Tis the Season

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Can you believe it?  It's almost Christmas!  I'm almost sad because the time is passing too fast!  Here's some things I did at the beginning of the month to get things started.  I didn't really have much time because of school, running, and the speed of life, but I forced myself to take time away and do some seasonal preparations!

One night I wrapped cut outs of an empty cereal box (because the cardboard is thin) in my two new Peanuts wrapping paper to make bookmarks.

I went to school all Peanut-ed out!  My shirt matched my Tervis, and I also wore a Christmas ribbon, Santa earrings, and Christmas socks.

The first time I tried eggnog, I thought it was nasty.  Way too thick.  However, last year I tried the kind from one of my favorite "fancy" brands, Bolthouse Farms, and it is lighter, healthier, and tastier!  Mixed with a couple extra things, it makes amazing milkshakes, too!

After I finally finished decorating my tree after several days of adding ornaments here and there, I sat down on my bed to just take in the view.

The seasonal scents and such that are available during the holidays excite me.

Here is all my pepperminty things with a couple of mom's ornaments from the kitchen.  The little raccoon on the lotion is a different addition.  I like it!

Yummy gingerbread!  I think this scent is my favorite.  I really think that they should come out with a gingerbread lotion!  I would for sure buy it over any of the others.

Snowmen and winter candy apples
Aren't those nail files cute?

This is one of the classic Christmas scents, but it has lasted a long time!  Very popular.  I like the designs with the skis.

MARSHMALLOWS!
Love them(:
The pictures are precious, too.  More that I will keep to add to my collage of course.

New month, new calendar page!
"Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?'"  John 11:25-26

BEST candle scent I've ever had!  Pumpkin Pecan Waffles.
Tree decorating really puts you in the spirit, but it can also be frustrating!  These hooks are so difficult to separate!

Yay for holiday Build-a-Bears!  (and a few other stuffed animals, too)

Christmas decorating is half the fun.  It really gets me going for the whole season!

December also means the time for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.  The youth group at church started a couple years ago selling mugs, coffee, hot chocolate, cappuccino, and apple cider on Sunday mornings in between services and Sunday Schools to raise money that 100% goes to the offering.  We get donations of the drinks and mixes and cups, which is so kind and helpful.  It's also fun and spirit-filling for us who get to give it out, too!

Yay for the JOY cups!  I had a free medium drink coupon for my birthday from Dunkin Donuts, and it expired on this day, November 30th, but I was not about to let it go to waste!  After church I drove into town and picked up my cup of cheer.

Here's some more things I love to see come out of the cabinet-holiday dishes!

These aren't really holiday I guess, but Target is very holiday, and that is where I got these new snacks!

 

What are some of your favorite things to get you into the Christmas spirit?

Snow Day!

Like I said last night, getting a text message that we were out of school absolutely thrilled me.  I'm usually the kind of girl who is looking forward to school, working hard and learning.  Not this time.  Although I tried so hard over the weekend, I couldn't help but dread it.  I've never been like that!  Fortunately, God helped us out and sent some "heavenly dandruff," as my Honors English II teacher from last semester liked to call it.  I am very thankful to have an extra day to relax and get things done here at home.

After sleeping in and getting a morning workout done, I dug into some of the Toffee Figgy Muffins I made yesterday.  They are a success!  So yummy, healthy, and moist!  Everything you want in a muffin, right?

 

No way!! I just received another message already cancelling school tomorrow, too!  This is great!  Even though it is not supposed to snow much more, the temperatures are the coldest we've had all year (and maybe last year, too).  Wind chills are also sub zero.

This was the noon-time weather on my iPhone.

We're walkin in a winter wonderland....

This is off my back porch.

This is down my street in one direction from the front porch.

And the other way!  I never get my hopes up for snow anymore, because our weather people don't always accurately (or even relatively close sometimes) predict the weather.  I woke up to go to the bathroom around 5:00 this morning, and decided to walk to the kitchen to get an ice pack to cool me down, and looked out the window to a very pleasant surprise! 

 

Time to get to work around here!

 

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Okay, I'm back.  Yeah, that seemed fast to you because I just saved this page and came back to it around 7 hours later.

This is a project that I had been wanting to do all winter, but couldn't find a cold stretch to make it last until today!  I started it last night so it would be good and frozen by today.  I used to do this when I was really little.  The idea came from either a magazine or show I used to watch that had examples with a couple drawings like this, but most of it was a bird feeder.  They froze bird feed and hung it up so the birdees wouldn't starve in the cold weather!

Last night when I chose this verse, I began to like it even more when I realized how ironic it was.  God "is a consuming fire," and I was freezing the verse and hanging it outside in the single digits.

All you do to make these simple decorations or deck ornaments, as I said in this case, is tear off some clear saran wrap, like what you use to cover food.  Decorate it, freeze it in a plate, bowl, or any container, stick a wire, string, or anything to use as a hanger into the water, and there you have it!  Everything freezes together, then you can bend the sides of the container when it thaws a little, and take it out and hang it up!

The verse on this one got frozen a little deep in the water, but it is Ecclesiastes 11:9.

Isn't he just precious?

Frisco is inside now; Dad bought a kennel to put him in in the basement to save him from the cold.

Dogs can photobomb, too!

I just love the innocence of a sweet pet.

 

Now it's almost time for that BCS National Championship game!