Happy New Year to you and yours!

This Christmas has been different. Why, I'm not completely sure but it was. Family and friends have been here off and on, which is always a good thing.

This coming year I'm hoping to post more often than I have. I am going to talk a little about some miracles that have happened to my DH and I, in the last 25 years. Just as a way to do some documenting of our life and things for my children to hold onto. Of course you will also see some artwork and to that you can also add me taking part in LOAD again.

Have a wonderful safe night everyone and hold someone a little closer tonight!!

Merry Christmas!

Family visits, 2 full days of baking, stuffing presents, and last minute shopping. I'm done and enjoying a little bit of quiet while my Step brother has taken my children to see Avatar in 3D. I am also waiting for the mailman or even ups. I ordered a few things that I hope get here in time for opening gifts tonight.

Oh, are you questioning the stuffing presents? lol, I thought you might. Years ago when my girls were younger we started a tradition of wrapping tops and bottoms of boxes with pretty Christmas papers. I never felt right about going and spending a lot of money on wrapping paper to only have it be thrown away in a matter of seconds. Plus over half of my family doesn't like to actually wrap presents so at least I can guaranty that everything looks pretty under the tree. We started saving nice heavy duty shoe boxes, fruit boxes and just about any other box that would work. This also helps you to think about your gift purchases. If you know that you don't have a box big enough to fit the gift, we have found that we have a tendency to not purchase the gift. In less of course it comes in it's own box then you are safe.

Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season. Remember the reason for the season is Jesus, who came to save the world. Enjoy your family and laugh until your sides hurt.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I have discovered that I have a hard time doing projects that I don't really want to do. Normally, I can just push right through it and get it done. Honestly I am trying......sigh. My heart is just not in it? Keep pushing it has been over a year since I was given the information to do this project. Time to move on and get it done!

I found out a few days ago that family is coming for Christmas. So starting tomorrow morning until around the 28th of December we will have a house full. One of my very best friends is coming and she will be making us Christmas Eve dinner as a family present. I'm pretty excited. I just have to remember that we made a promise to keep our purchases down this year and not going shopping to look for gifts. I NEED to be creative, make something from my heart that will be appreciated. I hope it will be, anyway.

Christmas shopping is done! I am thankful over the years that we have taken the time to 'pre wrap' boxes!! All I have to do is lay everything out and put them into boxes. Done and so wonderful. My problem is I fight the hurge to buy one more gift almost on a minute to minute basis. I need to look at a few projects I have been meaning to get done. Maybe one of those could go under the tree in the next 4 to 5 days.

Helping my girlfriend's daughter is such a blessing. It is so much fun to see her face light up as we teach her to measure and allow her to mix things. She is so excited to give her gifts. That is when you know they come from her little heart. Hope they will be received as such from her family. I'll report back on that after Christmas with some photos of what we made with her.

Offical Snow

It finally happened, Spokane's offical snow fell Tuesday night. I spent an hour and a half shoveling yesterday morning. The rest of the snow turned into slush into the morning and we now have ice plus freezing rain.....oh joy.

This week has been all about finishing up my shopping, which I can say is done except for stocking stuffers. Now I will move onto having the trees decorated by this evening so I can put away all the Christmas boxes which are driving me nuts! My level of want to do much, has been low but I'm doing my best to push through. I have to be realistic about what I can do in the next 8 to 9 days.......wish I could have one more week before Christmas! The gifts that were suppose to be out in the mail to get to family for Christmas, just aren't happening. It is okay and I'm not going to feel guilty.

Yesterday, I also spent 2 hours in the dentist chair, not fun but necessary. I bit down on something at Thanksgiving so it was time for a new crown on one of my molars. The best thing in finding this new dentist......he can do a crown in one appointment instead of two. He takes a picture of the molar and the computer he has cuts the porcelain in the office. Today I just have a little bit of soreness in my jaw and where they shot me full of novacain.

So what are your last minute things to get done?

