Now that Christmas is over I have a little more room to breath. Well, maybe not! But I definitely have to say that this year's Christmas was one the best and most memorable. I woke up at 6:15 to get the coffee brewing since we all know that early morning and my name do not belong in the same sentence. That and you definitely wouldn't want to be around me without coffee! ;-) Anyway... Kris woke up around 7:00 and immediately wanted to dig into the presents. She was really shocked at how much was under our tree!
All the presents
We ate a very small breakfast before starting to open the gifts. Before we started, Kristi went to see if Santa drank the milk and ate the cookies. She was really happy and astounded that Santa left her a thank you note. :-) Here's a couple of "opening" pictures:
The hand made gift I did
Spongebob Leapster 2 Game
Finally! The golf balls I've been begging Andy for!
The look when she saw the Princess Playset for her new Ariel doll
We have a tradition in our family of putting a least one bow on our heads while opening gifts (although we used to try to put all our bows on our heads).
We finished up opening all our gifts in about an 1 1/2. It actually took us longer than I thought! We got ready to go to Andy's parents for more presents and dinner. We got there around 11 and ate a little something to hold us over until dinner was ready. We then opened gifts and boy was that way longer than anyone expected. It was really nice though. We have a tradition of passing out one or two gifts per person and then we go around each opening while everyone else watches. It really puts you on the spot but makes it oh so fun to see what everyone gets, especially the kids! For once, I actually didn't take that many pictures.. I only took 100 the whole day!! Here's a few of my favorites:
She was so excited to get Steelers socks.
Her fancy kimono brought back from China
Sophie thought the hanger was her present...LoL!
Continuing the family tradition (although I don't think she knew that).
The present I made Ellie
Puppy chow... Enough said
At this point, Kristi took my camera and starting snapping her own pictures. I have to say that she's actually a pretty good photographer, especially when it comes to snapping completely random shots! LoL!
They both took about 20 shots like this
Random pic of herself... Her faces are priceless!!
After we finished opening gifts, we all went upstairs to eat. The food was absolutely fantastic! This year, Andy's parents had prime rib in addition to the ham. It was the most tender beef I have EVER had! I seriously hope we have that every holiday! After we finished eating, we all went back downstairs to watch the video that Todd had made of their journey of adopting Sophie from China. It was really moving and everyone was all teary-eyed!
After we finished watching the video, Andy came over to me with my other present in his hand. It was wrapped in tan scrap paper. He started talking to me but wouldn't hand me the present (and I honestly don't remember what he said). He handed me the present and when I opened it, I saw a picture frame ornament. It is marbled black with rhinestones around the outside edge. I was like ooo, pretty but was super confused as to why he waited until then to give it to me. He then took the frame from me and said, "This is the frame that we're going to hang on our tree next year. In it will be the picture that Shari (his sister) is about to take when I ask you to be my wife" (all the while he's getting emotional and starting to cry). I was like, "OMGosh! Are you serious?!" I think I asked him if he was serious like 4 or 5 times! LoL! It was so amazingly unique and perfect! As soon as I get the pictures from his sister, I'll update this with the pictures. :-)
Well that's about all I have time for tonight... Until next time many blessings!
It's definitely been busy around our house! Between the continuous decorating, school work, card making, knitting, cookie making, and wrapping we've been b-u-s-y! Oh.. and shopping... Wait... I forgot shopping?! Really?! (I don't think you'll EVER hear another girl say they forgot about shopping...LoL!) Anyway...
I finished up my SOC and LIT classes last Sunday. I was very nervous about the final papers because each is worth 30% of my final grade! I got my grade back for SOC and I got... drumroll please!... a 100%!!!! Score!! I got a 90% on my LIT paper which is totally a score too!! My next set of classes start on January 3rd and I'm totally not looking forward to these classes. The first is International Business and the second is Supervision and Leadership. Ugh! But, I only have 4 classes left until I graduate!! Yay!
So Kristi, Andy, and I made our first set of cookies for the holiday season a few weeks ago. We made Holly Leaves which I've never had before.
