Creekside Cottage

I've been neglecting my blog, I am sorry!

I did a bit of shopping yesterday and then I rearranged my desk.  I put these two photos together - one is my husband around age 6-7 and one of Kyle at age 6.  Two cuties!


Here is a blast from 1987!  Just before we became engaged.  Next week we will celebrate 25 years of marriage!


It was cloudy yesterday and I loved the way these little votive candle holders looked.  Rachel gave them to me for Christmas!  The white holder, I purchased yesterday with a gift card from HomeGoods!  I love that store!  Anyway all these books and character cards stood on my desk, propped up and I thought this would be a great way to organize my space.

I am on a quest for containers to contain our stuff.  We don't have too much, but somethings just don't have an 'official' home.  So that is a goal for this next year.

The girls, Tim and I have all been so busy since Christmas with work, but after tomorrow we will all have some downtime.  Tomorrow shows …

I woke up at about 8:30 am to find my Mom, Kyle, Sarah, Rachel, and Lindsay all awake and waiting.  I threw together breakfast - the breakfast enchiladas that Manuela shared the link for the other day.  You can find the recipe link on her blog A Cultivated Nest.We liked it very much and I will be making them again!





Kyle and Sarah took turns reading Luke 2 for us.  We always want to remember why we celebrate Christmas.



Once everyone was awake and assembled, we began to open gifts.  We take turns and everyone pays attention to what is being given.  It keeps everyone focused and appreciative!

This little lady is enamored with Strawberry Shortcake which she just calls "cake."  She got quite a few things from her parents that made her call out "Cake! Cake!"

Sarah made this throw quilt for Kyle, with a wee bit of help.  He used it last night when he went to bed.

Kamryn and I both got pretty tea things....

 Our nieces came over in the afternoon.  Wildgames of spoon were played,…

Itstarted years ago, when our children were small,Tim named the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Adam.

We celebrated a beautiful one today.

Church, a special dinner together as a church family, a lovely late afternoon service.  There was beautiful singing, a lovely reading, great instrumental performances. We have so many talented people in our church, especially among the young people.

A highlight was the young children singing " Go Tell It On The Mountain."




I know it is cruel to end it there, but that is where I stopped filming...sorry!

Came home to coffee and snacks, with our precious Texas friends and her wonderful Mom and Dad! God BlessTexas!

For a monthor so, the left shift key has been gone.

It was a real pain to type with it missing.

Tim asked Em's friend Joseph the other night about replacing the key, and he mentioned that it would be inexpensive to replace the wholekeyboard.  Tim got online and after a bit of research, heordered it.

This laptop gets a workout everyday.  From blogging to email to the kids' mathprograms, it's a work horse!

The new keyboard came today!  It took 3 days I think.

So out with the old...


in with the new...

We don't have a fire place so they are not hung by the chimney with care...

At our old house we had a staircase so we hung them from the banister - it was very cute.

At this house, no banister, no chimney...what's a girl to do.  Mind you, we have lived her for 10 years now, so we have had to make due with some different spaces.  I have hung them from the china hutch, I've hung them on the back of the front door.  But this year is brilliant!

I've hung them on the chippy white ladder that leans against my wall inbetween the front door and the closet!  It is so cute and works perfectly as we can see them all day, and yet they are in an out of the way space!

I got the younger kids Pottery Barn stockings a few years ago, and this year I found a perfect one for our tutu lovin' grandgirlie!  They are the cutest stockings.  I'm tempted to get us all Pottery Barn Kids stockings - I love them!

Mine is the plain looking white one.  It actually has white Battenburg lace on it. …

These are a few of my favorite things!

Okay, well, I don't use brown paper, I use white.  And I don't use string either.  But I do use ribbon...sometimes.

Really mostly I use white paper and markers or like last evening, I used oil pastel crayons!

It's a simple way for me to wrap.

Also Tim works for a huge printing company and we 'butt' rolls of great paper for free.  The kind I wrap with his heavy and coated.  Perfect.


Sarah did a bit of wrapping last night, too.

Lindsay did some wrapping too.
I guess it must be nearly Christmas - the gifts are beginning to show up under the tree.  Stockings are being added to, also.

We open stockings on Christmas Eve.

How do you wrap your gifts?  Are you a designer style wrapper?  A gift bag wrapper?  Do tell!