D-Day

Today is D-day at our house....or A-day (Arrival day) - however you want to put it. My parents arrive any time now for a week of Christmas fun. And, I think I'm all done.... except for the cream cheese I forgot to buy at the store when I was there (twice) this morning! Ahhhh! The baking is done, presents are wrapped, turkey is bought, house is clean. Really, is there any better feeling? Of course, Art still has to do his Christmas shopping - "What would Christmas be without shopping on Christmas Eve?" (this is his standard response).

All in all, I am looking forward to just hanging out and relaxing with my family for a few days....and baking and cooking and wiping and setting and washing and cleaning and testing and clearing and prepping and playing.... You know, the stuff Christmas is made of! Hope you all enjoy your time with family and friends, and have a very merry, hopefully not scary, Christmas!

Date Day

As some of you may know, we LOVE tradition. And (another) one of our traditions is that every year, we farm out The Girls for a day (usually to Auntie Frieda), and take a Saturday in December to start AND (hopefully) finish our shopping. We go for dinner after the task, and just enjoy a day together....alone. Well, we headed out on Saturday for our date. We took the truck, since we wanted to leave the van for Frieda. We had some EXTREMELY cold weather on the weekend, and when we got home, this was the temperature.....

So excited to be going out for a whole day....!


We like to leave in the morning, right after we`ve all had breakfast and gotten ready. At 10:43 am, our freedom started.....

When we left in the morning, here`s the temperature....

For dinner, we went to our favorite steak house, for our company Christmas party

(yup, just the 2 of us!)

Here`s my handsome man.....starving and waiting for dinner...

When we got home, at 10:10 pm....after 12 hrs. of freedom!

And here`s how tired Art was by the end!

We did complete our mission, and got all of our Christmas shopping done.

Thanks again, Auntie Frieda!

Sugar Cookies

Every year, The Girls beg me to make sugar cookies for Christmas. And every year, I do....but I try and bribe someone to come and help me, since it's such a big job. This year was no exception. Our friend Rhonda called Friday morning asking if I wanted to go to the mall, and instead, she ended up coming over to help with this process. We doubled the recipe, and probably made and decorated well over 100 sugar cookies. The funny part is that I thought Ellie Mae would be in there like a dirty shirt, but she sat at the table the whole time, coloring, while we made the cookies...and by the time we decorated them, she was ready for a nap!

We have definitely enjoyed eating the fruits of our labor.... And now, I`m (finally) done my baking!

No Somebody

Art: "Ellie Mae, go and get into your pajamas please"
Ellie Mae: "It's dark...."
Art: "Who is upstairs? They'll turn on the light for you."
Ellie Mae: "No somebody."
Art: "Ellie Mae. Who is upstairs?"
Ellie "NO Somebody!"
Art: "Nobody is upstairs?"
Ellie Mae: "NO-SOMEBODY!"
Art: "Ellie Mae, is there anybody upstairs?"
Ellie Mae: "No somebody."
Art: "Ok. I'll come and turn on the light..."

Little Helpers

Yesterday, while the big girls were at school, I decided to tackle some more Christmas baking. Of course, I had 2 special little helpers...

Molly and Elizabeth very quickly donned their aprons, and helped me make shortbread, nanaimo bars and rocky road fudge. Hurray for aprons, Christmas, and baking!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

CHRISTMAS! This year, I was asked to be apart of a Christmas Home Tour for the alliance church. It was a great excuse to get Art to finish up the last of the trim work, painting and last final details of our renovations.... and now, it's DONE! Well, almost...just a few more mouldings to paint, and a floor to fix up where we took out walls in the laundry room....

The home tour was on Saturday, so on Friday night, everyone who's house was in the tour got to go and see each other's homes, which was fun. Of course, on Friday, we had the first blizzard of the year - we probably got close to a foot of snow, which helped add to the festive feel of the day. It was a lot of fun to get all my decorating done, and show off all of Art's hard work. I set up my table (which I, of course, forgot to take a picture of!), turned on all the lights and music, and got some baking done while people meandered through the house. Here are some updated pictures...

My laundry room cabinets and bench and coat hooks
the back hallway leading to the laundry room

One of the trees

Our front closet-turned dog house

As promised....MY TABLE! The picture doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to come for coffee and see it for yourself

Surprise!

Friday night, we hosted a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours. She was SO surprised - had not the slightest clue.... We had about 20 people here for night of laughing and eating!

One of the things I love most about hosting things at our house is how excited the girls get. I think they have as much fun as me preparing everything, setting up all the small, final details of the evening....lighting candles, setting up music, setting up the tables. They were the self appointed greeters....they opened the doors and let everyone in.

One of the fun things we did was take pictures of all the guests holding a picture frame, and had them sign and write a note to the birthday girl....who turns 70 in a few days. I will post the pictures once I put them on my computer. I know, I've said that before, but I will.

After the party (which was done and cleaned up by 10:30 pm....I think the earliest ending party we've ever had!), we just hung out and relaxed...for the weekend. So, my house is all decorated and ready for Christmas, and I now only have to do my baking and shopping.... but there's always tomorrow!