Fab Five

You know the Fab Five I talk about so often? Well, they were gracious enough to pose for some yuletide pictures. They even sported a fancified Santa doggie hat. Ok, they really had no choice but they cooperated fantastically.

Macy Jewels
Brayden Michael

McKenzie Elizabeth

Allison Jeanne

Arizona Claire

Next up....the cat (that thinks she's a dog) Betsey Sue. Yup, this is gonna be interesting!!

Embrace The Season

When Mother nature gave us our 1st real dusting of snow I, along with my fab friend Kathy plopped our bodies on the ground and made snow angels.
Let your guard down and have some fun.
Get in touch with your inner child.

You're never too old to play in the snow and make snow angels!!

C'mon, you know you wanna!!

Embrace the seaon. =)

Illuminated

I'm happy to report we have lights in the front yard. Oh this excites every bone in my body. I'm totally not joking folks. I get all giddy when the sun goes down and the lights turn on. Tonight I did my housework after I got back from the gym, then hopped into my Eeyore footie pajamas and sat by the front window waiting for the lights to turn on. There's something magical about Christmas lights.

"Blessed is the seaon which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!" ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

Happy Holidays from our home to yours.

Scarf-utopia

Friends, family, neighbors...don't be surprised if you get some version of a scarf from me this year. I take that back, YES pretend to be surprised. LOL The fact is, I love scarves, I love making scarves and I've only got one neck and a certain amount of days in the year I can wear them.

I have a handful to make for orders but if you'd like one made for you, a child or heck, even your pet...I can totally "hook" you up. Get it? "hook" you up. Haha I kill me!!

Ok, back to my lil scarf-utopia. Have a superbaliffic day. =)

Pass it on

Today after our workout we went to food court in the mall and picked a boy and a girl of of the angel gift tree. It makes me so sad when I see that all a 10 & 11 yr old want is some new socks and a pair of jeans. Ken and I are fortunate to be in the position to help these kids and I am so grateful.

Today, I posted this on my facebook and holy smokes!! The conversation went in a direction I never expected. Some talked about people abusing welfare, others talked about how middle class white males have the upper advantage. Seriously folks? It sickens me that people would go to thos eextremes. The facts are, there are people and pets out there who need help and we should absolutely do what we can to help them.

Christmas is not about gifts. I despise Corporate Christmas. This year Ken & I will be helping out these two kids and donating to our local Animal Society. My sister and I exchange handmade gifts and I choose to make the majority of the gifts I give.

All I am asking is for people to remember those less fortunate. Remember, you are blessed, pass it on.

What I did yesterday

I have so much to talk about but when I go to type it out it comes out as gibberish. Once I get my mind focused on all of the awesome and exciting things around me I'll have more words to say. For now, here's a peek of what I've been up to the past couple days.


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in the Woodbury house.

"Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind." ~ Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas

Christmas trees start going up in our house on November 1st. Yup, I said Trees, meaning plural. Three big trees to be exact and 5-10 table top and various sized trees find their way into every nook and cranny.

The front of the house can be seen from Main street...which is 4 blocks away...

The den tree is adorned with a couple hundred multi colored lights and all the homemade ornaments.

The main living room tree had a few new additions this year. My friend Brandy made two of these ornaments for me back in August in memory of our babies. Ken purchased our angel ornament this year & he also found a fantastic humming bird ornament in memory of his Nana.

We all know we need to have a tree in the bathroom to provide that ambiance as we sit on the throne!!

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a self picture. Not very often you see us razzle dazzled up.

We rent a hall for Christmas seeing there are 32 of us and face it, who's house can accommodate all of us? Here I am with my big sis Laurie. I just realized her shirt matches my scarf...p.s. the scarf was put on AFTER we consumed our fab meal...to hide the bulging belly!!!

This is only one side of our big circle where we play a gift game. Clearly one heckuva fun event!!!

My brother Kelly

Jay & Osten...Jay's my brother Bruce's boy & Osten his his son.

Me with my lil brother JJ

And back to our living room tree

Of course our bedroom needs a tree!!! We took a big honkan bag of pine cones back from Nana's yard Massachusetts back in June when we went for her funeral. I can't think of a better way than to have them on our tree. =)

If you dare to venture up our windy staircase with tiny steps you'll see this at the bottom landing. I guess I don't have pics of the kitchen trees or the one on the upstairs landing. Believe me, those rooms didn't go without yuletide joy!!! My electric meter knows so!!!!

