A Year In Review

2009 was a great year for us and it was amazing to see Miss Priss grow into a "Big Girl" right before our eyes.
Below are the images I designed for the calendar we give out each year to friends and family:

Hoping 2010 will bring blessings to you and your family!

Happy New Year!

Christmas (in a nutshell)

Christmas this year was spelled D.R.A.M.A..... and looking back I know it'll be one we remember for the rest of our lives! The OK Christmas Blizzard of 2009 played a huge part in our drama, and I was so thankful when my dad and cousin were finally able to get to our house (they sat on the closed interstate for five hours.... and was only 10 miles away from my house!)
So here is my Christmas.... in a nutshell:
Christmas Eve Day..... it snowed and snowed and snowed!

This was my first year to tackle the Holiday Cooking, and my mom was such a big help!

A family tradition... "Preforming for Presents"
The kids sang Jingle Bells!

Another family tradition... reading "The Night Before Christmas".
This is the same book that my mom has read to me since my very first Christmas.

Cousin Kaeden was concerned about the hungry Reindeer, so we bundled the kids up so they could go outside and sprinkle Reindeer food across the snow!

Cousins Eve & Kaeden were a wonderful addition to our family Christmas!

Miss Priss loved every minute... and she followed around Kaeden like a lost puppy! I think she thought HE was her Christmas present!

One of our favorite parts of the holiday was getting out on Christmas Day to play in the snow. Miss Priss squealed in delight as she tromped through the snow, ate snowballs and sled down the street.

Miss Priss and some of her favorite gifts....

Another of our traditions is to take a picture with our favorite gifts... mine was definitely the quilt that my mom had had made out of my Grandma Frances's quilt squares, my phone and the book about a boy I went to highschool with.

Cousins Eve & Kaeden, Papa, Miss Priss, Grammie, H.O.T.Y. and me

All dressed up to go to the re-scheduled Christmas Eve service!

One more day out in the snow....

It will truly be a Christmas we never forget!

What Was Inside The Gift Bags?

I had several people ask after reading my blog what was inside the Hand-Made Gift Bags...

The bags themselves were a huge hit! My mom just raved about how cute they were and it was nice all my (and Miss Priss's) hard work and effort was appreciated. Hearing one simple "Thank You" sure makes going the extra mile worth it! ;)

So inside the bags were...
Miss Priss Reindeer Pillows!!
I have to admit, they turned out fantastic!!

As you can see from the closeup below, I painted Miss Priss's hands and feet and them stamped them on the canvas fabric. Then after glueing on the eyes and sewing on the button nose, I sewed them up with a cute red pom-pom trim.

One of my favorite parts was the back... I used a chocolate brown burlap fabric and cut out a little red felt heart to add Miss Priss's name and the year.

After last year's Christmas Frames and this year's Pillows... I will have to think long and hard what I can come up with for next year's Handmade Presents!

Miss Priss Makeover

Surprise, Miss Priss & Me got a Makeover!!
So leave a comment and tell me what you think! (pretty please)

Merry Merry Merry...

Christmas to You!!

Thank you for reading my Blog this year!!

I love sharing my crazy life with you all and I appreciate all your comments!

Crafty Christmas

Although I prefer wrapped gifts all tied up with (big) bows, I adored GreyGill Fish's idea for homemade Gift Bags! So, for all the gifts Miss Priss is giving out this year, she and I made special bags and gift tags for them!

As for what's inside the gift bags... you'll just have to wait and see! I'll post those pictures after they've been opened! ;)

Annual Ornament

Since my very first Christmas 28 years ago, I have picked out (or received) an Annual Ornament to put on the Christmas Tree. Some years reflected the things I was doing at that time in my life (Cheerleader Ornament in High School, PSU Ornament in College, Newlywed Ornament the year of my wedding... and so on) and then others were just at random (like an overly fat "Santa Frog" when I was 13).
So of course, that has been a tradition I've carried on with Miss Priss. However, due to my Type-A Personality, I always make it waaaay harder than it should be! This year was just the same, as I looked in stores and searched online to find NOTHING that would reflect Miss Priss's third Christmas Annual Ornament.
Well this year, I took the matter into my own hands and did the only thing I'm semi-good at... I made one for her!!

