{insta-friday....12/23}

it is two days until christmas. i'm sad that it's almost over already. yesterday was a good day. my mom and sisters came over for dinner and presents. lisa made a delicious ham dinner. it was yummmmmm! we exchanged gifts and hung out.

it snowed on 12/18...first snow of the year....

i loved this shot of the carts at work....

i hardly ever paint my fingernails. i'm a toenails kind of girl. this week i painted them...twice....

this is my rudolph thumb print....

i made some ornaments with the kids this week. soooooooooooooo cute. i got the idea from my dear friend jude.

love the iphone sunflare!

i got a new target dog for my office. he is number 43. he is cuttttttttttttttttte. :)

izz got her bangs trimmed. she looks so big now!

on tuesday night lisa and i got home and the house smelled like gas. weird because we don't have gas anything. they were doing work on the street earlier so we suspected that maybe there was a gas leak outside. we called the fire department and they came over with the meters and checked the place out. it was fine. just a bit stinky.

on flickr this week, you can make it snow.

then today i noticed that there were lights too. if you run your mouse across them, they pop!

ian had a lot of fun popping them!

and then we made it snow on me....

the kids got a new nightlight from auntie jess and fam last night. they love it.

my love by the light of the tree last night.

and one of me without snow. :) i hope you all have a great holiday! i can't wait to see everyone's christmas day photos next friday.

{christmas}

today is december 19th which means christmas is in 6 days.  math.  blech.  at least i did it for ya.  ;)  if you don't know me then you have no idea that christmas is MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!!!!!!!!  seriously.  christmas is a month long event for me.  christmas music stays on my ipod all year long.  {although i get sick of it around february}

this year has been a great christmas month so far.  lisa and i got all the kids shopping done early.  like before black friday early.  so that stress is non existent.  now i'm having stress filled fun baking and making gifts for everyone. 

every year i bake cookies for co-workers.  i typically do a blackberry jam sugar cookie, a cranberry oatmeal and a coconut delight.  this year i'm going easier.  i'm doing snowflakes in chocolate, spice and lemon.  they are so easy and so so yummy!  i've shared the recipe before but i'll try to get some pics and share a real recipe soon.  i also made fudge this year.  i've only made fudge once before and it was super yummy.  this year i'm making two batches.  i decided to get creative and mix in some minty andes candies in one of them.  i'm not a fan.  i will be snacking off of the plain batch.  ;)

i seriously NEED to go to disney at christmas time.  it would combine two of my all time favorite things.  someday.  someday.  until then, a very talented disney photographer has put together this time lapse video.  it's as if you're there.  almost....

my favorite part of christmas which i don't do nearly often enough is helping others.  a few years ago one of my co-workers didn't have a christmas tree.  she just couldn't afford one.  i lugged my small children around until i found one {it was really close to christmas} and i bought it for her.  then i delivered it to her house.  i can imagine what it did for her because i know what it did for me.  it filled me with such a feeling of happiness and warmth.  this year lisa and i "adopted" a child of sorts.  someone i know was having a hard time {like so many of us} and was worried about gifts for her small child.  lisa and i went shopping.  we didn't get much but i know what we got will be greatly appreciated.  it just makes me happy. 

as christmas nears i fear the day my tree will go away.  the one thing i haven't really done this year is sit and enjoy our christmas tree.  you know the coffee-in-hand-feet-up-kind-of-just-staring-at-it-enjoying.  this will be done this week.  or else.  or else what you say?  or else my tree will stay up until next year and my kids will be singing this song.....

until next time.  go do something for yourself.  go do something for someone else.  just go do something to celebrate this holiday season.  :)