Let the Parties Begin...

Yesterday we had our first family Christmas of 2012! We usually end up having quite a few by the time everything is said and done! We celebrated with the Dameron side of the family, and had a wonderful time of food and fellowship! We didn't have our normal Thanksgiving together, so it was great to see everyone (we missed you Nathan and Laura!).

First of all, I have to share this great new way to ice cookies, which I made for the party. In the past, I would spread the icing on with a knife and it was time consuming, but with this new technique, it took no time at all!

I mixed powdered sugar, water, and food coloring together until it was the right consistency (not too thick):

 I dipped the cookies in:

 Let the excess drip off:

 Sprinkled with sugar crystals:

 And ended up with these...

 Saturday, we all gathered at my parent's house (which I refer to as my "country house"). Here is one of the trees that I cut down and decorated a few weeks ago. It is HUGE!

 Ivey and "Dindaddy" (as Thomas calls him! When Thomas was leaving he pointed to him and said, "He is fun!")

 Cousin Ashley, her husband Jared, and little Landon:

 Robby and Grandmother:

 The twin cousin's wives, Rachel and Megan:

 Pretty mommy playing with Thomas' new car track:

 This picture cracks me up! Aunt Marlene is a hoot! She keeps us all laughing every time we are with her! Here she is with her "all pooped out from making so much stuff for this party" look! So thankful for her life and the joy she brings!

 My sweet parents and the host and hostess of the party! Thanks for all you did!

 Playing with toys:

 Aunt Lori and Uncle Bob...so many fun memories together!

 The two Davids! My mom and her sister Marlene both married men named David!

 Group shot:

 Sisters...where's Ivey? We'll eventually round her up for a pic!

 "Auntie Tat" with her babies:

 Elaine Mae is getting so big:

 The three sisters:

 Cutie pie:

 My sweet friend Meredith invited me to a holiday concert at the Tivoli featuring our symphony and chorus. It was a great concert and definitely was a great ending to a day full of Christmas festivities!

 Here we are in front of one of the window displays downtown:

 And the celebrations continued today! Today is my brother Jonathan's 21st birthday! After church, I went back to the "country house" to have dinner with the family and celebrate Jonathan's life! We are so thankful for you and the godly man you are! Can't believe you are so old! :) haha May God continue to bless your life as you are such a blessing to so many people!

Fun Sunday!

Yesterday, my church had their annual Christmas Concert! This is one of my favorite parts of the Advent season! We have very talented individuals who play and sing incredibly well, so it is always a real treat! Since our house is just down the street from the church, we thought it would be fun to invite people to come over before the concert for a little get together and then walk up together to the concert!

We had such a fun time! I think that there were over 30 people who came by! We had a few appetizers, chili and taco soup, jalapeno cornbread, and fixin's, and chocolate cupcakes with candy cane sprinkles! We also had a festive champagne punch that was quite a hit! :) The weather was so mild, that we were able to spread out to the back deck, too! Who would have thought we could relax on the deck before a Christmas concert?!? crazy weather!

I was busy playing hostess most of the night, so I only managed to take a few pics, but here they are:

 This is a picture from the concert that I stole from a friend, but I love how it looks with all of our candles lit singing "Silent Night!"

The Christmas concert is special to me, too, because that was where I met my sweet roommate 2 years ago. We have a mutual friend who knew that we were both looking for roommates, and she introduced us at the concert! Last year was our first Christmas in our house and we took this pic:

This year:

 I am so thankful for her! We have similar interests and both love having people in our home! We laughed as we were getting ready about how we were so glad that we both love hospitality! I said it would be a terrible thing if one of us had social anxiety! We have had some fun times together! :)

We finally got our project for the window in the dining room finished. Letters spray painted gold and in place! It is such a good reminder to me about what this busy season is all about! Christ came to bring JOY to a world full of sin and pain. How thankful I am for the hope and joy that the reality of what we celebrate this season means in my day to day life!

Crafting, Cooking, and Decking the Halls!

It's been a busy past few weeks full of all kinds of "craftiness!" I have been working on these for a baby shower this past weekend:

 The shower was at our house, so my roommate and I decided not to decorate for Christmas until after all of the "baby girl" decor was down! So, we have been working little by little to get it all done! In between decorating at my house, I have also been helping my mom! As of today, I have sawed down 2 Christmas trees, decorated 3 trees, made 3 fresh greenery wreaths, made one fresh garland, cooked a meal for a new mom, and cooked and froze 12 quarts of chili!!! I've been a busy girl!

