YIKES!?!

Yup, that about sums things up!  Four days before the big guy in red is due to show up and his mama elf is no where NEAR ready!  This is not like me!  I’m organized, always have things planned out and never go out without a list.  Sure I’m stressed, but this year, I’ve skipped stressed and went straight to panic with a dose of anxiety. 

I have gifts that are not purchased yet, not a single item is wrapped, no Christmas lights adorning our front porch, there are no cookie, candy or yummy desert smells lingering in the kitchen and not a single Christmas CD playing.  

I know, it’s pathetic – my Christmas spirit is hibernating!

 

This past weekend was THE LAST weekend to get shopping done before Christmas and do you know where I spent it??? Sick as a dog, wrapped up in three quilts unable to lift my head from the pillow.  I had to call my husband (GOD love him) at work, crying asking him to come home to take care of our boys because I was pretty useless. 

So, that about sums things up here!  On a happy note, two more days of work and then I’m off for twelve days!!  Time to find my mojo and gets things going for the new year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Winter Snacks

It is J’s turn to bring snack to all his first grade friends.  His teacher requests that high sugar snacks (cupcakes, brownies, etc.) are not brought in and I can’t say I blame her at all!  I came across this idea at Gourmet Mom on the Go and could not resist!

Can you guess what it’s going to be?

It consists of baggies, mini chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, cheese doodles, fruit roll ups, junior mints and pretzels.

Here is another clue:

marshmallows – mini snowballs

chocolate chips – eyes and buttons

cheese doodles – noses

junior mints – hats

pretzels – arms

fruit roll up (cut into a strip) – scarf

Add a little of each into a baggie and add a label

Here is a close up of the label.  If you’d like to make your own – click HERE for a direct link to Gourmet Mom on the Go and a FREE downloadable label.

**sorry for the low quality pictures

I have two cameras and both have dead batteries so I used my phone camera**

O The Weather Outside is Frightful…..

But this deal is SOOOOO delightful!  A chance to blog and receive FREE Christmas cards?!?  I. AM. IN.  With a great big thank you to Shutterfly for their offer to bloggers.  HERE is the direct link – if you blog it is worth the click!

I can’t believe it is already time to start thinking about Christmas cards!  Actually it’s December 2nd and truthfully, I should have been thinking of this a while ago! 

There are so many photo cards to choose from, I’m having trouble deciding which I like best!  Some of the top runners are these:

 

Something about the red draws me right in!  This weekend we are going to try and get some good family pictures taken.  Once I get a handle of what we will wear and the best scenery in the pictures, I’ll have an easier time choosing the card.

AND for those hard to buy people on my list – these CALENDARS are the bomb!  What grandparent would not want one of these on display, especially is they live out of town.  We also have several relatives that live down south and do not get to enjoy the piles of snow wonderful scenery that we have for the next five months – I have so many nature pictures I could definitely swing a calendar!

AND after Christmas when the shopping is done, the baked goods eaten, the trash taken out and the tree has dried up it will be time to think about sending out THANK YOU NOTES for all those gifts that you received.  Shutterfly offers these too! 

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR – GO AND MAKE YOUR LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE!

~Merry Christmas~

Countdown to Christmas

When I was growing up, the first day of December meant getting out the advent calendar.  For as long as I can remember, we had the same calendar and every night for the next 24 days me and my brother took turns snapping an ornament onto the tree.  The last night, December 24th Santa was snapped to the top of the tree.  My brother and I would take turns each year putting up Santa and my mom was sure to write on the box it was stored in whose turn was next. 

My childhood advent calendar was homemade by my Aunt Lydia with other ladies from her church.  

The memories it brought me, I wanted it to bring to my boys so last year I pulled out the old one (its over 30 years old) and made a replica.  I made some minor changes, but not many and you will notice how dated it was by looking at the ornaments. 

I’m so thrilled pulling this out every year! 

Each ornament fits into a pocket and one by one they get put up.  I just wanted to snap them all on so the details could be viewed in the picture.  Excuse the wrinkles – I wasn’t going to iron it before taking a picture!

(the red round piece is suppose to be an apple, for some reason mine looks like a tomato!  Also, my white fish is missing his eye, which will get fixed soon!)