Fa la la la la....

Yesterday was officially "cookie day!" Officially, there were 10 of us with our fingers in the cookie dough (me and my 4 children, my friend, Wendy and her 3 daughters and my friend, Laura). We turned out sugar cookie cut-outs, thumbprints, and candy cane cookies. Wendy brought some candy fixin's and we made bun bars and turtles, too. I had never tried this and was amazed at how easy they were to do. I will probably try this again next year, too.

I can't believe that my I forgot to bring out my camera ALL day. I didn't snap even ONE picture! Ugh! So, I decided to take a picture of all of our goodies piled high on my stove. This is just my portion! I think we will be sharing!!!

Last evening was my husbands work Christmas party. All the guys got a half day off and the boss took them all to an indoor go-cart track for the afternoon where they all had a blast! Then we ladies got to join in the fun for a dinner party in the evening which was at the Summit Club. It is located downtown on the top floor (25th) of one of our town's tallest buildings. The view was spectacular and you could see much of the downtown Christmas lights. It is a beautiful place and the food was excellent! It felt very pampering!

Barry has the day off today, so we will probably have a relatively lazy morning. I have been thinking about the things to get accomplished today and the list is still pretty long:

Sadly, although I have gotten my Christmas cards made, I still need to write them out and address them. I send out about 90.

Most of our wrapping still needs to be done yet. BUT, I think all of the shopping is complete with the exception of groceries. Yea! I ran around and did power shopping Wednesday afternoon/evening which included braving the mall. It was exhausting but proved worth it!

The children still need to be taken out shopping. I would like to let them each have the opportunity to shop for everyone in the family. For the little ones, that will probably be at the $1 store. Barry was feeling negative about letting them buy a bunch of "junk" but I pointed out that I really feel like it is important for them to get into the spirit of GIVING at this time of year and not just focus on GETTING. He did agree.

I need to plan out our menu for Christmas day and grocery shop. We will be going to church in the morning and won't be getting together with family until the next day, so it won't be our normal routine and will be just us, so I need to decide what kind of meals to prepare. Normally we just do cinnamon rolls in the morning and go over to my in-laws for a big lunch, but I don't think just rolls are gonna cut it for the whole entire day! ;-)

Also, I need to prepare the images for worship that will go on the screen for our church's Christmas Eve and Christmas day services.

Oh, and I forgot that I have a little bit of sewing to complete a couple of gifts. I won't elaborate here just in case one of the gift receivers is lurking!

I feel blessed that is all that is on my list! It still looks pretty doable and not overwhelming! I am going to try really hard to keep the joy in our home. I hate to admit it, but usually about this time of year the grumpy, stressed-out Trish makes her appearance. She is no fun to be around and I am praying and trying to keep clear focus on Christ this Christmas so that she is not tempted to show up and spoil the fun!