What I've been reading til the wee hours of the morning the past few nights...

Francine Rivers "The Last Sin Eater"

Once I pick it up I just...can't...put it...down

Christmas catch-up

Christmas Eve was spent with my wonderful in-laws. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures and the ones I did manage to get didn't turn out at all. On Christmas Day, everyone gathered at my Brother's house for a big meal. We're so thankful to have him home safe.

Once again, this year, our family was sweet enough to remember the Daughter we wait for. We love the gifts they got her. I hope that, after 2 Christmases waiting, next year she will be here to open up her gifts herself =).

I think we've started a new tradition now that Jess is back in town. The day before Christmas Eve, my mom, my aunt Glenda, Jessica and Jamey came over and we baked homemade Christmas goodies. It was a lot of fun. I also caved in and gave Jamey his Christmas gift from me while they were here. It was a train set and was a huge hit. I knew it would be seeing as trains are one of his favorite things in the whole wide world...along with his mommy, monster trucks, popcorn, and anything related to Lightning McQueen or cars of any sort.

Class of 92 reunion =)

My long-time friend ,Christy, and I spent Saturday with lunch at Qd*ba, Christmas shopping, then back to my house to hang out and play Wii. She had never played before and I think she had a lot of fun (especially with the boxing)

Christy and I have been friends since middle school and we graduated together wayyyy back in 1992

We always have a lot of fun together =)










And now, for a little more Christmas around my house...



I just found this little Irish Pub the other night and had to get it because it reminded me of the trip we took in 2005. Doug and I spent 9 days driving literally from one side of Ireland to the other (landed in Shannon..left from Dublin) staying in bed and breakfast inns in small towns all along the way. It was the best trip ever..at least until China =).



Here's my little "coffee shop" in the kitchen



Speaking of trips, we got this ornament from our awesome trip to Savannah earlier this year....which was right after...






We lost my sweet boy Ozzie in May of this year. I still miss him like crazy.





I got this Angel last year. I thought she looked very "Irish" in her plaid dress, which is why I got her...of course.

I thought I needed to do something with the top of my tv armoire so I just used some evergreen garland with red berries and pine cones and clear faceted lights like the ones on my tree. I left my oil lamps where they were because I liked the way they looked mixed in with the greenery. Not the best photo but you get the picture (pardon the pun).










This little silver bell was my Grandmothers. It's been one of my favorite Christmas fixtures for as long as I can remember. It is probably 50 years old . She got it when my Grampa was stationed overseas with the Army...I'm guessing when they lived in Germany because it's musical and according to the label on the bottom it plays "Stille Nacht" instead of "Silent Night" ; ).





Even my bathroom got a touch of Christmas...

I got this cute Gingerbread house for my kitchen at H*llmark this year.
It plays "the Dance of the Sugarplum Faerie"

Jamey loves it. Everytime he comes over he pushes the button and bounces around to the music...recently we've been working on some ballet moves (his daddy loves this). You'll notice he manages to keep it masculine with a hockey themed outfit.


Make sure you scroll down and turn off the music player before
you view the video clip.=)

Special Needs

We had our home-study update last night and it went wonderfully. We love our social worker, Beth. The big news, as you may have already guessed from the link above, is that we are now pursuing special needs adoption. We went over the list of needs that we are open to with Beth, and by next week, it should be in the hands of our agency where they will start to look for a match for us. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and was just waiting for Doug to mention it on his own, without any prompting from me..and he did . After much prayer and consideration, I believe that this is where we need to be. We're pretty excited about this =)

Christmas Reunion

We had a small Christmas get-together with some looooong time friends who were in from Florida ( well, besides Jess who's moved back to Ky. permanently). It's hard to describe who these people are to me. I mean, they're friends, but they're much more than that. I've known these people since I was, maybe, ten years old. And somehow I've gotten lucky enough that they've just kind of adopted me as their own, so they're like Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents and Cousins...you get the picture. Anyway I love these folks, and we had a really great time tonight.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

My Christmas cactus has bloomed (a little early)

The tree is up

I picked this little ornament up last year when H*llmark had it's "Christmas around the World" collection.

And I've gotten around to wrapping a few presents