When I came home from the rehearsal, I saw Dan & Moira's car across the street at our neighbors house.  Dan & Moira are the previous owners of our house.  They only lived here part-time and they helped us get this house.  They are very sweet and have been quite kind to us.  They weren't supposed to arrive until Jan.  So of course, I am worried about a drop in.  They had already mentioned that they would love to see everything we had done to the house.  Which isn't much really.  We haven't' even painted anything.  They didn't end up dropping by, but I mentioned to JT that they were back anyway.  It proved to be a real motivator.  We got some stuff done around the house and laughed that we were acting like our parents were going to check our rooms.  

We also put together Brent's beds.  This would have happened anyway.  Brent fell in love with the way they had his room when we toured the house.  He has been set on having two beds ever since.  We found these old wood frames at a flea market for $20 and got the beds this weekend.  Brent is thrilled.  One bed for him and one for Bitty.

Our GS Christmas dinner was a success.  The ham hit 160 degrees, all the girls brought their sides, even a girl who couldn't stay, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.  We may have a new troop leader.  A mom spoke up when she realized that Liz was doing two troops and took home a welcome packet.  Very exciting, especially with cookies coming.  I know Liz could use a little more breathing room.  

Well, I have been giving my new kitchen aid quite a workout.  Yesterday I made 12 regular size blueberry muffins.  I turned my back for a minute, OK maybe 10, and suddenly there were only 3!  Callie quickly said she only had 3; Brent shrugged and said he had no idea how many he had.  The answer is 6!  Little piggies.  I made another dozen today and firmly told them they could only have 3 each.  They are always hungry!  They had 3, then two soft boiled eggs and a large orange each.  They still didn't seem full, but then we were out of food.

Brent's football team did not take any team pictures.  I'm not sure why, all the other teams did.  Anyway, there was a photographer that attended many of the games.  After the season he approached the parents with his laptop and offered his photos for a fee.  JT picked out these two.  Still wish there had been a team photo.  Brent is #41 on the Steelers team.

I miss my niece and nephew so much. They seem older everyday. I can hardly wait until April when I get to go see them. It looks like they had a lot of fun at the pumpkin patch this year. So cute!

Today was a laundry day.  I dare say, I'm almost caught up.   Since I do not have a dryer and it is the middle of December, this is quite a feat.  The only thing that can ruin it now is if a child or husband has a stash of dirty clothes somewhere, waiting to see the empty basket and fill it, crushing my hopes & dreams of completed laundry.  It now occurs to me that I may in fact be pathetic, since an empty laundry basket counts as one of my dreams.

Well, first I would like to thank Amazon.com for shipping my Christmas present in it's packaging only. Next I would like to thank my husband and children for wisely not making me wait until Christmas to use my new toy. Of course, I think they had reasons of their own (cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning). JT and I walked out to run errands and found the box sitting on the porch. He smartly just said Merry Christmas. Brent was really the only one that wanted me to wait until Christmas, but that is until he realized there would be no rolls. I made my first loaf of bread on Sunday and have made cookies, blondies, cinnamon bread and oatmeal bread since. Yummy.

Here is our new ornament this year. We picked it up at the market in Las Cruces last Saturday. She is an angel chili. Pretty cute. We didn't get a new ornament last year because our tree was 12 inches tall.

Bitty is in love with Christmas, mostly the two gingerbread people. She likes to lay on them and doesn't want to be bothered. The other two cats don't go up there at all.

The Florida's got a dusting of snow this morning.

Maybe I really should give some serious thought into getting a Dryer. Late last night I realized that I had left Brent's sheet's on the line. I quickly grabbed my blackberry, never far from me, and checked the weather. It said it wouldn't rain until 7am. I would be up long before that, so I decided to leave the sheets on the line. Stupid weather channel. I woke at 5:30 am to the sounds of heavy rain and wind. I decided that there was no need to rush, and laid there another 30 minutes before heading outside. They were still on the line, truly a testament to the strength of a clothespin. Unlike the summer rain, it was bitterly cold and my hands were like ice by the time I made it back in. Luckily my back room has a stone floor and the sheets are drying nicely inside. Will I ever learn?

JT and I left for Cruces around 8am; Chevron burritos in hand. We made it to the market early and were able to walk around and watch everyone setting up. This was my second time at the market, but the first time most the vendors had closed up for the day. There were so many more booths. I secretly thought how happy I was that I had gotten $100 at the ATM and not $60 or $80. We found some really great Christmas gifts and a lovely ornament for our tree. We also stopped by the book store and all our Christmas shopping was done. Yeah! We rushed home by 1:45 and I made it to the Santa's Workshop by 2.

During the GS meeting last night I was a little frustrated with the poor attendance. With all the expressed frustration with the new program and complaints about El Paso, you might expect a decent showing. Here was a chance to voice your concerns, some did, and be heard. No guarantee you will get what you want, but at least you will have given your complaint to someone that can actually act on it. So why the poor attendance? Did everyone get all their answers before and no longer had any need of a meeting? Unlikely. The better question is did they really want to be heard by someone that could give them an answer or was the complaining the actual goal.

Just a word of thanks to Leandra for reminding me that I'm supposed to be blogging. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her blogs and was motivated to resume mine. At least for a little while.