Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

It's 9:45am, and I've already done a ton of stuff.

It's a Saturday, I remind you, but one that I thought would be kinda bad, has turned into one kind of good.

I was up at 5:45am.  Gulp.  NOT my idea for a Saturday.

We were supposed to have an all day junior high basketball tournament at school today, and the girls were going to cheer.  We were supposed to be to school by 8am.

I had to wake two very sleepy girls who were out late watching a movie last night, and then crashed at my house.  (Don't worry, it was Grace and her bestie Christina.)

I woke them up at 6, cause you know, cheerleaders HAVE got to look pretty, especially when your boyfriend is on the team!

I went downstairs, made them pancakes, got the coffee running, and made my breakfast.

The girls came down, sleepily ate their pancakes, and I got a text. 

THE TOURNAMENT IS CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER.

(It's snowing to beat the band here.)

Hallelujah!  And I'll say it again...Hallelujah!

I sent the girls back to bed, then put in a load of laundry.

Meanwhile, Brent and Evan got up, ate breakfast, then got dressed and went outside.

We are selling some ewes today, and the boys are headed 45 minutes away to the sale barn.

I remind you, it's snowing to beat the band here..  Sometimes sideways.

Brent asked if I could come outside to write down their ear tag numbers, so we know who we sold.

Sure babe.  I'll be right out.

The ewe in the back, our first one, Lambchop, the tamest one we have, the one in the middle, licorice, cause she has black lips!

I came in from that little excursion and did some more laundry, changed the sheets, got ready, put some things away, wrapped some small gifts, and got out all the ingredients to draw the WINNER for the giveaway I had this week.

Remember, this is what you're winning...plus, maybe some extras cause that's how I roll.

I did the drawing quite scientifically (ha ha), cause I couldn't get the random widget to insert into my post and randomly pick a number associated with a name.

I wrote all the names down, put them in a bowl, and drew one out.

I wish you all could have won, but the shipping would've killed me, not to mention the labor of making all those items again.

So, LESLIE DEERING is the winner!  I'm so happy for you Leslie, and I just sent your ETSY purchase out this week!  Hope you have a wonderful Christmas with a little something extra to make your day.  I'll send out your prize Monday.

To wrap up, here are some Christmas pictures from around the house.

Black Friday

It took me all day to re coop from our Thanksgiving festivities and Black Friday madness.

We had a great time going to my aunt's house and eating till our sides hurt.

My cousins and family are great.  The older we get, the more we seem to have in common, even though I am the oldest cousin by 6 years.  (my youngest cousin and I have 17 years between us.)

Once our food settled somewhat, we headed for home, and the kids and I went right to bed.  (It was 4:30pm)

We had a BIG night planned.

I wasn't sure if I was on board or not, but we forged ahead.

At 8:30 pm, the kids and I headed out to Target for their 9pm Black Friday opening.

It was C-A-R-AZY!!!  The line started about 5 stores away from the front of Target.

But it moved VERY FAST.  Once you got inside, you had to file single file through the aisles.  It was total and complete MADNESS.  I had one thing for Brent in mind, and I got it, with only a few to spare.  WHEW!

This was Evan's first time going with us.

I was a little unsure of how that would go.  He's my sleeper, and when he falls, he falls HARD.  I didn't know if he could make it all night.

Once we were done at Target, I got a text from two of my cousins who were a couple stores away.  They wanted to know if we could all ride over to the mall (45 min away) for the next jaunt.  This wasn't planned, but we met up, and went together, and had a blast!

We stayed out till 4:30am, with a stop at Steak and Shake on the way home for "Happy Hour" from 2-4am.  1/2 price milkshakes...Evan was in heaven! 

There was one point in the night when we were in line at a store for 1 hour, when it looked like Evan was gonna hit the floor, but he rebounded well, and made it through the rest of the night.

The kids and I made it home about 5:30 am, and went straight to bed, only to sleep till about 11am.

It was a good time (I think), and we made some good memories. 

'Course today was set aside for Christmas decorating.

We started by turning on our FAVORITE movie ever.

ELF.  Classic, and hilarious!

The village got set up,  (My own PUTZ glitter village that I made myself out of wooden bird houses, scrapbook paper, and glitter.  LOTS of glitter...) with plenty of snow and  trees.

Grace set up the tree with "flair."

and Oreo staked out her spot for the whole Christmas season. (She loves the tree skirt.)

There were shiny brites...

lights...

and flocked trees galore.

It was a good relaxing day. 

As for Black Friday next year...well...we'll see.

What I wanted to talk about...but really shouldn't...

This morning on my drive to school (all of 8 minutes) I thought about what I REALLY WANTED to write about today. 

Then I thought...should I really?  What if it ruffled some feathers?  What if it seemed very unchristian of me?  What would people think? 

So, with that disclaimer under my belt...I'm gonna talk about something else.  Something much less controversial...Christmas decorations.

Now, don't start getting all crazy thinking, "What in the world is she doing...baiting us like that?  She should just say it!"  I know, I know...maybe we'll save it for another time.  I mean, after all, all the followers I do have...I'd like to keep, and maybe grab a few more in the meantime.  So, I'll keep it under wraps until I just can't handle it any longer...and then I just MIGHT let it out.

