Christmas 2011 Slideshow

I know everyone's pretty much forgotten about Christmas by now, and I'm pretty sure that this will be my last Christmas post until next year! I just wanted to share this slideshow of my pictures from this year. Enjoy!

Catch up with my Christmas recaps:

Part 1

Part 2

Christmas 2011. Part 2

Read Part 1 of Christmas 2011 here.

We took off mid morning from Trent's parents house to go to my parents' house. We arrived at about the same time that my family was getting home from church. As soon as they came in the door, it was time to get the festivities started!

Kellsey helping to get the food ready.

We started getting lunch ready right away. We made French toast, bacon, eggs, butter braids, scrambled eggs, some cinnamon dip, and some fruit. We were then joined by my Grandma and Grandpa Kock and Grandma and Grandpa Jons and we all ate the delicious meal. My mom is such a good host and always makes way too much food, but I don't think that anyone minds! When we were done eating, Grandma Kock had to get home to prepare our next meal and Grandma and Grandpa Jons took off for home, too.

"The Kids" on Christmas morning

Then, it was time to open presents. The 7 of us gathered in the living room and opened the wonderful presents we had all received. Again, my mom goes over the top and buys us too much stuff, but I guess that's what makes her so wonderful. I think we all got even more than we thought we would get.

My mom opening her present from my dad.
It was handles for their bedroom closets. Very nice, Dad!

Kellsey and my dad with the scrapbook Kellsey made for
him of last year's Basketball season

After we opened presents, it was time to head to Grandma Kock's for another party. When we got there we made our way to the basement and all opened our presents. We were, again, very spoiled with great presents all around. It was then time to eat again. (You may sense sort of a pattern here - eat, open presents, eat open presents) Grandma always makes the best food, which makes portion control a little bit of a problem. I could eat ham balls, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn every day. (Okay, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration!)

Grandma with her Granddaughters.
We all got scarves for Christmas.After supper we played a few games and took turns playing Just Dance 3 on the Wii. That was quite an entertaining time and doubled as a bit of a work out to work off all the food we'd had that day.

Playing Just Dance 3

As always, it was a late night, and we were all ready for bed when we left there after midnight. Trent and I slept in very late the next day, and when we woke up, we played some games on the Kinect (until I got a little crazy and knocked a glass off the couch and broke it) until it was time to get ready to go. That night, my family met my grandparents and uncle and cousins at the bar/restaurant in Vail followed by another game night at Grandma and Grandpa's.

It was another late night, but it was a great way to end our little Christmas vacation. On Tuesday morning, we packed up, went over to Grandma and Grandpa Kock's for a lunch of the leftovers from the past few days (Yummo!) and then took off on our journey back home. (We had left Mattie at Trent's parents house, so we made a little trip to Ankeny before heading going home)

We were pretty worn out by the time we got back, and I dreaded the fact that I had to go to work the next day! Thankfully, I only had to work Wednesday and Thursday and then I had Friday off before we finished off our Christmas festivities with another Christmas party with my Grandma and Grandpa Jons and family at my Aunt Barb's house on Saturday, New Year's Eve. We all got together for brunch and opened presents and got to hang out until everyone had to go their separate ways to get ready for their New Year's Eve plans.

Grandma and Grandpa Jons with their Grandkids

We successfully managed to spread Christmas out over a 3 week time period, and it was a great time. I love Christmas and I loved being able to celebrate at so many parties with so many members of our family. I can't wait to see how things are different when we all get together next year!

Christmas 2011. Part 1

Another Christmas has come and gone, and I can't believe it! It seems like it always sneaks up on me and now we're another year away from the next one. It's so crazy to think how different things are from the previous Christmas and all that changes in a year. This year, was our first Christmas as a married couple and it was so great to spend so much time with my husband our families in those few short days. It was a wonderful, but busy, time!

We took off after work on the Thursday before Christmas for Trent's parents' house. After we got there, we went out for supper with them and hung out for the evening. Then, on Friday, we were joined by his sister and her family for our Christmas celebration. It was so fun to see our nieces open their presents, and to see Taylor get so excited over her new stuff. We also got some great presents, including these awesome things:

From Dayspring.com
Love this site!

