Happy New Year!

Christmas is over......... it was a great success for all in my life as well as myself. I feel so blessed to have so many great friends who take an interest in my and my girls lives. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy for all who make my life worthwhile!

The loot report: SS got her magnetix building set from Santa that she was wanting. KK also received her request, but got not 1 - but 3 yo-yo's from Santa. They even came with a little video about different yo-yo throws and such! WOW! They also got digital cameras with a nifty little photo printers, new shirts, and they each got a new board game! The winner for the toys for Mom - definitely the Rubik's cube in the stockings. It took me most of the day, but it finally all returned from my 80's youth and I can do it in under 5 minutes. Nothing like my personal best of 1 minute 10 seconds, but maybe I'll get there again! BWAHAHAHAAHAHA

I scored big! My friend, who I call "Gem" her in blogland took the girls shopping on Tuesday. They did well! They got me makeup brushes (what I hinted I wanted) along with my favorite perfume. I was really impressed that KK knew what the perfume was called! Mrs. S. get the award for the gift that made me cry (in a good way). She gave me a lovely framed picture of my mom along with a poem. It is such a nice picture of my mom - just how I remember her before she got really sick. Apparently Mrs. S. had enlisted the help of KK and scanned a pic that was on KK's time line of her life (a school project). She also got the item I was coveting the most - The Open Station. It is allllllll kinds of cool. :) Gem was gonna get me that also, but ended up with a nifty inside/outide thermometer/weather station do-hicky. I've always thought the one her house was pretty nifty.

Both Gem and Mrs. S. got their families Wii for Christmas this year. We spent awhile at each of their houses's yesterday partaking of the hilarity. Two things I learned: 1. I'm a bad driver in the virtual world too, and 2. I think I know what my girls will be getting for their birthdays!

But now........ Christmas is past. The tree will come down tomorrow and we can all start planning our New Years Resolutions for 2009!

Wishing everyone the best for the coming year. :)

Christmas Spirit

For some reason I've never really been a person filled with Christmas spirit, I'd say especially in the past 5 or so years. I'm not one who decorates my house from top to bottom - most years we are lucky if we have a tree! I don't really like shopping with 5 hundred million other people.

What I do like about the holiday season - making candies! I made fudge last night - it was a cheater's fudge, no thermometer or beating, but it is pretty creamy and delicious. I brought it to work and my hope is that we will all have taste tests throughout the season and then everybody can say what they liked the best. I also love to make toffees and brittles - I even got a really cool candy thermometer for my birthday last year (thanks to Miss Steph - who gave me that great Williams-Sonoma gift card!!!).

In addition, one of my main goals as a parent - aside from the "growing them into good people" is to give my kids good memories of our lives. I want them to be 30 and being reminiscing and say to each other "do you remember when mom took us to the beach and we found all the sand dollars?" or "do you remember how much fun we had when mom took us to that miniature golf place?". To that end, I'm planning a fun weekend involving lights, boats, and much Christmas spirit.

Maybe I'm not a what people traditionally think of as a person brimming of Christmas cheer - but I really am trying my best!

Stay tuned next week for pics of our weekend adventures!