doesn't show up until the end of February.  Christmas was alittle different than we had planned for this year.  Jacob was away for work the first three weeks of December, so it was just me and Brenna leading up to Christmas.  The original plan was that once Jacob returned we would enjoy a quiet Christmas here and then afterward we would fly back home to Mississippi to visit with his family.  Unfortunately, the plant has some significant issues and it impacted our plans.  Our two-week holiday turned into weeks of work with no down-time and a lot of stress, for Jacob of course.  Brenna and I, while disappointed about the sudden change of plans, still enjoyed the break and the time off school.

We did all of our usual Christmas activities here in Sarnia.  Brenna kicked off the season with her Girls Alive Christmas Tea.  She enjoyed getting all dressed up for a fun and fancy tea party with her church friends and favorite stuffy.  We made a shopping trip to Detroit to check out the Christmas decorations and finish up our Christmas lists.  This year we even marched in the Santa Parade and collected canned goods and donations for the Inn of the Good Shepherd, our local soup kitchen.  It was Brenna's first parade to actually be a part of.

Christmas 2015

The Christmas season begins especially early here.  Since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, Christmas celebrations begin immediately following Remembrance Day (Canadian version of Veterans Day) which is mid-November.  Our holiday celebration started at the Imperial Theater with Mary Poppins.  One of the mom's planned a Mom and Daughter day for Brenna, Jenna, and Sofi.  It turned out to be an all day event since it happened on a Sunday.  The girls had Christmas Choir practice together that morning, followed by church, then lunch, and next we were off to see Mary Poppins.  The girls had a great time.  They enjoyed a taste of Perfect Punch, a Spoon Full of Sugar, and we all learned to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!  That same weekend was the Winter Wonderland Festival at Degroots.  Brenna made lots of crafts, got her face painted, took a horse-drawn carriage ride, saw a magic show, and got to pet real reindeer.  Christmas was already off to a strong start!

The Really Big Christmas Post

I got behind on blogging during the holidays, which happens every year.  So I decided to roll everything into one big monster Christmas post.

Unfortunately, this year we caught "The Christmas Crud."  We obviously have no immunity for the kind of yucky stuff that is circulating here.  Over the month of Decemeber, Brenna caught a stomach bug, a cough, and then a cold.  We did have a couple of uncomfortable days that were filled with kitty snuggles and lots of movies and computer games.  Luck for us she always bounces back quickly.

Everything Christmas and Two Front Teeth

Wow!  December was a big month!  It was fun, but busy!  In all our merry-making, I got a little behind on blogging so I've decided to roll everything into one really big Christmas post.  So here's how our holiday went!

We kicked off the holiday festivities with a Mom and Me Christmas PJ Party.  Three friends of mine hosted the party and it was for just the moms and kids.  They asked that everyone wear their pjs and instead of bringing food for the party, to bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to the Star Foundation Holiday Toy Drive.  It was a fun way to help teach a good lesson on giving!  Both the kids and the moms and a fantastic time!

McAlister Christmas 2012

In 11 years of living in Texas, this makes only the second time we haven't gone home to Mississippi for Christmas.  The first being the year Brenna was born and we thought it best not to subject baby Brenna (meaning ourselves) to the extensive travel that usually takes place with a newborn in tow.  Of course, being with our families during this very special time of year makes all the effort totally worth it, especially the enjoyment Brenna gets from seeing everyone!  Unfortunately, that doesn't make the travel any less painful.  Every year involves lots of luggage, plane flights, rental cars, and longs hours of driving back and forth across the state of Mississippi.  I work to keep Brenna occupied and content on the plane and in the car as the miles roll by and worry about luggage weight limits with every gift that's opened.

This year things were alittle different.  With Brenna being in kindergarten now, we're restricted to her school holidays.  This year our Texas school calendar got out later than our Mississippi family and Mississippi schools went back earlier than we did.   Because matching up the calendars proved to be a problem, we settled for the promise of coming home sometime early in the new year.

So, this Christmas has been very different from what we've known in the past.  We had a nice, quiet, and slow paced holiday filled with lots of Christmas fun.

First new thing, my Christmas tree!  I've spent years torturing myself (and Jacob) with my old, limb-by-limb, non-lit tree.  Last year after Christmas my Mom found a great 12-foot, pre-lit, slim-line, pop-up Chistmas tree on clearance for 75% off!!!!  I made my Dad haul it to me all the way from Mississippi!!!  It was totally worth it!  I loved the new tree!  It reached all the way to our second story!  In 10 years of decorating my own Christmas tree, this is my favorite by far!

Christmas is in the Giving

As the week of Christmas drew near, so did the plan for Christmas Candy!  It's become a holiday tradition over the last couple of years to show our friends and neighbors how much we appreciate them through the gift of food!  This year I stuck with my Mom's recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats.  This was one of my favorites when I was kids and since there seems to be so much chocolate circulating during the holidays I think its a nice change of pace.  Because of the time and amount needed, I decided to tackle the actually candy making alone this year while Brenna was still in school.  However, I did save the packing up for her, which made for a very merry after-school activity.

Kindergarten Christmas

School has been packed full of Christmas fun these last few weeks.  There's been fun Christmas assignments, lots of Christmas crafts, and exciting Christmas parties.  The first week of the month, Brenna came home with her Christmas Bell (colored rainbow, of course) that she made herself, along with her weekly poetry journal assignment that told the purpose of the Christmas Bell.

December first until Christmas

Is the longest time of year.