All the ingredients
Bulging eye syndrome... Should I be worried??
My makeshift double broiler :-)
Mmmm.. cornflakes, melted marshmallows, and food coloring
The finished product... So good!!
All I have to say is that these are awesome! Not as awesome as my Whoopie Cookies (of course) but still pretty awesome. Our next endeavor (minus Andy) was making the Whoopie Cookies. This was my second time making them and the first time with an electric mixer. All I have to say is that little gadget saved the day! I didn't own one last year so when I went to make the icing, I had to hand whip the egg whites with a fork (because I of course didn't own a whisk!) until they were stiff. It took me soooooooooooo long (not an exaggeration)! Anyway... so Kristi got to help me this year. She had a great time and made a complete mess. :-) Her eyes got as big as saucers when she saw the 5 lb. bag of sugar. Of course, she immediately stuck her hand in the bag then licked her fingers. She had sugar all over her hand and mouth! Needless to say, I had a difficult time getting her to bed that evening! Anyway... Here's a couple of photos from our fun afternoon:
The ingredients
Pouring the sugar
That followed the, "Ewwww! Gross!!"
Using the electric mixer for the first time
Enjoying the first cookie
Peppermint and regular
Enjoying a peppermint one :-)
I've been having so much fun decorating our Christmas tree and our new home. It's been difficult finding places for everything because we don't seem to have quite as many surfaces as our last house, but I've definitely made some progress. Here's our beautiful kitchen:
Christmas is definitely in the air everywhere you go. I love going shopping and seeing all the beautiful displays and listening to the Christmas music. This time of year makes me insanely happy. I can't help but smile every time I look up at the sky and see snowflakes falling down. There's just so much I love about Christmas that it'd take you a year to read through it! So, for times sake I'll just say that my favorite thing about Christmas is the reason why we celebrate it. I am so thankful and grateful each and every day that Jesus was born and took the fall for my sins. I know that nothing in my life would be good (or bad) if it weren't for Him and His Father. This time of year always brings that very fact into perspective full force! :-)
Well, I'm off to knit and hopefully finish this project tonight! Until next time, much love, blessings, and have a very Merry Christmas!!
When I first starting blogging my goal was to blog once every week or once every other week. Then, when Kris started school, my goal was to blog everyday. Haha! Well, we have seen the fruits of that wishful thinking! I was doing pretty good with the bi-weekly updates until November. That was my really long way of saying, "Hey guys! Haven't talked to you in awhile!!" Now on to the more important things...
November was a fairly busy month, especially at the end, and a roller coaster ride of emotions. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving South Hamilton's kindergarten classes put on a little musical production. They sang like 5 or 6 songs and dressed up like Indians and Pilgrims. So adorable!! Kristi was a girl pilgrim and looked so cute:
My pilgrim and "her" Andy
Kristi did such a great job. I was very proud of her! I took a videos for each song because they were so cute! Here's a couple of them:
I'm a Little Turkey
The Turkey Pokey
If You're Thankful and You Know It
Thanksgiving was awesome! Kris spent Thanksgiving with her father this year so that was a bummer but we all went down to Andy's sister's. It was so much fun spending time, grubbing, and playing games. We had an amazing array of food: turkey, stuffing (in and out of the bird!), deviled eggs, homemade pumpkin rolls, mashed potatoes, and lots more. After prayer and much eating, everyone went into the living room to sleep off the tryptophan (yes, I realize that you'd have to eat a crap ton in order for it to actually make you sleepy)! After naps, we had dessert while the some of the boys played Wii with Sophie and the rest of us played Yahtzee and Apples to Apples (of which Ellie won). After that, we played a new game called Curses. This game was hilarious! At one point, I had to pretend my arms were only 2 inches long and my wrists had to touch my chest at all times. Let me just tell you how difficult it is to do things, i.e. get water, etc., with having your wrists touching your chest! Matt had to give himself bunny ears every time he wanted to speak. But the funniest one yet was Andy's. He had multiple curses so he had to swat at invisible mosquitoes while talking like Dracula. He did a really great impression (he totally should've been an actor!). It was even funnier when he got his challenge card and had to accept a Tony Award while doing both curses!
