Christmas Projects I love.....

For a little boy who loves Mickey.....

and his older brother that loves airplanes.....

Two very special trees designed by their GiGi for their own rooms to sleep all night with the lights on feeling the love from GiGi and wishing for a visit from Santa (HoHo)....Dylan's is covered in paper airplanes (his fave) and a Star Wars Space ship as the Topper.....Brody's is Red, White and Green Mickey Ears with Mickey in a Santa Suit as his Topper (HoHo if you ask Brody)....Two very special trees for two very special boys....

.......and.....I love turning this.....

.....into this.....

Making pretty!

Christmas Holiday Fun

This weekend was full of Christmas holiday fun.....we started Friday night enjoying the inaugural concert at San Diego Museum of Man with the Gary Jules benefit concert. Adam, Shannon, Kristen and Brian met us there for a fantastic night. K & B had a babysitter and it was the first time we have been out for an adults only night in about 4.5 years. At first they were all sceptical of what we had invited them to. As we started to hear the magic of Gary's voice and the incredible acoustics of that 100 year old dome it was thrilling to see all 4 of the 'kids' skepticism turn to smiles and become mesmerized with each note and sound. They even bought all his cd's! We loved every minute and it was great to donate to the Museum for the positive changes that are being made.

Saturday afternoon Kristen and I were invited to an English Christmas Tea with some old friends and some new friends. We had a delightful afternoon sipping English tea and having traditional tea sandwiches and scones. It was fun to sit around and be leisure and enjoy sharing stories and conversation on everything fun and nothing important!

Saturday night Steve and I went to our 21st anniversary of our neighborhood Christmas party. The first year we moved in we invited the neighbors over for a Christmas dinner. It became a tradition and even tho almost everyone has moved away but we have always gotten together for dinner and ornament exchange for the ladies and tool exchange for the men - where we 'steal'. This year we went to Carlsbad! We had a wonderful dinner, lots of laughs and fun conversation and were entertained by a guest entertainer with some wonderful piano playing of Christmas songs on our friends incredible grand piano.

Sunday I helped sew some warm fuzzy blankets for some geriatric people to keep them warm at the holidays and all year.....it is a great start to the Christmas holidays!

Birthday Thoughts ~ Wednesday Thrift Store Finds ~ Noah Finds me ~

Steve and I both have 'holiday' birthdays.....we always celebrate in a mish-mash kind of way that is always overshadowed with other holiday festivities and such - obviously by our age we have gotten used to it, but it seems our birthday celebrations go on forever and I guess that is a good thing. Since we celebrate a lot and for a long time and with everyone we love when our actual birth DATE is on and we do 'normal' things people thing we are crazy....but it is really a day we get to do what we want and we love that!

So after celebrating since before Thanksgiving and wonderful lunches and dinners and calls and cards on my 'real' birthday it was so fun to do what I wanted to do. I took the day off work and when I woke up I thought to myself - should I be reflecting on my life, my future, my deep thoughts....after 5 seconds the answer was 'Nah - your good - get up and go!' So I did my annual donation to Rachels House (shelter for abused women and children) and I love starting my birthday out doing that. Just after I left there I had such sweet calls from Adam and Kristen and Brian called and both boys said on the phone "Happy Birthday GiGi!" with such gusto and passion it made me tear up. Along with calls from Steve, my sister, brother, bestie friends and my mom and 91 year old dad who told me he was trying to remember how old I was (21 I said!) it was so touching. Next, on to my favorite new passion where I spend a few hours and then planned to meet up with Kristen for a romp at our fave thrift store and then lunch with her and another good friend at Luncho Libre (funky fun). We try and hit up this thrift store when we are in the area and the last time I was there a couple of weeks ago I scored a really cool Fisher Price Ark with all the animals but no Noah so I have been bidding and losing on ebay to find one. I have looked at Toys R Us and Kohls, Walmart and Target and could not find Noah anywhere!!! Since our schedules were a bit out of sync I ended up first at the Thrift Store (along with 500 other people - big day for thrifting - every thing, except blue tags - 50% off!). I could hardly maneuver in the store and finally snagged a cart and I know I missed lots of good things because I literally could not physically get near them, but for $14.00 I think I scored really really good: Fisher Price Barn, 50 Firemen hats (for future birthday party), Letter A for my parents family picture wall, Fisher Price School house people and Tote, Playmobile 50 piece nativity set, Scooby Doo Valentine Musical Plush - all in really really great shape - most new and all pieces in tact! Then on to a fun fun lunch and then Kristen and our pal went on to the thrift store and scored as well. Kristen got about $150.00 worth of Thomas toys for $16.00 and our friend got a motorized corvette car - one of those that seats 2 kids and actually drives - for about 1/8th of the cost. Talk about cheap thrills!!! These were the best. Then I did a few more stops, had a few more fun calls and came home where my wonderful husband was making me the greatest birthday dinner ever! Scallops, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and some wonderful sauce over rice YUMMY!!!! After dinner I was putting away my new 'treasures' and took out all the pieces of the Playmobile Nativity (50!) and low and behold in with all those pieces was a Fisher Price Noah - the exact one I was looking for to go with the Ark! I got goosebumps all over....how in the millions of items that flow thru that thrift store weekly, the hundreds of people that go there and everything is sealed and tagged ...really? really? NOAH FINDS ME - A CHRISTMAS/BIRTHDAY MIRACLE!!!! Have you ever had something like this happen? It is one of those things that if you saw it on tv or read it you would not believe it - but it is true true true!