Bear with me...

I have been trying to re-vamp my blog for the new year...and it is taking me a lot longer than I thought. So, if you have visited my blog recently and wonder why my background has changed every 5 minutes, and why none of my lists and stuff are there...it's cause I am working on what I really want on here (and also I changed something that accidentally deleted all of my gadgets...)

It should be up and running soon...

The results are in...

Well...it looks like the results are in for the poll for how much weight you think my mom lost between the first and second picture...

The totals were:

1 person said 10 lbs.
7 said 30 lbs.
5 said 40 lbs.
1 said none at all

And the real answer is.................................

none at all!!!! The pictures were taken only minutes apart! The first picture is of a typical outfit that my mom would wear on a given day. The second was in a pair of Tacy's pants and with a shirt that my mom swears is too tight...

The Decor...

Here is one of my most favorite things about coming home at Christmas time...our snowflake trees!! I have always taken picture of it...but they never turn out like I want them to...so I decided this year to take pictures of the whole process (since I was actually home for the whole process)

First...my dad cuts down some branches from outside and he brings them in and we get them placed in pots...

Then...my dad wraps the branches in white lights... (No Mom, Dad was not standing with one foot on a bench and one foot on a stool, neither of which he is supposed to be doing)

Then we take very realistic looking glass icicles and tie them to the branches. It is very painstaking cause you have to tie them close to the branch so it looks like a real icicle formed on a branch...
After the icicles goes the crystal stars and globes (but I didn't take pictures of that step)

Then, we tie on the snowflakes (and some other patterns too) to the branches...

And here are a few pictures of the finished product...

It really is cool...our who dining room feels like a (excuse the cheesiness) winter wonderland!

If you live close by you are more than welcome to come by and see it! My dad loves showing it all off!!

Here are a few other things I've thought to post about...

Tuna was sick for a few days, so I made her some toad in a hole for dinner one night (not that toad in a hole is a really good 'sick' dinner, but it's what she requested) The point is...I made it with a heart cut out...and it was cute...even though you can't really tell in the picture...

We also started making the Christmas cookies tonight. Tuna and Dad are the ones that do most of the baking...but I helped put the eyes and nose on the gingerbread bears...

(Also...don't forget to vote in my poll on the side...)

Some of the recent happenings...

There is nothing major that has happened in the past couple weeks...but here are some pictures of some of the little things...

We got the first half of the Christmas ornaments up...



Tacy waxed off half of her eyebrow...

We had the first snow...which was magical and wonderful...but now...after days of snowing...I'm SOOOO over it. It's cold...wet...slushy...icy...slippery...freezing...and now so magical or wonderful anymore... On the news tonight it said tonight was going to be -5 and tomorrow would be 8 degrees. It's just ridiculous!!

Eli was feeling the Christmas spirit at the Fudge Factory on Saturday...

I have tried to be productive...

I got all of my Christmas cards mailed...the presents I needed to make and get mailed I finally made and mailed...I figured out what I am making/getting everyone for Christmas, now I just have to do it...but I think I am good...

It had been good to be home. I was a bag of nerves for the few days before I left...but it really has been nice. I am sort of dreading Christmas getting here, because after that I have to go back...and that will be sadder than I thought it would. I forgot how fun it was to be with both of my sisters. We haven't fought...at all I think...not once. I will be very sad to go...but I am already out of money until I get back to Arizona...so I will for sure go back. I know there are a few worried people in Arizona wondering about that...

I really am alive...

Well...I was going to try to 'fix' the pictures...so they were in a better order and not so randomly spaced...but for some reason blogger isn't letting me move them...so you will get to see them as they are...

I assume everyone knows I made it back home safely and since then had a wonderful Thanksgiving and am now just getting ready for Christmas. I am not evey remotely close to being 'ready'...as far as presents go... but I am helping (or trying to) at the Fudge Factory... It will probably be more helpful when Tacy and my mom are at St. Louis having Tacy's surgury... and so then I will feel like I really am doing something needful...

Other than that...there's not a whole lot going on. We put up the first half of the Christmas decorations... We put up all of the Santa decor for the first half of December...and then the Nativity stuff for the last half. My dad says it's so we can celebrate St. Nicolas Day and then have the more 'spiritual' stuff at the end...but really it's just because we have a oversupply of Christmas decorations...and spliting them into two groups was the only way to be able to get them all out at some point...