Holiday Activities

It's been a busy couple of months. Haven't been keeping up on the blog like I should. So I will start with Thanksgiving. The below is the typical way of passing the time till dinner's ready. I don't know if they could look any more relaxed without being asleep.

Another Thanksgiving tradition? Looking at the Black Friday ads. Alyssa seems to have found something she likes!

For Mom's birthday this year Sara and I took her to Wausau for a day and to see the Nutcracker. The theater was beautiful and the production has some fun humor in it. Hope she had fun even though she wasn't feeling well.

My nephews were in the Christmas story production this year. They both played the piano before it started and did an awesome job. Look at the concentration on that face.

And who is the cutest black sheep you ever saw?

On Sunday the 23rd we went to Sara's to make Christmas cookies. Mom had some cute directions for using mini donuts. Here's Lys creating her works of art.

One of my nephews decided there needed to be a contest of the best decorated cookies. No surprise - Alyssa won. Yum!

I really liked my tree this year. I'm getting more and more blown glass ornaments. I love those. They look old fashions and really sparkle on the tree.

Another face courtesy of Alyssa. Doesn't look fake at all.

Went to Don's mom's house for Christmas and my mom's house for Christmas day.

The day after Christmas we had decided to travel to our Arkansas home. We weren't sure we were going to go, though, because they were supposed to have a winter storm. After debating we decided to go. If it got too bad we were going to stop and get a hotel for a day till it cleared up. It ended up being fine and we didn't see any snow until about 50 miles before our destination. Then when we got there six inches of snow was on the ground! Found out the area had its first blizzard warning on Christmas and we were there the next day. So glad we left the cold Wisconsin weather for the warm Arkansas weather - not.

I did think the snow on the holly bush was really pretty, though. Mom thinks I should use the picture for my Christmas card next year. Might just do that.

Jeff came over and helped ALOT wth the trin. It's 99.9% done. Yeah!

Kitchen trim is done. Notice the crown molding on top of the cabinets. Don even got the accent lighting installed.

I put up some pictures this time. Don helped me put the quilt hanger up. The quilt in the picture matches the one on the bed and was made by my mom. You can't see the quilt on the bed because we brought down the electric blanket. One of Don's best idea EVER.

Alyssa and I liked to go antique shopping while we are there. I wanted to have something we could both look for together while we are there. After much discussion we decided on pitchers that are 4 inches or less and are shaped like animals we like. There can't be just a picture on the side of the pitcher, it has to be the body of the animal as the pitcher. Of course I can't abide by my own rules. I bought one by the rules and couldn't resist the one that was not.

Alyssa had a concert for Christmas but was reschedule to January because of a snow storm on the day of the concert. The day of the concert that was to start at 7, Alyssa told us at 5:30 that was the day. Typical.

And last but definitely not least, we bought a "new to us" car. It's a 2011 Chevy Malibu 2LT. It has a ton of options including remote start, a sun roof, and my favorite, HEATED SEATS. The ride is very smooth and quiet. We tried out some Fords, but the ride wasn't as nice and the noise was noticably worse. Looking forward to taking a trip with it!

So, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!