Last Minute Christmas Items

There are only 5 days left till Christmas and 4 shopping days left. I wrapped all the gifts we bought for the kids and those for my hubby today......only have two gifts that I wasn't able to wrap. I need to get a bigger gift bag for my hubbies gift and pick up a nice card for him too. Trying to figure out how to wrap our son's gift...this one is going to be a challenge and I know I can't find a bag big enough for it either.

Al and I sat down and went through our menu for Christmas Day and made a list.....we're thinking we might be one of those people that everyone thinks is crazy for going shopping in the middle of the night...with WalMart and Super Store both open 24 hrs we will be able to pick up pretty much everything we need before the stores get really busy either that or go in for about 8am. Now that I think about it going in for 8am is a better idea, this way we will be able to hit both the liquor store and the Co-op before they get busy........ then we will done and if we forget anything - then we don't really need it.

Monday afternoon and Tuesday are the days I am going to finish off the bit of baking I have left to do.

Next week this time it is all over and done with. Also once week from today Christmas 2009 will be 363 days away, that makes it 370 days away from today.

Count Down

We all count down the days to special events in our lives, like Christmas, Birthday's and so on...usually this is done in months, days, weeks.... I am counting down the minutes until I start my holidays for the Christmas Season. Come 5:00 pm I am out of here for 2 weeks....have 80 minutes until my holidays start. I am so looking forward to the time off with my husband and children. Well the kids will be working for the most part.

Our shopping is nearly wrapped up...just a few little things here and there left to get. Now for the wrapping of the presents. That will be this weekend's project.

Next week the plan is to finish my baking up on Monday and Tuesday. Christmas Eve we are off for supper at a dear family friends. Mary is very much like family to us, for Al and I she fits the role of a mom and for our kids she is Grandma Mary. We look forward every year spending Christmas Eve with Mary and her family. Mary's son and daughter-in-law Danny & Sandra are very good friends of ours, very much like family. This family is friend but they are friends that are like family.

Christmas Day I will be cooking up dinner as usual. I am hoping that a co-worker who may be alone for the holidays will be able to join our family in Celebrating Christmas Day. Though her extended family my convince her to spend the day with them.

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Sketch and Stash Blog Candy

Head over to the Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog for a chance win some awesome Blog Candy - Whiff of Joy Willow with Umbrella Stamp. The blog candy closes on Jan 3, 2009 at midnight and the Challenge will launch on January 5, 2009.

Click HERE to go to the Sketch and Stash Challenge Blog.

This will be my first challenge card that I will try. I will post a picture of my finished product here in January.

Christmas Countdown

9 Days left until Christmas Day. Hard to believe that it is that close. We have a few more gifts left to pick up, mostly stocking stuffers for the kids.

Tonight is the night that we will decorate our tree, our second tree that is. The first tree that we bought dried up within a week, strange with it not running out of water. So Al went back to Sobey's, they told him to pick out another tree and they would do an exchange. Turned out the remaining trees didn't look very good either so they gave him his money back and we picked up a tree from a local grower. The house is really starting to smell like Christmas now....next week I am on holidays, my plan is to finish up my Christmas baking then.

So with 8 shopping days left we need to get the last minute items on our list, wrap them and get them under the tree.

Papermonkey - Big Blog Candy Give Away

Click HERE to head over to Paper Monkey to check out Suzy's Happy Haul-a-Days Giveaway closing on Dec 15th. She is giving away about $200 in blog candy to one lucky winner. She is offering items from Whiff of Joy, Magnolia-licious and Sweet and Sassy just to name a few.

Here is the link again for you http://blog.papermonkey.org/index/2008/12/happy-hauladays-my-biggest-giveaway-ever-.html

Answer To A Prayer

The last month I have been thinking about my dad a lot.....you see it has been just over 6 months since he passed and the 1 year anniversary of the day he came home from the hospital after he suffered a TIA (mini stroke). We felt so blessed that he recovered from the TIA without any damage and thanked God every day for that. With Christmas getting close and this will be the first Christmas with out my dad there have been some very difficult days. I have a loving husband who understands what I am going through and is there for me.

After my dad passed I asked God to let me know somehow that my dad was happy and with my mom in the home of our Lord Jesus Christ & God. God answered my prayer through my best friend who dreamed of my dad and mom together walking hand in hand through a beautiful meadow of wild flowers. My dad loved picking wild flowers. She had this dream before I was able to tell her of my dad's passing. She knew by the end of the dream that he had passed away. She wasn't sure of who the lady was with my dad....as she had never met my mom. At the end of the dream as my dad and mom were walking back to where they came from the stopped and my dad turned to Kim, winked at her and told her tell her I Love Her. This was the answer to my prayer that I had asked God the night before.

