Merry Christmas!

How Holly Story Christmas Card

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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! :)

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!

Christmas Photos

The kids got up super early this year - lol - Taylor woke up at midnight and Abbie was up at 1 a.m. and found that Santa had already made it to our house! They each have a little Christmas tree in their bedroom and are allowed to open the gifts Santa leaves in the rooms, so they were up playing with those gifts until they felt it was "safe" to wake us to see if they could open the rest of their presents under the big family tree. We all were awake by 5 a.m., but that was fine with me, as it was Christmas, and I wanted to allow the kids some time to play with their things before we got ready and left for my parents, who we spent the rest of the day with, along with my brothers and sisters and their kids.

Here's Abbie Christmas morning with her new twin Bratz dolls.

Taylor, Jacob, and Abbie bright and early Christmas morning.

My kids with their cousins at my parents.

Taylor, Jacob, Abbie, and Ashton - my nephew.

Jacob and I (my brother Jay in the background with his little girl opening a gift) .

Jacob all smiles over a new toy.

Jacob with his mouth a mess from a little chocolate and his favorite new toy - a realistic little vacuum cleaner! LOL. He loves it every time I vacuum and cries when I turn it off, so now he has his own to turn on and clean with! He REALLY LOVES IT!! It even actully sucks up a bit of dirt! LOL (That's his daddy, Mike, in the background).

Jacob and his cousin Carter.

Taylor and Abbie Christmas morning opening presents from Santa.

* Oh Christmas Tree *

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas tree . . . I'm about set for Christmas! Yay! It's a relief to feel done with most everything. I still hope to make more Christmas cookies and some fudge as we ended up being too busy this past weekend to do so (shoveling snow ~ we've got a ton of it ~ and last minute Christmas shopping).

I plan to do the baking tomorrow as I have the day off work, will clean a bit more, and hopefully settle down to a nice evening at home with the family to watch a Christmas movie. We had planned on spending the evening at Mike's parents, but his Dad is not feeling very well after just having had surgery and now he may have the flu or something along with recuperating from the operation. I pray it's not serious and he's back to feeling better soon!

I feel we found some nice things for the kids for Christmas this year, even with having a tight budget, so they should be happy once Santa arrives. I love seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning.

This weekend Taylor was in a Christmas parade for her middle school band. I've never been to a freezing cold wintery parade before and never thought they'd actually toss candy at such, but they did! We froze just a tad with the temperatures being -6 below zero. Yet, it was nice anyway.

And, last night Abbie had her grade school Christmas program. It was nice too. I haven't uploaded my photos from either of these events yet. Hopefully tonight after I take some photos of my decorations, I can upload and share a few more photos here. :)

~*pRiM Christmas SNOWMEN Ornies*~

I just bought THE CUTEST snowmen ornies from "Aly's Room". I LOVE THEM! She has a free pattern for making them also available on her site. Take a peek! http://www.alysroom.com/freebie.html

Vintage Christmas Images

Tis' the season to be Jolly! So here are a few vintage Christmas photo images. Feel free to use in your altered art or craft projects.

Christmas Cookies

The kids had fun cutting out and decorating Christmas cookies Monday night.

Vintage Winter Snow Freebies

This past weekend we had our first snowfall that actually accumulated a bit with some remaining on the ground . . and 3-5" is predicted for tomorrow. So, I thought I'd share a few vintage winter snow scenes :)

More Glass Glitter Vintage Tags

Christmas Giveaway

Take a look here for your chance to win a snowman ornie my friend Dawn is giving away: http://abusymommyonthego.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-first-day-of-christmas_22.html

Glass Glitter Hang Tags

I decided to get my glass glitter out and make some Christmas hang tag ornies. These and more are now for sale on eBay.