Christmas Day and our trip to PA

Let me first warn you I am sure this post will be lengthy as well as have lots of pictures.

Aaron and I spent Christmas day at my moms house, which lives right next door to us.

It was nice to wake up at home with the tree lit and then just walk next door in our PJ's for unwrapping gifts. Our family tradition is that everyone receives new PJ's from my mom on Christmas Eve which we all open. We have to wear the PJ's on Christmas morning. I decided to stay in mine all day though. They were super comfy. Another tradition that was started when we were little by my grandma, was to have oatmeal on Christmas morning after we all unwrapped gifts. Of course we still keep that oatmeal tradition even though my grandma grace is not with us anymore. It just would not feel like Christmas without the oatmeal.

Although no one wanted me to take photos on Christmas, I figured it was about time to get some pics since we have not done so on Christmas day since we were little.

So here is everyone in their pride and glory in the PJ's.

My mom on the left and sister monica (mimi) on the right. Mimi is due with the first grand baby on Jan 20th

My sister Autumn digging into her stocking candy.

My brother in-law Jason. He hates cameras.

Yes that is my mom's apple green kitchen. lol

Aaron happy about his movie passes in his stocking

My brother Craig checking out his lottery tickets to see is he won.

After opening presents and eating our oatmeal we went home to give our fur babies their gifts.

The three cats all shared a can of wet food. Which is a real special treat for them since we do not normally give them wet food. Bailey enjoyed her busy bone which she just LOVES.

We had to snap a photo of the cat since this is a VERY rare sighting at our house with all three cat in such close distance to once another.

Bailey looks like she is growling in this photo, although she is just chewing a piece of her bone.

Aaron and I attempted at taking a family photo this year in front of the tree. lol

I say attempted because our camera is not to great and my fat bum could not move fast enough. It also did not help with Aaron looking like he was in so much pain. lol Here are the 2 BEST attempts. We plan on buying a new camera this year, so hopefully next year will be better.

Aaron and I went to western Pa to visit his family this past week. We left on Saturday morning after Christmas. We had a good time, but we were very ready to come home on Tuesday as well.

We were able to have 2 nights out with his old friends. One night at a friends house with lots of yummy munchies and we played cards and poker until 1am. We had a blast though.

Thanks for hosting a great night Colette! Aaron and I had a great time!

Colette loves prims and country style things in her home, as well as she collects bird houses. I wish I had taken my camera with me to get a picture of some of the cute things she has in her home. Colette also made this very yummy pepperoni dip among all the huge spread she had laid out for us all. I retrieved the recipe from her today, and plan on making it tonight for New Years eve. I will share the recipe with you all in my next post.

We spend time with Aaron's parents where we stayed. We had not been back since June so it was quality time much needed with them. We had Christmas dinner together and opened gifts on Sunday afternoon.

Aaron and I gave his mom this fall floral arrangement that I had made and the Christmas stitchery below I also made. The floral arrangement was not wrapped so we gave it to her when we arrived on Saturday she was so happy with it I thought she was going to pee herself. lol That was before she even knew I made it. lol She loved it! She also loved the christmas tree stitchery I made for her. I threw that bad boy together in a weeks time. I found the frame at a TS and painted it black with a red coating brushed on top. I think it turned out pretty good for only my second stitchery.

Aaron's dad is so hard to buy for. If you give him clothes you will find them 5 years later still in the closet with the tags on them. If you give him gift cards they will never get spent. So since he is a truck driver and is on the road all week. We decided to pick him up 2 2liters of his favorite pop, 2 big bags of his favorite chips and 2 bags of his favorite candy. These are things he would normally purchase throughout the week anyways. So he was happy with that.

Sunday night we went to a local private club/bar to spend some more time with a few old friends. I was the driver so only had a drink early in the evening. My husband on the other hand was 3 sheets to the wind. I am sure these photos will explain everything. lol

All the single ladies, All the single ladies ..........................

Aaron and his man purse - that is what he called it

Some of our friends in Pa that we miss dearly.

Here are some pictures of Christmas at our house this year.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope that you have a wonderful holiday time with your family, friends, and loved ones. While remembering the wonderful gift God has given us, his blessed son Jesus.

