Christmas in Canada

I'm still playing catch up with sharing about our Christmas!  January isn't over yet, so I hope it's not too late to continue sharing about our holidays.  I've had trouble uploading pictures lately, it will appear like the pictures are uploading but once they're all done, they disappear!  I tried uploading about 10 pictures for my next post and poof!  all gone :(

Anyway, as I shared earlier, we got to go to Canada for our family Christmas party this year.  We spent Friday in Toronto, and then Saturday the whole family came to my Grandma's house for the party.  After enjoying some snacks, we started in on the gifts. 

Grandma's mailbox has been in need of serious repair for years.  My Uncle and his family made this beautiful new mailbox for her.  She was so thrilled!

These gifts were for the adult gift exchange we do.  We draw numbers to choose a gift and then someone can steal that gift from you.  We always have a lot of fun playing it and it's interesting to see which gifts get stolen a lot!

After gifts we all headed downstairs for dinner.  Everyone brought something and we had lots of food!  We ended the evening by singing Christmas Carols around the table (our family tradition).

We had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to go see everyone!

Crafters Pay it Forward

I've mentioned before that I took part of a Facebook thing where crafters make something for people who comment on their post.  A few weeks ago, I dropped off an Avon order and my friend had a bag on the porch with my name on it.  This is what I found:

It was packaged so nicely!

Aren't these flower magnets awesome?  They match my kitchen perfectly!

See, they already have a home on my fridge!

Thank you Karen!  To see more of what she makes, check out her Etsy shop!

Pictures

Here are some pictures from yesterday




This is the cake that Jeremy, Alyx, and I made








And this is the cake that my mom made for me. Funny thing was that both cakes were "funfetti", my favorite.






Gift time! I just opened the newest CD from Thousand Foot Krutch.








Horrible picture, but oh well. I'm very excited with the Spanish thing. I went straight up to my room to try it out. It's a full immersion Spanish course and it's easy to use and I already have learned a lot!

Christmas '07

Wow! All that preparation and just like that Christmas is over and done for another year! Crazy isn't it? But it's worth it! Think of how long they prepared for Christ's birth, thousands of years...makes what we do seem so insignificant.

We made it home from Canada safely this afternoon. I drove home from the border which was nice because it gave me something to do :) We had a very good trip. Tomorrow harsh reality is going to hit when my alarm goes off at 4:10 to get up for work!!! Oh well....

Here's a few highlights from the trip...



We spent the day Saturday downtown Toronto. We got lunch at a Thai restaurant...delicious!










3 Generations. Mom, Me, and Grandma









My cousin Bradley aka Rudolph! :) I see him only once a year, but he really hit off with me and always wanted to be by me.








Grandma and Grandpa got a cell phone!








My cousins BethAnn and Nicole relaxing after dinner.






Also...thanks for all the input on what to get for the gift exchange! I bought a handheld Deal or No Deal. The gift I received is a stovetop expresso maker. But then my uncle felt bad for me because I don't drink coffee, so he gave me a bag of candy to go along with it :) I also got the movie Remember the Titans (one of my favorites!) from my grandparents.

Christmas surprises

Last night we had a congregational meeting at church. As I was walking out, Jennifer's husband, Mark, came and asked me where I was parked. I was parked near him so he said he'd walk with me because he had something for me. So I went to my car and he came up a minute later carrying a huge poinsettia, the most beautiful one I've ever seen. My parents were very impressed with it when I brought it home. "Someone must love you" my mom said. Thanks guys, I love you too! It makes a beautiful centerpiece on our table and accents what Zack calls our "very festively decorated home" :)

On Saturday night, I went out with a couple friends, Alyx and Jeremy, for our own little Christmas party. We were going to go to Biggby Coffee, but it was full of studying college students, so we decided to get drinks and go back to Jeremy's house. We had a little gift exchange and I got some really neat gifts! I gave them each a bag full of homemade Christmas foods. Jeremy said he couldn't come up with anything, so we told him to be creative. He got each of us everything a girl wants for Christmas: a stuffed animal (to cuddle with), candy necklaces and ring pops (who doesn't want jewelry), and a bag of Hershey's Hugs (chocolate and hugs!) And he said he couldn't be creative!!! Alyx made me a really cool vase which she decoupaged and covered with words that she thought described me. You can click on the pictures for a closer look.

I love all the excitment and joy of giving during this time of year!

Nice surprise...thanks mom

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the floor looking through all the sales papers when my mom asked me what I was planning to buy for the gift exchange for our family Christmas party in Canada. "What gift exchange?" I was told that because I'm now 18, I can't participate in the kid's gift exchange and as far as I knew I wasn't invited to join the adults. She informed me that I was supposed to buy at $10 gift to exchange. We're doing a new way of exchanging, where the first person chooses the first gift from under the tree and then the next person can choose to steal that person's gift or open a new one. So basically before next Thursday (we leave for Canada on Friday) I have to come up with a useful, creative, unisex, $10 Christmas gift. Any ideas would be much appreciated!!! :)