Goodbye Prada Jinx

She has gone by many names in the last couple years: Prada, Jinxy, Prada Jinxy, Jinxy Jaguar.  Whatever you call her, she is a sweet, soft, snuggly cat.
We said goodbye to her over the Christmas weekend, and sent her to live in a new home. 
I wish we could have kept her, and we miss her already, but my breathing and eyes are very thankful for her departure.  We took her in as a favor, never intending to keep her very long - but it lasted a over two years! (Now my allergist will hopefully not just laugh at me when I go in to the office, and ask why I would be so dumb to keep the thing that I am most allergic to in the house.) 
Bye Prada, it was fun while it lasted!

The Day After

I will post some photos of all the Christmas celebrations when I get a chance...but for now, let me say that it must have been a good weekend, because I have NEVER ever, ever, let any space we are living in get to this state of chaos.  (Especially a space as small as this apartment!) Anyone who knows me - knows that this could cause me a major panic attack.  However, the kids had a great Christmas this year, and they had a great time playing with one thing, then another, after we got home and unpacked. 
So, until I get on the computer to post Christmas pictures...you know what I will be working on.  Happy day after Christmas!

Is it Christmas yet?

Our neighbor, Johanna (Audrey & Carly's mom), took these photos during the fairy party.  I think this one sums up Jamie pretty well.  Good job Johanna.

Soccer Camp, A Fairy Party and Santa...All In One Morning.

Jamie went with our neighbors to a "Fairy Party" this morning at our nearby bookstore, while I was with Dawson at his soccer camp (so I missed seeing all of the little fairies - but I heard they were cute and the party was fun).  After the party, there was a special visit from Santa.

She told him that she wants a dollhouse.  Nuts...I didn't know about that one.  It was the first time I had heard that.  Looks like she is going to be disappointed.

Here is Dawson at soccer camp this morning.  I think he and his friend Ryan (left of Dawson, below) spent more time running around and tackling each other than practicing their skills.

Gingerbread, Crafts, Naby & Snow Angels

Didn't know what to call this post of randomness.
Here is Dawson's gingerbread house.

A craft, from the crafty one.  (Dawson)

I realized that I should document the importance of 'Naby' in Jamie's life.  This bear has been with her since she was two, I think.  It is so dirty and nasty and their are holes in it, but she drags it everywhere - outside, bedtime, to the store, etc.  One time she left it at Grandma and Grandpa's and it took a week to get it.  That was a very LONG week!  (I seem to remember having a pillow of the same level of importance once.) 

Just some snow angels.  That is the end of the randomness.

Snow Day

Snow Day over here today!  Perfect day to get all caught up on the last couple weeks, and do some sledding in the afternoon.  This is the first year that the kids have both been able to go down the hill alone AND get their sleds up on their own.  This is huge!

København

Here is Copenhagen, Denmark.  This might be a little more exciting to look at than pictures from my work week.  I spent half a day, by myself, wandering around the city before needing to fly home.  It was busy last time I was there, but since it is the Christmas shopping season - it was even more bustling on the Strøget (pedestrian street) and in the city center.



These bikes are not really out of place, but I forgot to take pictures of all the bikes parked in the snow in Sweden, with studded snow tires on them.  It is The way to get around, even in a foot of snow, which I found a bit interesting.
Speaking of bikes, did any of you happen to see all the news articles recently, about the gift that all my fellow U.S. coworkers got this Christmas?  We all recieved a bike.  I didn't get mine yet, since I wasn't at my store on the gift giving day....but I hear it has to be put together.  Figures.





With the many people out and about, there were a lot of street performers working.



This guy was playing a box/broom stick/string thing.



Sverige



I have been in very cold, dark, snowy Sweden and Denmark, for the last week.  Actually, the weather made it very pretty outside (only when you could see things between 10am and 4pm).  Most of the week I have been in the small town of Älmhult (photo is from the train station).  My Swedish speaking is not much better than it was before this week (non-existent), but I'm getting better understanding written words.  The fun part of this work trip was that there were colleauges from over 40 countries represented in my meetings.  So, I met a lot of different people - with surprisingly, a lot of similarities.

This is what it looked like every morning when walking to meetings at 8am.

Here is IoS.  A Modest little building, considering the billions and billions of dollars it generates (through the stores) all over the world.  Everything starts here.

This is the huge store in Malmö (one of the bigger cities in Sweden).  It might not look any different to you, because it is another blue and yellow box like all the rest - but to me there were a lot of things to see and learn at this store.  Blah...blah...am I boring you yet?  Maybe I'll take some pictures of Copenhagen when I get there.  Those will be more exciting to post.



Jinxy-Jaguar

Don't stare directly into her eyes.  {Cupcake}

Christmas Art

A Christmas Tree

An Activity Scene

I had all good intentions this year to get a Christmas card out again, and to make it cute and creative...but I'm just plain running out of time.  We have too much to do with work, travel, school, the house craziness, and everything else this year.  So, I will try - but just in case I don't get one done on time to send out, here are a few of the wintery pictures that we had taken recently.  Thanks to Lindsey (a coworker of mine) and Brandon at Lovella Photography, for freezing their bums off with us in our town square to get a couple good shots.  I can't even decide which pictures to use, which is half the battle.  So, if you can all let me know me which one you think would be good on a card - that part will be taken care of at least.

Yep.  It was Cold.

Getting closer to being enclosed....

Click here to check out the most recent progress of the house project. It is getting close to being enclosed so that work on the inside can begin...

Kindergarten Pow Wow

Today was the day the kindergarteners have been preparing for all month long. They had a pow wow, and sang songs about all the things they had learned about Indians long-long ago.

Holiday Lighted Parade & Christmas Market

As usual, this weekend, there is another festival going on in our town.  Tonight was the lighted parade and 1st annual Christmas Market - on all the main streets.  (Yes Christmas Market, is what the town officially called it...which is nice.) 

The streets were full of food, rides, lights, Santas, and a lot of Christmasy things.



More parade candy is all we needed.  We still have candy from the Victorian Festival, Halloween, and maybe even some from the summer parades.  Too bad the food banks are not in need of candy this holiday season.

Shutterfly to the rescue

I'm not as on top of things this year. By now, I would normally have had all our Christmas Cards done, ordered, and addressed - so that I could mail them the weekend after Thanksgiving.  That is what my usual compulsive-self would have done by now.  So it is driving me a little nuts that I haven't even started.

However, I'm not too worried, because I'm planning on using Shutterfly this year.  I have used Shutterfly every year for our Christmas Photo Cards, since Dawson was born.  I used another company last year and they had cute cards - but were very expensive!  So, I'm going back to what I know and love, which is Shutterfly!  It is pretty easy to use and they have quick shipping. So now I just need to find some good photos to use from the past year, and get going on my poem. (I'm not promising one though, because I barely even have time to wash my hair these days, let alone get creative and write a poem!)

The best thing, is that since I'm mentioning Shutterfly in this blog post they are going to give us some free Photo Christmas Cards.  So, I think that is pretty fabulous!  They usually have really good specials anyway, like discounts or free shipping.  So if you don't have a blog to get this deal with, then check out some of the other promotions that they have going on on stationary or cards.  If you do have a blog - CLICK HERE to sign up for the cards.

Since I haven't started anything yet, I don't have any of my ideas for this year to share.  Instead, here are the Christmas Photo Cards from the past few years, that I did using stationary from Shutterfly: