Resolutions

So the new year is upon us and always the time for making resolutions. One of mine that I seem to make every year is to get caught up on my scrapbooking. So ta da! Here is a new layout under the new resolution. Yeah the photo is from 2004 but hey it isn't in an envelope where no one can see it anymore right? I even have a couple of packages of developed photos to pick up from Costco so I'll be a scrapping machine pretty soon.

Another resolution is to cook more. I am not the cooking type. Fortunately I married a man who is and does a great job but he has mentioned that he would like to not be the only cook in the house. I actually started this resolution a couple of months ago but I hope in 2006 and I can be more consistent. So check me out - last week I cooked 3 times, I made homemade chicken soup (never have done that before), cornbread and made blueberry pancakes for the boys. Last night I made homemade pad thai that turned out yummy (and very complicated to make) so watch out - I am even scaring myself with my new cooking skills!

Sights of the Season

I got this idea from my friend, Sylvia's blog and wanted to share some of my holiday decorations. Here is our tree. We like to have a colorful kid tree with all of the kid's handmade ornaments and ones that I have given them over the year's. Here is the snowman ornament I made for them last year. My son Timmy made the star on top and it really looks a lot more colorful than the photo. Someday, I'll have a fancy tree with glass bulbs and Victorian ornaments but for now while the kids are young it will be a fun, colorful tree.


I also like to set up my Dicken's village houses. I put them all along the top of my Mother's bookcase. I started her on this collection years ago and then inherited pieces from her and my grandparents. I am still on the lookout for the Nichol's toy shop and want to add that to my collection.

This year, I set up my mother's nutcrackers on top of the curio cabinet that was also hers. I gave her some of these and it was fun to look for unusual ones (they had to be from Germany) to give to her. They boys really like to see them out but they want to use them to crack nuts!


These are my favorite things to set up at Christmas time - my mangers! I started collecting manger scenes a while ago and now I think I have 9 of them - all different types. I like to look for unusual ones.



One of my favorites was given to me by my Aunt and it is from France. The peices are no bigger than 2"! I just love them all! After all - that is what Christmas is all about - celebrating the birth of Christ!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My poor neglected blog! I haven't posted in a while because I have been so busy with Christmas stuff. 'Tis the season! So this post is a week late but worthwhile enough to blog about. We had my nieces and nephew spend the night last Friday while their parents went to a Christmas party. We had such a great time and even did a gingerbread house contest. Hannah and Tim's "Beauty and the Beast house" was very umm... creative and Michaela and I did a red and white themed house that even Martha Stewart would have been proud of. Tyler and Luke had fun decorating their own gingerbread men but I think they had even more fun just eating the candy. The festivities for the night wrapped up with everyone bundled up in the living room watching Elf (a must for my holidays).

Thank you Mister Costco man!

I know the Costco man will never see this blog but I thought if I publicly declared my gratefulness it may somehow get back to him or something like that. Here's the story - I had taken pica of the boys at Christmas in the Park last week and lo and behold one turned out good enough for a card so I took it to Costco. Later I got a call that all the orders turned in that day got lost and I had to come back - so on trip number two I brought my memory card back and tried to print it again. This time I had done some cropping at home and my computer does this thing where is I do any alterations it comes out really crummy looking but you can't tell on the screen only when you print it out. So this is what happened on the 2nd trip, the Costco man was nice enough to let me try a couple of times, walk around to the employee section and do other annoying things like that. Anyway, I couldn't get it the way I wanted it but settled anyway. I showed it to Matt - he doesn't notice anything wrong, but then my younger son Tyler says "Mommy, Timmy and I are made out of legos in this picture." Many of you know exactly what he is talking about if you have a low MB digital camera like mine and try to enlarge photos. So a couple of days go by and I am really trying to get over the fact that the "perfect" Christmas card I had wanted did not turn out like I had planned. But it was no use - I couldn't get over it and thought I'll give it one more try - I'm stubborn that way. So on Thursday I went back to Costco this time with the original photo file and asked (begged) the Costco man one more time if I could try it again even though I had ok'd the last attempt - and guess what? - he let me and guess what? - it worked and they turned out just like I wanted. So thank you Costco man for putting up with the crazy Christmas card lady - I hope you get a lot of Christmas cheer your way because I know I am not the only crazy Christmas card lady you will have to deal with.

On another note - for my scrapbooking pals out there - I actually scrapbooked! I know don't be too shocked! I can't post it on the blog because is actually a Christmas present for someone who may lurk here. They don't know about the 2peas site so for those of you who do - check it out on 2peas. I worked really hard on it so a little praise would be nice!

Oh and for those of you who are wondering what the now perfect Christmas card looks like - I will have to leave you in suspense. You'll just have to get one in the mail! :-)