Everything you need to know about me and Christmas!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Everything is wrapped or put in gift bags.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, two of them

5. When do you put your decorations up? Right after Thanksgiving

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Mom's Potato Salad

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Waking up EARLY Christmas morning waiting for Santa to finish putting our toys out in the living room

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think it was at church when our Sunday School teacher told us she doesn't lie to her daughter about Santa. (I think it was a bad way to find out).

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, but I think we should start this tradition for my 3 year old daughter

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights and hand picked ornaments

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it if I don't have to drive in it. I enjoy watching from the window, hate to be cold.

12. Can you ice skate? Nope

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A baby doll that I could feed 'real' food to. I wanted that doll so badly and was thrilled when I got it (of course when I was little)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Handpicked ornament for each year, eating mom's delicious food

16. What tops your tree? An angel

17. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Both! It's fun with a child, seeing the magic through her eyes

18. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Jingle Bells

19. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yuck, well I will take just one per year for the spirit

20. Stockings? Or no Stockings? Stockings, I don't usually fill them but I should!

21. Do you like sledding? Yes but in the South, we don't get the chance to do that much

22. Farthest you've traveled for Christmas day? Florida

23. Do you leave out cookies or carrots for when Santa comes? No, but will start doing that with my daughter in the future

24. What gets you into the holiday spirit? Our Christmas tree, decorations and looking at Christmas lights when we are out driving

25. Does your wrapping color coordinate? No

26. Favorite gift you've ever given? Given to my mom... a baby bib "You are my Sunshine" since she sang that to me all the time when I was little, with a poem announcing that I was pregnant. I will never forget my mom's reaction! Priceless! There will be nothing to top this one for me.

27. Most fun Holiday memory? Bringing our two kittens with us to Florida for Christmas one year because we didn't want to leave them at the kennel for too long and they were our furbabies. It was fun having them come along. Unfortunately they are no longer with us.

28. Do you wrap your own gifts? I usually have my husband wrap all the gifts for us. But when we buy our own presents (to ourselves) we don't wrap them.

29. Most missed memory from childhood Christmas? Having my grandfather (Paw Paw) come by our house every Christmas morning to visit and some years I would ride with him to visit my other cousins.

Would love to read about you too!

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas season has begun. It was nice having my mom here visiting with us and spending quality time with Katerina. They had a ball. Mom's food was delicious. Friday morning Mom and I hit Kohl's at 5AM! We got some good deals there and then we went to Parisian's where we also got great deals. Walmart, Target and then to Linen & Things which was a NIGHTMARE! The parking lot was impossible. If I have a chance to do it again next year, I think Kohl's and Parisian's or any other store that has the early bird special would be worth going to for good prices and bargains.
Saturday was such a beautiful sunny and warm day. Mike hung the Christmas lights outside while Katerina and I played outside. Today we are going to decorate our Christmas tree!

I'm an early bird so I woke up and happened to look at some of my old blogs from when Katerina was a baby and I was a Stay At Home Mom. Oh boy! I really miss my little baby, where did the time go? She was such a sweet little baby! I'm glad I blogged some of her life as a baby and had some awesome pictures of her. It was bittersweet looking through her pictures. It made me briefly have an urge for another baby but in reality I do not want and do not plan on another one.
Well, I better go and start my day. I took a few pictures of my mom, Katerina and will take a few more pictures of the Christmas decorations and post them here later on as well as some of the other Christmas cards I made.

My mother's coming today for Thanksgiving. It's a big deal because she doesn't ever leave her home town. The only time she came to visit was when I was 9 months pregnant and ready to have Katerina (that was in NC).

I'd like to take a few moments and write about

What I'm Grateful For....

My husband, daughter and family
Our health
My friends
My job
How positive everything is in our lives
My stamping hobby!
There is SO much more I am grateful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

The above are two of my holiday cards I made today. I enjoyed stamping a lot but had to tolerate Katerina interrupting me many times even though Daddy was home also. Katerina usually loves spending time with her Daddy but today she has been clingy.

