Merriest Christmas to YOU and other thoughts...

Last night we had our annual Family Couples-only Dinner Date night. We went to PF Changs. Holy cow, have you been there? It was AMAZING! I was full, yet I wanted more. We had our waiter order for us, so we got 12 different dishes, and passed the platters around and had a little of nearly everything. It was so good, and not as expensive as I thought it would be! After that, some of us went back to my sister's house to watch BSU play in the Poinsettia Bowl. Although they lost by only one stinkin point, we had a good time. I must admit that I didn't sit and watch the game the whole time. My niece Allison gave me a french manicure. She's 13. She did an awesome job. It's nice to feel pretty.

Speaking of my most favorite 13 year old in the whole world, Allison commented to me last night that I haven't been posting. She's right. I'm not. I'm so overwhelmingly busy right now. In my last post, I told you I have a lot of balls to juggle. This blogging ball has totally fallen and I haven't had time to pick it up! But right now it is 6:30 in the morning, and for some reason I woke up around 5:45 and couldn't shut off my brain with all I had to do today. So I decided to get up and get going on the list. What is on that list you wonder? I'm sure it is very similar to yours. In fact, you are probably busy ACCOMPLISHING that list, and not reading my blog. But to ease your curious mind, I shall share:

- go to the store to get a few more groceries for Christmas day baking (I'm doing that next)
- wrap (of course)
- make Clam Chowder for tonight
- make Rocky Road for tomorrow
- finish some book work for OYF
- do my mom's books (I'll be taking over while they are on their mission)
- finish the last two loads of laundry that have been sitting in the washer and dryer since Monday
- make one more batch of Caramel Corn for the neighbors. Did friends, but completely spaced doing anything for the neighbors!
- Nap?????
- Find a used cell phone because the one we had for me isn't working today
- Get the house under control
- What I'd LOVE to do, but is a luxury, not a necessity, would be to make a family picture DVD of 2008 and post it on my blog. That will take a few hours, which I don't think I'm going to have!

I AM going to post about two things I HAVE accomplished. My Christmas Card (and if I didn't send one to you, and really should have, it only confirms the fact that I have a very jumbled forgetful brain) -



I tell ya, these little 4x6 photo cards are the way to go. The silly poem I just printed off at home, but the picture I sent to Costco 1 hour photo on Saturday. Aaron went with me. After we picked them up, we sat in the car and stuffed all the envelopes I had addressed and stamped. After licking them, we dropped them off at the post office. I got 95 of those cards printed (it's a long story, but I accidentally ended up with 95 cards... I didn't need 95 cards. I don't have 95 people that even want a card from me. But I have 95 cards. There are now stray cards floating around my house) for less than $15. How cool is that?

Also - one of my favorite things this year was the little gift I made for my preschoolers to give to their parents. I got the idea from Emily, whose blog post no longer exists because she's had some sicko post to her blog from a porn site, so she's going private and has moved all past blog entries to some unknown part of the world. It was so amazingly cute, and I modified the idea to make some of these (click to enlarge):

This was so easy and fun to do. I'd like to make some 8x10's of my kids and frame them. After Emily printed and cut the pictures out, she painted the back side black, let it dry, then mounted it on white card stock, and then framed it! It looked so awesome! And it's sooo easy and cheap!

Here is my cute little preschool class holding their ornaments (by the way, I spaced writing their names and the year on the back, so you may want to do this!):

And lastly, here is my little Zack at his Pre-kindergarten class Christmas program. They acted out the Nativity. He was a king. And a sweet one at that.

OK, I've been one here for an hour. I guess this is why I'm not blogging... what I think will take 15 minutes, ends up taking me an hour! Oh well. I really need to do this because of journaling purposes! I made my free 11x11 inkubook and copied a lot of it from my blog. I think it turned out pretty awesome! Although I'd love to have put more in there... only had 20 pages for free. Anyway, hope you have a Merry Christmas and make a point of relaxing. That is what I intend to do! {{hugs!}}