Every year I can't wait to start decorating to really start the holiday season and of course, the
firs
t thing to go up is the Cougar Christmas Tree in our "Cougar" room. Isn't is lovely? At last count, I had 162 Cougar ornaments and this year I used no filler ornaments to make the tree look more complete. I really love this tree but the photos really don't do it justice. These photos do show two of my homemade gifts this year though. The two ornaments with baby photos of my boys in them were made with much love for me by my husband and if you look closely, there is a knitted garland on the bottom of the tree. It is not properly placed because that needs to be done before the ornaments are put on which will be the case next year. My wonderful son Kale made that for me along with a Cougar house key and a hand painted wooden Cougar ornament for the tree.Once I had the Cougar Tree in place, the holiday season was underway. I hung the garland above the living room, got out the Dickens Village and candle collection. This year they were placed a little differently, not my best effort, but still beautiful and festive to be sure. The last thing to be done was the main Christmas tree. With all of us involved in making gifts this year it became a very difficult thing to get us all together to go get that tree. So, I ended up going with just Kale to the tree farm and lo and behold, we ended up with one of the most beautiful trees for our living room that we have ever had. I feel bad that it had a tag on it meaning, I think, that someone else had picked it out to come back and cut but it was so late in the season I choose to believe the did not come back and it was meant for our living room. I had a lot of fun with my son and the tree went up without a hitch! I was sad that it was just the two of us who decorated it though. Hal had to work and Dad was working on his gifts. And, of course, when all was said and done, Kale won the award for the best placed ornament, again!
But for one day at Bellevue Square all of us were able to avoid any shopping at a mall. My husband and I did have to do some shopping for other relatives but only one day and it became quite comical after awhile, we just had to laugh. Suffice it to say, I don't like Bellevue much.
I was able to take the entire week leading up to Christmas off from work and so was my husband. This did help tremendously in reducing the stress of preparations for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, both at our house. It also allowed me to complete my homemade gifts relatively stress free.
Christmas Eve was without a doubt the best it has been in a long time but I can't really figure out why? Was it the little one, great-nephew Haywood and all his wonder that made it special? Was it being able to provide a little help to our brother and his wife? No, I think it was just the comfort of us all being together. Christmas Eve has become so familiar for us and even though the house is small for a crowd of 18, it seemed it could hardly contain the contentment within us all. And, no one had to be pushed out of the driveway through snow when they left!
C
hristmas Day started slowly. Grandma and Grandpa don't get going so fast in the morning 
anymore so they weren't scheduled to be there until 10:30 am which meant we could all sleep in a little, a welcome relief. Of course, I had to get up at 7:30. It was Christmas! I shared the morning with the cat who immediately found his catnip cigar under the tree and proceeded to get high and crash! He seemed to love Christmas as much as I did and I believe eventually found the lap of everyone who visited.Once Grandma and Grandpa arrived at 11:30 we poured the coffee and Bailey's and started the gifts exchanges. With what we thought were fewer gifts, it shouldn't have taken long but each homemade gift was so fun and unique that it took us all a long time to look at each one. I have already referenced the garland and ornament given to me by my oldest son. Then my youngest gave me a stained glass box with silver trim and WSU on the top. My husband gave me the aforementioned ornaments and a CD that he had made from an old reel to reel audio tape of my performance as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel in highschool, complete with CD cove
r carrying my name and photos he dug up from who knows where.
The boys gave each other compilations of their travel together this past summer. Kale to Hal, a canvas collage of photos, tickets, and a map of their journey from England to Romania, Italy and Spain. It was so artfully done and took us all a long time to take it in. Hal to Kale, a DVD complete with photos, music, videos taken en route and text. We only go to watch it twice that day. I want to see much more of it!
My gifts were not so much physically made by me but I put together the materials to have them made. I did make Cougar fleece blankets for everyone and they were a big hit. They are very snuggly and warm. I made them during my lunch hours at work, thanks to the help of a 
coworker who showed me how. I think the big hit was the individual calendars I made for both boys, my husband and even my in laws. They were alot of fun. I also had professional looking books of my mom's Easter story "The Painted Bunny" made for the boys.
A wine rack was Hal's gift to his dad. It was incredibly well done and will fit in well in our house, we just need to figure out exactly where. I know he worked a very long time on it and had the help of a very good friend to do it. Kale made a very professional looking guitar stand for his dad which will hold up to 5 instruments and this will help him keep track of all of them and they will 
no longer need to be scattered all over the house.
Unfortunately, I don't have good photos of the rest of the gifts that Dad made. He made a hollowed out book to hide things in, a "Cups" game, and two skim boards for the boys that are just like they had when they were little. And, we made homemade Blackberry Liqueor from blackberries from our yard which turned out yummy!
Christmas Day was made even more special because Auntie Neva came to dinner. This is Grandpa's sister and she has not spent Christmas with the Iversons ever since I can remember. She sadly recently lost her husband and I was thrilled when she called and asked if she could be part of the Iverson Christmas again. I had a great photo of her and her brother and had it framed for each of them. She teared up when she got it so I am assuming it was well liked.
We never know how many more Christmases we have with Grandma and Grandpa and I was really thrilled that this was so special. While Christmas is over, the warmth of the love of two great families lives on all year long.
Thanks to all who are special in my life, you all know who you are.
