Our Anniversary - Happy New Year!

16 years ago today, Dave and I were married at the Seiberling Mansion in Kokomo. Do not make fun of the big hair - it was the style.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
What are you doing to celebrate the New Year?
Cindy

After Christmas shopping

The only thing I have done this week besides clean house and put Christmas stuff away, is a little bit of shopping. Usually, my cousin and I go shopping the day after Christmas. This year, we decided not to go. But then, the next day, we decided to go :-) But we didn't go to any malls or shop for clothes. We decided to go to Stitches n Scones in Westfield, IN.

http://www.stitchesnscones.com/

A fun yarn/roving/knitting/crocheting/spinning store. We used to visit it so often that they knew us. I had to stop going. I hate to see how much money I've spent and how much yarn I haven't used. But I did buy one skein.....one. I decided it could be fun to use for crafty stuff.

Isn't it cute.

Then we went shopping in Noblesville, IN. Lot's of cute stores in their downtown area.

I wanted to go to some antique stores too, and they have both.

But first we went to Gingers Cafe for some lunch, and Always in Stitches which is another fun store for crafters. Yarn, wool, patterns, material, books, etc.

http://www.alwaysinstitches1.com/

The only thing I bought there was some locker hooking rug fabric.

(dont really know what it's called)

More on locker hooking at another time.

Then we went to some cute stores and antique stores.

And at one of the antique stores I took a little bowl of cute little blue balls to the counter and asked if they could get a price for me. I also took a little box to the counter and wanted a price on the stuff in the box.

Note to people who have booths in antique malls - PRICE YOUR STUFF. Do you know how many times I've just skipped even asking for a price on something because I didn't want to ask.

Anyway, they had to call the booth owner. When I went back to the counter they had everything in the box and said, "how about $15.00 for all of it!" WHAT? And I said, "so it would be $7.50 since everything Christmas in that booth is half price?" Noooo. Well, I'd pay 7.50 but not $15.00. I mean seriously, it is a small box. Maybe 4x6 in size.

So I said, "ok then how much for just the little blue balls that were in the bowls." They couldn't answer that because they mixed the whole thing together. And they never did get a hold of the booth owner. So they came back with, "how about $10.00?" After a few minutes of thinking I decided to go for it.

Most of the ornaments were made in the USA, and glass, so I know they are old.

And most of the time I don't care if it's old or a reproduction, just so I like it.
I don't know if I'll use them for crafting or decorating.

But when I got home and sorted everything out...

I was glad I bought them.

These were made in Japan.
I remember as a kid my Dad complaining about things made in Japan.

Lots of little glass baubles.

I don't think I'll put it away with the Christmas stuff.

I think I'll leave it out for inspiration.

Every year I think I'll craft Christmas gifts and decorations throughout the year, but never do it. Maybe this will inspire me to start a little sooner.

Ornaments at The Corner Cottage were 50% off, so I bought this little angel.

I also bought this soft, velveety, Victorian style scarf at the antique store.

It's not an antique...

but I like it.

We had a fun day.

Peace,

Cindy

Christmas Day

On Christmas Day our immediate family gathers at my Sister & Brother-in-Law's house.

When we arrived, their daughter was playing this dance game on the Wii.

My husband decided to join her.

Two of my nieces striking a pose.

The one on the right told the one on the left to NOT smile.

Models do not smile! Oh my what they learn....Time to open gifts.

The adults exchanged names a couple of months ago.

We all give the younger ones gifts.

I changed my gift-giving to them this year. As I've said in some older posts, I'm focusing more on traditions. And I did spend some time with them doing stuff, but instead of buying them a toy, I purchased a bond for each of them, in their name. When they are older, I'll give them all to them at once. I did buy them a shirt, just no toy, and they didn't even notice.

Is that a robe or a hat?

These are Little Tree-sa's, get it? Her name is Theresa and she MADE THESE FROM SCRATCH! Her husband said she EVEN MADE THE APPLESAUCE!!!

(She gets that from me)

The cakes were YUMMY. I'd like that recipe Sister. She drizzled caramel sauce on them and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream beside them. You can also see she made the traditional Mexican Wedding Cakes and Peanut Butter cookies with kisses.

Lots of serious faces here....my Sister is trying to teach us Bunko.Now listen Trent....you have these dice...

Now this is how you keep score....and I'm going to jerk that camera out of your hand if you take one more picture...(Mom wants to laugh - I can tell)
Umm, I'm STILL confused. Is a BUNKO all 1's, or all of any number, or is it all of the same number of whatever round you are on? Like if this is round 5, is a bunko all 5's?

And wouldn't that be a Yahtzee and not a Bunko?

We played Bunko, while the kids danced...

and danced...

then we decided to join them!

Dave and Trent thought they were so cool with their head gear, or is it a robe?

Funny how we are all following along this video and none of us have the same pose!
I'm looking like something out of the Thriller video while Sarah is shaking her groove thang.

Our brother had child care duties...

and I had to take pics...so Theresa and Lorri did dishes!

Twas time to go home.

We had a wonderful day.

Adrienne, Dylan, Joey and Andrew we missed you and hope you had a Wonderful Christmas.

Peace,

Cindy

Christmas Eve at our house

I'm a little behind in posting, but oh well, I'll get caught up, eventually.

Christmas Eve at our house...

There was a time in our lives when my brother, my sister, and I were all single, and living on our own. My Mom and Dad would have us over on Christmas eve for pizza and games. I have kept up the tradition only my brother lives too far away to come over Christmas eve and the next day, so his family gets together with us all on Christmas Day. I invite family and friends --- basically whoever wants to come over. We bring snacks and play games.You got your winners....


and losers.

(we played this game called Left, Right, Center which is a lot of fun)

I have wrapped 'gifts' for prizes. The 'gifts' are mostly stuff I was either going to put in a garage sale or I got in a box at an auction, but every now and then, one of those goofy gifts might have a scratch off lottery ticket in it! And then again, it might not.

hmmm, they might be losing.
The kids had fun playing games and watching a 3-D movie

Don't know why my camera turned blue all of a sudden.
Luckily, Anh (the boys Mom) fixed it for me!

It was Taylor's birthday and we had a big cookie to celebrate her special day.

I thought I'd show you this picture because it's a great way to cover a dirty stove top. Put a Christmas dish towel on it and use it for counter top space!

I also wanted to state that I did make some decent cookies after all....

No bakes - my babysitter used to make these for us when we were kids. It's her recipe.

Oatmeal scotchies - my Shugs favorite. We also had coconut macaroons and white chocolate covered pretzels. Only the red was more of a pink color and my cousin and sister pointed out that the pink color was more of a "raw meat" color. Nice of them.

I even made the dogs some biscuits.

Dixie is a very slow eater.

Vinh and I froze cranberries in ice cubes for this punch recipe which turned out very yummy. (Martha Stewart Christmas punch) We all drank it. I used the gingerbread ice cubes for the kids drinks and there was still some gingerbread left in the pan, unknowingly, and it came out on the ice cubes. My niece pointed out that my ice cubes were "dirty". Nice of her.

When my Dad had knee surgery I took a pic of Mom through the waiting room window.
I think she was making embroidered pillowcases.

Even the dogs got extra attention on Christmas eve.
This dog loves kids....


And this dog loves Cousin Vickie!

Peace,

Cindy