What have we been up to???

Let's see, Wed. Chris had his last exam at 1pm, so Clay & I headed that way about 2pm to help him load up & haul everything home. We loaded down both the van & his car....it's amazing how much extra stuff one can accumulate over a few months. ;-) Anyway, I drove Chris' car & came on home while Clay & Chris went in search of our Christmas tree. They came home with a gorgeous tree & we had our traditional-Chinese-food-on-the-night-we-get-our-Christmas-tree for supper. We got smart this year......I ran out there at lunchtime & got our supper......cut the price practically in HALF by getting the lunchtime price. We just heated it up for supper. ;-)

I just LOVE the excitement in the air when Chris comes home for a break.....the kids just swarm around him....reminds me of John-Boy on the Waltons! They just can't seem to get enough of all the college stories...he had to pull out his Halloween costume that he & Damian had made(Star Wars Jedi knight) & put the whole thing on to show them....complete with the light saber demonstration. And oh my....the shaving cream tales & trying to eat a teaspoon of cinnamon......you've never heard such wonderful tales!! Ha! Ha! And such a captive audience to tell it all to!

Thursday was a terrible nasty, rainy day! Perfect for being inside & decorating the tree. Clay braved the nastiness & went out to do some shopping. I got the lights & beads on the tree & then let the kids have at it with the decorations. They really did a nice job. Probably one of the prettiest trees we've had in a long time! Ashley & I also did some baking...we finished up all those oatmeal & jelly cookies. We were wanting to take some to share with some of our neighbors....like Jack & Joyce down here at Shipman Auto, the PO & the library ladies.

These are two empty hot chocolate containers that I saved & cleaned out. Then decorated the outside & lid with goodies from my scrapping stash & voila.....a cute little gift box for the Christmas cookies. I dropped some off to Jack & Joyce yesterday on my way to town....also the PO folks when I went in to mail the last of my cards. We will make some more & take to the library ladies this coming week.

Just playing around with the different settings on my camera. I took these both the other night after they finished decorating. One with just the flash on & one with the night setting. Both are kinda blurry, but still cool!