Happy Holidays !!!!!!!!

Well with the 2008 holiday season officially over I have finally found a moment to tell everyone how wonderful the holiday season has been. Lets start with Christmas.....

As most of you know from reading this blog or Eddie's blog we had a very busy schedule on Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve Dinner with all of the Greenwoods and O'Connells (who were visiting from out of town for the holidays). After dinner Eddie and Craig played their guitars for us and my beautiful niece Abby read us all The Night Before Christmas. When Eddie and I got home we did our traditional opening of the stockings and we watched Charlie Brown Christmas.On Christmas morning Eddie and I were up at 6 am to exchange gifts with each other. Eddie got the Guitar Hero Band Tour kit he was wanting, along with other video games, clothing and a few other things he had asked for. Eddie got me some oil painting supplies, books I was wanting and you will never guess what else...... He got me a Pottery Wheel. If you know me, a potter wheel has been on my wish list for every Christmas and birthday since like 1999. I love throwing on the wheel but I have not been able to lately because how far away the studio I currently go to is from my house, but now I will have my own studio. Anyway I am getting a little off subject. Santa also made a special visit to our house and brought Eddie and I, HIS and HERS Laptop computers. I am really starting to like this Santa guy. After that we packed up the pathfinder and started our drive through a blizzard to the Greenwoods. When we finally got there the power to the house was out. In most cases this would be a bad thing, but it was actually really fun we opened present by candle and flashlight. Abby and Ally were so much fun to watch open their gifts, like my friend Joan always says " There is nothing like seeing Christmas through a child's eyes".
Once we wrapped up Christmas morning with the Greenwoods we went back our house. My family meet us there and we opened gifts and had a wonderful prime rib dinner, with baked potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and wonderful desserts that Destiny made. The highlight of the evening was when we played this Joke game were you have to make up your own punchline. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Even with the blizzard that went all day, the power outage and all the running around we did that day, I have to say it was one of the best Christmas holidays I have ever had. I had all of my family with me The Greenwoods, The Kerrs, O'Connells and The Ins I am so blessed to have such a great family.

Now onto New Years.....
Eddie and I don't have the best track record for the new years....... something always seems to go wrong. WELL NOT THIS YEAR !!!!! Eddie and I had one of the best new years ever. We spent the new years with our good friends Joan and Dayn. I tell you what!!!! they are the world best hosts, they made bread bowls and clam chowder plus a bunch of other yummy treats. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the new year!!!!

After this really long post I leave you with some pictures from Christmas eve and morning (you won't see any of the Kerrs because I was having camera problems sorry)

My 5 Year Plan

I know that you are probably expecting this post to be about goals Eddie and I have in the next five years in regards to our finances and our lifestyle....... although we do have those goals, that is not what this post is about.
The 5 year plan I am talking about is in regards to Christmas decoration, more specifically ornaments. I know that most people enjoy decorating their Christmas tree with the same theme ever year. NOT ME!!! I enjoy decorating the tree with a different color and theme every year. Now, I know what you are thinking “Can’t that get expensive having to buy new ornaments every year?" (At least that is what Eddie says) and yes it can. So that is how I came up with my 5 year plan.
You see, for the last three years we have bought new ornaments with different colors and themes for the tree. I figured out if I continue to buy new/different ornaments for two more years (making a total of 5 years worth of ornaments totaling about 10 to 15 different colors/themes). I will not have to purchase new ornaments for another 5 to 7 years after that and still be able to have a different themed Christmas tree until the year 2017. How is all that possible you ask? Because of all the mixing and matching I will be able to do with such a large variety. I know Eddie is rolling his eyes as he reads this post but I think it is a great/ logical Idea (logical for a woman that is obsessed with decorating at least).
Now to support my idea I am posting pictures of our currently decorated tree and home, so that you can see how cute it is and leave you wanting to see cool and new it will look next year. ENJOY!!!!!

Preparing For Christmas

Unlike my wonderful but scrooge-like husband, I start getting excited about Christmas mid October and continue to build my excitement up until the day it finally arrives. I am still a five year old at heart when it comes to this wonderful holiday season, so you can imagine that everything that we do from the day after Thanksgiving to the end of the year has a Christmas theme to it. Our last date night was no exception. We decided it would be fun to stay home and build a ginger bread house and start making holiday treats for your friends. Of course I took a bunch of picture to share.
After we assembled the four walls and the roof of the house we had to wait 15 minutes for it to dry. Eddie was not happy about that.




It is amazing how two adults can make a ginger bread house look like a 5 year old made it. Eddie was very excited about the caramels we were about to make.
Yummy!!!! Chocolate covered pretzels.

Thanksgiving Fun

I know this post is like..... 10 or 20 days late and everyone else has already done their pre and post Thanksgiving blog entries and have also done their pre Christmas post. I could make up some really interesting excuse as to why it has taken me so long but, In all reality I have been having a great holiday season that has included a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, fun times with friends and family, decorating my house for the holidays and NOT SHOPPING ON BLACK FRIDAY!!!! I can honestly say that the last thing on my mind has been making a entry on my blog. but today I actually have a moment to do a post so I thought I would show you some fun pictures of Thanksgiving dinner that we had at my little sister's house. This was her first year hosting Thanksgiving, she made a turkey that was to die for. Eddie's parents and Mike's mother joined us in the celebration. To top the evening off we played guitar hero. We even got Larry to sing "Hotel California". It was so much fun. I feel truly blessed to have a great Kerr,Greenwood and In family that all get along. Here are the photos I took .......enjoy.