Deck The Halls

Today Zonko threw the girls for a loop but they found him! He decided to hang out in the family room on top of a speaker for the surround sound where the girls like to hang out & watch TV. I just hope Joe doesn't turn it on & shake him off his spot! ;)

Maybe Zonko heard we were going to be decorating the tree today & wanted a good spot to sit & watch. Our tree is up & waiting for the ornaments...the toughest part for me is fluffing all the branches...not my favorite part but it's WAY better than when I had to string the lights on the tree..that was TORTURE for me!! Joe could tell you stories about that! So now we're decking the halls & feeling all merry as our favorite holiday begins!!

Fall is OVER!

Normally the day after Thanksgiving I get started decorating for Christmas. How ever this year, Joe needed me for a little while at work so I had to postpone my usual.

I did take down all the Thanksgiving decorations & pack that away. It's funny to see it's nowhere near as much for the other holidays....I was never much for decorating for Thanksgiving but I've been slowly building up to it. Some of this stuff comes out at the beginning of Fall & stays up until Thanksgiving is over.

Now I'm ready to Deck the Halls! Tonight we'll be pulling out the Christmas decorations so I'll be keeping busy with that.

Zonko

Yesterday Zonko didn't budge from his spot on the wreath. I think the activities around here really wore Zonko out! Maybe it smelled too good in the kitchen & he didn't want to miss out! LOL! This morning he managed to trick the girls again with his new spot.
He's still hanging out in the kitchen....in a much better spot to watch the girls as they eat.

Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

Better late than never!! ;) Hope everyone enjoyed their day.

Thanksgiving around here is usually chaotic....somehow I managed to bypass that this year. Don't ask me how or why 'cause I have no idea! I was up late the night before cleaning & baking (not in that order), staying up until 2am. Luckily the family wasn't due over until 3pm so that helped.

I got up around 9:30....yes 9:30. I refuse to get up at the crack of dawn to deal with a turkey....wanna know my secret?? I use these cooking bags that cut down on the cooking time. Seriously it only took 3 1/2 hours to cook a 21 1/2lb turkey!! Those things are awesome!! And the turkey comes out juicy, no dry cardboard here! So I had a lot of the food stuff under control & was really mellow, where normally I'm a lunatic. I seriously think pushing dinner to 3pm was a genious idea (normally it's earlier around 1pm or so)! By the time my sisters showed up I only had a few things to do & they stepped in to help....and wash some dishes!! ;)

Since Joe is not a fan of carving the turkey, my B-I-L Danny did the honors.....And no I don't make a show of the bird & carve it at the table....it gets carved in the kitchen....where most of us hang out anyway! The kids were running around having fun with each other....from the sound of them you'd think there were more than the 4 kids in the house! Marissa & my neice Nikki pretty much ruled over the younger 2.....the bossy 9 yr olds that they are! ;)Gianna is so easy going...very dramatic & loves attention.
Tyler is even more mellow....he's more of a lover, not a fighter! ;)

Unfortunatly I didn't get more pics than that. :( I'll have to remember to be even more mellow next year & take more pics!! :)

On the Elf Hunt!

So the girls are really into Zonko! Marissa even wrote him a letter. I melted a bit after reading it.Could she be any cuter?? Maybe the cuteness won Zonko over too, since he did show up in an easy to find spot.... This wreath hangs on our pantr y door & has a view of the kitchen, dining area, & family room...basically the more used rooms on the house. Somehow, my kids MISSED him sitting there!! They had to get some help for the hunt from Daddy....that Zonko really can fool ya! ;)

In response to her letter Zonko (who won't talk to the kids) left Marissa a note of sorts..... The smile on her face was priceless!!

Elf On The Shelf

Tonight "Santa" sent us his elf to help keep tabs on things around here. The girls really got into it & we had a fun time naming our new friend. His name is Zonko.

Yes, Harry Potter is very big around here! LOL!! Can't wait to see all the places where Zonko pops up...the girls are so excited to find him & plan to get up early to go hunting for him.

Thanksgiving Placecards

Last year I was messing around with some paper scraps & decided (don't remember exactly why) to make place cards for Thanksgiving. (Sorry for the cruddy pics but if I wait until tomorrow to re-take these it might be NEXT Thanksgiving before I get to share these! LOL!)

Now, I am by no means a "formal" person. Meaning we don't use our "Formal Dining Room", unless it's a Holiday. Usually our dining room gets used for parties & Holidays. That's it. The rest of the time it's a "drop" room, things that don't have a permanent spot get "dropped" in the dining room.

I host Thanksgiving every year, usually it's between 11-13 people that gather here. It's not a lot but it's enough. There's lots to do before, during & after so that's why I'm sharing these now instead of last year....ummm besides the fact that I didn't finish them in time to use last year! ;)

There's nothing fancy about these either. Literally just used scraps that I had building up in my stash. Used THIS circle punch & THIS scallop punch for the base. This QK die & stickles for the eyes. For the names, I printed them on cardstock then stamped the border with this stamp set & punched it out with THIS punch. Secured them with a couple of brads et voila!! Place Cards!!

Missing Him

16 years ago today my Dad died from Lung Cancer.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss him.

Wish he were still with us.

So many things happened after he died that affected how the rest of us grew up, can't help thinking if he were still alive how different things would be. It breaks my heart that he never got to see his 6 (almost 7) grandkids....he always talked about how he would spoil them, but he never got to meet any of them or see his 4 girls get married.

I tell my kids how he died from smoking cigarettes & made them promise to me that they will NEVER smoke...I couldn't bear to lose them.

Miss you Daddy. I love you!

Listen to This: P!nk

Just a few of my favorite songs from P!nk....

Who's That??

When I saw this pic of Gianna.... I was reminded of this little girl....

Yes, that's ME!! I'm not sure how old I was....but at the time I thought I was HOT STUFF (or whatever we used to say back in the 80's)

Now look side by side.....

Do you see the resemblance?

When I asked Gianna who that was, she knew right away that it was me. When I asked her if she saw the resemblance she gave me a firm "nuh-uh".

What does she know?? LOL!!

December Daily 2010

A few weeks ago I was catching up on Ali Edwards' blog & saw her December Daily album for this year. I was intrigued & started thinking about possibly giving it a try. I mean I made THIS ALBUM a couple years back & looking back on it I love it, so why not try one this year? I just wasn't sure of what album, design, etc I wanted to go with.....until I saw THIS post today!

So I'm changing up a few things like size, I'm thinking 8x8. I wanted to go with Jillibean Soup products, but while I LOVE those papers (& ordered them for other projects) I'm more of a COLOR girl. So after doing a little shopping, I placed my order for Imaginisce Christmas Cottage. The colors of this collection reminds me of an older Making Memories Christmas line (sorry can't remember the name) so pretty! I can't wait to play!

For now I just finished making up albums of all the Christmas cards we've received from 2002-2009 (yes I saved them all-couldn't toss all those pics). I'm not going to post the albums but you can see the first 3 I made HERE. They're all similar, more or less.

I've got to get back on track with the School Kit LO's. Every time I work on one Gianna asks me when I'll get to hers.....I gotta be fair to them both...and boy are there A LOT of pics waiting for me to scrap!