Do you see what I see???

It's me! It's me!

(Obviously, I was thinking about my favorite Christmas carol "Do you hear what I hear?" when I came up with the title for this blog - - Sorry!)

After a Christmas hiatus, I'm back once again! Lucky you! And boy do I have a lot to tell!

My Christmas break was - to put it simply....AWESOME!

For the first time EVER, we had our Christmas shopping done 2 (yes! lets count them!) days before Christmas! AND all of our wrapping was done by the night of the 23rd. My hubby and I even had time to go out to dinner and see a movie on the 23rd. It was sort of like a small Christmas miracle that we had the extra time to do this! Once again, I will say "AWESOME!"

I have had such a great time and I have so many great memories!

Here are just a "FEW"...

1. Santa Baby!!! Santa came to my house a little early this year. On Christmas Eve, My husband surprised me with an early gift. Before I could dig in and open it up, Mr. Smarty Pants asked if I could guess what the gift was. I have a wierd knack for being able to guess these things. Honestly, I had no idea what was in the box. But, in my quest to be Mrs. Smart @ss, I guessed something that I never thought the he would buy me. Guess what? I was right!! Who knew??? I guess this will teach me to dream bigger next time! *wink*
2. This was my nephew's 1st Christmas. He was completely exhausted by the end of the day.
3. This was the year that my daughter informed me that she knew "who" Santa was, but that she still "believed" in Santa. Smart girl.
4. The joy of watching my daughter open her Christmas gifts. She now has her own iPod and all the doo-dads that go with it. We had (and still have) one VERY excited girl.
5. I FINALLY got the Hope Floats DVD. I have been wanting this for about the past 4 years. Yeah!
6. My parents gave me a super cute set of jammies! This was something that was much needed - I realized this after I had a slumber party with my sisters. They all had on really cute jammies that had matching tops and bottoms. I, on the other hand won an oscar for my portrayal of the "frumpy" mom who slept in mismatched sweats and an old t-shirt. I can't wait until our next slumber party...I'm sooo ready!
7. Ever since my mom passed away last year, my sisters and I have been longing to hear the sound of her voice. I've finally started to dream about my mother, but in my dreams she hasn't spoken. I had started to think that I would never hear her voice again. For Christmas, my dear dad gave my sisters and I the sweetest gift - A taped conversation between my mom and one of my sisters. It was so sweet in so many ways. We could once again hear our mother's voice. Thanks Dad!
8. At our house on Christmas "not a creature was stirring EXCEPT for a mouse"! I freaking couldn't believe it!! I was in search of a platter to place our Christmas ham on when I found evidence of a mouse in our kitchen cabinets! I actually was quite pissed. Why us? We are not dirty people! and Why does this type of thing always happen to us when we can't do anything about it? I have since settled down and my husband has convinced me that we don't need to move. We have set some traps, but as of right now, there are no signs of the little critter. Hopefully it will stay that way.
9. I power shopped with my sisters and my daughter the day after Christmas. We scored big!! My sister Veronica had never done this before and was amazed at the chaos. She couldn't believe that people were actually lining up outside of target at 6:30 in the morning. She learned that this type of shopping was not for the faint of heart! My sister Carrie's car was so stuffed with our purchases, that we had to pass a new rule..."If you can't hold it on your lap, you can't buy it!". I LOVE this kind of shopping!
10. Dinner and a Chick Flick! To kick off our girlfriend gift exchange, my friends and I went to go see Pride and Prejudice. What a romantic movie. It was the kind of movie where a whistful sigh actually escapes your mouth and a tear rolls down your cheek all at the same time. Loved it! After the movie, we went to Pei Wei for some deliciously garlicky chinese food and to exchange our gifts. We had a great time and parked our butts at the restaurant for close to 3 hours! I'm sure the restaurant just loved that, I know I did! I can't wait until we can get together again :o)

I have been enjoying a few days off from work, but alas ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END! I return to reality tomorrow. I don't really want to, but hey! A girl has got to earn some scrapbooking money right?