Take THAT January blues....(picture one Chuck Norris roundhouse here)

The projects around our house continue...this is my mom on the left, me in the middle and Elle on the right. All with Santa. I love having these things from different generations.


I wanted to make Elle something special each year for Christmas. So, I bought the holiday stamps and clear ornaments. I wrote the year and the price I paid for the stamps before I put the stamps in the ornament so we would remember how much we were paying.

This one was fun to make. Real branches, birds from Hobby Lobby, a little fake snow and a large clear ornament.

Yeah, I've decorated the house for winter. I left out the snow covered tree and broke out the figure skates. I didn't learn to skate very well with figure skates, I use hockey skates, but these are fun to use in the house.

Mom has my sled that they gave me as a Christmas gift one year, so we found this one on Craigs List and just added a little blue and white ribbon and some pine boughs.

Dad sacrificed some firewood in order to make these candle holders for the fireplace. Also, I added some batting and lights on a white string.

Hear no evil.

Friends!

Great for reading....

and great for chewing.

I got the best thank you card from some of our friends for their Christmas gift..."A friend knows you love guns, but a good friend knows what kind of ammo you need!" It really can't be said any better than that.

Elle was sick for the first time after Christmas. It was just a cold, but we went to the doctor and was actually glad we did. She didn't have an ear infection but the possibility was there. Dr. Harvey said that if she looks like me and I had ear infections, she would be more likely to get them since our heads would be shaped the same way. He gave her some medicine to get cleared up and she really started feeling better after that. Now we are just working on getting her to bed and sleeping all night again, since that went right out the window when she was sick.

As my fast of facebook and desserts continue, I've also made a resolution to read more and learn more this year. Currently, I'm reading Death by Church, Bringing up Girls...and will be starting a novel just for fun. Matt has also downloaded the "stuff you should know" podcast to my ipod. In the queue for reading material...God and Ronald Regan and Decision Points by Dubya. I also discovered the Smithsonian Channel this morning and am watching The Genius of Design, which is about the Bauhaus and Modernist movement of design, which I learned about in college, but when you aren't forced to do something, it's actually enjoyable.

What's Daniel Tosh wearing this season on Tosh.0? Colla! Or collared shirts. One season, he wore casual jackets. Matt has a casual jacket and nearly every time he wears it, one of us declares "casual jacket" Don't know what I'm talking about? Daniel Tosh is a comedian on comedy central. It's a terrible show, don't watch it. Although the season premier last week was really good, I'm an Antoine Dodson fan, I mean, really, who isn't?
Hide your kids, hide your wife. I heard a radio interview with Antoine a few weeks ago, thanks to the remix of the interview, they have moved out of the projects and he is returning to school, majoring in business...awesome!

Good-bye Nancy Pelosi and other thoughts on the New Year

First, I guess we should start with Christmas. Every year when I am out shopping I long for one of the themed trees that have coordinating ornaments and decorations. I'm sure Matt would even let me but then I start unboxing all our Christmas things and remember where they came from. The ornaments mean so much to me, like the bear making a snow angel that Mom and I bought in Yellowstone when she and I went to Montana for Becky's wedding. Or the Space Needle ornament that Matt and I bought on our honeymoon in Seattle, or the maple leaf we got when we went to Canada while visiting Becky in Seattle when she was working at Boeing. I'm not sure I have a favorite, but I really like my fisherman moose holding a lobster from Maine. As much and I want one of those beautifully decorated, super impersonal trees, I'll always continue to have one with my collection of ornaments.

I wasn't ready for Christmas to be over this year. We finally got everything put back in the attic last night, but I kept out some projects to work on in the coming weeks. I really don't care for the month of January and so I'm decorating with some snow themed things to bring down the addiction of the the glitter and lights from December, it's like decorating rehab. I'll post photos later, but I have purchased a wooden sled from the 1960's, have visited my parent's wood pile and have some pine tree branches soaking in water in the kitchen right now.

Every January I also go through a phase where I think we have too much stuff. This year it all started with not being able to find floral wire and tacky glue. So now, I'm trying to convince Matt we should sell the guest bed, living room chairs, ottoman and Remy should be able to stay out of his crate when we aren't home so we can store the dog crate. I got the green light on 3 of the 4 things, selling the chairs failed, and Remy ate a muffin off the counter the very next morning when I left him out. Oh well, not his fault, I should know better than to leave food on the counter that he could get to. Impressively, he some managed to get the saucer the muffin was on into the living room without dropping it on the tile floor. We really need a camera set up to watch what he does when we aren't here.