Thanksgiving weekend

There was zero Black Friday activity at he PPD household.  Well, I take that back; an attempt was made.  On our way back from Tucson on Thanksgiving night, I had convinced Sweetheart to drop me off at Target so I could do some Black Friday shopping.   He was then going to pick me up hours later when I was done. Well I made it as far as the parking lot.  The store opened at 9pm and we got there about 9:45 -- the parking lot was the fullest I have EVER seen it.   As we drove to the front of the store where Sweetheart was going to drop me off, we found ourselves among erratically driving, maniac shoppers.  I decided to just head home.

So Friday, Saturday and Sunday was black Friday shopping free.  Instead what we did was put away all the Thanksgiving decor and put out ALL the Christmas decor.  We trimmed the tree, hung the outdoor Christmas lights, put up the Nativity scene and my Christmas Village.  It was a very ambitious plan that I put together on Thursday night on the ride home from Tucson.  Luckily, Sweetheart was on board and we got it all done.

All except the pictures which I'll post as soon as I can.  I have every Friday from now until January off and a few days in between.  I am so going to enjoy this wonderful holiday season!

Merry Christmas

We are headed to Tucson to celebrate the birth of Christ with family.

We are so blessed.

~Merry Christmas from our family to yours~

Waiting for Santa...

We don't have a fireplace so Santa will need to use the front door:




Our stockings are hung and ready! There's one for my Sweetheart, one for me, one for Grievous and a little one for Naboo:

Happy Christmas week!

My Wrapping Party - solo

I had a one woman wrapping party today! That sounds funny, I know. Several years ago, before I moved to Phoenix, my sisters and I would have a "wrapping party". We would save all of our wrapping for one day. We would gather at one of our homes where it was just us. We would send husbands and kids away for the day. We would have snacks, drink wine, listen to Christmas music and just wrap away! It made wrapping fun! When I moved to Phoenix, I kept the tradition of a wrapping party but pathetically enough it's became a one woman show! :)

This year, I kept my wrapping simple. I bought three rolls of wrapping paper from the dollar section at Target. Each roll is 40 feet long. It's only about 2 feet wide. The normal wrapping paper is what about 4 feet wide? I had reservations about buying it but I had a lot of shirt and robe boxes to wrap so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. Turns out it was great! I didn't have all the extra cutting and excess paper. There was absolutely no waste whatsoever! Whoever designed that was brilliant! In the past I would also buy different paper for all the different families. My older sister and her family would get one, my younger sister and her family would get another, my cousins would get another, etc. It was cute but expensive and wasteful. This year everyone got the same paper.

I decided in order to make the wrapping special, I would make home-made gift tags. I used my Cricket Expression to cut out tags. I used a stamp with silver ink and a red gel pen to write my to and from names. Then, I attached the tag to the present with red rope ribbon that I got at Walgreens for 99 cents:



It looks cute. It's very simple, but I love it.

And transporting will be easier. Usually I add bows to every gift and by the time we get to my sisters house they have fallen off or are squished beyond recognition. This way, the gift will stay neat and clean:

My Sweetheart was a little surprised that they all looked the same. But when I told him I spent a total of $4 on wrapping paper, he was pleased. The labels didn't cost anything since I used scraps of paper that I had from other projects.

Now that my shopping is done and the wrapping is done I can sit and relax and enjoy all the sappy Christmas movies that are on the Hallmark Channel this week!

Cold Sunday morning

It was a cold 50 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday morning! That's cold for us. Like really cold. After breakfast, My Sweetheart headed to the backyard to enjoy the cold weather. He was so excited that it was cold enough to light his Chiminea (Spanish for outdoor fireplace). He is a real firebug when it comes to that thing!


I ran outside for a quick second to snap a quick picture of him and also to roast a marshmallow or two and I may or may not have also brought out the graham crakers and chocolate bars.......


Here he is loving his fire:

Grievous got to wear his brand new coat. He LOVED it. But he wasn't sure if he wanted to brave the cold. He stood at the door for a while as he contemplated:

He eventually headed outside. He found that his coat kept him nice and warm. He was strutting around in it:

Meanwhile, I was inside putting away Thanksgiving decor and pulling out Christmas decor. Here's a sneak peek:

I decided to decorate in phases. Tonight I'm working on my Christmas Village.

Have a great week!

Christmas Cards

What a great Thanksgiving day we had! We were fortunate enough to be able to spend time with both of our families. We spent the first half of the day in Phoenix with My Sweetheart's family then we drove 90 miles to Tucson to spend the second half of the day with my family. It was a great day!

I spend Friday relaxing. Oh, I did manage to get up at 5:30 a.m. to go 'black Friday bargain shopping'. It was a bit of a bust. I went to Target, Michael's and Kohls. I got good deals at all three places but I gave up after that. There were so many people and the checkout lines were crazy! I came home and decided to just relax the rest of the day. And that I did!

Today, I decided to get a head start on my Christmas cards. I've been sending out handmade cards for three years now. I'm getting better and better each year!

I made a quick trip to Joanne's to buy some scrap booking supplies. I started by cutting out my cards and the background piece:


Then My Sweetheart and I worked on the inside. He always helps me put together our message:


It took me about 30 minutes to cut all the separate pieces to my ornament using my Cricket Expression:


It took me about 2 hours to get everything glued on:

When I finally finished the ornament, I glued it to my card:

The end product looked pretty good:

Now all I have to do is type out my mailing labels which I will do this week. My goal is to have my cards in the mail by December 1st.

I am spending all day tomorrow putting away the Thanksgiving decor and pulling out the Christmas decor. I'm excited!