Christmas moment

I love Christmas....and all the moments that come with them.

Getting the tree up...the stockings too.

eatting chocolate from the advent calendar.

Lighting our four pine trees outside and seeing them glow

Of all the holiday traditions in our house my favorite has to be the Christmas pyramid... 

which was the best purchase I made while living abroad.

It has its own magic as the angels twirl and the bells chime.  love it.

And love this "moment" from Tessa's first Christmas with us last year.

This year we made it to Brunch with Santa.   Three of the four kiddos were there.  It was the first year Judson chose basketball over Brunch with Santa.  I get it, but I missed him being there for this tradition.   It is a wonderful event and of course the main event is giving your wish list to Santa.  All the kids were very excited to do so.  I had my camera ready as I knew I might catch a "moment".

2 years ago I caught this moment when Jack was 2 years old and met Santa for the first time.   

Oh, the trauma.   .....but it just makes me laughout loud still!!

So, I was ready for any possible moment this year. 

With Tessa being really excited about meeting Santa and showing no signs of worry I really didn't think she would have the same kind of moment Jack did. 

That is until Daddy put her on that strange man's lap.   That is not o.k. and Tessa told the world, just as a 2 year old will do.   

And yes, it was hilarious again.   I was (not so secretly) happy to have 

another classic Christmas "moment".

It still makes me giggle....what is wrong with me?

holiday card for you....

There are sooo many people in out lives that I want to connect with during the holidays.    This year I wanted to give people a little something to have a jolly chuckle about.   (Maybe I needed that for myself too!)


For all of you in our lives through this blog world, through the internet....thank you for touching my life. For all of my friends and family that keep up on our crazy lives here....I love you.  Thank you for your presence in our lives.

And so I give to you the Rikkers Holiday card 2011!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours.....

"Oh, what we will do for a silent night"

Disclaimer:

All Rikkers kids merrily consented to being tied in Christmas lights

 and silenced with apples in their mouths to give Mommy and Daddy a "Silent Night".

It was nice while it lasted!

Happy Holidays!  May you be bit by the spirit of the holidays.....Love, the Rikkers

i heart faces- innocent wonder

Innocent Wonder.....

is the first time our sweet girl saw the beautiful glow of the Christmas pyramid while Drew tells her about how the angels fly around as the bells ring softly.  It was beautiful to see her experience this family tradition with her own innocence and wonder.

Christmas morning- found!

I 

Joy to the world!!!!  It is a Festivus miracle!   (fyi, Festivus is a Seinfeld reference)  tee hee

I found the Christmas morning photos!  I don't even know how. It was totally random! All of a sudden I saw the file when I was uploading to Snapfish.  Somehow Snapfish was able to read the "unreadable files" that I didn't even know made it onto my computer!  I loaded everything to snapfish and then copied the photos off to my computer!  (I am loyal Snapfish customer forever now!)

I was terribly upset about losing these photos.  It was after all our first Christmas as a family with Tessa home....and Tessa's first Christmas.  Plus, I am a photo-freak and hate to lose any photos at all much less sentimental ones.  I even lost sleep over this and just felt sad.

Funny thing....I feel like I had just made peace with losing the photos.  I vented about it, blogged about it and then I put it into perspective.  There are far worse things and that they are just photos after all.  But I am sooooo happy to have them.  And will cherish them more than ever!

 Our first Christmas morning has a family is saved!  yeh!
Here are a few of my favorites.

The DS was on the top of Drew's list!  He was thrilled! Especially since I told him he had to be 21 to get one!

Andy and the ipad.   The best thing!

Jack's much need indoor trampoline!

Tessa meets and DANCE, DANCE, DANCES with Brobee!

She wore him out....literally!

Judson....loves his "got crickets" t-shirt!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

We have our photos of our first Christmas morning as a family!

ahhh.....

who, who

This is my little owl friend.  We haven't named him yet, but he is deserving of a special name.   I have been exhaustively searching on-line for an owl cookie jar.  Not exactly sure why.  Strange thing to search for for hours, right? But looking for my perfect owl cookie jar became a little bit of an obsession for me!

Why?   Well, I first saw an owl cookie jar in passing in the kitchen of my favorite show, Modern Family, and just loved the idea of having a "kooky" cookie jar.  Something my fun, unique that my kids will remember dipping their little hands into for my cookies.  I really think that is it....creating a sweet memory...."kooky for cookies".

He now sits on my kitchen counter and asks
"Who, who wants a cookie?".....me, of course!

"Who, who stole a cookie from the cookie jar?"....me of course!

He is a really happy, friendly owl, though and  he doesn't judge.  If you look on-line at owl cookie jars you will see there are many crabby, judgmental owls out there.  Who needs that in their kitchen cookie jar?  Not me.  I mean, look at him, he is advertising his cookies for pete's sake on his nice round tummy.  And he is wise (he knows cookies are necessary), I mean isn't anyone who has ever worn a graduation cap?

