Hi....sorry I didn't make it here earlier. It has been a long hard day. My DB got his boss to make our house the test house for a new kind of spray insulation.....so they had to have everything totally OUT of the attic. Worked my behind off until my back gave out at around 3pm. DH and DB are tearing up all the flooring in the attic so they can come spray it on the weekend. Then the company will track our heating bill to see how big of a difference it will make.

We made a few goodie deliveries today. Those snowman donuts were a big success! Everybody loved them. My 4 yr old asked me if we could take some to her little friend so gotta make up some more. Will do the rest of the deliveries tomorrow night. I'm making tags right now.

Oh, and I was so busy I completely forgot to send the teacher gifts and the crosswalk lady a gift on Friday!! UGH! Where is my brain???

I got those boxes painted and now can't think of anything good to put in them. ha Better get to thinkin. ha Got a few things to post when I can find a minute to take pics.

We used to have a stocking for our dog every year. He'd get so excited over it. He knew which one was his.

I'll have to run to the grocery store early tomorrow morning and get the rest of my groceries bought for Christmas. It will be snowing again bad on Wed so need to get it done tomorrow. Ya'll have a good one and I'll try to stop in sometime after noon. ~Anj

Good to hear from you Anj, I was so afraid your DH might have ended up back in the hospital when we hadn't heard from you for awhile! So glad that wasn't the case. ;o)

So did you get a real price break on the insulation? Sure hope so. Oh my goodness, you have had to work on those boxes up there way too much lately. Not sure I understand why they would need everything out to spray the insulation in. Did you have to carry them all downstairs by yourself? Sure hope it works well for you and lowers the heating bill allot. We usually don't have a very high heating bill here, but it does seem that we are starting to get cooler weather here the last few years.

Glad everyone liked those little snowmen, they sure were cute. I got my packages delivered too. Had one bad incident. Not only do I give little gifts to my four neighbors, but I also purchased big ham bones for my neighborhood dogs. When I gave one to our neighbor on the corner for his big Great Dane, he told me that she had died last Monday! I felt so sad, she had not shown any signs of illness or anything, he just found her dead.

I'm all ready for the big day now. Hope you get to finally relax and enjoy yourself a bit too. Sure don't know how you keep up with everything like you do!

I'll chat more later. Better get moving here.

Luvs

Guess what I did???? I'm so upset! After all that work getting the other box painted....I forgot to take a pic!!! We delivered everything tonight and I walked back in the door and wham!! I remembered! DH said he'd ask them if he can come back and take a pic of it tomorrow. ha Sounds dorky though, doesn't it? They really liked it though. It was a Karen Wisner pattern and it turned out cute. Dang it! They said everyone asks them where they got the one I painted last year and they tell them they did it! ha Said it works out real well until they ask them to do one for them. ha Haven't heard from my other friend, but they love the simple little jar I painted for them for Halloween a long time ago so I know they'll love the Santa box I did for them. I just put some Bear Creek soup mix and tiny Ritz crackers with smiley faces on them in the boxes. On the tag I wrote this: (Though this gift my seem a little quirky...Here is something to do with that leftover Christmas turkey.) You can add chicken or turkey to the soup. Kinda dumb, but it's all I could come up with. ha Crossing guard lady about started crying when I took her a gift. Her DH died a few years ago so I like to get her a little something every year. So many people I'd like to do something for. Ya'll please make me start in August next year so I'll have plenty of time to get everything done! Crazy!! Had to make a bunch of candy to give to DD's friends. Just cereal with melted almond bark stirred into it, but her friends LOVE it. I certainly hope I am DONE!!!

Glad you got all your stuff delivered. Did you friend like her Santa??? I know she did. Too bad about neighbors dog. So many people I know are losing their pets recently. It is sad. I'm just happy my little dog doesn't have to try going in and out in this cold weather.

My house is a disaster area. There is not a clean dish in the house. I'm running one dishwasher full now and I can probably do 2 more. There is plastic runners everywhere trying to keep all the wood chips out of my carpet that are coming out of the attic. Here is the thing...We used to have a flat roof, but DH built a slanted roof over it so the old roof became the attic floor. Now they have to tear up the attic floor (old roof) to spray in the insulation. Big mess. Big gigantic mess. So that's why everything had to come out so they can have it all torn out and ready to spray the whole thing at one time. And I carried about 1/2 of the boxes down and out by myself, but my Dad has been great helping me and the kids helped carry some of the lighter boxes out to the garage for me too. I have waaaay to much stuff that's accumulated up there. Glad it's out of there so I'll be forced to go thru it all and get rid of a lot of it.

