Mom's turn: A very merry Christmas, indeed!

Someone’s been a good girl this year - MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! My super family always gets the best gifts for me. My DD found a fancy wine opener from Brookstone for me, the Connoisseur’s Compact Wine Opener in the color merlot. She had no idea how perfect it was as I had just been oogling one at my friend’s Christmas party! What a surprise to have my very own now! Then my HH…what can I say about him!?!?! He is always full of surprises…this year it was the Electra Townie. YAY!!!!! For those of you that know me well you might think another bike is the last thing I needed…but this is absolutely perfect and I have been yammering about wanting one for over a year!!! Although I never thought I would actually get one because he’s thoroughly enjoyed giving me a hard time, something about “needing another bike like a hole in the head.” But I really DID need it :-D In pink, too!!!!!!!!!! It’s perfect for riding around the neighborhood…it makes me feel like I’m 12 years old again! I LOVE IT!!!!!! And it’s the perfect bike for Samson and O’Malley’s trailer; now we can hop in and go to the new dog park they just opened!!!!!!!!!! They don’t mind riding behind a pink bike!!! She’s beautiful…all pearly and iridescent! I can’t wait to get my stickers, bell and basket for that customized touch…and maybe later we’ll even go for the fenders!!!

Mom's turn: A White Elephants

Literally :-D My FIL wanted to do a white elephant gift exchange game for our family lunch on Christmas. I thought I would be crafty and make the wrapping paper and labels for that personal touch since the gifts were supposed to be funny. With my fabulous baby bug, a Cricut, I was able to cut out an elephant, hat and "JOY" and then decorate them with sparkles to make it special!!! I did one for each of our packages…and somehow everyone guessed they were from me!!!!!! Think the elephant gave it away? :-D

Mom's turn: FRESH!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow…nothing is more satisfying than fresh picked veggies from your very own garden! Travis’ hard work has paid off again, this time with cabbage and broccoli!! So today we get cabbage & broccoli coleslaw with our gumbo, compliments of Travis! YUMMMY!!!!!!!!!!

Mom's turn: The Queen is back!

Finally – I got my beautiful chair repaired. Travis and Teeny gave me this for Mother’s Day over 10 years ago…they said I was a queen and deserved to have a throne!! It’s a gorgeous handmade oversized cedar rocker. Unfortunately where we have lived previously it didn’t have much protection from the elements. So even though I took care of it and varnished it regularly, the rockers rotted and it's been unusable for more than a year. Travis took it several months ago to see if it could be repaired and they called to let him know it was ready…ahhhh, it feels good to be queen again! Now time to varnish!

Samson loves to keep me company outside and tear up the giant magnolia leaves

I have a friend!

Right outside my bedroom window there is a tree and we can not figure out what it is! I think it is the first tree my dad actually doesn't know! Well, I heard a funny bird call. When I first heard it I actually thought it was a cat, but I could not see one. Finally I spotted the bird that was responsible for this funny call. It was a wooodpecker! I took a couple of pictures of it, and then we looked it up in my mom's bird book. It is a red-naped sapsucker. It is very pretty. The book also says they are not supose to be down here! So this one must have gotten a little lost. Poor guy.

The National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America says this about it:

They Red-naped Sapsucker is very similar to the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, but has variable red patch on the back of the head; spotting on back more clearly organized into two rows. On male, extensive red on throat penetrates the surronnding black "frame"; on female, the throat is partly red to almost entierely red on some birds. Juvenile is brownish over-all resembles adult by first fall exept for lack of black chest. Range: common in desiduous forests.

Mom's turn: Now what????

hmmm - kind of put a crinkle in the reading room space. Will have to rethink the furniture arrangements.

Sooooo – I inherited my MIL’s piano. Wonderful!! I don’t play piano though…so now what? I KNOW!!! A place for more elephants to be displayed :-D Perfect!

Kidding! First step – a good cleaning! My MIL passed away two years ago and it hasn’t been touched since…so the two year layer of dust must go. Then after the holidays I have a friend who tunes pianos, so hopefully I can get it serviced and ready for brilliant music to come streaming out of it - I've always wanted to learn, but it may be too late. I remember NOTHING about music from high school classes, unfortunately. I have a friend that teaches piano…hmmmm, how ready am I to totally humiliate myself!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Mom's turn: Out of order!

Well – this sounds like a fun weekend project…NOT! 2 out of three bathrooms are out of order…great. The toilet in the office bathroom was running; quick fix, right? WRONG.

no more pictures because when the tools started flying I ran for cover :-D

Travis got the new guts for the inside from Home Depot and went to work…only to have everything else go wrong!!! It totally flooded the bathroom and now we are looking at the possibility of a whole new toilet. UGH – should have left it running!!!

THEN on to the master bathroom. The people who hung the previous door didn’t do a very good job…as a matter of fact, it was horrible!! The screws were screwed into nothing so every time you opened and shut the door it fell. I came home one day last week from the gym and Travis had had enough…it was off the wall and in the yard in many pieces! He has never hung a door before; no time like the present to learn!

Samson doesn't understand why it isn't time to play!

Back to Home Depot…and almost done. Still waiting on the door jam because now it swings all the way through :-/ Maybe that’s next weekend’s project???

NOW it's time...right???????

Mom's turn: Uh...I live WHERE?

Okay – I thought I lived in south Louisiana…but I woke up yesterday morning in a fairytale winter wonderland! It was SNOWING –

Samson was confused..."this isn't my back yard!"

and not a wet and wimpy snow like we’ve had once or twice before, but a full blown snow storm! I think they said we ended up getting 3 inches in our area, but it sure felt and looked like more!

in pajamas...boy were we prepared!

It was AWESOME!!!! We all woke up to see the extraordinary event…before dawn (that was impressive enough, but were smiling too!!).

good thing we had finished knitting our hats - who knew there would be a snowstorm!?!?!?!?!

We played and ate and photographed until we were numb

then we went inside to watch from the warmth and comfort of the couch.

Samson decided to get warm in MY purple quilt...who said I would share ;-)

Teeny’s favorite part was NO SCHOOL!!!!!!! :-D See, she has a nice teacher after all!!! And the view of the snow stuck to the side of the giant pine trees across the street. Later, when it had cleared up a little, Travis, Samson & I went driving around to see the various snow men and get in the Christmas spirit.

this fine example was our neighbor's snowman

I must say it was very inspiring…I went home, wrapped presents, and finished my Christmas cards while sipping on eggnog :-D