Christmas Decorations and not feeling guilty...

Finally, the day is here where I can post my Christmas decorations and not feel guilty about having them up! I will tell you that my children said that this was the best, most relaxed Thanksgiving they ever had! And I know that it was due to the fact that ALL of the Christmas decorating was finished on the inside of the house. The only thing that had to be finished was the the gum drops on the trees for their little village they made!

Lizzy High Dolls at the bottom of the stairs in the basement!

This set was given to my family by a very dear friend after her family came to our house after one of our Breakfast with Santa's!

Our Bear at the foot of our stairs ready to help with decorations.

The little tree has decorations from my Grandmothers tree.

This Bear Nativity was given to us by our dear friends Ricky and April Adams.

It is sitting on a Pampered Chef pizza pan in our kitchen. Perfect!

This little vignette is made up of past Christmas pictures of my children, bottle trees and Swedish Santa's. Adorable!!! It sits on part of my kitchen bar!

It is viewed from both sides of my kitchen

Domino Necklace...

A project due before Thanksgiving....

Now, on to cooking for the big day!

Meredith's and Emma's Baby Shower...

What a wonderful Saturday morning to have a baby shower! Meredith looked wonderful today as we celebrated the upcoming birth of her baby girl, Emma! After this shower, I can tell you, little Emma is going to be the best dressed little girl in Good Hope, Georgia! We had the best time, but when our family and friends get together we alway do. The only complaint came from Grandma Moon (who will be little Emma's Great-Great Grandma) who said that she thought this was going to be an ol' timey baby shower. My reply was, "Grandma, it is an ol' timey baby shower, we are going to be playing games in a little while." She said that it wasn't because we were not passing all the presents around so that she could feel the gifts. Everyone busted out laughing!!! She is so cute and funny. We love Grandma Moon!!! I hope you enjoy the pictures and in the process, maybe you will get a few ideas for your next party.Meredith, Sonya (Meredith's Mother-In-Love) Me, Lauren (Meredith's Sister-In-Love)

Whitney (My daughter and Meredith's husbands cousin), Granda Moon, My Mom and Meredith's Grandma -In-Love~ One Big Happy FamilyWhitney, Meredith and Jackie (my son Chase's girlfriend)Chase my son drops in for a visit!Meredith and YvetteThe Emma Banner

Some of the Gifts!

Hugs given out at the end of the Shower!

Meredith and Daniel hanging on the Rag Garland!
Whitney's baby doll!

The Cute Game- Everyone wore a tag around their neck that held a picture of a baby held with a clothespin. If you were caught saying "cute", your baby with the clothespin was stolen. The person with the most babies at the end of the shower won a special prize.Mommy Memory~ This game was played first. Meredith left the room and everyone was given this sheet of paper to fill out. Meredith tricked everyone by only wearing one earring. Points are given out for different things for each question.

Word Search game!!!

We played one other game ~ The Price is Right! We purchased 10 items from Walmart and everyone had to guess the prices of the items. At the end everyone had to guess the total of the bill. Small prizes were given out for each item and a big prize was given out at the end. This game was a blast!

Some of my Favorite Childhood Christmas Memories...

My MOM and DAD and Papa on the side!My MOM and Aunt Shirley

My husband "MOOSE", better known as Reid now, me (pregnant with Chase), cousin Doug and MOM. We are still opening our Davidson's boxes. (Macy's)

Papa, Grandma, Daddy, Aunt Betty and Aunt Shirley!

*Year after year seeing one side of my family gather on one weekend together and the other side gather on the next weekend. All at my mother and daddy's house. I never knew how my mother did it. She always was smiling and looked like she was having the time of her life. The house was packed full of laughter and fun!

These are some of my favorite Childhood Memories...

*My mother making Japanese Icebox fruitcake.....

This is so good and I HATE FRUITCAKE!

1 Box Graham Crackers – crushed
1 Large Jar Marshmallow Melt
1 Box White Raisins
1 Box Vanilla Wafers – Crushed
1 Cup Cherries – Red and Green
1 Cup Coconut
1 Cup Pecans
1 Cup Eagle Brand Condensed Milk
Mix all ingredients and form in a loaf. Decorate top with cherries and nuts if desired.

She looked like she was having so much fun mixing all of this stuff together. Sometimes she would let us help.

*Getting up for breakfast one year thinking that all that my sister and I had under the Christmas tree was a pair of dingo boots. We were 13 and 11.... We went to breakfast with a little sad look on our face and dad told us to go outside for something and there they were.... TWO beautiful purple Yamaha 100 motorcycles. Life was never the same! For my uncle and dad either.

*I am truly a Macy's kid... My grandmother worked at Macy's (Davidson's at one time) for a gazillion years. I remember as a child sitting on the steps outside waiting for her to get off from work. Anyways.... one of my Christmas memories as a child was always opening that Macy's box with a sweater in it for all the grandgirls and a shirt in it for all the grandboys. There was 14 grandchildren.

What is one of you favorite Childhood Memories?

Christmas Giveaway...

I am so excited to have my first Christmas Giveaway!
And for me and my family,
there is only one way to truly show our love of Christmas
and that is through our love of Jesus Christ!
When my children were but infants,
I found the most wonderful Nativity.
It was only Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus but,
It was made in Italy from a child-friendly,
practically unbreakable polymer.
We now have over 5o different pieces to this Nativity
And it has been played with all over our house on steps,
kitchen floors, everywhere!
As a mother and father of young 20 years olds,
we would have to say the greatest joy in our hearts is to know that our children know and love their Jesus Christ and live daily to serve HIM.
So… For our first Giveaway we want to offer a family the same beginnings that our family had.
The Fontanini 5" Collection Holy Family

Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus Set
To Enter just press the comment button at the bottom of this post
and tell me your favorite CHRISTMAS SONG and

leave your e-mail adress if you do not have a blog!

That's It! You're Entered!
Of course your comment will enter you in the drawing.
But wait!...it gets better!
You can ALSO earn additional entries by doing any, or all, of the following:
1) Follow this Blog
(located at the top LEFT hand corner of this page)
2) add me to your favorite blogs

(copy and paste my URL onto your blog sidebar under gadgets)
3) announce my contest on your blog )
**(Just comment to let me know that you are eligible for extra entries.)

You could have 4 entries!

"So.... How Do I Win?"
On December the 10th, all the entries will be gathered up and a winner will be drawn!

Our Family Village That We Made....

A wonderful FAMILY project...

This had to be one of the greatest Christmas projects that our family did together! My husband took some scrap wood in various sizes and cut them to resemble houses. I took them, sanded all of them really well and then primed them for our family gathering.

Having all of our favorite color paints ready, we came in and talked with the kids about what they might like to do one day when they were older. From there, they started painting.

Chase wanted to own an Outdoors Adventure Shoppe! He is 24 and he still does!!

Whitney wanted to be a school teacher! She is 20 and still desires to teach in some way!

We also painted the house we were living in, the store we own now and other various places that were important to us!

The house project all began from one little house a friend gave me a year or two before! It is the one that says Merry Christmas! I hope she remembers that she gave it to me! (EP)
Oh , and the ironing board~ It makes a great surface for any type of village!!!

Baby, It Snowed Outside.....

And we live in Georgia.... It's all because of the sweetness of my husband!!!

After living here for a number of years, we know the footsteps of each and every little snowman.

But... every year a couple of them seem to want to switch places with each other or cause a little havoc!

This year I added the SNOW banner for a little added interest!

The question today~

What do you do with an

OLD ANTIQUE IRONING BOARD

AND

2 X 4'S?

Find out tomorrow.....