A lazy week

Well, Christmas is over along with all of it's busyness. We had a great one and I'm hoping you did too. But now I need some motivation! We have done absolutely nothing this week. I've done some laundry and managed to keep the house from looking like a total disaster. Mark, Kirsten and Courtney all have some kind of cold. So I'm sitting here wondering what I should be doing! I could scrap but I'm still deciding how I'm going to proceed after reading "The Big Picture". I do have some ideas for mini albums but not ready to work on them. I could organize my scrap stuff, maybe! I could start putting the Christmas stuff away but I'm not ready to do that. I've filled in all the birthdays on the new calendar. I need to make some lists of things coming up in January but not feeling that either! Oh well, I guess I'll just be lazy!

Christmas Art

Tracie and Caroline came over the other day so that we could have a little Christmas celebration. Courtney and Caroline made these cute ornaments (with some glue gun help). They exchanged gifts and played together. I love that they love each other and love playing together. We really need to make the effort to get together more often. I also enjoyed talking with Tracie. That is another reason we need to get together more!

I just got home from my final shopping. I hope! I had to go to Wal-Mart and that was a zoo! I am going to try and get my shopping done before this point next year. I did real good getting prepared and getting in the Christmas spirit this year. But for some reason the whole gift buying thing was harder this year. Well, I have to get wrapping! Have a wonderful Christmas!

I've decide what I want for Christmas

I have figured out that a clean kitchen makes me happy. But it is impossibe to keep it that way! So I have decided that I need a house elf. If you aren't familiar with Harry Potter then this means nothing to you. House elfs are the creatures that do all the cleaning, cooking, laundry and general housekeeping for the wizard world. They are also at the total beck and call of their owners. All I want it for is to keep the kitchen clean. Some cooking may also be required but mainly its job will be keeping the kitchen clean. I guess they are cute in a weird way. This one is called Dobby. So if you know of any unemployed house elfs, let me know!

Roller Skates

This is a spin off of Tracie's blog, hope that's okay! She and Caroline went roller skating the other day. Her post sent me down memory lane! I loved to roller skate from the age of 8-9 until about 13 -14. Before the skates I rode my bike everywhere but I enjoyed the skates more. I saved up my money and bought my own pair of sneaker skates, very similiar to the picture here. Mine were all blue and I did have baby blue pom-poms (with bells) for a while. (Unbelivably I don't think I have a picture of them or me in them! What was my mother thinking?) They didn't hold up very well, if I remember correctly. I remember how my feet would tingle after skating on a rough surface like the sidewalk or road. The best surface I found is a tennis court. It feels like you are skating on velvet but it does slow down the speed some. We had a skating rink here and I would spend Sunday afternoons there with my friends. I went on Friday night once and it was scary! This being a small town (it was even smaller back then) the skating rink was about the only place to hang out. The rough crowd didn't show up on Sunday afternoons! So there I was! I never got enough. I never learned anything daring or spectacular. I loved the little cross over move you had to make to go around curves and I was thrilled when I learned to skate backwards. Thanks for the trip Tracie! And for reminding me that I need to share this with the two youngest. Jessica had skates when she was younger (I have pictures!) But didn't seem to embrace it like I did.
And in my opinion, ice skating is not quite the same! The last time I tried that I hurt for days from muscles I didn't even know I had! But roller skates rock!

My Favorite Christmas Decoration

This Navitity is my favorite Christmas decoration for many reasons. One it symbolizes the reason for the season and stands as a beautiful reminder of the joy and promise of this season. It is also a reminder to me of Christmas as a child. My mother has a navitity just like this only a bigger scale that she made when I was around 12, I think. She also made a minature set for my grandmother. This set she made for us the year Mark and I got married. It is a simple ceramic style with a mother of pearl finish. She poured the molds, sanded and initialed each piece and painted them. I always set it out on a bed of angel hair which is spun glass. I really need some more but I don't think they make it anymore. If I only put out one decoration at Christmas it would be this Nativity.

Tis the season!

For the past few years the holidays have stressed me out! I think one reason for that is because I waited until the last minute to do anything! This year I decided to get my act together! As of today, December 2 my decorations are up, my Christmas cards are addressed and signed and the Santa order for the girls has been placed. I hope to make a major dent in the rest of my shopping list this weekend. We had the decorations up this weekend actually. I feel like we have tons of time to actually enjoy the holiday! I hope to actually have time for some family time activities this year like making cookies. Here's wishing all a very Merry Christmas!