Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas

This past week has been crazy busy. Baking, cleaning, spending time with family. Worth it, but so tiring.

We went to a ugly Christmas sweater party last weekend where my hubby took first place. He had a whole outfit going on. That's our niece with him.

I cooked up some blueberry bread for my mom and sister. It was more like pound cake than bread though. It was also a recipe I never tried before. Still was good. I also made some almond flavored butter cookies for my mom. Some Hershey kiss/M&M/pretzel candy things as well as some Rolo/ toasted pecan/pretzel turtles that I gave to everyone. The turtles were sooo good. I have some Rolo and pecans left over so I will be making me up some later on. Pretty much everyone got some of my strawberry and blueberry jam.

I got some cool nutcrackers from my sister, daughter and hubby. My sister gave me the skeleton one, my daughter got me the penguin one (I love penguins) and the hubby got me the elf one that is from the Hallmark Channel movie Northpole. I have a large collection of nutcrackers that get bigger every year. I try to buy one every year but never got around to it this year. As you can see, everyone else got me one LOL.

My sister also made me some pretty sweet dish cloths that I am afraid to ruin. Perfect for any Dr. Who fan. A Tardis and Dalek.

My mom got me some books, one I wanted, The Women of Christmas and another one by Melody Carlson that is now out of print. The women of the Bible fascinate me. My daughter made me some soap and sugar scrub. She also got me some lotion (I love my lotion) a Tomas Kincade mug with some English Breakfast tea. Her boyfriend got me a Tomas Kincade serving plate with some apple cinnamon muffin mix.

It was raining all Christmas Eve, so we kinda skipped driving around to look at the lights. We didn't leave my sisters until a little after 8 pm and didn't get home till after 9 pm. Our tradition is to open up jammies to wear Christmas Eve. This year I got all of us matching jammies. Hubby and Matt rolled their eyes, but still humored me. As you can tell, both the cats were happy to help Matt unwrap the gift they helped to wrap.

We didn't go crazy this year with gifts like we usually did. Matt is getting older and his gifts are getting more expensive. He had about 10 gifts or so, trust me, this is very little compared to what he usually gets from us. Abby had to check out all the new gifts under the tree. She did make a path through the gifts so she could get under the tree.

Once "Santa" came and all the gifts were inspected by Abby, I gave her one of the gifts that Chantelle gave both the cats. A catnip filled fish. She played around with it for a bit then Max took it over.

Christmas morning came way to fast. The hubby and I went to bed around midnight. I figured Matt would be like his normal teen self and sleep until ten or so, but nope, he was up really early. Hubby woke me up at 7:30. We unwrapped our gifts and I made our traditional cinnamon rolls. My sister gave me some, but I made my own up because I don't go nuts with the sugar so the hubby (who is diabetic) could have some too.

Matt took this picture of me (bad picture of me, ignore the mess) opening up the camera case to my new camera. As you can see, the hubby and I are wearing our matching jammies.

My new camera has all sorts of buttons and settings and such to use. The one thing that I love about it is that it has a rechargeable battery. That was my number one requirement for a new camera. I hate to use regular AA batteries. I would go through a ton. This is just the top, but the backside has a ton of buttons and a large viewing screen.

Matt had an idea he was getting the Xbox One, so he was recording a video of himself unwrapping it with his cell phone. I wish he left the sweatshirt and hat off though. He lives in them.

The big gift that he has been glued to all day today. Look how long his hair is getting! I wish his sideburns would grow longer because they are at an annoying length.

Abby enjoying the mess of paper and boxes. Max was hiding most of the time while Abby had to be in the middle of everything.

Matt woke up at 2 am, finally got out of bed at 4 am. Hubby got up at 6:30 am and came out to the living room to find Matt playing on the PS3. Matt was out cold on the sofa at 10 am while he was waiting for the Xbox One to update and download the two games it came with.

We left around noon to pick up my brother in law and headed out to our nieces house to celebrate with the hubby's side of the family. It was a long day. Fun, but long. I took the next two pictures with my new camera.

