and all through the Edwards house, not a creature was stirring, except for the 2 yr old running around in the cutest smocked outfit ever.

My brother and his wife hosted Mr. vB and myself for xmas this year, along with my parents, and Mr. vB’s brother, his wife and their kids.  {Unfortunately the other vB’s came down with a horrible respiratory virus just days before xmas and they all had to stay quarantined.  Don’t worry- we sent them food and presents!} We normally celebrate Christmas at my parents house in Newport News, but since their house is still under construction from the fire, we decided to switch things up this year!  Thanks so much to Travers and Marty for hosting us!  We had such a great time and your new house was the perfect spot to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas Eve

At least he wasn’t putting the crayon in his mouth!

Baby T was quite excited about his new name puzzle from Cece and Honey.

Honey read Twas the night Before Xmas and then it was time for bed!

Next was the fun part! Putting together Santa’s gifts for Baby Travers.

Everyone was in on the fun!

Christmas Day

After a yummy breakfast we opened our Christmas Stockings.

Then we moved all the presents downstairs and tried to get Baby T to come see what Santa had brought.

He seemed to be in a bit of shock when he saw it all!

Santa was very good to me this year and he apparently read my blog post about my dining room face-lift.  My mums has offered to help me sew new dining room drapes and recover the new dining room chair seats.  I’ve got an idea of what I want- now I just need to find it.  No sweat-right?!

Hope everyone enjoys the last days of 2009!  2010 is going to be here before we know it!!

Growing up, we counted down the days to xmas with a great felt advent calendar.  It was shaped like an Christmas tree and had 24 “ornaments” to hang on the tree as each day passed.  My mom likes to tell the story of how every year I would entertain myself for hours standing in front of the tree rearranging and organizing all the ornaments.  {it was my A+ Personality already starting to shine at such an early age} My memories are of fighting my brother over which ornament we wanted to hang.  We had to take turns, every other day, of choosing and hanging an ornament and it was pure torture.

As I got older, the arguing over the ornaments got less and less.  But the excitement of getting the advent calendar out every Dec 1st never faded.  My mom had passed the calendar on to me a few years ago, and then I passed it on to my brother for them to start the same traditions with the Baby Bird.  It was hard to give it up, but my mom promised that she was going to make a second one for me and Mr.vB.

Well unfortunately my mom had just gotten the advent calendar back from my brother and had placed it in the spare bedroom at her house for safe keeping, when the house fire happened.  Along with all the things my parents lost that day was my beloved advent calendar.

It took my mom and I several days to remember all the 24 ornaments that adorned the original calendar, but we did it.  It’s amazing how you can look at something for so many years and then have such a hard time remembering everything about it.

So along with working on rebuilding her house, my mom put in time remaking the advent calendar.  Two in fact, one for me and one for my brother.  She ended up purchasing pre-made advent calendars very similar to our original one, and is currently using the ornaments.  But she hand made the felt tree and backdrop for the ornaments to hang on.  The plan for 2010 is to hand-make the ornaments as well.

Here is my NEW Advent Calendar.

Isn’t it cute??  See why I was so upset when we lost the old one?

Some of the pre-made ornaments are cute, like the gingerbread man, but some have got to go.  The original calendar had a Santa Claus ornament that was always last to be hung on Christmas Eve.   My mom agrees that the Santa is the first ornament that we need to hand make!

Thanks Mums.. I love it!

Also wanted to show you guys how big my paper-whites have gotten.  Plus tease you abit with my xmas decorations.

That mirror normally hangs over the mantle, but has been relocated for the holiday season.  No worries though-it won’t be sitting crooked on the console table for 30 days.  Mr. vB and I want to add some picture molding to that section of the wall so it can be properly hung.

We still haven’t picked out our tree yet- that is on the to-do list for this week!  Hopefully by this weekend we will have everything up and decorated! I can’t wait.  Did I mention yet that I love Christmas?!?  ha-ha