I hope you eat until your pants hurt

It's Thanksgiving Eve, and I am so excited! Next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Of course I love being with my family and all that stuff, but it's the meal that does it for me.

This sweet potatoes are all candied up, the green beans have had all their nutrients cooked out, and Paul is ready to master the turkey.  All that's left is getting there, and making a wise pants decision.

Hope your day is great and you eat till your pants hurt! Happy Thanksgiving!

Calm before the storm

This weekend sort of felt like the calm before the storm. 

There was a lot of snuggling, movie watching, and just togetherness.

But starting Monday, it will be full speed ahead until Thursday.

So a laid back weekend was nice.

We did get ourselves a little fresh air, but Pierce's expression was what I was feeling...

Good idea in theory, and my idea at that, but once outside in the woods at 40 degrees, not such a great idea after all.

Kids are always rock stars in the woods.

And I guess that's all that matters.

But all I managed was a handful of pictures

And one selfie.

The end.

P.S. T minus 3 days to my favorite meal of the year.....

Phone dump

Working and blogging, do not always go hand-n-hand.

 Or maybe it's because I go to bed so freakishly early, and if I could just manage to stay awake, oh say, past TEN, I might be able to do more posts. 

But I have come to a conclusion: something has to give. 

So at times, it will be my blog posts. 

I decided tonight to do a phone dump of sorts, mostly pics from my Instagram account, but one other treasure thrown in too. 

Some of our family members aren't on Instagram, and I know they would like seeing these pictures too. 

Nathan posted this pic last week, and I almost lost my cookies. Please tell me I can reach in this picture and pick up that little girl....

Because in just a few short years, they change so much.

 I'm so fortunate that I work for a great boss! She let me leave so I could have a special lunch with Hope yesterday for Thanksgiving. It was pretty yummy, but portion sizes could have fed an Olsen twin.

Which I really know ticked Paul off, he called me and said "that was enough to just make me angry."
HA HA HA.

And here's the other treasure.....

Color me proud!

And lastly, this is pretty much a motto.

Have a great Friday!

Making Merry and Bright

Saturday was one of our best family days in a long time. 

I accomplished a ton that day, which always feels good, but most important we were very busy making Merry and Bright. 

I decided that I would make my first batch of no bake cookies for the season, (heaven only knows how many batches I will make over the next few months) and this time I let Hope be my assistant. 

She was legit.

She was big part of keeping track of things making sure I added the correct number. Like 4! cups of sugar.

Such concentration! But tasting makes it alllll worth it in the end.

 Not the most attractive cookies, are they? But by far Paul's favorite.

Speaking of Paul, he is always so good to put up the tree without any complaints!

The kids were SO excited to decorate.

Them grabbing and slinging them up anywhere, sad to say, stressed me out a time or two :( Wish I could just chill sometimes.

Hopefully they just remember all this fondly, and not need therapy over me being too controlling at times.

But happy and excited?!

Yes.

We really had a fun day.

And look at my cute banner! A co-worker of mine made it for me for my birthday, and I love it! Would be nice to have a proper mantel to hang it on, but I tried the best I could to display it.

Ta-da!

It's here! My favorite time of the year! And I plan on sitting by this tree daily and just soaking it in.

Bring it on 39.

Sunday afternoon, as of 3:39 this girl is officially 39! And seeing as I've been practicing saying I'm 39 all year long, I should be good at it by now. 

It was Brittany that pointed out to me that I always skip ahead a year in my age, after she told me that, I was like, yeah I am guilty of that! I think it's a coping mechanism or something. But I declare this year that I will stick to 39, all.year.long. But let me just say it just this one time......NEXT YEAR I WILL BE FORTY! HOLY COW. 

Okay, I'm finished. Back to 39. 

Friday morning when I headed into work, there were all kind of surprises awaiting me! I think I was of zero help that day at work, I was either too excited or too full of cake to be any use to anyone. 

It was a really fun work day!

But no time to let my cake digest, I had to get home and get myself ready to head out with some girlies that I love.

Brittany told Brandy and myself about this Christmas Village show in Nashville, and we decided it sounded like fun and wanted to see what it was about.

Let me tell you what it was about: ISLES AND ISLES of stuff.

Fun stuff. Unique stuff. Christmas stuff. Enough STUFF to keep you looking for hours and hours.

But we were in it to win it, and accomplished more in less than three hours, than many did all day long.

In fact many people asked us, "been here all day?" and when we told them it had only been a couple hours, their jaws would visibly drop. Ha!

I'm thinking next year I might take a whole day for it. Thanks Brittany for suggesting it! And thanks girls for the fun night. 

Sunday morning I awoke to a cup of coffee on my nightstand, and my phone a dingin' and a ringin' with tons of messages! (Yes  I have a little black girl in my frame. Maybe in my 39th year I'll get to framing a person I actually know.)

Me in all my glory, showing off a sweet necklace that my loves gave me.

Thankful to be year older, and thankful to be 39, wrinkles and all.

Bring it on 39.

Operation sneak a tree!

Saturday night at the parents house, we were being all domestic and stuff. 

I made chili...

Mom made cornbread, and it was all delicious!

Jo and I were sitting in the living room just hanging out, I was feeling the glow of calories settling on my hips, when Jo got a BRILLIANT idea.

"Let's ask mom to put up one of her Christmas trees!"

"Oooooooo, great idea! But you know she won't go for it"

"Just ask her..."

"Allright, I'll ask"

"MOOOOOOOOM"

"MOOOOOOOOM"

"MOOOOOOOOM"

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM"

"WHAT?!!!"

"WE WANT TO PUT UP ONE OF YOUR TREEEEEES"

"No. I am not putting up one of my trees tonight."

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

(Level headed Jo interjects) "Just let us do it. It's in the barn, right? We can just go get it, and set it up, no ornaments. And Dad doesn't have to know about it or do it!"

And thus began a covert operation.

Because all things that have to do with my dads barn, must be on the DOWN LOW. How shall I put this? My dad is what one might call anal  type A about his stuff, and us messing around in his barn would make him all anxious. ( HI DAD!)

So it had to be a surprise.

OPERATION SNEAK A TREE BEGAN.

Sneaking down in the dark...

Breaking and entering.

 I guess using a key isn't really breaking in, is it? But we felt like it.

Finally success, and then jubilation.

Hauling a tree in the dark is probably the closest we will ever get to criminal behavior.

But we felt pretty tough.

And most important successful in our mission.

BOO-YAH.