Decembertime is here...

This past Thanksgiving was an emotional one. It made me realize how fragile life is and how precious the people in my life are to me. Peter's Grandma passed away Thanksgiving day. When we woke up that cold Thursday morning, we were looking forward to the day, spending it with loved ones and filling our tummy's with yummy food. We weren't expecting a death in the family. Marcella K. O'Malley, will be missed dearly http://m.startribune.com/topic/3977-Obituaries/articles/194783211. She was just a couple months shy of turning 90 years old. It's amazing to think of all the things she must have witnessed during her lifetime. I've never had anyone close to me die. I've never been to a funeral of someone I knew. It was an intense day, full of tears and memories. I only knew her 4 short years and had only a handful of memories with and of her - the most precious and recent memory was watching Simon give his Great-Grandma a goodbye kiss, while visiting her at the resting home a few weeks ago. She loved that little boy so much. I'm glad she got to see him one last time and witness him walking, one thing she so desperately wanted to see.

While we were at the church on Saturday for the funeral, I kept thinking about how hard it would be to say goodbye to my Grandmas or my parents or siblings or other family members/friends. The tears flowed freely as I thought of that. A week ago, I had no idea how I would deal with a death in the family, 6 days ago, I found out. I'm thankful that most of my family/friends are believers. It gives me a peace that when those days do come, when I have to say goodbye, that they'll be in a better place. Until then, my prayer is: Come Lord, Jesus, come!

Black Friday:
Friday, I woke up at 3:00am to go shopping with my dear friends, Andria and Rosanna. I got some pretty good deals. This one was the best of all deals: It was worth standing in line for over an hour...can't beat $25 for an all-in-one printer. I did surprisingly well for only getting 2 hours of sleep within a 30 hour period. It's definitely not something I want to do all the time, but I think I can manage it once every year. ;)

♥Things I'm looking forward to:♥

-Birthday-
My birthday is tomorrow and I can already sense a theme...owls! Here are some early b-day presents that I received last week. Aren't they darling?!



I still feel like a little girl when it comes to my birthday. I'm a huge fan of surprises and as we all know birthdays and surprises usually go hand in hand with one another. Peter's taking me out tomorrow night for a surprise dinner, someplace I've never been before. My only instructions are dress to impress - I get to dress up!! :) I love my husband.

-Upcoming trip-
Peter and I are getting away for the first time without our son in a week and a half. We're driving over to Red Wing, MN. and spending a couple of days there. We're so looking forward to this and are so grateful to Peter's family for watching our little boy Simon while we're away. I'm already making plans for our getaway, movies (in a theater - gasp), breakfast, walks up and down main street with hot coffee in our hands...

-Christmas-
Along with Birthdays, Christmas is always full of beautiful surprises. This year I'm looking forward to spending it with Peter's family. This will be Simon's 2nd Christmas, it's amazing how much he's changed since last year. It's going to be fun watching him open presents and gaze at the beautiful Christmas lights. Next year they'll be another little on in our family. Simon can hardly wait to have a little cousin to play with. :)

Sprinkled in here and there, I'm looking forward to spending time with friends and family. Tea Room girlfriend date, Christmas parties, SG nights and so on. I have such a wonderful and blessed life and I don't take that for granted.

♥♥♥

Musings on a cold sunny November day

Such a busy, busy couple of weeks we have had...and it's only going to get busier with Thanksgiving, my birthday, upcoming trip and Christmas just around the bend! I'm usually quite depressed coming home from visiting with my family (missing them and all that). This time it's helped having so much to look forward too. Couldn't have planned that out better.

Speaking of the FW trip...

I have come to the realization that traveling with a 15 month old isn't much fun. I can travel with a 6 week old, and even an 8 month old was doable, but 15 months is SO much harder. I have also figured out that it's easier to fly and then drive 3.5 hours then the other way around. Driving for over 3 hours and then waiting at the airport for 1.5 hours and then flying for another hour was too much for the little man to handle (especially when said little man decided to empty out his little tummy upon arriving at the rental garage in Chicago on our way home - thank goodness we had time to spare).



The traveling and sleeping at night in the same room with a very light sleeper baby aside, all in all our trip went really well. We were able to do most of the things we wanted to do - it was amazing how busy we were. Every day we had something to look forward to. Friends to see, family to visit with and a certain local restaurant to frequent...quite often. Yum.

My friends, Carissa and Andrea drove in from Knoxville for a couple of days. It was wonderful seeing them again...and finally being able to introduce them to my little boy. We also were able to visit with Dan and Kathryn, Nathan L. and his lovely wife, Sheri and of course my brother Nate and his friend Carita. Friday night was definitely a highlight of the week - hanging out with Carissa, Andrea, Nate, Carita, Nathan and Peter. We shopped at Jefferson Pointe, ate at Fazzoli's and headed over to Nate's place where we played Apples to Apples, and watched an elephant give birth on youtube. Yes, it was quite the random night. We finished off our evening at Munchies with much laughter and good eats.




One of the best things about the trip, was watching my family with Simon. It makes me sad that they can't see him whenever they want. Every day they were with him was a gift. Mikayla was very much still the little mother to him and Hannah laughed at every little thing he did. It was fun for Simon to have a backyard to play in. He enjoyed walking up and down the long and narrow back yard and swinging in the baby swing. The weather was especially GORGEOUS the whole entire time we were there - 60's and 70's.



The women in my family are extremely talented and showed off their skills by making Simon little gifts. Mikayla (10)knit Simon a little green vest and also a little bunny rabbit. Hannah (9) knit him a sweet little snowman. My mom went all out of knit him a holiday hat complete with bells and also knit him his first official Christmas stocking. I was blown away by the sweet gifts. Simon is a lucky little man.


Now that we're back home, I've been busy with unpacking, cleaning and organizing. I am currently working on going through my clothes and sorting through them for Turnstyle/Clothes Mentor or Hidden Treasures. I'm quite proud of myself for getting rid of so much. I really do enjoy getting "new" clothes and so I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to do this more often (getting clothes, wearing them until I'm bored with them and then consigning them, trading them in for newer stuff). I think I could do that...

I have also been busy with my Etsy business. I've sold 3 creatures in the past 2 weeks!


...I'm busy with making more for the holidays. I just need to get organized and take pictures and add them to my site. In honor of my birthday and Christmas, December is going to be a good time to buy with discounted prices on both the items and shipping. Keep an eye out!

Now that the baby is sleeping, I can sit down and eat my spicy pumpkin soup in peace, while I wait for the laundry to finish up. I hope you all have a wonderful and fabulous Monday. ♥