Ornaments and Decor

We took our annual trip to the mall for our family ornament and did homemade ornaments again. This year, we tried salt dough ornaments and really enjoyed decorating them. One may think you can have too many homemade (or otherwise) ornaments on your tree, but we're pretty likely to do these again so we will eventually overload the tree. But then the kids will grow up, move out and I'll send them with all their ornaments for their own little tree. Let's not think about that though.

that's a banana, not an ornament

Daniel only decorated one ornament. But he did so meticulously

As for the rest of the decor, I just love it. I realize decorations is not what the season is about nor does Christ care about how much tinsel I hang in my house. But I just can't help it, Christmas decorations have always been one of my favorites. I would like to have more homemade items, but I'll probably have to start in July if I ever really want that to happen.

 this clock "sings" a Christmas song every hour...I've come to enjoy this 

announcement and will likely miss it when Christmas is over

We have some other things out and about, but these are the highlights, I think. I hope you enjoyed setting out your seasonal decor this year!

Mary Kay Party

Our good friend, Jenn, from Birmingham offered to host a Mary Kay sale for Maggie and donate 100% of the profit to Maggie's fundraiser! She volunteered to do both a web sale and drive up from good 'ol Magic City to host a party at my house! I feel so blessed to have such a good friend willing to go to those lengths for us. The Friday after Thanksgiving worked for her schedule, so Jenn sent the invites and I prepared the food! I took all of three pictures of the party, once meal time was over I guess I got caught up in trying on the products that I forgot to continue with the photo documentation. I didn't even take pics of the food setup! Not that it was a huge deal...I just always do. Ugh. Fail again.

Daniel stayed for the lipstick

Black Friday was Pink Friday at our house! Many thanks to my family for coming out to the party, whether or not you bought something, we appreciate you giving your time! My Aunt Karen and cousin Megan even came on their way out of town- headed back to St. Louis when the party ended. Thanks also to my Aunt Rose and some friends who couldn't be there but made online purchases. We appreciate your support! We really enjoyed ourselves and another BIG THANK YOU to our friend Jenn for so generously giving your time and commission (that's the profit) to our little Moosie girl! We love you all!!

Thanksgiving

So it's a week before Christmas and I'm just now writing about Thanksgiving. Here's hoping I can write about Christmas before the year ends! I'm off my game a little this year where pictures are involved...I just haven't taken as many. My parents had a really nice setup that I took zero pictures of and I didn't take any during the meal either- because everyone loves pictures of themselves eating. Everything was delicious- turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, vegetables, applesauce and then of course, dessert! I made several dishes for Maggie that mom and Daniel enjoyed as well. I made an asparagus casserole that used mushrooms and parsnips as the "cream" rather than your usual soup, plus homemade applesauce, sweet potato casserole with a hint of grade B pure maple syrup and cinnamon as the sweeteners plus pumpkin cookies and a pumpkin "cheesecake". Then at the last minute Will asked me to make an apple pie. I thought someone else was bringing cherry, but much to our disappointment, there was no cherry pie for Thanksgiving! Plenty of pumpkin, though. I managed to take a few shots after our meal on Thursday:

 playing hide and seek with Uncle Jimmy

That evening we went rollerskating. Here, I finally took a reasonable amount of pictures. Everyone had a great time! I wasn't comfortable putting Maggie in skates, but she didn't let that stop her from getting on the rink with everyone else! Love that girl. :)

We had a great night! The rest of the weekend was busy busy busy as well; Friday I hosted a Mary Kay party at my house to raise money for Maggie's therapy. And Saturday we went to the farm in Carthage to visit with Daniel's family and had chili, hot dogs, stew, cornbread and I heard there was dessert, but I somehow missed that. I suppose my waistline will thank me. Hope you enjoyed a your Thanksgiving!

O Christmas Tree!

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I love the sounds, smells, activities and memories associated with the season. If it were up to me, I would get out the Christmas decor the day after Halloween (Daniel would never allow for such nonsense...well, he wouldn't help me anyway...but I would be "allowed" :)) For most of our marriage, we put up the Christmas tree the weekend before Thanksgiving because we were always out of town for the long weekend. I prefer that so I have the tree up longer, but this year just didn't work out that way. In fact, we started the day before Thanksgiving- getting up the tree and lights- then had to finish the ornaments a couple days later. I put up all the other decor the following week. Weird. Anyway, time has certainly gotten away from us, thus explaining the drought of blog posts on my end, but we did manage to finish the decorating. Enjoy the pics!

the kids wore out quickly and took to watching us finish with the lights

 Maggie's ornament was first on the tree!

so serious

We enjoyed our traditional hot chocolate and cookies, even though I didn't get pictures this year.

Will's tooth

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted anything! Times are busy but I'm working to catch up and write a few blogs this week.
So a few weeks ago Will hit another milestone. He lost his first tooth!! It was wiggly for awhile and the final straw was biting into an apple one afternoon. He was not interested in selling his tooth, but rather wanted to hold onto as a keepsake and to show people. I'm pretty sure he's forgotten about it now. My little man is turning into such a big boy! His little smile is forever changed now. One by one his "baby" teeth are on their way out and the permanents will replace them. Life just doesn't stand still for very long, does it? I love you Will Will and your new little man smile!!

It also snowed that afternoon, so it was a pretty good day for Will. :)

somebody was not happy he was left inside...