Homemade Christmas

We are very lucky and had a wonderful Christmas again this year, with all our family around us. What could be better? Esther and Nick did these wood burned temples, for each of us,with the date that we were married. Esther says that Nick did most of the burning and I must say, he is very patient and talented. He has hidden talents that we look forward to finding out about next year too!!!! The village in the back ground is just some of the many pieces my Mom has done for me through the years. Everyone gets them once they are married. They have all started their treasured collections. Thanks Mom for the beautiful homemade village pieces. This year I got this gorgeous wreath for my Castle door. Alex and Jacob, (with a little help from Cortnie), made these adorable hand print,Christmas tree, cards. Going right into my scrapbook after the new year. Thanks Boys!!! They also made these beautiful glitter glue snowflakes and pine cone ornaments. For more details see their blog. http://vivalosvillezcas.blogspot.com/ All the kids came over and helped decorate our Christmas trees this year, which is much more fun than doing it ourselves. We think a new Christmas tradition was started this year. Thanks for the beautiful tree decorations. We understand Myra and Myles made some too, but they were taken by the grinch while they dried outside of RV.

Esther and Nick gave us a babysitter-assistant-bouncy for not only Wyatt, but all those babies that follow in the future. They also gave us car seats for both vehicles so that we can transport grandchildren safely. I think that sounds like Officer Jones had some Christmas list ideas. GOOD JOB NICK! Underneath the bouncy is the squishy mats that Cortnie and Arthur gave us to put under the kitchen rug to assist grandma castles bad feet. What a thoughtful gift idea. Thanks Villezcas'

Emily (& Bryan), always make sure we have fun calendars with pictures of our favorite little people on them for the new year. They come complete with all the important dates to remember. Thanks Mortensen's! We love our calendars, when we retire them, they go straight to our scrapbook.

Thing one and thing two, (AKA the Villezcas boys) made us a fun fun pillowcase. Our house is filled with the wonderful reminders of our most precious family. We love love it! There are some definite window painters in training. ( What a great addition to the dungeon.)

Myra made Grandpa Castle and I these adorable hand painted mugs for our morning tea. Since we have tea every morning we are really going to enjoy these every day. Thanks Myra, looks like you may be on your way to the window painting crew too! This is our giant poinsettia that Wyatt got me. It has looked beautiful all season and will probably be beautiful clear into the summer. Probably how long it will take for us to get all the decorations down and put away again. We love music here at the Castle and we want to make sure our children and grandchildren do too. Wyatt got me these cute bells to add to our musical instrument collection. We are busy getting some music sheets enlarged so that we can group play the bells. Thanks Sugar Bear! At least one gift each year, arrives late. Last year it was Myra's piano, this year it was Bryan's drums. Sorry for the delay, but they have arrived now. Nick and Emily play the violin, Esther plays the piano, Arthur plays the drums and guitar (I think), Bryan plays the drums, trumpet and guitar, Wyatt plays guitar and some piano, violin, trumpet and flute. I took piano and clarinet lessons, but alas, I play none of those. I can play chimes and bells!!! Wyatt and I saw some cute little animals at JC Pennys that had the wheat or rice pads in them, so we bought some cute monkeys and made our own. Since we are late getting our Christmas baskets out we are putting them in New Years baskets.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make Christmas such a fun memory. We sure do have a talented and generous family.

I hope someone took pictures and blogs about our caroling this year. We had a great time.