Matt was playing games on my Kindle and messing around on his phone most of the day. He is the oldest nephew and the only boy on the hubby's side of the family, so he tends to hang out alone at these family things. At my sisters house he is always playing with his cousins.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We did.

Wrapping gifts with pets

Everyone who has pets understands how much our beloved pets tries to help us out. Abby is one of those pets. She has to know everything about everything. She has to be part of everything. I love it!

The other day, while wrapping up my nieces and nephews gifts, Abby decided it would be the perfect time to play with the wrapping paper and scissors. I set up on the living room floor because it is big enough to fit the large roll of paper I was working with. Abby started out by laying down on the paper.

She was keeping an eye on the scissors to see what they were doing to the paper. She then set up for the attack, butt wiggle and all.

Then she realized the paper started to roll back up itself.

So she decided to help flatten out the paper by laying all stretched out on it.

I eventually kicked her off so I could get some wrapping done. She started to eat some of the wrapped boxes. Again, it was a gift for Chantelle, sorry. Or was it the gift for Alex, I don't remember. I just remember seeing her nom on the corner so if anyone sees teeth marks on it, Abby sends her love.

The hubby suggested I wrap the gifts in the bedroom on the bed with the door closed. Ya right. Abby sat outside the door, eating it (yes eating the door), until I let her in. We can never keep a bedroom door closed because she will find a way in. So, I started to wrap the gifts again when I turned and saw this.

Perfect bed for Abby apparently. *sigh* I gave up wrapping for the time being and waited until Matt was around to entertain her so she would not be up my butt all the time.

Do you have pets that like to "help" wrap the gifts as well?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We put up our tree this past Sunday. It always goes up the first weekend of December. I like to be able to look at it and relax every night. Something about the lights on it that soothes me. I sit in the dark every night and look at the lights and relax, pray, meditate. Anything to help me relax and get ready for bed. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

Believe it or not, but this picture was taken at like 2 in the afternoon. I keep the shades open all day and had one light on in the room, but it is still dark at times. Abby keeps playing with the ornaments. I find at least one or two on the ground every morning. We had one casualty so far, but it is an easy fix since I found the head to the poor penguin. One of my kids made this years ago. I am thinking it was Chantelle back in like kindergarten, but not sure honestly.

My little Rudolph reindeer that I have had since I was a child sits under the tree. It use to walk and play music while his nose lit u, but not anymore. I still like to keep him around though. brings back so many memories of when I was growing up.

This year, instead of putting up the count down to Christmas activity cards on the garland like I did last year,I just decided to pretty it up with lights, ornaments and extra candy canes. We have dubbed this garland "Abby's garland".

When I turned it on the first time, she ran into the basket (it's in the lower left hand corner of the picture) and started to check it out. She will lay in the basket and just stare up at it. When I turned it off the first night, she started to cry meow for a long time.

When I turn it on in the mornings, she runs up to me and then starts cooing at the garland. She doesn't have this kind of reaction to the tree, just the garland. It's kind of funny. Of course she has tried to play with the ornaments and the candy canes, but I just call out her name and she leaves it alone.

For the most part, the cats are good around the tree. Max just sleeps under it and will not let Abby stay under there for long, if at all. About time he stood up for himself and stopped letting Abby have her way all the time. Abby likes to nibble on the branches, eat the popcorn garland and of course, play with the ornaments. She loves these ones that my sister made for me. She took some ordinary blue ornaments and crocheted around them in different patterns.They are so pretty. I think Abby likes them so much because she can get her claws on them and pull them off. Most of the other ornaments are either shatter proof or too heavy for her. I do have stuffed animal ones around the bottom that I am okay with her playing with. They are all penguins too. I have a thing for penguins and the hubby gets me one penguin thing a year in my stocking.

This is pretty much all I am going to do for Christmas this year. I usually put out so much stuff that my sister says it looks like Christmas puked in my house. I am not even putting out my tons of nutcrackers. I have one that stays out year round, he looks like a pirate. My two foot one was out all year this past year because I forgot to put him away. I decorated him for Halloween too. I put a white pillowcase over him and made some eyes and a mouth out off felt to turn him into a ghost. LOL. It was the hubby's idea. I am thinking I should put him away this year, maybe make some room for him in our bedroom closet. We will see.

