Home at Christmastime

I just love my house at Christmastime. I think we have the perfect house to dress up in Christmas cheer. I love the banisters wrapped in garlands, the stockings hung from the chimney with a pinecone garland draped across, our beautiful tree with all the ornaments from my childhood and today (and Daryll's lone ESPN ornament), the 4 wreaths that adorn our doors and staircase, the vintage sheet music window hung behind our couch, the bells that jingle when the front door opens, the cards that crawl up the holder on our wall, the cookie jar that is seldom empty this time of year... The Christmas season always goes by way to fast in my opinion. I love the feeling of this time of year, and this year especially we are trying to get back to the real meaning for Christmas. That means spending less money on fewer gifts, spending more time enjoying time with each other and our family and friends, and remembering how truly blessed we are. I am so blessed to have a wonderful family who gives me a ton of love and support through everything. I hope to continually repay all that they have given to me, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to catch up!

This year I decided to make most of my gifts for Christmas, which means everybody is getting at least one thing handmade by me. (Pictures will be shown when the gifts have been given!) The idea came about initially as a means of saving some money, but it has grown into more than that. It has truly been a challenge to come up with unique but (hopefully) likable gifts for everyone on our list. It was an experiment in finishing. So many times I thought it would just be easier to go buy gifts from the stores, but now that I'm finished I feel so rewarded. I can't wait to see everybody's reaction to their handmade creations!

Tonight is my last night at home before Christmas and I'm going to relish in every second of it. The tree is lit, Daryll's playing Christmas music, and the puppies are cuddled up sleeping next to me. Life really doesn't get any better than this.

Thankful...

My house is all decorated for Christmas with the swift change in the season, temperature, and month, but I haven't had a moment to reflect on our Thanksgiving experience yet on the blog, so I thought I'd take a moment tonight to recount the lovely day. Thanksgiving was everything that it should be this year; a day of peace, family, good food, and a spirit of thankfulness overwhelming. This year I personally have a lot to be thankful for: a good job that I love, a supportive husband and family, an inner peace and joy that seem to be overwhelming my spirit recently... As I prepared to host our first Thanksgiving, I tried to keep this feelings at the forefront of my mind and allow the spirit of the season to dictate my actions. Many people asked me if I was nervous or overwhelmed at the thought of hosting my first Thanksgiving, but I didn't feel any anxiety. On the contrary, I was excited to have our families gather at our home to share a meal and each other's company. Throughout the weekend we were delighted to have Daryll's parents, my Mom and Pete, my Grandpa, and Dad and Melanie visit with us. We started a new tradition this year of asking each person in attendance 2 questions for them to answer on camera, which turned out to be my favorite part (Daryll might still go with the turkey dinner as his favorite...) We took turns recounting our favorite past holiday memories, life lessons, and hopes for the future. And I am so thankful to have not only "survived," but to have relished in our first hosted Thanksgiving!

I recently wrote down some thoughts that I had on potential scrapbook journaling that sum up the logistics of Thanksgiving. Here are the "Numbers of Thanksgiving" for your viewing pleasure:

7-The number of people who gathered around the table for Thanksgiving dinner (Don, Andrea, Mom, Pete, Grandpa, Daryll, and me)

6-The number of side dishes that were served: green beans, twice-baked mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, and roasted garlic and Italian sausage stuffing (and garlic cheddar biscuits too!)

5-The number of items on our Thanksgiving menu that I had never cooked before (turkey, creamed spinach, stuffed mushroom appetizer, roasted garlic and Italian sausage stuffing, and garlic cheddar biscuits)

4-The number of hours the turkey cooked for

3-The number of days we had visitors over Thanksgiving weekend

2-The number of questions each person was asked on camera for the new Thanksgiving tradition we started this year

1- The number of times we dropped the turkey! (Before we cooked it, of course!)

KA Thanksgiving

Today was the first day of our first ever KA Thanksgiving program! And boy am I wiped out! When I left work on Friday we had 29 kids signed up (I'd say successful since we just posted the camp 2 weeks ago), but when I arrived today I found out that 11 more kids had signed up over the weekend for a grand total of 40 today! Success! It's so rewarding to see the camp continually expanding and thriving! We had a fun day of classic KA games, gymnastics (my first time going to gymnastics EVER in my time at KA, if you can believe that), some lego engineering, and more KA games! At the end of the day one of the parents asked how the day was and I replied that it was great, but I'm definitely not in camp form right now! (Meaning that it's hard work keeping up with those kids!) I might be sore and sunburned tomorrow (ok, definitely sore and sunburned tomorrow), but I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Chock Full o' Surprises

Daryll and I shared a very eventful weekend, chock full o' surprises. Friday night we traveled up to Burbank for a much anticipated surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday. It was such a success! My mom was so genuinely excited...that she cried (sorry Mom, you probably won't read this anyways)!
We had about 30 of her friends and family members there, including my Uncle Rod who jet set in for the evening event.

There were even more surprises in store for my mom that evening with some wonderful gifts. Amy and I gave Mom a gift that will love her back... a new Australian Shepherd puppy!!

More pictures from Mom's party can be seen by clicking here.

Saturday brought a new day and another surprise party... this time for Uncle Joe's 80th birthday.
We enjoyed good food and a good time with the family at Buca di Beppo's.

After the party, we drove up the hill to Dad's cabin near Arrowhead and enjoyed a restful evening and relaxing morning the next day. More pictures from Uncle Joe's party and the cabin can be seen here.

We finally returned home Sunday evening, tired but content and happy that everything went off perfectly without a glitch!

Some Random Fall Shots

Just thought I'd share a few pictures that I haven't shared yet from this fall...

Daryll and me on our 1st Anniversary

Anniversary stroll at Mission Bay

The pups love each other too!

Lulu dressed like a fire hydrant at the pug meet-up

George with the pumpkin he carved for us...yummm, pumpkin seeds!

Stealing a kiss at the pumpkin patch

Amy's Gift

Q: What do you get when you take an old window, a few hooks and screws, and a vinyl decal?




A: THIS!!


Conor picked up a bunch of old windows for me after my last project so I had to come up with a new idea for this batch. Amy asked me to make one specially for her, so I came up with this cute little wall hanging.


I was so in love with it, she almost never knew of its existence. I might just have to come up with one of these for my own house. And luckily for me, Conor picked up even more windows! I'm just that inspiring. ;-)

A Wickedly Delightful Halloween Weekend

Halloween held more treats than tricks for us this year with Amy and Conor visiting for the weekend! Saturday was a completely packed out day that we decided to spend at Sea World. We spent a few hours there enjoying the shows and Halloween festivities (including watching a bunch of cute little kiddies in costume). One of the highlights of the visit for me was when a dolphin allowed us to pet it for a minute in the area where you can touch them.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in Old Town before venturing to the thrift store to pick up some last-minute Halloween costumes. We got back home about an hour before dusk, anticipating all of the trick-or-treaters arrival. We were disappointed in this regard though. The doorbell only rang 4 times the whole night! The last kids were heard leaving our front door saying, "they gave us a lot of candy at this house!". Well, at least they were happy. :-) With all the free time we had, we put togehter our costumes. Daryll and Conor dressed up as Mario and Luigi from Mario Brothers and they were quite the dynamic duo.

Amy and I had planned on being nurses together, but the scrubs I got from the thrift store didn't fit, so I had to fall back on ol' faithful, my American Gladiator costume.


Even Ella and Lulu got in on the action for a while, dressed up in style as peanut butter and jelly (and then as little country bumpkins).

After dinner, we headed out to the Blarney Stone, a local pub, for some Irish tunes and general merriment. Overall, a top evening and day indeed!!