Moments in Time

We got hit with another winter storm this weekend. I'm not wild about snow, but usually I just grumble a bit and live with it... but, when it interferes with our family tradition of going to cut down our Christmas tree, well, that's another matter!

Last weekend's trip to the tree farm was iced out. This weekend's trip was looking pretty dicey, but fortunately, we didn't get as much snow as they thought possible. That, and I have a husband who doesn't mind driving around in the snow! The first place we stopped was deserted. I guess they didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to drive around in the snow to hike through snow to cut down their own tree. Well, we're that crazy, apparently!

We wound up at our usual place, Log Providence Pines. Even I had to admit this was a beautiful sight:

Of course, we spent a good 30 minutes trekking through the snow to find a good one about 4 rows from the entrance! Isn't that how that always works? Here are some photos of our adventure. Click on any of them to see them larger.




And here's DH with our beautiful tree (which unfortunately had to spend the weekend defrosting in my garage so it's not up yet):



The weather interfered with several planned activities, but fortunately we were still able to get to the lake for the annual cookie swap with my MIL and SIL. Here's a sampling of what's going to work with me tomorrow:

Thursday saw our first appreciable snowfall of the year. Ali and our neighbor, Katie, had fun making their first snowman of the season. (Those electrical boxes make nice props, huh? lol)

This weekend saw the arrival of more frozen precipitation, only this time in the form of sleet/freezing rain. Yuck! Although we got a snow day out of it, so I shouldn't complain. Tomorrow will be cleaning and baking day. I've spent a lot of time baking for Christmas. I got the most delicious recipe for Chocolate Caramel bars from my fellow Sept98Mom, Tami. Yum!

I found some time to stamp this weekend -- for fun! (i.e., not a craft show!) I participated in a few of the Stamping Bella challenges over on SplitCoastStampers.com. Here are my two Bellas (click on either photo to see it larger):



The past few months, I've been stamping a lot for craft/vendor shows. Here are some of my domino pins:

I love stamping on dominoes! They're fun and fast.

These are some lunch pail tins that I "altered". I covered them with scrapbooking paper, using Modge Podge, and embellished them with glitter, ribbon and silk/paper flowers. A lady called to order these from me (she saw my vendor display at Curves) and it turns out she used to be in my book club. I guess it really is a "small world"! (Click on either picture to see it larger.)



Well, it's off to bed for me so I can get up and finish my baking tomorrow. Good night!

Well, I intended to post at Thanksgiving time. I'm just hoping that the saying "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" is not true - or I'm in big trouble!! :-)

We aren't in full Christmas swing here yet, but we're working on it. Last Saturday I took Ali to Breakfast with Santa at one of the local high schools. She didn't want to actually see Santa -- we'd already seen him at the mall to put in her request for Elizabeth and her Tea Gown. (Elizabeth is an American Girl doll for those of you uninitiated in the ways of all things AG!) But she did have fun making several crafts, including this paper chain, which she later lengthened at home:

This put Ali right into the Christmas spirit! She asked me on the way home if we could go buy egg nog. When we got home, she gave DH no peace until he built a fire!

Tonight's holiday activity was Jessica's school choir concert. Here's Jess (she's the one in the pink sweater):


Most of my spare time lately has been consumed by Jessica's basketball activities - driving to/from practice, going to games, etc. (Thankfully her friend Brianna is on her team and lives just up the road. We alternate shuttling the girls, which helps a lot!) Here's Jess in action (well, waiting for some action!):


Here's a little holiday decoration from the girls, made with Jessica's K'nex: