Sunday, December 21, 2008

Grandma's Birthday


Today was my grandmother's birthday and so we all went out to lunch and up to visit her to celebrate. We really had a great time. It was nice to get to spend some time with my grandmother and really nice to get to go out to Mary's for lunch, even if we had pretty bad service the food was good and the company even better. It was a dreary, rainy day but we still enjoyed it. Grandma received some nice gifts, including our of a new ornament (Clarice and Rudolph) and an SD card of her own with some pictures of the Tuk-Morace family from this last year for her digital photo frame. I also crocheted her this deer (yes it is a deer!) shown and she still loved it even if it didn't turn out that great (I did try but this is how the pattern turned out... I guess I need to modify it for the future). We ended the day with some birthday cake, actually carrot cake baked by my aunt (which just happens to be the best carrot cake in the world if you were wondering). All in all it was a fun day. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Oh and Happy Birthday to my cousin Patrick too! It is his birthday today but he lives far away so we didn't get to have him at the festivities. I hope he had a great day too!

Christmas Decor Part 2

So now I will move on to myself for some of my decor but I think this will take some time. I will start with my non-living room spaces. Namely we will see my Nutcracker displays. I have both in my stairwell. The first image is of the display at the bottom of my stairs on top of the furnace. These Nutcrackers are part of a set from the actual Nutcracker ballet. You can see my Fairy, Nutcracker Prince, and little Clara. These are my first Nutcrackers and include the Uncle and Mouse King too but the other two are broken from the move. I hope to fix them for next Christmas.
Then you can see one of my gallery shelves filled with Nutcrackers. Jason helped me with both shelves and I think he did an amazing job. You can see I own more Nutcrackers than I should but I am still collecting more. (Plus not all of them will be shown in today's post). This shelf is mostly my Pirates but has a few other adventurers along for the trip.
Lastly, you can see our other gallery shelf. Here are the majority of my soldiers along with a few other fun loving characters, like Noah and a farmer. Some of these date back to when I started getting Nutcrackers back in high school as they came from the Christmas store. They were broken so I got to have them since they couldn't be sold. I painted them a bit and then kept them to start my collection. You can also see that the Bombay Co Nutcrackers make up most of my collection. Too bad I won't get to have anymore of them now.

I hope you are enjoying this look into my holiday decor. Tomorrow will be the outside of our home. Jason did a great job with the lights outside and I think my wreathe is just darling. Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas Decor Part 1

Christmas is a time for decorating in my family. My family has always done very impressive Christmas decor but no one ever makes a big deal about it. Because of that I have decided to do a series on my and my families Christmas decor this year. I will start with my maternal grandmother's house, which I helped set up about a week ago. Please note I am not really very talented at taking pictures but I loved some of these.

My grandmother only had her living room finished when I left so that is all I have to show but it is very impressive. We will start with the sofa and back speaker which includes lots of music players and a display of Santa's (I forgot to take a picture of the deer display but it is impressive this year). Those lovely pillows you see were made by my mother. I am not as good as she is yet but I think you will like mine this year too. Below you see my grandmother's mantel (and some of the deer). The painting was done by my cousin.
And lastly here is her tree. It is a little pre-lit tree which we only add ornaments too (we can leave it up since she has room to store it, so much easier than fully taking it up and down). You can see that most of the ornaments are of deer. I think we did a great job with it and it was so much fun to go through the years of ornaments and recount the stories they all bring up. Oh and the tree skirt was made by my mom. We can see where I get my crafty side from ;)

I hope you enjoyed the first installment and come back for more. Next time will be the outside of my home... then maybe some of our inside. I am a crazy Christmas decorator. Oh and you need to see the presents I made this year... including a crocheted menorah. Happy Decorating!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Life Update 12/16/2008... or why I haven't posted

OK so I sent out our Christmas cards and in them I included our new business card with our two big sites. After sending them I realized I haven't updated our photo site in months (I will try to get to that today) and I haven't blogged in a a week or so (maybe two). So here I am blogging again. This has to be short because I have so much to do but I promise some more stuff in the coming days.

So what is new... well this month we have done a couple of holiday related things included the Benicia tree lighting (which was fun and there is a post below about it) and have even set up our own home in the Christmas spirit, thought we still have a ton of work left to do. At least we are working on it.

As for jobs, Jason is about to finish his term and take a well deserved break. We don't know what classes he will be teaching when he returns nor has he really met with his new co-teacher so we will see how it goes. He finally has his own portable but it has no heat (and most days stay below freezing for a good portion of the day) and no computer nor over head screen. He does have a phone in his room now and it is his room. Today he hosts the department meeting and I sent him with baked goods. I hope it goes well. Also his grades have been moved from next month to Friday in due date so he is busy. I have turned in my subbing paperwork but have yet to get any subbing positions. I guess next year... but I have jury duty at the beginning of Jan so we will see.

We are making most of our Christmas presents and I am actually getting caught up but still have some to do. If it weren't for some other things I need to do (like household chores I would be done). Oh and I did a cookie exchange this month and it was a blast. I seem to be making some good friends. If only I wasn't such a slacker to the ones I have it would all be good.

Lastly, we are very excited about my brother and sister (in-law) visiting next week. It is going to be hard once all of the holidays are over and we won't have them coming down as often. I do miss them but this will be good times to spend with them. Yeah!

I think that covers everything. I am still reading, crafting, and quilting too and I will blog about that soon... hopefully. Take care all!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Benicia Christmas Tree Lighting

Last year was not much of a Christmas for Jason and myself. We spent it apart and even though we enjoyed our time with our families separately it would have been better together. Well that makes this year our first official Christmas and to jump start it we attended the Christmas Tree Lighting downtown tonight. Here is a picture of us with the tree (taken by Jason). Not the best picture but hey, at least we tried.

We also took a picture with Santa which I will scan in when I have a chance. Plus we ran into some friends while down at the tree lighting, just showing you how small of a town Benicia can be.

As for the rest of our Christmas spirit plans; today Jason bought me a white poinsettia (my favorite) and tomorrow we will (hopefully) buy our two Christmas trees, I have already removed all of our fall decor and started our wreath (pictures to be posted here and my other blog), and we are even listening to Christmas music now. Oh and we have our Christmas cards and letter all ready to go... they just need to be signed and assembled and they will be out the door to all of you soon. Maybe we will even have a Christmas party this year since we will have such a nice place to show off. I have a cookie exchange, which would help with hosting, and maybe a Christmas party too. As for Christmas itself, we spend Christmas eve eve with my immediate family, Christmas eve night with them for gift exchanges too, and Christmas day with my extended family. Jason will miss getting to spend this holiday with his family but money is tight this year and we don't have to fly to see my family, maybe next year for his.

Happy holidays all!