Christmas Wrap-Up 2012 (pictures only)

Love

I have been MIA.  My Grandma Alice passed away in the evening on December 27th.  She was 85.  She passed away peacefully.  She was loved very much by all of us.  It's been a heavy week or so.  Busy with the holidays and then grieving for Grandma.  Getting back to normal is the hardest part.  Like I should be doing something else to honor her.  But, she knows we do and we love and miss her.  My cousin Tracie reminisced of Grandma during the funeral service.  I read her favorite bible passage, Psalm 23.  We both held it together, tough, just like Grandma Alice.  I will cherish the memories of all of the fun times we shared.  I will miss her smile, her hugs and her wise words and advice which she was always there to offer.  Our family talked often the past few days about her favorite saying: "It doesn't take much to trim a rose" She said it often and it makes me happy cry (you know what I mean - and if you were at our wedding, I did it there too) to think of her saying it with her little grin.  She was an amazing woman. And because these pictures make me smile...

See, she was already offering advice early on to Ms. Ella (and Mr. Frog)

I haven't posted about our holiday happenings yet.
I want to, to preserve those memories for me.

I just need a little time.  

To a prosperous, happy and healthy 2013

Thank goodness!

Thank goodness the Mayans were wrong and yesterday wasn't the end of the world!  I may have stayed up just in case (I really did!) But, sort of unintentionally.  See, my FAVORITE little baker, Ms. Marjorie Johnson from right here in MN was on Leno again last night.  I ADORE her so much.  So, I stayed up to catch her bit and then just kept watching and soon enough the clock ticked midnight, I held my breath, and the clock ticked on.  Whew!  Because if the world had ended last night, I would have done a lot of baking for naught!  Last night:  Fruitcake cookies & those yummy Turtle cookies I previously mentioned.  I didn't grab a pic, but when I get a pretty platter all together I will share (a picture) with you.  :)  

 We're getting ready! And our silly Smurf Elf is anxious to get on the road too!

The Hustle

I started this holiday season in decent shape, buying gifts as I saw them, making lists and getting ideas for treats to bake.  And now we're T minus 2 days until we leave for the holiday excursions and I have lots to do!  I'll be hustling and bustling that is for sure.  Our Christmas cards went out, so that's good news.  We had a good time making them this year!  And for the first time ever we got the best shot on the first try!  Typically, it takes us a good hour or more and dozens of pictures to get one!  Hurray for something that was easy!

Smurf Elf (our Elf on the Shelf) has been keeping Ella on her toes, but we keep faltering at bed time.  As I'm typing, she's upstairs walking around, back and forth talking to her stuffed animals, just about anything she can do to skip going to sleep.  So....she's been testing our patience that's for sure!  But Smurf Elf has been a lot of fun and I'm planning a post with all of the silly things Smurf Elf did this year.

Baking this year?  I've been fitting in as many cookies as possible!  This past weekend it was cutout sugar cookies and gingerbread men (first time ever I've made these!)  It was fun to decorate, and Ella joined in too.  Those are packed and in the freezer.  There was a red velvet cake based cookie with peppermint and candy canes that I made earlier this week.  AMAZING!  I had to get those in the freezer quick or they'd be gone by now.  Next up are some new recipes from Barefoot Contessa and a Pinterest find (Turtle cookies! - Say WHAT?!)  If only I could bake all day long....

Ella finally got to visit with Santa last week at the Best Buy family holiday party!  I wasn't there but she had a great time and keeps talking about it.  :)  They have live reindeer, which she really liked.  And, here's a great shot of her with the Big Man himself.

For fun, here's last year's picture!

 

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Let It Snow (A LOT!)

well, it's happened again.  The forecast was perfectly and totally WRONG!  Last night, the word on the newscasts was 3-5 inches of snow for the southern metro counties, more to the north and tapering off by noon Sunday.  Woke up to maybe 2 inches and it was snowing.  Went to church, had the Sunday School Christmas program, left church, still snowing.  Catch a weather report.  Oh, the heaviest band of snow is now across the Twin Cities.  Expect 10-15 inches of snow.  Will snow all day.  9:21 p.m. Sunday night.  Still snowing!!  So it goes in this lovely land of 10,000 lakes. 

A few pictures from Ella's first Sunday School Christmas Program.  Love her outfit.  She looked so precious up front with all the kids.  They did a great job. 

Ready and waiting to use that kazoo!  They sang Joy to the World singing the first verse and then using kazoos in the next verse.  It was so cute!  And Ella sang her heart out!

 

 

We did make the most of this snowfall today!  This really was kind of Ella's official first romp in the snow.  Last year's measily snow falls and frigid temps didn't allow for any fun in the snow.  So, what a fun time we had!  We built our first snowman of the season.  Technically it's a girl.  Ella has named her Ella Snowman.  She's so silly.

 Ella's face in this picture is hilarious!  She's like - what is Daddy doing?!?!

 

And the best part after playing in the snow - hot chocolate with marshmellows - even better in a reindeer mug.  :)

Weekending into December!

Happy December!  We had a busy weekend to kick off the Christmas season!  Lots of fun (and not so fun) memories!  The not-so-fun?  My Escape had to go to the shop for a few repairs that I've been trying to avoid - but then last week when I started my car after arriving back to transit station and it stalled out, and then when restarted, was chugging and violently shaking, I decided I should probably get it figured out.  Talk about an embarrassing drive home that night!  But, it appears to have been corrected to the tune of a lot of money that is now not available for Christmas presents!  So it goes.  I'm relieved it's running better now and I will totally cry the day I have to rid myself of this Escape (which Jay keeps bugging me to do!)

Anyway, on to the fun stuff!

New wreath I made for the front door:

I'm loving it!  And the best part?  I got all the supplies from the Dollar store!!  It can stay up through January and maybe even February.  Sweet!

Our Elf on the Shelf "Smurf Elf" arrived on Saturday morning, bringing a little gift for Ms. Ella.  She was super excited, so cute!

It was Home Depot project Saturday, so Ella made a holiday picture frame - and impressed us even using the screwdriver this time!

I spent a little time working on this scarf for Sunday school teacher gifts:

And, these gifts for preschool teachers:

Where would I come up with this stuff if Pinterest wasn't around?!?!  The snowmen are Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark bars, and I found a printable label for the hand sanitizer via Pinterest that I could personalize to add the teacher name!

Saturday night was Dazzle Days in downtown Farmington, so we headed out to enjoy the horse driven carriage rides and tree lighting ceremony.  Note, pictures are not that great because I forgot the real camera!

Standing in line for the carriage ride and a train was going by!

I love this family picture even though it's super low resolution, etc.!

Smurf Elf showed up Sunday morning reading Ella's new favorite Curious George book, which she thought was "so silly!"

And last night Ella sweetly gave Smurf Elf a skirt to wear (and put on at the North Pole, of course!)

Here's Smurf Elf today - "working" which is what Ella says when she's playing on this little laptop!

I think that about sums it up!  Jay has been working on a little homemade sled using recycled wood and I can't wait to finish it so I can share!