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December 24

Merry Christmas! Erica and Brian made it safely here late this afternoon (thank goodness, 'cause we sure didn't have that many presents under the tree this morning!) and we've stuffed ourselves for the first time already

and are working toward reading a Christmas book (although she keeps getting overwhelmed with the Brian-ness of him and having to stop and blurt "You're MY Brian!".) Too funny. She's here with John every day and it took her two years to sit next to him. I think there's a lot to be said for being young and attractive ;-) 

Anyway, now we're heading out to drive around and look at the few houses that God love 'em still decorate with lights.  We wish you our friends and family a warm and loving Christmas weekend. I'll be back and post in a few days.

I'll leave you with that photo of John enjoying his *gift*. :-) He's a happy guy!

December 23

Well my friends. We are all but there. Another Christmas has come. I have been in Costco for one thing or another every day this week and every day the size of the crowd and the intensity of the energy just increases like I can't even explain. Like The End Of Days is coming on Saturday. Yikes! Well, I'm sitting here planning menus and One More shopping list. It's here tomorrow whether we're ready or not! 

If you think something about this wreath I've pictured today is odd then I have to agree with you. The focal bulb, a big 4 inch bulb that said Merry Christmas and sat between the two deer on the bottom, popped right out of its hot glue cradle and broke, which ruined the whole darned thing. I ran out to Fortuna ( a couple towns away) to troll my favorite antique stores for a replacement. The *perfect* one was not to be found, but I smoodged those together to get by. And stuck a couple more in there while I was at it. ;-) Gosh I love vintage Christmas ornaments. I wanted to bring them ALL home with me!

December 22

After 40 years of 'thinkin about it', John not long ago decided to start playing that guitar his Grandma gave him when he graduated High School in 1970. :-) He played it and played it and played it. Really sounded like noisy crap for the first few weeks, but slowly it started to take shape. Then he went and bought himself a Mac desktop system, specifically for the Garage Band capabilities. THEN he hit the road block: where to set up all this new 'stuff'? So unbeknownst to him I went to Staples and they had what I found to be the perfect desk for his arrangement. And this week Costco got the perfect stool for him to sit and play on (he's not home right now but next time he's sitting there playing I'll snap a pic so you can see how happy he is.) So this is John's Christmas present. Not so much the purchase of the desk. Or the dragging home of it. Or even the few hours I spent putting it all together and surprising him with it a few days ago. I think (in his mind, anyway) the real gift is the support of his dreams and the placement front and center of the operation right here in the living room in the front of the house. 

:-)

Merry Christmas John! Here's to a new year filled with love and MUSIC.

December 21

Tick tock my friends. Can ya just hardly believe how quickly Christmas is coming? 

December 20

yay! I got up off the couch and felt alive today. Didn't get a whole lot done, but every action was a joy because it was all surrounded in the freedom of choosing each next step that I wanted to do, you know? I haven't had a lot of that feeling lately. Some never do. :-(

I have to give you a little dose of the laughter we get around here. A little bit ago I let Sophie lap up the juices from the pan I'd cooked chicken in. I then set about washing the pan and others. I soon felt eyes burning in my back so I turned to find this.

That's right. She didn't move a muscle as I hurried to put the dishes down, dry my hands, pull the cell phone out of my pocket, pull up the camera mode, point it at her. God...talk about conviction! :-)

 

ps: have you seen this yet? http://www.loltatz.com/

 

December 19

I can't hardly believe I just spent a whole 'nother day sitting on the couch with this stomach bug, but that is in fact exactly what happened. As you can see, the animals don't mind at all. I don't think I've ever in their lives sat on the couch all day with them.

I tried to make this a festive shot with the Christmas tree lights reflecting in the french doors, but I thought better yet to add a hat to Mia via good ol' Picnik. Hey, treat me like a favorite old rug and you get what you get! ;-)

I really hope I'm ready to get up and face the world tomorrow. I'm afraid if I sit here much longer birds may start trying to nest in my hair!

December 18

Last night I was supposed to post a picture of us dressed up in front of the tree all ready to go to the annual company holiday party at The Carson Mansion, but instead I sat on the couch (as I had all day between bouts of running to the bathroom) with a really yucky stomach flu! Best thing I can say about it is that it appears to be very short lived!

A few Christmases ago I shared with you how the local pharmacy decorates with retail for Christmas. Here is what our local hardware store does every year. 

On my to-do list today is to go stand in line at the PO with everyone else who waited til the last Saturday before Christmas. Aside from the fabulous decorating Pierson's Hardware Store does they also host a great section of locally made products for gift-giving. I had a special someone who's hankering for some local smoked salmon so that's why I ran out there today and snapped this pic to boot. Now I'm taking our favorite 9 year old boy (can't just say *favorite* anymore!) to see Tron and then tonight I'm taking my favorite man to see this guy. (In case you didn't know--John's current passion is playing his guitar. The singing is sure to follow)    ;-)

Life is good!

December 16

Yay! We now have a big tree up. With any luck at all, tomorrow there will be wrapped presents underneath and dressed up us standing in front of it :-)

Wish me luck, and same to you!

December 15

Here's our funny Santa story for today. 

First of all, I bought Madison this really cute outfit for her party today. Left it at their house last night with a vision of what she'd look like in it. I walked in to the daycare today as the photographer grandma and Melissa had to point her out for me! LOL. Madison is a lot of things, but a little fashion plate ain't one of 'em ;-) (a 'hot mess' is more like it, but that's part of her charm).

So the kids are millling about, waiting for the highlight of the party; which is a visit from Santa.

They are terribly cute, aren't they? Oh! What's that you say? Santa is coming?!

What the...?!? 

(One look at Melissa's face and you know it was an OMG. If anyone is gonna try and stay positive and say something nice it's Melissa, but her face is saying "what the...!?!"

First of all, look where the big lump is. OVER the belt, not BELOW the belt like a Santa belly!

They're all like, "I may only be three years old, but I know what Santa's s'posed to look like and this ain't it!" Seriously...some of them look truly traumatized!

Amazingly, Madison of all people agrees that yes, she will go sit on Santa's lap to receive her gift. (see Santa's face?) And as she gets off Santa's lap she announces to the room in general, "It's okay! It's okay! It just mommy Santa!" 

The End

:-)

December 14

Eleven more shopping days til Christmas!

Speaking of shopping, we ran into Target tonight to buy a gift exchange for Caleb's school party this Friday. Holy cow on the adorable ornaments! That Target...they do good every time. Even the packaging on everything was super cute. No new ornaments here this year. Well...new to us are these old bubble lights. 

Not my normal colors or vibe but I got them at a flea market for a dollar and got them all to work ...so I hadta use 'em, right? 

I'm getting closer to a tree. I went today and checked out the only local place that does flocking.  They charge $6 per foot to flock a tree that already costs $100. hmmmm. May just buy a bunch of cans of snow from Michael's like I've been doing the past two or three years. That's pretty pricey--especially since at this rate I won't be putting it up til Christmas Eve! ;-)