Happy Holidays!

Warmest wishes to all my blog and art friends. I hope your life and your heart is filled with love and joy now and in the New Year.

Winter has arrived

Monday morning update:

I have never seen this much snow in the Pacific Northwest. I guess this is only appropriate for the first day of winter.  I’m holding everyone who dreamt of a white Christmas personally responsible!

Update: I took the first picture this morning. The second one was taken about 5:00 PM. This snow is crazy! When will it end? We need to get back to normal!

Check out this cool post from my friend, Marci.

Fun finds for you

Here are some of the items for sale at my Etsy store.

If you need a little stocking stuffer for that hard to buy for creative person, one or more of these items would be a thoughtful gift. Or if you want a something for yourself, these little goodies are the perfect for a little guilt-free shopping therapy.

Radio Escutcheon	German Doll	Radio Escutcheon
German Doll Face	Pocket Watch Case	Brown Leather Coin Purse
Vintage Watch	Silver Shaker	Frozen Charlotte Dolls
Victorian Doll Legs	Perfume Bottle	Tin Ice Cream Spoons

Charity auction and Christmas swap

The Charmsters, a charm swapping group that I belong to is holding a charity auction on eBay. The auction is for a beautiful hand crafted charm necklace. This necklace features 15 soldered, Christmas-themed charms. Each beautiful charm has been created by a member of the group. We collaborated to make a very special work of art which can be yours just in time for Christmas. You can leave the charms on the necklace as shown or remove them to be worn individually. This would be a perfect gift for someone special. All you have to do is go out and bid on the item.

One hundred percent of the sale of this special item will benefit A Place to Bark. This non-profit is a no kill foster and adoption rescue dedicated to the welfare of animals and was founded in 2001 by artist Bernie Berlin.

Please help us support Bernie’s efforts by bidding!

Here are thumbnails of the charms from the swap.

Here is a charm on the necklace but not in the swap.

Merry Christmas

Well, last night was the big Christmas Eve event… I think I forgot to mention that my nephew (the same one who has been causing issues about my daughter) insisted that we hold it at my parents’ so we didn’t have it here. Well, everyone was a little upset that he was still creating family stress up until about 6:00 PM last night. Not sure what changed his mind but they ended up making an appearance. My daughter was on her best behavior; she acted appropriately, was dressed conservatively, and acted maturely. There was minimal drama (thank God) and the kids had a great time unwrapping their gifts. We had lots of special goodies. I opened a jar of Harry & David pepper jelly and dumped it over cream cheese for spreading on crackers. Steve made a great cream of chicken soup. My sister brought her famous cookies.

I think everyone ate way too much. All in all, it was a nice evening. Today we are going back to my mom & dad’s for an extended family dinner of prime rib, baked potatoes, and all the accompanying dishes that go along with such a special meal. This is the day all my cousins and aunts and uncles on my dad’s side of the family get together. A couple of my mom’s family members usually make an appearance as well but that side of the family is so huge (there were 21 kids!) that we don’t share holidays together.

Gotta run… it’s time to get ready to leave for the big family dinner.  I just looked outside and it’s snowing!  A very rare occurrence for us here in the Portland area.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas full of warmth and love.

Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of my Christmas tree. It looks much better in real life.

Note: After it got dark, I realized there is a whole string of lights not working… which explains why the picture looks like there’s a large bald area across the middle. Dang… I’m not sure how to fix that.

Christmas Survey

Before Christmas
1. Does your family send out Christmas cards?: not this year
2. How soon do you start shopping?: November
3. Who do you shop for?: Steve, Amber, the dogs, and my family

Decorations
4. Do you put up a Christmas tree?: yes
5. If so, is it fake or real?: fake
6. Do you like tinsel?: no, I don’t think it’s dog-safe
7. Do you use homeade or storebought ornaments?: both
8. Do you put Christmas lights outside your house?: no
9. Do you put lights on the tree?: yes
10. How about popcorn and cranberries?: no… it’s hard enough to keep the nosey dogs away from the tree… if there was actually FOOD on it, it’d be impossible!
11. Is there a wreath hanging on your doo?: no

Christmas Eve
12. Do you celebrate it?: yes, it’s the best part
13. Do you hang up your stocking?: yes
14. Does your family read “Twas the night before Christmas?”: no

Favorite
15. Christmas Movie: Elf
16. Character from any Christmas Movie: Buddy
17. Christmas Song: Carol of the Bells
18. Christmas Memory: midnight mass when I was growing up

This or That
19. Give or Receive?: give
20. Eggnog or Cider?: cider
21. Red or Green?: red
22. Ham or Turkey?: prime rib
23. Star or Angel?: star
24. White Lights or Colored Lights?: white
25. Blinking Lights or Still Lights:
26. Were you Naughty or Nice this year?: nice, of course 😉