Pillow from Pottery Barn

Made by my sister in law.
Inspired by Pinterest.

Then, on Christmas Eve, we were joined at Trent's parents' house by some more extended family and we spent some great time together just hanging out and talking and eating. It's always so much fun to see family that we don't get to see real often.

Mattie in her new Christmas Bell Collar

In the early evening, after the members of our extended family took off for home, we headed to church. It was a great service and it was great to be able to share that time with my parent's-in-law, sister- and brother-in-law, my wonderful nieces and, of course, my husband. It was the first time that I had attended a Christmas Eve service anywhere other than the church that I grew up in, so it was great to be able to experience the way it's done somewhere else while remembering the great memories I have of church growing up.

After church, we headed back to Trent's parents for another great meal. After Trent's sister's family left for the evening, we watched the last part of It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story before heading to bed.

After Church on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning, I woke up beside my husband, which was a very nice, new thing to have. :) Even though he's not a very happy camper in the mornings, I managed to get a little grunt out of him to acknowledge me when I told him Merry Christmas when we woke up. After we got all ready for the day, we had an amazing French toast breakfast with Trent's parents before saying good bye. It was so hard to believe that it was already time for us to leave and that our Christmas celebrations with the Fredericksen's were over for the year. So after a few hugs, we were off to spend the next few days with my family.

Part 2 coming soon.

Merry Christmas from The Fredericksens

Merry Christmas from our little family to you! We ask that God bless you and yours and bring you happiness, health, and prosperity in 2012.

With love, Trent, Kendra, and Mattie Fredericksen

Christmas Past

Warning: This post has a lot of pictures, but I kept finding good ones from past Christmases... and they are only from 2006 on. None from when we were little. Maybe I'll get some of those someday :)

Christmas is probably my favorite holiday of them all. I just have so many great memories of Christmases from when I was younger which makes it so much sweeter. In the past couple years, things have changed just because all of us ‘kids’ are growing up and have jobs or are in college or are married/engaged, but thankfully my family is blessed to have great memories to carry on with us. Here is how I remember Christmas growing up.

A disclaimer to my family and others who know how we did things, this is how I remember things – which may be a little different than you remember them or how they actually were. J



With my mom and dad on Christmas Day 2006



From as far back as I remember, we always went to the Schroeder Christmas on Christmas Eve in either Vail or Manning or Westside. We would eat and play a few games and have a little gift exchange. Then, we would leave in time to go to church, which started around 10:30 p.m. When I was young, I just attended church, but when I got old enough to be in youth group, I would be a part of putting on the Christmas Eve Service which was always a fun to be a part of. I love the Christmas Eve service because of the atmosphere and the feeling that was in the air that it was really Christmas Eve! I went to a relatively small church in a small town so it was so great to see people who usually didn’t come to church, come for the Christmas Eve service. It made it seem so much more special.

 

Me with Gma and Gpa Kock after showing off
our presents on Christmas morning 2006

 My favorite part of the whole service was always (and still is) at the end when everyone would take their little candle and get in a big circle around the sanctuary of the church with the lights off and sing Silent Night by just the light of the candles. Doing that every year is such an amazing memory that is ingrained in my mind and I hope I never forget that.

  

WIth Gma and Gpa Jons on Christmas morning 2006

Now, my family loves to talk and we are always the last people to leave any place. I usually don’t mind so much, but when you’re a little kid and it’s Christmas Eve, you’re going to be excited to get home! I had a little saying that I would always recite when I wanted to get going and get home. I’d say:

The sooner we get home, the sooner we can go to bed.

The sooner we go to bed, the sooner we can wake up.

The sooner we wake up, the sooner we get to open presents!

I don’t think that ever moved us along any faster, but it was fun to say.  

My dad likes to fall asleep near or under Christmas trees :)

On Christmas morning, we’d always wake up early and go down to check out the presents under the tree. When we were young, we’d get up really early, but as the years went on, we’d get up a little later and later each year. I remember a few years when my younger brother would be the first one up and come wake us up so we can open presents. Those are fun memories for me. When we’d get up, we’d always have to pry our parents out of bed to come down so we can open presents. We were super impatient people on Christmas morning, and they were slow so we always had to nag at them to get out of bed and come downstairs!