Today I had the whole day off and enjoyed cranking up the Christmas music and spending the whole day crafting and decorating!

 I loaded up on trimmings from Home Depot to do fresh garland and wreaths. These skimpy artificial wreaths were my base:

 Which turned into this: Yes, much better!

 I just wired fresh greenery bunches all around:

Hung by burlap ribbon--LOVE!

 So, this project is still in the works! We are going to place the letters JOY in the wreaths. We are going to spray paint the letters gold. Unfortunately, the store was all out of Y's, so we aren't able to finish yet...but here is an idea of where we are going...

I saw this idea on Pinterest and recreated it for myself! I love how it turned out!

Here is the table scape for now...it might change, but I do like the different size mason jars filled with greenery, cranberries and a tea light:

 Filled my mini cake stand with ornaments I bought during the after Christmas sale last year!

  The tree and the mantle:

 Coffee table:

 Mantle:

 I made this garland for the doorway. Just wired together bunches of clippings:

 Outside around the front door:

 Welcome to our home for the holidays!

Little Bo Peep!

So, somehow I was nominated to head up the Children's ER participation in the hospital-wide event called the Parade of Presents. Each year, different departments throughout the hospital gather items for the Child Life Department! We depend so much on donations to keep our closets filled with goodies to help our patients while they are in the hospital. We give gifts to our patients on Christmas, on birthdays and for special events like "No more chemo parties" or to kids that are just having a rough day and need something special to brighten their day!  Each department displays the items they have gathered on a "float" with some sort of theme and parades through the main atrium of the hospital. Needless to say, I felt a huge responsibility to not only help gather the items, but also make the float and dress up myself!! It definitely has been  weighing on me these past few weeks! Well, today was the day, and it went really well!

Our theme was Toy Story. We tried to come up with a creative way to make the float and finally decided that we would use the Toy Story theme of Andy growing up and packing away his toys in the attic...so we made a stretcher into "Andy's Attic!" I gathered some pallets and used bungie cords to attach them to the stretcher, then stapled material around the pallets and made "windows" out of duck tape (and we hung Christmas wreaths in the windows!). It's pretty amazing the things that a girl can do with some cardboard and duck tape! Unfortunately, several of our other cast members got sick and weren't able to join us, but we made do with the few that were able to!

 I dressed up as Little Bo Peep! Last night that thing I am wearing was a fitted queen sheet and today it was my skirt! haha! I told people I was like Scarlet from Gone with the Wind except I made my dress from a sheet and not the curtains! I followed a you tube video for how to make a bonnet, and I also made a slip cover for great grandpa's cane! I can't believe this outfit came together like it did and actually turned out pretty cute!

So glad to be able to bring a little sunshine to the children today! But, I am also thankful my responsibilities are behind me! :)

Thanksgiving 2012!

This Thanksgiving was a very different one for me! We usually have all of my mom's extended family over to my parent's house, but this year, with everyone's schedules, they were not able to make it. So, it was just our immediate family (thankfully all of the siblings were able to make it!) and our sweet family friend, Martha. On top of the change of guests, it was different for me because I spent the afternoon in bed with a 24 hour stomach bug! Ugh! My favorite meal of all the year, and I was only able to eat saltine crackers and juice! No fun!
I woke up Thursday morning feeling a little queasy, but I ate a little bit and felt better...enough to run the 8k Turkey Trot with my brother and sister:

 All cleaned up, though feeling a little puny:

 So precious!

 That girl looks like her mommy!

 Relaxing and getting ready for our Thanksgiving devotional:

 I am so thankful for my dad and the way that he leads our family spiritually by reading the Bible to us and calling us to have thankful hearts:

 Siblings:

 Since we had all of the siblings together, we decided that we needed to take advantage of this opportunity and get a family picture:

Just after this, I took a turn for the worse, and ended up in bed for a couple of hours! The rest of the evening was spent trying to fight the stomach bug, sprawled on the couch watching movies! Not the Thanksgiving Day I had imagined I would have! In spite of being sick, I have so much to be thankful for and I praise God for his many blessings of family, friends, job, and especially this year, I am thankful for my ladies' Bible Study!