Stay tuned...

I'm uploading Christmas pictures right now so they will be coming soon! Probably not tonight though because my head, ears, eyes, nose, throat, and body hurt :( Hopefully I'm feeling better by New Years! Wish me luck, and if someone would like to come and edit them all for me and put them on my blog, all nice and pretty, I will let you. :) If not, you can just fix my header for me, because it's off center and it's driving me crazy and I don't wanna make another one. For now I'm going to get some rest....and play Donkey Kong on the Wii. I think I'm well enough to do that. Actually, I know I am!

Christmas overview!

Wow, it’s been a minute!

Well, the holiday season is unfortunately *almost* over!

I was finally able to get all of my Christmas shopping done and I was so prepared, I even had about 20 minutes to spare before we opened presents!

Actually, that’s sort of a lie. There were two presents that were sort of “rain checked” till the day after Christmas. (I should maybe write a letter to Canon because they are stupid and their error messages are stupid and I’m no longer a huge fan of my printer because it is stupid. BUT, that’s another story for another day!)

Anyway, the thought was there though, and the presents turned out adorable once they were all finished! If you’re trying to think of a unique, personable Christmas present for a family member(s), this turned out really cute! I asked each member of my family (about 20 people) what their absolute favorite thing was about the person I was doing the gift for (In my case, I did it for my Grandma, Grandpa, Grandpa on my Mom’s side, and my Aunt who was here visiting from Alabama) It could be anything really, ranging from favorite funny story, to favorite memory, to favorite personality trait. I actually found that the mixture, mad it even better! Once I got everyone’s favorite things, I typed them up, with cute fonts of course, bought some nice 8x10 frames and printed and framed each one. When my printer decided it was done working for the day, I had to improvise because it was um…Christmas. So, the creative part of me came up with an IOU that, once framed, read:

"Due to printer technical difficulties, the "real" page will be ready tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a pretty picture to enjoy

:)"

It was a quick fix, and worked until I was able to go to Kinkos the next day!

Other than that, I basically took a break from posting because I was enjoying lots and lots of quality family time! My Aunt was here visiting from Alabama so that was nice! She was here for 10 days (but it felt like 2!:()

Here are a couple highlights from my long holiday weekend:

While Christmas shopping with my Aunt, we are talking about what she got my sister and everyone else for Christmas and she mentions how she really wishes she would have bought something for my sister that she could use at her new place. I look over and see DVD’s on sale for like 5 bucks and say OH! You could get her a DVD, she only has like 2 of them, and she watches one each night before bed. Right away she says "Does she have Hook?" "No, I know for sure she doesn’t have Hook." I say (wondering why she, so quickly would want to buy Hook for my 20 year old sister.) "Okay, I’ll get her that then!" and she throws it in the cart. Come to find out, a couple of hours later, she had changed the subject and was actually asking if my LITTLE sister, Mariah, had the movie. She thought Hook would be a perfect movie for a 9 year old and I agree. For a 20 year old though, not so much…although I couldn’t say anything at the time because it sounded like she was SO excited to get Hook for my sister!

The low-uh incident of course. (That one deserved its own post!)

Kassi opened up a wireless car charger for her phone and asked "How does it work if it is wireless??" It took about 5 minutes of family members explaining that it was a charger that would charge her “wireless” device, before it finally clicked!

Playing games! We played lots and lots of games! Board games, word games, and Wii! Grandma tried the Wii for the first time and loved it! We loved watching her try for the first time!

We finally got a classic controller for our Wii so we’ve also been enjoying old school NES games on the Wii! How rad is that? Very.

I made up my own joke, on accident.
Prior to Christmas day my Mom and I were talking about the Turkey she’d bought for Christmas. She’d mentioned that it wasn’t very big this year. On Christmas day as she was taking it out of the oven I started to say "That’s not too small of a (Then, thinking turkey and bird...out comes...) turd!" SO, what do you get when you mix a turkey and a bird? A turd.

Hope everyone had a super Christmas and Happy up and coming New Year!!

Wink and stuff.

A long, long time ago I was introduced to one of my favorite things in the world.

It’s called “Wink”

No, not the kind of “wink” that I only try to perfect when no one is looking. (You should be glad I only try this when I’m by myself because let’s just say...I’m not a good winker and you would probably think something is seriously wrong with my face.)

Anyway, it’s the AVON perfume, Wink.

I used to be the happiest Jessica in the world because my little AVON lady would have my next bottle of Wink ready for me, whenever I needed it.

Then I became the saddest Jessica in the world because I went to tell said little AVON lady I was out and she informed me that she couldn’t get anymore, because AVON discontinued it. Um, hello?? AVON, what were you thinking??? I bought enough of that crap to support you for ever, and ever, and ever. Stupid decision.

Then, once again, I became the happiest girl in the world because I found a store called AVON! It was located in a *ghetto* nice little indoor Swapmeet.

By this time, Kassi had jumped onto the Wink bandwagon so I called her up and told her the good news.

Then I became the saddest Jessica in the world once again because apparently this Swapmeet/AVON store didn’t actually have any new bottles of Wink…they just decided it would be a fanfreekintastic idea to display the tester bottle, and then watch the look on peoples faces when they decide they love it and want their own bottle, and I also think they like to watch people (my sister and I) fight over who gets to buy the tester bottle (which P.S. I totally won that battle). Whatever the reason is, I think it’s mean.

Anyways so, I’m hoping this is where the whole "People from all over reading my blog" thing comes handy.