We spent the rest of the night hanging out talking and watching movies. All in all a really fantastic time. Andy and I spent the night and went Black Friday shopping with Ellie. We had a great time shopping with her and found some really awesome deals. I do have to say that I wasn't so impressed with the deals this year as in previous years but it was still fun. :-) I would usually have an array of pictures to share except that I forgot my camera (I know... I forgot my camera?!)!! Here's the few shots I got (and the few I copied from Shari):
The Dracula speaking, mosquito swatting, Tony Award winning Andy!
Uncle and niece!
The most fabulous homemade pumpkin roll...EVER!
Laughing so hard I was crying!
Hello bunny!
Sophie the Red-Nosed reindeer
Dessert... Now that's what I'm talking about!!
Now on to the emotional roller coaster... The week before Thanksgiving I found out some really awesome news and was very excited about it. That Saturday and the ensuing days that news quickly had a horrible turnout, which was confirmed that Tuesday. Needless to say, going from the high of excitement to the low of lows was not fun. It's still hard but I'm taking things one day at a time.
Everywhere I look I see beautiful Christmas decorations and nothing makes me happier!! This is my absolute favorite time of year but not for the same reasons as most. I love decorating, wrapping, and giving presents. Nothing warms my heart more than taking a drive through the neighborhood at night and seeing all the beautiful lights! I'm more excited about this year because it's the first Christmas in our new house together and Kristi will be here as well! Yay! A couple of days before Thanksgiving we decided to decorate our Christmas tree. We usually do it the day after Thanksgiving or that Saturday but since Kris was with her father for the holidays, we did it a little early. It was a lot of fun and much easier for Kristi to help this year. It only took us about 1 1/2 to get everything up, including restringing the lights (it has a whopping 700 lights!!). Unfortunately, Andy hurt his shoulder so he couldn't help but still chimed in :-) Here's a couple of the photos:
Birthday suit!
Most of the ornaments
700 lights later...
Adjusting our makeshift topper
Yes... we do this in our PJ's with Christmas music
All finished!
Since Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, I just had to get Kristi her own tree for her bedroom. We found a purple one super cheap at Big Lots that matches her room perfectly!
Silver balls and mini ornaments
All decorated
She was so excited to have a new "night-light" that's so pretty! Andy and I decided to start a tradition by purchasing a new ornament for our tree each year. We're going to do this for Kristi too so that whenever she moves out and has her own tree, she'll have a start with good memories. We went to Snavely's on Sunday afternoon with Andy's parents to look for ornaments. We found a bunch of ornaments and one in particular had the most meaning for Andy and I than any of the others we looked at:
Kristi's ornament
Our ornament
We even found mini ornaments for Kristi's tree that she loves:
Kristi's glass cupcakes
I got the outside of the house decorated completely and totally finished. We got the wreaths and swags up:
It took me close to 3 hours to get all the lights on the outside up and lit (part of that was leaving twice to get an extension cord and outside timer for them upon which I had to return the timer because it wasn't working right):
Saturday night we bundled up and braved the cold to go hang at Dutch Wonderland for their Winter Wonderland. Although it was really, really cold, it was absolutely beautiful!! We had a great time with the Echterling and future Mazzulla families! I didn't get many pictures because about 10 minutes in my camera batteries died and of course, I forgot to bring an extra pair!
Beautifully decorated entrance
She was so excited that she was an amber this year!
My mountain man love and I all bundled up
This was timed to music... So cool!!
The gang minus Megan, Andy, and I
Attempting to buckle herself in
And this is the point where my camera died. Ugh!! Anyway... we had a great time. About half way through we stopped at the cafe to grab a bite to eat. The food was a little pricey but really good!
Okay... so I think I've caught you up to speed. See, this is why I need to blog every week or at the very least bi-weekly because these updates get long if I don't. Until next time... Many blessings!!
