'12 Highlights

In January of 2012, Shelly turned 8!!!



In February, we made a trip to see Krissy at UMW!!!




In March, we got to see Eric play lacrosse in Greensboro.



In April, Lily attended the Spring Fling.




In May, Lily turned 12!



In June, the girls and I went with Krissy to Busch Gardens!!!



In July, John and I took a trip to Mississippi and New Orleans!!



In August, the girls headed off to 3rd and 7th grade.



In September, Shelly started her cheerleading season.




In October, we made a trip to Va. Tech to see Sofia!



In November, we went to Virginia Beach, to spend Thanksgiving with our family.




In December, we returned to Virginia for the holidays with family.



A terrific year, for sure! And now, we prepare for an exceptional year of love, family, and happiness. I can't wait! Happy New Year's Eve to all.

Reindeer Food

On Christmas Eve, the girls put together their reindeer food. And that evening they sprinkled it on my father's lawn for the reindeer. 

Making the deer food

Christmas Eve photo

Sweet sisters

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we go to John's families' house for our celebration. It includes gift exchanges and great food combined with family! 

The whole family

Good food and good drinks

Sisters
Britt and Sofia

Cousins
Chelsea and Kaden

Santa John

Cousins
Chelsea, Kaden, Shelly, and Lily

John and his mom

The guys

The girls

Cooking and preparing in the kitchen

iPad instructions

Cousins
Sofia and Lily

The girls and Kaden

The girls and Sofia

Sofia and a grape

Merry Merry

Hope it was a very merry day for all. It was simply wonderful here.

Happy Christmas Eve

Always grateful to be able to spend time with our family at Christmas. Merry Christmas to all...

Card Selections & a Review

This year I ordered my cards from both Shutterfly and Costco.

The cards from Shutterfly were the flat note card version. I used their preset templates and added my photos to the front and the back of the card. I was super impressed with the weight of the cards, but felt the color of my photo had a slightly yellow hue. But, overall I was pleased. I ordered the cards online on Wednesday night and received the cards on Friday evening via Fed Ex. I had a terrific coupon that I won for $50 off of $50. So, I ended up spending $9 for 35 cards. 

Front

Back

My cards from Costco were created by me. I designed the card and uploaded it to their blank card template. I love the unique size of the Costco cards, but I don't love the flimsy weight of the card/photo. They did a terrific job with the colors for this card. I ordered the card online on a Wednesday night and was able to pick up the cards by noon on Thursday. The cards cost me $21 for 75 cards...can't beat the price!!!

Christmas Collage

A look back at the girls over the past six years.

An Elf and Neighbors

I put together a few little gifts for some friends/neighbors. The girls and I delivered their family and friend gifts yesterday.

Containers of hot chocolate

Our advent activity that day was to deliver the gifts:



We have a new Elf in Town! Twinkle the Elf arrived on December 1st. She replaced her grandfather who went into retirement. She has been up to some pretty crazy tricks.

Shelly left Twinkle a note and Twinkle responded

Twinkle and some friends

 Here is the letter she left the girls when she arrived.

Gifts for Friends

The girls chose some cute little gifts for a few of their friends. 

Lily put together a packet of cotton balls, small lotion from B&BW, a Sally Hanson nail polish, and a B&BW nail file. Then we made tags to go on the bags that said, "For Your Mistletoes". We thought it was cute.









Shelly's gift bags contained a small hand sanitizer from B&BW, a sanitizer holder, and Hershey kisses.