Christmas in July!

I was traipsing through Blogland last night when I came across someone's pictures and post of their home at Christmas last year. I was like a kid in a candy store...gazing at their pictures, licking my lips...lol. Then I thought "boy, I can't wait until this Christmas. Now that I have a blog, I can post pictures of our home". I like showing our home during the holidays. It gives our family and friends a great opportunity to question my sanity yet once more. Susan, my BFF, says that, during the holidays, my house looks like Santa was stuffed in a blender and turned on high with the lid off. She's so sweet like that. I just don't get her attitude during Christmas. Ms. Bah-humbug. She has to be forced to put a tree up. Makes me crazy. Anywho, back to where I was heading...I was thinking how cool it was going to be to post our Christmas pictures on my blog when I thought, "why not post last years pictures now?" Sure, it's 100 degrees outside and Christmas seems about a million days away, but so what? It's my blog. I can do what I want. Right? So here's some pictures. I was getting all smiley and tingly just going through the folders picking these out. I adore the holidays. It's pretty much the only time of year I'll actually step foot inside the kitchen with a semi-happy heart (somebody's got to make the divinity and fantasy fudge). Ooooooohhh - I just can't wait for this year's holiday season to start!!!!
The top picture was of our living room. This picture is of our dining room. See those bows around the chairs? That was another one of those cases of seeing something in a magazine and thinking "I can make those". I did make these bows. But man, it sure would have been cheaper, easier, faster and just plain better to have bought them from the magazine. lol
Outside...Randey kept adding more and more stuff as December wore on. I can't wait until this year. He and a couple of the neighbors started a "competition" of sorts. Randey's determined to win. He stocked up on about a zillion lights after Christmas. Anybody seen Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase? Remember when the power plant had to switch to nuclear back-up once Clark finally got his lights to work? That's going to be our house this year, I'm afraid. Still can't wait to see it, though!
Another picture of the front of the house. There's actually 3 deer there, but for some reason, one of them just wouldn't stay lit. I'm still surprised that Randey didn't end up kicking it across the street - he spent so much time working on it!

Kaleb and Jacob - I wanted to take a nice picture of them to send off with our Christmas cards and this is what they decided to wear. Geez.
......................................................................... Kaleb
.......................................................................... Jacob

This past year, I got back into decorating the gifts. The previous 3 or 4 years I had gotten really lazy. I'd basically slap a pre-made bow (if I'd remembered to buy them) and a tag on the presents. Yeah, I was ashamed of myself (lol). But last year, I did it right. Nearly every gift was decorated with something different. We also used a new tree last year - a tall, skinny one. I think I like my shorter, fatter tree better, though.

More decorated packages...

Our stockings...my sister and I had stockings like these when we were growing up. A friend of my mom's made them (I think). I remember how much I loved the sequins and the sparkle (I so love gaudy things, that's a fact). Those stockings from our childhood are long gone :( but I found the kits to make them for my kids. And my niece and nephew. And my step-daughter and step-son. And my granddaughter and grandson. And my daughter-in-law. I've sewn a lot of these stockings, come to think of it. I even did one for Randey and one for me (mine's the one that says "Sissy" - that's the nickname my sister cursed me with at birth). And after all these years, I still love all the sparkle!
Our nativity set. I got this years and years ago in Biloxi, Mississippi (The actual figures,not the creche). Originally, the figurines were white. One year, I got on one of those "let's paint some ornaments" kicks. The kids and I painted quite a few little pieces. I got a little carried away with the painting, though and ended up painting my nativity set, too. Note to self: orange paint simply does not work well on a Christmas object (see one of the wisemen).
My Irish Santa Randey got me in Destin, Florida and my "windblown" Santa Randey got for me somewhere up north during one of his many TDY's. The little "Santa in his office" lamp is from my sister.
Our Christmas village - spread out across the top of the bookshelves. My friend, Susan, gave me at least a dozen of the houses/buildings for the village. I dread putting it up every year because it takes sooooo long, but I love it when it's done.

Hope you enjoyed the Christmas tour! I'd love to hear your comments, but if all you're going to do is tell me I'm crazy, please keep in mind... that's old news! lol

For Dawn

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my niece, Dawn, and her family! Thanks for reading my blog. It's always good to know someone's interested!

Don't know if you noticed before, but if you look on the left side of my page, you'll see a list of "Blogs I Love to Read". Grandma Donna and my daughter-in-law, Jodie Adams, both have started blogs, too. Thought you might want to read them to see what they're up to. Just click on their names to go to their sites.

I'll be waiting for YOU to start a blog now. But until then, we'll keep in touch via e-mail. And remember, you can always check out this blog to keep track of how I'm torturing Uncle Randey and the kids! :)

All My Chickens Home at the Same Time...

My four children are all together for the first time in over a year. Nice. And despite the fact that they seem to want to wrestle on the furniture like animals, it's still good to have them all with us at one time. From left to right: Jake (the one being strangled and flipped over the couch), Nick (the oldest and, in theory, the most mature), Desiree' (my one and only daughter who has long ago mastered the fine art of making her brothers mad enough to turn "Des" into a 5 syllable word....DDDDDeeeeee eeeee eeeee zzzzzz zzzzzzz) and Kaleb (the sweetest child I have...really). Des had just smacked him in the gut when the top picture was taken.

Oh yeah, and see little Toby? That's the Chihuahua Desiree's holding. He's her new puppy. He's the cutest thing you ever saw - well, next to Sydney the Wonder Dog, of course.

The Family That Reads Together...

My boys love to read Harry Potter almost as much as I do. Almost. It's a standing rule in our house that I get to read the new books first. Why? Because I'm the mom and they're not. Usually, they're okay with this. I read pretty fast so they know they won't have to wait long to get ahold of it. But this is Book Seven. The final book. The last of the Harry Potter saga. So they figured they just couldn't wait a day for me to finish it. Not that I blame them. We've been waiting forever for this one and now that it's here, we all felt like we had to read it right away. So Jacob decided he would buy his own book. That made 2 copies for this family. Yesterday, my oldest son, Nick, finally got here (as usual, he was delayed). He comes strolling into baggage claim at DFW where we were eagerly awaiting him and what was he carrying? Yet another copy of HP and the Dealthy Hallows. Now we're at 3 copies for this family. You'd think that would be enough, huh? But no. I also ordered the unabridged version on CD. It's due to arrive this coming Saturday. That's how Randey "reads" the books - with his ears instead of his eyes. But, until he hears it or the boys finish reading it, I'm stuck. I've been sitting around waiting for somebody to finish reading it so I can talk about it. It's making me crazy!! I called Susan, my very best friend in the whole wide world, who lives 5 states away from me. She hasn't even cracked her copy open yet. I told her she had a couple of days. Then I was calling back. If she still hasn't read it...then she'd better get her a pot of coffee brewing and make herself comfy because I'm reading it to her. Enough's enough! Come on, people! I've got to talk to SOMEBODY about this book!!