The Twelfth Day of the Twelve Days of Christmas...

On the twelfth day of

Christmas Mr. Ken and

I would like to wish

everyone a very Merry

Christmas and the happiest

of New Year's!

I'd like to say thank you

for following our crazy

antics and hope to see you

again in the New Year.

You guys are great and I

have enjoyed visiting with

you and getting to know

my new followers.

I'll see you again in 2011,

I'm going on a little blog

break to enjoy my holiday

break from school. BUT,

I'll be peaking in on you

from time to time.

Love to you and again,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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If you happened to miss

any of my 12 days posts

just back up and check

them out. Yesterday

was my Christmas

home decor.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Home Tour

Tis the eleventh day of Christmas and we will be going on a tour to see some Christmas decor. We will begin with the small wood village. ( one of my garage sale scores.) Now we will move on to the village from last year. This is the daytime view. If you were with me last year you'll notice that it has grown over the year. If you look closely you'll see new residents, snowmen, street lamps, and trees.

Don't you just love the little

trees in front of the tree store?

This is the view at night. If

you look close enough you

can see the lights in the street lamps. The police

station and the Victorian

house "on the top hill"

needed to have lights

ordered for them--which

are not easy to find. But the

good old internet came through

again. Hope you enjoyed this

year's village tour.

********************************

A candle on the wedge--it

smells like Cranberries.

The dining table is ready

for Mr. Ken and I to enjoy

our holiday meal together.

On this year's menu:

Sliced brisket

Baked potatoes

Garden Salad

Rolls

I went for a simple centerpiece

but I wanted it to have whimsy too.

A new plate from my friend

Nancy--it is waiting for

Santa's cookies and

Rudolph's carrots.

A Christmas snowman S and P

shaker--his head comes off,

watch out! Nancy gave me this

also.

Above the snowman is my

shelf with my scales--this

year I just put one ornament

ball on each scale. Simple

but festive.

Another simple arrangement

in the dining room behind the

table.

Have you caught my theme?

SIMPLE--Time got away from

me this year so I went the simple

route.

Even the tree went simple.

If you look REAL close you

can see that it is a Fiber Optic

tree--hard to get a lighted

picture of though.

Looks like Santa's elves are

busy with gifts for the "good

girl" and the onery boy who

live here. :)

Hope everyone is ready for the

"Big Day, " I think we are--

if not, oh well. :)

See you tomorrow!!!!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Time with Friends and the Final Preps...

On the ninth evening of Christmas,

Mr. Ken and I had a delicious

dinner with our good friends Dan

and Nancy at their cute little

"cottage." Dan made roast, potatoes,

carrots and onions. We also had warm

rolls! Dessert was a lemon bundt cake.

You can find Nancy at Acorn Cottage

also. (See my sidebar)

The evening was filled with good food,

great conversation and the warmth

of friends at Christmas.

*************************************

Today on the tenth day of Christmas,

we will be trying to beat a winter

storm that is supposed to give us

a white Christmas! Soooooooo we

will be on an errand spin through

out the city for last minute Christmas

stuff and groceries for our holiday

meal. It is late and I'll need to get

up soon for our tear around town.

Hope all your shopping is finished!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Winter Break--aka: Christmas Break

On the eighth day of

Christmas at 3:00

p.m. my Christmas

break began! Yea!

I am looking forward

to some time off to do

a few things I want

to do! I go back to

school on the third.

Tonight, I have had

some R&R and did

NOTHING! What fun

I had.

Now the race is on to

finish Christmas

preparations. Woo

Hoo!!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Christmas Greetings

It is the seventh day of Christmas and time for Christmas cards. Here is our holiday card for 2010. If family/friends don't receive one of the photo cards then there is a picture in each card.

The cards are hung in the entry

with care hoping we get more

to share.

It's time to bring out the tub

with cards, stationary, labels

and anything else that might

be needed when filling out

the cards. One more thing to

mark off the list. Now we just

need to get them to the mailbox.

*********************************

Do you send out cards the old

fashion way??

~Keep on Dreaming~

Family Christmas

On this sixth day of Christmas Ken and I spent several hours with our family. There were 17 of us tucked into our living room. Plus later in the day, two of my nephew's friends showed up. Here are a couple of shots of the table. Since we were having a snack party I decide on simple but festive for the table decor. Remember the placemats from this past summer? I thought they'd work really well for today's party purpose. That cute little box holding the plasticware is a gift box. I received a gift on Friday and thought it worked great today. It's cute too!