My bright idea at 3am

Last week I found myself tossing & turning in bed while Ken snored away. It was around 3am when I had what I thought was THE BEST christmas cookie idea. I woke Ken up excited to tell him all about my idea. Ken, being the amazing guy he is smiled, shook his head, chuckled & went back to bed. The idea??? Snowglobe sugar cookies of course!!! =)

Is Mother Nature Confused?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here...but something is missing!! Now please, pretty pretty please, with sugar on top...Mother Nature...WE NEED SNOW!!!!!! I think she might be confused as to where we are located but in the Upper Peninsula of MI we are supposed to have snow...and lots of it. We've been walking around in t-shirts for crying out loud. We should be bundled up in hats, mittens & scarves, tromping through the snow, drinking hot chocolate on a cold winters night...not drinking lemonade!!! So, if it's not too much to ask.... Jack Frost, Mother Nature, Kris Kringle, Frosty The Snowman, Rudolf & all you other snow loving people, let's get together & demand some white fluff!! Don't make me staple fake snow on my rooftop & shred Styrofoam for my front lawn this year!!

Mom in the dress

I have recieved emails & comments about Mom's dress & how it must have looked on. I didn't have pics to include in the previous post but I do now...thanks to my brother Kelly!!! =)


From the left in the back row we have my sis Christine, brothers: Darryl, Bruce, Joe, Jim (my real Dad) The front row left to right we have Pat, Mike, Mom, Dad, Laurie & Kelly. I am not in this pic because I was a lil diaper wearing babykins & the neighbor was babysitting me.

Here we have Mom, Darryl, Memiere (my Dad's Mom) & my Dad

Mom & Dad

Mine came wrapped in green

After I gave my siblings the “secret project” my brother Mike presented me with a gift. He went on to say he’s no Martha Stewart & that I will have to finish what he started.

I was pondering what in the world this gift could be. Contrary to most people’s thoughts, I’m not an attention seeker. I like to blend & don’t like undue eyeballs staring at me. So naturally I was thinking…It couldn’t be Mom’s wedding dress. That’s in my bedroom on the wall. I have the afghan that was my Mom’s & sleep with it every night. Hmmm what could it be. I rarely, if ever let my guard down so I was trying to prepare myself for what it could be.

I opened up the top & saw a picture from a magazine on top of some sort of circle wreath type thing & fabric. The picture was of a wreath made out of ties….Ok, eyeballs welled up before I was even able to see what the gift was. It dawned on me…the circle with the fabric was my Dad’s old ties!! Flood gates opened & head fell to my hands. Mike had made me the best gift ever!! A piece of my Dad!!! Looking at the ties memories that were stashed away, that I thought were forever gone came to the surface.

I am not going to “finish” the wreath like Mike said. It looks super fab the way it is & he put the time & effort into making it so why fix it as the directions suggest. It will be hung in our bedroom which is a very special place. Mom’s wedding dress hangs on the wall above our headboard, Grandpa Woodbury’s memory quilt I made out of his old shirts lays on the log bed my real Dad & lil brother made, pictures of sunsets we’ve seen while on the road hang on the wall, Mom’s blue afghan gets nuzzled in between my arms each & every night & now this ultra fabulous wreath with so many memories of Dad will hang on our wall. How much better can that get!!!

You know how I posted the story about the gold wrapped gift where the kiddo wrapped a “empty” box filled with kisses for her Mom? Well my Gold Box was wrapped in green & the gift of Dad was in it.

The "Secret Project"

The "Secret Project"

On November 12th was my Mom's 23rd anniversary of her passing. I was having a frumpy wumpy kind of day & then my brother Mike called me. Actually he left me a mssg on the answering machine that he was just calling "to talk" Oh boy...I wonder what he needs to talk about. Did I say sumthin wrong in my post about Mom? What could it be? I called him back & he told me he has something of Mom's and asked if I'd be interested in looking at it. I was like, heck yeah!! I didn't even know right away what it was but was interested! He went on to tell me it was the dress Mom wore to my brother Darryl's ordination. He went on to talk about me being all into crafts & wondered if maybe I could make something out of it for us kids. Of course I said YES!!! He said the dress was stained from water damage but the beadwork might be able to be used to make ornament type sachets. I went to pick up the dress that very night. That's when Mike told me the story of the dress. Apparently Mom had a dress ordered for the Ordination but it hadn't come in yet. She gave some $ to my brothers & sent them out on a dress buying adventure. Ate the time St Vincent DePaul was near our house so they went there. It was there that they picked up the dress. There was no time to order another or go to a speciality shop...the Ordination was too close!! So this dress they picked out would "do" Mom wore the dress to Darryl's Ordination into the Priesthood (did I say that right?) and people remarked on how she looked like a Princess. I knew when I took it home I had a big task ahead of me. I wanted to honor my Mom & siblings & not ruin the dress. It took a good month before I even made the 1st cut. After that it all came together & sachets were born. I presented these sachets to my older siblings on Christmas Day after the meal. When Darryl opened his he sniffed it. I went on to tell him "it doesn't smell like anything but an old dress" I then handed him the photo that was taken at the Ordination of the family...with Mom in the dress. I had hoped to scent the sachets with Charlie perfume as it was my Mom's favorite. Even though Mom was not with us...she was!!!

