Oh Christmas Tree

Traditionally we cut down our Christmas tree at Phil's dad's house from his back property. This year, we decided that a rather large blue spruce was a little too close to our garage. So in the spirit of recycling, Phil and his dad cut down that big blue spruce from our side yard & we used the top as our Christmas tree.

Here is the tree before.

Phil's dad cutting while Phil made sure it didn't fall on the house... very important.

After some small snafus, it finally came down. Of course Tula had to supervise.

Here is the finished product. A little Charlie Brownish, but we love it all the same, because it's ours!

Nothing says Christmas like a whale sweater ... ?

Each Christmas, my dad buys all the guys a "guy gift" to enjoy. Well, this Christmas he decided to enlist the help of my mother & sister to make his "guy gifts." They went to the salvation army and bought every red sweater they had. Then they decorated each one differently for each person. I'll post pictures of all of them later (they are on my mom's camera), but here is Phil in his:

There is a little background story that goes with his sweater (and yes the spout actually lights up!). My mom made an advent calendar that was handed down to me this year. The advent calendar is a felt Christmas tree that has a felt ornament for each day held on by velcro. Well, apparently we had some extra grey felt & mom ran out of ornament ideas to make for the calendar, so we ended up with some random ornaments including a whale, a mouse & a sheep. Now I never thought anything weird of this (don't ask me why) until the day I put the whale on the tree & Phil said "is that a whale?!" I couldn't exactly explain the meaning of the Christmas Whale... but we got a laugh & now a sweater out of it.

Do you know the meaning of the Christmas Whale?

Suprise!!! Happy Bill Knapp's Birthday

My favorite cousin had this birthday wish this year that we just had to grant for him. He wanted a real "Bill Knapp's" birthday (for those of you who don't know what Bill Knapp's is, well... you really missed out).

So, with the careful planning of my aunt & the help of my grandma, sisters, cousins & mom and dad, we pulled it off.... and it was all a suprise! We had the famous biscuits, coleslaw, fried chicken and the most important Bill Knapp's chocolate cake.

Here is the birthday boy:

Aunt Sharon with the birthday cake.

My cousins' daughters got to open gifts too... what would a party be without presents!

Phil and my favorite cousin enjoying their coke in glass bottles.

the Stryker Prom

I know it has been a while since I posted anything worth while. I finally dug out my camera cord (as some of you may know I lost my normal USB connector & have been going crazy without it). Anyways, I now have pictures again!!

A few weekends ago, Phil & I attended the Stryker Holiday Party at Western Michigan University (fondly referred to among my co-workers as the "Stryker Prom."). We ate a lot of food, watched a painful performance of "Stryker Idol," and then let the valet scrape about 6 inches of snow off our car so we could drive about 10 mph home.

They even had a photographer taking pictures of each couple (just like prom). Here are our own pictures of the night.

My team (Erin, me, Deb & A.T.)

We have a lot to be thankful for

This Thanksgiving was full of family, food, fun and more food, followed by a little shopping. Taking all things into consideration, it was a pretty typical Thanksgiving weekend.

We spent Thanksgiving and a few extra days at my parents house. The whole fam came over for dinner on Thursday, which was promptly followed by a family game of Disney Scene It and then the traditional viewing of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (to get us ready for the upcoming winter holiday). I actually did take pictures of our festivities, but I seem to have misplaced my connector that lets me put my pictures on the computer... so until I find that (or until my favorite cousin posts his pictures) you'll have to use your imagination.

Although I was not impressed with the ads, we still got up early on Friday (not as early as past years) and did some shopping. We also did some shopping on Saturday & then some more on Sunday. My biggest purchase of the weekend was an area rug for the new bedroom. It looks very similiar to this one: