'Tis the Season!

The season of joy, peace, stress, family, fun, and chaos! At least at our house, the holidays bring lots of wonderful moments and a few crazy ones, too. We had a fabulous time at the Festival of Trees, seeing so many amazing trees and gingerbread houses. The kids also had fun in the kiddy section where they got to go "ice-fishing" for suckers and treats. Sadie especially fell in love with the dance performances. What could be better than wearing cute dress-ups and dancing around on a stage? One of these days, I'll have to get that girl in dance classes... she was in heaven!

I have to admit, Nick and I did some black Friday shopping and got some great stuff for the kids at super deals. I was surprised Nick wanted to come with me, but he got really into it! It truly saves time to have someone waiting in line while I picked up our stuff.

I can't believe Christmas is next week!!! My two sisters are flying in (one from the east, other from the west) and we have so much fun family time planned. I only hope the weather will cooperate and everyone traveling will be safe.

Our most exciting news this week is our new car! Actually it's an SUV - a white 2002 Suzuki XL7. It seats seven and is in fantastic condition. We weren't planning on buying anything until spring, but the death of our old Honda's transmission, coming so soon after the loss of our minivan didn't give us many options. :P

My latest project is a calendar that I'll be able to use for homeschool. I'm making it with a cloth background and clear plastic pockets for the days and month. It will be so cool when it's done! I'm making the names English on one side and Spanish on the other, and leaving spaces for weather and seasons, too. I'll be sure to post pics of it when it's finished (hopefully by Christmas, but definitely by the New Year.)

I hope you're all having a Cheerful Holiday Season, with only occasional sprinkles of chaos! :o)

ps - I experimented tonight with a brownie mix and created "Coconut Cream Cheese Brownies" otherwise known as pure heaven! Let me know if your in the mood to drown yourself in Mounds of chocolaty goodness and I'll post the recipe!