Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
I had such good intentions of getting my TIMHT post set up, ready to autopost for Thursday's meme...so much so that I took this photo on Tuesday night late. Somewhere after that, though, the wheels fell off the cart and I never made it back to actually construct the post that I wanted to.
My son cooked this tater tot casserole on Tuesday night while my daughter and I went to the grocery store. He made a double batch to insure leftover would be available for later. We ate it Tuesday night for dinner, saving the rest for the days to come. It came in handy when he got off work late Wednesday from his grocery store job and for when my husband got off work Wednesday evening too.
My daughter and I enjoyed some late Christmas night...and well...now it is all gone. It represents all the good food we've been blessed with this holiday season. It was nice to have in the busy times this past week when we had so much to do....
For more TIMHT head on over to MSM's Blog ...and join in with the fun~!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
December 20, 1986, I married my best friend Happy Anniversary Jay!
The picture below is of my mom and dad and myself right before the ceremony. It's one of my favorites from that day. The photographer was coming up with photo ideas to take beforehand and said, "Lean in and kiss her on the cheek". They did and for a reason I dont know I closed my eyes like this.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Last year I participated in Boo Mama's Tour of Homes. That post can be found here.
Since a lot of what I do for Christmas decorations is traditional, I'm just going to share some of what's new for this year in this post.
I'm glad you came!
Bayley, our 9 year old cocker spaniel is glad you came too. To him, your arriving meant "getting" to wear the reindeer antlers for a photo opt....
Yeah, I don't think that "getting to" is quite the phrase Bayley used either....
He quickly shook those things off of his head...I think he is on to me. He knows that these photos end up on the Internet nowadays, and he wants no part of it.
He did however wait patiently for his Bil Jac Dog Treat though....
As you come up the walkway to my house, you will see that we added some outdoor decorations this year. Lit trees and candy canes line the walk..
and a big "chubby" (says it on the box) santa watches you as you make your approach...We kind of figured Bayley would bark at it as it inflated....he barks at anything that moves in our yard (or the neighbor's yard-even the neighbors)...But santa-no barking. I guess Bayley knows who fills his stocking up each Christmas and is on good terms with him or something...
I ditched the greenery this year that I usually put over my porch railing. I went to Target instead and bought white corded lights. I have a confession to make. As much as I love Christmas, love decorating for Christmas and all that Christmas is...I just had a hard time getting into it this year. The decorations sat in the dining room floor for a good couple of days before I touched them...We went for a small $10 live tree this year (yeah I know-good price huh?) that is about three feet rather than the ball root tree...and we just got around to decorating the outside yesterday. Maybe this is one of our off years. In years past we had deadlines because of phone book deliveries and even further back we had small children that prompted us to decorate early. This year nothing...just busy stuff...and lack of motivation. Now it's there, I like it and am glad we finally got our acts together...but it's different and feels different. Maybe this is how it feels when the kids become adults (I have an 18 and 16 year old) and things change once more.
With all that said, these window wreaths that have sat in this box on the front porch are going back into the attic without being put up this year. I like that we bought some new things this year and are changing it up somewhat. So here is the box filled with greenery that we've used for many years! It is not a part of my house tour really-just being real here on the Internet you know...
This is our house flag of a puppy sitting outside of his dog house saying "snowed inn".
Inside, we put up the live $10 tree as I mentioned and the three little trees you can read about in last year's post if you are so inclined. What we changed from last year is that instead of having a homemade ornament tree...we made one a playmobil/webkinz ornament tree after my daughter hijacked it decorating it with some of her old playmobil and using some of our webkinz ornaments we bought this year. I loved it....it made such a cute "toy" tree.
Brown webkinz cow with cookies!
Playmobil snowman stuffed on top!
Webkinz Googles
Playmobil boy practicing apparently a rescue move....or um...being rescued?
Using the playmobil ornaments brought my 18 year old daughter, Hannah great joy as she remembered the Advent Playmobil thing that I bought her and her brother when they were smaller. She decided it was time for something new playmobil wise..so she bought the nativity scene.
