The Halls Are Decked!

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner for Christmas Open House. It's so much fun to look at everyone's decorations. I'm also getting some ideas for next year. I love decorating for Christmas and I think I have passed that down to our kids because they enjoy decorating their rooms, too. Everything is pretty much the same as last year's tour except for a few new things. I hung new lighted garlands around the front door and made a new wreath for the front door using an extra wreath I had and a Christmas ball garland I found at TJ Maxx. It snowed one Monday, so after I dropped the kids off at school, I grabbed the camera and got the outdoor shots.  I thought it would be fun to hang the kids' artwork they have been making on a pom pom garland in the kitchen window. I hate that I couldn't put out my big nativity scene but with our new little kitty who likes to climb and get into tight spaces, I didn't want to take a chance of him breaking it. So hopefully next year I will be able to use it. I did use a small one, though that is not breakable. Hope you enjoy the tour! Merry Christmas!

Fun Times...Catching Up

I can't believe how fast this Christmas season is going by! I want it to slow down. We have been having some fun times. We decided to kick off the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving with a trip to Memphis.We had a great lunch at the Arcade. 

We always like to take McKenzie and Matt to see a Christmas movie. We went to see Arthur Christmas in 3D. It was such a great movie and I highly recommend taking your kids to see it. We all enjoyed it.

Before the movie we did a little shopping at Target. Now I will say that we were not there at 12:00 am like those crazy Target lady commercials. Those commercials where the crazy lady is in training for her black Friday shopping...we love those. My family always says that is me but I know I'm not that nuts about Target! Well, maybe a little! Barnes and Noble was our next stop where we did our usual playing trains, looking at books and magazines. Our day ended at the Side Porch with a delicious supper.

The next weekend, David and I went to Memphis to celebrate our Birthaversary. Remember, we got married on David's birthday and a few years ago he started calling December 18th this goofy name. Our sweet niece, Cassie agreed to keep our kids for the weekend for us. McKenzie and Matt loved having her here and want her to keep them again soon. She did a great job! Thank you Cassie!! David and I had the best time. We usually stay downtown, but decided to stay somewhere different on Poplar Avenue. It was close to all my stores and some favorite local eating spots. Here is the view from our room.

Later that night some idiots were in the hot tub and then would jump into the pool and it was freezing that night! We decided not to stress ourselves with Christmas shopping so I had fun finding some cute things for our house. Poor David, he is so sweet to take me to my favorite places and wait patiently while I shop. Guess this was the celebrating our anniversary part for me. I did find some great buys at TJ Maxx. Everyone that knows me knows that this is my store! I have been seeing these great looking Mercury lamps out in blog land and also in Pottery Barn for too much. Well, found this great lamp for our den for MUCH less.

I also wanted a cute rug to go in front of my kitchen sink. This one really warms up the kitchen and goes great with my walls. Now if my sweet kitty will stop using it as his scratching pad. Ugh!

We did a lot of eating during our stay in Memphis. We ate lunch Friday at Gus's World Famous Chicken. David took a picture of the Gus mobile that says on the side of a white hearse Chicken To Die For.

Probably won't go back there but was fun to eat somewhere that was famous. Later that night went to the SidePorch for our annual anniversary dinner. We then ended up at Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Noble. The next morning we drove down the street to the Blue Plate Cafe for a great breakfast. David got pancakes and an omlet and I ordered eggs benedict. Later that day we did more shopping and ended up eating a late lunch at Old Venice Pizza Co. We were sad to see our weekend come to end but happy to have had time to get away from it all. Thanks for a great weekend, David! You are the best!!

Our elf Henry has been hard at work around the house, too. Here he is after his "snowball fight" with the cotton balls.  Matt will come to our bed and say I wonder where Henry is hiding today and then he just giggles when he finally finds him.

Children's Christmas Program

Sunday night was our church's Children's Choir Christmas program.  Singing is not really something Matt enjoys but he really did a good job singing out!  In the older choir, the 5th and 6th graders get to do to bigger speaking parts and solos and McKenzie got to do her first big solo in choir this year.  She did a great job on her speaking part and her solo.  Here are some pictures of Matt and McKenzie and a video of McKenzie's solo.

Christmas Show

Tonight McKenzie performed with her show choir, Pizzazz, in the Visions Christmas Show.  Visions is the high school show choir and they are awesome.  Pizzazz sang a couple of songs and also sang with Visions on a couple of songs.  They have one more show Friday night at 7:00.  Here are some pictures of the Thursday night show.

Christmas Play

Tonight was the Christmas Play at McKenzie's school.  They did Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and did a great job.  McKenzie's show choir, Pizzazz, performed before the play.  They sang five Christmas songs that they've been working hard on.  They did great and you can see from the pictures below that McKenzie had a great time performing.