The Coleman's Est. 2008: Christmas

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Christmas

It is a Coleman family tradition to kick off the holiday season with a viewing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving night. I don't know anyone who could compete with the Coleman's when it comes to quoting this movie but thanks to this movie Nate is all about "Exterior illumination" Griswold style for Christmas. On our old house in Layton decorating the house with lights did not pose as much a challenge unlike our new home. A two story home with high pitches made for some excitement on the ladder. Nate dealt with his fear of heights to have the best looking house on the street, complete with big colored lights (fitting the 1940's era of our home), and a huge wreath hung on the chimney with white lights and a big red bow. Our house was so bright you could see its glow from my hospital room, when I had Tanner, two blocks away.

Griswold Style

Coleman Style

Christmas season also means Gingerbread house time for the Coleman girls. Julie, Nate's mom, makes the most impressive Gingerbread homes that light up. She makes all the dough and pieces that day before and then Angeline, Emma, and I come over the next day to put them together and decorate them. Below are some pictures of my house. Please note the little Gingerbread family out front complete with Dad (Nate), Mom (Me), and Boy (Tanner).....I believe Sir Charles felt left out because not an hour after getting it home he had eaten Tanner off the front. The remainder of the holiday season we had to watch him like a hawk because when you turned your head he would be sneaking candy or Nate and I off the gingerbread house. The joys of having a very tall, counter surfing dog.

Side

Back

Front with Gingerbread Family

Christmas morning was met with Nate waking up me and Tanner to open presents before heading over to Matt and Angeline's for breakfast and more presents. Nate spoiled me and got me the Cannon Rebel XS Camera with stabilizing zoom lens. It took me a while to figure out how to use it but I LOVE IT!!! I enjoy taking pictures now and they look so much better than with our old digital camera. This camera has made me realize that 80% of what makes a picture good is the camera and settings in which it was shot with. I got Nate a St. Louis Rams t-shirt, Back to the Future Trilogy on Blue-Ray, Toy Story 3 on Blue-Ray (to complete our collection), glass bottled Coke from Mexico, candy, and Scrabble complete with dictionary. Scrabble and the dictionary were kind of a joke with me and Nate because we love playing each other on the iphone but we can not for the life of us figure out what dictionary they are using and why some words work but not others. So this was my solution for that problem, we can now play "old school" and have a Websters Dictionary to "challenge" with. The one person in the family to really hit the lotto was Tanner. Leading up to Christmas he head way more presents under the tree than anyone else and he wasn't even born yet.....luckily he showed up just in time.