Merry Christmas - Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Angels, Wisemen Images

Safe travels to everyone!!! The road conditions are quite bad here, with first snow, then freezing rain here in Wisconsin. I made it the 15 mile drive in to work regardless. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'm impressed ~ Santa has his gifts all wrapped and ready for the big night. Mike did nearly ALL the wrapping!! Thanks hon. Well I did all the shopping, so fair is fair, right?! I baked cookies and candy while he was busy wrapping the gifts on Sunday. I do have a couple gifts to put together and wrap tonight and need to pick up a few things for dishes to make and take to each of our parents for each family's get together, but I'm feeling pretty good that we're pretty much ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Wanna See What the Prize Was?

Finally, I think enough time has passed that I can post my black Friday giveaway prizes. I sent out two prizes, each the same with the exception of the sign color - one was burgandy, the other the blue color as shown here. So here is what the winners each received from me: a handpainted stenciled "Sleigh Rides" sign, some prim Christmas hang tags, 4 li'l prim candles, 2 pear shaped tarts, a large prim candy cane, and 2 small wax dipped chenille candy canes tied together with a pine sprig. :)

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Last night the kids and I baked cutout Christmas cookies. We didn't finish with decorating them as it got to be too late, but that will be the fun project for tonight or tomorrow night (Abbie may spend the night with her dad tonight, and if so, we'll wait for her to share in the fun tomorrow night). She was doing better last week as far as her emotions go, but then spent the weekend with her dad and is back to being sad again . . ugh. It seems that now, after over 5 years of being apart, she wants her mommy and daddy together and told me last night that if I wanted her to be happy, that I would get back with her dad. I had to explain to her (again) that I'm sorry Abbie, that's not going to happen, you have to make the best of what you do have and be happy that you have both of us in your life. Crying is not going to help at all. I just don't know what has really triggered this after everything was fine being that we haven't been together since she was 3 years old and she never had these emotional problems about it before. I pray she can find a way to be happy and not let this continue to eat at her. I'm doing my best!

Snowmen!

Well, we had a nice blizzard the night before last through yesterday and now have close to 15" of snow that fell during that time covering the ground. The snow we have doesn't pack the best right now, but hopefully we are able to build a snowman sometime soon ~ if only temps. would rise too being we now have subzero windchill with the actual temp. at 6 above. Just a bit cold I'd say. I'm going straight home after work tonight and relaxing in my recliner bundled in my cozy blanket (of course after making supper, helping kids with homework, baths, tuck in time, etc.).

Winter Children Images

I've been quite busy as of late, as I'm sure most everyone is, afterall, tis the season. :)

One of the issues we've been dealing with is a depressed little girl. I pray she somehow snaps out of this and her mood improves soon, as this has been an issue since at least the start of this school year and is now evidently serious depression as it's increased daily to the point of her crying nearly all day and night, not wanting to go to school (daily), believing she is sick every day - headache, muscle/joint pains, upset stomach, crying to the point of throwing up phlym every morning, etc. I took her to the doctor a couple weeks ago and there is nothing medically wrong and they discourage medication for such in children, so counseling is the route we are trying. I have her talking with a school counselor/psychologist and she also speaks with the school principal whenever she feels the need, and I'm doing everything I know of to try to help her, but it's so difficult - hard for the entire family. I'll be talking with a child psychologist this upcoming week to see if there is something different I could do to try to alleviate her problem and start to feel better. If only it were as easy as flipping a switch. I do know however, that putting up the tree and letting her do most of the decorating last night helped her mood at least temporarily. She's also excited that she gets to help me tomorrow - just her and I - at the next craft show I have. Hopefully she has a good day with me and we make lots of good sales, as whatever I make from these upcoming shows is going towards the kids Christmas presents.

During the past two days we have started getting some snow flurries, so it's beginning to look and feel a bit more like Christmas. I hope we have at least a few inches of snow to cover the ground by Christmas, as right now it's a slight scattering that's actually stuck to the ground. Jacob is at the age this year that he is taking in all the holiday and seasonal sights and loves it! He wants to eat the snow, loves all the Christmas lights and was intrigued when I brought the fresh cut tree into the house the other night. Such a fun age - I know he's going to have fun Christmas morning this year! :) Hopefully Santa can find that train that he knows will make him oh soo happy! (Santa's got to get shopping, and hopefully will be doing so next weekend).

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!