the countdown

I forgot to put the elf gifts in the stockings this morning! I overslept and was totally out of my routine. Ugh! Well, I guess they will all get double prezzies tomorrow morning.  I'm guessing they won't complain too much.

The number of folks at work is decreasing daily. We are on a skeleton crew now, and tomorrow will be even more quiet around here.

I finished the Deanna Raybourn Christmas novella last night and started to read the second book in the Ally Condie trilogy.  I didn't get very far. The oldest came in to chat and then after she left I dozed off.

I think we are in pretty good shape for leaving Saturday morning. Duke is going to see his Aunt Angela next door on Friday and I told the kids to sleep in what they wanted to travel in! Laundry is pretty well caught up for 3 of us and the girls are on their own. Presents are wrapped and in bags.

Christmas is coming!!

hoosier hysteria, baby

It was so much fun to watch the Hoosiers put the proverbial 'smack down' on the Tar Heels last night. Impressive. Awesome. Assembly Hall was a sea of red and was rocking!  Too much fun! And listening to Dickie V call the game.....he gets so excited and so animated, it is hard to resist!

In other news, our town had the tree lighting last night down at our historic square. This is probably my favorite town event. We haven't been able to go for the past two years because of soccer, but we were able to attend this year and it was as magical as ever.

The rest of this week and into the weekend is going to involve a concerted effort to finish the Christmas shopping. I have made my list and know exactly which stores I need to visit in order to complete this part of the holiday festivities. Getting some wrapping paper and a few spools of gorgeous ribbon are also on my list of things to do.

Happy Wednesday!

welcome to the world of the e-reader

Hubby shocked me with a brand new, shiny, spiffy, totally cool Nook Tablet for Christmas. Sooooo excited. Updates on my adventures with this new gadget as we move along. I've already downloaded two free YA books. Very cool. Very grateful.

Happy Boxing Day!!

the elves, day three

Socks. Yep.  I always give them socks in their stockings....my little Christmas joke with them. This year, I didn't like the selection of holiday themed socks at Target, so I opted for some really soft pastel knee highs for the girls and a nice pair of dress socks for the boy.  He usually manages, at least  two out of four Sundays, to come down for church with a nice pair of pants, a nice shirt and white athletic socks on his feet. I hope that adding one more pair of dark colored dress socks will even the odds a bit. Boys!

Work is going to go slow today. We have cleared our plates of the bulk of the work we wanted to do and are down to fine tuning, which, can move along at a snail's pace. I'm so sick of anurans (frogs), their habitats, distribution, calls, photos etc that I can hardly stand to open the authoring software we are using to convert this course's content. My boss is right along with me in the "NO MORE FREAKING FROGS" boat. Ha ha.

But yesterday was okay, and I learned something too, which is always a bonus. My friends over in the Communications Dept were enjoying some Dunkin Donuts and offered me one. I selected a classic glazed donut and was not impressed. Either I remember DDs to be better than they ever were, or they've changed their recipe. I'd rather not waste the calories on another one of their pastries. But, donut quality aside, it was fun to be included.....I'm a lone wolf at work as we are a department of two and half of us works in Wisconsin.

But, today is my Friday....and I'm looking forward to 5 days off. I may blog, I may not, so just in case, here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas full of peace, joy and love.

Christmas Eve

The long awaited day is here....Christmas Eve.  I believe we are ready for the festivities to begin. I've enjoyed a lovely week of baking, spending time with the kids and relishing in a slower pace. We attended hubby's office carry in lunch yesterday and enjoyed good food and good conversation. Today everyone is home and we will have our traditional meal before attending Mass tonight. The gifts are ready to be opened. The food is purchases and ready to be cooked. The camera is ready for its work. We are as prepared as we can possibly be!

I did manage to read another book this week. I snapped up Lili St. Crow's third Strange Angels novel, "Jealousy" and plowed through it. The oldest is now set to read it.  St. Crow is awesome as always. Gosh, can that woman write one mean story. Up next is "Beautiful Darkness" the second book from the duo of  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I had the pleasure of meeting these two gals when the visited our library last year. Fun ladies and great presenters. The book starts off quickly and given more time, I'd be tearing through this one at a fast clip also.

I returned and then checked back out the Judith Rock novel, "Rhetoric of Death" and plan on reading it next weekend after our company departs. We are looking forward to my brother and his family visiting for a few days.

Merry Christmas to all!  May Love fill your hearts all year long and may tonight and tomorrow remind us all how important Love is.

holiday memories

Just a few things on my mind as I contemplate packing for our trip. This Christmas is going to be a very special one, but then I've had plenty of special holidays over the years.


The Christmas in Pennsylvania the year before my grandfather died...I sang in the choir loft with him and my cousins, Cindy and Andrea. It was magical to look down upon the church full of people at midnight mass.

Another Pennsylvania Christmas memory was repeated on every visit. We would arrive and Grandma would send me down to the basement to bring up baked goodies. She would have filled the entire picnic table top with kolacz, kieflies, cookies, rolls, breads etc. She had enough baked goods down there to last for months. Wonderful.

The first Christmases with each of my three children, just so magical when the are so little.

The Christmas we took the kids to Florida and Disney World. We wrapped up their park hopper passes, a new Disney sweatshirt and a map of the parks in three shoe boxes. Those boxes were the last gifts they opened, and oh boy the looks when they did! We packed up in the car and left for that vacation just an hour later. We had Christmas dinner in a hotel room..I packed food to cook in the suite in the microwave....a bit sparse, but nothing tasted better as it was seasoned with excitement.

Just a few of many memories....I wonder what this year will bring in Germany!