So, after an exhaustive search on-line, many lost ebay auctions and one broken owl jar (Mom's gift to me) that was delivered, Mom and I decided after Christmas to have some fun antiquing.  I really didn't expect to run into an owl cookie jar as my search had been solely on-line.  Funny thing is that this guy was in an antique store right here in town all along!  Just waiting and asking,

"Who, who will take me home, fill me with cookies and love me?"...me, of course!

Thank you Mom for my cookie jar.  I love it....and I love that we found it together and will think of you every time I dip my little hand in for a cookie.

($%*@&! the lost Christmas

We had a wonderfully, relaxing, exciting and fun Christmas.  Full of believing, love and giving.  Christmas Eve at church. Juddy, Drew and Jack all sang in front of the church.  We went out to dinner as a family.  Santa was up late but did a fantastic job.  That Santa is so savvy.   Christmas morning was wonderful.  Why have I not shared our Christmas photos?  What is wrong with Jeni?
#$@%@#....you know what that means.  Gad-nab-it!  ;)

Our Christmas morning photos are gone.  Utterly, totally erased.  And I did it.  I am so bummed and feeling so angry with myself.  It was a really quick flick of my index finger in a mindless moment.

For some unknown reason a camera error popped up as I was uploading my Christmas morning photos.  I went to click the ok button to acknowledge the #$@)%* error and then realized that instead I just "clicked" the delete all photos button.
oh...#@($)*%@#!!  And then there was nothing.

And I have already taken down all the decorations, so I can't try and fake a few Christmas morning photos.  Darn it.  Tessa's first Christmas morning.  Our family all together on Christmas morning.

Here is the bright side (there always needs to be one).  Andy took quite a bit of video on our old tape video recorder.  So, we do have that.  Maybe I can play that on our t.v. and try and get some still shots.

Here are a few random shots from Christmas Eve and than later on Chrismas Day.

Judson and Drew singing in the Children's Choir....and Candle light during Silent night...beautiful

Tessa's all-time favorite xmas gift "Brobee" (held by Jack).  He danced and sang.  Notice past tense.  I think she wore him out within a couple hours.  Sometimes he will work. Today he did not at all.  Poor Brobee.  Jack and Tes are standing on Jack's indoor trampoline.  Yes, I am somewhat crazy for indoor energy exertion.   A must for winters with 3 boys.  Another huge hit, and it is still in the family room.

Andy's brother, Ben, with sweet baby Ingrid and Tessa.

Autntie Alex with Baby Ingrid...adorable little sweetie pie

Notice Tessa's red kitchen (from Christmas morning) in the background and the mess all around.  That is Christmas morning only worse.   Here Jack is in an action shot and loving his "shooter"!

So, that is what I have until I take still shots from video.  There are worse things in the world, I know.  Losing photos is a bummer.  And that is where it will stay.  A big bummer.  I am just glad we had our Christmas together...a really wonderful Christmas.

love at first sight.....it's a Christmas Pyramid

Ah, love at first sight.  The Christmas pyramid.  This is on Jeni's list of favorite things!  For the full effect you need to see the way it glows, how the heat of the flames push the fan blades so the angels fly and the bells ring so softly.   

We purchased this in Germany during the Christmas we lived in Strasbourg, France.  It is one of the best purchases from our year abroad because it brings me back there for a moment and makes every Christmas feel extra special.

How sweet is this.  Tessa and Drew glowing in the holiday light. 

Drew is telling Tessa about how the Christmas pyramid works and then blowing out the candles.

Notice there are 4 angels.

I think it is love at first sight for her too.

Holidays for all....

We had a very happy holiday. It was full of excitement of Santa's arrival with all of us in full "Believe" mode! So much fun! Since Andy was not 0n-call this Christmas, so we hit the road for Christmas in Minnesota at Nana and Pops' house. This took a small village to accomplish! You should have seen our car. There were visits with the entire MN family and later visits with the entire Rikkers family. We made a stop at Dells for a day of waterpark fun with their Rikkers from Boston cousins! That was fun...I made sure to stop in at the spa. Boy, it is quite a shocker to go from a spa to the waterpark. But I did enjoy some quiet time.

Our Sweet girlsTessa's absence was definitely felt. It did help to have the social report to share with all of our family and friends though. I wondered if they were celebrating Christmas there when we were or not. I wondered if she ripped open a present or not. Last Christmas I said to myself, she will be here next year...next year came and went, now I can say with certainty that next Christmas we will be together with our family complete!

Here are some photos for you of our holiday.....wishing you a blessed new year ahead!

A Merry Christmas to you!

It is Christmas time and there is such excitement in the air at the Rikkers!  It looks like a beautiful winter wonderland outside and Santa is on his way!

We "believe" and it is really magical!  Judson told me the other day, "Mom, did you know not everyone believes in Santa?"  I said, "That's true.  How do you feel about Santa?"   Judson said, "Well, I know that even if they don't believe in Santa, that Santa ALWAYS believes in them".

Judson says he is hoping for "spy gear and a guitar" this Christmas.  Drew wants a "power ranger game and a superman talking car".  Jack, well, he doesn't really get it just yet, but I think this year he will start to understand what all the excitement is about!

We feel so very blessed with love of family and friends this Christmas.  Much love to you and yours.

Merry Christmas!!!