A Little Experimenting . . .

After letting PSE 4.o sit dormant for a week or so, with the exception of downloading some pics, I decided I really need to learn something about photo editing. More than just the basics I've been doing so far. I've got the b/w pic with a colored element nailed down. So I thought I'd try the all black and all white backgrounds. I played around and didn't do them as perfectly as if I were really trying. Doing some experimenting more than anything.

First attempt was to change this photo's background to an all black background:



It turned out fairly well, except I didn't notice the light spots at the bottom of the pic (gotta remember to scroll down!)



Then I decided to try and take this one from a pink background to a white one:



This one didn't go so well. I used the dodge tool and played with the hard edges and the soft edges. Her legs and arms just don't look right! The left side was done with the soft tool, and the right with the hard tool. Left definitely looks better, but i still need some practice on this one! And then there's that smudge on the right hand side. . . it looks like you've got it all, but just doesn't end up that way.

Guess I'll keep practicing!

On Being an Insomniac . . .

New meds . . .. upside, not as many migraines (YEA!). Downside. . . not as much sleep either. The past 5 weeks, I've been a whirlwind of nocturnal energy. Thus the 4:30 am wrapping spree one night. Lately, I've been using that time to clean . . .don't know what little cleaning monster got into me, but it was about time! I've spent 3 late, late, late nights going through kids' memorabilia, endless scrapbook magazines, Gymboree clothes that need to be ebayed, countless books and the like. Now if I can just get the Christmas tree down!

Talked to dr. and he's changing the dosaging. . . but who knows how long that will take to adjust my sleeping schedule! So next couple of nights, I'll be in the scrapbook room, working on some layouts that are percolating in my head, and perhaps start a Chatterbox entry.

Two Things I Hate About Christmas

Now that the Christmas season is over, I gotta admit. There's 2 things I hate about Christmas. The first one is putting Christmas away. Taking down the 4 trees, finding places for all the new toys (so they're not all over the floor), getting the house back into order. I've not made much headway on this, so far. I set the girls to work taking ornaments off the big tree, with the order that they were not to touch the china ones, the dept 56 ones, or the Christopher Radko. Like they know what any of these things are! And Ian took the ornaments off his tree. That's as far as we've gotten! We have had years that the kids' trees end up staying up until March because I just want to avoid that they need to be put away.

The second thing I hate about Christmas . . .the weight gain! All the yummy desserts, the baked goods, the potatoes. . . they all call to me! I was shocked when I got on the scales and discovered I'd LOST 7 lbs over the holiday season! Whooooohoooooo!

The kids are all back in school today. Before Alaina left, I took some shots of her with her favorite piggies in her hair. I wanted to try out the new 50mm fixed lens. Here are a couple shots:


Now I just have to figure out how to use the new PSE 4.o!

An Interesting Two Weeks

When the Christmas break began, I was so full of hopes and plans. We were all healthy after coming off over a week of the stomach flu. The kids' parties were finished, the wrapping was done . .. . the holiday baking completed early. We had 3 really good days there.

Then Christmas Day evening hit. We'd spent a majority of the day at my parents' house. . .eating (2 meals), unwrapping presents, laughing and playing. Andy hadn't felt so great that morning, but he seemed to be better as the day went on. By the time we got home, Alaina had a fever, and Andy basically tanked. {sigh} We never did really figure out what we all ended up passing around .. . the flu (of the non-stomach variety)? a cold? I'm not sure. But by the time we were to leave on Thursday morning for Arkansas, we'd taken 2 of the kids to the dr . . .one with a double ear infection, one with an ear infection and a sinus infection. I figured surely a day of antibiotic would help. With Ian, it seemed to . . .Alaina . . . no such luck. I think here, 6 days later. . . and 9 days after she started the whole she-bang, you can finally see a spark of that Alaina flair.

So, over the course of 2 weeks. . .we celebrated Christmas 4 times (once at home, once at my parents, again at home with Andy's parents, then in Arkansas), we watched 2005 slip into 2006 (I was in bed trying to go to sleep. . . fear of another migraine), and we earned an extra day of Christmas break. Yep, you heard me! I almost became one of those moms who got their kids ready for school and took them to drop them off, with nary a kid in sight! We didn't realize until yesterday evening that we didn't HAVE school today. Oops!

