Only 6 days until Christmas! I can't believe this week is finally here.

We have finally tackled most of our Christmas Shopping. We still have a few more things to get before the big day arrives, but I feel better now that 93% of it is done now. However...I've got a ton of shopping bags taking up residents in my closet and that I'm not to thrilled about. So today and this evening I think Josh and I might wrap all the gifts.

Starting tomorrow, Josh will be on vacation. I can't wait. It makes the final days before Christmas so much more enjoyable because we can do fun things like watching Christmas movies, go drive around to look at lights, and anything else we want to do.

Friday is my birthday. Yes, I was born on Christmas Eve...are you detecting a tone of excitement at all? Yeah, it's not really something I get excited about. If only my birthday were on a normal day...how much easier and stress free my life could be.

The menu will be up in the air in a few places I'm sure. Josh and I like to do "Wing it " meals when he's home because it's more fun to create.

Two Weeks till Christmas! I can't believe it! We haven't even really begun our Christmas shopping yet. How about you?

This will be a busy week for our family. It's a lot of wrapping up loose ends around here. This is the last week of school for Grace. After Friday, she'll be on Christmas Break. Thursday is the last Awana Night till next year. I have a Doctors appointment on Thursday, and Josh will be busy at work getting everything done for his week off of vacation. ( For the past few years, Josh takes off the week of Christmas, so he can be with us and be with me on my birthday)

For the menu this week, I'm trying to use up a few things I already have around the house, because we won't be going grocery shopping till Wednesday evening because that's pay day.

Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of December? I'm so excited! Thanksgiving is over and now we're in full on Holiday mode. Speaking of Thanksgiving, how was everyone's? Ours was really lovely. I spent some of the afternoon with my mom before we headed over to Josh's parents house. The food was delicious...however, I'm more health conscious than I was a few years ago so I had only the one helping of everything and my plate wasn't piled high. :( I now kind of wished I would of indulged more, but I guess self-control is always a good thing to practice. And I guess I get to make up for it around Christmas time now :)

How was everyone's weekend?

Our was really good and really busy. Saturday morning, Joss, Gracie and I had dentist appointments and a birthday party that evening. Sunday morning we had church, followed by our Praise Him Potluck and then another birthday party in the evening. It made for a very long day and a very quick weekend.

Gracie lost her 3rd tooth last night at dinner. That was very exciting for her. She was so excited and proud of herself for not freaking out over the little bit of blood and no tears. So the Tooth Fairy had to make an appearance last night only to get caught red-handed. Good thing, I was able to talk my way out of there and she was none the wiser. So my 6yr old still believes in the tooth fairy and I'm happy I didn't ruin it for her.

It's supposed to snow here tonight in the NW. I'm not sure it will, although it's been very cold and rainy. But the weather people say it's going to happen. We were going to go grocery shopping tonight, but Josh got off work late and with the cold air/snow possibility were going to hold off to maybe tomorrow night.

If we had time this past weekend, we would of already done our shopping. But, it's kind of last minute now which sucks because everything I need will probably be gone because of  Thanksgiving; one can hope though.

Because of Thanksgiving and some family coming into town, I'm not all that quite sure how dinners are working out here. So I really haven't put to much thought into it. We may go over to Josh's family house a few times to join them for a meal because of our family, but it's still up in the air. So I have to have back up meals. You'll have to forgive me, because the menu is not impressive, but it will get the job done. I'm sure once the week is over, I'll have a more normal menu for the following week along with some blogs about the Holiday Dishes I've made. Trust me, your going to want to read them and then steal the recipes :)

The menu is in no particular order except for Monday and Thursday, so bear with me okay kids? I'm sure a lot of you are in the same boat I'm in :)

My weekend went by wayy to fast! I always hate that. You just start to get comfortable with your weekend routine and then it's over. Such a disappointment.  But we had a good weekend.

We all got our hair done on Saturday and it's amazing how much better you feel afterwards. Then that evening, we celebrated Josh's brother turning 18 yrs old. He's really grown into such a gentleman! My sister in law, Jessica was able to come up from college for the weekend and it was a surprise. I was so excited to see her I almost cried.

Oh Sunday Mornings...I really struggle Sunday mornings. I'm always tired and my bed is always wonderful and amazing. I had woken up at 3am with a horrible headache and it lasted most of the morning so that really slowed me down. But after I got the kids hair done, Josh took the kids to get the oil changed while I got ready for church and when he picked me up when he was done, he had Starbucks waiting for me, ( I love him) and it made my morning a lot better. I don't think I really woke up till about about 10:15am...and I think the fact that we were singing worship this Sunday helped wake me up. All the songs were really upbeat and it was a great Praise time.

As usual, our Sunday afternoons were lazy and wonderful. Eden took a nap when we got home and Grace played quietly in her room while I made the grocery list and watched The Mentalist in the bedroom with Josh, sipping egg nog...which just so happens to be Eden's new favorite drink, lol! She calls its Ache Nok :) We ended the night with finishing Mr. Smith goes to Washington, the kids going to bed, and Josh writing my newest guest blog post. You really should read it if you haven't yet.

I'm not to thrilled that the weekend is already over. It went by wayy to fast :( Does anyone else feel the same way?And to make things even more busy/complicated, it was Daylight Savings Time!

Josh worked his first Saturday in over 8months at his new branch in Salem from 9-2pm and then he came home, and changed his clothes and then he and I went to a wedding of a friend who also works for the bank. The wedding was out in a Vineyard...also in Salem ( Yes, Josh drove to Salem twice in one day) and we had such a wonderful time. Our friend, the Bride was gorgeous, and the set-up was all Italian which was really fun. I got to wear my new dress I bought a few weeks ago and it was so nice to just get dressed up for once :)

Sunday, we got our hour of sleep back...but Josh and I woke up around 4am and talked for a few hours and fell back asleep till 8am and then got ready to go to church. We had breakfast at Starbucks on our way up and it was so wonderful. Church was great, and afterwards we came home, changed, and checked out the brand new Goodwill...which was my idea, not Josh's. ( He Hates Goodwill.) Josh made dinner Sunday night and we picked up a few ingredients at the store and came home. The kids played and Josh worked on dinner while I uploaded my pics to the computer and listened to the jazz music streaming in through Pandora...and when dinner was done, we sat down and ate while we watched Toy Story 3...Super cute, sad movie! I was balling my eyes out like a 2 yr old, lol!

But now it's Monday, and I'm wishing it was still Sunday. How about you. Did your weekend go by fast too?