Making Up For Lost Time

This has been a roller coaster ride of a Christmas holiday. We have been dealing with some major health issues in our family but trying our darndest to keep up as many of the traditions as we possibly could! My pictures are pretty random but I still want to document this year-such as we are. Please forgive me if I jump around...this post is mostly to document our holiday for our family but you are more than welcome to come along for the ride!

We managed to squeeze in our traditional Nutcracker weekend. Even though we missed Papa, Aunt Jennie was a fun substitute!

These two always  wonder why the Nutcracker has such weird teeth!

Since the girls didn't want to do all of our usual traditions without Papa, we went to another restaurant this years and everyone loved it.

Then the girls voted for going home and having a Christmas movie marathon.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas eve and we were off to the children's' candlelight service. It is always beautiful and the addition of the children to the program is just something to behold.

And then, the day we have all been waiting for!

We might all be a little worse for the wear this year, but we were all here...and that is what mattered in the end!

We did some present opening with the Hutchisons and then were off for appetizers and a visit with the Hollands before everyone ended up back at our house again.

This is a special gift from Morgan. Since we have always given each of our grand children an  ornament depicting something special in their life from the previous year, Morgan wanted to do a "turn-around" and give us one. We have been watching all of the Gilmore Girls shows once again building up to the new short series so she gave us a Star's Hollow ornament commemorating all of those hours in front of the TV. The funny thing is that Papa and I had chosen a Gilmore Girls ornament for both Morgan and Olivia this year as they have been pretty obsessed...great minds must think alike. lol

Another of our favorite traditions. These two have had a Santa picture made for us every year since they were born! Can't believe they're still doing it to make their old Nana and Papa happy!

Santa brought Presley a manicure station so we all had to get a festive manicure before the day was over!

My manicure included many happy faces as well as a flower and a dolphin...see if you can tell which is which...lol

And, as if that wasn't enough, two days later we got to celebrate our 51st anniversary. It was nice that so much of the family was still around and got to help in the celebrating!

The next day we were off to Gainesville for another celebration that included Papa's favorite meal-homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and fresh asparagus!

We are finally home and settling in to what will be our new normal. We are taking things slowly and finding new routines and traditions. And so goes life! I am getting antsy to take down Christmas but trying to hold off until my usual Jan. 1...we shall see how that works. Then, I am on to Valentine's Day! Stay tuned.

Spoiler Alert!

Now that our four oldest grand children are getting older, it is getting harder and harder to shop for them to get them something they will really love unless a "little birdie" tells us specifically what might be on their lists. Gone are the days of four matching outfits from Gymboree or Limited Too plus all of the lovely accessories that they so generously provided to go with each outfit and which were an absolute must to be the fashionistas that we thought they were. Immediately the "French poodle" collection comes quickly to mind-all the way down to the poodle purse-so cute.  Boy did they look cute!!

But, alas, these days they all have such different looks and tastes. So, I usually find a few things that are "givens" (one being their yearly ornament that I try to find to celebrate a magic moment of their past year) that they can open and their big gift ends up being cash-I figure you can never go wrong with cash. I don't even do gift cards for them any more because I don't want them having to be limited to one store.

But, that being said, I always like to find a cute way to present this gift and for the last few years, it has been with a gift of EOS Lip Balm and a card printed from a download.

I am always on the prowl for these lip balms to go on sale. If I find them at Kohls and then get an additional 30% off, they are "almost" paying me to buy them. I get them in all sorts of colors for all sorts of holidays!

This year I found this cute download from "The Idea Room". So cute. So simple...and, I can finally cross one thing off of my list!

Stay tuned.

Ho Ho Ho

Christmas is fast approaching and I still have so much left to do so I thought I would quickly show you a bit more of our decor and then get myself busy!

Let's start in the family room. Not much needs to be said-I think it's all pretty much self explanatory.

I love that I now have a lot of the "flickering" programmed candles in many of our rooms. They all come on at about the same time and really do look so real. My goal is to keep my eyes open for good sales and replace a lot more of our traditional candles. I am a "candle person" but sometimes worry that I won't remember to get them all blown out some night when I'm tired and not thinking clearly so these truly are the next best thing.

So, so many memories on this wreath. There are ornaments from my childhood, ornaments made to commemorate special occasions, ornaments that were gifts from special people, etc. My sister-in-law and I first saw a similar wreath many years ago in our favorite, local country store. It was pretty expensive and the store bought variety would not evoke anywhere near as many memories as our own treasures so we set out to each make our own the day after Thanksgiving. We even got my mom working on one for herself-I now have that wreath as well and you will see it soon hanging in the sunroom by the table where we can usually be found eating, crafting, playing games, etc.

I'm loving this vignette more and more-simply take out the last arrangement and pop in something appropriate for the current season or holiday-a true no-brainer-just what I need!

I still love these pillow covers. I found them "cheap" at Kohls a few years ago and they reminded me of the water color pillows I had gotten from PB-which were not cheap. I love a good knock-off!

I am absolutely addicted to this soap. The smell is intoxicating but I am more drawn to the beautiful seasonal wrappings. In my Barnes and Nobles, they are up near the registers and you have to pass them to pay. They change with each season/holiday and I can almost never get out of that store without at least one!

I still have our bedroom and the guest rooms to show you and this weekend is our traditional Nutcracker visit with our five grand daughters so I hope I will have more to share soon. Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home

I have been out of town a lot recently so when I pulled into the driveway yesterday, I decided it was time to pull out all of the Christmas decor "stops"...which means turn on ALL of the holiday lighting, light ALL of the candles, refresh ALL of the "wall smellies", etc. And then just sit back and drink it all in!! I'm not sure when I will be back to blogging so I thought I would try to squeeze in as much of the rest of the house as I can today.

I am one lucky Nana...all 7 of our grand children got us pictures with Santa last year and we look at them constantly!

I'm still using MY little Santa that was on the tree in my room when I was a little girl...I can still remember where and when I bought him! Also love the small salt and pepper shakers and hand made sleigh that my mom found for me in an antique store. "Antiquing" wasn't something my mom usually did so I treasure the fact that she knew how much I loved these vintage things and took the time to find them even more than I do the items themselves.

So that's the kitchen and dining room for this year. Fingers crossed that I will be able to post the rest before I am off again. Stay tuned.