Giving Thanks

Happy turkey leg!!

Ok, I know it's not turkey yet but it's tomorrow and I'm super excited about it. I'm not cooking up a storm yet but honey's mom is going to put me to work when we get there this evening and I can't wait. In the meantime, I've been baking on this end and picking up some last minute things for the trip. I have really been enjoying my time off this week. It's given me the opportunity to take Christopher to his drive times and pick him up. I'm not quite sure what we would have done had I not been available. Spending time with Bella has been a blessing as well and I know she has loved being home and not at daycare. I may have to work Thanksgiving week off every year from now on. The only thing I would have loved to do would have been to surprise honey at work one day and take him to lunch. That would have made his week! Maybe in the near future when Chris is driving (gulp) and I don't need to be his transportation service, it'll work out.  For now, I'm  enjoying my time at home with my babies soaking it all up!

Y'all have a great Thanksgiving Eve!!

Elf On The Shelf

So I'm going to attempt to make this Elf happen this year, but I'm going to use an Elf (Hank) that I already have that looks very similar to the ones you buy.  Funny thing about Hank is that I bought him probably the first or second year I was married because we (Mom) always had elves on our tree growing up so I had to have them on my tree.  I've decided Hank will be given extra special magic by Santa this year to help keep an eye on Chris and Bella.  Chris will be in on the fun since he still believes but is old enough to know how it works now.  Much to my relief, he thinks Santa is still pretty cool.  And he better because in our house, you have to believe to receive a gift Christmas morning. :)  Yep, I'm one of those people!  I've never stopped believing.  What fun would it be if I didn't believe?  I love the magic of Christmas and I love the story of Jesus' birth.  Its beautiful.

Ok, enough sappiness.  Down to the business of Hank's first appearance.  I've consulted with a couple  of my girlfriends who tell me their Elf makes their appearance around Thanksgiving.  Is that the norm?  I'm drafting a letter for his first appearance explaining it all to the children.  I'm clueless when it comes to the dos and don'ts of Hank the Elf.  So, any advice and/or tips you can give me would be awesome.  I will be perusing your blogs to find out what y'all have done.  I already have lots of ideas from Pinterest!  I hope the kids will be as excited about this as I am.

Wish me luck!

It Got Cold!!

Hey y'all!  I guess you've noticed that it got really cold outside.  Personally, I am loving it!  I'm excited it will be cold through the weekend. Nothing I love more than being at home in my pajamas watching Countdown to Christmas on the Hallmark Channel and having something warm and yummy cooking on the stove or baking in the oven.  Gonna be a great weekend!

I took this picture this morning and sent it to my honey with a good morning...don't you just love my scarf?1?  I've been looking for a leopard scarf for a long time....

I should probably do a post on my loves of scarves.  I usually add a few to my growing collection every year.  Its a good thing I wore one today because the heater is out in the building so it was a cold 59 degrees in my office when I arrived.  My little heater helped throughout the day but it was still cold!  Good thing we had coffee to help.  

Honey doesn't always get a pretty picture like the one above in the morning.  Occasionally I send him something like this....

That was pretty much straight out of bed Tuesday morning.  I asked him if I scared him.  He never responded.  Probably because he was passed out on the floor.  Ha!

This same day, honey decided to play with a longhorn in the field next to him.  The longhorn decided to charge him.  Good thing that fence was there.  I told honey, fence or no fence, I would have had a heart attack for sure.   

Monday must have been a really hard day at school because this girl crawled into bed with me around 8:15 and in 15 minutes she was out for the count.  First grade is tough!

One day last week, girlfriend decided she wanted to leopard out for the day so she put this little outfit together.  I love it!

Saturday morning the girls went to a Bridal Brunch for our sweet Kristian.  They had a waffle bar and all other kinds of breakfast goodies.  Since we were all together, a picture was a must!

That's Cori, me, Bella, Kenna and sister...sweet girls :)

That about sums up the past week or so.  Are y'all gearing up for Thanksgiving, planning your meals or where you're going to be?  My babies will be with their dad this year so I'm on my own.  Honey's momma is hosting Thanksgiving and invited us so I'm headed to Dayton for turkey this year.  I'm pretty excited to be able to spend the day with honey and his family.  I will miss my babies and my family but at least I have someplace to go.  

OH!  Almost forgot....I bought a Christmas gift the other day and ordered one last night!  Two down and several more to go!  LOL!  Hey...I'm making progress!  

Y'all stay warm!

Full On Panic

51 days until Christmas and I'm still no closer to finishing my shopping.  In fact, I haven't even started.  Yep, remember back in September when I was freaking out then...well I'm really flipping out now.  I have ideas and I've even shopped online, put things in a basket/cart and then talked myself out of them. I'm horrible.  I used to never be this way.  By Thanksgiving, I would have most everything done with just a few things left to pick up. What the heck happened?  I don't like it at all.  I mean, I love shopping during the holiday season but I also want to enjoy the time not going crazy trying to find a gift when everything is picked over and/or sold out.  Why do I do this to myself?  I was never this way.  Please tell me because I would very much like to know the answer.  So, I need to get chopping, or rather shopping!  I need to complete my lists that I have started.  I need to make decisions and stick to them. Quit the hem-hawing crap.  Be strong like bull.  Yeah...I was laughing as I typed that.

Before we get to Christmas, we must have Thanksgiving!  You know how I feel about Thanksgiving. I'm giggling and my mouth is watering now with thoughts of all that delicious food, especially the dressing.  Yum, yum, yum!  We have made no plans for Thanksgiving...BUT, I will be off that entire week from work!  WooHoo!! I can't remember the last time I was off the entire week of Thanksgiving.  I'm so excited.  I don't care if we stay in our jammies, watch movies and play games all week, I'm just happy I don't have to get up and go to work everyday.

Guess I'll also start thinking about what I want to make for our Thanksgiving meal, because regardless of where we'll gather and how many people will attend, there will be a meal. :)

Y'all have a good one!!