A Christmas Cookie Swap!

Two of my friends, Annie and Carrie, who also happen to be blog buddies of mine hostessed a Christmas Cookie Swap last Thursday evening. There were several girls from blog land there and we had a GREAT time! (not to mention that I probably put 5 pounds on from the food!)







We exchanged stories, we laughed, we ate, and we had a good time relaxing together and spending a night out without husbands or significant others and children, enjoying the season! {{{The girls also learned one of my deep, dark, secrets--YES--I admitted to the girls (I think Annie knew this, but no one else there did) that I fudged my dates on my pregnancy with Carter so I could have him early!! THERE!! My SECRET is out! PLEASE don't hate me! He was still 8 pounds and 14 ounces at 37 weeks!! Trust me! He was ready to come out!}}}


There were so many types of cookies and treats! We had peanut butter balls, S'Mores bars, Santa's Milk Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, and y'all just the MOST decadent cookies you could name! They were ALL SO GOOD!! (We also had my White Chocolate Cherry Chunky cookies!)

Girls--if you're reading this and you were there-I had a GREAT time with you, enjoyed meeting some of you in person and loved our fellowship! Y'all "follow me" now!!! ha-ha (inside joke!)

THE WHOLE GROUP!

Me and Crystal

Annie, me, and Lauren

Thanks Annie and Carrie for hostessing!

~CB~

...and the STOCKINGS were hung by the chimney with care.......

....in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there.....

As promised, here are our stockings and mantle decorations. I really like this stocking hanger I bought a few years ago at McIntosh (a small, arts/crafts festival in our area). The hooks that the stockings hang on are upside down candy canes; how CUTE is that???



And here's our mantle with a close-up of the garland, which I also LOVE!!! It's really thick and just screams "CHRISTMAS!" It has red berries, large pine cones, pine leaves, and Christmas garland interwoven into it. I bought it a few years ago after Christmas of course, (hello SALE!).

And a picture of the garland on the mantle from further back......(since I know someone will ask me about the pictures on the candle holder, yes, those stay there year-round. They are of my boys when each of them were 2 years old).

Wow! This was a short post! I guess to make up for the long one I did a few days ago. Hope you enjoyed touring the stockings and mantle decorations. Still to come are the rest of our trees and the outside decorations.

~CB~

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

..."Thy leaves are so unchanging".......(and this is a LONG post)

Maybe those leaves are unchanging because we have a fake tree. I'm sorry y'all I just don't like real trees. Now before you go thinkin' I'm the worst person walking the face of the earth because I don't like a real tree, here's why:

1. Fire hazard (yes--real trees are a fire hazard) and I figure since our home has been broken into twice in 3 years, I don't need a fire hazard added to that. We all know I'm not going to water the dumb thing, so I'll just leave it in the field and let nature do her thing.

2. They shed. Much like a dog. And I don't like those either. Lord knows I don't have enough time now to sweep every day, or vacuum, and I'm certainly not going to clean up after 2 boys, a husband, myself, AND a tree!

3. They smell. Yes, some of them smell good, but Pine is not my favorite scent. I'm more of a sweet, cookie dough, or cider donut, kind-of-girl.

I figure that's three good reasons. The biggest one being #2!! I just don't like all that stuff on my floor and carpet, etc. I like a real tree in other people's homes, just not my own.

Alright, back to the real point here. We put up our tree right after Thanksgiving, but because I've been so busy, I haven't had time to update you on all our holiday decorations. I figure I'll show you our tree in this post and then the rest of our decorations in a subsequent post. (I have to show you our outside decorations, the 4 trees in our house, and other misc. decorations for Christmas!)

If you've ever been in my house, you know our ceilings are HIGH. And when I say high, I mean HIGH. Our tree is about 12 or 13 feet tall!! And it's not touching the ceiling at that height. I love our tree--(yes, I know it's fake--but I love our fake tree). It's one of those pre-lit trees and it has pinecones mixed into the branches and so it (sort of) looks real since it has various types of needles and such on it. Here's a few pictures of the (rarely seen) husband putting up the tree.....you won't see him in the pictures unless you look real hard...you can see his reflection in the window and peeking out from behind the tree in 2 of them.

Here are my little Christmas Elves helping decorate the tree. I'm reminded of why I like to do things myself (and NO it's not the control freak part of me either--it's the "if you drop that and break it, I'll have to clean it up" part of me).


So after the merry elves decorated and I went behind them and fixed it, here's what the finished product looks like....

Mind you that these pictures of our tree are not very good, but you get the idea. I'll try to find a better picture for you.

This picture is not very good, but you get the idea.....

And a few of my favorite ornaments and the story behind them (if there is one)....

No story here, I just really like the ornament.

This ornament is from our honeymoon. We went to Montana and we both thought this was so cool! It's handmade.

A green/red/sparkly white Mickey Mouse ornament from Disney....we bought this on our last Holiday trip to Disney (this was actually the trip that I took the kids on BY MYSELF!

A neat little ball that has red/green berry looking things on it. No story. I just like it. And this picture doesn't do it justice.

An old white wooden church. I just really like this ornament.

Cinnamon sticks tied and has pinecones and red berries on it.

