Merry Christmas

Some of my favorite Christmas songs are the most simple ones.

Away in a manger no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head,
The stars in the night sky looked down where he lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

Oh come let us adore Him,
Oh come let us adore Him,
Oh come let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour!

She Likes To Play.....

She likes to play......


In Grandma's cabinet!!!

Christmas Advent Calendar

One of my childhood Christmas memories was having an advent calendar to open every day in December. I bought them for Emily when she was growing up too. So, one of the things I got on Black Friday was an advent calendar for Tressie.

You can see by the picture that I didn't spend alot of money on this particular calendar. I want her to be able to participate and hold it. She doesn't necessarily get to carry it around and play with it. I do know what would happen to it then! Anyway, beginning yesterday morning we will open a window every morning after she eats her breakfast. We will open several on some days to make up for the mornings that she is not here.


She does really seem to get excited about it! The only thing is, she doesn't want me to put it up after we are done! That's OK, Grandma has come up with a plan for that. Last year I bought her a Little People nativity set. When we are finished with the calendar, we come in the playroom and play awhile with her little nativity set. Well, it worked today. Might have to come up with a plan B or plan C, but for now, we will go with it!


Will try to post pictures of her playing with the nativity set soon!

Santa's Early Delivery

Tuesday we received an early delivery from Santa. I guess his reindeer aren't up and running yet, as this delivery came by way of the UPS truck!

Our new sleep number bed! Now, we are not new to the sleep number bed. We have had a queen size sleep number bed for about 7 years now. What makes this one so special is that it is a KING size bed! I have been wanting a king size bed for alot of years now. After building the new house last year, we finally had the room.

It's hard to believe that everything we needed was in these few boxes!



Today was COLD and windy. We had a few snow flurries blow thru. What better day to spend inside putting up the new bed.




Let's not forget the awesome little helper we had!





Grandpa I think it needs to go like this....




After several hours, a lunch break, Grandpa taking a nap and then Tressie taking a nap, we were finally done!

The final result! Thank goodness for a 30% off coupon on top of a great sale at Kohl's. Since we had never had a king size bed it required buying all new bedding!

Am looking forward to a great night's sleep tonight!

Tressie's Christmas Train

I have had my eye on this Christmas train for Tressie for several weeks now. She loves the little people toys and anything with music. Saturday we were at Kohl's and they just happened to be having a great sale! So, Grandma bought the train. We didn't dare show it to her in the store. We quickly hid it in the cart.

This morning, her Mama brought her down and before she even hit the floor, her eyes lit up and a she was grinning from ear to ear. She had spotted the train sitting on her toy box!

The train plays music (Jingle Bells) and also makes train noises and Santa sounds. She quickly learned to hit the button three times to by-bass the Santa sounds and the train sounds. She wants the music!

When she hears music of any kind her little body can not be still! She even dances to commercials!

Happy Birthday Little Sister!

Today is my "little" sister's birthday! She is a whole 13 months younger than me! But, today she is officially? over the hill! It's her 50th birthday!

This is such a silly picture, but I love it! Don't know if we had just gotten up, or was getting ready to go to bed, but look at those jammies! I am betting that Mom made them for us. Matching of course. We weren't twins, but Mom dressed us alike, alot! What's with the goofy smiles? Did they have us say "cheese" or some such thing that made us BOTH have the same look on our face? Look close...our hair is even "styled" the same! Did we mind? I don't ever remember complaining about it. But of course, we were little then!

What I do remember, is that we were the best of friends! Still are! We don't get to see each other as often as we would like, but we talk on the phone and e-mail each other. Do we Facebook? No...She is signed up but says she doesn't know how to use it, and me.... well I'm not even signed up!

The family is all getting together this week-end to celebrate ALOT of fall birthdays! It will be a fun time!

Happy Birthday, Sheryl, and best wishes for at least 50 more!

Operation Christmas Child 2011

Yes, it's that time of year again! Time to pack up the shoes boxes for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child! I wrote a long post last year sharing about my participation in Operation Christmas Child. I can't believe it's already time to do it all again!


As I mentioned last year, I shop for the shoeboxes year round. I have a plastic bin in my closet that I collect items in throughout the year. It seems like it gets easier and easier every year to collect all of the items.


This year I packed 4 boxes again. Two for girls and two for boys all being in the 5-9 years old age group. Some year I need to branch out and do a different age group! Maybe next year.


These boxes are easy to pack and fun to do! I urge you to think about packing one or two boxes if you have never done it before!


I make an on-line donation to help with the shipping costs of the boxes. When you do this you receive a shipping label with a bar code on it. This bar code will be scanned when the boxes go out and I will receive an e-mail letting me know where the boxes were sent. Fun! For the last two years, my boxes have gone to Mexico.


I really can't remember exactly how many years I have been doing the boxes, but it's pretty close to ten years. I mentioned last year that I think it will be a fun project in a few years for Tressie and I to do together!