It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

One busy part of my life is almost behind me ~ Fall Semester college classes. I have just one more week, two more tests and it's done! I am SO thankful that neither my Psychology nor my Business Math instructors are requiring Final Exams. WOW! That's a first!


Another busy part is just beginning ~ Christmas!! I LOVE Christmas though, it's my favorite holiday. So the busy that comes with it is much more welcoming. :) I have been working on a few Christmas projects around my house and I'll share those with you in the days ahead.


I've been working on my Christmas cards. I am making two designs this year. I will post some photos later this week of the designs.


I spent Sunday getting my tree up, decorated and other areas of the living room decorated as well. Here is one area, the wall to the left of the tree. My wooden plate shelf with stockings hanging below and these adorable metal signs I found at CWI. The plate shelf and Christmas wooden plates came from Guhl's Country Store in Jackson, Ohio. 

My wooden plate shelf with stockings hanging below and these adorable metal signs I found at CWI. The plate shelf and Christmas wooden plates came from Guhl's Country Store in Jackson, Ohio. 

Below are some close-ups of the wooden Christmas plates.

I'll share some other areas I've decorated as well as my skinny "pencil" tree I am using this year (and the reason for that) in the next few days. How is Christmas starting to look around your house? :)

Thanksgiving Memories

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at my mother's house on Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving Day with my husband's sister and her family in Ohio then my family gathered at mom's the Saturday after. My sweet mother voluntarily gave up the "official" holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas years ago when we started acquiring in-laws. It was more important to her to have ALL her children and grandchildren together than empty seats because some were with another part of the family. And because my family is all close, we wouldn't have it any other way! I've been working today on some Christmas decorating around my house but before I share those photos with you in a couple of days, I wanted to share a photo slideshow of my family from Thanksgiving. The only one not present is my sister-in-law, Amber who was busy using my camera taking pictures of everyone there. 

Thank you, Amber for catching these memories for me. I love you!

Here is the rest of my family that I am very thankful for!

Bring on the Cards!

I LOVE cards!... making them, buying them, giving them. And what better time of the year than Christmas!

Getting Christmas cards ready and sent out kicks off the holiday season for me. I always have a hard time picking out just the right card. I have spent as much time and effort on this as I have picking out gifts for family. 

Shutterfly is helping me out this year! There are so many to choose from and I've lost count of the times I've looked through these. First I have to see them all. Then I have to go back through again, making notes of the very best ones, my favorites. I finally get it narrowed down to a few that really stand out to me. 

Here are just a few of of my favorites Christmas Cards...

It's not going to be an easy decision since there are so many great cards to choose from... hundreds in fact! This just means I have to keep coming back until I get to use all of my favorite designs! :)

Shutterfly also has some great gifts for giving this Christmas. Their calendars are great for office and home.

The possibilities are endless with their beautiful canvas art, wall decals, mugs and more. 

 

There is something for everyone on your list at Shutterfly. And right now they are offering 50 FREE Christmas cards to Bloggers! How could I not blab blog about this great offer?!

Mama's 2010 Wishlist with Gamestop

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?I just was us all to be together and happy and healthy! The holiday isn't complete if everyone isn't together.

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
We don't really have the typical "Christmas morning" thing. We plan OUR Christmas morning when everyone is available so  no one is missing (see answer to #1). So this year it is on Sunday, Dec 26th.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
I want to be my "ideal" weight. That's all I'd wish for myself. :)

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
By making Christmas cards for family and close friends. I also like to makes goodies to give away as gifts.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
Monopoly, Yahtzee, and a variety of card games. 

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
Just "family". We don't have Christmas til everyone is together at mom & dad's house.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?
The "where" isn't as important as the "who" (refer back to #1 again). But if it were possible to take all my family with me... I'd love a trip to the mountains somewhere. I'd choose a LARGE log home in the mountains... Tennessee or Colorado maybe. What can I say, I'm a country girl at heart. :)

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
* The World of Warcraft-Cataclysm game set for my two guys.
* A Nintendo Wii for my mama.
* And lastly I'd get a gift card for my son so spend there. It's one of his favorite places to shop. :)


What are you wishing for this year? Join in and link up to enter! :)

My Sunday Evening

Not a lot of excitement around our house lately. That's okay though. I won't complain. It will be busy and crazy soon and will last from Thanksgiving to New Year's. I'm working to keep up with school work and trying to do a little purging and organization around the house too. 

Today has been a day of laundry and cleaning and finally removing a few pages here and there from my magazine collecion to save for later... a recipe, a decorating or craft idea, or a healthy living article I want to refer back to. After removing some pages, just a few, I threw out STACKS of some great magazines. I think now I probably should have donated them somewhere but I'll keep that in mind for the next purge. I LOVE my magazines and these are just a few that I like to read regularly...

I like a variety of magazines and this isn't all of them. Nothing exciting, I know. But the give me ideas and inspiration for making some scrumptious goodies and help me to decorate, organize and make my home more inviting. And besides, I have to get rid of a stack of these to make room for the next stack as they arrive in the mailbox. :)

So now that my chores are done for today, it's time to relax and enjoy the evening in preparation for a BUSY work week! So after a "pool party" (that's what Abby knows a bath by lol) I will be watching the following shows and no doubt reading/doing Business Math homework during commercials...

The Next Iron Chef ~ Food Network @ 9pm

The Walking Dead ~ AMC @ 10pm

and an encore presentation of:

Sarah Palin's Alaska ~ TLC @ 11pm

since the first showing is @ pm and The Next Iron Chef competition is almost over and I HAVE to watch that... and I have always wanted to visit Alaska, what a beautiful state. So I will let Sarah show me her Alaska. :)

Hope you have had a great weekend. What did you do today? :)