How goes the Christmas decorating in your house?

Hope You Had A Happy Thanksgiving

The snow for the most part had stopped early in the morning of Thanksgiving. We got about 7 inches of snow before it turned to a snow frozen rain mix. It was a very heavy wet snow, perfect for making a snowman. Or in my nieces case, a snow turkey. LOL Isn't it cute?

We had a snow shower all day that gave us about another inch of fluffy stuff. The snow looks so pretty stuck to all the trees. Don't you think so? These trees are at the end of my street. I took it while in the car so it's not the best.

This is my favorite house. It is around the corner from me. It is so pretty in the spring and summer. The roof is all covered in moss. No one lives in it. I think it is being used as storage now. I just hope it doesn't get taken down. I love the old time charm to it. Don't you?

Getting Ready For Advent

I can not believe that Advent begins in less than a week. Where on earth did November go?

Last year we did something simple for Advent. Just read some verses from the Bible and lite the Advent wreath. This year, I want to do a Jesse Tree. Although I am thinking of making a wreath with little themed ornaments instead of a tree. I'll be doing another post on our Jesse Tree once it is ready to start.

There are a ton of different ideas to use for the Jesse Tree. I found a couple that I like a lot, but finally decided on one. You can find it here at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I printed out the black and white pictures and am spending some time at night coloring them in. I love to color, I find it soothing and relaxing. Matt hates to color. It always ends with me yelling and him crying. Best to avoid it.

I am still going to do our count down to Christmas garland like last year. You can find that post here: Count Down To Christmas Garland and the activities for the garland here: Advent Activities.

If you want to do the daily verses that we did last year for Advent, this is what we did:

Week 1 ~ Hope

• Sun ~ Isaiah 40:1-5
• Mon ~ Isaiah 40:6-11, Isaiah 52:7-10
• Tue ~ Isaiah 11:1-10
• Wed ~ Isaiah 9:2-7, Genesis 3:8-15
• Thu ~ Genesis 15:1-6, Micah 5:2-5
• Fri ~ Deut. 18:15-19, John 1:1-9
• Sat ~ Psalm 89:1-4, John 1:10-18

Week 2 ~ Peace

• Sun ~ Zechariah 6:12-13, Luke 1:5-13
• Mon ~ Luke 1:14-20
• Tue ~ Luke 1:21-25
• Wed ~ Malachi 3:1-6, Luke 1:26-38
• Thu ~ Luke 1:39-45
• Fri ~ Luke 1:46-56
• Sat ~ Mark 1:1-3, Matthew 1:18-24

Week 3 ~ Joy

• Sun ~ Luke 1:57-66
• Mon ~ Luke 1:67-80
• Tue ~ Luke 2:1-7
• Wed ~ Luke 2:8-20
• Thu ~ Luke 2:21-35
• Fri ~ Luke 2:36-40
• Sat ~ Matthew 2:1-6

Week 4 ~ Love

• Sun ~ Matthew 2:7-12, Isaiah 7:10-14
• Mon ~ Matthew 2:19-23
• Tue ~ Isaiah 9:2-7, Ephesians 5:1-2
• Wed ~ Ephesians 5:15-20
• Thu ~ Colossians 1:15-20
• Fri ~ 1 John 4:7-12
• Sat ~ 1 John 4:13-19

What plans do you have for Advent this year?

Scripture for Thanksgiving Week 4

Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I can't wait. Matt is going to be spending it with friends, Chantelle is working and the hubby and I are going to our nieces brand new built house. Her hubby built it. Even though we are going to be all over the place this year, we are still Thankful for what we have and for each other.

