Is it Christmas or New Years?

We went to David's parents for Christmas with them on New Years Eve. We took the meal consisting of ham with an orange/brown sugar/steak sauce glaze, tortillini salad, a new green been casserole, deviled eggs and rolls. The dessert I made fell apart coming out of the pan and didn't go with. Actually, David's dad is diabetic and been trying to be extra good, so it was not a bad thing that we didn't take anything. We had a wonderful time with them.....David got the neatest wooden football puzzle for his football room, gift cards at Lowes, Barnes & Noble and Target, plus other stuff. I got my season II to LOST (yeah), candles and gift cards to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Gordman's. Later we sat around the kitchen table and looked thru an old box of photos. That was really the best part of the day, reliving some of David's childhood. All in all a great day.
When David and I got home, he opened a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti Sparkling Wine Aunt Georgia had bought us for Christmas to have on New Years. We aren't the type to stay up all night, so we drank it early. Actually it was much better than the champaign we had bought last year.

Getting ready for work now, but have a 3 day weekend coming up, so it's not too bad. Only worked 2 days this week. Can't really complain because I had the entire week off and turned these 2 days back in....but walking in the door last night at work I was wishing I hadn't. Oh well, I'll survive.
Gonna go pick up Trina from volleyball practice tomorrow night and she's spending the night with us. I'm hoping to take her out to eat before we come home. There's a new restaurant in downtown Normal called Big Mouths that sound like a place she would like. They serve Fried Twinkies (not my kind of dessert, but I'm sure Trina will like it).
I'd like to get some of the Christmas decorations down this weekend, plus work on my Christmas Journal. Plus we are going to Davids parent's house to do Christmas with them on New Year's Eve. We are taking dinner for them as part of their gift.
(the above picture of Trina is from May of 2004...she's 11)

Prompts 13 & 14....

Made this page rather simple, just to get it done. As you can see below, the gift tag moves out of the way to reveal a stamped image of a gift. The border of stamps on the bottom of the page are Stampin' Up and I cut out the circle paper and put it in one of the presents. Pretty simple.



Loved doing this page. My favorite Christmas song is Good King Wenceslas because I love the Old English language they use such as, hence, hither and thither. The other songs listed "have" to be sung by the artists I've listed or they are just not the same for me. The little semi-circle on the side of the page is where I put the words to Good King Wenceslas on a piece of paper.
Followed Shimelle's directions exactly on this one because I'm trying to get caught up....still. Liked the quickness of this, plus I'm in love with this font stamp set from CTMH.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a very happy Christmas. Ours is wonderful. Spent last night with Aunt Georgia, Amy, Kevin, Chantel & Jon....plus Martini & Charlie Reed. Today we went to Kendra's with Bill, Trina, Autumn and Aaron. Once again, great food and fun. I got these fantastic gold and diamond earrings that I just love. Trina got me the coffee book that I had seen at the Mall of America! Aaron got me this fantastic snowglobe with the Santa dressed Grinch & Cindy Lou Who. David got his famous cheese & sausage plus some great things for the grill, plus cashews (wondering if he will share? Everyone was happy with everything and we ate waaaaay too much food! (can you see Susie...our kitty...at the top of the stairs?)

5 Days (4 nights) off work!!!

Made this page all about the Christmas tree. We also put up 2 other trees. There is a smaller one in the dining room and a silver pom-pom tree in the family room. We found it at an antique store in ElPaso, but it was actaully from an antique dealer right here in Hudson, who had placed it up there to sell. We had been looking for one for sometime, because it was the kind of tree I had as a teenager and just love it.



The artistic challenge of the day was to use something you never thought you would. Well, all these stickers came on a sheet from a kit I bought at QVC. They are small and I couldn't imagine that I would ever have a use for them.....but I was wrong. Anyway, this is my interpretation of the theme.

We got off work this morning at 6:30AM and are thrilled that for us the Christmas rush is over. Working at the Post Office during December can be stressful, but we manage to get things done early enough so we can enjoy the season. Last night was our holiday, but we both volunteered to work so we could get the extra day annual later. We aren't doing anything until Sunday, so there was no need to waste a perfectly good day of vacation time to do nothing. We took a wreath out to mom & dad's grave so it should last awhile.
Denise, next door, brought over a plate of cookies/candy right before we left for work last night. It looks great and has some really neat stuff!We had taken their stuff over to them a couple of days before. David is up right now making pasta salad to take to Aunt Georgia's tomorrow afternoon, plus we bought a bottle of wine, also. Should be a lot of fun!

Wrapping it up...

