Just for Fun

Something just for fun, and to remind myself of good times!!

Christmas Meme
1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? hot chocolate, and as E would say "With Lots of Sprinkles!"
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? both! One big thing is unwrapped, and everything else get wrapped
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white on the outside, colored on the trees inside
4. Do you hang mistletoe? yep
5. When do you put your decorations up? Pete always wants to do it the day after Thanksgiving, but usually it's the first weekend in December
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? crab bisque
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: the anticipation of Christmas Eve and the sheer joy of Christmas Morning
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? what truth?
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? sometimes we did as a kid, it was always new, (and matching) pjs, now Mrs. Claus leaves new jammies for E under her pillow Christmas Eve
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? with a mix of ornaments, spanning my entire lifetime, not to mention any ornament I ever made, my Mom saved it all!
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! Wish we had some
12. Can you ice skate? Um, well, I can stand without falling, and can move around the rink, but I'm not sure I'd really call it skating.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? yes, and no, so much of it runs together in my mind now!
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Being with my family
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? either my Moms peanut butter fudge, or her homemade coffee cakes YUMMY!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Being together, Silent Night and candle lighting at church on Christmas Eve, going downstairs Christmas morning, oldest to youngest, opening presents one by one
17. What tops your tree? a white dove
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Now seriously, who's going to say receiving?? I love to give, especially when I know I've found just the right thing, but honestly I love receiving just the right thing too!
19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Hark the Herald Angels or Joy to the World
20. Candy canes: at least one a year
21. Favorite Christmas movie? The Year Without A Santa Claus
22. What do you leave for Santa? cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer!

Warning!!!

Boat load of posts ahead, as I attempt to get all of my pics for the day uploaded. Who am I warning you ask? AS no one but me reads this blog, well, then I'm warning me, when I come back in a year to remind my feeble old brain of what we did in December 2006!

Fruits of our labor 12/13

So, we spent all night last night getting the outside decorations up. Hanging sparkly silver snowflakes, pine garland with white lights, new solar lights (which we aren't so sure about) to shine up on the sparkly snowflakes, wreaths on the doors, a new lighted, animated moose up in the woods as a surprise for E, and arrangements in the urns. And this is the only photo I could take, you see it was pretty dark at 1 am, and I wasn't venturing too far off the front porch. Still gotta' make nine new bows for the garland/railing, and new bows for the wreaths, and I"m not so much looking forward to that because my bow maker is still MIA. Can't find it anywhere, and I totally suck at making bows freehand!

Tonight's task? Getting the nativity set out, putting up the garland on the steps inside, decorating the dining room, (which means moving all the crap that's taken up residence in there), and changing out the everyday dishes for the Christmas ones! Slowly but surely we're getting it all done. Hopefully by the time E and my parents get here all that will be left is some fun baking for everyone!

It's getting there! 12/12

Almost done! Presents have started arriving in the mail, stuff came from Pete's sisters and his Mom, so under the tree they went. The tree looks like it's missing something, I think I'm going to add some garland, it just looks a little naked. For that matter this whole corner of the room looks naked! Needs something on the wall, not sure what, but something. Not lovin' this picture, but I have yet to figure out how to take a good picture of a Christmas tree with out the flash, may have to do some reading up on that! Or maybe I just need a new camera, hint hint!

Pic of the day 12/11

This is the result of shopping with my hubby! These amazing glittered deer for my mantle, plus some sparkly trees, and snowflakes for outside! I would NEVER buy something like this on my own. I wouldn't spend that kind of money, but with him along, all it took was a little bit of encouragement, and wa la a whole new look to my mantle!

Happy Pic 12/10

Just a quick happy picture of one of my most favorite ornaments. This dates back to my childhood, she's a troll angel, and my entire family makes fun of me for loving this little lady, but she makes me happy and I'm keepin' her!

Pic of the day 12/09

Prezzies under the tree, but none for me!! Oh well, just happy to get something wrapped up and put under there!

Still Standing 12/08

We took E ice skating Friday night, and had a blast. She loved it!!! Took her off guard a bit, she was doing just fine until we hit the ice, and then, look out, all sense of balance was gone, and she just kept moving her feet, but didn't get anywhere. We made it around a few times, and then, the ballet started on stage, and being totally enamoured with all things frilly, E wanted to be up close, she took off across that rink like nobody's business. Skated right across, not problems. I'll tell you what, when that girl puts her mind to something, you'd better just get out of her way!

E's Contributions (12/07)

to pic of the day, plus, her idea of things to sell in the store. In case you can't read her writing, it says

"Ribbons for sale. Free! Woo Hoo! Free Pictures too!"

Fun at the Store 12/06

E's idea of fun while she's stuck at the store during track out. Find something, climb on top of it, and then jump as high as you can, preferably with Mom taking pictures, with the old camera, which has such horrible shutter lag, that you have to do it over and over and over again, before she gets on picture of you actually in the air!

Warm days 12/05

in December, mean you can ride your bike in the parking lot at your Mom's store, while you stuck there, and say "Look Mom, No Hands!"

Monstrous Image Post

I'm desperately trying to keep up with everything, but I've fallen waaayyy behind, so, here is a major image post for my Journal Your Christmas class. Slowly but surely I'm going to catch up. I swear! Ok, day 3 Cards (you'll notice because I'm behind, I've kept these disgustingly simple in effort to stay on track) What you can't see on these scans is the glitter on this page, it's actually really pretty! I've posted the page and the front and back of the insert.

Next is day 4, our Perfect Christmas. My idea of Perfection is just having my family around me, so that 's what this page is all about.