So, back to Christmas decorations.

You know we're all talking about it.  It's been in the stores since, what, Easter?  I mean really.

Grace won't stop talking about it.  "Can't we just put up the village?"  she'll plead.  NO.  I'm standing FIRM this year. I put up the village TOO EARLY last year and it drove me crazy!

Thanksgiving weekend we'll haul all 10 Rubbermaid boxes up from the basement and get to town.

I envision Christmas music in the background and a movie playing on TV (maybe like ELF or NANCY DREW? ) (That's what we watched last year...)

But, since Brent will be home that weekend...all weekend...I might hear, "What are you listening to?  or "Why do we have so many boxes?"  We just try to ignore all his comments.

So, as usual, I'll put my vintage shiny brites on the tree and the green wreaths with red velvet ribbon in the windows.  I'll have a tree on the landing, one in the living room, and one in each of the kid's rooms (small of course).  Then, I might add one or two of these touches...

or THIS in my windows (although I have a friend who makes vintage looking ones with sprinkles, and those would look better.)

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My front porch might resemble this...but the last time I put "wrapped" presents out, our old dog destroyed them.

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The inside of my house will have some of these small touches too.

(I just like the polka dots and the vintage trees)

or...my new favorite past time...making things with book pages, like this garland,

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or ornament.

I would like to use my large white frame for something like this...

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and maybe one of my many windows for this

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After everything is all set up, the stockings are hung by the non-existent chimney/fireplace, etc.  I will wrap my presents and label them something like this (my Cricut comes in awfully handy).

I realize this is jumping the gun a little, but what the heck!  It's coming and we all know it.

What do you all have in mind?

Is it Thanksmas?

Is it Thanksmas? Thanksgiving? Christmas? I can't tell anymore. Walk down any aisle in any store after Halloween and there are Christmas decorations. I don't know why it blows me away every year, but it does.

You see, I'm a decorating stickler. I put up my fall decorations, not because I want to in August, but in September when the air starts getting chiller. Pumpkins and all that goes outside on the porch right around the end of Sept/beginning of Oct. I don't want rotten pumpkins by Thanksgiving now do I? And Christmas decorations DO NOT get put up before Thanksgiving weekend.

Really. I AM one of those people making fun of those people with Christmas lights outside their house, or Christmas trees I can see from the window before Thanksgiving, and AFTER February. Sorry, but I am. I can hear myself saying when I pass these places, "Really, are those people crazy?"

I am eating my words.

I have children who bother me about decorating for the seasons WAY BEFORE it's the actual

season. Grace has literally been driving me crazy to put up our Christmas decorations for weeks now.

Believe me, I WANT to. I do. I love everything about all the seasons and the Holidays. I'm looking forward to going to my grandma's this Thursday, because I love getting together with my dad's side. They make me laugh so hard my face hurts!

But, I'm also looking forward to coming home from Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas. Usually the day after, the kids and I are putting up the tree and all that goes along with that. We're not ones to hit the town for Black Friday. Really. Brent has to work, so shopping with kids on that crazy day is NOT appealing.

So, where was I going with this...oh, yes...I'm a stickler who has fallen off the wagon.

Grace wore me down.

This is what is sitting on my counter between the kitchen and the living room.

AND this is what is currently, as of 10 minutes ago, in my living room.

My Christmas village is up. I can't believe it! It is TECHNICALLY getting close to winter, and this is really a WINTER village, right? Sure it is. It's supposed to be 65 degrees tomorrow. In Indiana. WHAT am I thinking?

I broke down. I lost it. I gave in to the persistence of Grace.

I walked down to the basement and looked at this place good and hard.

It's all the tubs filled with Christmas decorations. Only one or two of these holds tax documents. The others hold Christmas decorations.

Yes, I have a problem.

I got the two tubs marked Christmas Village, and took them upstairs. It took only a minute for this to happen.

Unpacking pandemonium. Houses came flying out of the box as well as little people, barns, an ice skating rink, and many other things.

(This is not really helping at all.)

This village has come to be from purchases at Goodwill, garage sales, and even a store or two AFTER Christmas. Some things have broken, and some have been sold, and this is what is left.

This was the BEFORE.

Now we have bumpy roads in town...

A wedding party...and a policeman who hastily got his arm repaired with tape tonight...


An ice skating rink...



Complete with hidden magnets that make these people go around in figure 8's, etc. It really is quite cool.


A train station that has a Thomas train track and trains leftover from Evan's obsessive train days.


A "glass" pond and bridge with a very disapproving man looking over the side.

And lastly, my favorite part of the whole village. The farmhouse and barn outside of town.

I bought it because the house reminded me of our own yellow one.


Yes, I realize that the barn is not proportionate to the house...they were bought separately. But I LOVE the house!

It looks so homey, and the front porch is like ours.

The whole reason why I finally gave in was because of this...

My kids are absolutely in LOVE with this village, and always have been. They spend hours rearranging the people, making up voices for them, and acting out little scenes. Many things have gotten broken over the years, but their joy far outweighs that I suppose.

At least Grace has finally been appeased. At least until Friday!