So it' s over we've been trying to get things the big holiday what all the work was for. Lets see on Christmas eve we went to the in-laws which was very pleasant and quiet. Dave did get a Penguin HAT he was THRILLED(hmmm). Then home to prepare for the following day. I made a cheesecake for the next day and the girls opened a present that was shockingly new pj's. Off to bed with them! Then a lot of Mommy and Daddy first explaining Santa can't come until all the little kids are asleep later YELLING SANTA IS GOING TO SKIP OUR HOUSE! HA! But you know it was cute they were just so stinkin excited and I remember that from when I was a kid being GIDDY the day before! So in the morning Santa was here and he even left special cookies on the plate for the girls in the shape of their favorite princess'. And a land of Chocolate Santa's on our table of Christmas books and he got them to all STAND UP overnight, see he is magic! The stockings were a big hit as well as all of the other presents. Later Mommy went to start dinner before guests arrived and discovered her oven didn't work. It was not a happy moment but after much stress over what to do we just postponed the guests for another day and ordered chinese! How appropriate since my favorite movie is A Christmas Story. Later after all was said and done and everyone was playing with their presents or in Daddy's case napping after his stressful day! We discovered everyone really did have a GREAT CHRISTMAS even if it didn't seem possible earlier in the day!

The next day a very nice man came and fixed my oven for a few hundred dollars then I promptly baked something! PHEW! Wednesday Marc & Paula & the kids came by to celebrate Christmas so the kids all got to see each other exchange gifts and play! Plus I got to cook my dinner in my oven!

Finally now back to normal! I've been playing with my Cuttlebug and I have some pictures to share so in a bit I'll post them have to get them off the camera!

It's Raining It's Pouring!


Ok I'm still stuck in the scraproom surrounded by mess. The girls are acting a little icky so I have them eating oranges and taking vitamins and resting so they don't get sick before the Holiday or after if I can help it! Chicken Soup for lunch and maybe for dinner as well. So I needed something pretty to look at and this was the centerpiece of the table yesterday at AG. It makes me smile! Hope it does for you as well. I'm itching to create something fun but I can't walk in this room so back to work!

A Bitty Christmas Cheer



So yesterday we left on an adventure in the City our adventure over we've finally returned home! We drove in during rush hour in the rain! Big fun but we were at least moving where the people coming out of the city were not! Abs checked out a Strawberry Shortcake CD from the Library so we had that to listen to! (I can now sing the SS theme song if anyone is interested! Please say your not it's stuck in my head!) Anyhoo we're almost to Armitage which is the area in which Jen lives and we're meeting her at the hotel when Abs decides we must go home now her "tummy hurts and she needs some food in it". I kid you not after an hour in the car already and we've made it through the rough part of traffic! HA! I called Jen and she suggested we stop by her and drop off some stuff we were bringing and pick up some crackers then we would all head to the hotel at the same time. Cool so we did and I parked for the very first time where there was no parking in the alley with my blinkers on for over 20 min and nothing happened can you imagine(let me just say I only had a car for a brief moment when I lived in the city rarely drove it because of the pain in the $(#)! So after saying Hi to Jens DH and goodbye and packing up we headed into the heart of the city I only had to honk once and flip off one cabby not too bad! HA! Once we got checked into the hotel the girlies wanted to swim so we donned our bathing suits and headed down to the over clorinated over crowded pool for about half and hour. Abs was in and out in and out and so on. Finally they decided we might eat so we dried, dressed and headed to a restaurant for dinner. By the time we finished there we were back to the room and it was almost 9pm way late for the girlies. Jen and Samantha headed out and the girls and I got ready for bed they were excited we all hopped into bed read a book then watched a little TV until we couldn't hold our eyes open anymore!

Today we woke up and checked out ate breakfast then headed to American Girl Place for the most awesome day! First the Bitty Bear Matinee then a little shopping and off to lunch in the Cafe! Very cool Christmas decorations and of course the girls loved all the food and borrowing dolls to eat with. Abs didn't want to give hers back but after a little talking and a lot of crying we finally headed for home! More Strawberry Shortcake music! Now I'm really good at that song! At least we weren't in the car as long today! All in all we had a GREAT time it was nice to sit and chat with Jen. She's only got 4 more weeks until the new baby is here! Our last all girly outing for awhile since she's adding a boy to her family!

So the pics above are from AG place. Now that we're home I'm tearing apart the scraproom. Got a bug in my bonnet that it needs to be cleaned and organized before the new year! Maybe I can work in here again? Instead of the dining room! HA!

