Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas everyone! :^)

I am still sooooo behind on my Dec Daily - 2-1/2 wks. No chance of getting caught up this week. I have been super busy with having two birthday parties for B. who just turned 10 - a family party on her birthday and a small friends party the day after. Yesterday, I took her to get her ears pierced. She's been asking for awhile now and so needless to say she was sooo happy when I told her we were going to Claire's to get her ears pierced. Between that and getting Julie (American Girl) for her birthday, she has been the happiest little girl these past few days. And now it's Christmas Eve and we're looking forward to spending time with family, having some wedding soup up at my mother and father-in-law's later this afternoon, going to church this evening and going to my sister-in-law's afterwards. Just wanted to post real quickly to wish you all a wonderful Christmas. I need to sneak off into the bedroom and get the last few gifts wrapped for B. while she's preoccupied with her Wii Christmas game. I got her a small die cutting machine - a pink Sizzix Sidekick, a cute girly alphabet set (the Curlz font), a bunch of other dies and a cute bag to put it all in. Plus she can use the Sizzlet dies that I already have in my stash too if she wants. This will be from Mommy and Daddy. Don't know what Santa is bringing her since he hasn't been here yet. ;) We've been tracking Santa on Norad since we got up this morning. Lots of excitement in this house today to say the least....

Here's a cute little cupcake ornament that B. made for me in school...

So cute! I hung it on the gingerbread man tree in our dining room.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Two Days of Dec Daily

Since my SD card wouldn't let me take anymore pictures yesterday morning when I was out and about because it needed reformatted, I only got two pictures last night while we were watching Christmas movies on TV. But nothing really happened yesterday anyway. I try to put at least one positive thing each day in my December Daily since sometimes the holidays can be hard for me....

We had a busier day today and so I got more pictures than yesterday. One of them was me mailing out the last four Christmas cards that I had to wait to get addresses for....

When I pulled up to the mailbox, there wasn't anyone behind me. I had to put stamps on two of the cards real quick and I snapped a picture very quickly as I was putting them in the mailbox. Hey, when you don't have the most exciting life and you're doing a December Daily, you gotta get a little creative with the daily pictures. lol! Where did the woman in the van come from that drove around me and was she really honking her horn at me?? lol! B. seemed to think that she was. I think the older I get, the less I care about what other people think. I'm documenting our holiday season and traditions for my family and future family and if I feel like snapping a picture in the oddest of places, well then that's just me and so be it... I have to say I'm getting a few good laughs and having a lot of fun with the whole process of creating this album for my family...

Have a good night and thanks for stoppin' by...

December Daily Progress & Other Misc. Ramblings...

We had a very busy weekend and so I am like 5 days behind on my December Daily plus today. I spent a good bit of time this morning editing and photosheeting my more recent photos, backing up some videos I made with my camera, transferring some pics from the DSLR SD card to my point and shoot SD card because I had to have all my photos from clear back to the end of Sept backed up onto three CDs today. Went to have it done at the "instant" photo at Wal-Mart today and it took over 40 minutes for them to get done and come out of the machine. Ugh. My SD card has been acting up and that probably means that I'm going to have to reformat it again soon. Will probably do that later on this evening in fact. I plan to sit down hopefully sometime here this evening and work on my December Daily. Gotta help B. with her homework first and get dinner started.

Today's December Daily photo is of the stack of Christmas (photo) cards that I just mailed out earlier this afternoon. $50 to do Christmas cards this year including postage. Half for photo cards (the 4x8 kind you get done at Wal-Mart) and the other half was all postage. Ridiculous.  It's actually one of my favorite things to do during the holidays believe it or not.  I did them online and sent them to Wal-Mart this year. But since our local Wal-Mart's machine was down on Saturday for the internet, I had to go to the one 20 mins. away instead. So much for "convenience".  I mailed out 40 and there's still a few that I need addresses for yet. But at least that's all done for the most part. I finally used up every single one of my Christmas (and winter) address labels after only seven years and had to order a new set over the weekend...

Yesterday's photo(s) are of our Christmas village that we just set up on the dining room hutch last night. We've had this village for probably 6 or 7 years now....

Saturday was a fun bowling birthday party that  B. went to....

 Friday was our attempt at a decent Christmas card photo, and of my older step-daughter and her fiance. And one pic of the outlets my husband and I went Christmas shopping at that morning....

I still haven't wrapped any Christmas or birthday gifts at all yet and B.'s birthday is coming up next week. We're having a family party on her birthday and then a smaller party with maybe 5 of her friends the next day. The last day of school just happens to fall on her birthday this year since they're only getting 1-1/2 weeks for Christmas break instead of a full 2 weeks like they've always done. First time she's ever had to go to school on her birthday. I will send cupcakes or something in to the school for B's birthday either the end of this week or the beginning of next. Plus I need to pick up and wrap a small gift for a gift exchange they're doing. I'm not allowed to spend more than $3.

Before I go, here are some pics from my December Daily/Holiday Album....

Thanks for stoppin' by and I hope you all have a great week! :^)

A Very Emotional Day...

Well today started out rather normal. Did a little Christmas shopping with my husband, came home cleaned house, picked B. up from school and waited for my older step-daughter, A. (who lives far away) to come visit with her boyfriend she wanted to introduce us to (first time she's ever introduced us to any of her boyfriends - but then again she lives really far away).

I took the opportunity to get A. in a family photo for our Christmas card (for once) with our dogs too. Her boyfriend, S. took 2 pics of all of us - and our one dog is completely in front of B.'s face in both pictures. So much for trying to get a picture with all of us in it. I still plan to use it for the Christmas card though and will include a separate pic of B. by herself in her Christmas dress from last night before the choir concert and do a collage type of card instead.  Anyway...

We invited the whole family over so they could see A. and meet her boyfriend. Turns out he proposed to her last night at the Steelers game during halftime! He's a really nice guy and I like him a lot so far. So well-mannered and clean cut. They've known each other since high school.

......So we're all visiting and having a good time when my brother-in-law gets a phone call from the neighbor - their dog had snuck out the door when he went to get the mail and he didn't realize she had - and she got hit by a car this evening. :(  The person who hit her didn't even have the decency to stop. :( The kids are devastated. I feel so awful for all of them. So so very heart wrenching. It's a day I know I'll never forget....

R.I.P. Sweet Dear Maggie :(