A Merry Christmas To You!

Wishing you and your loved ones a purrrfectly Merry Merry Christmas!

XX000 Barbie Jo and Cleo

Are You Ready?

How can this ever be... 6 more days until Christmas! Are you ready??

I spent the better part of my weekend baking cut outs and icing them. I said I was not going to make cut outs this year as they are so time consuming. Several years ago I gave my Moms vintage cookie cutters to our daughters thinking they would carry on the tradition which so far they are not really in to, so I had to improvise with my 2 sorry little cookie cutters and a glass! But to tell you the truth it does not quite feel like Christmas with out these cookies, besides being my favorite, they are loaded with Christmas memories of my Mom, they make me smile :)

Dinners have been really simple this week, just grabbing a sandwich or pizza. However in keeping with the season I did treat us to lovely desserts from Andres, my favorite Suisse pastry chocolate shop. Pots of creme.. beautiful, decadent and very yummy! 

On my cutting board, adorable Valentine fabric from Pam Kitty Morning! I am itching to sew but don't feel I'll find the time until after Christmas!

To end our weekend, Saturday evening we had dinner with friends at The American Restaurant at Crown Center in Kansas City. Table seating offers spectacular views of the city through floor to ceiling windows. With the city all decked out for Christmas this was an especially beautiful time of the year to have dinner here. The tall tree pictured is the Mayors Christmas tree. Our waitress told us an interesting story about it. She said that the tree comes in from Oregon by flat bed truck with all of the branches cut off so that the tree looks like a long stem of asparagus. It is then reassembled branch by coded branch, isn't that amazing!

Time for me to get back to work here, we have a very very exciting weekend coming up!!

May the rest of your week be merry and bright!

Home again!

Wow, this past week flew by way to fast, seems I just left and now here I am home once more! 

I certainly had a fabulous week babysitting my Grandsons while their parents were on vacation. My Grandsons at 6 and 8 years old are an easy and enjoyable age to watch, yet it is nevertheless still a huge responsibility guiding them safely through their daily rigorous routine, having some fun but getting it done! The boys are both in to sports and this time of year it is basketball. Alex and William both had games on Sunday, two different times and two different places. Their OKC Grandpa was a great help in taking over one of these commitments while I was able to do the other. It was fun watching William play his game at a school gym with hundreds of very energetic little kids LOL and their families cheering them on. I had brought projects for myself and the boys to work on, but all I can say is there was very little time to do those things. We did make the gingerbread house and advent Christmas chains, and that was it. Our days began shortly after 6 am (oh my!), up and ready for school which I drive them too. Then I had a nice window of time to do my own thing, which I did! Monday I met an old neighbor and friend Martha for lunch, pizza at the Upper Crust, yummy! We stopped on our way home to browse at a little gift shop that had antiques as well and I purchased two vintage glass ornaments for my tree. Tuesday my quilting friend Brenda picked me up for lunch, this time a Greek spot names Zorbas, very fresh and tasty. On our way home we stopped at 42nd Street Candy Company, oh boy you know I could get in lots of trouble there and did! Wednesday my baby brother picked me up for lunch... I am getting pretty spoiled now aren't I! We went to the most wonderful place of all in my book, Ingrid's Kitchen & Bakery, family owned and of Diners, Drive-ins And Dives fame, they have a large German menu. And the bakery... thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so fabulous! Cakes and pies, eclairs and cream puffs, trays full of cookies and right now a large selection of Christmas cutouts :) My brother bought cookies to take home to the boys, so sweet.

The cookies were a nice after school treat, of course they were thrilled! 

After all my exciting lunches I pick the boys up from school. We do homework, make dinner, showers, a little TV time, reading time and its off to bed to repeat the whole process again the next day! I enjoyed being a part of everything, even the homework. Williams drawing made me smile, in his family picture everyone had an OU shirt on LOL! 

With Christmas fast approaching the "Elf On The Shelf" elf is a yearly tradition. If you have read this cute book you will know that the elf is a snitch, keeps watch over the children and reports back to Santa! He appears in various spots all over the house to do so, you never know where he might pop up! I had a lot of fun moving the elf around each night and every morning one of the 1st things the boys did was look to see where he might be. 

Friday was my last day in OKC. My daughter took me to lunch on our way to the airport. They live in an older historic neighborhood near the city. The homes along the way to lunch downtown are all so unique and pretty this time of year all decked and festooned with greenery. I made Erin come to a screeching halt when we drove by this house, this picture surely does not do justice LOL! Reindeers and Santa gallop over the lawn, giant wrapped presents and elves everywhere, even in the trees, Santa's and carolers, believe me they have it all covered... big smile :)

As we continued on our way to lunch at the Iguana Lounge, we parked across the street from this interesting home. Once again the picture can not cover the scope of art work and yes I did say home/studio. It belongs to one of the "Flaming Lips" rock band. Now I can't say that I even know a song that they are famous for, but judging by this house I guess they are an interesting band and most likely not on my Itunes list!

After an enjoyable lunch together, several hours later and I'm back to my quiet little life in Kansas once more. I enjoyed my special time with the boys so much, they were so helpful and thoughtful, lots of sweet and fun memories were made. 

And now it's time to get in to the swing of Christmas.... full blast into decorating.... Fa la la la la... be merry!