A Mickey Mouse jingle bell ornament. LOVE IT!

THE REAL REASON FOR CHRISTMAS!!! Every time I see this ornament it makes me want to sing "New Star Shining"

Another white wooden church. Love the old church ornaments......

An old sled with bells and berries...and every time I see this ornament, for some reason it makes me sing "I'll be Home with Bells on" Not that we get snow in Florida to use the sled, but I'm just sayin'--that's the song it reminds me of.

Do you Believe? (Miracle on 34th Street!)

Another Mickey Mouse ornament. Yes, I'm addicted.

Alright, alright, I know you're sick of seeing ornaments....listen people--BIG tree = LOTS of ornaments. Lots of ornaments means lots of favorites.

I guess since this post has been a bit long, I'll show you the mantle and stockings in subsequent posts. Hope you enjoyed this tour of our tree......

"Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree........"

~CB~

Florida-Florida State

On Thanksgiving weekend, the Gators played their final home game of the season against FSU. I'm a die hard Gator fan, my brother is a die hard FSU fan. Don't know where he went astray...., but that's another story. HA! HA! (For his birthday, we gave him a pair of tickets to the game (technically my mother in law gave him the tickets). He wasn't sure he wanted to see that slaughtering, but like any good sport, he went to the game to support his team.)

Of course, tailgating is only half the fun! Here's our super-fun host Wiley pouring drinks waaayyyy too early in the morning. Don't worry-I only had diet coke!


A friend of mine was down from Tallahassee, bless her sweet soul, she's a Gator and her hubby is a Nole. We forgave her for marrying him. Anyhow, her and her sister-in-law, who happens to be my best friend, walked over to our tailgate......

Me, best friend Mandi, Michelle (friend from Tally), and their sister, Miranda

Some of the guys lounging around at the tailgate.....

After a little tailgating time, we headed into the stadium to watch the Gators warm-up and such. I've said before that Riley Cooper is Carter's favorite player, so I always try to get some good shots...unfortunately, every single time I tried to snap a pic. he turned and I got his other side. I'd tell you it was his bad side, but I'd be lying. And I try to be an honest person. ha-ha!



And this man needs NO words!!

It was Senior Day for the Gators, and very emotional for some. Can you believe it was Tebow's last game in the Swamp? It just won't seem the same without him........Here's a few of the Senior's as they ran out of the tunnel....



This is Tebow's family waiting for him to run out.....

After the Senior festivities, it was time to Chop the Noles! And boy did we?!?!?! It's always great to win games, but there is just something about beating the Noles that does my heart good. There's a verse in the Bible that talks about laughter being good medicine! See?! Told ya. GOD IS A GATOR FAN!

And towards the end of the game when we KNEW we were going to win, this player was doing the chop....hysterical!
And here's the team at the end of the game!!! GOOOOOOOOO GATORS!!

Y'all it just doesn't get any better than this. Well, except maybe a sale at Kohl's. Or winning the SEC game. Or going for another National Championship.

~CB~

My Niece's FIRST Gator Game!

A few Saturday's ago, we had the honor (sniff, sniff) of taking my niece to her FIRST Gator football game! My brother is a die-hard Seminole (Lord, forgive him) and my niece is really on the fence about it...she is one of those "it doesn't really matter to me" kind of girls (heaven help her)!

Now as long as we've been Gator fans, and as long as they've been doing the Gator Walk, we've never gone and watched it. Since we had my niece and my oldest one, we decided that day we would try and get a glimpse of Tim Tebow, errr...I mean the Gator football team. (hee-hee)

Cecil hoisted Nolan up on his shoulders, and my niece and I forged our way through the crowd right up to the rope line and got a few great pics of the Team.

Here's one of the Pouncey twins.....


This is Aaron Hernandez...he's the idiot that threw the ball in the stands after his touchdown this past week (this picture was taken the week before though).
This is Riley Cooper (Carter's favorite player) and right as I snapped the picture, he turned his head.
Some more of the Team...I have no idea who these people are. My hubby could tell you though.
And LAWD HAVE MERCY....here's the star of the show......(Tim Tebow, not the State Trooper). I just got chills. Yum-O!!

My niece and I before the game.....isn't my niece beautiful? (okay, I'm partial, but still...she's only 13 and gorgeous!)


Nolan and his Uncle Edward (Cecil's brother)


We usually head into the stadium as soon as you can get in to see the team warm up and run drills. Can I just tell you that if I were to do some of the exercises I see these boys doing, I would not be able to get up off the ground? Below is Riley Cooper, and let me tell you, he twists and turns during warm up and makes my back just ache thinking about it.

And this one here, well, it speaks for itself!



Since the stadium wasn't full, Nolan and Edward were able to move down near us. Nolan wasn't able to sit in a seat and still see the game, so he propped up on his daddy's lap.


To see this heavenly sight.....


And just for kicks...Y'ALL....look at the shoes this woman behind us was wearing!! Ewwwwww!! Good thing she didn't step on a nail or something sharp! It would have gone right through her foot!



We're heading to Atlanta today to see Tim Tebow, err...I mean, the Gators play in the SEC Championship game. I sure hope they pull it off! Y'all pray hard!

GO GATORS!

~CB~