Holiday ready!

I broke down and put up the Christmas decorations on Sunday - it's the minimum I could get away with but it's done! I figured while I was cleaning and moving things around to vacuum under them, that I may as well move them and do it all at once. Kelleigh helped so it went fairly quickly. Today the fabulous nut rolls that Peggy makes came much to everyone's delight! These are very time consuming and its a tradition that always kicks off the holiday season for us - thank you Peggy! The boys are at the year-end JV football banquet; seems as if football just began. I have had a migraine for two days so I begged off in order to have a couple hours of quiet time. Sad but I am already counting down the days until the Christmas break begins!

I hope each of you had as nice a Thanksgiving Day as we did. Ryan told us it was his favorite meal of the year! Despite making a 24# turkey, there is very little left and only a bit of the side dishes. Kelleigh doesn't like any of the items so she had two cheeseburgers and was a happy, happy girl! She was a huge help this year as she peeled the potatoes, cut them, and helped with the pineapple casserole.

Earlier Thanksgiving Day, Mark and the boys went to see The Blind Side - a truly fabulous movie and one I highly recommend taking your family to see. Ryan and I went yesterday to see it and at parts I cried as the parallels between the movie and the two of us were many. Given our struggles lately, I pray our end result is as positive.

I did take advantage of the Black Friday sales but, alas, not at 3am! The online stores offered the same prices and free shipping so why fight the crowds? I only have two items left to buy and am thrilled. Today I forced the kids to suffer through two photo sessions so I could get the holiday picture ordered so that task is done too. I will put our annual letter on this blog so folks will have to go there to read it and help save a few trees.

Ryan successfully completed his on-line driving 'class' and is busy practicing for the written test at the DMV. The fail rate is 50% so he is working hard to pass it the first time! We have let him drive in the school parking lot and he's doing very well. Of course he would drive to the bathroom if he could! Once he passes the test we can schedule his first behind-the-wheel and he can venture further since he'll be legal!

I am loving my new Kindle and recommend it to anyone who loves to read and enjoys having it handy on-the-go. Definitely one of the best, and most used, purchases I've made lately. Off to get the laundry out and hoping to get inspired to drag out the Christmas stuff ...

Some holiday cards

It's been nice having a little time to play knowing that all the chores don't have to get done over the weekend! I had bought some new Cuttlebug embossing folders so decided to create a few cards using them. The tree is probably my favorite and looks prettier in real life.

Happy Birthday Christopher!

Happy Birthday to my brother who is celebrating his last birthday in his 30's today! Seems as if I was just changing his diaper so not sure how so much time has gone by! Hope you're having a great day and got my text.

I have a couple things to share now that the items have been distributed! Neither of these items are an original as I saw them on another creative persons site and loved them so had to order the stamp and create the gift bags. The first is the Thanksgiving card - the cat cracked me up so I veered from my serious, traditional style for this holiday for something funkier. You have to admit it makes you giggle! The second is a mix that I passed out to a few friends at work. It was a challenge to find the "bugles" in the grocery store as I've never seen or bought them before. The end product was clever and the recipients enjoyed them.