16 minutes till Christmas Day

All the Christmas Eve traditions were repeated this year, including my lack of attention to the Christmas Carter Balls.

Cooking little smokies in the crock pot, drinking hot chocolate, riding around looking at Christmas lights, opening the one present that's always new pajamas, making sugar cookies with the homemade icing.  Repeated reminders about how anything in the stockings is fair game, and presents have to wait till I get up and have a full cup of coffee in one hand and my camera in the other.

An unexpected joy arose when the hand mixer stopped working just after I started blending with it. Unbelievable how long it take to mix icing by hand.  Note to self:  Make sure the $5 appliances are in good working order while you're making the grocery list.

I'll wait a couple more minutes to try to catch Santa, and then, night night :)

Ribbon Trees

Christmas crafting in full swing here.  Styrofoam cones + straight pins with tiny white pearls + oodles of ribbon = ribbon trees.

With flash

Same shot with no flash

Finished

Stinkin' cute!

We need two more star toppers, which I'm sure we'll be able to find in the arsenal of scrapbook stuff I have.  

Three days till Christmas.  

Holiday Poser

Christmas Pupper

Guardian of The Tree

Rat Snake

NatGeo is in need of my wildlife photos.  Check out the snake I watched climb a tree.  When people drove by, they would try to see what I was taking pictures of.  It took over an hour to take all these photos (and the 74 others that didn't make the blog).

Refurbishing

It took me wayyy too long to get the blog renovations done.  The upside is that I figured out how to make all the side gadgets the same size.

This year's Christmas tree :)

Blue will become white

Got an orchid called "Mystique."  It's really blue, and it's not dye.  When these drop off and the orchid reblooms, they'll be white.  I love my orchids.

Double One

My dear daughter was 11 years old on December 5.  It's nice that she's wearing red in these photos since she's a little piece of my heart.  

Do you notice Zing licking the 

orange-flavored birthday Tootsie Pop?

Eleven years old 

 

Look how big she is!

Happy Birthday, "Baby" Girl!  Mommy loves you so much!  xoxo

Month of Gratitude

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving.  I've been doing the #30DaysOfThankful posts on Facebook, and it's reminded me to be present and aware.  Lately, I've been missing out on the now because I've been thinking of other things that can--should--be thought about later.  Mulling over memories is a good endeavor, a necessary hobby.  Yet the most important pastime is absorbing as much of life as I can while it happens. That's what makes the memories anyway.

Here's a photo that is completely unrelated to this post.  It's one of my favorite layouts, "Life Artistes."

xoxo

Tweenie girl survival kit

The items under Caroline's pillow:

Diary, nail polish, booklight, pens, paper for designing clothes, and scissors.  I didn't look, but I'll bet she has mad money tucked in that diary. 

Love my girl!

"Prom" at Wadeview Summer Camp

When moms have babies, they know they're going to grow up.  But then it happens, and moms just aren't ready sometimes. 

Here's what I saw today.

Helping with the tie--

Who is this young man?

And this young lady?

When asked to do a swag shot:

 

 She can do the Angelina Jolie leg too!

 

The evil look translates to "you are embarrassing us......again." 

My two little walking hearts