Last Post For The Year!

Here's some bling to ring in the New Year!

If you go out tonight be safe!

Thanks for sticking with me for this past month!

Hope I didn't bore you too much!!

Until the next time!!!

All Dressed Up

Even though this bottle is all dressed up for Christmas I plan on cracking it open for New Years Eve!

Until tomorrow......

Three More Posts

Hmmm let's see..what else can I talk about?

Chris and Marissa brought Bugsy when they came over on the Sunday before Christmas.

We told them to bring him  so they would be able to stay a while and not worry about leaving him in his crate all day.

The cats were totally freaked out! They kept sneaking in and looking at him...then running away! The funny thing is that each one of them is bigger than he is right now!

And Bugsy was completely uninterested in them!

Until tomorrow......

New Boots!

Rich got me a pretty bracelet from Kohl's along with a small gift card for Christmas.

I love the bracelet but unfortunately it was broken and it also was too hard to put on by myself so back to Kohl's it went.

I looked and looked for another bracelet but didn't really see anything that I liked.

Then I spotted something that I have needed for a while.

So with my store credit for the bracelet, my gift card and some Kohl's case that Shauna gave me I got these:

New boots! I love them!

Until tomorrow.....three more days to go!

Snow!

Yesterday I had to work and it started snowing at about 12:00 so by the time I got off of work at 4:15 the roads were terrible. It took me a hour to get home..where normally it takes 30 minutes.

Luckily the traffic is light or it would have taken me much longer.

As much of a pain the snow can be, I have to admit it can be pretty.

Especially when the Christmas lights are shining through.

I'm off now until January 2nd.

Until tomorrow.......

Christmas Eve With The Family

We had our usual Christmas Eve celebration.

This year included our two newest family members:

Dante Thomas who was born in May.

And Anthony Michael who was born in October.

And here is my dad with all three of his great grandsons.

That is the best picture we could do considering it is virtually impossible to get 2 1/2 year old Dominic to stay still for one second!!

It was a wonderful evening filled with good food, family and lots of laughter!

Until tomorrow....

Merry Christmas

To all my blog family

Have a very Merry Christmas filled with

Peace

Joy

Good Food

Laughter

Family and Friends

Until tomorrow..

Gotta Work Today

Well, it's Christmas Eve and I have to work!

I actually don't mind working today.

Traffic is light.

Parking is easy.

And I'll probably get off pretty early.

And tonight is our big family get together with lots of food, presents and laughter!

If you are celebrating tonight have a wonderful time!

Until tomorrow.......

It's Time

Presents are wrapped and under the tree.

Brunch is made and ready to go in the oven. Cinnamon rolls are done.

Table is set with Christmas dishes. .

Bring on the kids for our little family Christmas celebration!

Until tomorrow.....

Little Tiny Tree

We were at my brothers office on Tuesday and they had the cutest little Christmas tree on the counter!

It plugs into the computer. How cute is that? Until tomorrow....

I Should Have Known

I should have known better that to try to read a book on the counter while eating my cereal this morning!

Aren't you gonna pet me?

Until tomorrow....because there was a today! Happy first day of Winter by the way! Ug!!

Angel Tree Topper

This sweet angel used to be a tree topper. I may have bought her the first year we were married and I ran up to the closest drug store to get some decorations for our first Christmas tree. There used to be lights in her hands and all around the bottom.

Those lights are long gone and she's balanced on a Solo cup now, but she still looks as beautiful as the day I bought her! One of these days I'm going to wire her up with lights again an put her on top of the tree where she belongs!

Until tomorrow.....

More Kitty Ornaments

This one says Meowy Christmas on the bulb.

This one is pretty cool. I had a heck of a time getting it to hang straight for the picture, though!

I don't have nearly enough cat ornaments. I look for them all the time when I'm out and buy any one I see but they're few and far between.  Maybe I need to check eBay, but then again, maybe not!

Until tomorrow.....

Kitty Ornaments

Of course you know that I have to have a collection of cat ornaments.

This is one of my favorites. I bought it at the hospital gift shop.

I don't remember where these two came from.

More  tomorrow.....

Uh..sorry, Shauna!

This is our small collection of Santa pics.

They are all precious but this one is my favorite.

Poor Shauna was only 17 months old. I knew she was going to cry like crazy so I told the girl to just snap the picture as quickly as she could. Shauna was literally on Santa's lap for all of 5 seconds!

Another thing is the look on Chris's face. I can't decide if he's making that face because he thinks his sister is crazy for crying while visiting Santa or if he's enjoying her agony!

Oh well, Shauna is a pretty well-adjusted adult so I guess there wasn't any lasting damage done!

Until tomorrow.....

Mom Ornament

This ornament was given to me on the first Christmas after my mom passed away buy my SIL Linda's mom, who was also good friends with my mom. She got one for everyone in the family.

Has my mom's name and dates on the back. We all cried when we got it but it was such a sweet thing for her to do.

Until tomorrow...

Sad

I'm stepping away from my usual Holidailies post to just say a few words about the tragic shooting in Connecticut.  I will never understand why people who are so angry or unhappy with their life or  a particular situation feel the need to take innocent lives along with their own.  My heart goes out to those families.

Fra-gee-lay!

You may have noticed the cute Christmas ornament hanging by Zoe in the last post.