Then, last night, someone from down the street came and rang the doorbell, wanting to know if our neighbors were in town. They're still gone. . .and apparently someone broke in their van window and stole a bag inside. Poor thieves . . . they didn't snatch anything worth getting, and dumped it in a recycling bin, where it was found. Poor neighbors, they now have to have a window replaced. And it's kinda scary . . .knowing that someone was either (1) survailing houses, trying to find people who were out of town or (2) going from driveway to driveway peeking in all the vehicles looking for something to steal. The policeman that came felt it was more likely option 2. Kinda makes me feel "oogy" knowing someone is doing that.

I don't really make resolutions . . .they've never really been my bag. But here's hoping that (1) we all stay safe and (2) Christmas 2006 is more healthy than this past one!

It's Over. . .

First of all . . . Happy Birthday Erin!

I've been so busy the last couple of days, I haven't even had a chance to update. The 23rd, we spent just about the whole day baking. Yummy sweets, but may last us forever!


Fruitcake Cookies


Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins (got this recipe from another blogger).


Peanut Butter Cup Tarts (remember these from Alaina's Thanksgiving party?)


Ice Cream Kolaches

Took us forever just to get all the baking done! Happily, we had all the wrapping done by the 23rd.

We did Christmas Eve dinner at our house. My parents and my friend Erin came. Nice, cozy dinner for 8. The kids passed out their "gifts from the heart" .. . . a picture frame from Alaina, an ornament from Ian, and a prettily wrapped candy bar from Allie. I hadn't gotten a chance to take their Christmas pictures yet, so I did it quickly in the kitchen before we ate dinner. Here are a couple of the ones I've started playing with:





A while after dinner, the kids got ready for bed. Then we started the normal Christmas Eve bedtime routine. They put out the cookies for Santa and red bell peppers for the reindeer. And they each write a note to Santa. We don't do that ahead of time mailing thing. . . just the night before. So far, none of them have done a last minute change to what they want Santa to bring. Then upstairs to bed.

They had a great time this morning. . .don't have the pictures dumped onto the computer yet. I'm waiting to install PSE 4.0 that Andy got me. Everyone got what they wanted from Santa (Alaina wanted a toboggan for her Bitty Twins, Allison wanted the American Girl Horse Lovers outfit, and Ian wanted a Darth Vader Voice Changer!), and much more from us and each other. Alaina's biggest thrill was her new Gameboy. She's been begging for one, and it's really hard to make her wait out things like that, because the other two have them. We'll see how crazy I go when we drive to Arkansas! And the Darth Vader mask is going to have to stay home on that trip! Ian's played and played with it, but I'm tired of Darth's Heavy Smoker's Breathing! And Ian's thrilled with his new digital camera. I haven't looked to see the shots he took with it. Allie. . . she's so happy about getting tons of little animals to play with, and more American Girl stuff for her doll Kit.

Will get some pictures posted soon.

It's beginning to look like Christmas . . .

The kids are on their first day of Christmas break. They both had a great time at parties yesterday. I'm Allison's room mom, so I'm there for the whole party, trying to get everything done. So, I did what I usually do . . .I sent Andy to Ian's party with a camera. Ian's so thrilled to have Andy come to these things.

Everytime I do one of these things, I worry that there's not enough to do. And always, we rush through to get it all done. But the kids always seem to have a great time. Guessing it doesn't really matter what you do, as long as they're good and sugared up and it's different from the regular routine.

We were going to make a gingerbread tree 2 nights ago . . .the icing just never gelled right. So yesterday, we used leftover icing from the party and got the tree all done. The plan was to get a gingerbread house, but well . . .Mom waited too late! So I picked up an onsale tree set. And I think from now on that's what I'm going to buy every year! It was so much more easy to put it together than those houses!



The kids always want to get a "silly" picture. They're well trained from the group silly pictures that get taken at school! They decided we needed a picture of them getting ready to eat the tree.



Christmas lights picture of the day. This house annoyed me . . .I don't like the tree trunks wrapped and the branches left empty (man, I'm starting to sound Christmas lights picky, aren't I?). But then I noticed the centerpiece of the whole display, and it put a grin on my face!



How many people would think to light up the basketball goal??? Just so funny!

The awards are out . . .

So, apparently the judges (usually the fire dept, don't know if it was this year) have been out riding around and chosing their favorites displays. The Best Overall display was my neighbors with the train (This is typical! Not sure how many years they've gotten that award!). The Best Theme went to this house:







I guess the theme was Santa, Snowmen, and a dash of the Grinch? I didn't quite figure out what the theme was. "lots of stuff in yard"? Still thinking . . .