Three generations sitting

on the chair and couch.

Grandson,Grandfather

and Son.

Here is the food laden

table--youngest brother-

in-law filling up his plate.

My sister-in law at the

table trying to make a

decision. It was serious

business at our house.

Great Grandpa and

Great Granddaughter

spending time together.

Happy Birthday Pops!

Since we had most of

the family together,

we celebrated Pop's

birthday today also.

Some of the girls (cousins)

hanging out.

Let's go to the park?

Emily, Uncle Josh and

her Mom get ready to

go down to the neighbor-

hood park to play.

"The sisters-in-laws"

sharing a photo op.

Great Uncle-in-law

Gregg with Emily

discussing football.

Very serious discussion

going on!

Great Uncle Ken

with Emily.

*****************

We had a great time today.

Lots of food, laughs and

good times spent with each other. It is always

great to see family that

live out of town.

Having a baby in the family

who will be celebrating her

first Christmas is great fun too.

Hope you are able to spend

time with family this holiday

season.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Preparations

On this fifth day of Christmas,

Ken and I are like the elves from

Disney's Prep and Landing show.

We are running around making

sure everything is ready for our

family day tomorrow. Lots of preps

and some landings in chairs when

we have run out gas. I my friends

have run out of gas!

We have 17 family members coming

tomorrow and I'm sure a good time

will be had by all. There is still some

to be done and that will have to wait

till the morning. Hopefully I'll have

more "get up and go" tomorrow.

See you soon.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Holiday Entertaining

Today on day four of Christmas

we are getting ready for family

to come in town and then on

Sunday everyone that can,

will descend on our house in

the afternoon for fun, food

and fellowship.

We are having a snack party.

Each family unit is bringing

something to share. Should be

a yummy afternoon.

********************************

Are you doing any holiday

entertaining?

~Keep on Dreaming~

Gift Exchange

Tomorrow is our class (staff)

gift exchange, so on this third

day of Christmas I'll show you

part of their gifts.

I snagged this really cute idea

over at "Brown Paper Packages."

Posted 12-3-10. It is a ADDRESS

BOOK for your purse, bag, tote

or whatever you carry around a

lot. You can use it when you

need an address or number really

quickly.

I also put a suggestion card in the

front, of items they may want to

include on each card. IE: name,

address, city, state, zip, various

numbers and I also included

birthday and anniversary on

it.

For each book I used:

--Card stock for the covers

--10 lined index cds -- color

or white (I left these blank)

--1 cd for the "suggestion cd"

--hole punch

--binder rings

--ribbon

--scrapbook paper

You could use basically

anything in your stashes

to decorate these. I think that

between my picture and the

description at "Brown Paper"

it is easy to figure out how

these books are put together.

I thought the ones I made came

out cute and they really didn't

take long to make once you get

organized. Enjoy!

********************************

If you missed day 1 or 2 see

Tuesday and Wednesday's

posts.

~Keep on Dreaming~

Christmas Elf....

The other day as I was wandering around in blogland I ran across this idea from Beki at " The Rusted Chain." It's called "Elf " someone---along the lines of a secret Santa type of idea. On the second day of Christmas I borrowed this idea and tweaked it to work for three of my co- workers.

These are the items I used:

1) Christmas Fabric

2) Pinking scissors

3) Scrapbook paper

4) Decorative scissors

5) Message tags I made

6) Ribbon

7) Mints

This is the scrapbook paper I

used to glue the white tags on.

Looks like the mints I put in the

fabric. :)

Here are the finished gifts.

I cut my fabric to hold eight

mints, gathered it together

and tied it with ribbon.

I added the tags I made to

each fabric bundle.

Tomorrow when I get to work,

I will "secretly" shhhh!!! give

these to three of my co-workers.

Hopefully they will do the same

and be a secret elf.

Thanks Beki for the cute idea!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Christmas Fun....

Today and for the next 11 days

I am going to share with you

some Christmas Fun!

*******************************

On the first day of Christmas

I'd like to share with you a

ditty that was in our church

newsletter...

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A Song with a message?

-------------------------------

According to modern folklore,

the song "The 12 Days of

Christmas" was written to help

young believers learn about their

faith.

Although no evidence proves that

claim, some say the popular carol

contains these codes:

The partridge in the pear tree is

Jesus Christ.

The two turtle doves are the Old

and New Testaments.

