Christmas 2009!

The Santa letter was handwritten this year and I didn't get a scan of it before it was put away. "Santa" and "Ms. Claus" have promised that they will scan it as soon as they get their scanner hooked up. However, I have lots of great pictures and stuff.

This year, everyone came down to our house. I cooked green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese and a low-calorie pumpkin pie with a special healthy crust.
Chris brined a turkey and it was probably the best turkey we've all ever had. Beth/Mom made snappy corn and My mother-in-law, Lynne brought all kinds of pies and goodies.

Sadly, I did not get any pictures of our feast, but everything cooked nicely without any problems, looked fabulous and was very delicious.

Mom went to church while everyone else vegged out and stared at all the pretty presents.



After she got back we watched "A christmas Story" at least once while munching on candy and sharing stories. Then I wrote my Santa Letter and we all headed for bed so we could get up plenty early to open presents.

The next morning, Santa had come!



While I waited on everyone to wake up enough that we could open presents, I made fruit trifles for the breakfast we would have later.



then we opened presents and even Ahboo got in one the fun.





Chris and I got tons of games along with all kinds of other great gifts.



The best gift, was, of course, Harriet!



My aunt bought Harriet from a garage sale and then painted her purple, and added glitter and butterflies. Then she had mom put gift cards in her as another part of my present. Harriet is awesome.

Once We were done opening presents, we had breakfast!

Christmas Donations

First, Both http://hippybeads.etsy.com and http://artfulunity.etsy.com started keeping a collection for Child's Play on thanksgiving. 20% of all sales from Thanksgiving until Dec 30th will be donated to Child's Play.

Second, I wanted to share the gifts I made for the child I sponsored from King's Ranch,
a local group home for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. My uncle Eric's request for his Christmas present every year is that we give something to a teen shelter or charity of our choice. This year, I chose a 13 year old girl who asked for a "purple butterfly necklace". Here is what I made:





and here's her stocking:


In addition to what's in the picture, I included a scarf, hat and mittens. Hopefully she will be warm and happy. :)

I won!

Artful Unity, one of my jewelry businesses won this month's eSMArts Challenge! You can see the announcement here.
My blog post about my inspiration behind the piece are here.

Wine Tour '09

Here's a bunch of pictures from our family wine tour on nov 7, 2009. I had a blast but between the bailey's cocoa, the wine and all the silliness, the day is kind of a blur, so don't ask me to match pictures with wineries... I don't know, I was just having fun. :)