It seems as though Christmas

Never will get here.

How many days until Christmas?

It's kind of hard to count.

So this little bell will help you

To know the exact amount.

Remove one link each night

As the sandman casts his spell

And Christmas day will here

By the time you reach the bell.

She has faithfully cut one link each night in her count down to Christmas and she grows more and more excited with each link that comes off.  Also, we had Polar Express Day on Thursday, where the kids got to wear their PJs to school and enjoy a ride on the Frost Polar Express.  The kids all got tickets to board the train and then kicked back and enjoyed the movie with hot cocoa and marsh mellows.  

It Snowed in Houston!

Not really, but kinda!  Good enough for the kids to have some fun.  Our neighborhood hosted the 2nd Annual Long Meadow Farms Christmas Party the first week of December.  It was 82 degrees, but we still had snow!  There was a snow hill (man-made of course), rides, rock walls, crafts, and fun for the kids.

The kids loved the snow.  They played nearly two hours just pummeling each other and us over and over again.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Brenna usually sings in the bath tub.  Tonight she was singing the Christmas carol she learned at school today in Music Class.  This is how the conversation went.

Brenna -  ".... three french hens, two turtles doves, and a portridge in the pantry!"
Me -  "Brenna, its a partridge in a pear tree"
Brenna -  "No its not!"
Me - "Yes it is!"
Brenna - "Are you sure?"
Me - "Do you know what a partridge is?"
Brenna - "Yeah, its a picture!"
Me - "No, that's a portrait!  A partridge is a kind of bird."
Brenna - "Oh, that makes more sense, because we don't put birds in the pantry!"

Christmas Portraits

I take alot of pictures.  But, like I've mentioned before, they're never portraits.  They're just snap shots of our life as we live it!  As I work more and more on photography and with my camera, I've come to realize that's all I really want.  I want picture memories of our life as we know it now.  I admire pictures from professional photographers and the engineering side of me enjoys working out the mechanics of how they took the picture, but that's as far as my enthusiasm goes.

With that in mind, as Christmas time approached I began to dread Christmas cards!  I knew I wanted a cute picture in a cute dress that captured just how spunky Brenna is right now.  Unfortunately, I also knew that Brenna would not be thrilled to set out on a mission to take posed portraits.  Brenna can't be still, ever!  So anything I did would have to be fast and candid and that didn't exactly jive with the beautiful, timeless portrait I had in my mind (which I probably wasn't technically competent enough to produce anyway!)  I had images of beautiful landscaped backgrounds and sunset lighting with styled hair and perfect smiles!  Ha!  What was I thinking!?!?  In the end, my extravagant photo opportunity turned into an impromptu walk down to the creek behind our house and just praying that something would turn out!

The actual picture taking was painful, since Brenna didn't want to cooperate and my patience was running thin.  We gave up after only 30 minutes!  I had way more outtakes than smiles, but we did walked away with a few that I loved!  Here's my spunky little girl!  Christmas cards are on they're way!  I hope you enjoy the outtakes too!

Christmas 2011

Back to blogging!  It was a very long and very busy December!  Finally, all the candy has been eaten, the decorations have been put away, and I have time to share a few pictures from the month.

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with friends, family, and a few unexpected surprises!  We started off the month with parties, parties, parties! We had three birthday parties, two Christmas parties, and a Disney Character breakfast that kicked off our celebration season all in the same week!  Whew!  Here's a few shots from Avery and Brady's birthday parties!  I don't know how my friend Jamie does it with both her children's birthdays and Christmas all in the same month! Brady's birthday was a cowboy theme, hence the hat!  Avery's birthday was at our gymnastic gym and the kids had a blast!

Hello 2011!

Well, another year has come and gone.  I guess time flies when your having fun!  We had a wonderful and action-packed Christmas.  We enjoyed a slow week at home with Jacob being off work.  On Christmas day, we all hit the ground running.  We had to wake Brenna to kick off Christmas and in her sleepy state her only concern was whether Santa had eaten all the cookies.  Only after we closely evaluated that he did indeed consume both the cookies and the milk "He must have been hungry, Mama!" did we moved on to gifts.  Once we made our way through the pile, Brenna began to play, while I began unpackaging toys and putting together our new Toy Story tent and Jacob went outside to jerk down (literally) all the outdoor Christmas decorations.  Within 2 hours everyone and everything was crammed into the car and we were headed to the airport!

Santa ALREADY Came to Town!

Big Thanks to the Richmond Fire Department for giving Santa a lift to our neighborhood for a merry wave and a jolly Ho! Ho! Ho!  See you again on Christmas Day Santa!

Christmas at the McAlister's

As a child, every Christmas my Mom decorated the house inside and out with lavish christmas trees, animated figures, and singing Santas!  I know thats not what Christmas is all about, but through the eyes of a child, all those decorations smeared from wall to wall made Christmas feel that much more special.

Now, as an adult, I want to give Brenna those same happy memories.  So, like every year before this, we pulled out all the decorations and got to work.  This year was even more enjoyable, since Brenna played a much bigger part.  She "helped" so much that what is normally a 2-day job, turned into 3.  But that's ok, she had so much fun this year putting up the Christmas tree, decorating it, and hanging the stockings.  She took a particular liking to my collection of Christmas bells (which she kept calling cow bells!).  Here's a few pictures of the start of our McAlister Christmas.

The Holidays Are Here!

Well, we've been busy!  With visitors and shopping and Christmas decorating!  So there's been little time for pictures.  But we did manage to sneak in one very important one!