With my grandparents, Christmas morning 2007





We also always had little fights about who got to sit where on the couch and who got to use what blankets and also who had to hand out the presents to everyone else. I’d say about 99% of the time, it was Jared who had to hand out the presents, and he still does have to! J The downfall of that, though, would be that he would hoard presents. We would go around and open one at a time and he would occasionally skip himself. That, coupled with the fact that he usually had more presents than the rest of us, meant that we’d sit there at the end and watch him open present after present. What a stinker!

With Grandpa Jons at the Schroeder Christmas on Christmas Eve 2008

After we got done opening our presents, we would start playing with our favorite ones. Then, all of our Grandparents and sometime my Aunt Doreen (and Uncle Nick in the past few years) would come over and we would take turns showing them all what Santa gave to us. After the present show and tell, we would all have Christmas lunch/breakfast (whatever time it ends up being when we are all done). I’m not sure how long we’ve been having a big breakfast like that or how long we’ve been doing it the way we have the past few years, but it’s the way I remember it now. My mom would make French toast, eggs, butter braids, toast, fruit, sausage, and bacon, and we would have milk, chocolate milk, egg nog and all that good stuff that goes along with it. It’s great! Depending on what time all that gets over with, we will all take naps and/or play with our new toys and then we’d get ready for our next party.

   

With cousin Molly and sister Kellsey on Christmas Eve 2008

In the afternoon on Christmas morning, we would go over to my Grandma and Grandpa Kock’s house. When we get there, we usually snack on food (there’s lots of eating throughout the whole day) and then eventually get all together to open presents. When we were younger, it was a big extravagant thing with lots of presents for my siblings and cousins and all that good stuff. We would open our presents and then spend the rest of the night (late into the night) playing with all our new things and playing make believe and just having an awesome time. As we’ve grown up, there are less presents (as it should be) but there is just as much eating of wonderful food and playing games late into the night! I just love it!



After Christmas Eve Service at Church, 2008

For all those reasons and more, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are two of my favorite days of the year. Although Christmas traditions have somewhat changed over the past few years, we will always have the memories of all the great times of Christmases in the past and I so very much look forward to all the memories we will make in the future and the new traditions we will create!

Merry Christmas! 



Christmas morning 2008

Jared sorting presents on Christmas morning, 2008.

With Gma and Gpa Kock on Christmas morning 2008

Uncle Nick, Gma Jons, Aunt Doreen on Christmas morning 2008

Kellsey showing her stuff to Nick and Doreen

Nap time!

Nap time for Gpa Jons too!

Uncle Dan and my Dad.
Christmas Day 2008

Cousins at Gma and Gpa Kock's on Christmas Day 2008

Christmas morning 2009

Cousins with Gma and Gpa on Christmas Day 2009

Dani and Uncle Dan playing games on Christmas Day 2009

Christmas morning 2010



Playing Games at Gma and Gpa Kock's on Christmas Day 2010

Tuesday Update

Last weekend, we went to our first Christmas party at Trent's Grandma's. It was such a great day. Not only was the weather freakishly nice, it was just a fun day with great food and great people. My favorite part of the day was when the kids wanted to go outside, but they had to go out with an adult, so the second time they wanted to go outside, I was the adult that was asked to go with them. (I had to ask the other adults to be sure if I was considered an adult first, though :)) When I told my niece, Taylor, that I would go out with them and went out of the room to get my coat on and things, I heard her tell her mom, "I love Aunt Kendra". That made me smile from ear to ear. I love making her happy and I love being called Aunt Kendra. I'm still getting used to that!

A new doll for Taylor

A new 'laptop' for Jenna

In the late afternoon, we made our way home and just relaxed for the evening. Sunday, I went out and finished up our Christmas shopping and we cleaned up the apartment. In the evening I wrapped up all of the presents and got them ready to go with us to our parents' this weekend. I stayed up WAY too late on Sunday night. I just couldn't get myself to stop finding more things to do to keep myself up. I ended up staying up until about 1:20 in the morning, which made 5:15 even earlier than normal to get out of bed and made Monday a very long day! I'm glad that I did get up to get some studying in, though, because I feel like I haven't been going at it like I should be. I have been doing pretty good on the practice tests I've been doing, though, so hopefully that's a good sign at least!

