Decorating for Christmas

Well after a bit of Christmas tree drama and issues and about a week of placing items here and there I have to say I'm pretty pleased with our decorations this year. I am still working on a couple of craft projects that I hope to be done with tonight or tomorrow and we still have a box of outdoor lights and garland to put up but that will have to wait for a day it is not 40 degrees with snow/ice on the ground and blustery winds.

Gabrielle loves the decorations and has declared this as the best Christmas ever. Let's hope this feeling remains throughout the entire Christmas season. And fortunately Samantha is not afraid of the tree like she was last year. Instead I am back to the days of all ornaments and decorations lower than 3 feet high being removed and placed all throughout the house. *smile*

Here is a glimpse of our little Christmas touches throughout our home...

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

This is the second year we are doing our countdown paper chain. So far it is going well. I simplified the daily activities even more this year to make the season more relaxed and the days more enjoyable for us all. Samantha is not able to do some of the activities and needs help with many of them but she is definitely enjoying the mini candy cane she gets every other day with our snowman countdown.

From My Little Sunbeams

And here are our poor snowmen who are awaiting repairs. Samantha loves them and hugs them and kisses them but she is also a bit destructive and rips their noses, buttons and even arms off. Once they are all fixed we'll have to find higher spots to place them.

From My Little Sunbeams

Our first activity on our chain this year was writing our letters to Santa. This year we opted to mail the letters. I'm hoping to get a reply from Santa. I've heard of some people receiving a reply as long as a legible return address is on the envelope so we'll just have to wait a few days and see what happens.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

This Christmas

We are only one week into December (which I'm actually having a really difficult time believing) and already my to-do lists are getting out of hand. In hopes of actually enjoying this Christmas and not getting too caught up in all that must get done I decided to participate in the Peace on Earth December Challenge over at Women Living Well.

To be honest I did not light my candle everyday but each time I saw it, lit or not, I did stop to pray for some peace - peace of mind, peace in my house, and peace this season. I've remained busy but I think it has helped to at least pause once throughout the day and put everything into perspective and get my priorities straight.

And I have to admit I am really looking forward to this week's challenge. *smile*

Me & My Girls

It's the day after Thanksgiving and while plenty of people are out trying to catch some great deals and while other more unfortunate folks are back at work (my dear hubby being one of them) I'm enjoying a nice lazy day with my girls.

It is rainy outside. It's mid-morning and we're all still in our jammies. Just relaxing. Being lazy. Playing. And truly taking it easy for a change. No where to go. No where to be. Nothing in particular of importance to do.

We have some cookie dough in the fridge for cookies that didn't quite get made for Thanksgiving so we'll make some cookies after lunch.

And that's it for our day. That's all that is planned.

And I love it!! I wish we could have more days like this one!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had as nice a Thanksgiving as we did today. Other than my turkey being done about an hour and a half too soon (how does that happen anyway???) and being maybe a tad dry, we had a great day - a nice and relaxing day. In another half hour once my kids are sound asleep in their beds it will be an even nicer and more relaxing evening. *smile*

The holiday season has definitely begun! We have been super busy the past few weeks - hence the lack of blogging. Hopefully I'll manage to be a bit better about keeping up with the posts and pictures throughout the season but as I glance mentally at my calendar I know it will be tough. Lots going on!

I won't try to recap in detail all that we have been up to the past couple of weeks because for starters, most would probably find it rather boring! But here are some photos of some of the more interesting happenings in our household.

State Fair with friends...

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle was excited to start Lunch Bunch at school and use her new Dora lunchbox...

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle modeling her fashion designs after watching "Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale" movie...

From My Little Sunbeams

Samantha has been her usual silly (and often messy) self. I think there is a good possibility she will be a comedienne when she grows up - or at least a class clown in school...

From My Little Sunbeams

We carved probably our best pumpkins ever...

From My Little Sunbeams

Halloween and Trunk-or-Treat fun...

From My Little Sunbeams

Halloween party and Spooky Halloween birthday party...

From My Little Sunbeams

And most recently, enjoying some family time at our church Fall Festival in the birdhouse competition. We won the award for "A Country Retreat for Those with Extravagant Tastes".

From My Little Sunbeams

Now as I finish this blog post, the girls are all snuggled in their beds and I'm enjoying the quiet - aside from the background sounds of Ed playing his "Call of Duty" game. *smile*

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!