Provo, UT Girls

My brother sent me this link a little while ago and I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself. Sadly, I knew a few girls like this (and might possibly have been accused of the same behavior, with my stalking the Man and all).

Enjoy!

My Creche

Sorry for the lack in posting. Internet access has been less than sparse lately. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and was able to spend time with loved ones. Blessed enough to be with both sides of the family, my cup definitely runneth over.

I love decorating for the holidays. Easter is all about the Peeps and one day I am going to re-enact my favorite scene from Phantom of the Opera using an all Peep cast. Halloween is perfect for spiders but I also love using candy corn. In my younger days, I even painted my nails to match the trio of stripes. Christmas is all about the candy, too. Candy wreath, candy garland, and gingerbread everything else. But my favorite decorations are the nativities I've collected over the years. Too much focus is placed on material things this time of year and I like to remind myself the real reason for the season: celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

This was a "free with purchase gift" a few years ago. I love it because it is one of the few I've seen that features a cow.

A gift from a friend. It looks like the figures don't have faces but I promise they do.

My oldest set was a wedding gift from the Man's grandmother. It has so many pieces and I find myself always rearranging the animals. Well, I say I'm rearranging...really I'm just playing with them.

Maybe I should just play with this one instead. I leave this set on the kids' table and let them play with it however they'd like (it also keeps their hands off my more delicate sets). This was carefully placed by da Boo for my photo.

My favorite decoration is not a nativity, although it does feature Christ.

Wise men still seek him. Merry Christmas!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! (Or Rather, English Toffee...)

Christmas cards, school programs, class parties, teacher gifts, neighbor gifts, co-worker gifts, church parties, shopping for kids, shopping for the Man, shopping for family, wrapping, wrapping again after I got more ribbon, sending out more Christmas cards to the people I forgot the first time around because I'm an airhead, decorating cakes, decorating the house, getting the lights to stop blinking, chugging eggnog straight from the carton, and just generally preparing for Christmas. I just want to know when I get my Christmas vacation.

In the midst of the holiday madness, it's nice to give away a fun prize.

Random.org helped me pick the winner: Comment #18.

Tim and Angie said...

I want...some jewelry! Can you help me with that?

December 13, 2010 3:13 PM

Yes, Angie, there is a Santa Claus.

What are you looking forward to next week?

My Kind of Presents (A Giveaway!)

When it comes to selecting presents to give me, I am pretty easy to please. Is it covered in chocolate? I will love it! Does it sparkle? Perfect! Is it handmade? Awesome choice! Is it a handmade chocolate that sparkles? We are soul mates.

So following the adage that it is better to give than to receive, I'm giving you a whole bunch of things that I would love to have. (If you keep them or pass them on to other cake-obsessed friends, that's entirely up to you.)

First, I'm starting with my new favorite book:

Autographed by the author, of course. Remember, we're totally BFFs.

What if an awesome cookbook isn't enough? Okay.

I'll give ya a one pound box of Wendy Sue's English Toffee. Warning: Product is highly addictive.

Then I've got some great jewelry from Shookaloot:

A lovely tile pendant necklace and two ceramic rings.

Have a new holiday dress but it could use some sparkle? How about a pair of long, dangly, sparkly red earrings? (Sorry, couldn't find a picture for ya but they're Vera Wang.)

Need something to hold all that fabulous jewelry?

Here's a handmade decorative trinket dish from Pajego Art House.

Now that you've got chocolate, snazzy jewelry, an artsy dish, all you need are some good tunes to set the mood.

I've tucked in a $15 iTunes gift card. Now, I'm not gonna wrap these and I might be shipping it while on the road (so don't be surprised if it's postmarked from someplace weird, like Omaha) but you should get it in time for Christmas.

Leave a comment for each entry (multiple entries = multiple comments):

• Comment on this post telling me one thing you'd really like for Christmas. One entry.
• Follow Duck Duck Cow (or tell me you're already following). One entry.
• Follow The Cake Cow (or tell me you're already following). One entry.
• Update your Facebook status with a link to this contest (might need to "friend" me on this one). Worth 3 entries.
• Tweet about this contest with a link. Worth 3 entries.
• Blog about My Kind of Presents giveaway and link to this post. Worth 5 entries.

Giveaway closes at Midnight on Thursday, Dec. 16. I'll announce the winner either a few minutes after midnight (because I never go to bed early unless I'm dying or out of chocolate) or early Friday. The winner will need to email me their address ASAP or risk not getting the goods until after the holidays (and by then, I might have eaten all the toffee). Good luck!

Two Cool

Baby is very naughty. Despite my constant warnings, rules, and flat-out begging, she went and turned two years old. The kids wanted to do something very special for her birthday...

Remember our roller coaster?

It's been sitting in the basement ever since the Boy got a little too rowdy. Well, the kids haven't forgotten about their favorite indoor toy. They started pestering me about bringing the thing back out this summer. I suggested it might make a great gift for Baby, since we got it when Boo turned two. They readily agreed. I expected them to forget. They didn't. I told them they had to bring the coaster upstairs all by themselves. They did.

Dang it.


Here's the Boy teaching Baby how to push off by herself.


And here's Baby finding other methods of entertaining herself.

I think we might be in trouble.

Happy Birthday, Baby!!

To Card or Not to Card

It's the big Christmas Card debate. Really, I'm just debating with myself so it's not much of an argument...more like some whining and getting distracted by chocolate.

I love getting Christmas cards! Love 'em. Even the ones with the "aren't we so much better than you" family letters. And let's be honest, it's not that hard to better than me - you just have to eat less cake. My favorites are the ones with pictures of families that are growing up far away.

Last year, I didn't send cards at all. None. Not even to my parents. The year before, I got a cute bundle of cuddliness during the holiday season so I sent out Christmas cards in the form of a baby announcement. In the years previous to that, I sent handmade cards to around 50 people. Handmade, people. With all sorts of adorable accents and ribbons. By the time I was done with those I'd spent far too much money and even more time. This year, I have found the solution: Shutterfly Christmas Cards. Custom cards using pictures from the photo shoot this summer and I am good to go!

The problem now is trying to decide which one I like best.

First, I started with Sharing the Love.

I like that I can include a little bit of the family letter without having to wax poetic. And the colors are great, too. The hard part is deciding which text box should go with which picture.

Next I found Snowflake Wishes Cranberry.

I love the red and I get to showcase my kiddos' little faces. It was really hard to narrow down my choices. There are several similar formats like this one, in different colors and accents.

And then there was Gifted Tag Christmas.

So simple and so elegant. I have to say that I'm leaning toward this one. Certainly makes my job a lot easier.

Might just have to take that same photo shoot and make it into a calendar. I'm already obsessed with talking about myself, now I can look at pictures of me (oh, and the kids...maybe) all year long. And while I'm at it, I can finish off some hard-to-shop people on my list with a photo book or personalized mug. I can be like some of the mega bloggers and give mugs with my logo and picture as the prize in my next giveaway. You'll just have to promise me that you won't drink Pero out of it...that stuff is nasty.

Are you sending Christmas cards?

Which of these three formats do you like the best?

* I was given 50 free holiday cards by Shutterfly for this post. I picked out the cards and the split modifiers.

*Are you a blogger and interested in participating in this promotion? Go here to get more information.