Monday night, we brought Mattie to get her nails clipped at Petsmart and did a little Christmas shopping for her and Trent's parents' dog, Casey. We found a really cute present for them both that I can't wait to give to them! We also got Mattie a new red collar and when she was done with her nails, they put a pretty Christmas bow on her and sprayed her with cookie dough perfume (weird, I know - but it actually smelt nice). She looked great when she was all done!

In her new collar and bow.
She's not liking that we're making her stay in the room by us in this picture :)

 After we got back from the store, we got our Christmas cards ready to be mailed and then I practiced a presentation that I had to do at work today on Trent. I was SO nervous about my presentation that I had to do. It was the first time that I had to do anything like this at work and wanted to do a good job. It was just in front of about 10 of my co workers but I still wanted them to respect me and think that I knew what I was talking about, so I wanted it to go well. I did it this afternoon, and I think it went pretty well. It's not like any of them are going to tell me I did a bad job, though... I'm just glad that it's over. I feel like I can finally get some other work done because I don't have to worry about thinking about the presentation anymore. Also, only FOUR more work days to go in 2011! How crazy is that!! YAY for holidays and vacation!

I hope you are all soaking in the excitement of the holidays and are all ready for Christmas! I just can't wait to spend some time with family and relax for a few days! Only 4 more sleeps until Christmas!!

The Night Before Christmas

I heard this song below on K-Love the other night on my way home from work and I instantly loved it. It isn't a new song or anything, but it was the first time I had heard it. I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but it stirred up some kind of emotion inside that I can't really explain. It's kind of uncomfortable to not be able to figure out what my mind and body and heart want to feel while listening to the song. It's like I want to cry and smile at the same time and it brings up a mix of feelings of gratitude and happiness and undeservedness. It is hard to comprehend what Mary and Joseph had to go through in their journey to bring Jesus into the world. It's difficult to imagine the amount of trust and faith that they had to have in each other and in God.

This song serves as a wonderful reminder that Christmas is really about the birth of Jesus and how we were all changed forever because of that night when our Savior, Jesus was brought into the world to save us all. We should never lose sight of that.

I hope you can listen to the song and that it stirs up some sort of feelings inside of you as well as you reflect on how the night before Christmas truly changed history in such a remarkable way.

Merry Christmas!

(If you receive this post in an email, the video might not show up. Just click on the "My Lifesong" link below which will take you to the actual blog where you can view the video. Otherwise click here to be taken to the video on YouTube.)

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Happy Hump Day, Everyone! Today, for the first time, I'm linking up to This Kind of Love for the What I'm Loving Wednesday! What are you loving on this fine, rainy Wednesday?!

I can't believe that it's only 11 days until Christmas! Where did December (and 2011) go? What a year!?! I hope you are all having a fantabulous day! Here's a few things that I'm loving today!

I'm loving that tomorrow is our Finance Department Christmas Party, so we get to cut the day a few hours short to go hang out and celebrate together.

I'm loving that Friday is the Food Day at work. It's a FULL day of eating from breakfast into the afternoon! I can't wait!!

I'm loving that we're heading out of town for our first family Christmas Celebration this weekend. Again, I can't believe it's Christmastime already!

Uhhh... Santa?

I'm loving that things are officially back to normal in our apartment. We have our kitchen table back, so we don't have to eat on TV trays anymore. (After our apartment flooded, the kitchen table cracked down the middle when they were working on getting everything dried and cleaned up so we were without a table for a little over a week after we got moved back in)



I'm loving my new favorite blog, The Small Things. This girl is great! She has a lot of great hairdo video tutorials and crafty how to's and fashion posts and, from what I've read, she just seems like a good person. It is just so fun to read the new things she posts each day. I even did my hair yesterday using one of her tutorials AND IT WORKED! Amazing! This is what it was like (except my hair is long and curly and dark).

To check out how to do this look, click here.

I'm loving this Personal Accents Jewelry from Amway that can be found at kellseymorrison.com.

 

I'm loving these outfits:

I'm loving this purse:

Source

And, of course, I'm loving my wonderful husband!

Flashing back to summertime with this picture!
(Fun Fact: This was taken the week after we got married.)