Let It Ice, Let It Ice, Let It Ice

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so... oh wait, there's no fire burning here, but the space heater is pretty delightful. It's the blizzard of 2011--dun dun dun. 2-5 inches of snow turned into more like a "snow sandwich" consisting of a layer of ice, a layer of snow, and another layer of ice. A crunchy, slippy and very cold mess. My dog would rather cross her legs and hold it all day than have to face the scary ice world.

Agenda for the day:
1) Sit under blankets.
2) Eat a somewhat excessive amount of chocolate (preferably dark chocolate).
3) Watch an infinite amount of rented TV shows. Bring it on Big Love, Private Practice, and Royal Pains.

P.S.-Thank you, Weather Channel for keeping us in the know about  the impending blizzard so that we were able to hit up Hastings just in time to get all the goods before the Ice Queen showed her wrath to Newnan.

Accomplishments for the day:

1) CHECK. Double check.

2) Check, thank goodness for receiving dark chocolate as a Christmas present.

3) Still in the process of checking. We're gone through the trials and tribulations of Juniper Creek and having 3 wives in suburbia, moved over to the drama ridden doctor offices of Oceanside Wellness, and now finishing it off with some high class concierge doctor treatment from good ole Hank. 

Anyone want to come ice skating on the ice rink formally known as the Moore family front yard?

So, with that being said, time to go curl back up under my blanket, put a piece of chocolate in my mouth, and watch Hank save some Hamptonians? Hamptonites? People of the Hamptons. 

Hope y'all can stay warm! Freezing is no fun.

On the twelfth day of Christmas...

MY TRUE LOVES GAVE TO ME:

a Gingerbread house

Oh my lawd, we made it. We made it to the twelfth day of Christmas (crafting). We have learned lots of things: how to make ridiculously cute garlands, fun fusions are more fun than Lego's, and that Martha Stewart crafts are a no-go. Sorry Martha, I'm just being real. Today's craft was no breeze, but we called in the trusty Uncle John to help us complete our gbread house. His skills extend to fixing broken toilets/sinks/light fixtures, lighting Christmas trees, fixing leaky roofs, AND building gingerbread houses. When I say building, I mean legit building. The only thing we did not have to do was bake the gingerbread. Other than that, it was up to our architectural abilities to successfully build the house. 

When I say "we" built it, I mean Uncle John, of course.

The directions said to wait an hour before attaching roof. 30 minutes sounded better to us.

We love candaaaay!

We are (UJ is) so artistic.

Caroline helps (by eating candy...) so we don't have to work as hard putting it on the house.

We (UJ) did it! Yummy yummy gingerbread housey.

I must give a shout out to Uncle John who, even when the walls continuously cave in, doesn't give up. Maybe he'll get an extra Christmas present tomorrow ;)

Ok, let's review our past 12 days of super duper amazing great Christmas fun-ness. Ready? Sing with me! 

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true loves gave to me,

Not 12, but 1 gingerbread house!

Not 11, but 2 Martha Stewart (gr) coasterish things!

Martha Stewart (gr) glittered snowflakes!

a hand painted sun catcher!

8 (even though there all aren't in the picture) fun fusion ornaments!

6 (even though there are only 3 here) felt ornaments!

Picture frame ornaments (don't fret, Ann's is done now).

a Saaaanta (slight crooked) boooooblehead

Reindeer headbands (and cute faces)

yummy (fun) sprinkled brownies

wooden colored (and glitterfied) ornaments

AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS ADORBS GARLAND.

Good singing everyone. Now it is time to go leave Santa some cookies and milk and go to bed!

Merry(Happy) Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!

Christmas Is Coming...

I decided to dedicate this post to Christmas. This decision was based on many reasons.... 1) Christmas is my most favorite favorite favorite favorite thing ever. Our family has a lot of silly cute traditions. And I love them all. ("Them" can refer to the traditions AND my family, of course.)  2) My sister, who is also in love with Christmas, has been talking about it on a daily basis and making me yearn for it more and moore. And finally, 3)The weather is getting cooler. Now that it's officially fall the Christmas countdown just has to begin. Cooler weather is Georgia means it is 80 degrees. But hey, we'll take that. Anything but 90, please.

