A Christmas Meme (combined)

I've combined two meme's. One from All Because I Fell in Love and one from Farm Fresh.


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? If it's a "regular" shaped present, I'll wrap it...if not it goes in a gift bag.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving...except for this year I put it up the weekend before just to get it done.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the weekend after New Years.

5. Hot chocolate or apple cider? Apple Cider

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Nothing stands out in my mind...that's horrible!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

8. Hardest person to buy for? Mel

9. Easiest person to buy for? K

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Once again, nothing stands out in my mind.

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas card? MAIL

12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I catch sales throughout the year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Who hasn't?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? The peanut butter cookies with the kisses in them.

16. Clear lights or colored? Clear

17. Favorite Christmas songs? O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Depends on the weather...

19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Yes

20. Angel or star on top of the tree? Neither...it's a Santa.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Depends where we are Christmas Eve. If at home, we open one present and then the rest Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds!!!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I'm really into the light blue and red combo.

24. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog...but the salted carmel hot chocolate from Starbucks is pretty tasty.

25.Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap

26. Do you hang mistletoe? No

27. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? There is something other than desserts????

28.When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember

29. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights, Hallmark Santa and Mischievous kitten ornaments, family ornaments and some colored balls. A santa on top because I have never found an angel or star that I really liked.

30. Snow. Love it or dread it? Had my share of it growing up in IL. Don't care if I ever see another snow shovel...

31. Can you ice skate? Yep

32. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Being with family/friends.

33. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The Advent calendar

34. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Both

35. Candy Canes. Yum or Yuck? Yuck...unless they're crushed on peppermint bark!

36. What do you want for Christmas? Amazon gift cards...I want to save up for a Dyson Animal and a new Nikon. Funky scarf, Definitely Maybe DVD and a K-cup holder/tower thing...

37. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? An annual party...no, but usually there's one or two that we are invited to (they just aren't an annual thing).

38. Do you dress up for Christmas Eve or wear PJ's? Depends where we are.

39. Do you own a Santa hat? Did...Added it to the donate bag this year...it never gets used.

40. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? S, K and whatever family we are with.


If you'd like to join in...you're tagged.

Clever Christmas gift idea...

At least I thought it was... A friend was telling me about a co-worker's Christmas tradition. The children get four gifts:

Something you Want
Something you Need
Something to Wear
Something to Read

In this world of crazy gift giving, I thought it was a great idea!

glam R baby

Noelle of glam R baby is giving away an awesome Halloween top. She's been designing some fierce products for a while, but she's a newbie to the blogging world. Go show her some love and sign up for a fabulous giveaway. Contest ends October 20th. Check her out on myspace....tons of pictures!

Ornament Exchange

PamperingBeki is hosting an ornament exchange. What fun this should be! Hurry, you must sign up by October 25th to participate.

What do y'all read?

Once K was old enough to pick out a book to read, the book of choice was Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel. Now I know how my mother felt! It didn't take too much of that to make us head to the library. Our library has a list of 30 titles every child should know. We own quite a few of them (listed in bold).

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Mr. Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Owen by Kevin Henkes
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Swimmy by Leo Lionni
Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin
Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Weber
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? By Jane Yolen
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

I'd of course like to add the previous mentioned Tikki, Tikki, Tembo along with:

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Frederick by Leo Lionni
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff

What do y'all read? Any MUST HAVE suggestions for a first grader?

Wordless Wednesday ~ A Dog's Life at Our House

We fry everything in Texas

I saw in the Dallas Morning News today that the winner of this year's State Fair fried food contest is chicken fried bacon....uck. That just sounds horribly disgusting to me. The fried grilled cheese or deep fried smores sound a little more appetizing. As for the fried Jelly Bellys, that just sounds like a waste of grease.

