Blog of Christmas Past....Wednesday Thrift Store Finds!!!

So behind on blogging.....the holidays were so wonderful.....our theme for Christmas Eve was 'Elves' and everyone looked adorable in their hats. My two favorite elves decorated giant Gingerbread men as Gramps' wonderful enchiladas cooked away in the oven.....Dylan moved so fast the picture is blurred!!!

Two more very special elves and their reindeer dogs had plenty of christmas spirit.....

....and the official annual family photo.....dogs and all....'we wish you a merry Christmas'

Right after Christmas, my sister and beautiful nieces came down for a few days. We had so much fun - we thrift shopped, had lingering coffee and danish in Little Italy, picnicked at the beach, went to Glen Ivy for a spa day and just hung out and of course had our cooking contest which is getting to be pretty competitive....Steve's entree was TriTip and Mediterranean Salad, Amy's offering was Italian and Kim brought all home with yummy salsa and kick a** dessert. We all got into the kitchen on New Years Eve to make Chinese food and we hosted a fun Bunco party...followed by competitive Yahtzee....lots of laughs and good times for sure.....

Shannie was queen bee with rolling the full houses....Adam was so hot on the roll we wanted to send him to Vegas!
When my sister and nieces left Steve and I worked for days getting the house 'un-decorated' and getting back into the routine. Back to work, back to structure, back to dieting =(

.....and being Wednesday - back to Wednesday Thrift Store Finds!!!! Today I had to have a medical test right near my fave Thrift Shop so after that I headed over for a little shop....I remember when I was little and had to go to the Dr. my mom would always take me to Newberrys and get me a Dr. kit afterwards if I was good - think sugar pills, shots and specticles - I like to keep traditions so what better way than to shop away a medical appt! The pictures are a bit out of order but for $14.00 total I really scored!!! I saw this lady grab right under my nose this primitive shabby chic rocking chair...it was a beauty...I could tell she wasn't really committed to it so I pushed my cart around (hovered) in the area for a bit and found a really fab Federal Chair for $5.95!!! I was so excited and put that in my cart and headed off and found this really cute textured frame (.65 cents) that I thought would be cute painted candy apple red for Valentines day....then found these porcelain turkey S&P ($2.00)that I think I will spray paint turquoise for next Thanksgiving. So as I was shopping around I saw the lady come by without the primitive piece so I bee-lined over to the area she found it in and scooped it up....($5.40)I love all my pieces found today......when I got home I cleaned up my primitive and put it next to my sideboard in the living room and added some seashells....

Here is a better picture of the frame, turkeys and primitive....hard to see the rocking portion....about the size a toddler would sit in....wonderfully built and solid.....

Here is my BEAUTIFUL Federal Chair.....first I thought I would paint it white and shabby it up...but after I put it in my family room I really liked the patina on the black with the gold stencil (sounds ugly but is really beautiful) ...the seat really needs to be redone and I will live with it a bit before I finally decide...but look at the bones this baby has!!! What would you do with this?

So.....being a creature of habit I do love my ritualistic lifestyle, but I really did enjoy the 2 week holiday period and just hanging out with family, going to see the boys Christmas pageant, meeting friends for breakfast, family get-togethers, visiting good friends and taking in meals and gifts, sharing and loving and soaking up each and every wonderful moment.

What all did you do???? What new memories did you make???? Are you happy that life has returned to the normal day to day???