The icing must be taste-tested to make sure that it will work to hold the pieces together.
After the pieces are together, the house must be decorated -
on all sides.
The finished masterpiece must be captured on film along with the artist,
and then consumed.
DH had his 29th birthday. We are now the same age for 2.5 months, and then I will leave him for a new decade :(
Someone was just a LITTLE excited about the Key Lime birthday pie!
At the beginning of November, my mother fell and broke her hip along with some other injuries. Thankfully, she is on the mend, although she will not be up to any holiday activities this year. Due to her mishap, I hosted Thanksgiving. This was my first year hosting, and I'm relieved to say that it went better than I expected it too. As my mother is still recuperating, I will be hosting Christmas as well.
BB and I make these adorable little clothespin turkeys for the place settings. I got the idea from the internet, and I cannot remember where :( If you happen to know, please tell me so that I can give proper credit!
DH and BB made a gingerbread house...
and after 7 years of marriage, we finally had a house that we could decorate outside.
BB opened 1 present early (he loves the Tom Slick cartoons on the old George series)...
and he finally got his Underdog cartoons that he's been talking about for months.
BB's big Christmas present from us was the RC car from Toy Story. In BB's mind, RC is the star of Toy Story.
After we opened presents, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate some of the cake for breakfast.
BB got into the candy stash left from all of our stockings and looked like a country cousin...
I was glad that it was actually cold this holiday season. I hate having to wear short sleeves during Christmas. BB isn't quite so fond of the cold.
I went as Abby Sciuto from NCIS...
and DH went as Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph.
This is currently the wallpaper on my computer monitor. Isn't it cute? I think I'm going to leave this up way past Valentine's Day...
Steve and DD: It says "B-U-N-C-H." Clearly not bun, although that would make sense. So whoever argued for bunch is right!
I don't know if you can tell too well from the picture, but there are 1 dozen long-stem red roses and other assorted flowers and greenery. All in all, a pretty good haul, I must say!
The picture you see above is my front door. I made the snow sign on the door with the help of my friend Z, and now that I'm looking at the sign, I probably should have trimmed the dowel rod shorter. Oh, well - next year! The Christmas lights hanging on the wall are made out of felt and florist's wire - cute, easy, and cheap (my criteria for crafts!) This would be so easy to do with stars, hearts, any seasonal decor.
This is our Christmas tree. For the first couple of years, DH and I decorated our tree in blue, silver and white. So pretty, but not very kid-friendly. Now we have mostly sentimental and non-breakable ornaments on our tree. I only use about 1/2 of my ornaments on my tree each year. I hope that our next house will have a higher ceiling in the living room so I will "have" to get a bigger tree! 
This is our Fisher Price Little People Nativity set. I can't say enough good things about this set. BB has loved this set since we bought it the day after Thanksgiving. Typically, the set is scattered about the house being used with various monster trucks. I had to wait until nap time to round up the pieces for this picture ;)
Next to the tree is our entertainment unit, which we use to hang our stockings since we don't have a fireplace. The stocking in the middle is mine :)
Here is a close-up of the letters that I decorated when Z and I got together to make Christmas crafts. Some of my ski people are also hanging out here.
This is the door to BB's bedroom. I bought the joy sign as an unfinished wood sign for $2 at Michaels. I used Sharpies to "paint" the wood and then covered it with Elmer's glitter glue (love that stuff!). I think the sign might be too skinny to hang on a door - what do you think?
This, in case you can't tell, is the light in my living room. I bought all but one of these words on clearance at Target last year. They're meant to be ornaments, but I threaded some thicker ribbon through them and hung them from the globes of my fan. Target has the same words again this year, although in a different font. Originally, there was a red ball hanging with the green one, but it plunged to it's death and I haven't been able to find a replacement for it yet.
The piano is next to BB's door. This is where we have our Jesse Tree as well as a tree that holds our mini name ornaments. Until this year, I had the ornaments on the big tree, but I decided to move them to their own tree. I'm always afraid that I'll leave an ornament on the tree when we're packing up our Christmas stuff. It really doesn't matter since we use the same fake tree each year, I'm just weird that way.
