I Need Sunshine!!!

I need some sunshine BAD! I'm getting S.A.D.! No kidding... Had to change my blog and banner to something sunny and bright to lift my spirits. This is working so far - all I gotta do is look at these brilliant skies and the sunshine and it makes me smile!

We had a GREAT Christmastime with family and friends. DH and I think it was one of the best we've ever had, truly. It was nice to have all of our kids home - and as much as I want grandbabies - nobody's married yet and we don't have to share our kids with anyone else right now. We had fun watching movies, cooking together, just visiting, watching the guys kill each other playing war games on XBox 360 and yelling, hitting each other, laughing and cutting up. It was great!

We Christmas't again today at my folks' house. My sister and I always plan something silly for mom and dad. This year, we got mom started on a Pandora bracelet and we got Daddy an IPod. We wrapped all their gifts including each little charm on mom's bracelet and all the pieces to the IPod in different little boxes - 10 in all. Then we hid them like Easter eggs all around the living room where their Christmas trees were. We all unwrapped our gifts, and let the folks sit and watch. Then we gave mom and dad a Christmas gift bag and told them to start hunting! It was so fun and we all got a good laugh out of it! We hollered "you're getting warmer!" or "getting colder!" at them until they finally found 9 of the 10 gifts - we had to give them lots of hints on the last one. Then they had to open their gifts in a certain sequence. I think they had a lot of fun and it's neat to do something different with them each year!

We finally settled for grilled burgers for dinner. They were great! and everybody was tired of turkey and ham and dressing. So it was a nice change. We'll do a fish fry next week. Adam and Pop have been fishing several times and we need to eat that fish and make some more room in the freezer so they can go again! Otherwise, they'll have to do a "catch & release".

My daughter is just starting a blog called Hayley Kathryn Designs . She's very artsy-crafty and is going to advertise some of her creations - she's a big hit with young ladies her age (college age +) and will be adding new designs for sale in the near future. She's done quite a few of her particular works of art for friends, and thought since she's had so many requests, why not see if she could do something with it??? Hayley also loves re-furbishing old furniture and decorating. She has alot of talent and she and I have seriously thought about opening our own business doing all kinds of arts and funky stuff. She has a good eye for design and color. I think she would love for some of you sweet friends to stop by and say hi from time to time as she gets more stuff on her blog.

Well, here's a parting shot of little Bella with her Christmas collar on. It was red and green and she looked like a court jester running around with it on. She's a sweetie but a pistol. I don't know if I ever see her just sitting still. We should've called her "Taz"...