As she unpacked the pieces and we examined them....I became concerned that we might be rewriting the nativity story somewhat....I have to share exactly what happened.....(LOL)We mean no disrespect in the least. Praise God for the advent of his Son Jesus. We were just having some fun with how playmobil depicted the nativity....as we really did like this set. It also came with the story of the Nativity in six different languages.
This guy below became known to us first as the wise man with the twig in his turban. Jay, my husband, later corrected us and said that the thing sticking out of the turban is really a weave. He also seems to be a bit darker than the other two wise men in this nativity set. It made me wonder if the two other wise men were the only ones from "the orient" as the song goes....and that they made a swing through Africa picking up their best buddy there. He holds his suitcase and a big trophy thing. Inside the suitcase Hannah placed another box that she said really looked a lot like the same shape the baby powder playmobil piece looked like(that she has through another set). I suggested perhaps this king was bringing Baby Jesus baby powder among his gift mentioned in scriptures? He also is wearing gold chains around his neck like Mr T (which was Hannah's first comment about him!)
This king below got dubbed "Burger King". He carries an empty suitcase of gold and his staff. We believe that as he left the stable, he took with him the cow you see in the last picture as he started his burger empire. He did not really look like he was from the East either...he had a more Anglo Saxon appearance. What's up with that?
This king comes bearing a neti pot and salts . It makes perfect since since the neti pot is made by the Himalayan Institute since the Himalayas are in Asia and all. We dubbed this guy "Yankee Doodle" since he stuck a feather in his cap...and well you know the rest of that song... He probably is the more authentic looking wiseman...
Why is this shepherd walking around with a bag that makes him look like a hobo or a runaway? Yeah, we did not really know either. As Hannah placed his head gear in place, she said "and this is his "do rag". Um yeah...
This girl angel got dubbed "Allysa" from the webkinz site. It really does not make a lick of sense unless you are familiar to the game...but to us we found it funny . Hannah placed the book in her hand so that she could remember her words...you know..."Fear not, for behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people"..... I just shook my head .....
The animals....the longhorn cow went home with Burger King
Hannah also got two mini sets....we wondered why Santa had a stick....and then also noted that the snowman and boy seem prepared with shovels in case santa came at them with same stick....I'll let you know if we wake up one morning to casualties! Oh and Hannah noted that the snowman had a cute lil chamber pot on his head. Oohhh...I really need to make sure that I need to review the correct nativity story with both my kids this year as well as the traditional ways the holiday stories are told. They seem to have become a little misinformed...doncha think?
And with all seriousness, I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. Thank you for coming to my house for the open house!
For more Tour of Homes hosted by BooMama, be sure to visit her site:
God bless and Take Care!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
For this week's TIMHT-I present....
Christmas Music!
This is just a small collection of my Christmas CDs....These just happen to be the ones I loaded onto iTunes to have on my computer, and so they were handy for a photo moment.
Specifically the ones above are:
Point of Grace-Christmas Story
Amy Grant A Christmas To Remember
City on a Hill-It's Christmas Time
Andrew Peterson-Behold the Lamb of God
There are other favorites not pictured, and a few single MP3 downloads that I've enjoyed...but you get the picture.
MSM always does a great job hosting this fun meme . Be sure to visit her blog for more TIMHT action!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
1999, when it all began....my driveway covered in phone books as we bagged them before deliveries.Thursday, December 04, 2008
For this week's submission to TIMHT hosted by MSM, I share these three tin saying bears that now hang in my bathroom (which has an outside/woodsy theme being developed as I find "just the right things" that fit)I bought these bears back when my daughter, Hannah and I traveled to Asheville NC in August.
They were tucked away...lost kind of until this past weekend when I dug them out from under a small pile they had somehow found themselves in. I hung them immediately-happy to have something new to add to the bathroom....
They could describe myself-but more accurately describe my husband (who has the online handle here and there of "Black Bear Jay)
There were several other tin signs where I bought these-but I decided that since buying tin signs is a part of my treat to myself when I end up in one of these mountain stores...that I would restrain myself and space it out. I'm glad I did...
They hang next to our bathtub...and make that corner of my house cute IMHO :)