Here are this weeks verses:



Monday ~ 1 Timothy 4:4-5

Tuesday ~ Psalm 7:17

Wednesday ~ Jeremiah 33:11

Thursday ~ Colossians 3:17

Friday ~ Philippians 4:6

Happy Independence Day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July. The hubby and I are heading to a party in MA. Matt has been at Boy Scout camp on Cape Cod all week long. We have Hurricane Arthur hitting us today, so praying the scouts stay safe. We head down on the Cape tomorrow to pick him up and to spend the day with a cousin of the hubby's.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the mom's out there had a wonderful day. I spent the day mostly out with the hubby. Matt stayed home to mow the lawn and to be able to have the big tv to play his guitar hero game.

The hubby and I went out to lunch at a burger place called Five Guys Burgers. The burgers were really good, the fries were hand cut, but because they are cooked in peanut oil, I couldn't have any. Peanuts bother me now. I never had any allergies to food, but I do now, go figure.

Then the hubby and I went to a garden center to look and see what they have in. I saw some black petunias that the hubby said to get, but I don't have anywhere to put them yet, so I didn't get them. I have never seen black petunias before, so I should have bought them. Maybe I will go back tomorrow and see if they are still there and grab them.

Finally we hit Walmart to get a new mini blind for one of the front windows. Very early this morning, Max and Abby got in a huge fight and destroyed one of the mini blinds. I have never seen these two act like this. Max was really ticked off at Abby. Abby was super fluffy and shaking. Later on they were acting like the best of friends and playing together.

Right now I am out on the deck, cooking steak tips on the grill, typing away at this post and listening to the Baltimore Oriels singing to each other. I have never seen them up here, so this is a nice treat for me. Now I am off to enjoy my dinner.

My view while typing up this post and cooking dinner. My new half propane, half charcoal grill. I even have the smoker box (still in the box). That will be put together this week. I have a rack of pork ribs in my freezer calling my name.

Our Christmas 2013

I hope everyone has had a blessed day. My Christmas was nice this year. Normally Christmas day is spent with the hubby's side of the family, but my RA wasn't going to let me drive 2 1/2 - 3 hours to our nieces new house, so we had a relaxing day at home.

On Christmas Eve, we always go to my sisters house to celebrate. My daughter and her boyfriend joined us there. The hubby (mine and my sisters) had to work, so they joined us later in the day. The kids had fun playing and hanging out together. Gotta love cousins!

Baby Jesus doesn't go in our manger until Christmas Eve. I bought this little set this year in cause Abby decided to knock it over or eat some pieces. I am afraid to put out the Nativity that my mom made when I was little.

The whole gang is there now. All celebrating Christ's birth!

I tend to spread the gifts out around the tree to make it look like we got a ton of things even though there isn't.

Abby sure likes the nutcracker she gave me. She kept popping up to attack the fish.

We get Matt a new Nerf gun every year. This years is the newest one out. Thing is huge!

Me (ack!) with my new Kindle. I had an older one (2nd generation not a fancy fire one) and it froze and stayed that way, so the hubby upgraded. I love to read and have over three thousand books in my Kindle cloud. Most I have read though. He got me the first one to safe space in the house. LOL. I still have a bunch of books, but I have a hard time holding them because of my RA.

Uncle Bobby got him a Red Ryder BB gun (Like the one in the Christmas Story movie).

A new hunting bow from us. He should be in this one for quite a few years before he moves into his final one.

The big Nerf gun all put together and showing off how big the ammo is. Darn thing is about as tall as two of my nephews!

We had some yummy Homemade cinnamon rolls that my sister made us the day before for breakfast. I also cooked my own homemade cinnamon rolls because they aren't as sweet as my sisters. The hubby is diabetic, so he didn't want the super sweet ones.

Dinner was a nice roast in the crock pot. Now I just have to get up off the sofa, attempt to navigate the box littered living room and wash up the dishes and tidy up the kitchen. Ahh the work of a wife/mom/housekeeper never ends.

