Since this is the last Friday before Thanksgiving, I thought I would post a turkey themed photo.
There used to be a store around town called The Christmas Tree Shop. It was such a cool store. It was the perfect place to shop for holiday themed items. They had some neat wall art, home items, toys, greeting cards, and even food and snacks. It was one of those places where we’d go to whenever we were out that way.
When Sam and I first moved in together, we got huge coffee mugs with a “K” and an “S” on them. We also bought our monogrammed Christmas stockings there. We had Christmas and Thanksgiving placemats and table runners that we bought there, too. We were pretty sad when we heard it was closing down.
On one of our early fall stops there, I remember Sam had been in one area of the store looking at some things while I was in another area. I spotted something that I thought would make her laugh. So I put on this ridiculous turkey hat and just kept walking around the store until she spotted me. Surprisingly, she didn’t ignore me (which she had every right to). She chuckled and probably told me to take it off. So I did, and immediately put on another one.
Of course, I asked her to take pictures.
Looking back, I kind of wish I had bought the one with the legs hanging down.
Ok, technically, I’m not decking the halls. I’m not decking them with boughs of holly either, but I did get a few more things done over the weekend.
We have one of those fake electric fireplaces at our house. The heating element went a year or so ago, and we never did have it looked at. However, we’ve always wanted to do something with the mantle. This year, we found some really nice garland that lights up and it fits the mantle perfectly. We also got new stockings for every one and hung them up a little lower than years past. My wife just loves the way it looks.
As you may recall from a blog or two ago, we bought a new kitchen table to eat at. The old one remains in the basement where it has been for some time. When I was going through the Christmas decorations, I found some placemats we had bought when we first got together. I was finally able to put them out and used a little Christmas tree that we used to put up on the mantle as a centerpiece. I may need to throw some decorations on it.
I went to let the puppy outside and it really wasn’t too cold, so I put jackets on the kids and let the pup roam around the yard and I put the lights up on the side porch. It’s very different from last year, as the railings are no longer there. I ran lights up and down the posts and hung the big Christmas bulbs.
Since they tore up our front yard, I figured I would skip the front yard this year, but Sam had other plans. Our porch is small, so getting the lights on it is no issue at all. I have some lighted garland that I will drape over the front door. The newest addition is on the way to the house. She ordered it from Sam’s Club. It’s a huge 8 foot arch!!
I think it will look cool, even though the yard looks bad. When it snows, it will look great! This should be arriving mid-week. It is supposed to be a bit warm, this week, so I hope to be able to get it up and done before it gets too cold.
Now, just what I am going to do with this big thing in the off season, I have no idea!!
Three more days until Christmas. I don’t even know where the time has gone, but the holiday is FAST approaching! This past weekend I was pretty busy, and at the same time there were plenty of wonderful family moments together.
After working four days and coming home, I feel like the kids have grown and are doing things that they weren’t just a day before. I’m not sure if it is the fact that he recognized my voice or my face, but AJ was smiling and babbling so much this weekend. Those baby smiles are exactly what I needed this weekend.
Saturday night, Ella and I were playing on the floor and Sam reminded me that I’d wanted to build a “fort.” So I pulled two chairs together and grabbed a comforter and tossed it over the chairs – instant “fort.” As a kid, I used to love when we’d sit in the fort and read books. Ella loved coming in … and going out. She was in and out and in and out. Believe me, it wasn’t easy to get her to stay still long enough to take a selfie…
This weekend we gave both kids a bath. Sam grabbed Ella and AJ’s bear PJ’s and gathered them up to read….
What book did we read first?? Well, of course, it had to be….
On Sunday, we placed a Meijer order for groceries. On Christmas Eve, it’s sort of been a tradition to have ravioli for dinner. Grandma always made them, and it is a tradition that I have tried to keep going. I refuse to use sauce in a jar for the holidays, so I made a list of everything I needed and spent the afternoon making sauce.
If you are new to this blog, let me explain. I have been trying to duplicate my grandma’s sauce for years. I have gotten close to doing so, and I have yet to master it. In doing so, I have kind of come up with my own sauce. I don’t tweak too much every time, because I don’t want to mess it up too much. This time around, there may be just a tad too much wine in it. Oh well….I will make a note of it and try again ….
While the sauce was cooking, Sam gathered up all the presents to wrap them as Ella took her afternoon nap. It’s always interesting to divide up the gifts. Ella and AJ will get TWO Christmases. We wake up Christmas Eve morning with my sons and open gifts, and then we wake up Christmas morning and open more. Sam bought some two sided wrapping paper from Sam’s Club. Being the smart woman that she is, she wrapped the gifts to open on Christmas Eve with one side and the Christmas Day gifts with the other side. She is brilliant!
After the sauce had simmered about 6 hours, Sam and I decided we’d take a short trip up to Frankenmuth to drive through town and look at Christmas lights. We put on the Christmas station, loaded the kids, and went for our drive. When the kids are a bit older, we want to go and just walk around town. We will definitely pile the kids into one of the horse drawn carriages and ride around town! For now, we just drove around.
We stopped at Bronner’s, which had all their lights outside lit up and it’s always neat to just drive through the parking lot. We weren’t the only ones who were doing it either. They have plenty of things around the parking lot that can be good for picture taking. I was afraid that Ella might run into the road/driveway that was by some of those, so instead, we went to a few that were well inside the lot. She loved it!
We had a feeling that winter time was going to drive Ella crazy! She loves to be outside. There is only so much that she can do in our house. We’ve been trying to limit her TV/Screen time, so she’s getting bored. Before I laid down for a nap before work, we grabbed her boots and coat and we went for a short walk around the neighborhood.
There is still a little bit of snow on the ground, but it will more than likely be gone by Christmas. We left without her gloves, so her hands got cold when she was picking up the snow. As we walked, she realized that we were at the house where her hound dog friend is usually outside during the summer. She kept asking where the doggy was, and I had to tell her it was probably too cold for her friend to be outside.
I was really surprised that she remembered the house!
When we got home, her hands and nose was a bit chilly, but she warmed up quick as mommy had lunch ready for her when we arrived.
There was a knock on the side door before I headed off to bed. The UPS man brought the kids a package from my brother. He had told me to watch for it. Inside were pajamas for AJ and a HUGE Daisy Duck stuffed animal for Ella. I had called him a week or so ago and told him that she was all about Daisy. She was so surprised when she saw it. I wish I had gotten pictures of her initial reaction. She had hands over her eyes and was so surprised. Then she grabbed it and hugged it!
It really was the cutest thing!!!
HA! I just looked at that picture and in it, you can totally see how I messed up hanging the stockings! Last year, we had 5 (Me, Sam, Dante’ Dimitri, and Ella). This year we added the small “My First Christmas” stocking for AJ. I use those 3M hooks to hang the socks. Somehow, I marked off 7 spots instead of 6, so there are three on one side of the fireplace and three on the other and a big space in the middle. URGH. I must have looked at it 5 times before I actually attached the hooks, but I never realized there were 7 spots! THAT is why I rarely build anything from scratch …
3 more days …. I’m looking forward to the holiday….
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 