Happy New Year 2011!!!

That's me...typical, a day late and a dollar short...
Happy New Year everyone!
I'm afraid we've all started our new year off with colds, so that continues to set me back a little from what I had hoped to have accomplished by now.....well, that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!

My "word" for 2011.....
well, I've thought on it a lot....
I even got Scott involved in thinking about it with me....

And although I thought of plenty, I'm breakin' the rules and actually using two words for this year:
"Express yourself"

I'll explain more.
but for now......

back to the grindstone tomorrow.....happy .....and sad......

Love,
Melle
(I'll explain the blue on my next post :))

Bitter-sweet

As I lay here to write this post, I am so very, very grateful I do not have to get out of this warm and cozy bed and face work today. It is COLD! No, I mean, 6 major airports shut-down; snow flurries in Florida and Sunday night football postponed until Tuesday for the first time since 1940 somethin' kind of COLD!

On other hand, as I lay here thinking about what I wanted to post about our wonderful holiday this year, I always feel a little sad that it's over, sort of a "post holiday depression"..... You know how it is, we spend so many, many weeks getting ready for the Big Day and then it seems it's over so quickly. It was such a wonderful holiday for us this year; from the candlelight service at church on Thursday night to the four of us spending the Sunday after Christmas playing games together.

(I do have photos to post, but Scott helped clean up my laptop and transferred ALL my photos to my external hard drive....that's okay, however, the hard drive is in the living room, and as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am in my warm and cozy bed and I am not getting out...well, not yet anyway! :o) )

The chilly weather also means no working in the studio for me. Well, I did dawn several layers and managed to slather some paint on paper last night and I started to feel much better. However, today, it looks like I better tackle one of the many projects on my list that can be done in the warmth of the house.....

-yearbook pages
-filing the piles of bill paperwork
-yearbook pages
-posting photos to the blog
-yearbook pages
-start washing our new clothes
-yearbook pages
-start putting away the monorail that's under the Christmas tree
-start putting away the Christmas tree
-yearbook pages
-ordering prints of our Christmas photos
-yearbook pages
-catching up on lesson plans
-yearbook pages

Hmmm, I certainly have plenty I've been procrastinating......

Wait, I could even venture out to shop at Hobby Lobby with my new gift cards, but that would require me getting out of this warm and cozy bed. I mean, if I can go outside to shop, then I surely could go outside to work in the studio!

The weatherman says our temps will return to the 70's by this Thursday and Friday. If I plan wisely, complete that list from above and I could declare Thursday and Friday as "Studio Days".......

Perhaps I better start with a shower, however, that will require me getting out of this warm and cozy bed......

Happy Day everyone, stay warm and check back soon to see if I ever made it out of this.....warm and cozy bed!
Melle

Signs of the holiday......

mmmm, the house smells heavenly this morning.
It smells just like cookies and brownies.
It's too bad blogs don't include the ability to share smells.
Smell; might just be the most unappreciated sense that we have. Just think, you can't enjoy food without it.
(....Perhaps I could use a little less ability to smell, since I keep gaining so much weight....but I digress....here let me eat one of those newly baked cookies to help me focus....)
We are almost done with the baking. Yesterday we finished, several of those Nestle frozen cookies that have cute reindeer and special holiday colored chips, but then we baked our usual Reindeer Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, and chocolate chip.
(oh oh, we forgot the oatmeal raisin - of course I think I'm the only one who eats those....thus the extra weight again....sorry, here I'll eat another cookie to help me ....mmmm...focus).
We made Rice Krispie Treats, brownies and Andrea added a really delicious truffle recipe to our usual list of treats. We still have the Forget 'ems, Cream Cheese Bars and banana pudding to make today.

I'll share recipes soon....
I'll share why we do all this, soon.....

In the meantime, I had some photos ready to share:
Catching up from last week, McKenna and fellow classmates in the choir had a holiday performance at Church on the Square in The Villages.

The students did a wonderful job. It was a beautiful evening.

A few days later, Scott also performed at Church at the Square with The Sounds of Scotland. It too, was a very nice evening.

And on Black Friday McKenna had a chance to visit with Santa. It was so cute because while Andrea had every intention of just watching from the sidelines, Santa had a different plan. When he raised his white gloved hand and used his pointer finger in the "you, come over here" sign language, Andrea knew she better go and "visit" with Santa too. He seemed to take a real liking to her. Spoke with her longer than McKenna. They chatted about college and the future.....cool.

Merry Christmas everyone!
Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll get to finish my holiday shopping. :o)

Melle

There are those commercials again.....only 4 shopping days until Christmas....and I'm still not done yet.....however, it'll still have to wait because today we practice a favorite holiday tradition:
It is cookie bakin' day!! And one of our favorites to bake are these cute little babies, Reindeer Cookies.


We just use the chocolate chip cookie dough recipe from the back of the Nestle Toll House chips bag. We use the mini pretzels for antlers, chocolate chips for the eyes and of course a red M & M for the red nose.

The butter is softening now and I can't wait!
Have a great day everyone!
Love,
Melle

I needed my hanky...

Okay, here's one more for today (sniffle, sniffle).
McKenna was hoping I would do a slideshow for her in celebration of her birthday like the one I did for Andrea....
So enjoy.
(sniffle, sniffle)

How sweet it is!

Monday morning; wake up at 4:30; roll out of bed, go potty.....and crawl right back into my cozy bed because it is the first Monday of our Christmas vacation! How sweet it is!!

While I took Saturday "off", I was a little worried when Sunday came and I still wasn't full of vim and vigor, so I took it off too.

I am relieved when I woke up today feeling a lot more motivated. I still have quite a lot to do.
Then again, it could be the streaming commercials and news segments targeted to "last minute shoppers"..... last minute shoppers? I'm not a last minute shopper. Okay, I mean sure, I have some last minute things to finish, and yes, I'm feeling a little worried as to when I will finish exactly, but "last minute shopper" - that's a little harsh, don't you think! Hee, hee, it'll come together, it always does.....

Okay, well, I know the masses who follow my blog have been waiting eagerly for the many stories and photos I've promised.....perhaps today I'll get to work on that....right after I finish my last minute sh..... I mean as soon as I finish up a few loose ends today....... :o)

However, in the meantime, I did finish this little video from McKenna's birthday celebration with some of her friends from school at the Build-a-Bear workshop..... Enjoy :o)

Look, a new post....well, sort of.....

Another post about how I'm too busy to post would just be silly.....
So, I'll just say, when things do slow down a little, rest assured I'll have plenty to share, lots of photos to post and new ideas for the upcoming year :)

However, I didn't want this weekend to slip by without at least posting this photo and wishing my baby girl a happy, happy birthday!! On December 9th, 2010 McKenna Noelle Broaderick turned 9 years old! :)
I love you sweetie,
Momma
pictured in front row from left to right: friend, Cassidy Woods; McKenna; close friend Olivia Kuhn; back row l to r: Riley Woods, Cassidy's sister; and Fall Kuhn, friend and Olivia's sister.
The girls are at the Build-a-Bear Workshop in Gainesville, FL. I might just like to mention that this was a Saturday, Dec. 4th to be exact and the parking lot at the mall was PACKED!!!! I'm not kidding. I haven't experienced even a Black Friday that busy in years!!! Then unfortunately I guess everyone from the mall left at the same time we did, 'cause the "shortcut" from the mall home took what seemed like forever!! It was bumper to bumper traffic for the first few miles from the mall.......hmmm, just sayin'!