Highlights from my Christmas Week

Well I must say that this past week has culminated into a level of exhaustion I did not know possible. Are any of you just down and out tired? Yet this baffles me since we did not travel (which we usually do every year) and we just kind of hung out with our friends. But there was gift buying, wrapping, and giving, last minute shopping, baking, cooking, entertaining, cleaning, etc. And I find myself wasted yet incredibly blessed to have this time. But let me recap the most memorable moments of the last week. I will include some creative, crafty things along with family stuff. All made for a fabulous week leading up to Christmas. With funny moments too...

Annual Christmas Glee with BFF & Family

BFF and I get together each year with our families and celebrate Christmas with dinner, gifts, and goodies. We did this last Saturday. This year we did a dessert fondue while watching Elf and it was so fun. Any of you who can quote at least 3 lines from that movie will receive a Christmasgram from me next year. :)

BFF and family with our girls

The kiddos together...so cute, right?

Fondue it up. My kids are so retro cultured.

I got this fun little bag for BFF and she seemed to dig it.

BFF's boys and my girls

BFF Ring

Now most of you know I refer to Kelly as BFF. Because she is soooo my BFF that just her name won't do. We have this weird, co-dependent, mutually in-like with each other relationship where we are one another's biggest fan. It looks weird to people on the outside of this glorious union but we don't care. On the 23rd, we met a 6 am to do last minute shopping equipped with coffee and sans the kiddos. It was like heaven on earth. While shopping we stumbled across these fun rings and decided to purchase identical ones to signify our (questionably normal) devotion to one another. Our husbands just stare at us like we are the freaks we are when we tell them the stuff we do. Last year, BFF purchased matching heart tube socks for us at Valentine's Day. We have yet to wear them in public but us gifting this kind of stuff to each other just cracks us up. We are the only ones who think we are funny but that is what makes us special. Really special.

Cute ring, though. I love it.
But I am alarmed that this picture gives me the appearance of man hands. Look at my knuckles!
I'll tell you a secret, though. Sometimes, when no one is looking, we join our rings together and cry out, "BFF POWER...ACTIVATE!!!!" Lightening crackles. The power blinks on and off. Dogs howl in the distance. It's exciting.

Sack Lunches for Pinellas Hope

On Christmas Eve, my Lifegroup at church (Small group, Sunday school class) made over 300 sack lunches for the homeless. What a wonderful collaborative effort and something so terrific to involve our kids and teach them about the love of Christ at Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve night with friends packed with a great lasagna dinner (and a salad my friend made that was so good I miss it now that it is gone), cookie decorating and gift exchange. Fun, fun.

Family pic after church

Our fabulous friends who celebrated Christmas Eve with us.

Cute little place cards I made for dinner with our friends. Glitter birds on almost dead branches of mistletoe. This is called..."Use What You Have" entertaining.

The gift I made for my friends. It is a fabric wrapped "P" since their last name begins with "P." They were excited because my friend James said he always wanted a giant P so he could walk in the house and say, "Awwww....someone P'd on the wall." I really have weird friends.

The Joy of Christmas Morning

So sweet...girls paying with new doll house. Buuuuut...

...joy was lacking the rest of the day. Clothing was also optional.

Just thought I'd share in this past week's crafty, Christmasy, friend and family goodness. Hope you enjoy the update.

A Little Bloggy Gift For Me

Check. This. Out. (I am so excited)

My sweet, talented, creative, marvelous friend with oodles of techy talent (of which I possess zilch) made me a little blog button for my blog. What is so cool about it is that it she was able to use two of my little birds (I actually made those) that are my trademark craft birds for the felt bookmarks I make and any other crafty thing that just calls for me to slap a bird on it.

Sidebar: I dig birds yet I am not so keen on real ones. Is that weird? I am not a bird watcher or even know names of birds. Oh, I appreciate a bird on a tree branch or resting on a bird house but I loooooove fake, crafty birds with fabric wings, stitched legs, and bead eyes.

Um, Jessica...get off point much?

Why yes. Yes I do.

So Alaina made me this button to put on the side of my blog (look to your right) in case anyone would want to give me a shout out. And I thank all 3 of you who do. I tried making one and was unhappy with it. I think unhappy was unhappy with it. So I did a do over by making the wise choice in not doing it myself.

Second Sidebar: Can I just tell you that as I type this post my daughters are watching Blues Clues and my precious, sweet, brilliant Cati actually thinks Steve is talking to her from the flashy, blinky box perched on the armoire. Now should I be concerned that she talks back to him and seems utterly non plussed that a reciprocating dialogue does not occur when she responds? Or should my concern lie in that she suffers from acute narcissism to think even people in TV land are talking only to her? And yes, it is Classic Clues before brother Joe came in the picture.

OK. I will chalk it up to her being 3. Point taken.

Seriously, I am trying to tell you a little about my friend Alaina here (who happened to just start a blog called Soda in a Sippy Cup...wink, wink) and I am doing a shameful job because I just let you know what I am thinking as I think it. I truly believe there needs to be a filter from my brain to my mouth but the fact it happens when I actually type out what I am thinking is a quandary. Guess I can't change what is inherently me...and OH. MY. WORD. I did it again.

Alaina. Blog button. Her new blog. Check it all out.

That's it.

Wait! Do any of you know how to get rid of that little jpg. thingy on the bottom of the button. I am so techy challenged it is ridiculous. Any tips would be truly helpful. Please.

UPDATE: Thank you so much Catrisha for helping me with my bloggy button dilemma. You were so helpful and sweet to do all the work for me. You rock, girl!