...Having 3 children who know what you like.

For example. Amanda, the oldest child got me new slippers. Comfy, warm and soft. Nothing better than coming home after work, taking off the shoes and putting on these.

Brad, the youngest knows his mother has a weakness for chocolate. A box of chocolate covered cherries was a great choice.

And Duke, my furriest child knows how happy I get when he sits still and poses for pictures. Here he is modeling his gift from Amanda.
Is that not the most adorable scarf you have ever seen? Too bad I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the tag was showing when I took the picture.

Finally, happiness is feeling well enough to go to work this morning and then having such a light load I finished early and left at noon.

I'm off tomorrow so the happiness continues and I'll show you some more Christmas gifts that made me happy.

Today is the start of the Christmas blog hop. You should jump on over and check out all the blogs that are participating.
Today a few of the snow folk that reside in these parts want to wish you a very Merry Christmas.



I suppose it all started with the snow. You see, it was a very special kind of snow. A snow that made the happy happier, and the giddy even giddier. A snow that'd make a homecoming homier, and natural enemies, friends, natural. For it was the first snow of the season. And as any child can tell you, there's a certain magic that comes with the very first snow, especially when it falls on the day before Christmas. For when the first snow is also a Christmas snow...
Well, something wonderful is bound to happen.
(taken from the first lines from Frosty the Snowman)


This is part of Jackie and Sandees Christmas blog hop.

Last Friday was our yearly gift exchange and pig out at work. Yes "pig out" is exactly what we call it. Our party is held at work, we exchange gifts and everyone brings a dish to share. We set up a table in the back hall and we grab something to eat while we're on break, or walking by the table, or checking to make sure there are enough plates, or ...you get the idea. Very little work gets done that day but even the boss doesn't seem to mind.
Our gift exchange is usually referred to as a secret Santa thing but most of the time it's not too secret. I was asked a couple weeks ago if I knew who had my name. When I said no they asked if I wanted to know who had me. Well sure, why not. The boss drew my name. WooHoo Jackpot!!!! Our gift exchange is for a $15 dollar gift. Most of us that have been around for a while always go over and buy nice gifts. There are always kids or new people though who think a $15 dollar gift  means a $5 item grabbed at the last minute from the dollar store. The boss however, goes way over the limit. In the 13 years I've worked there, he's drawn my name 3 times so I knew I was getting something good.
 When I thanked him for the gift cards his response was "Is that what I got you?" His wife does the shopping and just reminds him to take it to work with him on the right day.

Another gift I got was from the deli manager. This one just made me laugh and I used that saying all day long

Something I've been meaning to get to and it just wasn't happening was a little photo shoot with Duke. You see he got something really special to wear for Christmas and he just had to have his picture taken. I did these at night so again not real impressed with them but since you all love seeing Duke I'm showing them. I'll be back in a day or two with a much better shot that we took the next day.

I present to you Duke as Santa Paws

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Santa Paw is coming to town.

Since I didn't have much energy for much of anything over the weekend I sat and played with my photoshop elements. I don't do too many creative edits any more and thought it would be fun. A few nights ago I was playing with the camera trying to produce some ultra creative photographic compositions. I wasn't real impressed with the results. Oh well, nothing lost, nothing gained right?
this is one of the pictures I took. It was almost what I was hoping for except that the ornament was too dark.

I set out to lighten it up but I may have gone a bit too far not to mention that it's looking rather grainy.


Just for the fun of it I thought I would make it look more like a painting. I liked it a whole lot better when I first did it. Maybe my head was a bit stuffier than I thought.
One more thing before I go today. I wanted to point out the badge on my right sidebar to you. For those of you that aren't familiar with Jackie of the Painted Veil her and Sandee from Comedy Plus are having a Chrismtas blog hop. If you aren't already planning on joining in go check it out, it sounds like fun

Today Duke and I have agreed to compromise but only for the day. You have the pleasure of seeing Duke and he's going to show you a little project that's on the craft room floor.

I've been looking at all the fabulous wreaths that Jaz over at October Farm has been making and I've been wanting something for my front door.
I stopped in the dollar store again and picked up the wreath that was 50% off and got a container of jingle bells and little ornaments. I already had the white ornaments and silver bells from last year.
 The bow has been sitting around since last Christmas. I made that when I was working on a project last year and got carried away and made a few too many. I'm glad I didn't throw it out because it just seemed to be the right size.
We got out the glue gun and started randomly gluing everything to the wreath. I did this part myself since I didn't want Duke to burn a paw but he did point out spots for placement.
Now I have a super cheap and home made wreath hanging on my front door to welcome all who enter.

I have another block to share with you. I didn't do any quilling on this one. Instead I enlisted the help of my Cricut machine and my stash of odds and ends.
The reindeer was my favorite part on this one and there were even reindeer in the patterned paper for the background.

It has done nothing but snow non stop since yesterday. I've been watching it pile up all day long hoping that we would see an end but no such luck. We've been out shoveling 3 times already today. On top of the snow there is that howling wind that just makes it all seem that much worse.

I thought that maybe today could be a Duke post, but no such luck. He's settled in with his pops on the couch and I don't think he's budging
I guess instead I'll just bore you with some ramblings.
I never did tell you what I got for Christmas. I can cross two things off my wish list thanks to my husband and daughter.
Wade bought me this

I've been so busy being a whiner that I never got around to showing you some Christmas pictures except for that one of Amanda.
A couple of you had said that you were curious what it was that put that smile on her face. Well, she went to a place called Longabergers. She fell in love with their stuff and let me tell you, it's not cheap. Although they do have some tote bags that are pretty nice and very reasonable. Amanda has a couple of them and I really do like them. So anyway, she found these mugs that were $40.00 for a set of 2. I told her that the dollar store sells them for a buck and you don't have to get upset when you drop one and break it. She wasn't buying it so I bought the pricey mugs.
The picture isn't very good but you can make out what the mug looks like. They are nice and they are huge but more than I would pay if it was for myself. They were actually on sale when I bought them so it was only $30.00 for two. Still way too expensive in my book.

Duke dressed up in his festive red sweater that Santa brought for him. He was a little too excited so getting a picture of him that wasn't a total blur was not an easy task.

After we opened gifts Amanda and I were playing with the camera and trying to get some good pictures. I thought it would be nice to get a picture of the two of us in front of the tree so I set up the tripod and used the timer. This first one was really odd. I have no idea how this happened. All I did was set the timer and then jump over next to her. I swear I did not do anything to this picture at all. Check out my face. It looks like I'm a ghost and you can see right through my face.