Christmas Happenings!

Christmas was definitely in full swing this weekend! I had a Christmas party for the Children's ER at a very nice hotel...it was a fun time to dress up and enjoy the festivities outside of work:

 They had the inaugural "Golden Urinal Awards" (I know it's a little strange...but that's life in the ER for you! :) We voted for nominees among our co-workers for individuals in categories like "best RN," "best MD," "Nurse most likely to get a difficult IV," "Tech you would want beside you if your patient was crashing," etc... I was nominated along with two others for the "Glass half full award," and was surprised when they awarded it to me! It is a very humbling experienced to be recognized by your co-workers like that! I thank God that during this season of my life I have a job I enjoy so much!

 Yesterday we had my mom's side of the family at my parent's house for Christmas with them. We were sad that the Irelands and one of the cousins couldn't make it, but we had a great time!
My sweet mama and me:

 Robby and Uncle David:

 My amazing parents:

 Silly siblings:

 The menfolk...minus Tom and Thomas (Not sure what the two brothers on the outsides are doing... :)

 The cousins from B'ham brought the funnest gift...the newest addition to the family...

 Our hostess with her mama...

 Aunt Lori with her new grand baby...

 These pretty girls belong to my twin cousins Josh and Jon...didn't they get some gems? We are glad to welcome them to the family!

 Mama with her biscuits....yum!

My Daddy reminding us again just what the good news is that we are celebrating this season! Thank God for the wonderful gift of his Son Jesus!

 My turn to hold the baby:

 Waiting for the presents to be handed out:

 Nathan and his girlfriend Laura (she's just part of the fam!):

 Jonathan and me:

 Jonathan with his new birthday present...

 Jonathan and Nathan brought their puppy home from college for the holidays...now my parents have 5 dogs to take care of! :)

 We traveled to Atlanta this morning for Christmas with my dad's side of the family. I didn't do a good job getting the camera out, but we had a wonderful time even though it wasn't well documented!

 Sisters:

 Opening gifts:

 Merry Christmas!

We are gearing up for some more Christmas celebrations this week! The Irelands are coming to town this week and we will have Christmas with them!

Smiles!

I love children's books! In fact, I have a collection of over 300 right now! :) One of my favorites is a book by an Australian author, Mem Fox, and is entitled Time for Bed. This is my favorite page:

 I love the thought of reflecting at the end of the day about the joy that you experienced in the day...the things that made you laugh, the conversations that brought a smile to your face, the little glimpses of God's faithfulness that always bring such joy. So, tonight, I am thinking of several things that brought a smile to my face over the past two days...

1) A quick trip to Birmingham, and lunch with two of my siblings! A lady sitting beside us said, "I haven't been meaning to listen to your conversation, but I just have to ask...are y'all brother and sisters? You remind me so much of my children!" So thankful for each of my siblings and the joy that they bring to my life:

2) My precious little nephew...I love this little man! He has such a cute personality and can make me laugh with his funny faces and his irresistible chuckle...he has a sense of humor already! :) I am so glad I got to visit him today!

 3) Driving back home tonight, the Birmingham skyline made me smile. This is Regions Center, and from what I've heard, every year they light up each of the sides of the building with a Christmas image using the lights on each floor to create a pattern. It makes me smile! :)

4) Last night, I listened to a sermon from my old church, First Presbyterian in Augusta, Georgia. George Robertson is a very gifted pastor and the sermon I listened to was from 11/27/11 called "Morning by Morning Faithfulness." What an encouragement to remember God's faithfulness and his sovereignty in every detail of my life! Remembering God's sovereignty brings me such joy!

5) A conversation yesterday made me laugh: I went to my parent's house to help my mom host a Christmas party for the staff members at  my dad's office. One of my jobs was to mix up some potato salad. In the kitchen after lunch this conversation happened:
M: "Who made that potato salad?"
I mumbled something like, "It might have been me...why?"
M: "Well let me ask you this...where is your husband?!?"
I never know quite how to respond to questions like that, but I said laughing, "umm...well...God hasn't brought me one yet :)"
M: "Girl...you can't make potato salad like that and not have a husband!!"
:) Hilarious!!

6) I overheard a conversation in the dressing room beside me at TJMaxx...a little boy asked his mom...
"So, when you were a little kid, who was your mom?" (note...I love how children develop in their understanding that mom actually had a mom when she was young just like they do!)
Mom replied, "Grandma was my mom when I was little..."
Child responded somewhat surprised, "Oh!...I was wondering who told you what to do..." haha :) Children say the funniest things...

So...those are some of the things that brought a smile to my face or made me laugh over that past two days...what happened today that made you laugh? :)

In the Christmas spirit...

Last night I was definitely in the Christmas spirit and handled some pretty hard-cord multi-tasking as well. I mean, it takes a little talent to make Christmas cookies and Christmas shop (online!) at the same time! :) I had to call customer service about one of my orders (the discount wasn't applying to certain items!), and had to explain the racket I was making taking pans out of the oven!

