This Thanksgiving weekend was a nice break from work and school and filled with fun and family time. Mark’s parents were in town and got a rare opportunity to help our family with the tree decorating. I wanted to capture some of these wonderful memories for the kids so they will have these memories to refect on when they are older
My mom purchased these Little People sets for my boys when they were just 2 years old. We pack them away with the Christmas decorations and they are the first thing the kids grab each and every year. At 8 years old they still love to get them out and play with them for hours. Until we have wrapped presents their “home” is under our Christmas tree. Santa and his reindeer visit baby Jesus in the manger. I love that they are still small children at heart. They anxiously await the opening of each box of decorations until the Little People sets appear.
Mark’s mother (Nancy) gave us this nativity set the second Christmas that we were married. She has the exact same nativity set that she made in 1967 when my father-in-law was serving in the Vietnam war. She took on this project to keep her mind off the war while he was away their first Christmas. Nancy found the exact same set 34 years later at a store in Austin, TX. The year of 2001 she logged over 120 hours painting this beautiful set for us. It warms my heart each year to bring out this wonderful display. The images of her setting it up with my own children are priceless.
Another special Christmas tradition is the train set that my inlaws are giving our boys each year. The Ronald McDonald house in Dallas has an elaborate train display each year as a fundraider for their organization. We have an annual Christmas tradition of going down to see “The Trains at North Park”. When the boys were three they stated giving them a personalized train car each Christmas. We have box cars, coal cars, passenger cars an engine and a caboose. One day when the boys have their own familes we will divide this train set up between them.
Finally we do the actual trimming of the tree. We collect ornaments from all of our travels around the world. It is such a fun expereince to get out each ornament and remember our special times together. We have ornaments dating back to 1997 which is the year that Mark and I first met in collage. The boys love to hear all about the wonderful memories that we made both before and after they were born.
They are finall old enough that Mom lets them up on the ladder! This is a big step in our family.
The holidays are such a special time of year and seeing all of these wonderful treasures remind us of how bessed we are as a family. Merry Chirstmas from the Niehaus family!