Advent Reading ~ Week 2

Week 2 ~ Peace

• Sun ~ Zechariah 6:12-13, Luke 1:5-13
• Mon ~ Luke 1:14-20
• Tue ~ Luke 1:21-25
• Wed ~ Malachi 3:1-6, Luke 1:26-38
• Thu ~ Luke 1:39-45
• Fri ~ Luke 1:46-56
• Sat ~ Mark 1:1-3, Matthew 1:18-24

Christmas decorating around the homestead

I love this time of year. I love looking at all the lights and all the different Christmas decorations. Normally I out up so much things that my kids say it looks like Christmas puked in the house. When we lived in the bigger house in Massachusetts, I was able to decorate every room without it looking over crowded. Now that we have moved up to New Hampshire and bought our mobile home, I am not able to put up everything. I still put up a lot though.

Right now in the living room I have the tree up, all my nutcrackers up on the big bookshelf, a count down to Christmas garland over one window and a small nativity up. I bought a small nativity this year just in case our very curious kitten Abby decided to nibble on them and walk off with a person or two. I did not want to put up the nativity I grew up with that my mom made.

Cute nativity I think. Abby already walked off with one of the wise men and knocked over the sheep. Baby Jesus is put up higher because he never went into the creche until Christmas Eve. It's just something we did growing up, so I continue the little tradition.

Our tree all lit up in the dark. Well, actually, when I took the picture it was around 9 am, but it has been so gloomy here the past few days, that it was rather dark even with the mini blinds opened.

Most of my nutcrackers. I love collecting them. Every year I add one more to my collection. My grandmother Meme kinda got me started. I always loved the nutcrackers that she put out at Christmas, so when I was able to, I started collecting. Right now I have 22, I think. There is 21 pictured here and I have a 2 foot one as well. At one time I had some ornament ones, but I can't seem to find those anymore.

On the back of the front door, I have a wreath that Matt made me back in kindergarten I think. It is made from a wire coat hanger and strips of fabric tied to the hanger after it was shaped into a circle. I love it.

In the kitchen I have the Advent wreath set up on the small sideboard that divides up the kitchen from the eat in nook area.

New candles on it this year, so it looked odd in the picture if I took it from the side, so I took it from overhead. One candle lit so far, second one this Sunday.

I also have this beautiful glass tree that my dad bought me a few years ago and the plate and cup for Santa's snacks. My kids don't believe any longer, and we are focusing on the true meaning of the season now, but I still like it. Plus my mom made me the cup back in 1980. My sister had one too, but that either got broken or lost years ago.

On the way down the hallway, we have our mistletoe hanging down. Both my hubby and son are always stopping in this doorway, so it gives me a good excuse to give them a smooch. Matt tries to avoid it this time of year. I mean what 13 year old boy wants their mom to give them a kiss anyway. I have fun trying though and love listening to him giggle and scream. It usually ends up with both of us on the floor trying to lick each other. Gross I know, but it's fun. LOL

In the hallway, I have a poinsettia garland over the window. On the door to the furnace I have this little decoration that my mom made me years ago. When I was little, my Nana (dad's mom) would make each of her grand kids some mittens and give each of us a 5.00 check. I missed getting them when she passed away back when I was 14. Mom made me this decoration and included a poem (who knows what happened to that though) so that I will remember my Nana.

To help block the breeze that we feel from the backdoor, I put up my Santa doorstop. The rest of the winter I use a towel. I might actually make myself something fancier this year instead of the towel.

At the moment, on the back of the backdoor, I have thee wreath I made for the front of the house. We have three windows in the front and I want to put a wreath in front of each window. So far I finished one wreath. It was easy to make, but very time consuming when you have to wrestle two cats from attacking it and when your hands, fingers and wrists are hurting because of the storm front moving in. I like how it came out though. I also made one for the front door. Same colors, but smaller and different.

Tomorrow is our towns Christmas parade. Matt will be selling hot chocolate with his Boy Scout troop during it. My daughter and her boyfriend are coming down to watch the parade with me. Sunday we are decorating the outside of the house. I already have my wreath up on the door that I made. My dad put greens and red berries in my window boxes, so all we have left is some lights on the deck (our first year putting up lights too) and the wreaths on the front windows. I'll do a post when it is all done to show you all. I am soo excited to to the outside up.