Presents
27. What do you want for Christmas this year?: a new vacuum cleaner, sad but true
28. When do you open your gifts?: Christmas Eve – love sleeping in on Christmas morning
29. What’s the best gift you’ve ever gotten?: Steve got me LuLu perfume last year – made me feel 20 again
30. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever gotten?: ummm… a denim poncho with red peppers painted on it
31. Who gives you the most gifts?: Steve spoils me all year long
32. Have you ever had a secret Santa?: no
33. Do you like wrapping gifts?: yes

Random
34. Do you put change in those red buckets?: no, I donate to other causes
35. Do you burn a yule log?: no, we have a gas fireplace
36. Can you name all the reindeer?: yes: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, and of course, Rudolph
37. Do you bake cookies?: no, I can’t compete with my sister’s masterpieces
38. Have you ever seen your mommy kissing Santa Claus?: no
39. Have you ever gotten a kiss under the mistletoe?: no
40. Do you go caroling?: no
41. Do you drive around and look at the Christmas lights?: yes
42. Have you ever left Santa cookies?: yes
43. Have you ever sat on Santa’s lap?: yes
44. Who do you celebrate Christmas with?: my family
45. Where do you celebrate Christmas?: this year at my parents’ home, last year we were in Tucson
46. Have you ever had a white Christmas?: yes, but thankfully, it’s rare these days
47. What part of Christmas do you look most foward to?: the kids’ excitement
48. Have you ever had your picture taken with Santa?: the only picture I have of me with Santa is at age 19
49. Does your family always take a picture at Christmas?: no, but we should
50. Have you ever heard the song “Thank God For Kids” by The Oakridge Boys?: um, no… not a big country music fan

Christmas List

I think I’m about done with my Christmas shopping.  We drew names but I wanted to get everyone something so I bought for the whole family.  That includes my parents, my sister and her family of five, my brother and his family of four, my newphew and his family of four, my niece, my daughter, and Steve.  Oh, and Steve’s mom & step-dad (who always give the oddest gifts!).  My daughter is definitely the easiest to buy for and it’s easy to get carried away.  Steve is also pretty easy but his tastes are a little high-end so he’s only getting a couple things this year.  My dad is the hardest to buy for.  He used to be easy before he became diabetic.  The treats we used to get for him are off-limits. 

I have a couple last-minute things to do and I’ll be ready to relax.  I usually make the cards I send out but have been a little slow getting that started.  I bought a box of cards at Barnes & Noble this afternoon so I may resort to sending those out if I run out of time.  Also, would like to get the dogs some treats and toys.  Chloe especially loves peppermint and cinnamon flavored treats.  The other dogs will eat just about anything if you call it a cookie.

I don’t do much baking.  I can’t compete with my sister anyway.  Her cookie trays are works of art.  I’ll have to take a picture if I can snap one before the beauty is disturbed by all the hungry grubbers.

Tonight I’m heading over to my brother & sister-in-law’s to babysit.  Hope I can keep up with the kids.  My niece is five,  my nephew just turned one, and I’m trying to recover from an awful bout of the flu.

How is everyone else doing about getting your holiday shopping done? 

Who’s the hardest person on your list? 

Who’s the easiest?

Store-bought or home-made?

Any secrets for creating more hours in the day?!

Christmas Eve

 

Not sure what I was thinking but I called my mom last night and offered to host Christmas Eve at my house! Yikes… I haven’t started decorating yet let alone done any shopping! I don’t even know if I have enough ornaments for the new tree I got on clearance last year–gosh, where am I going to put that thing? I better get the carpets cleaned and start my usual month-long-before-party-cleaning-frenzy (yeah, I’m a little neurotic). I am not sure what to serve but I know Steve is going to fight me for cooking duties. He’s a good cook but, hey, so am I! I always serve buffet style since my house isn’t big enough for a sit down meal. Besides we’re pretty casual around here. I have some great appetizer recipes up my sleeve but I’d like to serve something different and special; something decadent and impressive. I’m going to have to scour my fav recipe sites and pull out my not-often-used cookbooks.

What does your family do on Christmas Eve? What is your favorite special event food? Any recipe websites you LOVE? All suggestions are most welcome and very much appreciated!

Elf

Every time I watch my favorite Christmas movie, Elf, I laugh so hard. I laugh at things no one else finds funny. There are only a couple movies like that for me (one of the others is Wedding Singer). I was really excited to see that Elf was on last night. I watched it with the dogs. Every once in a while, they would look at me, wondering what the joke was. They never really pay much attention to the television unless a dog barks or a doorbell rings. If you haven’t seen the movie, I would highly recommend it.

What is your favorite holiday movie?