Christmas and the tale of the missing posts

OK so maybe there are no missing posts just silly me being too busy to write them. We have been busy (by me I mean J and I) with so many things it will take a lot of posts to catch up but I will start here. I hope I didn't lose any readers (which I am sure I did but maybe they will come back). Let's start where I left off... Christmas and Christmas decor. I am not going to post as much as I had wanted to about that but I will give you the picks of my trees (more images will be on my craft blog if you are interested). We had two trees this year but I didn't seem to get a good picture of the big one (so it is in two parts with the middle missing but you get the point). The house did smell very Christmas-y with two trees (the small one now lives outside) and I think it made J get even more into the spirit of the holiday.

The little tree was filled with little ornaments and the big one with everything I had collected since my childhood. We only have a few 'us' ornaments but that number went up this year thanks to my Aunt Pattie, who is the single best shopper in the family. Thanks Pattie!

We had a wonderful time over Christmas seeing all of the family and all of the amazing presents. In a later post I will tell you all about our trip to the California Academy of Sciences and Bob's

visit and even Carolyn's trips out. Oh and a book review or two... or three. Sorry I dropped off but I am back now.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Suzy Homemaker

What does a wife do when she hasn't found employment yet? Well look for a job... but other than that? Oh yeah, she plays at being a homemaker. I feel really good about myself today. I have been sick but finally I am getting stuff done around the house. I got the floors swept and/or vacuumed most all of the floors, cleaned the sinks in the bathrooms (which I hate doing), cleaned up the dishes, baked cookies, and found a way to make most of our Christmas gifts for this year. I am so proud of myself!!! I know not everyone wants homemade gifts but I think they will be lovely and personal. I will even post some hints as to what I am making, either on this blog or on my other blog (which I haven't visited since I started this whole blogging experience.

I guess that since I am still trying to find a job I can be a great wife! Having purpose feels so good. I promise to post some pics of what I made today that has inspired my Christmas crafting plans!

Job search and life update November 9th

If you didn't know Jason and I have been very sick lately. Jason caught something when he first started subbing and subsequently gave it to me. I have almost completely recovered but Jason is still recovering. Apparently, Zicam really does work. I took it since I found myself felling poorly and I have progressed through the illness much faster than Jason has.

Our home is progressing quiet well though. I am just about to change the decor over to fall from Halloween and at the end of the month I will switch it over to Christmas. All of this will come with pictures in the blog if you want to see the transformation. I have been having a hard time keeping our home as clean as I like with our new illnesses but I hope to catch up on my cleaning this week as well.

In other news I think we will make all of our Christmas gifts this year. We are much poorer (not broke but we can't risk it) then we expected so I hope no one expected anything amazing and store bought from us. I will use all of my skills to make you all something you want but it may not be your dream gift. It is the thought that counts, right? Speaking of artistic exploits I have been busy with some other projects too. I am almost done with my first block for my quilting bee. I am also fairly well started on my Nestie exchange item too! I will not finish my blanket for fall though. I guess it will have to be done for next year. I do hope to buy some fabric to make some winter themed pillowcases this year. Lastly, we are still working on our Christmas cards but those should be made soon.

As for work, Jason has already begun subbing and is working most days. I take the test for the county this Wednesday, wish me luck, and did not get the community college job. I am disappointed but still looking. I am applying to almost anything I can find. I have started working towards subbing and hope to find a position in retail that is just seasonal. My mother seems pretty confident that I should be able to get the county job. Let's hope so because nothing else seems to be appearing.

In the kitchen you may have noticed I have been pretty quiet. That is because we have been sick and not in the mood for cooked food or for cooking food. I am hoping next week to cook again. We need some vegetables but I have tons of meat so I am thinking something exciting should becoming this week. Jason really wants Stromboli, so once he is well enough I will make it for him and post the recipe here for all of you.

What about your writing, how is that going? Well I am over 10K into NaNoWriMo but I needed to be at 15K today so I still have a ton of catching up to do. This does not help the cause but I do enjoy the therapy it gives me. I am also up-to-date on my blogging (you can check if you want) for NaBloPoMo, there at least I am on top of things. Sadly, I am very behind in my reading. I still have three book club books to read and now a full vampire series (which I have almost finished the first book of), the Outlander series to start, and an extra book for one of the book clubs. So much to read and write and only so much time in the month.

Lastly, I guess I will give a little update on the other parts of our lives... those we love dearly. Jason's uncle has a rare form of cancer and Jason is afraid that he may lose him. This is a sad time since we can not afford to go and visit but Jason's uncle seems very brave and untroubled by his illness. The rest of Jason's family is in good health though. Bob, Jason's father, is coming out in December to visit, which we look forward to. My family all seems to be in health. My brother and sister-in-law have settled well up north and love their new puppy very much. We are all looking forward to their visit this month even if it is only for a few days and we have to share them with Nicole's family. At least we will get to see them. I miss them both very much. As for friends they all seem to have legs and arms enough between them. We worry about Bob but we trust he should be fine until his return. Bianca, our lovely cat, has lost her collar, again! I guess this whole outdoor thing is not working with the whole collar thing. She does seem to be used to it by now. Once it really starts the bad weather we might have her live indoors most of the time.

Ok well that is all of us. I hope all of your lives are going well and we will update you again in a few weeks. Take care!

Christmas Lists

We just received our Target Christmas Book. It is amazing how styling can make anything look like an amazing gift for someone... it doesn't always work out that way but that doesn't change anything. I am so excited about the holidays this year. Yes we are as broke as folks can get and so the gifts will be "from the heart" instead of the pocketbook. I love the family togetherness and this year I will have my own family to think of. It is great to know I have started a family with Jason now. I know just the two of us and a cat is not much of a family but it is a start.

This is the first year we will do Christmas together. We had a tree last year but didn't see each other anytime near Christmas because of how far our families live apart. Unfortunately, this means Jason will not see his family for Christmas but will be forced to bond with mine (which he is totally cool with). I am just happy to get to have him with me. We will get our tree at the end of the month and the whole house will be setup with holiday love. I need to go buy some fabric to make a few pillows for it but that can wait. All I know is that I am incredibly excited about all of this. Yay Target for getting me excited!

PS. I am always into giving... so if you feel the need to get me something for Christmas find out if you can donate something to charity in the process... or skip the gift and give to something you care about. I am going to blog later about what I care about if you need some inspiration. Happy Holidays!

Holiday decor

So I am doing an ornament exchange for one of the boards I am on on thenest.com. I have been having a hard time finding anything that would work for my person... until I walked into World Market. Not only could I find all of the ornaments I needed but I found tons I want for myself and for less than $5 each! I love the above picture of holiday decor but maybe in blue instead of red. Oh I love World Market oh so much... they are awesome and I only wish they had one closer to me, and more ornaments! Feel free to get me almost anything from that store, by the way!