Here's a detail view of the design...

At least I know that this year's ornament truly reflects my little girl!

Holiday Greetings

Oh how I love getting mail!! Every day Miss Priss and I have enjoyed walking to the mailbox to get all the mail! Below are most of the photo cards we've received this month, not to mention all the other Greeting Cards I have taped across our Kitchen windows!

Can you see Miss Priss in there??? Look carefully, she's in there!

Rice Krispie Christmas Houses

In continuation of our Holiday celebrating - we spent Saturday afternoon making Rice Krispie Christmas Houses. Miss Priss is becoming quite the helper in the kitchen!

Little Miss Helper dumped the Rice Krispies in the bowl all by herself!

She wanted to stir in the icing - but we had to remind her the pot was hot!

So instead, she chose to eat the leftover icing! I think she sucked on that pouch for a good 10 minutes!

Miss Priss's job while I stired it all together was to catch all the flying Rice Krispies... trust me, there was a lot!

Decorating the houses - H.O.T.Y. helps Miss Priss with the icing.

Mid-way through the decorating of the first house, Miss Priss insisted she "TASTE IT". How could I deny her a little nibble?

Okay, so maybe I had a little myself as well!

Here are the results! Not too shabby for a box kit!

Foto Friday

10 Things Miss Priss loves about Christmas:

10. Reading Christmas books every night at bedtime

9. Baking Holiday Cookies

8. Driving around and seeing Christmas Lights

7. Singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

6. Watching all the old classics like Rudolph, Frosty & Grinch

5. Getting to see Santa

4. Helping Mommy light the Advent candle each Sunday night

3. Decorating the Christmas Tree

2. Making Christmas Crafts

1. Singing Jingle Bells!

Miss Priss meets Santa

This year we were invited to a Santa Party... and it was awesome! Our playgroup all gathered at my friend's house, and guess who showed up? Santa Claus!
Since our group of kids range from almost three years to four months old, each child reacted to Santa differently. How was Miss Priss, you ask? Well, she was definitely wary of the big guy.
We'd tried jazzing her up the whole ride to the party, talking about Santa, telling her that he brings presents to good girls, that he liked big hugs, cookies and singing Jingle Bells (her favorite). By the time we got to the party, she was so excited to see Santa and ready for him to get there!

After Santa came in, he sat down in a big chair and pulled gifts out for each child. When he got to Miss Priss's gift... he called out her name: "Look here, I have a gift for Miss Priss!" She sat there for a good long minute deciding if she wanted to go get her present.... but eventually we got her up on his knee. At that point, she had no interest in singing Jingle Bells or giving him a hug... she just stared at him!

After awhile Miss Priss warmed up to the big guy and everyone had a great time! By far this Santa Party has been the highlight of our holiday and it totally beats a line at the mall! I hope to carry on this tradition for many years to come!

How To Feed a 102-Yr-Old

How to feed a 102-yr-old.... according to Miss Priss:

Step 1: Take shirt off (because Mommy said to be clean)
Step 2: Climb up in Gigi's lap and get comfy
Step 3: Check out what she's having for lunch... hmmm soup, I think I like soup.

Step 4: Taste soup. Yep, that's pretty good! I definitely like soup.

Step 5: Share soup. I mean afterall, it is Gigi's soup!

Step 6: Take another bite. Man, that's good stuff!

Step 7: Oops, I didn't get it all - looks like I left some on the spoon.

Step 8: Here Gigi, you can have what's left of my last bite. Open wide!

As Miss Priss and Gigi were enjoying their lunch together, I honestly was laughing so hard I had tear in my eyes! To see these two together is truly something special!