The Halls are Decked

I don't think I've ever gone through and taken pictures of our house when it's decorated.  So here we go.  Prepare to be bored to death!  lol

 What we have dubbed, "The Skinny Tree."  Two years ago, when Chloe was still a super obnoxious puppy, she tried to pull an ornament off our old tree and pulled it down, breaking it just days before Christmas.  Needless to say, while she is still an obnoxious dog, she is now an obnoxious dog who avoids the Christmas tree at all costs. This is in the living room.

This small tree is in the family room. Why do we have two trees you ask?  Chloe.  That's why.  When she knocked down the tree, this small one was the only reasonably priced one I could find.  So THIS was our tree that year.  After Christmas, when prices were vastly reduced, I bought The Skinny Tree.  Hence, two trees.  Simple, really.  We actually use both of them. When my family comes over on Christmas Eve for brunch, we use the big tree for everyone's gifts.  On Christmas morning when it's just Gary, Jess and I, we stay in the family room and use the small tree.  This tree has all of Jessica's handmade ornaments, etc. on it.  It's much more nostalgic than The Skinny Tree (which I like too...they're just different).

 I am the queen of hangy-downy decorating.  For birthdays, we hang streamers from this spot (and from the window you can see in the living room, too...it's hard to see, but right now it has hangy-downy snowflakes). 

 The stitchery above the fire place is very special.  My mother-in-law, Synneva, gave it to me when she was dying of breast cancer not long after Gary and I were married.  She'd had it for years (it looks distinctly '70's to me) and had only gotten as far on it as to complete the green branches of the tree.  I finished everything else and "signed" it with both of our names.  The wooden tree next to the fireplace was a project Jess I did a couple years ago. We painted it, then strung light through it.  It turned out pretty cute as long as you don't look at the tangle of wire in the back. 

 Ah!  One of our Christmas traditions.  Every year since Jess was 5 or so, we put a holiday-themed puzzle together, beginning the day after Thanksgiving.  When it's done, we glue it, then it goes onto our "puzzle wall."

...And this would be our puzzle wall, just waiting for the latest puzzle.  After next year we'll probably have to start hanging our holiday puzzles somewhere else!

Last picture, I promise!  More hangy-downy decorations.  World's best product for hangy-downy decorating?  Command Adhesive poster strips.  The only thing that would make it better would be if they actually called them hangy-downy decorating strips.  Because I like to say hangy-downy.  And because I like hangy-downy stuff.   Like hangy-downy earrings.  Why mention that?  Just to allow me to say hangy-downy ONE. MORE. TIME.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Feed My Starving Children

Jessica’s Girl Scout troop took part in a packing event for Feed My Starving Children last night, along with about 150 other people. The meals, which are made up of rice, soy, “chicken” seasoning, and dried vegetables, required measuring, weighing, bagging, sealing and packing. All in all, we packed more than 32,000 meals in little less than 2 hours –enough to feed 88 children for a year!

Here's Jess working with her group.  She's pretty cute even WITH a hair net, huh?

The label on every bag of food.  Once again, however, my computer has done some of its own thinking and decided that the image that looked perfectly fine on MY screen deserved to be rotated.  Just because.  So please, feel free to crank your head to the side to read it if that gives you the glees. 

We got to sample the finished product (cooked) and it really wasn't half bad. The kids really liked it.  It tasted very much like couscous salad.  I heard one mom say they thought it tasted like some kind of Rice-a-Roni dish.  Regardless, even though it was good, I can't imagine eating it as your only meal, day in and day out for years at a time. 

Spaghetti Tacos

 Look Ma!  A spahgetti taco!

Yes, you read that right. Spaghetti tacos. That’s what Jess had for lunch recently, thanks to the influence of iCarly. She thought they were great. I thought they were sort of silly. That’s probably what made her think they were so great!

A carb lover's dream.