Thursday, December 20, 2007

Birthday Celebrations and 200th Post

It's my 200th post! On my birthday!


We celebrated our 4 December birthdays. Mom's 63rd was December 5th. I was on vacation so we waited to celebrate on December 9th.


Dad's 70th was December 16th, Tommy's (my brother) 36th was December 18th, and my 42nd is today! We celebrated all three this past Sunday at Fire Mountain. The whole family was there plus 3 of Tommy's friends. The electric went out so most of our celebrating happened in the dark!


Mom's birthday celebration:


Mom is tickled about her gift! Wendie made her cake!

Dad's, Tommy's, and my birthday celebrations:


Tommy and Dad make a wish.

Tommy opens cards.

Dad got a new bathrobe from Mom.


My birthday cake.


I make a wish, with some help from M! LOL


The boys - C is playing his DS Lite and B and M are fascinated.

Monday, December 17, 2007

BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes!


I can't believe it's time for BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes! Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the Fourth of July!




I love decorating for Christmas/winter, especially with all my snowmen! Warning: this is a picture-filled post! And, I will have to update this post this evening with a picture or two of the outside of my house. I forgot to take outside pictures earlier and when I remembered yesterday, everything was icy, including my flag, which was flipped over and frozen.




Anyway, welcome to my home!
These are my most favorite! My Dad made these! He made the snowman in 2003 and the snowlady in 2005. The snowlady is definitely a redneck - she's smoking a pipe! LOL

I took this picture last year. It's one of my favorite things to display at Christmas. You're looking at the back of it, since it faces out the window. The little Christmas tree even has lights on it!


A snowman light I bought at Woolrich several years ago.

My Mitford snowman light. Love it!

A grouping in my living room, next to the entertainment center.

My dining room table.

Part of my snowman collection. This grouping is in the dining room, as you enter the kitchen.

The banister.

A snowman hanging on the living room wall.

Another grouping in the dining room. I should have wrapped the birdhouse picture!

My Boyds Christmas tree! This display is in the living room.

The top of my entertainment center.

I love my Winterberry dishes and accessories. My friends and family have added to my collection over the years for birthday and Christmas presents. Would you like a cup of hot tea?

More Winterberry, in my kitchen, of course.

Oh my. More Winterberry!

The powder room.

A new display in the kitchen as you're heading down to the rec room.

This snowman sings and dances!

On my pantry door.

On my back door.

On top of my baking cupboard in the kitchen.

I just noticed the black soot on the candle! It's a Yankee candle, Christmas Eve scent. Makes my house smell like Christmas! The peppermint sticks in the jar were a gift this year from our office Christmas party. I love the jar.




Thanks for coming along on the tour! Merry Christmas to you and yours!


P.S. You'll notice there's not a picture of my Christmas tree. That's because I didn't put one up this year! I just didn't have the energy to do it all myself and I wasn't hosting any Christmas parties this year. I may look at getting a small artificial tree for next year...at the after-Christmas sales! And my Thomas Kinkade nativity is not displayed because I broke two of the pieces last year. I almost cried. I just thought about looking on eBay to see if there are single pieces available.





Sunday, December 16, 2007

Ice, Ice Baby

We were expecting snow, 1-4 inches, on Saturday. Instead, we got ice. Not like in other parts of the country, but just enough to make it icky.

If you click on the pictures, you can actually see the ice.


My front yard area

A view outside my front door.

Another view out my front door.

Out the back door.

My deck.

Today is my Dad's 70th birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD! We celebrated his birthday, my brother's birthday (Dec. 18th) and my birthday (Dec. 20th) today at a restaurant. I'll post some pictures soon!




Friday, December 14, 2007

Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell is hosted by Kelli each Friday. Head over to her blog to check out all the participants!
Today, I'm sharing pictures of the doilies I purchased while I was in the Ukraine on a mission trip in 2002. I took these pictures the Friday after Thanksgiving to participate in Show and Tell Friday, but I didn't realize it was on hiatus because of the holiday! Then I got busy and didn't get a chance to post the following two Fridays. Anyway, here are the pictures. By the way, purple is my favorite color and I was so excited to find these!

This is on a shelf in my bedroom.

The back of the toilet in my bathroom.

My nightstand.

A close-up. I can't figure out how to take clear pictures close up - like Kelli does!

I just remembered I have another of the doilies on a stand in my bathroom but I didn't take a picture of that!


Monday, December 10, 2007

Vacation Memories

I spent a week in Williamsburg, Virginia - Dec. 1-7 - with two ladies from church. They're both widows, both married 50+ years, so they're both in their 70's! We had a fun, relaxing, safe trip.

I enjoyed walking through Colonial Williamsburg and taking pictures of the Christmas decorations:








Some other Colonial Williamsburg pictures:
Betty and Sue speak with a Colonial Williamsburg lady. We needed to ask for directions!


We went to hear General George Washington speak. And even though it was cold, we saw pansies!