Labor Day weekend

I spent most of yesterday cleaning out the guest bedroom closet. How in the world I can accumulate so much stuff I will never know. Going to try to list some of it on e-bay tonight. Does anyone else have TOTES of holiday decorations? I used to be so deligent at decorating throughout the year...not anymore. I'm lucky to get the Halloween candy bowl out...and don't get me started on the Christmas tree. In my dream home, I'm going to have a closet I can wheel that thing in and out of. No more putting it up, fluffing the branches, stringing the lights, hanging the ornaments...only to take it all down. I threw out so many Easter baskets/containers. I really need to look at buying one "permanent" basket and using it for the next several years. I like this one from Good Pails to Have
It's springy, yet could be used for something else once the whole Easter Bunny thing is over. Elexis of Good Pails sent me some handmade magnets and thumb tacks and they were just the cutest thing. Now our message board is stylin'!

This is how we roll...

At least this is how the chicks roll... Daddy drives a red F150 crew cab.

Ooh La La...

Leave it to a fellow Texas gal to host a give-a-way like this!

It's been forever...

Spring time is our BUSY season at work (fieldwork wise)...which translates into the summer being ridiculous for the engineers!

There is a new craze in digital scrapbooking that I thought was pretty cool. I downloaded a few templates for that just in case moment. That is until I saw this template by Jaye. I had the PERFECT picture...thanks to Brandi's awsome work!




Leaving at noon today to go see Buckcherry in concert...so excited!

Thanks Uncle Sam

Last night I did my part to stimulate the economy. Most of my economic incentive check will be donated to the dentist for a crown on my tooth, but that just didn't seem all that fun. So I went to the store and came home with this:



It was already wrapped. Wrapped or unwrapped was the same price...why pass up the opportunity to get a piece of ribbon I can use on another package! What is underneath that beautiful ribbon?



The panini maker Oprah had on her favorite things 2007 list! No I do not have unlimited storage space in the kitchen, so the breadmaker that never gets used is on it's way to Goodwill...

The cutest purse

I just had to show y'all what I bought on etsy a month or so ago. It's just the cutest purse! I carried it when we went to the Edgefest concert and it was the perfect size for a camera, credit card, cash and keys. Spirited Style has some awesome funky fabrics...check them out!

THANK YOUS!!!!

I am so horribly late posting a few thank you's and shout outs. Each day I think, "I need to update my blog", then the day comes and goes and it doesn't seem to get done. The same thing seems to happen to me with phone calls... They found a way to give us an extra few days during daylight savings time, why can't they find a way to put more than 24 hours in a day????

First I need to thank Ribbon Rock Star for the Sweet and Tranquil soap giveaway she had a while back. Sorry no picture...but it looked great in the shower and was YUMMY smelling!

Next up is a big thanks to The Full Mommy and Beansoup for the apron giveaway. The chef apron was absolutely adorable!


Diana of Ladybug Limited makes some of the cutest hair clippies. They arrived perfectly and uber fast. Check them out!


And last, but certainly not least Ellinghouse for hosting the Froggy Girl Designs giveaway! I won my very own rice pad. ...Several of my friends have bought them at craft shows over the years, but I've never owned one. The fabric is super cute! I can't say that I'm looking forward to having to use it (you know what I mean), but it'll sure be handy...especially during a particular time of the month

Life is Good again....

New dishwasher is installed...time to PARTAY!!!! I went to my always trusty consumersearch.com and decided on the Kenmore 1374. LOVE IT!!! The turbo wash zone RAWKS....casserole dish, not a problem. Just face it towards the turbo jets, set on pots and pans setting and it comes out clean as a whistle. I'm not sure what all the other settings are for...smart wash, sani-rinse, high-temp wash. All I know is the dish rags are once again retired to the drawer!

Texas Size Cupcake

I saw this pan the other day at the grocery store of all places.

How cool is that...A ginormous cupcake!

I think a trip to Michael's is in order to see if they have one there (so I could use a coupon of course!)

I wanna go back to bed

It's raining, I loaded the dishwasher to the max only to find out it isn't working and my neighbor found some guy sleeping in the alley behind their house. What a wonderful Tuesday...

I need these like I need a hole in the head....

So I have my china set, Grandma's, Mom's Johnson Bros. Christmas set and a set of Fiesta I use for everyday. BUT, these are just too cool!