The other award was for the house with the most lights. Now, I know you think it's gotta be that syncronized one. But that house is actually in the next subdivision. I think these are the up and comers in the lighting arena. They've got the carpet of lights, just like that other house had when they began!



In other news . . .

Andy and I were with Alaina today. She informed me that she had the fancier jacket between the 2 of us. Andy was puzzled . . . well, mine doesn't have Rainbow Dash on it! tehehe Then Andy told her to remember that when she hit 17 and wanted a formal. He wasn't going to buy her one without Rainbow Dash on it. She told him that wouldn't do . . .she wanted Sunny Daze on it! That kid.

In the midst of working on Allison's class "holiday" party. Occurred to me tonight that I needed hats, gloves, scarves for a game they're planning . . .Mad dash to send the teacher an email to forward to parents. {sigh}

And we got the cards finished tonight. . .this has been a 2 month project. I was determined to get them out this year. Here's the stack that's going out in the am, be on the lookout!:



Wonder how long we'll be at the post office mailing those things off!

Hope you guys are having a great time, this last week before Christmas.

Whirlwind of Activity

First off . . .Allison's well . .. we're all well, for the moment.

We've been quite busy. Of course, Allison occupied all of Thursday. Then I worked on her class party on Friday. Can I just say thank goodness for xyron machines! The craft is one of those oriental trading foam crafts . . .and they just never stick with glue or the glue gets all runny. So I'm xyroning all the pieces and will be able to hand each kid a xyroned strip.

Then last night, Andy and I went Christmas shopping. Finished up the kids' gifts. We waited too long to get all the things I'd planned on getting. Hoping Alaina's not too irritated when she doesn't get the big giraffe she wanted. Thinking not, as she keeps saying she's getting a Gameboy, and we keep telling her she's not old enough. She's got one under the tree. . .tehehe. Also got a few gifts for some of the adults I needed to buy for.

We stayed up until after 4 this morning wrapping everything! EEK But I wanted to wrap them while we had the chance . . .ever since the year that I waited until Christmas Eve to wrap and we ended up spending most of the night in the ER with Ian and a broken leg. . . .I try to get them wrapped as we buy them.

Today's light display:


These pictures didn't turn out very well, because there wasn't a lot of lighting. Got a giggle out of these because, 1) there are so many inflatables and 2) they spilled out over their neighbors' yards. They had to outline their display so you could tell what all was theirs, as both neighbors have inflatables too. Anyone see a problem with any one house having THIRTEEN inflatables?

And another house, to make up for yesterday's lack of pictures:



{sigh} didn't realize how blurry this one came out. On first glance, I didn't like this house . . .don't know why, it just didn't hit a chord with me. Upon further glances though, I actually decided I liked it. . . the different colored lights, the way the bushes were covered. This wasn't a buch of net lights (which I'm not that fond of . . .they never cover all they should), these were those large bulb lights and they covered everything well.

Another One Bites the Dust . . .

I told Andy that today over the phone, and he thought I was saying the last hamster died (I WISH!). But I was actually talking about Allison . . . .I had to go pick her up at school after she got sick this am. That makes 4 of us since Sunday morning! And to make matters worse, I'm starting to feel a relapse coming on. {sigh} How am I supposed to get Christmas shopping done like this?

So, instead of this wonderful gushing post about how much of my Christmas list (well, the one in my head anyway. .. . haven't written anything down), here is a house that makes me giggle.



Looks pretty normal in the dark, right? See those glowing things in the weird trees (they put horrible looking skeletons in these trees for halloween). Take a closer look at this picture taken in the daytime.



The 2 circles to the right (How cool am I? I finally figured out how to draw circles!) Those are Santa heads in the trees. The circle to the left . . .another Santa trying to get in the window. And then here's the view you can't see at night . . .this is to the left of the breaking and entering Santa.



TWO more Santa. . .they gotta be more thieving Santas (see yesterday's post) . . . look how skinny they are! No way is that the real thing. You'd think people were trying to say something about the neighborhood . . .really we don't have many break-ins. I'm not sure what store you buy these at.

Okay .. . tomorrow, a house I really like. I promise.

Hoping Time Slows down

Well, another short lapse. The kids have been sick, and apparently I caught it! ARGH We've been trying to keep up with the advent calendar. . .have a couple of days to make up. {sigh} I was hoping this would help keep me in line! Let's not even talk about the lack of Christmas shopping around here. I'm afraid I will never be caught up!

Hope you guys enjoyed the links to the videos of those houses I shared on Monday. Here's another set of pictures for you to enjoy.



