crazy snow…

everyone in the midwest is talking about the Christmas blizzard. it really was THAT bad. anything that keeps us from celebrating and upholding our traditions is pretty maj. our church’s Christmas eve service was cancelled….so that alone changed the way we normally celebrate. it just isn’t the same when you can’t go to church on Christmas eve. i was sad about that. i was happy that jared and beth braved the horrible weather and made it for Christmas eve dinner. we had talked in the afternoon and i suggested they bring their dogs, so that if they needed to stay the night, they wouldn’t have to worry about them. it took them about twice as long as it normally would to get here, but they made it. i was so thankful for that. tom and i heard a horror story from one of tom’s co-workers about his son-in-law being stuck all night in his car on his way to fremont. he didn’t get to town until 11 am on Christmas morning and that was after he left his car and got in a suburban with a guy following a maintainer. so scary. so we are thankful that they made it. we had 4 dogs in the house and i think our dogs LOVED it….although since they are old ladies, they slept most of Christmas day! magic and mia wore them out! tom just traded in his pickup a month ago and got an older lincoln navigator, so he was able to go get my parents on Christmas eve. trev has a 4-wheel drive, so my sister and trev and leah made it too. without 4-wheel drive, it was pretty much impassable even in town. we were just thankful that we were able to be together in spite of the weather. we had such a yummy dinner-prime rib (which turned out fabulous, thanks to our friends jim and julie’s directions!), twice baked potatoes, scalloped corn, green salad, rolls and Jesus birthday cake (red waldorf astoria). after a candlelight dinner, we cleaned up and all gathered in our family room with the fireplace going and my dad read the Christmas story from the Bible (griffin was sitting on the floor with me and he was mesmerized! such a sweet memory i’ll have of his sweet face and the way he listened), then we opened a few gifts and called it a night. jared, beth and i stayed up and talked for a while after everyone else left and tom went to bed. i miss the talks that jared and i used to have late at night. it was so cool that beth was with him and it still felt just how it did when it was just jared and i….she really does fit into our family well. i’m very grateful. since brooke, josh and the kids only live 5 blocks away, we were able to make it to their house on Christmas day. my parents stayed home safe and sound, and now that i think about it, i think this is the first time in my life, that i didn’t actually see my parents on Christmas day. we were only at brooke and josh’s for a couple of hours, i think we were all just super tired! tom and i were home before 1 o clock and spent the rest of the day pretty much like any other weekend day….he watched football and i edited!~ i did take 2-20 minute naps. i think for the first time in forever, i’m not sleep deprived. i took a nap every day for the past 3 days. plus, i slept for 9 hours last night. we were sad that we haven’t had Christmas with ryan, jennifer and the kids and kirby, amba and addie yet, but hopefully very soon! we have lots of presents under the tree still! i didn’t leave the house for a full 48 hours over the weekend and it really wasn’t a bad thing (other than not getting to celebrate with all of our kids yet). i worked a lot and did a lot of decluttering. i thoroughly cleaned out my desk and worked on my studio too. i threw away a ton of junk and have 3 boxes of scrappy goodness. such a great feeling. brooke and i were talking about decluttering a few days ago and decided that we are going to try to spur each other on with it. she organized all of her recipes and cleaned out a kitchen pantry cupboard. i’m hoping to tackle one area each day for the next month. our basement alone is going to take weeks! it’s gotten really bad…..out of sight, out of mind.

i was surprised when i was organizing my studio and had stacked all of the layouts i’ve done in the past month and counted 14! they were all for different assignments, but it did put things in perspective for me. i’m thankful for the assignments that i’ve done, because i think without them, it would be easy for me to not make the time to scrapbook or even get creative….and i know for sure, that if i didn’t, i would end up very frustrated and unsatisfied. i NEED my creative time and not just once a month….i need it at least in small doses every day. there is something about spending time in my studio that refreshes and inspires me like nothing else can. i have a few sneak peeks to share of my jbs layouts. they’ll be up on the 30th!

i really enjoyed working with the january kit!

here are a few Christmas photos-

in between changes of princess costumes from her “treasure chest”.

i’ve been getting a hard time from a few family members and friends about not posting more family shots : ) in the next month, you all may get tired of seeing “our” faces! i have lots of family images saved up!

tomorrow i hope to do a new year goals *b* list, which i hope not only inspires me, but might inspire you too!

have a great day and God bless!