And last, and probably the simplest is day 5 Advent Calendars. This one is made up almost completely from the envelope from the advent calendar my Mom sent E this year. I just loved the illustration, and thought it was perfect for this page. Hopefully with a little bit of effort, and loss of sleep I'll be able to get this thing caught up. It's really important to me to finish this journal this year, not sure why I'm feeling the push so strongly, maybe because it's been a tough year, and I want to take the time to reflect on all the good things in my life, and I believe this album is the perfect way to do just that. Man this post looks like crap, and I"m sorry for that, I just want to get it up, and I promise when I do my marathon post for pics of the day, I'll make it look better!

Catching Up

Very quick post, just to get myself back on track! This is day 2 in my Journal Your Christmas book. Not the worlds most attractive page, but honestly, I was feeling a little pressured to get it done, I'm so far behind, and I really want to try to focus on my word with the book, and not so much on all the "goodie" of making a page. So I guess more than anything I intend to get the words on the page and the rest will have to follow later. Going to make for a very disjointed book, but as Ali says "It's OK".

I have been keeping up with taking my daily pictures, just haven't gotten them off the camera to be able to get them loaded up here. Will try for marathon posting tomorrow.

Last thing, I saw this on Emily Falconbridge's blog, and it just made me laugh, I had to give it a go! Try it, I promise you it will make you smile and you won't be able to stop yourself once you get started! 

We shopped

till we dropped! We had such a blast today. Slept in, went for a yummy bagel, then headed out into the fray! Hit Tarjay, The Mall, had a huge late lunch at Cheesecake Factory, brought home leftovers, and tasty desserts, shopped some more. Off to Best Buy, Circuit City, AC Moore, then onto the nail place for E to get her manicure. Two colors, alternating fingers, so fun for her! Totally forgot that I had the camera with me, so no photos of our day, but I did take this one once we got home.

We came home took hot showers, put our jammies on and watched High School Musical (for the 500th) time, ate popcorn for dinner! Thus ends a wonderful Mommy & Daughter day!

Yesterday

Here's my picture (actually 3) of the day for Sunday! The first is in the vestibule at Bob Evan's after breakfast, before we headed to the mall to see the big guy.

The second is waiting in line at the mall, she had befriended a 2 year old little girl, and the two of them worked themselves into a very excited frenzy waiting in a rather short (fortunately), but slow moving (unfortunately) line!

The third is finally meeting the big guy! He was such a great Santa. Really listened to her, and asked questions, plus took the time to tell her to be good, and behave, to be respectful to her parents, and that is she did these things, that she might get some of the things on her list, but to remember that sometimes it's just as wonderful to get surprises! Loved That!! And of course, just as I took this picture the stupid battery died on my camera, so it's a really crappy picture, but here it is none the less.

Playing Catch up

That's me always running behind and trying to catch up. I am making an effort, and I did make some progress today. Finally started the Christmas shopping! And am planning to make a huge dent in it tomorrow, as E and I head out for a girls day. Gonna' start with bagels for breakfast, shop a little, enjoy a fun lunch together, shop a little more, take a break to get a manicure for E, and then dinner and a holiday movie at home! We'll see who collapses from exhaustion first, her or me?! My guess? ME!!!

Allrighty then, to keep myself accountable, on unrealistic expectation number 1, a picture a day, I did take one, but unfortunately the camera battery died and I can't post it, but will do so tomorrow. Gotta' tell you I'm pretty damn proud of myself, three days in a row may not seem like much, but for me it's HUGE!

Unrealistic expectation number two - Christmas Journal, well, I made progress, just not quite caught up yet. This is my page for Day 1, my dedication page. I'm thinking the journaling is legible, but just in case it's not, here it is:

For you, for me, for all of us. I started this book last year & never finished it. Time just got in the way & I didn't take the space in all the craziness to breathe & create. So, I'm doing it now& I'm making it a priority. Both the time & the space. I'll keep last years pages & put them in the back of this book, as they show where I was & what I was thinking, but now I want to start fresh - for you, for me, for all of us.

Progress is good, even if it's just a little. Intending to get at least two pages done tomorrow, new batteries for the camera, and fun times with E. Really looking forward to Day 4!

Expectations - Unrealistic as they may be

So, I've done it again, placed some unrealistic (for me) expectations upon my self. I decided to take a picture a day for the month of December, I'm just not taking enough pictures, and I'm hoping that by committing to doing this it will help me see with a different eye, and remind me to utilize my camera more. Of course, a new digi camera for Christmas wouldn't hurt either! So, that's expectation #1, and as a result (insert big pat on the back here) here are my pics from Friday, December 1st, a mass of ornaments laying on the table

and today, Saturday, December 2nd, self portrait of me and E at one of her favorite restaurants "The Bonger".

It's a better picture of her than it is of me. I am looking slightly crazed and "wild eyed", but oh well. what's done is done.

So, expectation number two is another of Shimelle's classes. I signed up for the Journal Your Christmas class last year, got a few pages done, always intended to pick it back up, but that just didn't happen. So, I'm doing it again this year. With the full intention of staying caught up and completing it on time! (So don't tell anyone that I'm already two days behind!) Having a hard time getting started quite honestly because I want to completely start over, but still have the pages that I completed last year in my brain. And I want a different feel this year. So, I"m thinking a little retail therapy is in order! There are a bunch of FontWerks stamps that I've been coveting, and a few from Cat's Life Press, and I think those will bring me inspiration. If not, well there's always a trip to Archivers! Off to shop!