These people actually have some lights on the back side of their house too. I find that whole thing a little odd, as they just about backed up to a small cemetery that the subdivision north of us is built around. And a closeup of the door area:



Yep, that's one Santa in the window, with another one hanging down in front of the door. Makes you wonder if they're really Santas, or just thieves trying to break in! {vbg}

Today, we started our work on the "Gifts from the Heart" that we're planning on sharing on Christmas Eve (Erin, 2 things . . . 1-- will give you more info in the invite that will hopefully be going out Friday, and 2 -- stop reading here so you don't see Ian's gift!)

Ever since Ian took an ornament class several weeks ago, he's wanted to make more. So I bought supplies for him to make some fancy ornaments. I helped him a little, but he did the mod podging and painting by himself. And picked out who would get each one. Take a peek (once again . . .except you Erin!):

Festival of Lights . . .

So, Erin, the kids and I all went out for the yearly looking at lights. As I haven't shared any for the last several days, I'll give you a few as the highlights.

First of all . . . a house we didn't go by, but I find the description written about it very funny!



This is my small semi detached house, it took me five years to get this far, collecting for cancer and to cheer people up, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Karl Grizwald

tehehe . . .I just get a hoot out of the fact that this is a true Griswald house!

I'm going to share with you 3 houses this evening.

Erin and I decided these people gave up on the decorating early on. In fact, Erin described it as a blue monster who threw up all over the place.



Yep, those blue rope lights, haphazardly thrown all over the bushes, with a good amount of them on the ground.

The next house . . . well, it's the house that started this driving around looking at houses tradition with Erin and I. It keeps getting more elaborate every year.



According to their sign (which looks darn professional), they have approximately 50,000 lights, power draw is 118 amps at its peak, 4.1 MILES of total wiring, Only $45 extra for the month in electricity . . .and the expression on a child's face . . . priceless. They have an FM Transmitter, so when you drive by and watch it (well, park in the coldesac and watch it), you turn to 107.3 and listen to the music the lights flash to. Yep, you heard me! You get more info about the house when you listen there . . .such as it takes them 12 hours to program what the lights are going to do for a 4 minute song! The kids absolutely love this house and would've stayed there all night if I would've agreed to it!

Wanna see a video? Watch Feliz Navidad on your own . . .my picture doesn't do this house justice! I was rushing because there was quite the line forming behind us. They do say to come back for more footage later. You'll find the video here if you scroll down a bit.

Okay, so I've given you several hints about our neighbor's house. On nights we're out and about, we *have* to go by at least twice. Sometimes the kids ask for more times around the block. And if the night is nice (like Sunday night was), we'll walk down to see it. The kids absolutely love this set up. It's been fun to see what all they add to it each year.



Seems like the first year it was just the tracks, the train, and the garland around the yard? Not for sure on that. Once again, this one picture doesn't do the display justice. I have a whole series of pictures, but one again, it would be easiest to lead you to their website, where they have several videos you can view .. . including the toy factory in action, and close ups of the train . . .and probably a history in pictures from where it started until now. You can view all of that here. If you will go down the left hand sidebar, you'll see a link for video clips.

For those of you who asked how I did the CDs, I used a program called exPressit. I saved a desaturated picture first, then dropped it into a file in the program. Really quite simple if you spend 5-10 minutes figuring it all out.

Oh yeah, that Grizwald house at the beginning . . . .you can find it, and many others here. Enjoy!

Will Continue Soon . . .

I've been swamped since the 8th, which is why there haven't been any updates. This is one of the things I've been working on:


I've burned a total of 12 CDs full of pictures (2 copies of each one) . .. after organizing them. I still have a ton to do, but wanted to get as much as I could done last weekend.

Plus we had Mom's birthday, movie day on Saturday, headache for me on Sunday plus 2 kids have been sick! ARGH

Tonight, we're going out with my friend Erin to hunt down this year's best and brightest Christmas displays. I'll be back with pictures.

Rudolph has made his appearance

First of all, a little aside. Can someone please remind me why on earth I buy these scrapbook calendar things? I dug out the Designing with 2005 calendar today . . . .and it was on August 11! So flipping through the thing trying to get "caught up". What was I thinking when I bought DW 2006????? (oh yeah, I thought the store might be closing and I bought whatever I could with my $300+ credit. {sigh} now they're getting new stuff in). And then there's the Simple Scrapbooks 2005 calendar. I used it daily for about a month, then gave it up. Yet, I'm considering getting 2006 because this whole bigpicturescrapbooking thing with Donna Downey suggests it!