So I will be spending tomorrow cleaning again so Santa won't have to see my house looking like a bunch of hogs live here. I promised these kids I'd make some cookies with them too. Wondering if we'll get out tomorrow night to go see the lights and then get home in time to feed the reindeer. Does your GD do that? We use oatmeal and glitter and nonpareils. Better see if I can remember where I put the glitter. ha Ok, I'm gonna forget all this mess for tonight and just go to bed. It's heading toward 1am. Ugh. What a long day. At least I got all my grocery shopping done today. It was so crowded today I can't imagine going tomorrow. Sorry, I'm tired and I'm in ramble mode. I'll check in tomorrow! ~Anj

BAck again....DH called our friend and he said he'd take a pic of the box and send it over email so I can show ya'll. Hopefully he won't forget. He told DH that I need to get to painting and selling my stuff to make us some extra money. That's the kind of people I like giving my painted stuff to!! ha Anyway, now I won't be too upset to sleep. Talk to ya'll tomorrow.

Good morning, Anj. Wow, you are so busy! Don't know how you do it! And what a time to have the attic all torn up--thank goodness it could all be moved to the garage. You can wait to tackle it after the holidays are over. You may find out that you really don't need to keep all of it after all. I know I tend to pack things away and then forget I even have it. LOL One of my friends told me that when she moved into her house, they stashed extra boxes of stuff up in the rafters of their garage thinking they would sort through them later. Well, five years later, they decided to clean the garage and she told her kids to just pitch those boxes--figured if she hadn't opened them in five years, she didn't need any of it! (No way I could ever do that--I'd have to see what was in them first!) LOL

I've delivered all my goodies to the neighbors, and DS and little GD came over last night and we went up to the heavily decorated area and walked the streets looking at all the pretty lights. It wasn't too cold, so it was enjoyable. DIL won't go, says she hates the cold. She's always been a Calif. girl, so we have to laugh because our low temps here are nothing compared to many other places! I have to say that the cooler weather really makes it feel more like Christmas to me.

We had a nice surprize in the mail yesterday. As you know, DH just retired this year in August, well we got notified that we are getting a nice cost of living increase on our retirement! How cool is that? DH says it should pay for all my craft stuff! LOL

I thought your soup mix and cracker idea was great! That was a perfect idea to go in the box you painted for them. And after all,the painted item is the real present.

I haven't seen my neighbor to know how she liked the Santa yet. I'm sure she will like it, she always gets excited over my painted stuff. I gave one of the poinsettia plaques to my other neighbor--not as sure how much she likes the painted things. However, when we went over for ladies day, she did have the little snowman sign I had given her setting out. I also gave all of them bags of my homemade peanut brittle. I made five batches of it this year.

Do you ever make the "puppy chow"? It's the one that uses Crispix cereal with melted chocolate and peanut butter poured over it, then you dump it in a bag of powdered sugar? We always get favorable comments when we make it, and kids really love it.

I've got my living room all lit up this morning. Turned the tree and mantel lights on and it looks really cozy in there. Think I'll take a cup of coffee and just go sit and enjoy it a bit while I count my blessings and remember Christmases past.

You have a great day, I'll chat again soon.

Kay

Thank Goodness it's over for this year LOL
We ended up having a great time together. Gift giving was light but no one cared. We had a ball. My one DIL is very materialistic but hopefully seeing the light. I found the Pat Olson Christmas book on eBay and want to do the nativity for each one of my grandkids for next year. Thought it would make a nice keepsake.
Well the grandkids are acting up.
See ya later
Hugs
Diana

Hi Diana, glad you came by to give us a shout. So glad you had a great time with your family. I'll bet your grandkids would love it if you painted each of them a nativity. I have a Juliet Martin book with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus that I've wanted to do for years, but just never have started it. Well, I could certainly say that about allot of the patterns in my books actually. LOL

You are so right, the truly important thing is being with family and having fun together--the other things are just "things". Here's wishing you a wonderful New Year, and I hope you come visit us often.

Luvs