My friends and family have been bugging me to update my site…some with gentle words others have their more harsh methods…you know who you are…anyway, you are right. I have been putting this off too long. Maybe because when I am on vacation, I love to relax, be spontaneous…all that to say that I really have just been lazy about posting. So I made a commitment to myself to get this updated before the end of the year and here it is, the last day possible that I could be updating my blog. And I will try to do everything right now, if I don’t get distracted by having to break up arguments or change diapers. DISTRACTION #1 (I spoke too soon) Max’s leg was stuck in the footstool of the recliner! I wanted to do something really creative for our Christmas Cards this year, but it kept getting put aside…so my creative idea, which I may use another year, evolved into running to Target to get some photo cards that I put together and sent out on Christmas Eve. Oh well, at least I got them done.

Anyway, we all had a lovely Christmas with our family. My mom and dad came on Christmas eve and spent the night. Savannah and I decorated a little Christmas tree for their room and they thought that was really special. After our Christmas Eve Service at church, we came home and put the kids to bed in their new pajamas from Christmas Elfis (that’s a long story and really only sounds right coming from Savannah) and then stayed up till like 2:00 filling stockings and putting together Christmas presents for the kids. I actually drew this picture before then, but you can get an idea of what it kind of looked like around our house for Christmas.



DISTRACTION #2 phone call from Jason, DISTRACTION #3 Savannah “accidentally” hit Max on the head with a toy hammer, DISTRACTION #4 Max has a big booger…back to blogging: I am not looking forward to putting away all the decorations this weekend. Our home looks so cozy & festive with all of the Christmas stuff out. And it looks so bare when I put it away because I don’t have much to replace it with. Our Christmas was great and we were able to buy the kids some nice gifts. We got Savannah the Loving Family dollhouse, Max got geotrax trains and everybody loves playing with them, Karson got a workbench with tools and stuff. He thinks it’s cool to pound on everything, walls, brother and sister, etc. We also got some neat gifts for the kids from our family. My mom made dress up clothes for the kids. They are awesome. She is still planning to make more, but that has to be the most played with thing so far. They all love it…Max even has a little fireman outfit. Sam’s dad got the boys these cute chairs that are shaped like a sheep and a cow. They actually moo and baa. They are so cool.





DISTRACTION #5 Max wants a candy cane

On Christmas day I had my family do a page in my journal…this is what it turned out like…



DISTRACTION #6 Max is screaming because Savannah won’t let him in her room & I decided to take a shower…so now I am back…



I drew this stack of boxes that has been sitting here since Tuesday, after we unloaded all our Christmas presents from visiting Sam’s parents, and I am amazed at the amount of trash Christmas produces…I am sorry to say that this is only about one third of what we actually threw away, because most of it went out in Monday’s trash pick up. Is that crazy? Imagine the amount of trash if everyone has as much as we do. Holy cow! Sam has been sick the past few days so that is why we haven’t gotten the trash out yet…that and the fact that we’ve been running around doing stuff everyday and not taking a lot of time to clean up our house.

Today, after I get back from grocery shopping I plan to finish cleaning up, get some laundry done, clear out the porch and move toys down to the basement playroom for the winter. (that was supposed to get done in November!) Then tonight we are having our friends over to hang out for New Years Eve. It should be fun.

So our vacation is drawing to a close and I am glad to have had all the time to spend with my kids. I miss them so much when I am working, but I never realize how much until I get to be home with them. They are so awesome.

I was surprised to come home to a quiet house today. Everyone was still sleeping. The boys were upstairs in their room and Savannah was sprawled out on the couch. She usually doesn’t take naps, but sometimes she does if she is really tired. So I thought I would draw to kill some time…I knew they’d be up soon. You can barely see Savannah buried beneath the pillows on our oh, so comfy couch. Her ponytail is draped over the arm of the couch and her foot is poking out from under a pillow. She looks so snuggly. Of course, before I even finished this drawing, Karson started screaming (dirty diaper!) So I took care of that and he played while I finished the drawing.