Aaron and I are blessed to be able to celebrating Christmas this year with both of our families. We will in Michigan with my family on Christmas Eve and leaving Christmas day for Pennsylvania to see Aaron's family.

Santa on our front door. I found him in a floral shop many years ago when I first started decorating prim.

The wreath I made this year on our garage door. I made the wreath completely from items found at the dollar store and the gold star hanger was from a thrift store for .59cents.

This is the antique butcher rack in our living room decorated

with a few Christmas goodies.

This past summers TS & GS Finds.

This snowman was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law a few years ago.

Not overly prim, but I still love him and made sure I put him out each year.

I found this wooden sleigh at a TS this past fall and made this arrangement for my floral design class. Flowers, candy canes, etc. were all purchased at the dollar store.

It is sitting on a black bench I found several years ago that Aaron does not like, but I think is wonderful.

Christmas Swap

I participated in my first prim Christmas swap over at

A Primitive Journey message boards.

My partner was Stacey over at Primarily Primitives be sure to check out her blog when you get a chance. If you are looking for a great group of very talented ladies, stop on over to AJP as well.

Here are some pictures of the goodies Stacey sent to me

Stacey hand painted this cute Sleigh Ride sign

She made me 2 of the very large cloth wrapped candy canes

She made this yummy smelling wax dipped candy canes.

She also sent me a candle and tart melts that I forgot to take a photo of.

Here is a photo of the goodies I sent to Stacey.

A prim santa, a evergreen tree with cinnamon stick base, Star tree topper,

gingerbread man ornaments, small jar of silver tinsel and mini gingers,

4 fabric wrapped candy canes, Rusty snowman candle holder, gingerbread floater candles,

and a handmade Christmas card. I sure hope she likes it all.

Giveaway Winner! & Whatcha Working on Wednesday

I have been coming along ok on my first stitchery I think.

The beard of the santa has been the hardest part I think with the white thread.

Even with my glasses on it was difficult for me to see where I was coming and going with the white thread. I am sure that will only get better with time though. I think he is turning our pretty darn cute. I had increased the size of the pattern to be large enough to fit inside a frame.

The finished product is going to be part of my gift to my mom for Christmas so I plan on finishing it up tomorrow.

If anyone has any tips or some constructive

criticism about my stitchery I would love to hear it.

These are the gingerbread man that I made for my Christmas swap partner. These were already shipped off to their new home. I sure hope she enjoys them! They smelled so yummy I wanted to eat them. I plan on throwing some more of these together this weekend for our own tree if I find enough time.

I used a basic salt dough recipe with a few of my own special spices for their bodies. I used white craft paint mixed with white school glue for their trimmings.

I sadly did not get a group picture of all the goodies I sent to my swap partner. When they arrive to her I will try and get a picture and post it here as well.

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What you have all been waiting for, the winner of my 1st Giveaway!

Sadly for me there were only 3 entries for the giveaway. :(

I guess I need to find or make something a little better for my next giveaway.

The good thing for the entries, they had a great chance of winning. :)

The winner is ................................

Carol - The firecrackerkid!

Congrats Carol!

I will be emailing you for your information so I can get this sent out to you this weekend.

Thanks to everyone else for entering.

I am already looking forward to another giveaway in the near future.

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I am sorry I did not get the winner posted sooner. As I had my dear 86 year old great uncle Lloyd pass away yesterday. He had the american red cross call him every morning as a check-in type service since he still lived on his own, despite our pleas. Yesterday morning they could not reach him, so they called my mom (his emergency contact). My sister found him on the floor. He had fallen, hitting his head which caused severe bleeding in his brain.

He had previously been diagnose with a lung disease from exposure to asbestos from his career as a contractor. The doctors believe he had passed out due to restricted oxygen from this awful disease which caused his fall. The only blessing from this is that he is no longer suffering.

He has just told my sister Autumn last week that he was ready to go.

I was with my sister Autumn by his side when he passed away yesterday. The staff at the hospital were wonderful and attentive to his and our needs. Which I think helped make things more comforting for us to know that he did not suffer.