I bought it at Hallmark a few years ago.

One of the more funny scenes from the movie Christmas Story!

This adorable ornament comes complete with a beautiful lamp!

Until tomorrow...

Zoe

Zoe is our unsocial cat. She really doesn't like any of the other cats to come around her. While most of the cats spend their time downstairs in the family room and kitchen, Zoe always stays upstairs away from them. So we always let her spend the night in our bedroom with us so she can get some one on one attention.

However, every Christmas she ventures down from the upstairs to lay under the Christmas tree in the living room. It's her second favorite place to lay other than our bed.

And she lets any other cat know when it comes into the room that, for the season, this is her domain!

Until tomorrow....

Night Light

Last year I put a string of lights in an empty bottle of gin as a Christmas decoration.

It was very pretty but there were too many lights for the size of the bottle and it would get hot very quickly.

This year I replaced the lights with a smaller set of clear ones.

It's not nearly as pretty so I have to find a small set of multi-colored lights for it next year.

However,  I think when Christmas is over I am going to mount that set of clear lights under the cabinet in the corner.

They make a great night light!

Until tomorrow.....

Bugsy

Sunday we went to Chris and Marissas house to see them and to meet the new grandpuppy!

Little Bugsy. He's so cute and he's going to be a stinker.

It's so funny because the conversation we were having sounded like we were talking about a baby...how much he's sleeping and eating and what he's doing when he's awake! And how Chris and Marissa are tired because he's waking them up several times a night!

If only we were talking about a baby!


Until tomorrow.....

Busy Weekend

Had a great, busy weekend. Saturday night we had Judy and Jackie and their spouses over for dinner. We always have a good time when we get together.

I made savory chicken which was awesome and I also made slow cooker scalloped potatoes, which were not so awesome (at least in my opinion..everyone else seemed to like them!)

I set the table with a red table cloth and used my Christmas dishes that I've had for years. I had bought Judy and Jackie Christmas decorations that were inverted glass cones with a winter scene inside them on a silver pedestle. Very cute! I used them as a centerpiece for the table surrounded by garland and candles.

It looked really nice and you'll have to take my word for it because I didn't take a single picture!

Darn it!!

Until tomorrow....

Tosti

For the past three years we have had Rich's sisters Judy and Jackie over for dinner right around Christmas time.

And every year for the past three years Judy has brought a bottle of Asti.

Usually we end up not even opening  it and I put it in the downstairs fridge.

I don't know why we don't drink it because I love the stuff!

I think it's time to crack open the bubbly!

Until tomorrow.....

Brave Squirrel

Today a brave squirrel was hanging out outside on the kitchen window ledge.

The cats didn't all see him but Smudge did and he was going crazy and knocking all the stuff off of the window sill. Good thing the window was closed or he may have ripped right though the screen!

Then we would see just how brave that squirrel really was!

Until tomorrow....

Very Special Box

When I was a teenager my mother's mother (my Nonna, or Nonnie as we called her) lived with us for the last year or so of her life. She had heart disease and had had multiple heart attacks. They made her weak and unable to care for herself anymore.

Because she was not able to get around very much she needed things to do to occupy her time. My mom bought her a kit to make a Christmas ornament.

This one to be exact:

Although I love it and will cherish it forever, probably the box it is kept in is even more special to me.

Written by my mother about her mother.

Nonnie died when I was 16 years old. I know that my mother cherish this ornament for the rest of her life.

Until tomorrow...

Little Christmas Trees Part II

This is another one of my favorite trees. I remember I got it at Michael's a few years ago. It was about three weeks after Christmas and it was marked down so much I only paid 49 cents for it! Its solid wood. I loved it then and I still do now!

This one holds five miniature ornaments.

This one holds a tea light in the middle. I have never put one in there and lit it, though. It's probably very pretty!

This one spins around and plays music.

Love my miniature trees.

Until tomorrow...

Little Christmas Trees Part 1

Another thing that I have been collecting for a while are small Christmas trees. I have them all displayed on top of the computer desk.

Some of them I have had for a while, some I picked up at other places.

This one is my most special because Shauna made it when she was in elementary school.

Most of the bead ornaments have fallen off, though.

I'll have to see if I can get her to glue some more of them on there.

Part II tomorrow.

Until then.....

Bugsy

I know I mentiioned a few months ago that Chris and Marissa had to have their beloved dog, Lou, put to sleep. He was healthy and then within a week he got sick and they were having him put down.  They were heartbroken for a long time. They still have Pebbles but they definitely were feeling the loss of  Lou.

Anyway, a few days ago they decided it was time to add to their little family and get another dog.

So meet the newest member of the family!

His name is Benjamin "Bugsy" Segal, after the gangster.

He's a blue pit bull and he's only 6 weeks old!

We are going to go meet him on Sunday!

 I can't wait! It's been a long time since I've had a puppy fix!

Until tomorrow....

Snowmen Part II

To continue with my snowman collection..

I bought this one at the gift shop in the hospital. I really love it but I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I have glued his arm that is holding the basket of apples on!

This is my Italian snowman and the large one lights up and changes color.

These are the larger ones that I keep down on the hearth.

I really need to hit the thrift stores again to see if there are any other ones for me!

Until tomorrow...