Friday, November 17, 2006

Friday Five

Five Things I LOVE About Cold Weather

1. Warm Drinks - most particularly Spiced Tea, recipe from Helen's Tea Room in Highlands, TX. Hot Chocolate is pretty good too.

2. Snuggly jammies ( I am a jammie-a-holic)

3. Snuggling with Smooch! (of course that's available year round, but it's just not as much fun to snuggle when you've both been sweaty in the Texas heat all day.)

4. The feel of crisp air on my face when the rest of me is toasty warm in winter clothes. (my fondest memories of this feeling are from high school when I'd wait outside the band hall with my letter jacket on - it alway struck my as strange that I could be so cozy and warm when the air on my face was COLD)

5. My cute winter house shoes from Old Navy. Pink with cream faux fur trim and cute little silver heart bangles that make noise when I walk.

Hooray for a little bit of cold weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

I know it's a bit early, but MAN am I fired up for Christmas!!! I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday getting some stuffing for the stocking I'm making Viv (side note: if you make a handmade stocking for your first child you are obligated to make one for all subsequent children. If you haven't started a family yet, just file that nugget away and pull it out when you see that stocking kit that looks so cute when you are expecting your first. With each child you have less time for sewing crafts.) and I find that they have a sale on Christmas stuff! Many things are 50% off! I walk around a bit and then I see it. It's beautiful. It's big. It's full. It's pre-lit. It's on sale!!!!!!!! I think my heart literally skipped a beat. I got an amazing 9-foot tree (we have 12 foot ceilings!) at 30% off - I saved over a hundred bucks!!! For those of you who crunch numbers you will soon figure out that if 30% is a little over $100 it was still more than anyone really wants to spend on a tree. I'm considering this an investment though. We will be using this tree every year as my children grow up.

I remember the tree we had growing up. Every year we would get all itchy and scratchy as we shoved each of those limbs into the centerpole. Then we'd plug in this weird silver ball that made a sing-songy bird type noise. We'd ehang up all my snowflakes and all of Matt's silver ball ornaments. ( I started to say "hang up Matt's balls" but that sounded not quite right!) We'd check the lights and fix the bad ones until it was lit up and then - only then - did it really feel like the spirit of Christmas was in our house. Then Dad would say something like "Bah Humbug" and we'd laugh and enjoy the month of December. We'd put stockings on the big bookcase (no mantel in that house) and then check every day with a quick feel to see if there was anything inside. It was a fun time with lots of family time. December was always full of smiles as far as I can remember. Thanks Mom (and Mr. Bah Humbug) for helping us focus on love every December.

People talk about Christmas traditions. My hope is that when we put up our tree this year and set out all of my snowmen (I LOVE snowmen!!) that I can begin passing on not a tradition of how it should be done, but rather the heritage of love that is ours in Christ.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Friday Five

I have several friends that do Thursday Thirteen on their blogs. I don't think I can come up with thirteen things every week so I decided I'd do Firday Five instead. So, here's the first installment:

Five thing I love about my new house:

1. The kitchen - four people can be in my kitchen working on something and not touching each other. This is phenomenal!

2. The laundry room - it has a door, but it is in the conditioned space - does it get any better? Oh, and the Duet W/D!

3. My bathroom - corner whirlpool tub for two anyone?

4. The pantry - it's actually in the kitchen as opposed to our last home where we actually built a pantry in the dining room because there wasn't one anywhere else!

5. My husband - OK, he's not actually part of the house, but the house is a gift from him. He worked (and still works) his rear end off getting it ready for us to move in and so that we can pay the mortgage each month and so many of the thing in this house were his idea (like the wood floors, and the use of the upstairs space, and the shower in our bathroom that our whole family will fit in - not that we've done that). Every time I turn into the neighborhood, after I think "How is that possibly my house?," I think "Wow, my husband loves me and our family more than I can put into words." Thanks Smooch!!!