Wrapping up!

I'm almost done wrapping all of the gifts! That may not sound like much of a big deal to you, but it's HUGE in this house! Lynn and I have spent more Christmas Eves than I'd like to admit to wrapping gifts after the kids went to bed. Santa used to leave all the stuff he brought unwrapped, but Benjie commented that you'd think Santa could "wrap at least a few of these things". So, now he wraps most everything. However, this year I think he'll wrap "a few of these things" and leave the rest.

Our Christmas Eve dinner will be very non-traditional this year-at least for us. We are having spaghetti, salad and garlic bread, with a dessert buffet that will include marble layer cake with chocolate icing and bread pudding. I have left over donuts from my Sunday school class this morning, which will make yummy bread pudding. I'm not sure what else we'll have, because it's pot luck.

Remember the Wal-Mart gift card I got at the Dirty Santa exchange? We put it to good use tonight-we put $15 worth of gas in the van and drove the kids around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music. It was the best $15 we've ever spent.

Road Trip!

We took a short road trip this weekend. We left Friday night and went to Lynn's sister, Linda's home to celebrate Christmas with them. We spent the night with them and got up this morning and opened gifts and had breakfast with them. It was so nice! Linda's home is so pretty with her holiday decorations, including a gorgeous Christmas breakfast table set for us. So festive.

Linda and her husband gave me a wonderful horse with Santa's on it. It's part of a collection called The Trail of Painted Ponies. It is beautiful! Also, Jimmy, her husband, made me an authentic angel weather vane from wood. It is so pretty. I'll post pictures of both tomorrow...I'm too pooped tonight!

We left Linda's house and went to Lynn's cousin Becki's farm house to have another celebration with the extended family! We had a fun game of Dirty Santa-I scored a $15 Wal-Mart gift card!! More importantly, we had a great time visiting with family that we don't see very often! Fun, fun!!

Tomorrow I plan to get as much done as possible between church services. I have a couple of quick (well....I hope they're quick) errands to do, then I'm home for a marathon wrapping session to get finished. I have everything wrapped except what I bought this weekend. I am so happy to have it all purchased and almost all wrapped!

If we don't talk again, have a great pre-Christmas weekend! See you tomorrow!!

The wall tree in the hallway




This is the tree in our master bath.




My reading nook in our bedroom




This wreath is on our closet door in the bedroom


Be sure to jump over to Tracey's blog, www.acottageindustry.typepad.com. She has some gorgeous houses on the tour, and it's so fun to look at everyone's decorations!

Thursday, Thursday...

I've been trying to post some more pictures, but for some reason I can't. So, here's a link to photobucket that has some more pictures.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd6/cathymac2/December182007036.jpg

Yesterday was Jacob's 15th birthday! Happy birthday a day late, Jake. And, he won first prize last night at the "Bad Christmas Sweater" party at church. Yes, he was wearing one of mine. The one with the snowmen and the wooden Christmas ornaments on the tree. The good thing is he got a Wal-Mart gift card as his prize. The bad thing is he traded it to a girl for a nerf basketball hoop. Gotta love 15 year old boys!

Holiday Home Tour

Here's a small glimpse of our holiday home! Hope you enjoy it! I like themes, and my overall Christmas theme this year is "Old Fashioned Country Christmas". Welcome to our home!














Thanks to Tracey for hosting this holiday home tour! What fun!

Soaking in the Season

It's hard to believe that Christmas is one week from today. Sometimes I wish I could slow down time, not to allow more hours in the day to get things done, but to enjoy the season more. I get so wrapped up in getting things done on a schedule that sometimes I forget to soak in the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of this wonderful time of year. So, for today, I'm soaking!

I am currently sitting on the couch eating popcorn for breakfast and watching a Christmas movie-"Last Holiday" with Queen Laitfah. I LOVE her! I love curvy women who aren't afraid to show our curves!! Yes, the house needs a going over, there are piles of laundry waiting on me, Braylen is coming in about two hours and the house needs to be Bray-proofed and the floors ALWAYS need to be swept. But, it will all get done. Right now, I'm watching Queen do her thing.

By the way, if you haven't seen that movie, you really should. Now that girl knows how to soak in the season!!

So, take a few minutes and slow down. Think about why we even have Christmas-because God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to die for us. How amazing is it that He chose to send a baby.

Put some cloves and orange peels on the stove in a small pot of water to simmer, pop some popcorn or bake some Christmas cookies (the break and bake kind are fine), brew a pot of tea, or coffee or hot chocolate, and find a good Christmas movie to watch. You probably have your own favorite, but if you don't check out "Last Holiday" or my absolute favorite-"Miracle on 34th Street". Not one of the remakes, even though the newer one is pretty good. Get the original with Edwin Gwynn and Natalie Woods. It is stellar.

Virtual Holiday Home Tour

I will be participating in a virtual holiday home tour on Wednesday, December 19. I found a wonderful blog that is hosting it and signed up to participate. Now I have to get busy taking pictures to post. It's a simple concept, really. I'll post pictures of our holiday home here on Holiday Hamlet and it will be linked to the host blog, www.acottgeindustry.typepad.com. I hope to get lots of visitors to see how we've decorated our home for Christmas and the winter. The great thing about doing it virtually is that I only have to clean what I photograph!

Drop by on the 19th and have a virtual tour, cookies and tea!