 I saw Martha Stewart do something really neat with the icing on bells, so that's what I made this time...

First, I iced them with a layer of white icing:

 Then I added green stripes (also did some red ones, too). I just put some icing in a sandwich bag and cut a teeny hole in the corner and used as my icing bag! Then you run a toothpick through the stripes...

 And it makes this design:

 Here are some of the finished products:

 I also made a few snowmen just for fun...

 They didn't turn out as cute as I thought they would, but here they are...

Hope each of you can find time in this busy season to try some fun activities!!

It's been a busy weekend decking the halls and partying with friends! :) Friday, my roommate and I spent all day gathering our greens! First, we cut down a tree from my parent's, then we headed to Lowes to gather some clippings to make garlands...then we got to work (oh and we had a quick fuel up at Starbucks--nothing like a Peppermint Mocha to get you in the spirit! :)

Here I am about to begin working on the garlands...

 Sorry we didn't get any pictures of the cutting down of the tree, but here it is as we are getting started...

 Friday night we took a break from decoration and I joined a friend at a Christmas event at her church...and then had some great sister time with my little sister who spent the night with me...we hung the garlands together...I was so pleased with how they turned out...

Saturday morning, I went to my parent's house and help cut down and decorate two trees for their house! Saturday night, I partied with my roommate and her small group celebrating her birthday with cocktails at one girl's house and then dinner on the town! Caitlin had a cute centerpiece with some fresh herbs..

 The cheese board...

 Roommates:

 We went to St. John's Meeting Place (featured in Tastes&Tunes section of a recent Garden and Guns) for dinner! It was amazing!!

 Love the lighting...the table itself was lit up and created a calming glow

Tonight, we had our Christmas Concert at church, and since we live just down the street, we decided to invite some friends over for soup before the concert...I made some taco soup based on this recipe. I really just used it as a guide and created my own. It turned out great! I also made these:

I just made a Devils Food Cake mix, iced with white icing, and sprinkled crushed candy canes on top...such an easy festive treat (thanks for the idea M.E. :)
We love having people over:

After filling our bellies with some warm soup, we walked up the street together to church for the concert, which was AMAZING...we have so many talented musicians and singers with unbelievable voices. I loved this one!!

I will leave you with some pics of our Christmas decorations:

Hope your weekend was as festively fun-filled as mine was!! :)

Quick trip and lots of toys!

So, I took a quick trip to Birmingham yesterday! I took my sister's Christmas decorations which she had stored at my parent's house last year. I had my mom's minivan packed to the brim with Christmas! First, I had to cut down the Christmas tree Ivey had picked out at Thanksgiving and load that in my mom's van. I wish I had taken a picture of my mom and I in the pouring rain tromping through the mud wearing our rain gear and carrying umbrellas to cut down a Christmas tree!!! We were quite a sight!! :)

Here's the tree she picked out on Thanksgiving:

 We had a wonderful time together running around town and visiting with each other! After dinner, Ivey wanted to try to get a little photo shoot in to try to capture a Christmas card picture of the family...since the weather was so yucky, we tried to think of a place indoors that was decorated for Christmas. We decided on the easy/close-by option of Samford University...we felt a little out of place in the library with all of those students trying to study for finals! :) Once we started, we realized just what a challenge it is to capture everyone looking in the same direction and smiling with a 16 month old little boy!! He kept wanting to walk off...

Or crawl up the stairs:

Or put his hand in his mouth:

Tom and Ivey kept seeing students that they knew from their church...Ivey asked one of them if he would mind standing behind me while I took the picture and play "peep-eye" with Thomas to get him to smile. The guy looked confused and asked "What's that?" We laughed and asked him if he had ever heard of peek-a-boo? Seriously, what are they teaching students these days?!? :) He was a good sport and we got a few good shots (which I will save for the Christmas card reveal...).

I drove back this morning in time to get ready to go to work for a few hours to help out with a huge toy drive that benefited our Child Life Department...we rely so much on toy donations at Christmas and throughout the year...we give gifts to the children who are in the hospital on Christmas, or birthdays, or other special holidays. We also celebrate monumental occasions like "No More Chemo Parties." Even just the day in and day out procedures sometimes need a little reward! We have a constant need to keep our closets full of craft supplies and prizes!! This year, different departments throughout the hospital collected items from our "wish list" and presented them on floats during a "Parade of Presents."

 Once the parade was over, it was our job to take all of the items to a room where we will sort through everything and get it all organized! We were TOTALLY overwhelmed by the generosity! I almost teared up several times just thinking about how these toys will help to brighten the lives of the children we serve!

 Sorry this one is so blurry...not sure what happened!

Christmas cheer is definitely in the air, and I can't wait to get the house decorated!!!