On a side note, I am really excited for the season in general. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Cooler weather...(FINALLY.) Crunchy leaves. Hot chocolate. Christmas cookies (!!!) and on, and on, and on....


So, here are my top 3 reasons as to why I think Christmastime is the best time of year. Excuse me, the most WONDERFUL time of year. 

BTW, it's 91 days away in case you were wondering ;)

1) As I said earlier, my family has a lot of traditions that we've been doing for as long as I remember. Actually, even before I was born (what a sad time that was....) We spend Christmas day at my grandparents house, Miss Momma and Mr. Diddy's house to be exact. We all squeeze into their tiny living room. Between the tree, the 7 or 8 of us, the other decorations, and the furniture, we usually have our piles of presents stacked up onto our laps. Now, a lot of families I know get up, run downstairs, and rip open their presents so quickly it is like they know the world will be ending in 3 minutes and they have to get them all opened before the world is over. This is how our Christmas day plays out: 
7 am: A and I wake up to see what Mr. Claus has brought. I go back to sleep.
9 am: Russ and MC get out of bed. We eventually get around to eating breakfast.
11 am: After showers, we pack (yes, PACK) up our presents and take them down to Diddy's house. We also bring along lots of cookies and goodies. 
noon/1pm: After the presents have been unpacked and put under the tree, and everyone has come and settled down, and Diddy has repeatedly said he would much rather eat before opening presents, and I have whined and whined about everyone taking so long, we finally start opening presents. This process begins by looking in our stockings to see the goodies Santa gave us. We all hang our stockings at Diddy's house and Santa just conveniently knows that all of ours are there. What a smart man. He's great, really. Now, we open presents in order of age. One at a time. I mean really, how great is it to draaaw the process out as loooong as possible?! We totally win that award. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's great.
4-5ish pm: Cooking the Christmas dinner begins. We eat. We are full. We keep eating.
9 pm: The Moore's head home.
midnight: Ann and I cry because we have to wait a whole year for Christmas to come again. 

2) Christmas lights and decorations. I mean, seriously. How fun is it when everyone and their mom puts out Christmas decorations?! You don't even want to know how much gas I/my family waste driving around and looking at house after house of beautifully, lit up, sparkling, flashing, some trashy, some classy Christmas decorations. We have our usual spots we hit up regualrly, but we are always on the search for two story Christmas trees. And more lit up wreaths. And more "drive through our property and see the acres and acres of Christmas decorations" places. And more places that try to look (and fail) as beautiful as Downtown Newnan looks at Christmastime. 

3) Christmas music. I don't even know where to begin with this topic. We pull out the Christmas cds as soon as the Thanksgiving dinner has been cleaned up. We have made play list after play list after play list. (Want a copy of them? Yes, you do.) You should all do the same because it will make you happy and giddy and sooo Christmasy and then next year you'll be writing a Christmas blog.

This is getting me way too excited. Is it too early to go ahead and pull out the CDs? christmascookingfamilytimechristmasshoppingchristmascarolswinterclothessantastorieschristmasbooks. I promise to stop with these 3 reasons so that I don't create the world's longest blog post. It is possible, but I'm not ready to hold that winning title quite yet. However, I will leave y'all with some pictures of my Christmas' past. Enjoy!

P.S.- Happy fall/91 days until Christmas!!!

Did I mention MC makes us take pictures with Santa every year and we have all 24 of them lined up in our house during Christmastime?

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

tree at Diddy's

The Moore family Christmas tree. 12 ft in years past. Only about 8-9 now. How sad! ;)

Matching Christmas shirts!

Disney likes Christmas as much as me.

Christmas countdown!

One of those "come drive through our property" places. I only wish we could do this. Ohh lawd.

A family in our neighborhood puts this on their house. It is not officially considered Christmastime until the Grinch is up.