Elephant Rock...

This is Elephant Rock up near my family's cabin.

Bonfire....

We could see this bonfire clear accross town so we went to check it out. It was just the city burning all the branches from the city clean up day. It was quite the pile of flames though. Made for a nice morning drive.

Cinnamon Rolls....

I decided to make these cinnamon rolls this year instead of a bunch of different goodies all in a basket like we have always done. I hope everyone likes them! I found them on The Pioneer Woman blog. It is a great site! Here is the link to the tutorial she did on them, that inspired me to try them out this holiday season.

It is perfect because we had a funeral this past week that planning took up the time we normally use to bake goodies so this simplified my life tremendously. Plus, people still get something from our family.:) We need that excuse of delivering goodies to make our rounds and visit with people we don't get to visit with often.

Mine don't look quite as impressive as hers but that was to be expected.;)

Mmmm..Mmmm!

Sunset....

In case you haven't caught on I really really love sunsets and sunrises.

Ornament Tour Part 2...

We continue our tour of some of our best loved ornaments....

Sunshine's first ornament! Also the most expensive ornament on the entire tree!
What was I thinking?

One of Mr Wonderful's ornaments.

2007 Chamber of Commerce Ornament!

A dear friend made this for me about 20 years ago.

"Better Not Pout!" ornament I made from Sculpey clay.

I got this great ornament from a gift exchange last year! Love it!

Handmade ornament from my mom.

One of my childhood ornaments from 1980.

Spud Man's 2007 ornament.

Another one of my childhood ornaments. Probably my 2nd favorite.

Ornament Tour part 1...

Join me on a reminiscent tour of some of our favorite ornaments.
We like to get one ornament for the family each year.
Each child gets one and we get one as a couple most years.

Mr Wonderful and I made this shortly after we got married. We took feathers and a pine cone, it turned out pretty unique.

This is a sock from my dear neighbor growing up. It has to be about 35+ years old.

Tober's new ornaments from Grandma this year!

A sweet bell angel.

One of Tober's ornaments from years past.

Sunshine's 2008 Ornament from Grandma.

My favorite Ornament EVER!
My sister made this for me, it is colored like our childhood horse Dixie.

Another of Sunshine's ornaments.

Spud Man's 2008 ornament from Grandma!

Tober's 2007 ornament.

Join me in a later post for part two of the ornament tour....

Kids Do the Silliest Things...

Whippersnapper came in next to me and he looked awfully mischievous for some reason. Upon closer inspection, something looked odd. He was walking all stiff and awkward with a strange sound to his steps...hmmm

What is wrong with this picture?

Something just doesn't seem right does it?

Are you ready for this? Are you sure you can handle it?

Oh me oh my...a train set!

Finally a little help here!

Brrrr....

We got SNOW!!! Finally! Looks like it will be sticking around a while at these temperatures! It was 2 degrees F this morning. Luckily with 8" of snow on our roof it creates quite the insulation factor and we are staying warm and toasty inside! Here are a few pics to enjoy....

The next few pics feature some things I am thankful for in weather like this...

Nice warm toasty fire in the woodstove with lots of firewood to burn.

Studded Tires for peace of mind.

With a big diesel pick-up this power cord is the most important thing this time of year if you plan to leave the house....

Oh brrr....so cold out there! We are supposed to get about 4-8" again tomorrow. Time to stock up on good foods and hunker down for a few days enjoying hot cocoa, good movies, and fun family time. We have a funeral to attend on Friday and I think it is supposed to snow then too. Mr Wonderful's uncle passed away on Sunday.:( This could be interesting getting to and from all the places we need to go this week to plan the funeral.:( When you think of it please pray for our family as we go about getting thru this next week.

Tree Hunting....

We got our tree!! It was fun but snowy, windy, and ccccold! our scouting trip last weekend came in really handy, we already knew where the nice trees where. I am really glad we had one all picked out because the weather wasn't going to cooperate for our planned bonfire and some fun time in the snow. It was more of a bail out, cut it down, and race back to the pick-up before your snot froze in your nose type experience!Here is the tree we chose, a nice pokey spruce to keep Whippersnapper out of the tree. Brilliant thinking on our part.....except for the part where we are the ones that have to decorate it. Hmmm Note to self: Spruce trees, not such a wonderful idea after all.
The mighty tree hunter himself, Mr Wonderful.

Maggie loves running around in the snow!!

Callie wondering where Mr Wonderful was off to.

To some this could be considered overkill, when a simple hand saw would do. Mr Wonderful loves power tools. Oh and some kids who shall remain nameless went and lost our good hand saw while camping last summer so we didn't have a choice.

On our way back home decided to sing carols. It would help if at least one of us could remember all the words. We got to laughing so hard it was pretty fun. The 12 Days of Christmas had to be the funniest one to try to remember. We had it pretty well messed up by the end, Mr Wonderful kept trying to add strange things into every place we couldn't remember what went with what day.
This is my favorite part. I make several minute adjustments (I mean, I make Mr Wonderful make several minute adjustments, I stand back and give orders) like say turning the tree at least 360 degrees a minimum of 3 times to see which side looks best. Oh and then all the fine tuning adjustments for vertical up and down. So he spends alot of time on the floor making adjustments to the tree stand. It is just my favorite part to see how far I can push it before he starts grumbling about being under a poeky tree that is dripping melting snow. Hee Hee I wonder when he will catch on I am just messing with him? Meanwhile the kids are waiting anxiously for the tree to be ready to decorate.

The tree was a bit too tall so we needed to cut it off to make room for the angel on top.

Actually I had a great idea. After we realized just how pokey a spruce tree really was I devised a plan. We'd mount the tree on the kids' Sit and Spin toy and make it into a Lazy Susan type deal. Then we'd stand back with lights in hand and just twirl the tree and wind the lights right on without touching it. Then, for the ornaments, we'd just stand back and throw them at the tree and where ever they landed and hung was where they'd go. With as great of an idea as that was we just decided to put on our leather gloves and something long sleeve and we were spared too many injuries.

Stay tuned for a tour of special ornaments on the tree......

Snuggle Buddies...

Maggie our Golden Retriever loves her teddy bear. She snuggles with this teddy bear, she takes it out in her mouth when she needs to go potty...she shows everyone at the door her teddy bear. She loves it......there is only oe problem with Mr. Teddy Bear. He is dirty....filthy really! Since he gets "loved" so much, he gets taken out in the mud, throw into the air and caught, slobbered on, laid on, and chewed on now and then. It reminds me of a toddler when you pry their favorite blankie from them long enough to wash it and they stand in front of the washing machine crying like you are going to ruin all the allure of their favorite blankie by simply washing it! We are trying to find the right opportunity to wash this beast of a bear. One of these days she will put it down long enough for us to wash it. I wonder what she'll do?

I should note, these pics were taken when the bear was relatively new.....here are pics of it not so new.:(

Isn't it sad?

"Help me!"

Here is what she looks like when someone has her bear.

Here is what she looks like when she gets it back...."Step away from the bear!"

Ok I am kidding, she is really laid back and while she loves her bear, she'd really rather just have some pets while she gazes into your eyes.