Sno Cones in December

Yep..sno cones in December folks..who'd of thought. I had to drag out the trusty sno cone maker that we bought during the summer today. Our friends on the street, Lisa and Jamie are moving this weekend. As the guys packed the moving van..the kids rode all of their motorized toys Santa brought and had sno cones. (Out of cups left from our Halloween street party) Peyton (in the red and black) and Meg (the little one with the green helmet) are the ones moving. We'll sure miss them. Nothing will be the same! We've all but sabotaged their house to keep someone from buying it.

Tomorrow the tree comes down and all the decorations put up and the house will be in somewhat of an order again. I wish it would be Christmas all year!!

Confession

My name is Heather and I like to dress my dogs up at Christmas.

Sorry you have to turn your head sideways to look at this. Worked long and hard to figure out why it's sideways on the blog, but correct in my picture file... anyway....too cute not to share..

"If I pretend to be asleep, she'll eventually leave me alone...."

Tour of Homes

Welcome to the Tour of Homes! I really thought this was a fun idea......take some time and visit a few homes!! Check out more homes at www.boomama.net!!
When I started getting out the Christmas things, I realized how many Christmas plates I had so I decided to put them out for display and start adding to my collection! If you can see the one in the center in the back that has the Clarks on the top...a couple of friends and I did a ladies night at Different Strokes (a local paint store) a few weeks ago. Vicki Carroll was there and had designed a plate and gave us a few pointers on painting. I thought mine turned out real cute!!

Here's the tree this year. I LOVE a Christmas tree. I love the smell it brings to the house. Most if not all of our ornaments are handmade..either by me or the kids. Each year, I paint or do some type of crafty ornament. One for our family and one for each of the kids with their name and year on it. My plan is to give each one all of their ornaments when they get married as a gift.



This is something I started a few years ago as I was cleaning up after Christmas and going through Christmas cards. As I was throwing away some cards, I thought, "You know, people really take a lot of time doing a picture or searching for just the right card to send..." So I started keeping all of the cards. The photo cards I glue to construction paper. The other cards I let Hannah cut and glue onto the construction paper to decorate the pages. She makes a cute cover for the book..we laminate it and tie the edges together. I've gotten quite a stack over the past few years and we enjoy looking back at each one to see how people have changed and grown!



I LOVE nativity sets. This one I got from Dollar Tree several years ago. I thought it looked alot like the Fontanini pieces! I've often thought about leaving this nativity out all year long..just as a simple reminder that Jesus was a person just like me and you..



This is the table right inside of the front door. My mother gave me these wooden wise men a couple of years ago and I just love them. I've thought about leaving them out as well...is that weird??



This is a little arrangement I did for the coffee table. I love this frosted fruit. I use it almost year round for different things!

Another nativity I got on clearance one year. I just about can't resist a nativity set. Hannah has always loved to play with it and arrange the characters. It was so great to watch her do that as a toddler and to know that she knew the Christmas story!

As far as any recipes, I really don't have any specific ones...there are some favorites that may be worth mentioning though. During the holidays when the boys have been hunting all day and are STARVING when they get home..I usually make a big pot of homemade chili, hot dogs and all the fixin's. I know this sounds like a gut bomb, but they really seem to enjoy it. And it's easy! Along with that for them to take in the woods is sausage balls (with a little cayenne pepper added) and pigs in a blanket. Another favorite is white chocolate dipped pretzels. I'm the only one in the family that likes egg nog, so I usually buy some and just enjoy whenever I think I won't be ridiculed for drinking "egg snot".

Hope you enjoyed the tour. It's not real elaborate or fancy but it's Christmas to us!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Fun

Tonight, our neighbors, Jamie and Lisa went to a Christmas party so Peyton and Meg are staying here. We rolled out and cut out about 60 cookies!!!
We made red, yellow and green icing and had TONS of sprinkles. I think I had as much fun as they did!! We "accidentally" broke several so of course we had to eat them. I think that's a rule or something about Christmas cookies...

Here's the finished product!!! Don'tcha just love Christmas!!!!!

Festive Day!

Today after work, the girls in the office got together at Julep's, ate lunch and opened gifts. We all drew names about a month ago. It was nice to just get away from the office and have lunch together. I told you about the Spa day the doctor's wives gave us. It was absolutely fantastic! I didn't realize how much I needed it!! I had a facial and it's my new favorite thing I think! Can't wait to have another one. I pass that spa everyday when I walk into work but had never been in. I'll be going alot more often now!! Check Lindsey's blog for pics!!!

Drew went to Tupelo for a little duck hunting with the Andrew and Matthew, so he won't be back until tomorrow night. Hannah and I are going to hang around here tomorrow and relax. I plan to do lots of holiday baking!!! I'll also be working on my Tour of Homes post that I'll do on Monday. See my "T" post for details. I think it will be fun!!!

An artist in the making??

Girlfriend says she can't draw, but Hannah did this piece with colored pencils in art at school. I personally think it's GREAT!!! Can't wait til it gets sent home. It will most def go in a frame!! Do all parents feel this way about their kids drawings?

I'm sitting here typing away listening to the rain outside our bedroom window....wondering if we'll get to see the white stuff tomorrow. Sure would be nice....speaking of NICE. The wives of the doctors that I work for at St. D gave all the ladies in the office a Spa tomorrow. Yes, I'll be having lunch at the Spa of St. D at 12:30 and then a massage, facial and manicure. How nice is that?!? No one needs a manicure more than me right now..not to mention the other things. I may try and snap a few pictures of all us girls getting pampered!

Skippin' out on the Z

The Z totally has me stumped, but I couldn't miss out on posting on our 12th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it's been that long. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful Christian man. I look forward to many, many years to come..
Don't we look so young in this picture the day we got married!?!?!

I think we both have aged fairly gracefully if I might say so myself!!

Y is for You've got to be kidding...

You must know what this post is going to be about...the insane mob of people in New York that stampeded a poor WalMart employee to death on Black Friday...Guess they didn't mention that was a hazard of the job during the holidays when he took it. And if that weren't bad enough..some of the crowd was actually disgruntled when they were asked to leave the store! OK people..enough is enough. Nothing...especially in WalMart..could possibly be that important or THAT great of a deal to kill someone over. The poor mans family must be so broken-hearted over such a senseless death. And what kind of people would be upset about having to leave is my question!?! Granted, I'm sure the trampling was not intended to kill this poor guy. Confession time...hasn't everyone been a tinsy bit irritated to have to pull over for a funeral processional? After this incident, I think I won't feel quite so inconvenienced next time I have to pull over for a few seconds!