Okay, back to the holiday cheer. You know, back in the day . .. pre video/DVD, we only had that one chance a year to see our holiday favorites. Andy and I were talking about this with the kids a couple nights ago. That we'd look up in the TV Guide and find out what holiday special was on which nights. I remember wishing that they wouldn't show up on Wednesday night, as we'd be at church and miss them for that year. The kids were amazed by this fact (not sure why, since one of them thought I was alive during the Civil War! {snort})

So, this year, I decided 2 things. First, I was upgrading all those videos to new DVDs. And second, they didn't get to watch Rudolph until the special night on the advent calendar. Due to our lovely "winter mix"/sleet... . today became that day. They canceled church for tonight (man, I would've loved that as a child. . .if it came on a "special" night), so I postponed the Christmas book reading we were going to do tonight, and decided the time was right for Rudolph and popcorn. The kids were excited to finally be seeing it. And there are actually extras on this DVD. . . Destiny's Child singing Rudolph. Even their "claymation" (wasn't really clay, but kinda had that look) selves wore those short, short skirts! They also had that "Fame and Fortune" song that Rudolph and Hermey sing. I don't guess I ever realized that they replaced the Misfits song after 1 year with the Fame and Fortune song.

Then the kids loved seeing the original TV ad for it. It was neat to see. And Ian picked up on the fact that Christmas was celebrated on Sunday in 1964, just like it will be this year.

Hoping that Erin and I get to make our trek to see the lights tomorrow night. We'll have to see what the weather holds for us. Here is today's picture:


This picture reminds me of when I was growing up. One year, the next street over decided to do those poles with lights hanging down in all directions to make them look like a Christmas tree. There was someone Jewish on the street, and they did a star of David (don't even ask me how they accomplished that!). The whole thing is like a less elaborate version of the street in Christmas with the Kranks. tehehe

Christmas songs . . .. the band width is messed up on Santasearch.org, so I'm going to wait until it's back up to continue that.

Kids are hoping that it sleets enough that they can't go to school tomorrow. They don't get the ramifications of this . . . .losing a day at Easter. I'd much rather have the day in the spring, than a day to be stuck inside.

Singing your way through the holidays. . .

Well, no secret that I love Christmas music. There are so many good songs.

Today was "Christmas Karaoke" day at our house. We pulled the karaoke machine Allison got last year from my parents into the living room so we could sing by the tree. Each of the kids got to pick a song (we would've done more, but my parents got home from Austria today and we wanted to go see them!). Alaina picked O Christmas Tree . . .she's got some kind of fascination with that song this year. Allison picks the song she loves to sing, and no one else does . . . 12 days of Christmas, and Ian picked out Frosty. Follow that up with my 2 selections . . . .All I Want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth and Rudolph and we had a good little show going on.


I have to add this next picture, because it's SOOOOO Alaina!



Today's song . . . no santasearch happening today for some reason . . . so will just give you a song with an unknown artist (well, he's known, just not by me!). Every time I hear "Go Tell it on the Mountain" I think of childhood. . . and I associate it with my dad. Should check and see if that was a favorite of his, or he sang it a lot or what. Once again . . .version matters. It's the guy with the deep, rich voice. Love that version . . . old version. I think it was on one of Dad's Firestone records. From the 60's or so.

House picture of the day. I might be reissuing this one, if I can get a good picture of the item they're still missing from it.


Think you might be able to see that clear enough. That's a close up of the window over the front door. There's a chair up there. . . a chair that Santa gets put into and he's reading a list of all the kids on the coldisac. I'm not sure how they get it all up there. . .. the owner told me he had the same floor plan we did, and there's no way to get something that wide on our ledge. And, yep, that's four white lighted trees in their house.

So, DSL decided to give us a ton of trouble yesterday. Believe me, one in a long line of issues we had yesterday.

- I sent 2 boxes of books to 2 friends in different states. Send said boxes to the wrong people . . .so my OK friend got the PA friend's books and vice versa. {sigh}
- Ian tried to use the timer on the microwave yesterday afternoon. It wouldn't work. Andy flipped all the circuit switches in the house making sure that one hadn't blown. We ended up spending an hour at Sears deciding what we wanted to replace it with. Got home, Andy still thought the whole thing was fishy . . .checked the cabinet above the microwave. Lo and behold . . . the plug had been unplugged! ROFL . . . microwave order cancelled today. Good new is, we discovered it, not the delivery men!
- When the circuits got flipped, computer shut off. When we tried to log back onto the internet, it wouldn't work. Tried calling CS, as Andy was able to verify that the computer and wireless was working as it should. They were closed. He ended up spending I don't know how much time with them this am .. .before he discovered they'd changed what address you had to have somewhere on the Linksys log on. {double sigh}

Anyway, no dsl service last night, no ability to log on and get this done.

