Bruns Family Christmas Card 2010

Family Wall Noir Christmas Card

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Christmas Cards

Every year we do look forward to seeing everyones Christmas cards. I love seeing the creativity and individuality. Some cards have themes. Some cards don't. Some cards have pictures, or newsletters or both. But I must admit the ones I love are the ones we do. I use shutterfIy.com. I love browsing thru all the photo card options of Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards. Which one will we pick this time? Last year we went with brown and pink, the year before red and green. This year what if we did just wall calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars and sent them to all the family instead of Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards . There are so many choices to make. And I'm loving every minute of it!

This year I want to capture the fun our family has had. We've done so many activities and been so many places that it's going to be hard to choice just one picture. Maybe I'll choice several different pictures and then make a collage out of them. I love the look of black and white photos with black and white background and splashes of red writing. And that's it! I order them from Shutterfly, they come back in about a week and they always look great!

Pumpkin Patch

Every year we go to the pumpkin patch and pick a pumpkin. I love the smell of autumn! The sweet cinnamon steam of apple cider, the fresh smell of the crisp outdoors, the warm orange glow of all the pumpkins and the rosy cheeks of all the bright eyed children!

Family Pictures

We have family pictures every year. I love looking at how my family has grown from year to year! This year we decided to do outdoor photos and they look awesome! Thanks to My Fancy Photo!

Snow, snow everywhere! Over the last couple of weeks we have had lots of snow! The kids have loved it. We have had four extra days of Christmas vacation. We have had friends over to play, listened to noisy sleep overs, watched movies, baked scones, made chocolate cake and eaten our weight in popcorn. We have shoveled snow, made snow angels, went sledding and enjoyed lots of hot chocolate!We have sat at the window and marveled at the beauty of our Winter wonderland and how beautiful snowflakes truly are. But mostly we have just enjoyed being together in our warm, cozy house and sharing our love for each other!

It's a marshmallow jello kind of a day!

Now normally when I say marshmallow jello you think of the food. But I'm not talking about the food. I'm talking about the feelings. The marshmallow jello feelings that make your insides turn to goo. The feelings that wash over you and make you limp and weepy. In the past I've stuffed these feelings so far down and denied them so well that I had convinced myself that I was alright. I would wonder why especially around the holidays I would feel a sense of sadness and loss. A sense of emotional instability and an emotonal fatigue that just crippled me. For years I would force myself to put on a smile and just do it. But this year is different. I am letting myself feel the pain of losing family members to death, the loss of family members moving, the realization that family members who judge will never stop, the excrutiating pain of having to relive your childs brain tumor ordeal everytime you go to Childrens Mercy Hospital for an appointment, owning the fact that I have a special needs child, not having your family surround you this holiday season. This year I will let myself feel them. I've given myself permission to just lay here and feel. I don't know what I'll do next but I do know that you have to feel to deal and I've taken the first step.

Mattress Surfing

Today we got bored and decided to take Bradys mattress and ride it down the stairs with a barrier of pillows covering the wall. The kids and even Chance our dog were sliding down feet first, then standing up, then rolling down and then face first! I even slid down once with the kids too. We had so much fun!