Merry & Bright

Oh what a wonderful holiday, I hope everyone enjoyed time with their loved ones! On Christmas Eve Celeste was celebrating at her dad's. I went to my Grandma Miriam's and enjoyed some homemade manacotti... it was just like I remembered from when I was a kid, Grandma would come and visit from California nearly every year around Christmas, and she would spend all day making her delicious homemade italian marinara sauce.
On Christmas day Celeste couldn't sleep (just like a kid!) and was up at around 3:30 a.m., asking if Santa had come yet. I told her yes, so she rushed out to see what Santa brought her. She opened her presents, saw her bike, exclaiming "Santa brought me the bike from  mom's office!" She had accidently discovered it a month prior, we hoped she'd forget, but I guess not! She went back to bed after that, and opened the rest of the presents when we all woke back up at 8.
She is very happy with all her gifts, planning when she will wear certain outfits, alternating playing with all of her new toys, trying to sneak bike rides in the living room. Unfortunately there is still too much iced over snow to take her to the park :(
Well, my dinner is almost done, so I better get to it, I will try to post some pics later-XO

Yule Tradition

So I tried to start a new tradition of having a Yule fire on the winter solstice. Also, to write down our wishes for the coming year on a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. So, I asked Celeste what she wished for in the coming year, "A Fairy" I said are you sure? It can be anything? "A fairy" After we threw our papers into the fire, Celeste sat there with a glum look on her face. what's wrong, I asked. "I'm never gonna grow wings!" she says. Too cute! All I could do was laugh..- XO

My 5 Favorite Things from 2009

As we draw near to the end of our year, it's fun to take a look back at what we've accomplished, and what we've loved about our lives this past year. So, without further adieu, here are my five favorites from 2009!

5. Celeste's ballet class:


4.Taking Celeste to the beach for the first time:


3. Celeste's first day of kindergarten:


2. Our vacation to California to visit everybody and take Celeste to Disneyland for the first time:




1. While most people wouldn't pick moving to be at the top of their list of the things they loved for the past year, it is definetly mine! Buying my first home was scary, was depressing at times, and is the best thing I've done this year! I have a home of my own for my daughter to grow up in, at a price I can afford. It is something I never thought I would be able to do with how exspensive homes were just a couple of years ago.

Busy Bee...

Been so busy lately I have been forgetting to write! Celeste had pajama day at school yesterday, she was adorable. And today i am just getting ready to go up to my mom's and bring her Christmas presents and some super cookies Celeste and I made.

-XO

Snowman Family

It snowed all night last night, and today, and now it's still snowing! Here is a pic of the snowman family I made:


Celeste is at her Dad's this weekend. I'm bummed she couldn't build the snowman family with me. She wanted to make one sooo bad this past week, but the snow didn't stick right. Hopefully she gets to make one at her Dad's!-XO

It's Sooo Cold

It has been below zero every day since the snow, ack! Today I wore my yoga pants under my jeans along with my snow boots and two shirts! Celeste and Leo know how to spend a cold winter night:

And one of our icicles:

-XO

And We Have Snow...!

It started snowing early yesterday afternoon. I was out at my Mom's at around 3:00 when it started to stick, so I started my journey home. Mom lives about 40 miles from town, through some mountains along the river, and the snow was really sticking up there. It was slow, and towards the end there was a five car pile up. When I woke up at 4:00 am I contemplated going in late, but I decided there would be less idiots on the road than later. I was right, coming home was far worse. I bought cables at the store, but the road condition was worse since it had been compacted to a slick coating on the street. Tomorrow should be reall fun, since it will all be ice! Celeste had her first snow day, school was closed!

Super Scrapbook Contest

Just wanted to take a moment to share this awesome contest from The Original Scrapbox





You can win this:










Also, check out this desk, how awesome is that? A crafty organizers dream...




. Click here to see more pictures and details of the EZ View Desktop.
Below is the EZ View Craft Desk. This desk is designed with a clear, glass-like top and the dimensions are 50"W x 25" D x 31" H
The desk is big, with 4 drawers with built-in partitions for easy organizing on any home project.


For more details about the contest see this blog:
http://stephaniehowell.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Gingerbread House

We made our gingerbread house last night. It is a lot of fun and has become an annual tradition for us. Celeste mostly cares about when she will get to lick the frosting spoon. I am constantly catching her run her fingers through the icing!

And here is my layout for this week's sketch at 52sketches52weeks.ning.com

-XO

A Lot of Fun

Well, we' ve had a lot of fun decorating over the past three days, here are some pics:

I am finally done with all my Christmas shopping, and I am fairly confident I have enough left in my budget to ship my out of state family's gifts. Celeste is working on a giant poinsettia to decorate for her homework this week, she is pretty happy to be back at school with her friends she missed over the November break. I have finally run out of Thanksgiving left overs... glad they lasted so long though, really helped to not have to go grocery shopping until today. I've been kind of lazy since then though, just playing on the computer :) --XO