Happy New Years!

It's 12 minutes till midnight! Wo-hoo!

The last day of 2008

My family is visiting with us this week in Richmond Hill. We've had a whirlwind of holiday travels. A party planned for New Year's Eve tonight! Cheers.

Santa Pics

Yeah, so the 'backup' Christmas card pics (since the others turned out dismal) were going to be with Santa... to give you a glimpse of how those turned out...

Solstice * Snowflakes

I haven't made these in ages.

I was inspired by Levi's Montessori instructor, Ms. Amanda, who made several for his classroom from white coffee filters - which I thought was so clever.
Mine are just plain office paper.

I giggled at the end, as my snowflakes were awful 'foldy-looking,' and I gave them a good iron (my Granma would be proud).

I wanted to put a few last decorations up before my Christmas company show's up. It looks magical in the house now.

Tomorrow (well actually, it's almost midnight now) is the WINTER SOLSTICE.

I've just gotten my rec pass for Fort Stewart, and so tomorrow Joe, Levi, & I are going to celebrate by doing a canoe trip on the Canoochee.

From our deepest depths of winter: Happy Solstice!

So, this afternoon I made a special trip down to Joe's office to take some Christmas card pics out by the marsh - you know, for those cards I've been meaning to make & mail out...

I spent nearly two hours getting ready: taking a shower, bathing Levi, putting on makeup, blow drying my hair (which I never do), picking out clothes, & just getting down to the office.

All that effort & there were 35 mph winds (my hair looks ridiculous in all the shots), a blinding glare down by the water that completely wiped out all the pics, and a child who was just short of a tantrum. In short - not a single decent shot. The one below is as good as it get. Oh well.

Bookshelves anyone?

Update: so, apparently I've got the micro mini set of encyclopedias, and just taking a look at the tiny shelf they would make is laughable.... Oh, well. Guess they're off to the paper recycling bin.

When we moved into this house I found a set of encyclopedias in the top of one of the upstairs closets. I love to get rid of anything we're not using & so, I boxed 'em up & took 'em over to the Goodwill- only to be promptly turned around, as they DO NOT take encyclopedias (the guy was telling me this before I'd even stepped out of the truck). So, what the hell do you do with these things if you refuse to toss 'em in the trash?? I was trying to figure out if they'd go in with the paper recycling, when I stumbled across another idea: bookshelves. As in on-line instructions on how to make your very own encyclopedia bookshelf. Cheesy yes - though functional. I might have a go at it, as I've been looking for some shallow bookshelves to put in Levi's room to spread out his toys. I'll let you know how it goes... Here are some of the online pics I found:

Hot Water

The hot water heater went out on Friday night & finally this morn, 84 hours and 3 plumber visits later, it's back online. We made due with a few shallow baths from boiling water on the stovetop. And so this morning I'm off to a long scalding shower!

Levi's room

I found Levi playing with his cars up in the window sill - made for some cute pictures!

Weekend in Jennings

Levi and I took a road trip to Jennings while Mo went to see Angie. Mom, and the aunties (and Uncle Cojo) took Levi to Wild Adventures in Valdosta to see the lights and the critters. Looks like he had a good time!!

Roadtrips

Joe & Levi took a roadtrip & visited the in-laws in Florida while I headed west to the LaGrange area to visit Angie. I love roadtrips & especially the occasional one by myself! We hadn't seen each other in 3 years; she's been living in Tasmania, Australia with her growing family. I got to meet 6 month old Nesta for the first time & see Jack, who is now almost 4!

at a Christmas tree farm on Sunday

some of the choices

Nesta

coffee of a morn

John & Angelina

hanging ornaments on the tree, last weekend in Wildwood

a little jinglebell action

Okay, this was ridiculous = we went thru a Taco Bell Sunday on our way home (which by the way, was a hellacious 10+ hour drive, battling 'holiday travelers' gridlock from Atlanta to Macon). Along with the 3 tacos, 3 burritos, & 1 mex pizza we ordered we asked for 'a couple' hot sauces. We got 41! We would have needed to put almost 6 packs on each item we ordered to use them all! Some Taco Bell executive would go ballistic!

Home for Thanksgiving