Christmas

Well Christmas has officially come and gone. It was magical and spectacular as usual, filled with lots of family time, laughing and celebrating, great food, and gift-giving. :) Some of the highlights of this year's celebration include:

• church with my family....although it is not my church, it was still wonderous to hear the Christmas story with my family gathered 'round.
• Christmas Eve dinner consisting of Pizza Hut pizza and a delicious salad and the conversations held during dinner.
• Putting together a Harry Potter puzzle with my cousin Tony...I swear it was addicting!
• Coming home to our house all decorated and taking pictures in our Christmas outfits and with 2 rambunctious labs. What an adventure!
• Opening our annual christmas eve presents, pajamas! :) Mine are the best...they say "99% nice, 1% naughty" and they make me smile whenever I see them.
• Popping popcorn and playing Disney Scene It! while sitting in front of a cozy fire in the fireplace.
• Going to sleep knowing that when I wake up it would be Christmas....the feeling of joy and happiness is still with me as I anticipate this day every year.
• Waking up, knowing that it is Christmas and thinking about all the wonderful things that this day holds.
• Spending time with my family as we open presents...I think my favorite moments were when they opened the gifts from me....Dad opening his "Scarecrow" movie that I tracked down online, Mom opening her new mixer and the photo frame I altered for her bedroom, Renee opening her skillet (that she picked out) and not remembering what it was...so cute, and Zach opening his DVD series that I bought him. :)
• Opening my new scrapping toy....my Cricut Expression....which is a huge die-cutting tool for cutting out letters and shapes. Can you believe that was like my entire Christmas?
• Heading to Grandma's to eat a fabulous dinner and play Mexican Train Dominoes all afternoon.
• Going to see Marley and Me in the theaters. It was a fabulous movie, but a real tear-jerker...I cried and came out of the theater all puffy eyed.
• Coming home and scrapping my heart out while playing with my new toy! :)

I will always remember how awesome this day was, in spite of the not-so great things. Like dropping a jar of pickles on my finger...ouch! and being really mad at my camera because it will not work at all! I am going to take it in to our local camera shop this week and see if they can do anything for it. I am so fed up with it not working. It didn't work at all during our family Christmas party on Saturday so I got like 2 pictures, but then it worked fine at our other party on Sunday. Then today it doesn't work at all so I had to borrow my sister's camera....grrrrr. considering my camera is supposed to be top of the line....a digital SLR! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! It is just so frustrating. Well anyways, overall it was a great day and I know that even with the craziness, this Christmas was fabulous! :)

What a Day!

Wow, what a day! Today was our annual family Christmas party....5o-something people coming to our house to celebrate the holiday. Well we had a pretty major ice storm on Friday and over 70% of the county was without power, but not us. And the temperatures have been below freezing so it is not melting. And on top of that the winds have picked up. So this morning, we woke up to no power. We called everyone to move the party to my aunt and uncle's house. Then about 10 minutes later the power came back on. So we waited awhile and then called everyone back and put the party back at our house. So everyone came over and we had a great time hanging out and celebrating the holiday with each other. Then as people were starting to leave, the power went out again. So people cleared out prety quickly. We waited to see if it would come back on as quickly as it had last time, but it didn't. So 4 hours later, we packed up to head to my sister's house to spend the night. And as we were pulling out of the driveway, the lights came back on. Go figure! It has been crazy!!! I am just glad that we are in our nice warm nousenow and relaxing with power and heat...because of course it is the coldest day of the year at -2 degrees. So I am signing off and wishing everyone a super, fabulous happy holidays! Until next time....

"Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...."

Today I am sitting here at home, nice and cozy in my jammies, surfing the web and looking at the beautiful, if somewhat frightening, scene outside my window. Why may you ask? Well we got hammered with an ice storm last night and so school was cancelled and the trees are coated with ice. I headed outside a while ago to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery and I got a lot of great shots (which I will try to upload and post today sometime), but you could hear the ice crackling every time the wind moved through the branches. I just hope we don't lose our power...many places to the south of us, including my sister, have already lost theirs and if we do that means no scrapping for this girl. And that would totally STINK because all I want to do right now is get downstairs to my scraproom and get working. But that may be a possibility sooner than later because it is starting to freezing rain/sleet again....so lets hope not. So for now, I am signing off so I can go play with my paper and glue and get creating! :) See you all later!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas :)

Well, the season is officially here. Our family is gathered around the Christmas tree putting up ornaments, remembering each ornament and the memories it brings. The little black lab that reminds us of our first christmas with Bailey, the ABC tree I got my first year of teaching, the glass ornaments that Mom got while we were in Frankenmuth, the toolbox that reminds us of our year building the house, and all of mom's classic rocking horses. Records are playing with all our favorite holiday carols and songs and the snow is falling. We are taking a break from the tree so Dad can make his famous Christmas stollen. The house smells delicious with the smell of baking bread and we are all here, safe and sound at home, enjoying just being together and celebrating the holiday with one of our favorite christmas traditions. :)