Total Destruction it must be Christmas!


Or as my DH likes to say "The Giants have Crushed the Village!". This is the aftermath of giving 5 small children hammers and asking them to hit the house! As you can see DH has to be right in the middle and he's having a great time!

Everyone got to take home some gingerbread house to enjoy so it worked out well! My kiddo's just picked the candy off and were done!

Holiday Family Fun


So we had my family here for Christmas this last Saturday. Mom and Joel came up from TN. My brother and his girlfriend came from IN with her kids. We all had a great time. I made French Martini's we ate and ate and ate. Opened presents of course(the kids were counting their packages under the tree). Then the kids decorated a gingerbread house which was great fun. While the guys went off to a beer tasting(alas no beer left when they got there only other alcohol? they were bummed) and then to a cool woodworking store a couple of them got giftcards to. This is what they came home to aren't they cute and they were so well behaved too! Later Dave brought out the hammers and we let them smash the house they built so everyone could take some home with them! WAY COOL!

Snows all Gone


So the snow has ended after a few days in the 40's and even 50's the snow has left. The only reminder I have is the layout I did of the snow last week for the Cottage. It was beautiful while it lasted and I didn't have to go out in it!

Today I got my Holiday Cards sent out and D's parents came over to celebrate his b-day. We all sat around and recovered from yesterday! Then later got carry-out from Maggiano's! Yum-O!!!!

Why Be Nice? Because Santa Likes NICE!


So this is a little holiday story! Or really an anytime story about my youngest HAPPY child! She usually is, happy that is, if she's doing what she wants when she wants. Anyhoo we were doing last minute prep for our family Holiday celebration that happened Today/Yesterday.
While in the grocery store buying that 3rd and last bag of cranberries a very sweet cashier pointed out how adorable my child was and proceeded to tell her how cute she was. Abs was not thrilled however and tried very hard to ignore the very nice lady. So Mommy says "what do you say sweetie" which got a look. Then I asked her to say Thank You and mentioned quietly she needed to be NICE. This evoked the most wonderful response directed at the person who caused her trauma, the very nice cashier. "I DON'T WANT TO BE NICE" in the most loud and clear 3 year old voice you will ever want to hear! I'm sure I turned a couple of shades of red and hurried out of the store. Once in the car I was explaining to her how when people are nice to her it's appropriate to be nice in return. She started scolding me that I should "stop saying to be nice Mommy!" then I got "stop talking about Santa not coming if I'm not nice" and this went on for awhile. I was more than a little stunned! I guess the preassure to be good/nice/Santa worthy this time of year has finally gotten to her 3 year old sensabilities and she's done! I have to agree I'm ready for Christmas to be here already!

This is the look I've been getting most lately! This one while trying to take the cute next to the tree portrait. It's very hard to be 3 and just not really get it yet. All these people talking about Santa and presents and being good but nothing to show for it but more repremands and instruction. Luckily Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Cris were here today and she finally got some presents. I thought she was going to explode just giving to all the teachers and aids and other friendly faces we see everyday! Everytime I started to wrap another present she would want to know where hers was????? Ahhhhhhh! Only one more week!

Ahhh the weekend!


So yesterday was my day to upload my DT stuff at Croppers Cottage! I had so much fun working with my kit this month! This is the second time the owner has put together a kit for me and she has a FAB eye! So I got lots of fun stuff to work with and the Wonderful Ski Bunny paper from Arctic Frog! I also got some stuff well I was unsure of how to make work like the Really Big buttons and some Rectangle Chipboard pieces from Bazzill. I can't tell you how thrilled I was when I added them together! Got these ornaments which now I'm making a few more to add to gifts! Super easy except the time waiting for glue to dry! LOL it's like paint you know! Drying is no fun!

Anyhoo we had a date last night! Took the girls over to Paulas and she graciously kept them overnight so Dave and I could spend some quality time together. We had fun running around doing a bit of shopping and then getting some movies. We so rarely get to spend time alone together so it was like we were dating again! Then after the movies we scrapped a bit! Gotta love a guy that has his own stash of supplies! I'll upload my layout tomorrow I had to glue something back on and well it's drying and I'm impatient!

One More Picture


From Thanksgiving! I made this banner for my mirror for the Holiday using Vintage Art Glass Glitter and Cardstock. I will say this I wouldn't get much bigger with my font in the future simply because while these were drying they were very floppy! I was very worried they wouldn't get stiff enough to hang. But they did and they are very heavy. Then I wired them up and hung them with a ribbon to my mirror!

