It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As Christmas approaches ever closer I find myself getting ants in my pants and shirt and anywhere else ants can hide. Here's a list of my favorite things about Christmas time:

1. Watching my Pandora stations suddenly begin playing Christmas music. (I created the first one in early October!! Now I have five or six!)

2. Hearing one of my favorite Christmas songs come on ANY radio station and getting the willies, especially when I'm working on Christmas secrets;)

3. Talking to Britta and Quinci about what they want from Santa.

4. Counting the days left till the big day.

5. Thanksgiving day!! I can't wait for the food, I'm eating like a normal person!! ha ha

6. The day after Thanksgiving, going to see Santa come to the University Mall (this is one of my favorite days of the year)!

7. Setting up the Christmas tree and looking at all the ornaments we've collected over the years.

8. Decorating the house.

9. Unwrapping the advent calender...things...and trying to get the typewriter. Don't ask me why but that's the most coveted of all the doo-hickys ha ha

10. Seeing all the festive foods and...smelling them! ha ha

11. Watching Christmas movies; The Santa Clause, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf and Holiday Inn (thank you Welch family!) just to name a few!

12. Christmas Eve, anything we do!

13. Never, ever, sleeping on Christmas Eve night, sorry little story, last year my parents wanted me to sleep so bad that they gave me a whole Unisom to try to help. The plan backfired miserably! I ended up wired all night long! Thank you mom and dad ;)

14. And of course Christmas day, just being together!

Well there's a list of a few of my favorite things about Christmas. I had to cut the list down from 9,678,564,364 but you get the idea. Happy Holidays!

The Christmas Bug

The bug I am speaking of is not the bug that ruins Christmas by keeping us bent over the toilet or curled in a ball, no I would never talk about a bug like that (but just fyi I've already dodged one bullet this season, Britta and my mom both got the flu this week and guess who didn't?!). The bug I'm talking about is the one that nips you in the rear and makes you suddenly NEED to buy presents, decorations, food...pick your poison, it affects everyone differently. But for me it causes me to need to completely deplete my bank account...I mean go Christmas shopping ;)! So this year after we drew the name of our 'person' (the receiver of our gift), my parents made a proposal. Why not, instead of spending a lot of money on the gifts why not spend a lot of  time? As a result of that proposal we kids are now limited to ten dollars and we have to create whatever is to be given. Surprisingly we are all so excited about this new change and, out of sheer need, have become scavengers, don't be surprised if you get a call from one of us begging for scrap fabric, wood, anything really!

Carving

One of my favorite things to do during Halloween is carve pumpkins. I spent hours agonizing over which pattern would be perfect. This year I spent so much time debating that I didn't carve my pumpkin till Halloween night. The patterns weren't as hard as I would have liked and I didn't have quite as much time as I normally do (we were off to go trick-or-treating with the girls) but even with the rush and simpleness of the pattern I was very pleased with the results!

Getting all the patterns put on right (It's three sided!!)
Poking the pattern onto the pumpkin. Feverishly trying to finish before we leave!The finished product! Jack Skellington......Zero, his dog......and Sally, his true love!

So all in all a very successful carving session!!