{T'was the week after Christmas...} Just Relax a Little

One of the Cricut-assisted creations I made to decorate my home this Holiday Season!

T’was the week after Christmas
and all through the dwelling
All the creatures were doing
something they found compelling

Dad drove F1 cars
Mom surfed and repinned
While the animals lounged happily
and if they could have, they’d have grinned

It’s nice to relax
Sit and enjoy one another
Too soon we’re headed back to work
And vacation memories fade darker

So enjoy the here and now
embrace the piles and the clutter
Housework can wait a bit
there’s something to eat smothered in butter...

The New Year is coming
all shiny and fresh
And we're crossing our fingers
that it is bringing us the best!

Hope you've been enjoying spending time with those you love, and sometimes barely tolerate :)

Have a safe and happy New Years Eve!!

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Christmas Eve is Here Again

The shopping has been finished and wrapped and under the tree for almost a week. I am taking lots of time to sit and enjoy evenings with HOTGI and the animals. Today is Christmas Eve, and it feels damn good to be finished everthing.

He-of-the-Good-Ideas went out earlier "for a drive". Uh huh. A drive. When he got home though, I disappeared upstairs so I didn't see what he was bringing in (I hate spoiling a surprise!) and I have since been banished upstairs so he can go all elf-tastic with the wrapping paper.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up, open the stockings that Santa left and drive to HOTGI's hometown for Christmas Day with his family at his sister's house. I am really looking forward to witnessing Christmas morning for our niece and nephew this year!

Monday, we are hosting my mom, grandma, dad and stepmum for Christmas at our house. We have a Butterball for the oven and a cupboard full of Christmas Cheer and I am super excited. I can't wait to set the table and set out the place cards I made!

I am so glad I am relaxed enough to enjoy everything about the Christmas Season this year.

Let me share you with something that warms my heart:



Happy Christmas to all of you. For those of you that follow my blog, thank you. I appreciate your comments and love to hear feedback for what I am posting. This first year of having a blog has been great for me. I've loved sharing with my readers some things I have cooked and crafted, and I find now when I create something I feel as though I should have a camera at the ready!

There will be another turkey soup made soon and I plan on updating my turkey soup recipe with pictures! Look for some other turkey leftover ideas too!

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Holidaze Time

Today marks the middle of December. HOW is it December 15th already?

Momma and I went to see The Nutcracker this afternoon, and loved the performance! The grace of the ballet paired with the sensational orchestra telling such a beloved Christmas tale was an awesome part of Holidays 2011.

I thought I was all done with shopping, stores and the amount of people that populate every retail store at this time of year but there always seems to some unexpected thing to go out for. I am pleased with the gifts I've chosen for people and hope they enjoy them as much as I expect they will! I've given one gift so far (a necklace I made for a friend, and forgot to take a picture of before I gave it to her!) and have many left to wrap.

I don't hate wrapping, but I don't really like it all that much. But I love the look and feel and presentation of a wrapped gift, so this season I am a tape and ribbon maestro!

So there's wrapping to do, and gorcery shopping cus' we still gotta eat, a house to clean, a dinner menu to finalize, parties to attend and still try and make sure you get the opportunity to sit back and relax with loved ones and enjoy each other's company.

It's all well and good to get caught up in the frenzy of the holiday season but maybe let it be less about rushing to get to the mall to spend and shop and be more about hurrying to the welcoming home of a friend for a visit.

I'm getting ranty...

I think I need a egg nog Noel Nog (lactose free and tastes WICKED!), or a toasted almond (made with lactose free milk, the idea of drinking cream skeeves me out), or a nice warm buttered rum. Mmmmm

How are you making out this Holiday season? Ready? Nowhere even close?

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Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Tree Ornaments Sorted for Decorating the Tree (aka. Neurotic Behaviour on Display)

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Festive Favourites - Little Drummer Boy

I love holiday music. I love the classics, the standards sung by the likes of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin. To me, Santa Baby is best by Eartha Kitt, not Madonna.

Tonight I watched a video of Winnipeg, Manitoba teen Sean Quigley performing his version of Little Drummer Boy. I am so happy I happened to watch this video tonight. I love the song, I love how he made it modern and energy filled but kept it pure and familiar. Thank heavens for Youtube; I hope he records more!

Enjoy!

Awesome right?

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{This Chistmas} Let me tell you where to go

Since we confirmed that HOTGI and I would be hosting my family Christmas dinner this year, I've had it in my head that I wanted to have place markers at everyone's spot. We are only going to be a small group, but I like the presentation of a well laid table and for me part of that look this year is personalized place markers. I knew I needed to made something fun :)

There are a lot of inspirations out there on the interwebz, and I like everything so I knew I needed a starting point. So when I went to Michaels this morning, I found these super cute place card holders! They were 2 for $1.50 and I knew they'd be perfect.

Using my Cricut and a borrowed cartridge (thanks Andrea!) I cut out a 3" tag using the "shadow" feature with brown cardstock and a 3" tag using the regular feature in a sheet of holiday scrapbook paper (again, thanks Andrea!) and glued them together.

Then, in an excercise of patience and dexterity I applied glue (via glue-stick) to the back of each letter of each person's name and placed them on the prepared cards with a set of precision tweezers.

I cut a length of pretty green satin ribbon, tied it through the hole of each card and trimmed the ends.

Adorable right?

There are six of us confirmed for Christmas dinner at our house this year and I am incredibly pleased with how these place cards turned out. They might not be appreciated by anyone but me, but I cannot wait to see how they look on my table, and sometimes it's the little things that make me happy!

Now that this project (that admittedly took a bunch of time) is over, I have a mountain of other things to get done... asap!

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Flexing my Creative Muscle {making Christmas gifts}

I am fortunate to have a great group of friends who - though we are spread across the country - are closer than some who see each other all the time. We decided a number of years ago to do some fun exchanges a couple times a year (usually Christmas and in the spring) and have names drawn and kept secret until the gifts were recieved. This year for Christmas, we decided on a more modest budget for each other so I expect there will be some creative ladies sending some lovely packages.

As for the friend whose name I drew... she will be getting some awesome (in my opinion) handmade/heartmade things along with some baking. I hope she loves what I send her! I had the Cricut set up last night, cutting out some paper with a cartridge borrowed from a mega-crafty friend and flexing my creative muscle for part of her present!

Oooooh what's it gonna be??! :)

Now I need to decide what to bake and send...

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