I always buy wrapping paper to match our tree. The last few years we have been using blue and silver ornaments. Year before I found fantastic blue paper, but after Christmas (when I do my paper shopping) there wasn't much blue to choose from so I ended up with this Santa paper with blue in it, plus the plain silver at the top.
David always sets up a table in his football room upstairs with xtra boxes and everything he will need. Then he watches TV while wrapping (which he does all of and enjoys it). Everything is wrapped the minute it comes in the door so he is never behind.
I was always the wrapper before we got married (17 years ago) and used pretty ribbon and bows on every package. When he took over, there were no more bows and ribbons except on special packages. Kendra told him he ruined Christmas (jokingly) but now every year that is the standing joke.....however, no one refuses the presents inside the plain boxes!!!

Traditions prompt...

Just wrote out our tradition on pattern paper and put in a clear envelope. Nothing fancy here, but like the simple pages as I'm still so far behind! But I am enjoying every moment of this. It's really making me think. And I truly appreciate everyone's comments. You are all so encouraging!

prompt 7 & 8 both done...

Stole the idea of using an actual shopping bag from another, but don't remember who. Just had to cut the bag down a bit. It's from a store at The Mall of America while we were shopping after Thanksgiving. Tucked my shopping list inside. The little bag with Santa on the front is something my daughter bought me.

This was an easy one for me. Just had to look up a bunch of double pictures from winters/Christmas' past and punch. I used some Doodlebug rubons and boy are they 1,000 times better than the cheep ones!


Got some pumpkin bread done and am getting ready to make another batch. Love how it makes the house smell!

Thinking back.....#6

I immediately knew which Christmas' I anted to journal about. There was the year i got a big box of Barbie doll clothes and no doll (company forgot to ship it). Mom was as disappointed as I was. Had to wait a few days to get the doll. Then there was the year I had one of the guys at work help me pick out some golf clubs for David when he said he wanted to take it up again. Hid them in the Christmas tree box in the basement and he had no clue. That is until Kendra gave him a big bag of golf tees. Or the year we gave Kendra her microwave popcorn before the microwave!
The journaling for these are on the inside but i was too lazy to scan them!
Husband and I both work nights at the Post Office. I just finished my layout about 5 minutes ago and he's down in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies....and it's 3:35AM. We definitely live differently than the rest of the world.

day 5 "countdown" prompt done

glad to have these pages done, as i knew they would take longer than the last few. got a lot on our plates this weekend, but hoping to get caught up (or close to it).

a little Christmas fun...

You Are a Bright Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays are all about fun and seasonal favorites. You are into all things Christmas, even if they're a little tacky.

What Christmas Tree Are You?

You Belong in Fall

Intelligent, introspective, and quite expressive at times... You appreciate the changes in color, climate, and mood that fall brings Whether you're carving wacky pumpkins or taking long drives, autumn is a favorite time of year for you

What Season Are You?

three pages done today...

cut out my own snowflake and applied white opal Liquid Pearls around the edges. the fiber in the tag has sparkly thread mixed in with the white.




this is the Christmas card we sent last year.....i used it for my entire 3rd page. the tag is a beautiful shiny silver, but didn't show up on the scanner. the phrase "surprise inside" is a rubber stamp and it's telling the viewer to look inside for the journaling.



my journaling about Christmas cards....one of my favorite things about the season!

Wow, i actually got another prompt done. this time it is a 2-pager. this is a picture of the back of Paula Dean's hour in Savannah, Georgia (in case you don't know who she is, Paula has her own cooking show on the Food Channel). What a fantasy Christmas this would be!

manifesto

another page done on my journal. wish i had started while on vacation, but can't go back now. didn't go to work again last night, but am feeling much better today. boy, does this sickness come and go. david has been wonderful and doing all the baking. got 5 different kinds of cookies done already.

journal & off to the vet

just getting back from vacation has caused my journal to be behind (did i say behind....i'm just getting started). need to do a couple of prompts a day to get caught up.



it's off to the vet for Susie's yearly checkup and shots....which means much meowing all the way there in her cage. think i'll take some Christmas music to mute some of the sound (i always feel so guilty for putting her in that cage that she hates).

Christmas is officially started

david picked up trina on saturday and did some christmas shopping. i slept off some more of my illness. then the BIG christmas event.....The Pantagraph Holiday Spectacular at ISU. trina and i had front/center seats and it was fantastic. lots of beautiful costumes in great colors and good music.
sunday trina spent the day working on her 6X6 scrapbook for a friend for christmas and completely finished it. so very proud of her. got her physical for volleyball/track and she was cleared to play.
david and i put up our living room tree and decorated the banister. all in all a very productive weekend!

my first day...

how odd that my first day (or night) of posting on my blog would be the night I called in sick to work. doctor said it was bronchitis/sinus infection. all i know is that it has kicked my butt!