In case you don't know this, my mom makes the best cookies in the world. Hands down. No exceptions. She makes them for everyone, especially around the holidays. Some people like icing, some don't. I'm not picky, just give me the cookies. Today, she and Ella baked cookies for Heidi and Santa Claus. How adorable are they in matching aprons? AND as if a baking project wasn't cool enough, Scout made a surprise appearance there this afternoon. From what I hear, Ella was beside herself with excitement. It isn't everyday that your magic Elf travels to Gran's house without you knowing it. The story of his amazing appearance was the first thing I heard when I got there to pick her up. Immediately following was the most precious telling of the birth of Christ I've ever heard. "Mommy, Mary named ...
Christmas
Christmas Things
YEAH! I've finally got this "low-light" thing figured out!!! Did you know that it is 9 o'clock and I am blogging!? And I got home at 2:30 this afternoon and have done exactly what I wanted since then? And I'm going to bed in about 30 minutes and I get to go into work a little late tomorrow? I am one happy girl. I finished up my big project at work, so I'm back to my normal routine of early afternoons at home with Ella, lots of blogging and being creative. It is good to be home. I left work around noon today and went Christmas shopping. I finished up most of my errands, but couldn't find a gift for myself. Are you appalled that I do Josh's shopping? I'm sure he'll come through with some fabulous surprises, but I'm looking for the perfect suede boots and that simply cannot be left up ...
Elf Escapades
I promise in a few more days to post more fun and entertaining things than elf escapades and snippets of life at the rock house. I'm still working extra-hard and really late every night and not getting to enjoy life at home, much less take pretty pictures. The highlights of today have been a drop in to my mom's wonderful, annual Christmas party; eating handfuls of Reese's cups after cleaning up after Scout; finally seeing Christmas lights on Lamplight Circle; and sitting here blogging, reading and listening to my little angel make up songs about Jesus. They go something like this, "sing to baby Jesus, the little Lord Jesus." ...
I Still Believe…
So, I bought this elf on a whim and it is turning into such fun. Last night I was saying something about needing to give Ella a bath this morning and Josh said, "Put the elf in the bathtub". See... he's already participating! I did put him in the bathtub, but this morning I was running late and thought - forget it, I'll just skip the bath, she's only going to Heidi's... she can see the elf tonight when we get home. I went in to get her this morning and she'd had a little accident. She needed a bath right away. By this time, I've forgotten about Scout and the bathroom faucet. Ella's furious for having to take a bath right after she woke up, I'm irritated that we're going to be even more late because of the impromptu bath. Then, we go in. And she sees him. She turns around with this light in ...
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
Today was the first day in a long time that we were all at home together, with no real obligations to speak of. Neither of us had to work. There weren't any birthday parties or church functions to schedule. Nothing had to be prepared or worked on. It was lovely. To start off the day, I performed a rather heroic rescue of Heather's our cat, Grey Kitty. When it rained a few days ago, our pump turned over in the cellar and there was about a foot of water standing down there. Grey got stuck in there at some point and had been without food or water for three days. Not to mention the howling that was emanating from the basement. I put on my rain boots and went in. She was thrilled to be out and ate LOTS of food this morning. We had powdered donuts for breakfast, cleaned house, painted and ...
Party time!
As much as I'd like to say my party went off without a hitch, knowing me, you would know I was telling a whopper! We had such a great time of fellowship with our friends and ate WAY TOO MUCH great food prepared by all of them. We had a group of 18, which is a lot of people in my tiny living room. And as much as Josh makes fun of me for the number of photographs I normally take in a day, we were just having too much fun to worry about it. I did snag a few to share, but they certainly don't show our great crowd or the immense fun we all had. Here are the retarded things I did that I wish had gone a little better... (nana, prepare yourself for fits of laughter). I made cornbread for the first time (for my dressing) and it turned out pretty good. I cooked it a little long and it didn't make ...
Does it get any better?
This is what I did last night: ate peanut butter fudge and perched behind my sewing machine. I made three cushions for my front porch and seven throw pillows! I also hung wreaths on the front porch and created a beautiful buffet display which I'll share later in the week (I'm hoping to post ALL of my holiday decorating pictures sometime soon). Below are the finished products from last nights hard work. Do you think I'm weird for sewing a slew of new pillows before a party? Oh and I have some good news - Daddy surprised us and came home today and Bunny has been found! I got an email from Susan who found bunny tucked in Haley's bedroom the morning after the Iron Bowl. I'm excited that we'll soon be reunited. And Kamin finally taught me how to turn my flash off, so you can see how ...
It’s tree time!
Although we don't go "shopping" the day after Thanksgiving, we do travel into town. I laughed this morning as we started out to pick up our Christmas tree... we were side by side with cars who had come from the city to buy trees at a bona fide Christmas tree farm. We were leaving the country for the city to buy a tree that someone already cut down! Oh well. We buy our tree at the Lloyd's lot every year, they have the most beautiful fir trees I've ever seen. We get an 8 footer and a live wreath for our front door. Today, Ella fell asleep in the car and wasn't nearly as excited about being there as I had hoped. One of us had to be holding her at all times, so the photo ops were limited. The picture above is me & El picking out our wreath. Below is a sleepy-head picture with daddy while ...