July 4th

Nice, relaxing, easy going day at home. Tiny bit of proof. :)

-J

Love Day

To you and yours, spend the day showering the ones you love and cherishing them. Maybe to some it's hokey, but I think it's not. It's a day to take a time out and remember the little things. Little things are all it takes if you have the big stuff already. And I'm not talking about material things. Happy Valentines Day everyone.

To my honey, you already know how I feel. To the moon and back. Always and forever.

Love to you!
Jenn

Christmas Cards...

I love them. Love making them, sending them, and love getting them too. It's one of the last bastions of real human interaction; void of email or technology. It's a real effort on someone's part to say 'hello, hope you are well, thinking of you, sending love your way' type thing. Love that. In this day and age, there's too much fast fast and too much texting and emailing and not enough phone calling and sending notes on stationary anymore. I'm guilty of it as well. I know it all too well.

I usually make them. It's my favorite thing ever. If I have even a little time, I make it work, I start early and whenever I have a free second, I work on them in phases. For the last couple of years, I went with the now becoming tradition photo cards. This year, I pulled it out of my hat and decided in September or October, I would make them. In November I started and finished by the end of the month. I think they went in the mail on December 1st or 2nd.

My very good friend Tammy started a Christmas Card contest last year and I loved her concept and the time she took doing it. She did it again this year. Go to her site, check it out. I got "Overall Seasonal Best Card". :) I emailed her yesterday and said, "hey, are you guys doing that again?" cause I was dying to see all her cards and categories. She knows I'm nutty like that. Thank God she accepts me this way. ;) Here's a link.

Thanks Tamm for the shout out but more importantly, thanks because it's the little things like this that make all the difference sometimes. The most meaningful.

Love to you all and hope your Christmas was warm, peaceful, and whatever is important to you was held in it.

Jenn

Thanksgiving Stuff

Will you be making your own meal this year? What will you be doing? Do you have your list? What recipes are on tap? I've been thinking....the past 2 years we've starting making our own, very own, just for the four of us Thanksgiving dinner. Not leftovers from my parents or his family, our very own whole meal. Imagine! :) What took us so long to figure out that 'hey, we can do this too, just us!'...and we did.

I want to try a few new things but uh, you all know that I cannot really cook that fantastically, right? I try and when I focus and get in a groove, ever now and then one or two things come out decent. :) So here is what I'm thinking...

• I definitely want to do roasted pumpkin seeds. Done. Just because and for the kids and for a snack. Done.


• Homemade yeast rolls. Done.


• New (not boxed stuffing) recipe for stuffing; I'm on a mission.


• Corn Casserole (of course)


• cranberry sauce ala' fresh cranberries; no cans here.


• Want different potato dish


• sweet potato casserole

to name a few things. I'm getting my list together and I'm researching like a maniac.

Thankful? I'm thankful for a ton, more than I can mention without going on for too long and boring you to tears..

My life. Our life together. Ups, downs, and all the in betweens; I'll take them anyday. It's so easy to get caught up in the woe is me but I know to my core we are blessed and there are many, many others in our world who are not. I said this recently but each day is a gift and I am oh so lucky and blessed to be able to unwrap it's box every day. I am thankful. I am grateful. I am blessed. Even for the little footsteps I hear running around upstairs at this hour as I put him to bed almost 45 minutes ago now...I'm even grateful, way too grateful for that. For the friends that I have, and particularly for the best friend I have grown with, I am thankful. I really am. My family, my parents, my sisters, my in laws, to have them all around us, it's a good thing.

Jenn

Cookie Swap

So I'm having my first (and maybe last ;-) cookie swap. No, it won't be my last, but maybe I'll do them bi yearly though. I'm getting excited. The list is fairly small; maybe only 12 people or so. It'll be fun. I'll have a couple things for them to do, make tags or cards for gifts and also maybe one other thing...better get all that mapped out; no?

This Friday is looming ahead fast. I better get myself together. And fast! Everyone brings six dozen cookies and they leave with six dozen, but just different ones.......I'll have food and drinks, hot chocolate in a crock pot with a big ladle, man I better get some cute mugs...I only have four snowmen ones. Add another thing to the silly list.

Hopefully it will be fun! I'll let you know. It'll be good to get together with friends/family. Tamm, Trace, wish you were closer.