Decorations 2010

Every year Christmas as a mom just keeps getting better. Although we will be out of town for two weeks for the holidays we still had to decorate for the kids. We put out the same three penguins that we have displayed since 2007 and we added one more since our family has grown. Then we came inside and watched "It's A Meaningful Life" Veggie Tales movie and got the kids in their PJ's and we decorated the tree. I was so excited last year when Z hung a couple decorations on the tree, but this year HE REALLY GOT INTO IT.

Granted he did hang everything in one place, but we all had so much fun together. SJ enjoyed chasing plastic metallic ball ornaments around and putting everything in her mouth as usual.

At one point Z decide maybe he should spread the ornaments out a bit more and so he asked me to lift him up so he could reach higher. When he found the place he was looking for he hung the ornament just so and said "There. Perfect." and that's how I felt about the whole evening.

I've Already Got My Stamps!

Last night we put up the tree, strung up the lights, and watched Christmas movies. It is officially that time of year. As I’ve mentioned before one of my FAVORITE holiday traditions is our annual family Christmas card. This year I bought Christmas stamps weeks before Thanksgiving because I am just that excited.

Shutterfly has been such a great resource for me over the past 10 years that I have held on to this tradition. One of my favorite Christmas cards was the 3X5 folding card with a picture of me, J, and our dog Crew that we sent out in 2006.

This year I have something special in mind, but as always you will have to wait for the big reveal to find out what it is. I will tell you though that it will be a photo card from Shutterfly. When I thumbed through their 2010 Holiday catalogue I fell in love with so many of the designs, especially The Top Ten moments Christmas Card.

Not only do I love Shutterfly for Christmas cards, but they are also great for birth announcements (like this one I ordered from them earlier this year),

and calendars as well. Last year I gave my dad a desk calendar for Christmas and this year his wish list included another photo calendar, which I guess means it was a hit.

Sending out Christmas cards each year is one of the things I looking forward to the most around the Holidays. It's right up there with having everyone else’s cards fill up my mailbox. I am sure the first one should be arriving any day now. I just love this time of year!

This post is a part of Shutterfly’s Christmas promotion for their 2010 holiday collection. Allowing blogger’s the opportunity to receive 50 free cards only makes me like them that much more!

Coupon Craziness- This time the cops get involved.

This weekend has been full of adventures here in messy land. I already shared about our sleepless shopping spree. Well, the next day I had a friend over who had showed some interest in getting in on this coupon craziness. So I started showing her the ropes, including dumpster diving at my favorite recycling receptacle. I think what happened was that someone called the cops to report us, because a police car comes driving around the corner straight towards us as if we were their destination. Then the cop (a handsome young one, to help you are trying to get a mental picture) gets out and asks "are you donating are taking?". I sheepishly reply "both?". Then he starts lecturing about how these items are not up for grabs and he stops mid sentence and squints at the paper retriever. Then he says "is this one of those cardboard paper things..." he looks in to see mounds of paper and shouts out in a frustrated tone "Oh my god, you're kidding me" then he looks at us and says "Never mind." I apologize and say we are going to leave, but he assures me that we can stay and that we are fine.

I think they were under the impression that we were raiding a donation box for the children's home or something. We still decided to call it a night after that. We had gotten plenty of inserts at that point anyway.

Now that you now what I've been up to, here are some of the fruits of my labor.

I got $53.29 worth of stuff for 64 cents and I am ready for more!

My Friday Socks

I really hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I know I did. We ate all the good thanksgivey stuff followed by watching football and lounging around. Eventually we played a huge 14 person game of Hand and Foot, followed by some Guitar Hero. At around 2:30am I put on my Friday socks* and a comfy pair of shoes so that J and I could head out for some black Friday madness. It went something like this-

3:00 am- Door busters at Kohl's

3:30 am- Get in line at Kohl's while J still shops around

4:45 am- Check out and save $98.00!!!

5:00 am- Stop in for some Lattes and a pumpkin scone at Starbucks

5:30 am- Arrive at mall

5:35 am- Purchase at JC Penney's

6:30 am- Purchase at Sears

7:30 am- Purchase at Macy's

8:00 am- Depart from the mall

9:00 am- Dutch Babies** at Ol' South

10:30 am- Crash at J's sister's house.

It was one of the best mornings ever. I really am thankful for my wild and crazy husband. It was his idea to do Black Friday in the first place. He is such a techy shopper. He had an app were he could search all the deals ahead of time online compile a list of which ones he wanted to check out and what items he wanted to get. He also took pics of some of the fliers he flipped through the night before, he used this once to show an employee exactly what he was looking for. We went forth with a plan and we conquered! Pretty much all the Christmas shopping is done, just like that.

Did anyone else brave the stores this weekend?

*I own a set of brightly colored days of week socks. They were on clearance at Target, don't judge.

**Dutch babies are similar to Crepes. J and I LOVE the ones they make at Ol' South. if you haven't been there to try a Dutch Baby you must go!

Family

Today I am thankful for family.

They are crazy and I like that way!

I'll be spending time with my in laws the next couple days, we are about to head out right now. Hope everyone has a happy, memorable, delicious Thanksgiving!

On The Bright Side

I have had a lot of photo shoots this week, including two today. It got me thinking about how much I love my job. That was going to be me my thankful post today, until today happened.

It's crunch time for the magazine. Assignments are due by tomorrow, so today I had to go out in the country to get some shots of some young motocross racers.

The youngest was barely 7 and she was adorable.

Then I went from the sticks to the city were I had a private job photographing some people at a country club. I won't go into details because even if there are only 3 people that read my blog this is still the world wide web and I can't risk having the wrong person see this. Let's just say the night began with drinking and ended with someone writing me an upside down check. They filled it out in all the right places, but it was upside down. I didn't look at it until later and so I can't cash it. It's been a tiring day. I can't say that I feel all that thankful for work right now, but I am. What I am really thankful for though is that tomorrow is a Holiday and I won't be working at all. Yea.

LIFE

Today I am thankful for life.

J had officiated his first funeral tonight. Last year he did his first wedding and this year was his first funeral. We didn't really know the man that passed away, although J did visit him at the hospital when it was close to the end and he was asked if he could lead the service since our pastor is out of town this week.

This is the same week that our church celebrated Granny's 90th birthday.

This photo is when she was 86, but she still looks just as beautiful

She is actually my friend's grandma, but she has always loved me and many others as though we were a part of the family and since I have never had a grandmother of my own (they both died before I was born) she has me call her Granny. The celebration on Sunday was truly wonderful. Granny was publicly honored and if anyone deserves that, it would be her. She has blessed me in so many ways in the years that I have known her. One day she told me "when I see a pretty dress, I think of you." It's one of the nicest compliments I have ever received. She has asked me to sing a special hymn at her funeral and requested that I sing it church sometime while she is still around (which I did!) Afterward she thanked me with a sweet letter that she sent in the mail. There is nothing like getting a letter in the mail these days. I hope it will be a long time before I ever have the honor of singing that hymn, knowing Granny and how spunky and full of life she is I think it will be.