Come one, come all!

We'll be here with bruhsam and slvr_starre all day, so feel free to come out whenever. We've got plenty of room, so you're welcome to stay the night too. just give us a holler so we can get a head-count. And spread the word to the people I'm probably missing. you can ignore the note about bringing food...that one's meant for the local folks.

Hope you can make it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here's a Holiday meme from Amy...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definately Hot chocolate.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Well, since there are no children in our house, Santa doesn't stop by. But when we were kids, large presents from Santa were not wrapped, they were assembled and ready to play with. The smaller presents from Santa were wrapped.

3.Colored lights on tree/house or white? I"m an all white gal.

4. Do you hang miseltoe? I didn't this year, but I have in the past. I don't really have a good place to hang it in our current house.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving if we are home.

6. What is your favorite Christmas dish? (not a dessert) Stuffing. I could eat nothing but stuffing for dinner.

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? hmmm..I think hanging the christmas ornaments on the tree. Every year as mom would put them on the tree, she would reminice about where they all came from and their special meaning to her.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Well, I'm not quite sure. I do remember as a child asking why Santa had the same handwriting as my mother though.

9.Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope

10.What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him? as a kid it was Sugar cookies. Always sugar cookies.

11.Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? Definately the giving. I like trying to find the perfect gift for people, and see their reaction when they open it.

12. What tops your tree? One of the first years that Chris and I were married, he bought me a beautiful white glass star that now tops our tree.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? No, not really. I don't really remember having a favorite.

14. What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? Being with family, and spending some quality quiet time with them.

15. What is your favorite Christmas Dessert? Pumpkin pie and fudge.

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? scratch and win lottery tickets that Santa leaves in the stockings. I won $1 this year!

We ended up having a pretty busy weekend here.  Friday Chris and I attended the Irish Tenors concert in Syracuse.  It was a really excellent show.  A mix of Christmas Carols, songs off of their latest Album, and a few Irish folk songs thrown in for fun.  So glad I was able to convince Chris that it was worth the extra money back when we bought our Symphony season ticket package.

Saturday I spent the day trying to hem my dress that I was going to wear that night (no it shouldn't have taken all day, but the sewing machine would not cooperate).  It was supposed to be Chris's company holiday party, which is a very big deal.  A very formal even each year, always with excellent food at a good location, completely paid for by the company.  But they decided a week before hand to cancel it, for no good reason other than they pay for it so they can cancel it if they want.  So we decided that we'd go out to dinner with some friends.  We went to  to L'Adour, a fancy french restaurant.  Those who know me well know that I don't eat seafood.  I don't even want to be near seafood.  So I was a little concerned that I was going to have to be served atleast 1 fish course at this restaurant.  Well, I'm happy to report that I had Escargot and monkfish, and I ate them both.  and they were good.  Chris was in shock.  When I told my parents, they were speechless.  All the food and the wine was fantastic.  Would definitely go back, not that we can afford it though.

Sunday was church, then I helped a friend frame some artwork she had bought, and got the majority of the Christmas presents wrapped.  Tried to get some work done on the scrapbook I'm making for a Christmas gift, but the creative juices were just not flowing.  And Chris wanted to use the computer, so I got kicked off.  So I watched Harry Potter on TV instead.  that's ok, cause I was pretty much out of energy at that point.

Well, after much color correcting and level adjusting, and a little help from an awesome program called Neat Image to remove the grainyness, I was able to get a good picture of the group.

If anyone is interested in the full size version, let me know...

This is my test post to see how this thing works. we're having a lot of hard rain and wind today. I keep getting static over the speakers every time there is lightening. I hope that the power doesn't go out again like it did last week.