The dress

Beadwork around the waist

Beadwork around the neck

back of neck beadwork

back of waist beadwork

The dress still had the pricetag in it!! A nifty $3.00 bought this!!!! I wonder why Mom left the tag in there.....Just think though, her dress was ordered & I'd imagine it was a nice dress, probably far more expensive than this...but this dress was the dress my Mom chose to wear when the day came. Mike said the ordered dress made it there in the nick of time but Mom thought it more special to wear the ones her kiddos picked out...and she was called a Princess!!! How cool is that!!!

Brayden could sense my emotions, he always does. Now, I don't know why, and you can call me silly but deep down I think he even knew this dress was special & he took it upon himself to nuzzle in it & pose.

Christmas

Christmas was AWESOME!!!! Family, Friends & Food. Three of my favorite things!!

Christmas Eve we went to Ken's Grandparents, ate entirely too much, visited & had a fanfreakingtastic time!!! Ken's Aunt Laurie just may have found her calling in life...a Walmart greeter!! It's a totally funny story. Of course my mouth got me in trouble...in a funny way. I have a tendency of speaking before I completely think things through. It's all good though if it provides a laugh.

Afterwards we went to our Friend Sammi's parents house for even more food. Even before I was able to take my coat off Tom (Sam's Dad) presented me with this....

A cookie woman with big "hooters"! Let's just say, Kaffy has, on occasion has flashed the midnight train. So it's a running joke. But this year Tom way outdid himself!! I absolutely love the thoughtfulness & hard work he put into this creation. Face it, it's hella funny!!! I am so thankful for the gifts we received & the fabulous friendship we share with not just Pat & Sam but her family as well!!!

It was midnight by the time we got home so we didn't make it to the neighbors for visiting & yuletide drinks. BUT I did put my totally heine kickin new jammies!!! I should have taken a picture but I didn't. Here's the story...My Mom always gave me new jammies on Christmas Eve and the tradition continues. Talk about super comfy!!!

Christmas Day came before we knew it. Ken & I met the man at the VFW Hall. As some of you know, I come from a HUGEMUNGUS family. I don't mean as in fat, ok, we are on the chubby side, but no, there are 31 of us around the table for Christmas Dinner. We find that having Christmas at the Hall provides us with the room we need & allows the kiddos to run around & play with their toys Santa brought them. Once home I made meatpies. The base is Ken's Meme's recipe & the seasoning of it is much like my Mom used. Then it was time to get ready & head to the Hall. It was a whirlwind of eating, visiting, laughing, more eating, more talking, cooking, & more eating. After we finished eating I passed my "secret project" I had been working on to my older siblings & was presented with something so kick ass I cannot include it in this post!!!

We played the gift game which was oodles of fun!! Ken ended up getting a gift my brother Pat & his wife Kim took & it was heated seat covers & a super fab Upper MI Calendar. I picked the gift that my brother Darryl brought & it was a portable Dust buster kit & a reindeer that "poops" that Maddy took over. Total kick butt! Both gifts will be out of this galaxy awesome to use in the semi!! The dust buster will help keep Ken's allergies at bay & I've always wanted a hot arse!! LOL

This Christmas was one to remember. Good times, good food & oodles of awesome chaos!!! =)

Through the neighborhood

Tonight was our night to get on our comfy clothes, pile the dogs in the suburban & go for a ride to see the Christmas lights in the neighborhood. My lil brother is spending the night so he got to come with us too. Total funness!!! Afterwards we went for shakes.

It's been snowing on & off here most of the day & tonight it was total snowflakage!!! A perfect night for this. The pups were awesome & JJ got a bit stoked too. We're supposed to get blitzed with snow tonight & tomorrow. I'm seriously hoping for oodles upon oodles of white fluff. We'll see what we wake up to in the morning =)