I've decided I am not going to make more than 2 of the same design cards, just a variety of cards this year to keep from getting bored.

Here are two more cards I made recently. I love the Big Pieces that goes with the Little Pieces set! Also love the Flirty Ribbon. The color combination here is one of my favorite right now. Got to go take Katerina to school and then to work! Ta ta for now.

Had a nice weekend with my friend who came down to visit. We caught up on our lives and stamped, played with Katerina and basically spent quality time and showed her around the city. The above cards are a couple that I made over the weekend, I may post some more later on. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week! Well I'm back to the stamping room to see what I can whip up.

Oh my gosh! It seems that both of Kat's teachers were fired. Long story short, a new teacher introduced herself to me this afternoon. I remember one of her teachers was frantically getting ready to leave yesterday without making eye contact and the Director was writing down the teacher's address. Looking back, it is clear something was wrong. The school is not telling me anything except that it had nothing to do with the children's safety. They said the Director is sending out a letter on Monday. I've spoken with another parent about it and we are not happy with how the school is handling it. Unfortunately the school is closed tomorrow and Friday due to the entire school staff training (already planned way ahead of time) so we won't know much until maybe Monday. I felt that the teachers were doing a wonderful job but who knows. Katerina seems unaffected, which is good. I watch her daily on the internet and from the looks of it, she enjoys school. I'm just in a bit of a shock and keep wondering what happened. I hope Katerina likes her new teacher. If the school gives us any more problems, there are two other schools we have in mind as backup. We'll see.

I've been gearing up for my friend's arrival tomorrow! We plan to catch up, chat, stamp & play and show her around town this weekend. I'm off work Friday and Monday, hooray. I'll post what we've done this weekend if anything turns out good. My new SU! order just arrived a few minutes ago! The flirty ribbon looks awesome! Off to pick up my daughter....

Today was supposed to be spent cleaning ALL day but I sneaked some stamping time in. Just couldn't resist. Here are the 3 cards I made today, not too happy with the pink/brown one but like the other 2 better.
Today I went through Katerina's bedroom and got rid of some of her babyish toys and books and unwanted stuffed dolls. She has TOO MUCH. I have two large boxes for my husband to put away. It felt good to organize her stuff as well as her clothes. I cleaned up the bonus room a little bit. Kat has a whole lot more stuff downstairs in the living room, I didn't bother going through them to eliminate. I just put them all in baskets for now.
My friend from my college days is coming this weekend and she is an avid stamper. Should be fun.
I've really enjoyed reading other blogs. There are more and more growing everyday. It's neat. Well I'm off to do my nightly routine with Katerina. Leave me some comments.

Here's another card I did tonight. Inspired by Suedstamper on SCS. Love the color combination!

I played with the "Lovely As A Tree" stamp set and tried pink trees. Ha. I am pretty pleased with the outcome. Just need to keep playing!

Everyone else has been trying out the oval punch to make a flower card, I had to try it. Not bad. It was fun to try.

Katerina was a black kitty cat for Halloween. She scored a lot of chocolate candy in our neighborhood although many people have not moved in yet (we are in a brand new, developing subdivision). The basket of cookies and candy is from our next door neighbor, how sweet. I cannot believe the holidays are just around the corner. My mother will be coming to visit! It's a big deal because she never ever goes out of state, much less her own hometown to visit. I am supposed to be cleaning house this weekend but am tempted to stamp all day. Katerina even stamped a little this morning. We made some gooey butter cookies, not sure how they turned out. Katerina is making letters with her M&M's. They can be good for something!

Hello readers! I am not sure if anyone is even reading my blog. It would be nice to get a few comments so I know I'm not talking to the wall. *laughing* Well I scored some cool patterned papers from Hobby Lobby which has great stuff on sale for 50% off! I love this store. Just wish we had AC Moore and JoAnn's nearby. I shopped there all the time when I lived in NC. I promised Kat (my 3 yr old daughter) some chocolate if she ate all her dinner. Got to run and dig through her Halloween candy pile!