I have tried to maintain the tradition of photos with Santa despite the fact that my children are now young adults! Last year, I purchased a Santa suit so my husband could dress up allowing us to avoid going to the mall. This year the kids and my husband were shopping at the mall. As they passed Santa the KIDS suggested they get a photo taken for me. I have an album of all the old Santa layouts on the piano. Before Christmas eve dinner they slipped the photo into the album and opened the page. I was so busy I never even noticed. I told them it was almost time for photos with Santa and they were complaining. Finally they had me look at the piano. I was so choked up and crying that they didn't know if I was ok. It was one of the best presents!

Ready for Santa

We are ready for the guy in the red suit!

Just like the Old Days!!!

We headed out yesterday morning to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. I wanted to wait until both kids were home. Of course, that meant hiking in the bitter cold with almost a foot of new snow. But, we ventured out and even brought the dog. After rejecting many that were too small, we found a perfect blue spruce. We ordered pizza, the kids had friends over and everyone helped with the tree. Later the girls frosted sugar cookies. It was so much fun to listen to the laughter and chatter!

Tomorrow - Jen comes home tomorrow. Just hope that the snow storm is over and that it does not cause any travel delays for her!

On Thursday I volunteered to make 25 ornaments to bring to a party on Friday. I was still working on them just hours before we had to go. Just a simple wood snowflake painted white and covered with glitter paint. Added a rubon.

Ho Ho Ho

Brrrr....... suddenly 26 degrees seems very cold! Spent 2 1/2 days in Arizona which seemed so warm! It was funny that we were one of the few people in shorts as they thought it was cold. Got to spend as much time with Jennifer as we could. Enjoyed a birthday brunch on Staurday. It was the first birthday we spent together in years.

This afternoon I am flying to Phoenix to see my daughter! My husband has to attend a conference in the city where she is studying for her PhD. I am so glad I was able to get a few days off from work to head out there too. Looking forward to warm weather and no snow. Just hoping today's weather does not interfere with the flights.

So Thanksgiving has come and gone. It did not seem like a holiday because Jennifer was not home with us. She is at grad school in Arizona and could not make the trip. Luckily she has friends and family close by so she was not alone. Even Rob said he missed her! And we are postponing the annual Christmas tree hunt until she gets home.

Loved the berries showing through.

Started snowing at 10 am this morning and by the time I headed home from work we had 3 inches. It looks so pretty but I so hate to drive in it.

According to my husband this is a bad time of year - the golf season has ended and we have no snow so cross country skiing cannot start. What is a guy to do! On the other hand, I need to start cleaning for Thanksgiving. It will bejust us but I still need to get rid of some of the dust and vacuum the carpets. Jennifer will not be home for Thanksgiving which will seem so strange.
I am thankful she is enjoying her days at Arizona State Unviersity.

I do not want to end the tradition of photos with Santa just because the kids are grown up. We hated the ahssles of the mall, though so I bought a Santa suit and now we do them at home. This tree is made of circles - a challenge on Scrapfriendzy.

Anyone want any leftover baked ziti? Rob came home to visit last night for dinner. I still make the same amount of food that I did when there were 4 of us. I need to learn to cut back. We had a wonderful time catching up with him. His grades are very good! He has made friends at the dorm and is truly enjoying this college experience.

A beautiful shot of the lake in October.

I used a collage Jen had made as the background for this layout.

Sunday night -- the weekend is over again. Had a fun time scrapping with my friends at Scraplove! Can you believe we had snow showers most of the day?! So far just the grass is a bit white.

We have witnessed history this week as Barack Obama was elected President. For me the outcome was not as important as the fact that both of my children voted. Rob for the first time! When did he get that old!

What a beautiful start to the week. Temps of 70 degrees in Michigan this time of year is certainly a gift! The thunderstorms last night took out many of the leaves still on the trees and many others are just brown. I will be glad when the campain ads end tomorrow. Should be an interesting day for our country.

20 is not too old to go pumpkin hunting!

I started this project of a blog then kind of left it. Now I am back and determined to figure out how to do this.

So after spending over 2 hours on the phone with a woman in El Salvador, my 5 month old printer still does not work!! Plus I spent another 2 hours working on it after I hung up with her. This cannot go on! If my DS or DH cannot fix it, I am going to have to hurt someone.

I did It

I joined the world of bloggers. Let's see how this goes.