The first year DH and I were married, I freaked out at the thought of the size of his family (his mom is one of 6, his dad is 1 of 4). I bought kits to make the snowman heart you see on the wall, and gave that to the various aunts. At the time, I didn't know that the adults in the family didn't exchange gifts. Needless to say, I have stopped worrying about that! The merry sign is another craft that Z and I made this year. The tree was a find at an estate sale.
Our stereo is currently holding our Advent wreath when it is not in use. To be honest, we haven't used our Advent wreath much at all this year. Neither DH or I grew up with this tradition, and we're having trouble getting this tradition established. We might pack this up and try it again in a few years when BB is older.
Atop the computer was deemed the safest place for our "real" Nativity set. Our set isn't anything fancy; it came from Wal-Mart. If you look closely, you'll see my angel nativity set and some additional ski people on the shelf below the nativity.
For the doorway between the kitchen and living room, I hung a set of indoor/outdoor lights I got on clearance last year. The space between the lights looked too bare, so I added some ornaments.
This is my Christmas village. I have loved Christmas villages for as long as I can remember. Most of the village is a little cheapy set I got at CVS last year, but the bottom shelf has the Lemax building I got at Michael's this year. I added a few Lemax accessories, but most of the trees and people came from Wal-Mart (much cheaper!). In case you are wondering about the giant Nutcrackers, I needed something to hide the ugly power strip for my village.
This is the wall my kitchen table is against. I'm not too pleased with how the shelf turned out, but I gave up messing with it.
My Christmas dishes and centerpiece. The tea light holders I bought individually on clearance at HallMark. I couldn't decide how to arrange them throughout my house, and when I saw the holder at Target, I took it to be a sign. The garland was some that I had left over from craft projects, and I topped the garland with some glass balls my parents bought in the 70's. You can't see my Christmas dishes too well in this photo, but you can see them better here, if you really care.
The pizza sheet on my frig is our Christmas countdown. I drew a Christmas tree on a cheapy pizza sheet and attached magnets on the back. Each year, I arrange 25 Hershey kisses on the tree. For each day in December, I get to eat a kiss :) I figure this is the last year I'll be able to get away with eating the kisses myself. BB has already asked me about this several times this year. I've a sneaking suspicion that he know's he's missing out. So far, he hates chocolate, but that can change by next year!
We spend perhaps 5 minutes each evening on our Jesse Tree. Each night when we have family devotions, we read the day's reading and then reveal the ornament for the day. The readings that we use are very short, ideal for young children. There are more elaborate readings available and many Christian bookstores sell books with the readings and enrichment activites. I picked our readings based on length (short) and cost (free). If you click on the links throughout this post, you will come across many of the different choices available. When your Jesse Tree is complete, it will look something like this, if you pick a rustic tree to match your rustic ornaments:
Jesse Tree 2007
For those of you who didn't know, today was "Talk Like a Pirate Day" (see this for details). To celebrate, my friend Saige had a lunchtime Pirate Party for the kids. My back's been out all week, so BB's outfit isn't too detailed. But then, he's only 2. Here's some pics that DH took of BB and myself. I had the option to dress like a pirate, but I opted not to. Maybe next year!
When you need to cool a large number of soft drink cans, use your washing machine. Simply place a towel inside your machine to line the bottom, fill the machine with ice and add the cans. When the party is over and the ice has melted, set the machine on spin to get rid of the water. For more great Works-for-Me-Wednesday tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer each Wednesday!
... a friend, a guy in my Sunday school class, a girl in Bible study, a friend's teenage daughter, an uncle, an acquaintance, my cousin... all of these people somehow connected to me had horrible things happen to them. But none of these happened to me. Sure, bad things have happened to me, but none like this. Nothing like holding your newborn in your arms as she dies. Nothing like telling your children that daddy won't be coming home, and raising children who will never remember him. Nothing like being sent home to die, or feeling so hopeless that you decide to die. Nothing like having to learn to walk again, or spending years trying to get my children back. Nothing like experiencing a miracle, only to die a few months later. Instead of just having one day to be thankful for these and all of my many other blessings, I need to be thankful each and every day, ever hour, every minute.
