Heated seat... really?

So, our 1st "laugh out loud" at yourself moment for 2010 is this: after getting our van back from being serviced, Kent and I both kept thinking to ourselves, "Wow, why is my back so hot?" when we were driving. We've had our 2002 Odyssey for about 5 years and neither of us realized the driver's seat is HEATED! Once I read the manual and finally located the switch, turned on to "High", the mystery was solved. Just had to laugh about it!

And I've finally crafted this year! Made a birthday banner for a friend. Not great photos (it's been too cold to go outside and take photos til today):


And, while I had my stuff out, I made a new blog banner too... but you probably already saw it :-) Felt good to create!

Hello, 2010!

We've been letting the kids stay up to see the ball drop on New Year's Eve for a couple of years now. Tessa (6) was tired this year, so we decided we'd do our "toast" early. When I mentioned doing our "toast", she said "Can I have 2 pieces 'cause it's really yummy." So Tessa's "toast" was the buttered variety.

Then we all had a more traditional toast to welcome 2010 with "special glasses" and Wink (yes, plain Wink... Kent and I used to love Diet Wink... then they quit making it... so we got the "real thing" last night for New Year's Eve... since we drink ginger ale all the time).

Cheers! And may the new year bring us a renewed spirit of gratitude and a constant state of thankfulness. We are truly blessed.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Snow in NC in December! Yay, what fun for the kiddos (and grown-ups too!) We missed out on sledding this time (those garbage can lids just don't do the trick) but I've ordered some for next time! We went 5 years without a good snow, until last winter. So now I'm thinking we'll have some more... hope so, anyway! Here are the kids enjoying the snow:

Hello December... finally...

Wow, it's almost a week into December and I haven't posted a thing! Just to let you know, (you being the wonderful handful of blog readers that I have), all is fine. Just really busy. Thanksgiving (a completely photoless affair) was wonderful and we really enjoyed having Kent's mother here with us for a week. She sewed and I don't know what I did, honestly... cook and do dishes maybe...but it wasn't crafting!

So, we are getting into the Christmas spirit at our house, just a little more slowly this year. The Friday after Thanksgiving Kent and I had a date night at Table 16 for dinner and then saw the play "Beautiful Star". It was terrific (the food, esp. the Roasted Pumpkin and Feta cheese soup, the night out, and the play)!

This past Friday night we attended a community festival of lights downtown and since I did take photos, I'll share a few:

I'm woefully behind in my Dec. Daily again, but I plan to catch up this week, really... and I did scrap a layout this weekend after we decorated our tree... but I can't show it to you... it's part of a fun Fall Layout Tag I'm participating in over at Noel Mignon... you really should check out the community there for some great holiday ideas in "Santa's Workshop!"

Candlelight Coffee

Last night was our church's annual Candlelight Coffee held to kick off the holiday season. We had over 50 tables decorated and hosted by ladies using their personal china, centerpieces, etc. It is so much fun to see all the creative touches and sweet little favors everyone does. This year my friend Pam helped me decorate and host our "Season of Blessings" table (you can see the favors in my post below). We also gave them some "Indian Corn" candy. Here is our table:

Almost 500 women attended! Our pastors' wives sang 2 lovely songs for us, our Children's & Preschool Pastor showed us how to make lovely Boxwood Christmas trees (he has such a talent with floral arrangements), we dined on little sandwiches and "coffee cup cakes", and were inspired by PJ's stories (PJ is our Pastor's wife). It was a fun evening and maybe by next year I'll be ready to do it again, lol!

Here are a few other tables that were just amazing:

Fall favors... blessings booklets

This weekend I've been working on table favors for the dear ladies that will sit at my table Friday at our church's Candlelight Coffee. It is fun to see all the beautiful decorations and china the women use to decorate an assortment of holiday tables. I'm so thankful to Pam, who is co-decorator and is providing our pottery!

I've made little "blessing booklets" for each place setting... a little something they can use to record their own blessings, or they can take out the cards and have others write their blessings (maybe at Thanksgiving), then re-assemble and have a special little memory booklet. I used my Stampin' Up Top Note die and brown ink, trimmed index cards, oval, leaf and acorn punches, fall felties, stickles, ribbon, and Unity stamps.

Made a mini...

We're having another challenge over at Willow Traders this month (THAW - three a week) and the one for today was a scraplifing challenge from a gallery of the generous sponsors of prize kits. I've been admiring a mini album of Kindergarten Favorties by Michelle Lanning at Work In Progress kits. I don't have that WIP kit (tho' I do have others and LOVE them), so I finally opened up my Core Curriculum kit from Noel Mignon Kit Club and made a mini for Tessa, to record her favs this year. I was also inspired by Noel's school year mini album.