We have had such a fun time with Olivia home these last few days! Sadly, she must leave around 1:00 PM today to head to the airport to fly back to school. However, she will be home again on December 12 for the Christmas holidays! Hooray! We are all looking forward to a nice long visit full of crafting, cooking, visiting, relaxing, and most importantly, no schoolwork!
When I was downloading the pictures from Thanksgiving at my parents' house, I looked (for the first time) at all of our pictures from our fun trip last month to Chattanooga. The picture below is one of my favorites. Of course, it is missing two very important people--Jimmy (who took the picture) and Olivia, who was at Syracuse, NY for her national college XC meet.
The Mims family and the Johnson family (minus 2!)
Me and Jimmy
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration at my parents' house last Thursday. Both of my brothers and their families and both of my grandmothers were able to come too. We had a houseful, and my hard-working mother prepared all of the food! I am so thankful for that!
My parents, their children and grandchildren.
All five of my precious children--all together!
Before this day, I had not ordered my Christmas cards (which I usually do in early November in order to have them ready to mail on December 1), because Olivia was not home for us to take a picture. For the last few years I have used a picture that we had taken the previous summer at Seaside for our Christmas card photo, but since we did not go to Seaside this year, I did not have that picture (We are going to Seaside this upcoming year! It's already booked!)
Anyway, I asked the children to change into a white t shirt and jeans and we went outside (and it was cold!) to try to get a good picture. It worked! It is so nice not having little children that run away or cry while you are trying to take a decent picture. Believe me, I have had my share of stressful Christmas card photo sessions! My children all behaved, and within 10 minutes we had several good pictures to choose from. Thank you, children! The picture above is not my Christmas card picture, but I love this picture too.
So now I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the printed photo cards. I plan to prepare the address and return address labels tomorrow and have everything ready to prepare the cards for mailing the day that they arrive.
Holiday Hint #3
- Continue wrapping presents--I admit I have NOT started yet, but it is still a great idea.
- Prepare cards for mailing and mail them--that is my goal for this week.
- Make a list of all holiday baking you plan to do this month. Then make a list of all ingredients you need. Shop your pantry first, and then make a trip to the grocery store to purchase all of your supplies. I plan to make a separate trip to Kroger for this purpose, instead of tacking on all of these extra items onto my weekly shopping list.
- Schedule baking days. As I say every year--do not try to do all of your holiday baking in one day. It is just too much! It seems like a great idea, but it really is just too much! Spread it out over two, three, or more days. A few shorter sessions really work better than one all day cooking marathon.
- Get out your December calendar. Write down every single party, parade, gathering, program, cookie swap, etc. Looking at the entire month can help you schedule your personal baking, crafting, and shopping days.
The St. Jude Marathon is this Saturday! I have one more run of 3 miles tomorrow, and then I will rest until the big day. This will be my 5th marathon! I am running with Leanna and Stacee, and this is their first marathon. I am so proud of them and all of the hours they have put into training. I cannot wait to see how we will do! Take a look at the weather forecast for Saturday. Do you see that the predicted low for Friday night (which is what it will be early Saturday morning) is 21!! And that the high for Saturday (which will probably be after we finish the marathon!) is 30??
We are going to freeze!
Happy December!
No comments:
Post a Comment