Again I asked God to let me know once more that my dad was happy and watching over me and my family. In fact I asked this on Thursday night. Well yesterday when my husband came home with the mail, a couple of Christmas Cards arrived. As I read the one from Debbie, my husband's cousin my prayer was again answered. She wrote a beautiful letter/poem for me called My First Christmas With Jesus. The background of the paper was a watermark photo of my dad. I am sure that God used Debbie to allow my dad to once again let me know he is happy and looking forward to spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year. As I read this I could hear my dad reading this to me.

You see God does answer our prayers, I know this as he has answered many of mine over the years. You just have to listen and watch for them. I feel so blessed that both times I asked God about my dad, he answered my prayers the very next day, with God's love I will get through this time and be a stronger person because of it. Both times he used someone very special to me as a messenger so that I would know his love is unending. I believe that God uses the people we hold near and dear to us as messengers to show us not only his love but the love our loved ones have for us too.

This year for Christmas my dad won't be with us in body but I do know that he will be us in Spirit. Christmas for my dad this year will be a very special one, he will be with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grad Dress Shopping

Yesterday my daughter and some of her friends all made their way to Unique Weddings by Craft Haven to check out the selection of Graduation Dresses. Hard to believe that baby will be graduating in June 2009. Where has the time gone.....it feels like only yesterday that Meagan started Kindergarten and now soon she will be finished High School.

Meagan called me after they all had tried dresses on and most of them picked out their dresses to let me know she found the dress of her dreams....it was a chocolate brown - which she wanted and only $300. I asked her if she was sure this was the dress she wanted, she told me it fits me beautifully and I really really like it and if it sells I will be really disappointed.

Last night the Annual Grad Fashion show was held at Carlton. Her and her friends attended, she told me there was some beautiful gowns there and she is really scared that the dress she picked out will be gone within a week if not sooner. She picked out the perfect pair of shoes, necklace & earring set and hair pins all to match the dress. She called her dad and told him about the dress as well. We were both surprised that the dress was only $300. With her dad not being back until tomorrow afternoon and they won't hold the dress for her until then she needed to put a deposit down on it or she could loose it, which I know can happen...they have had it happen to 2 girls this year already. As they were coming in with their parents their dress they picked and fell in love with was leaving....they actually passed each other in the doorway. So Meagan asked if she could bring in a cheque this afternoon. Meagan is going to have the dress of her dreams...she is go thrilled that she doesn't have to worry about anyone else picking her dress

With the dress out of the way a lot of the pressure is off...now she has her hair and nails to worry about. We just have to book pictures and decide where to go for supper.

Snow........

Well I think my hubby will be thrilled when he gets home on Friday, no let me re-phrase that...I know my hubby will be thrilled. He will finally be able to use his snow blower. I think after last nights snow there is enough snow on the ground to warrant him starting up the snow blower. I can just picture him now out there in all his glory. Boys and their toys.....He has been waiting since August to use the snow blower. He bought a small yard/garden tractor with a rotter tiller, lawn mower & snow blower attachments. He wants to get a small blade made for the front end so he can also plow the snow around the yard...mind you the blade can also be used to level out the driveway in the spring, summer and fall after it has been rutted up after a lot of rain.

Today's Ponderings

Well today being my day off for the part of the morning anyways. Myself and a co-worker traveled to Regina today as we have a meeting tomorrow morning. The trip was good for the most part...a bit of snow and reduced visibility a ways out of Saskatoon.

After getting checked into the hotel we made our way to the Cornwall Shopping Centre. Picked up a present for my husband and found one of the presents my daughter was asking for. Just in case either of them read my blog can't mention anything more than that they will like the gifts.

This is the first time I went on line with my new lap top. I like that now when I travel for work I can take my lap top with me and keep on things. Nice thing too when traveling any distance, we can take the lap top and watch movies. Speaking of which I am listening to my new Christmas CD Mariah Carey.

Spread a Little Love

Katarina's 10th Anniversary with her fiancee - and she is spreading a little love to all in celebration with Blog Candy.

Click HERE to visit Kamadesign - Confessions of a Crafter for all the details on how you can have a chance to win this blog candy. The more people that join in the fun the bigger the candy will be. If you don't have a blog you can still join in on the fun. Details on Katarina's blog.

Here is the link again.
http://kamadesign.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-first-blogcandy.html