Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
Wut I wood rily wont for cris mis is a fr real Hors. or I Wood like a I fon or a ulechric gutar or a yooculaly.
Love, Audrey

Dear Santa,
I have been very good this year. For Christmas, I would like an American Girl. The one I would really love to have is the "Just Like You" doll with medium skin, brown hair with highlights, and brown eyes.
With it I would like the curlicue daybed, the butterfly bedding, the nightstand and lamp set, and the sit and relax chair. That is all that I would like for Christmas this year. Merry Christmas!
Sincerely, Sadie

Dear Santa,
I would like an iphone, xbox 360, wii, longboard, drum set, (unreadable) flow board.
Take your pick.
Sincerely, Jackson

Dear Santa,
Please help my children not to be upset when there are no iPhones or Electric Guitars or Wii's or grossly overpriced American Girl furniture under the tree on Christmas morning.
Sincerely,
Their Mom

I Report, You Decide

Okay, so I got my ugly ornament from Jeanette. My ornament to her is apparently still in the mail but I sent her a text telling her to be very afraid to go to her mailbox for the next couple of days. (She's actually in Hawaii and won't be back until right before Christmas and knowing her, she won't be checking this blog while on a vacay.)

Take a look at these beauties and help us decide who wins this year:



The grinch-like stocking is long, measuring about a foot and a half and is covered in tiny little obnoxious beads that keep falling off.
The lovely lady is about 8 inches tall and sports a stylish feathered outfit and wings (in case the feathers don't work, I guess).

They are both so....unique, I can't decide.

More importantly, today is my firstborn's birthday!! He is 11 and will be 'crossing over' into Boy Scouts tonight. Happy Birthday Jackson!!


Boy, do I love that kid.

This Could Get Ugly

It is time to for the mailing of the Ugly Ornament.

For the last 5 years (this will be 6), my friend Jeanette and I have exchanged ugly ornaments every year for Christmas.

Each year we try to one-up each other and give the ugliest.
Sometimes she wins, but mostly I do. ☺

Not that she hasn't given me some real doozies in years past.

Like Fran here:
(the fact that she is an ornament with a name is a sure bet she's gonna be ugly)

And this delightful thing that would look lovely on someones tree with that sort of theme and color scheme but it occupies about one quarter of ornament space on our tree:

This one looks like someone lost their lingerie
and it somehow ended up on my Christmas tree:

I don't have any pictures of what I have sent her in the past but I have one for this year, I just can't post it until she gets it in the mail.

You might think I should send her this one:

But that little guy was a honeymoon purchase, handmade by the people of St. Maarten and he's had a special place on our tree for the last 13 years.

So what if my kids are a little confused about what race Santa is and whether he rides a sleigh or a tricycle? They don't care, just as long as he gets here.

♫ I don't care how you get here. Just get here if you can. ♫
(You know that was in your head too... ☺)

Cookbooks & Cupcakes

A recommendation:

I recently headed up a cookbook for our church and the results were awesome and all the credit goes to the company we used to print them.
Seriously, if you ever do this (a family cookbook would rock!), it is much easier than you think. The company we used is Morris Cookbooks. There are a few different ways you can do it but the cheapest and easiest way is to have everyone submit their recipes by going online and typing them in. As they are submitted, the chairperson (you) goes through and proofs them, checking for spelling errors or typo's. The price depends on how many recipes you have and how many books you order. We ordered 300 cookbooks with 421 recipes and the total cost per book was only $4.25 for a nice quality book. Guess what my kids' teachers are getting for Christmas? ☺


The 120 cupcakes. Actually it ended up being 125 but who's counting.
More pics here.





At the end of the night in true Oprah fashion, we gave away all the cake plates. People were jumping up and down and crying and passing out....

Just kidding.

But someone did call me Oprah on her way out the door.

Numbers

23- Number of days left until Christmas.

34 - The number in years I am fast approaching.

4 - The number of kids I have at home today because I was too tired and sick to get up to take 3 of them to school.
Yeah, yeah. Call DCF on me.

18 - The number everyone in our house uses to exaggerate the amount of something.
"Okay, there are about 18 pairs of socks outside by the trampoline."
"I have asked you 18 times to get in the shower."
"How come Sadie got like 18 cookies and I only got 2?"
Actually any number starting or ending with 8 works...80 billion, 58 thousand, etc.

5 - The number on the clock when I get up to go work out with my peeps.
Before you're too impressed, we only started 2 weeks ago and I am sick this week so I haven't been able to go. And don't tell anyone...but I actually really like going that early. I am so not a morning person but it is such a load off to get it done before anyone wakes up and I don't have to worry about trying to work it in later in the day.

27 - The number of new e-mails in my inbox when I logged on.
I know. I am so popular.

3 - The number of Advil's I took this morning to get rid of a major headache.

31 - Number of projects I want or need to do on my current To Do List.
There is no 8 in that number. That's for real.

6 - Number of kids currently on the trampoline that I'm about to open up a can on.

120 - Number of cupcakes I have baked and still have to decorate for a Christmas party tonight.
No 8 in that number either.

38 - Number of friends I have on Facebook.
Laura G. is so much cooler than I am. ☺

4 - Number of new cousins my kids will have around March of next year, when my sister and her hubby officially adopt them.

55 - The number of Christmas cards I'm sending out this year (give or take a few).
If you didn't send me one last year or the year before, you're not getting one. I give 2 chances.

8 gazillion - Number of loads of laundry I have to do today.