Please keep my husband and myself in your prayers as this is a very difficult time with his passing, as well as a large amount of family drama and greediness has already started.

~ Tasha

My 1st Giveaway!

Since everyone else is having giveaways, I thought I would follow suit and have one as well. I am not as crafty yet as most other bloggers. So I went hunting through my many boxes of "was going to sell on ebay some day" treasures. I found a whole box of wonderful various vintage linens and fabrics.

In my header, the linen under my nativity scene was in there. Heaven sakes I didn't even know I had these treasures. LoL

Half way through the box I found a true treasure. This very old, but still new with tag, linen table cloth with gorgeous handiwork throughout. It is HUGE Measuring 54 x 72. It is all handmade from Italy. Isn't it gorgeous!

It has never been used and it looked like it had never even been unfolded except for when I did it for these photos. There is one tiny little mark that is barely noticeable although I feel I should mention it.

Here are a few simple rules for this giveaway:

1. You MUST be a "follower" of my blog. You can do this by looking on the right side, you will see "followers of my blog"...just click "follow" and it will give you prompts from there.

2. You MUST leave a comment on this post AND include your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.

3. Do NOT post this giveaway to your own blog, facebook, etc.

This is only for my blog readers and followers. I can not stand when people show up only for a chance to win something. Besides wouldn't you rather win?

A winner will be chosen on Wednesday so be sure to stop by to see if you were the lucky winner.

I did not have a space large enough to unfold the table cloth all the way. But I hope these pictures at least gives you an idea of the handiwork.

You can click on the photos to view the handiwork in detail. I just love it!

God Keeps Blessing Us

With the holidays fast approaching you would think I was would be busy with all the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating and wrapping gifts. Although in all honestly I have not been much in the holiday spirit this year. I am not sure what has brought this on. I am certain the lack of money this year has put a huge damper on things.

We did finally get the tree up and few decorations as well. Which did help to put I think myself as well as Aaron into the Christmas spirit a bit more. Turning the Christmas music on and making some cookies always helps too. :)

Although the Christmas spirit has been greatly lacking in our home. We have been greatly blessed the last several weeks. God has been showing us His wonderful love in various other ways.

First I won a wonderful blog giveaway of the 2 most adorable handmade Christmas mice.

Kim over at Old Road Primitives made this stunning little creatures. Be sure to visit her blog and grab up some of her other handmade goodies for your home.

This was my very first time ever winning a blog giveaway which made it even more special.

I only have a very few prim type Christmas decorations so I was so excited to add them to my prim decor. They are sitting up on a shelf in my living room for everyone to see, and so my 3 cats do not think they are dinner. :)

Thank you so much Kim for offering these cute little mice as your giveaway. They arrived safe and sound to my door step on a day I truly needed a lift of Christmas spirit and prim cheer.

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I received a email last week which I almost deleted thinking it was spam. Thankfully I took a second look at it. I won a $100 American Express Gift Card! I do surveys and this one your name was thrown into a hat to win a amex GC. I was so thrilled. It should be here in the next 6-8 weeks.

My dh and I have changed how and what we eat. To help us lose weight and become healthier.

In the last 45 days I have lost 14.5lb and my husband has lost 36lb.

That does seem like a lot of weight loss to some people but please understand my husband and I are plus size people. We are also losing the weight in a healthy way that we can live with for the rest of our life. You can read more about it on my husbands blog Losing 200 Pounds 1 day at a time.

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I am praying that God continues to bless us with a promotion for Aaron at work. Please keep Aaron's job and our family in your prayers.

Here are a few pictures of Christmas this year at our house. It is pretty bare since we have very limited prim Christmas decor.

Hurry! Almost time for my giveaway!

I know I have not posted in over 2 weeks.

So much going on here around our house, plus add all the extra holiday things that need to be done. There just never seems to be enough time to sit and write a blog entry.

I will write tomorrow and update you will all the excitement going on around here tomorrow.

But for now I just wanted to post a little something to remind everyone to become a follower of my blog you if you haven't done so yet.

On Sunday I will be posting a Wonderful giveaway only for my current blog followers.

Tasha