The three French hens stand for faith, hope and love.

The four calling birds are the four

gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and

John.

The five golden rings are the Law:

the first five books of the Old

Testament.

The six geese a-laying represent

the six days of creation.

The seven swans a-swimming

represent the gifts of the Holy

Spirit: prophesy, serving,

teaching, exhortation,

contribution, leadership and

mercy.

The eight maids a-milking are

Jesus' eight beatitudes.

The nine ladies dancing are the

fruits of the Holy Spirit: love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodeness, faithfulness,

gentleness and self-control.

The 10 lords a-leaping are

the Ten Commandments.

The 11 pipers piping stand

for the 11 faithful disciples.

The 12 drummers drumming

symbolize the 12 statements

of belief in the Apostle's Creed.

********************************

I thought this was an interesting

take on the carol. One I had not

heard before.

~Keep on Dreaming~

12 Days..........

Come back tomorrow

for some fun!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Brrrrrrr....The North Wind Doth Blow!!!

"Baby it's cold outside...."

"The weather outside is

Frightful..."

We are having a cold snap here

and it is FREEZING COLD!!!!

Yesterday it was almost 60

degrees and today it is 22 degrees!

The wind is whipping around the

house and the wind chimes are

singing their songs.

We have been to the store and have

goodies for a few of these cold days.

My plan for today is CHRISTMAS

decorating!!!!! The village is arriving

and the tinsel tree will arrive today or

tomorrow! Plus decorations. Pics will

be posted later.

Stay warm my friends and enjoy

the rest of your weekend!

~Keep on Dreaming~

Sinterklaas

Yesterday was Saint Nicholas

Day. A festival for children in

many European countries.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Our American version

Santa Claus, the Anglo-

Canadian and the

British Father Christmas

are derived from Saint

Nicholas.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Santa is depicted as a short

round man who lives at the

North Pole with Mrs. Claus

and brings gifts to good boys

and girls.

He is also known to have

elves helping him with "THE

"LIST" plus a sleigh with reindeer.

"Santa Claus" is also derived from

the Dutch--Sinterklaas.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the beginning Father Christmas

was not known to pass out gifts

but as times have changed it is

said that he too is a gift giver.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is a small bit of information

on Santa and the story behind him.

As always the net is full of fun info

on the Jolly Elf. Start a new tradition

with your family and find out more

about Santa, Father Christmas, and

Sinterklass. ENJOY!!!!!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you missed the fun we had on

our anniversary---checkout the

previous post. :)

~Keep on Dreaming~

Those Crazy Kids Update

Saturday dawned cold and windy BUT we braved the elements to celebrate our anniversary! We spent most of the day at an outdoor mall here in town, called The Legends. Our first stop was lunch... I took Ken to lunch at a restaurant owned by the Tuttle's of Orange County Choppers--they also have a cable show. Ken was in heaven with all the "guy stuff." Motorcycles, cars stuff etc. etc. This was the massive grill that can be seen from the front door and if you look closely, you can see what reminded me a fireplaces around the grill. Very toasty warm since it was sooooooo cold out.

More "guy stuff." Above and Below.

Here are our meals--above is

Ken's-- "The Holiday Burger."

Red and green peppers plus

green chilies with pepper

jack cheese. I ordered the

"Macon Bacon" both came

with fries and my oh my

were they YUMMY!

After we ate the SERIOUS

business started--SHOPPING!!!

When we tired out we went home

and rested THEN we were off to

dinner!

Ken took me to a Greek restaurant

for dinner. Check out the name.

Cute huh?

We started out with Hummus and

warm pita bread. ( We got into

it before I remembered to take

the picture) It was very good.

Our next course was--Greek

salads.

Above: Ken ordered Stuffed

Green Peppers and it came

with seasonal veggies and

lemon buttered potatoes.

Below: I ordered a pasta dish,

it also came with the veggies

and potatoes BUT mine

also came with rice!

I must say---Oh good golly

Miss Molly! This was some of

THE best food!!!!!

Final course: dessert

This my friends was our server's

fault! She talked us into these

delish, yummy morsels--House

made Baklava! We forced our-

selves to eat one and then we

took the other piece home.

Yummy!

We had a wonderful day

of celebrating--thanks for

all the wonderful wishes

from all of you! They mean

a lot to us!!

I forgot to add the picture

of us from dinner but I'll

get it up another time.

That's the story of the

Crazy Kids.

~Keep on Dreaming~