Nate and Cyndi came over tonight to share some pumpkin pie with us. It was delicious. And we discussed plans for Christmas and Cyndi helped me decorate a wreath I had bought at the dollar store. It turned out very cute. She is so creative…I never would have known how to decorate it…I knew I could, but didn’t know what to do…that is why it was still in a bag in the closet until now. I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t have the gift of decorating…I am creative and artistic…but decorating is not my thing. I love to watch HGTV though…and see all of the great ideas. I love Trading Spaces…but I don’t have the inspiration to do it myself I guess. It’s one of those things that has always puzzled me. Maybe it’s just that I don’t like to spend the money to buy stuff that just sits around and looks pretty. Our walls are totally bare in every room. We have lived here for over a year and still not hung anything up on the walls. I take that back…there is a chili pepper wreath in my dining room that my sister-in-law gave me…but that’s it! I do decorate with candles…but our house is definitely lacking a decorator’s touch. Cyndi’s house is always beautiful…even when it’s not a specific holiday…she has such cute things and it looks so nice. I don’t know how she does it, but she has a natural talent for decorating that I didn’t get. Oh well.

Oh! I forgot to mention Penelope’s new Illustration Friday site. I’ve added a link button below to take you there. Check it out, it’s pretty cool! And you can see everyone elses interpretations of Bubble this week.

It’s still Friday! So here’s my illustration. I am in a Christmas mood, so naturally when I saw the topic was “bubble” I thought of bubble lights. I have to apologize…my illustration is not finished. I just didn’t have time to complete the whole thing today. Maybe someday, I will actually start my IF illustrations before friday!

Drawing this illustration made me think about my family Christmases growing up. I mostly remember the times we drove out to Evergreen Farms…somewhere north of Flushing (near Flint)…we would ride a horse drawn wagon back to the trees and Dad, armed with a hacksaw, would find the “perfect” Christmas tree and cut it down. We’d drag it over to where we would get picked up, and wait there in the cold, with a campfire to keep us warm, until the wagon came back to get us and take us to the front. I remember there was a building there with a player piano and a big pot-belly stove. We sat around sipping hot cocoa until we got the feeling back in our toes. When we got home, dad would trim up the tree a little before he brought it inside, and we would get out all the decorations. Dad always set up the tree and put on the lights…he was most proud of the bubble lights and handled them with lots of care. He still has them I think and last I knew, still puts them on his tree. Then we all helped hang the ornaments where we could reach. We would talk about the ornaments we remembered and who they were from and when we got them while we listened to Christmas records (remember those?) on the stereo. We would always finish the tree with lots of tinsel. Dad was a big fan of the tinsel. I loved our Christmas tree. Drawing this brought back good memories.

Tonight after Sam got home, we took the kids to “opa” (our nick-name for the Greek Coney Island). After we had eaten our dinner we took the kids over to see Santa. Savannah had seen our mall Santa the other day, but she had changed her mind about wanting a barbie and wanted to tell Santa something different now. Max said he wanted a car (?) and Savannah told Santa she would like a toy horse. (I don’t know where that came from…I have never heard her even talk about horses.)



After our little photo session with Santa, we took the kids to get chocolate Santas at Gilberts chocolates. I got a turtle…my favorite. Karson stuck his whole chocolate holly leaf in his mouth at once…and savored every bit of it. He cried when we left the candy store. Their chocolate IS delicious!

We ran to Michael’s for some paint for the airbrush and then we slid into Home Depot right before closing to pick up some chalkboard paint, “brick” paint, and plywood for the broken mirror mosaic for the Alley. We were all ambitious about working on it…but when we got home we got distracted and didn’t get anything done.

While we were in line at Michael’s waiting to checkout, Karson fell asleep sitting in the cart. It was so cute. He was out by the time we got to the car, so at Home Depot Sam & Savannah went to get the paint stuff and I sat in the car and drew Karson while Max watched Teletubbies on our TV.



I did this drawing in my “diaper bag journal”, a 5×5″ journal I made this summer, covered with turquoise corduroy.

I spent tonight painting faux brick in our downstairs bathroom. Phase one is done. Now we have to paint it. We will be borrowing a friends air brush to do some graffiti on the walls, we have a lot of other cool ideas too. It should be quite the conversation piece. I have to say, that seeing all the walls in the brick really gives the effect we were going for…it looks awesome and it was pretty fun to do too. More pictures to come…as we make more progress!



Oh, and here is a picture of the dining room with the new paint color…before we moved the table & chairs back in.



See? It is the color of a manilla envelope!