For the rest of the month it will be all Christmas all the time! I'm working now on my Christmas Banner which will be a bit different than the last couple but still on my Big Mirror! Small story behind this mirror. It hung in my house when I was very little then in my grandmothers house. It's been a number of different colors(my mom, aunt and grandma painted everything over and over). I remember, when I was old enough, cleaning the glass when went to my Grandmas just because I loved how it looked when I was done and I could stand on the couch and reach it! Silly I know but I'm so happy to have this mirror on one of my Dining Room Walls! However hard it is to take pictures of things hanging on it! LOL

A lot of Catching Up








So I've missed a couple weeks! Sorry! Here's how the story goes. Week of Thanksgiving cooking cooking cooking. Dave's new company gave everyone a Fresh Turkey for the holiday so that's one less thing to worry about. Wed. before the feast Dave is in an accident on his way to work. Real bummer car is driveable but you can't open any doors on the drivers side and the mirror is gone. The damage is one long strip down the side of the car touching both panels and both doors! EWWWWWW He is fine, a little miffed but fine! (he would laugh at my using the word miffed to describe his attitude! HA!) I forgot to take pictures. BAD BAD SCRAPPER!

Feast Day arrives and everything is wonderful! The weather is FAB The turkey turns out great as you can see in the photo. We mad a homemade apple pie, onion tarts and turkey cupcakes. I say we since I had 2 little helpers peeling apples putting crust in tart pans and grating cheese among other things. They were the best! Em wants to learn how to do everything! Abs floats in and out depending on what her mood is. Anyhoo the guests arrive(MIL, FIL and Dave's Aunt Dotty) we all eat too much get very tired after the food and wine eventually have dinner and then their off with many leftovers in hand. We then all basically pass out! Well Aunt Dotty brought the girls some coloring/sticker books they are having fun with those. Dave and I pass out!

The rest of the weekend we stay close to home except for a trip to the grocery store by me to get some food other than TURKEY!!! It's in the 60's here the entire weekend and Dave and the girls go various parks in our neighborhood each day riding their bikes there sometimes!

Sunday we get the sad news that Dave's Grandma Emily has passed away. She was 102 and is the person we named our Em after. From then on it's mostly family preperations.

Monday Dave gets the call that the insurance company is totalling out his car. YIKES it's I think only 5 years old! But the damage will cost 85% of the cost to replace the car. So now we have a rental for a week until we find a new car. Dave is not having a great week!

Wake and funeral arrive and the weather takes a turn the rain arrives the temps drop and we spend 2 days in and out of cars, houses, funeral homes in the soaking wet freezing wind weather. Luckily the snow held off for one day a lot of family came from the WI/IL border and a bad storm would have made it impossible to get back. Anyway we pulled Em out of school for a day and a half for all of this and drug them all over the city it seems.

Thursday night we are exhausted and head off to bed just as the snow/rain/ice/sleet begin. We wake up Friday at 5am to a phone call from the phone tree that school is cancelled which requires I look out the window since we have a lot of plows here and everyone lives within 4 miles of our school so I have to check it out! We are affectively snowed in! It wouldn't have been too bad if we hadn't had wind but the 1 foot of snow we had turned into 4 foot drifts. Which the kids ramped up to make mini sleading hills in our yard! Also making it very hard for Dave to go Car shopping.

School being cancelled meant the Disco(you read that right) and GS Bake Sale were cancelled so I spent most of my day calling people and making sure they knew!

Later that night Dave finally got to the dealership to check out a couple cars which took 3 hours of hunting for and de-icing the cars to test drive them. The girls crashed out after playing in the snow most of the day.

Saturday Dave headed out again to check out some more cars Em went on a play date. Dave came home with a decision to make and some cool new snow toys. Snowball makers and shields. Or as Em calls them ClabberNabbers. I took lots of photos in the snow. Last night we met Dave over at a dealership where he bought a pre-owned car. It's 1 year old and the coolest blue(he doesn't love blue cars, but I do!)! We went out to dinner at Bahama Breeze which was yummy, to mark the close to the week that wouldn't end. And another happy note we finally got mail today which means we got our movie! Dave and I snuggled up after the girls went to bed and watched "The Breakup" which was very pleasant!

So here we are Sunday and my house is trashed, somewhere during the longest week ever boxes came down from the attic one Christmas tree went up with lights and I have yet to put the ornaments on it! The girls are using the boxes as a fort in my DR. So I have to get my but in gear today and get some decorating done so we can actually walk through the house again! Phew I'm looking forward to getting back to some sort of normal schedule!