Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish all of my blog followers a Merry Christmas before I sign off for a couple of days. Princess TD and Little TD are anxiously waiting for Santa's arrival. Here's a photo of their visit with him.

The top things on their list are:

Princess TD - a Princess kitchen, a recorder, a toy sewing machine, a "real" camera, and a "real" phone.

Little TD - Mack with 2 cars, a recorder, a plane, and a remote control Jeep.

We'll see what Santa has in his bag for them tomorrow morning. I hope they aren't too disappointed. They probably won't be!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Guess What Princess TD Got for Christmas..

..strep throat! She woke up yesterday from her nap feeling sluggish, complaining of a sore throat and really just not herself. She ended up playing for a bit, but then when I went to kiss her goodnight, she felt hot. I took her temp and it was 100F. I gave her medicine for the fever and checked her again this morning. I got her in to see the pediatrician and he confirmed strep. He did say that is good news because with antibiotics she will not be contagious in 24 hours. Let's just hope that none of the rest of us get sick before it's all said and done!

I've Been Tagged...Twice!

I can hardly believe my sweet friends have time to tag anyone with Christmas being next week! Really people, aren't you busy getting things finalized?!?

Ok, I do have to admit, I have been working very hard to get everything done and wrapped so that we can enjoy our holiday without any last minute stressing. I have a few last minute Christmas cards to send out...I lost part of my list, so sorry if you're getting yours late. I have a couple of things yet to make, but I will have one done tomorrow, and the other done by Monday, so then I will be all finished! So exciting.

On to the tags...

My first tag was from ErinKH. The original tag was for a picture of your front door with holiday decorations. Our door looks pretty pathetic on it's own, even with the wreath, so here's our outdoor holiday decorations.


And, for just for ErinKH, here's my mantel:



You can get 4 stockings up there. We use the 3M Command hooks to hold ours, and it comes right off with no damage to the finish. Just an idea for next year.

And for good measure, our Christmas tree, which up until tonight did not have presents under it. We were not going to have a repeat of last year's unwrapping fiasco. Mr. TD is home now until Christmas, so Princess TD and Little TD will not be left alone with the gifts!



I am supposed to tag 3 others, so I choose Shellie (whom I am sure is dying to show off her decorations), Kimberly and MamaT. I can't wait to see what you've done!

For the second tag, my sweet friend JSue tagged me with the "Crazy Eight" meme. I will do my best. Here goes:

Eight Shows I watch:
1. Survivor
2. Life
3. NCIS
4. Eli Stone
5. Private Practice
6. Lipstick Jungle
7. Numbers
8. The Mentalist

Eight Favorite Resturants:
1. Willie's
2. BW3's
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. Outback
5. Saltgrass
6. BJ's
7. Spring Creek Barbeque
8. Jason's Deli

Eight Things that Happened to Me Today:
1. I got to sleep until 8 AM! I love having Mr. TD home again!
2. We made candy as a family.
3. I finished buying stocking stuffers.
4. I used the leftover turkey to make a soup that actually tasted pretty good.
5. I did laundry.
6. I took a catnap. (Only because I sat down long enough to fall asleep)
7. We skipped school.
8. I finished wrapping all but 3 gifts.

Eight Things I Look Forward to:
1. Mr. TD being home and travelling less.
2. School time with my kids.
3. Ladies Bible Study with my friends.
4. Cuddle time with one kid at a time.
5. Time with Mr. TD.
6. Going out in our boat.
7. Camping as a family or with friends (you ready to go yet JSue?).
8. Family game time.

Eight Things I Wish:
1. That my kids weren't growing up so fast.
2. That we had enough money that we could travel with Mr. TD on all his trips.
3. That I could let my kids run around the neighborhood like we did as kids.
4. That the housework would magically do itself.
5. That I was better at keeping in touch with family and friends who are far away.
6. That we could have land on a lake where we could store our boat and camp and boat at the same time.
7. That I could spend all of my time watching my kids learn, teaching them to love others and God.
8. That we can take a trip to Disney before Princess TD stops liking princesses.

Eight People I Tag:
Really, do you think there are eight left??? Between D'Lyn and JSue, everyone I know has been tagged! :)

Run, Run as Fast as You Can...

...you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!

I just love that story! One of my fondest memories from my year in Kindergarten was reading this book, and decorating a cookie sheet sized gingerbread man! Just like the story, our man disappeared. Our whole class went on a tour of the school looking for the gingerbread man. He was found in the Principal's office. It was great and Mrs. Shue was the best teacher ever! Both of my brother's had her too, and they did the same activity. My sister wasn't so lucky, she got a different teacher, but she had her for both Kindergarten and 1st grade!

Anyway, did you know that there are many versions of this story? I didn't. We checked out 3 books from the library, The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Boy, and the Gingerbread Baby. We read all three stories and then discussed the similarities and differences in them. It was really a lot of fun.

I planned to make some gingerbread men and have them disappear like my Kindergarten memory, but the timing was bad. It was Little TD's birthday and I made cupcakes (with the left over batter from the cake) and a HUGE cake, so the last thing we needed was gingerbread cookies. So, this week, we made the cookies. I baked them one night, and let them cool, and then decorated them the next day. They didn't disappear until after they had their eyes, after all they couldn't see without them. This morning when Princess TD and Little TD got up, the men had disappeared.

(You knew I had to make a girl and a boy, right?)

I had such high hopes for this activity, after all, I have such great memories from this story. Well, guess what...they didn't even notice! They didn't know they weren't where they were supposed to be. The men were "hiding" under the dining room table which doubles as our school work table. When we started doing school today, they were so surprised to see them there, and then it clicked with them that the men had run away.

So we started our school day eating a gingerbread cookie! They both said that they needed to eat their feet first so he wouldn't/couldn't run away again. What a fun day!