Busyness

So I haven't liked busyness for a long time. I'm much happier if I can just slow down, not have anything planned at all do things spare of the moment. Of course with two teenagers in the house life is sometimes busy but I count myself fortunate that my teens like to have their down time. However this Christmas season we are doing everything possible to slow way down and shop for the things that mean the most instead of buying mindless gifts. The most exciting thing that is going on is we, meaning the children and I are taking one of my girlfriends little girls for a few days in the next couple of weeks. We will be helping her make gifts for her family members, she is in first grade so this is a pretty big deal. They drop her off and are able to get some shopping done without little eyes around. The BEST thing out of all of this, we have made a new set of friends.

I received one of my Christmas gifts early this year just so I could use it before Christmas. I got one of these, yes I got the Apple green. I'm so excited!! I made a Christmas Rum cake yesterday and it was sooo good!! Enjoy, make one for yourself and do let it soak up all the glaze, it is worth it!

Make someones day

That is what I did yesterday. I took Stacy Julian's challenge and purchased a hot chocolate for a bell ringer. We have been having a real cold spell here in the single digits. This bell ringer was doing what she could to keep herself warm and she was ringing her bell a little stronger when I left. It made me smile and it is exactly what I needed.

This week has been busy and seems like it should be Friday already. Dentist appointments have happened for everyone in the family and I got my hair foiled yesterday for the first time since we moved to Spokane. It still surprises me how good I feel about myself after I get my hair foiled. The tones are a little warmer this time but that is okay. Even my children like it so that says something.

Saturday

This has to be one of my most favorite times of the week, the other day being Monday. I am usually up before everyone else. The coffee gets started and I just enjoy the little bit of silence. I take care of our five starving animals, not really starving but they think they are. I find that I actually have to work at being nice if someone gets up with me. So this morning I am just enjoying the rumble of the furnace, drinking my morning coffee in my new Starbucks Christmas cup and thinking about what Christmas projects need to be started today. I have usually started by this time, somethings should already be finished but there is nothing I can do about it now but just start.

So here is to a productive day!

What I'm loving right now

I'm loving, Tim Holtz 12 tags of Christmas. Yes, I know it is only day three but oh my gosh! He is an incredible artist!! If you like Tim's tags you might just like these by Ellen Hudson, she is following Tim in creating tags.

I'm loving, what Heidi Swapp and Teresa Collins are doing. They are two of the people that are on my I love their product list. Do you have one of those or am I the only one? All the kits they put together are sold out, dang it! If you love it, make sure you email Heidi and get put on a waiting list. Who knows, they might try to make a few more.

I'm loving, this idea from Stacy Julian and have already made a trip to Target for the albums. They also had them in black......nice. The goal with this project is to pick out a few Christmas photos and put them together for my children. Kids.....forget what you just read!

I'm also LOVING, that these two are exspecting thier first baby sometime in July!! This means that with my lovely daughter Nicole exspecting #3 in February and Angela in July I will have 5 grandbabies and will have surpassed my own number of children. That is a weird thought and the fact that I still have two teenagers at home......ya, I do believe we could reach 10 someday.

You just never know

This past summer was kinda crazy for me and all the things needed to get ready for our daughter's wedding this past September. However I did take time out for me and one of the things that I like to do is take part in survey's. Maybe silly to some and sometimes they are time consuming but they can be very interesting. Around mid August I think, I did a survey for Colorbox. After I was done I recieved an email thanking me for taking part in the survey and notifing me that my name was going to be put into a drawing to win a box of product. A few weeks later I I recieved another email saying I had won a prize box. Wow, what fun to get this in the mail.........

It is a beautiful collection of papers and accessories in blues and greens. With a few bits of pink thrown in for good measure. Gee....wonder why I love it so much? I just figured out today what I am going to use the album for, sorry to close to Christmas to tell you. You will have to wait.

Goals and Creativity

So I have a goal this month and that is to post 'something' everyday. I can't promise it will be awe inspiring or give you any ah ha moments but we should have a little bit of fun!

So for the first day, you need to know that this man is at it again! He is creating his 12 tags of Christmas and if you don't know who he is you better go check him out. You will want his product by the time you see all of his tags. That is how I got hooked and he isn't bad on the eyes either ;o)

Welcome to December everyone!