Advent activity for December 5th . . . visit Santa. I'd have to go back and look, but I *know* this is the 5th year we visited this particular Santa, because I remember taking baby Alaina there and hoping to get a shot of the 2 kids sitting on the floor, "shushing", and Santa laying across his huge chair and pretending to be asleep with a sleeping Alaina on his stomach/chest. I had a friend who did this picture and it turned out sooooo cute! No such luck. Alaina slept until about 15 minutes before our turn. {sigh} I'm pretty sure we visited him the year before Alaina was born too.

We love this guy . . . he has a real beard and moustache. He has real "Santa" hair. And he's so, so sweet to the kids. We ate across the aisle from him at Chili's last year, and all these kids came up to him, and he was still sweet to all of them. I told mine we were going to leave Santa alone so he could eat in peace. . .and he actually called them over to visit with him!

He doesn't look like your regular every day Santa . . .first year it was hard to get used to, but now we all talk about how he's "our" Santa. So . . . here are the kids with Our Santa!


Christmas decorations picture for today:



Yep, apparently these people love UT (University of Texas) so much they've put an inflatable Bevo (the mascot) in the front window. . .not on the the lawn . . .actually in their front room of the house. Guess they're worried about it getting stolen? Also, and hard to see here, they have that side of the house decorated, but on the other side of the sidewalk . . nary a light! ROFL

Another preview of my neighbor's display . . .I'd show you a straight out picture, but he's still finishing it all up. Talked to him, and he says he thinks it'll be finished on Saturday.



Music for the day. Well, it's a song that's not at santasearch.org. . .which apparently is okay, as none of the songs I tried to play there were working today. It's a song by a group called Acappella. I grew up on music from this group . . .starting back when it was just the founder and one other singer. They've been around for 23 years, and I think I've been listening for at least 21 of those years! This song is called "That's What I love about Christmas". . . lyrics here:

Hooking up the Christmas lights, last minute shopping spree
Putting decorations on the evergreen tree
Oh I can hardly wait, that's what I love about Christmas

Shaking packages, mistletoe above the door
Eating too much food and laying down on the floor
Lots of memories, that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 1:Everyone's sneaking a holiday sweet
No one wants to leave
Little kids acting like they're asleep
While they're trying to catch Santa on Christmas Eve

Mom is cooking dinner, presents underneath the tree
It's a Wonderful Life is showing on TV
Wouldn't change a thing 'cause that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 2:Stockings stuffed with gifts galore
Home is feeling warm
If you want a good cup of Christmas cheer
Watch a child's expression on Christmas morn

Look at all the Christmas cards, kids playing in the hall
Dad's in the easy chair watching football
Yes it's finally here, that's what I love about Christmas

It took it's time getting here, that's what I love about Christmas
Hope you feel it, that's why I wish you a Merry Christmas

Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux

********Edited to add photos throughout entry. Blogspot finally let me!

Today's music selection: "Do they Know it's Christmastime" sung by a conglomeration of artists known as Bandaid. I remember this release so well. It was winter of my 8th grade year. . . my friends that year were a bit on the "Flock of Seagulls" side. We listened to the Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Howard Johnson, David Bowie. I was like the preppy dresser among them, although I do remember a certain neon sweatshirt I wore with a belt that wrapped around my waist twice! Anyway, we are were wild about the song, especially as it came from Great Britain.

So, today's advent activity was an easy one . . . hang stockings. Well, we knew we had a Christmas party at church tonight, but I didn't want to put that on a circle, as I never know if we'll go on a particular year. There must've been 12 million people there! Okay, that's a stretch . . .but quite a few. Hundreds! Pizza and Santa showed up .. . and there was a cake walk. My kids came home with one of the batches of brownies we made, some gumdrop cupcakes, and some of those little mice made out of chocolate covered cherries and hershey kisses. The kids sat on Santa's lap and asked for what they'd told us they wanted . . .thank goodness!




I just love the look on Alaina's face. She was so excited to hang up her stocking.

As I promised, here's Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux. These people live to the left of the house from yesterday .. .Notice the lights in every window. . . and the fact that only ONE half of their yard is lit up . .. I guess because they don't want to draw attention to the next door neighbor's house??