Varsity China has a whole line of University plates. Even a few for that other school. I'm telling myself I need to wait until they add another A&M plate. That way I'd have a set of four...

Dallas Blooms

The Dallas Blooms festival is happening at the Arboretum right now. K and I visited yesterday while Daddy was at work. This year's theme is The Star of Texas. The topiary wasn't in full bloom, but still cool. Anything with the Texas star has to be cool...unless it's associated with that Longhorn School.





And who doesn't love rolling down a giant grassy hill....

Trip to Tucson

Dh and I were in Tucson earlier this month visiting the folks. The highlight of the trip was sitting in a corporate booth on the 13th green during Thursday's round of the Accenture Match Play. No cameras allowed, so no pictures. Here's on of the entrance to the Dove Mountain community.

However, I did manage to get an up close look at Tiger's golf bag and figure out what the heck the other headcover is on his clubs....Frank the tiger, but what the heck was that brown thing. I could never figure it out from the tv camera shots. Hello...it's a Kiwi, geez, why couldn't I see that... His caddy Steve is a Kiwi and the proceeds go to his foundation. I believe next year the tournament will be held on the new golf course at the Ritz.

Mom and I had a great time tooling around shopping, eating and checking out Biosphere 2....since it is now being leased to U of A. Dh and Dad spent their days golfing, no not with Tiger.

I know why I didn't take the GRE

I finally checked out freerice.org after reading about it and seeing it on the news. I've managed to consistently stay at level 35, but never get any higher. Guess that's why I didn't take the GRE and go on to grad school. Being an engineer in the sewer industry doesn't take a ginormous vocabulary...

It is rather addicitive though, and what a cool idea!

Christmas Pictures

So I finally downloaded the Christmas pictures off the camera before something happened and they disappeared. We seemed to have a shoe theme going on at the house this year...just happened that way I guess. Kirstin loved her "boots with the fur" and Heeleys. Although, the Heeleys took a little getting used to...

BIG thanks to Ribbon Rock Star and Mommy Cracked

This is a long overdue thank you to Linda over at Ribbon Rock Star. I won one of her reindeer clippies from Mommy Cracked during the Southern Christmas give-a-way. I had to snag the picture from Mommy Cracked as Makenna, my best friends little girl, would not keep it in her hair long enough to take a picture. She prefers the Donald Trump hairdo. DO NOT tell her it'll be pretty, she'll look just like a princess. The response will be "I NOT A PRINCESS!"

Thank you Ribbon Rock Star and Mommy Cracked!!!

Tomorrow's the BIG DAY

You will not believe how excited I was when I received an e-mail from Build-a-Bear with their latest limited edition...that's right it's a GROUNDHOG! This 30-something gal had to go make hers right away. Yes, his name is Phil...what else would you name a groundhog...and I changed his birthday to February 2nd. After all, I have been to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to see the little guy...not on the big day, but on one of our family vacations.

Here's a little diddy I still remember from day care to celebrate the glorious day:

It's goundhog's day, it's groundhog's day
If he sees his shadow, he will run away
But if he doesn't, spring is here to say
It's groundhog's day, it's groundhog's day

GO RED

Darnit! I forgot to wear my red today. But, I do have on a pink sweater and my Brighton breast cancer awareness bracelet...so I am showing support today, just the wrong color.

Why isn't my butt disappearing???

I've been workin' it off and it's not leaving! Oh yeah, wrong kind of work. I can't wait til the middle of January when I promised to have this report done...oh yeah it is the middle of January. Ok, I want next week to be over, but wait, I need every second of it to get my work done! Ugh, I just want time to download the Christmas pictures from the camera, maybe even upload a couple. Getting them printed, well that may have to wait till June...not really...

Killing two birds with one stone

Ok, I think I've figured out a way to encourage myself to lose a little weight and justify spending a few bucks at LUSH. For every ten pounds I lose, I'm going to allow myself to buy $10 in product. So when the bath bombs run out, I'd better get to losing some more weight! Hopefully I see a lot of these in my future....