Cookie Exchanges

I went to two cookie and ornament exchanges this season. 

I liked them both.

The first exchange was when Dave's mom was here. She was able to come (and had baked cookies and brought them down with her.) It was hosted by Kori and Kristen from church with about 15 ladies attending. 

We had a yummy soup and salad supper. (very yummy baked potato soup and dip for Fritos)

We got to exchange 2 dozen cookies. I liked that we put name tags on who brought the cookies and the type of cookie. It made things easier to know what was there. 

We followed this by a "dirty Santa" ornament exchange. (You draw numbers and choose a gift and each gift can be stolen twice. The first person gets to choose at the end.) I drew the number 1! awesome!

Since the ornaments were considered "dead" after being in 3 peoples hands all the REALLY Really nice ones were gone. (Dave's mom got a lovely hand made wood ornament made by one of the ladies dads.)

I got this neat one that is a white lantern with a blue tinted light when turned on. 

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera along - so there is no pictures of this exchange. 

The next one was 6 days later at my friend MC's house. She had about 11 ladies there. 

For her exchange we had brought 4 dozen cookies BUT we also got to do some taste testing. This was a very nice treat! Tea, coffee, hot chocolate and cookies mmm mmm!

The ornaments were displayed on the tree in the middle of the table (not everyone had theirs hung up yet)

The ornaments were chosen by the order that people arrived. (for once I was the last person there) 

I got this really sparkley red and gold spin-y ornament. 

 

One of the best things about these cookie exchanges was it was child and husband free :) 

I'm not sure that Dave would agree that was a good part!

I spy

I spy a Zeke... can you find him?

I will show you a close up below...

In the meantime here is a few pics of Zeke playing

vroom vroom

can you see him now?

peek-a-boo

and a sock on the head for good measure!

A Social Network Christmas

If there was Facebook back when...

merry GIFTmas??

I was listening to the radio the other day and the commercials came on. I usually dont pay that much attention to them.

I zoned out and all of a sudden noticed that the commercial was for a store (JC Penny?? or something like that) and they wished everyone a Merry Giftmas at the end of the commercial.

Since when has this holiday become all about gifts... ok ok- I know it has been that way for a long time, but enough already!

I understand the Happy Holidays- there are other holidays this time of year. I will continue to wish people Merry Christmas since I celebrate the coming of Jesus and this leads to the death of Jesus for our sins. (and that is pretty awesome.) If someone want to wish me a happy Chanukah then I will wish it back to them - since that is what they are celebrating.

but Merry GIFTmas?!? I cant get behind that at all.
But this is where things seem to be going since many people dont believe in the Bible and it has become a very commercialized holiday.

I just hope that this is not going to become the common catch phrase anytime soon.

(ok- I just looked up "merry giftmas" in Google Images and there is a whole lot of merchandise with this phrase! gaaaa!)

Marching Band Forms Moving Stickman

This is a great video. A marching band makes a stick figure football player.

Marching Band Forms Moving Stickman

giveaways #2

Over at Cluck Cluck Sew she is giving away fabric and a pattern.

enjoy

giveaways!?

I follow a few blogs and this one is doing 12 days of giveaways.
Its a crafty site so I expect a bunch of craft supplies.
So far the odds are looking pretty good. I was the 3rd person to write on the post.

So go check it out.