Holiday Grand Plan Week 14

Holiday Decor Week

As my dad used to say, "Whoa Nellie!" The last couple of weeks have been a frenzy!
My Thanksgiving was wonderful, I worked very hard but I also had a truly nice time. I think next year I'm going to ask my Aunt and her family if they'd like to join us. She would add some spice to the mix!

Saturday we went to my grandmother-in-law's 90th birthday party. Today I went to Williamsburg to get my son who'd been having vacation at Camp RaRa.

Between all that I've been trying to keep up with the house and decorate for Christmas. Most of my decorating is done, the tree is up and I'm working on Christmas cards. I still have about 1/3 of the decorating to do. Now that we live in a different house I have to figure out where to place our treasures. I may also put some lights up outside which I haven't done in decades.

So get those decorations out of the garage, down from the attic and up from the basement, it's time to spread a little cheer.

Also, if you are mailing presents, make sure to get those packaged up this week and send them next week to avoid delays. Also, don't stand in the line at the Post Office, schedule a freepickup!

Now I must rush off, I've got to work some more on my Christmas cards. I'm going to try and get them out by Thursday.

I'll leave you with my favorite lines from A Charlie Brown Christmas.... (I just adore that show and there are so many great lines really)

Lucy Van Pelt: I know how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that.

Charlie Brown: What is it you want?

Lucy Van Pelt: Real estate.

Happy Thanksgiving

Things are busy in my house and I imagine they are in yours. My husband and son are now waiting at the airport for my sister-in-law to arrive. The rest of the in-laws are driving and should begin arriving at 12:00. I've already run a load of dishes and I have another to go. Gravy, pies, corn, appetizers, and cranberry sauce are made. Turkey is in the oven (although hubby forgot to turn it ON)!

I'm going to finish vacuuming and get myself together then I'll start on the potatoes, vegetables and stuffing.

Have a wonderful day and be kind to your family.

Holiday Grand Plan Week 13

Dining Room and Deadline Week

Can you believe it? We've been working on the HGP for 13 weeks now and we've arrived at Thanksgiving!
Hopefully you feel a little more ready for the holidays and hopefully your house is just a little cleaner and ready to put up some Christmas decorations next week.

Are you like me and hosting a large family for Thanksgiving dinner? The last week I've been working on my menu plan and trying out a few recipes to see if they are good enough to make the cut. Two recipes were a definite but one got the ole heave ho.

I'm so glad the dining room was saved for this week, sometimes it acts as the junk room (SHAME) and right now it's filled with decorations and Thanksgiving prep items.

I've been working my fanny off tidying up the rest of the house, giving it a good once more over so that things are tidy and clean not only for my guests but for the decorating I will do starting this weekend. Then, believe it or not I will get to do some relaxing the month of December. My house will be clean, decorations up and most of my Christmas gifts have been made or bought.

So I'll spend my December wrapping gifts, driving around at night looking at Christmas lights, attending a few parties and sipping hot chocolate.

If you haven't done so, this weekend get your Christmas cards and holiday stamps. Start addressing them five at a time until they are finished. Are you in the middle of making a gift? If you don't think you can finish it within the next week put it away for next year. There's enough to do and fun to be had!

Holiday Grand Plan Week 12

Attic/Storage
Wow we've been at this for three months now! Do you feel a little more at ease about celebrating the holidays this year? I do. I'm almost finished with buying gifts for Christmas and I only have one more gift to make by hand which is a quilt for my son.
Christmas cards have been bought and holiday stamps are on the way. Now I'm working on my Thanksgiving menu.

We've come a long way and it's getting about time to celebrate!

So this week we're in the attic and I'll tell you a secret. I am NOT going up there!
I have a walk-up attic which is so nice but it has almost zero storage space. It's actually blocked off so that I can't move around. There is only one small stepping spot and the only thing up there are some tubs of my sons clothes which I just put up there when I cleaned the nursery.

I have a three bedroom house and I cleaned the master bath several weeks ago but where's the time to clean the other two bathrooms? Now is the time! I'll also use this week to do a little more cleaning in my living room.

Next week of course is the dining room and I'll be looking forward to hosting my family for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm going to try out a couple of new recipes this week to see if they'll be suitable for next week.

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving dish?

Adoption Finalized!!

So here is the good news I've been waiting a couple of days to share (I wanted to tell the family first)!



Mama and Jeremiah have been very sick with colds the last few days but we received something in the mail to perk us right up!

Jeremiah is officially our son (as of last week but we didn't know), the adoption process is over, we've received the Final Order of Adoption and now we are just waiting on his new birth certificate that will reflect his new name!

After five years of praying for a child and after two years of walking the course of adoption we are now a family in the eyes of the law. Of course we always were a family in the eyes of God!

Now presenting Master Jeremiah in all his glory...we know who runs this family.


Thank you everyone. You know what you did, I know what you did, one day Jeremiah will know what you did but most importantly - God knows what you did and He is smiling down from Heaven!!

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Ps. 37: 4

Vote For Jeremiah!

After being sick for about 4 days I'm feeling much better now. I went to a doctor appt. early this morning and then went to the polls to cast my vote!
I was under the impression that we would be using a computer to vote with but we actually had a piece of paper and we had to fill in the bubbles next to our candidates name - just like we were taking a test in school.

Once again I am happy to have gone to vote alongside my husband. Jeremiah voted too! He voted yes to the amendment that states: Mom should bring back the Blueberry Buckle!

Holiday Grand Plan Week 11

Garage/Storage Week

A couple of days after my son and I got back from our travels we came down with a nasty cold. Today is my first day of moving off the bed or couch. I'm praying I feel much better tomorrow because not only is it election day but I have an important doctor appointment all the way across town.

So needless to say there won't be much cleaning done around here!

My garage is in need of help, it is packed to the gills with items and furniture we've not unpacked yet. I will have to do a little work in there because all of our Christmas decorations are in there, right in the middle of all the mess.

Lately I feel like I don't have much together so I'm just trying to concentrate on being a good wife and mom.

We have some excellent news as of today but nobody in the family knows about it yet. I'll reveal all once I speak with the family!

You're Kidding Me!

Ok ok ok.

So the big family emergency didn't end all that well. Alright, it ended very badly. Now the situation is an even bigger burden on my heart and mind. I'm giving it over to God and I'm preparing myself for losing something that I use to consider an important part of me. I'm sure everyone has "been there, done that."

Remember those 10 venetian blinds I have to get cleaned? Well neither my husband nor I can figure out how to get them down in order to wash them. I absolutely cannot clean each one by hand - no time for anything other than a good rinse with the hose. My husband said, "Just move onto the next project."

So I'm taking his advice and they won't get cleaned (oh it hurts to say that). My carpet will also not be getting steam cleaned until spring so I'm just going to spot clean as best I can and hope that nobody notices all the horrible gray stains.

My husband and I run a website company and we are having problems with our hosting. If we have problems that means all of our clients have problems. YIKES! We are having to move every client over to a new host and learn how to use the new tools.
I'm praying this situation gets resolved soon because we are on a 30 day deadline with our biggest client yet and we are a week behind in their development because of our hosting issue.

Here's a bit of good news: I've managed to get up at 6:00 am for the past two days!