Here’s what I’m thinking…If anyone reading my blog can find me a bottle of Wink, let me know. I will buy it, no battle. Then I would probably love you so much that I would buy you a bottle too! It would be a super deal, so check it out, tell your friends and let this sad girl know!

Low. Uh.

If you were (which you should have been) hangin out with us last night…you would have heard my Sister ask my Aunt if Low-uh was a city in Alabama, after hearing my Aunt reference Lower Alabama. This goes to show that:

1) Kassi is obviously oblivious to accents.

2) We all laughed our pants off.

3) Auntie Kristine has been in “LA” for far too long.

I've been writing a lot of letters recently.

Dearest Kayla Aimee,

1) I absolutely loved your love story. It is beautiful and you should write a book!

2) I’m looking at my "Keyword Google Searches" today and one of them leading the reader to my blog goes like so..."How do I access Kayla Aimee’s shifting sand?" Well...as it turns out, I am wondering the same thing! Lately when my excited little finger clicks on the link for some inspiration, we are let down and it can’t find the page. I was hoping you could help me and fellow google searchers.

Sincerely, Jessica

200th POST!!

Kudos MacKay, this is so funny. If anyone wonders what my meetings at work are like, watch this video. You can probably relate.

Dear Lysha Mae,

I was really, really busy today watching my boys dominate (11-2 now, WOOT!) and then entertaining my Dad, 2 brothers, one sister, one Travis, one Travis's friend, one step mom, one Treydogg, and one brother's girlfriend and at the same time putting extensions into Camille's hair, so I must say that although I wish I could have played around with the amazingly cute pics of Matix and other scrapbloggers amazingly creative ideas, I was only able to create one layout. So, here it is.

Of course you would insert Matix's cute little face in the empty spaces

I don't feel as bad about only coming up with one idea because after checking back with your blog, it turns out you already made one! YAY :) I'm sure it's adorable and I'm excited to see it!

P.S.- Did you listen to my Home Grown Christmas Playlist song? Totally reminds me of us and our kick ass Christmas mixes that I miss dearly.

Much love,

Jess.

A good reason to learn the phonetic alphabet.

On a call today at work—

Sprint representative to me: Ma’am can you please spell that out for me?

Me: “Oh, sure!! It’s A as in apple. C as in Charlie. P as in Pee” (this is the silence where I realize it’s awkward and start to wonder who around me heard that.) …“ter.” (I say quickly to try and make it sound like Peter. But really it doesn't. It sounds just like I said it. Pee.....tur.

Oh well, I give myself an A for effort in trying to save myself from that one.

Christmas in our house!! (Take two.)

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer's here,
But also when 'tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree
Afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Much pleasure thou can'st give me.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!
From base to summit, gay and bright,
There's only splendor for the sight.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy candles shine so brightly!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee!
Thou bidst us true and faithful be,
And trust in God unchangingly.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How richly God has decked thee! !

It's a start!

We *finally* got our Christmas tree tonight!

We are going to decorate it tomorrow though, haha. I can't believe it's already almost 9:00! We just barely got home from work and finished with dinner!

Anyway, I'll post pics of the finished tree tomorrow! :)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I don't think Minnesota is going to win this one!! What makes it worse is how crappy they played :( Lame Sunday.

Love little kids.

Two things I learned today:

When my little sister says "Hey Jess, do you like...have the heater on or something?" It really means she's cold and wants the heater on.

Also, after fixing her something to eat when she says "So, like..what other rules do you have for your couch..like, I know you can't put shoes on it...but...what else? What are the other rules?"

It's going to completely confuse me but it really means she'd like to know if she can eat her food while sitting on the couch.

Haha, such a cutie. Love you Mariah!

I'm sore.

...and it's all because of this little console of magnificence.

It's worth being sore. Definitely. I'm excited about you little Wii.

Saturday I randomly decided I wanted a Wii so I called the Wal-Mart by my house to see how much they were and they informed me that they were sold out.

No big deal, I thought. I'll just call the one right up the street.

They were sold out as well. Apparently everyone decided they wanted a Wii on Saturday night too. Or, maybe it was because they were on sale.

I finally found a store that had THREE left. I informed the lady I was coming from about 15 or 20 minutes away and asked if she thought there would be one there when I got there, or if they were going pretty fast...

She said they were selling about 12 an hour.

Crazy.

We still decided to go out in the blizzard and at least give it a shot.

One hour later, we were driving home, with the goods.

2009 Christmas Dance Recital "Edna the Elf"

Thursday night I went to the annual Christmas Dance recital. This year was especially special as my sister and two cousins were performing. It was extremely, extremely hard to get a decent picture because a) the seating arrangement and how far away we were b)apparently dancers don't do a very good job at holding still while performing and c) there was a flash Nazi in front of me. (Alexis and her actually went rounds. Almost.) But I did the best I could! It was really nice to have a family member in almost every dance! Everyone did a fantastic job!

Katie was "Edna the Elf" (Main character in the recital) so she was in about 90 percent of the dances. It was really cute!! She did a fantastic job!

How adorable is my cousin Megan?! Her dances were again, very hard to catch...but it was easy to catch her smile, so that makes up for it!

This is my little sister, Mariah. It was her first dance recital ever! She did great and I can't wait to watch her grow and continue to improve! Good job sissy! You looked beautiful out there!

New new new!!!

Thirty something super awesome Christmas songs!! ENJOY! :)