MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Ah, here it is the end of Christmas Day and I actually have time to blog. It must be a Christmas miracle!! Of course it has been great today, no company and all I cooked was a turkey and french fries, yes that's right french fries,,,my hubby requested them so in the spirit of the season he got 'em.
I wrapped presents til midnight last night and managed to sleep in until 7, then I napped from 10:30 until noon. Wa-hoo I feel pretty refreshed.
Last week I made orange marmalade, for the family, peanut brittle, opera fudge, cinnamon cakes {for the neighbors}, and yesterday (Christmas Eve) I made cocoa cinnamon rolls and sweet pastry cinnamon nut swirls and swirls filled with cinnamon and fruit cake dried fruit mix-which ended up being my favorite.
Well I hope everyone had a nice day.
Thank you God for sending your Son as a beautiful little baby -- just for us!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Here are some of the Shrinky Dink necklaces, I have discovered I do not like working with the white shrinky dinks. When you erase it looks OK but when you shrink it, it shows up where you erased. Very touchy stuff.

Overall I am pleased with the way they turned out.

WHY NOT SHRINKY DINK?

It is just so hard to choose sometimes, but I've already changed my mind from felt pins to shrinky dink necklaces for the kindergartners. Sounds like more fun anyway. I have a terrific set of permanant markers that I asked for last Christmas and haven't even used yet. Well I better get the laundry done and dinner going so I won't feel guilty "playin'" with shrinky dinks...

DOIN' THE HOLIDAYS

I just love the Christmas season. Of course there's Christmas play practices, jammin' ALL the good ole tunes on the piano (I would just die not taking time to play 'em), it's such a fabulous way to unwind, baking for family friends and neighbors, shopping, decorating,planning "winter parties" for school, and last but not least trying to get a family picture taken. My wonderful husband suggested we do it at home with our Sony Mavica....here's what we came up with----

I forgot about the glare on the glasses but I am pleasantly surprised with the results. And all with a lot less stress than getting to the studio, waiting etc...I plan on doing some serious cropping too.

I am planning on making some little felt pins for Kaylee's class, or who knows maybe some little drawstring pouches would be faster. I need to figure that out real soon if I plan on getting anything done by next week. I am so relieved to be quitting my job that I can hardly wait 3 more weeks!!!!

Today I got the lights out onto the fence, my Dad had bought us icicle like 4 years ago and last year was the first we used them. This year though I also put out the old fat bulbs that we used years ago...I just love that look of the ceramic lights. I used all blue on those. t\The icicle lights are red and green. Kinda of a strange combo but what the heck I love 'em.

SURPRISE PACKAGE!!!!

It is so hard to believe how fast the time flies. Once again Christmas is just around the corner. Saturdays mail brought a delightful surprise from Laurie over at http://oldschoolacres.typepad.com/ Oh thank you, thank you, thank you Laurie for this sweet little pig....Kaylee loves it too!!

It took me nearly 2 weeks with little scraps of time here and there to sort out the kids' toys. We are also trying to get the spare room cleaned out in order to Titus there. Kaylee constantly complains he snores much too loudly. Which is quite funny because she's pretty noisy herself. The other middle of the night stress is that Kaylee loves sleeping on the floor and Titus just can't stand it. I'll wake to him saying over and over "Go to bed, go to bed, go to bed, etc..." Which requires me picking her up off the floor and putting in bed to quiet him down. My migraines are triggered by waking up too many times. Hopefully we will have him in his own room by Christmas.