Cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve, we decorated Christmas cookies!

Mama putting her touch on a cookie wreath

Me painting an angel with yellow hair and pearls

We got Daddy in on it!

 Nutter Butter Snowman I made :)

 

 I mustache you a question...

(Mama made this one with the 

green mustache!  SO cute!!)

Wrappin' it up

I'm packing up, bagging up, wrapping up on this Christmas Eve Eve because tomorrow will be a whirlwind for me!  I'll be with Larry until 3:00, church at 5:00 and then I'll head on down to Macon County as soon as church is over.  I've had such a peaceful, calm December that I won't mind one crazy day.  I got all my shopping done early so I wasn't out in the crowds much, although I DID have to go out and get a new toilet seat today.  The hinge finally broke after being wobbly for two weeks.  Guess it got tired of me ignorin' it.  Since I live so close, I was just going to run to Target and get another one.  When I got there, though, I could not find a parking place.  At ALL.  And traffic was horrendous.  Did everybody wait until the last minute??  So I went to Lowe's instead.  No trouble there.  I was in and out with my new beige guaranteed-to-be-wobble-free toilet seat in less than ten minutes.

These are all the presents that were under my tree.  They ALL get opened at Mama and Daddy's house.  :)

 Here are some goodies I'm taking!

Dinner rolls and chess bars that sweet Beth Yoder made for me, reindeer food for Rudolph and the gang that a precious set of triplets made for us at work and I brought home today, some homemade cranberry sauce that I made and a gallon of my apple cider that I made Wednesday.

Close up of Beth's chess bars. There were 12 of 'em. 

I put them in this gift box and one of 'em got lost during the move. :)

Maw's sweet little bird casserole dish will serve our cranberry sauce.  I am really going to miss her Sunday.  :(  My first Christmas in 44 years that I won't tell her what Santa Claus brought.  But you know what?  I bet she already knows.

Here's everything ready to go!

Two huge Christmas gift bags, one jumbo IKEA bag and one Trader Joe's bag.

Gotta leave this in the mailbox!

I have to share my Christmas cards!

Well, one wall of them anyway.  I get so many because my sweet husband makes sure I get one every day in December, right on up until Christmas.  He sends me 26!  He gathers some and makes some.  Precious boy, that one.

One more of our tree.

Merry Christmas!

Presents!

My loot from the past two days!

My coworkers and friends, Lisa P and Lisa S gave me these cool gifts!

Lisa P gave me the pedicure set and spearmint foot soak.  Bless her heart, she's been suffering right along with me with my foot the past couple of months.

Lisa S gave me the super cool peace sign sunglasses, these adorable garden gnome salt and pepper shakers and awesome little Beatles compact mirror.

Do these girls pay attention to me or what??  

 Look how cute the gnomes are on my table with Brandy's mushroom!

We have had the most amazing December at the office with our Secret Santa gifts, the endless goodies brought to us by parents and reps, our wonderful Christmas luncheon we had yesterday at Olive Garden courtesy of Dr. Niebaum, who is awesome all by himself.  We just have the best time together!  I'm so blessed to work with such sweet, genuinely caring people. 

December Daily

December 21st

My hot apple cider boiling in a pot!

December 22nd

My Snowbot, one of my Christmas gifts last year from Larry.  

He connects to a USB so he likes to hang out near my Mac.

December 23rd

My future's so peaceful, oh, never mind.

Got these cool sunglasses today from my friend, Lisa.

I love 'em!!

What I'm loving Wednesday!

I haven't done my WILW all month!  Did you miss 'em??  :)

I'm loving that it's FOUR days till Christmas!!  I just hope I made the list! 

I'm loving this sweet little wooden German nutcracker that Dr. Niebaum and his family gave me for Christmas!  I am seriously going to leave him out all year.  I just love his little face!!!

I'm loving how wonderful my house is smelling right now after I cooked this apple cider all afternoon.  Apple juice and mulling spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves).  Yum!!

And I found a couple of Christmas images online that were just right up my alley.  :)

December Daily

December 17th

Brian's birthday.  He and Ami and I have a little tradition of riding around and looking at Christmas lights after his birthday party.  We ride around Lake Wildwood, where they live, and then venture out into really nice well-to-do neighborhoods to see how the rich are doing Christmas.  This year, they didn't do so hot.  Some of them didn't even try.  Scrooges.  We had a lot of fun, me wrapped up in a quilt in the backseat and Brian and Ami up front.  We listened to a beautiful instrumental Christmas CD along the way.  It was very nice and cozy.  I look forward to this little tradition of ours all year!  We spotted this Christmas countdown in somebody's yard and I took a picture of it.  Not your usual Christmas light display and counterculture chick that I am, I chose this one for my December Daily shot for the day.  :)

 December 18th 

This pretty little clay jug came ALL the way from Bethlehem to rest on my hearth.  Our church said goodbye to its 14-year labor of love, Walk Through Bethlehem, this year and we had a celebration potluck supper Sunday night.  There were things that were used during those fourteen years that decorated the tables where we sat and we could take something home with us as a memento if we wanted to.  I got a brass candlestick and this little clay jug.

 December 19th

I finally got around to putting some lights up in my bedroom.  I twisted a strand of lights together with some green and silver garland and I love how it turned out!

December 20th

We had our Secret Santa Finale today at work and this is what I got!  A beautiful poncho-style sweater, a long-sleeved tee in a pretty hot chocolate brown and a pair of cute peace sign marshmallow socks!  My Santa this year was Cheryl, our office manager, and she really hooked me up!!  I absolutely love everything.

December Daily

December 9th

My new Christmas cactus plant
 

December 10th

Gifts beneath my tree.  That pink box right in front is a little tradition that Ami and I started some four or five years ago.  We take turns with that little box and next Christmas, something she gets me will hide in it until Christmas morning.

December 11th

A photo I took at our The Gift of Christmas musical drama at church Sunday night.  I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible it was.  Music, dance, the Christmas story reenacted and a completely packed church!  It was so beautifully obvious Who that party was for.

December 12th

Some pretty Christmas holly that I stole borrowed from my next door neighbor.  He will NEVER know because, yeah, the MOON blocks the whole bush anyway.  Grrrrrr.  Hush, it's Christmas.

 December 13th

My second Secret Santa gift today at work was this awesome metal peace sign!!  I absolutely love it.  It's hanging on my kitchen wall right now!

Welcome December!

I'm a little late welcoming in this beautiful, glorious month!

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait for December to get here.  I would spend hours pouring over that Sears Wish Book, dog-earing pages, circling dolls and dreaming of this and that, things I just HAD to have.  

Since I've become an adult and especially since I've been living in a bigger city, most of that excitement has been replaced with dread over traffic, crowds and big buckets of crazy.

I try to do my shopping early so that I can stay OUT of that, so that I can come home to my little peaceful house, shut out the world and watch Christmas movies.

This year, I've been shopping locally when I could and buying my gifts from small businesses.  That has been a challenge because most of the small, privately-owned businesses here are in the seediest part of town and because a lot of them have already gone out of business.  It's really sad.  I usually hang out in the newer part of town, where I live, work and go to school.  I was shocked to see the old part of town is, well, OLD.

I did my best but Target has gotten a few of my dollars.  :)  I plan to spend this month listening to Christmas music, driving around in my pajamas looking at Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies (The Homecoming at least twice!), eating yummy food, drinking eggnog and hot chocolate with whipped cream, wrapping presents, spending time with my family and RELAXING and enjoying it.

There are only 31 days in December.  And three of 'em are gone already!

More Christmas!

 

That tiny little picture on the right 

is of me and Mama my first Christmas.

  

My collection of Santas with a copy of 

'Twas The Night Before Christmas that Ami gave me.

They go perfect together!

 

I had the perfect dish for our sweet little clay ornaments!

  

Plate all ready for Santa's cookies!

 

 

 Huge Christmas ornaments I borrowed from Mama!

 Who says a Christmas tree has to be pine or fir?

I say a eucalyptus makes a fine Christmas tree!

 Please to ignore the satellite and the MOON next door.

 

Santa hangin' around on the front door.