Christmas Wrapping Paper Gone Missing!

My sister is going to drop off our Christmas packages to our family up north. She is leaving in an hour! No sweat... I have all the gift cards, money and candy ready. 

All I have to do is wrap it up...

So I walk to the bin that stores all our gift wrapping paper and notice that I am all out of Christmas wrapping! 

Oh no... I am just a tad panicking now... the clock is ticking!

But fabric stash to the rescue! I remembered that I had some Santa Claus fabric somewhere... that should work... nope, not enough for three gift bags... but I do find some mottled red fabric as well! So I cut out some Santas and appliquéd them on one of the side pieces of each bag... sewed up the side and made the string tunnel... found some green ribbon to made the draw string... and voila: 

Three easy gift wrapping bags!

All in all 30 minutes. Not too bad and they look nice. But I didn't finish the seams on the inside. It doesn't really matter anyway since my nephew and two nieces don't really care about the wrapping but what's inside :-)

Take care,

Me

P.S. I have to put a reminder on my to-do list to purchase some wrapping paper!

Yumm!

This is what I had for breakfast:

1 Blueberry Tea & 2 Christmas cookies 

Absolutely delicious!

Pasha made them... yup, she did!

We had some problems with the initial recipe (from a book that I had high hopes for... I will tell you later about it!) but Google came to the rescue... and voila!

Hope you have a tasty morning too!

Take care,

Me

Another Christmas Present on its way!

I just finished another Christmas present. This one is for my aunt and uncle. We have just visited them during the long Thanksgiving weekend. We had such a blast that time flew by faster than any of us wanted it to.

Here is my dad (on the left) with my uncle (on the right). 

They are both so similar! They have the same hobbies (photography and computers) and have the same sense of humour... :-)

My aunt admired some of my quilts. So I decided that a quilt would be the perfect present to them. I chose the Diamonds at Large pattern from Pam Lintott's Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts book. 

The top went together in one afternoon. It took another to sandwich and quilt it, and of course another one in front of the TV to put on the binding. I had a couple of blocks left over because I made a cutting mistake. So I made a quick pillow out of it. 

It is an 18" square. Very fast, very easy and it used all of my fabric... love that!!!

So now it is in the mail. I hope they'll love it as much as I enjoyed making it! :-)

Take care,

Me

Decorating the Christmas Tree

As a kid my family would decorate the tree on Christmas eve. However now that I have a family of my own we decorate the tree already around the first of December. We really  enjoy looking at the sparkling tree each night :-)

 

One of the most treasured traditions we have are the "12 Days of Christmas" ornaments.

 

We sing the song as we put them up. Martin even jumps when it comes to the "lords are leaping" part! You would think that we know the song by heart by now. But around the 8th day of Christmas we have to look for the ornaments to help us out!

 

 

Another tradition is that Pasha gets to put the Angel on the tree.

 

We have lots of handmade ornaments on our tree! It makes us so happy to recount each and every memory! They remind us of people that we had the pleasure of knowing, people and pets who have passed on and are very much missed or places we've been...

 

Decorating the Christmas tree makes us go crazy! :-)

 

And yes, Pasha insists on the yearly photo with Jake in front of the tree. I swear I didn't force her to do it!!! LOL

 

Is your Christmas tree up yet?

 

Take care,

Me

Counting down til Christmas

One of the Christmas traditions that I absolutely love is the advent calendar. I loved getting my piece of chocolate each morning as a child. Now that I am a parent it's the selection of treats and activities that I put in the calendar. The anticipation of seeing Pasha opening her treat bag each daykills me! 

 

I make my own advent calendar. I used to hang them up on a string underneath Pasha's high bed. But a few years ago I bought a long board from our local home improvement store. I painted it white and used a golden marker to write "Advent Calendar". Cup hooks (which are evenly spaced across the board) allow me to hang my treats.

 

I use a variety of things to fill the calendar: chocolates, novelty pens, fun socks, lip balm, nail polish, money (€ and $), Itunes songs as well as activities like baking cookies, going to a special Christmas market, Christmas present shopping, going to the movies and more...

 

 

Up until last year I used white paper bags to hold the treats. This year I was determined to change that. I stopped by Ikea to pick up some fabric and sewed up 24 simple bags. Scrapbooking paper cut to size are used for the numbers. Simple yet really beautiful!

 

 

I also made an advent calendar for my sister! Yes, adults love an advent calendar as well!!! They don't have to be filled with chocolates.... I picked up 24 different sorts of tea bags and wrapped them up. Martin found the stick on one of his walk with Jake.

 

Do you count down the days?

 

Take care,

Me

Christmas Movies

Yup, I decided to pay $2.50 a month to keep going. I am just having way too much fun on here to quit :-)

My family loves movies. We have an entire binder full of Christmas movies. We pull it out the day after Thanksgiving and pop one in when ever we have some time together. Some of our favorites are Love Actually,  The Christmas Card, It's a wonderful Life, The Holiday and of course Charlie Brown's Christmas... 

We are always on the look-out for more, so do you have a favorite Christmas movie?

Take Care,

Me

Unexpected...

I never showed you the unexpected surprise package that I received from the mom of my best friend who I think of and feel that she is my sister!

It was the best package ever! I still have to mail my Thank You card. I am horrible in that! There is a small bet going on at work that that card won't make it in to the mail until next year Christmas! I am going to have to prove them wrong! :-)

Es war das beste Packet! Ich muss noch meine Danke Schoen Karte abschicken. Ich bin furchtbar darin! Es gibt eine kleine Wette in meiner Arbeit das ich es nicht fertig bringen werde die Karte vor naechstem Weihnachten abzuschicken! Ich werde denen das Gegenteil beweisen muessen! :-)

Take care,

Me

It just makes me smile!

My best friend Jasmin sent me the nicest gift ever! I had tears in my eyes when I opened it! I am still speechless. I don't know how to express what I am feeling when I look at it except it just makes me smile!

Meine beste Freundin Jasmin hat mir das schoenste Geschenk gemacht! Ich hatte Traenen in den Augen als ich es aufgemacht habe! Ich bin immer noch sprachlos. Ich weiss nicht wie ich ausdruecken soll was ich fuehle ausser das es jedes Mal ein Laecheln auf mein Gesicht zaubert wenn ich es anschaue!

Thank You so much!

Vielen, Vielen Dank!

Take Care,

Me

Christmas Day

I haven't showed you some of the pictures that we took during our Christmas holiday:

Ich hab' dir noch gar nicht die Bilder der Weihnachtsfeiertage gezeigt:

My dad was very emotional because he got a really nice Canon EOS camera from all of us.

Mein Vater war sehr gerührt über die wirklich coole Canon EOS Kamera die er von uns allen bekommen hat.

Martin also hit the bulls eye with his present! He must have taken a look at my house shoes that I bought back during my short stay in Atlanta. They don't look too bad, right? LOL

Martin hat auch mit seinem Geschenk an mich ins Schwarze getroffen. Er muss sich die Hausschuhe die ich mir während meines kurzen Urlaubs in Atlanta gekauft habe wohl etwas näherer angeschaut haben! :-)

They don't look too bad! But take a closer look!

Die schauen nicht mal so schlecht aus! Aber schau mal näher ran!

They were too comfy and I didn't want to give them up! But now that I got these... and I love them! Don't they look fabulous!

Sie waren zu bequem und ich wollte sie nicht wegschmeissen! Aber jetzt habe ich die.... und ich liebe sie! Schauen sie nicht absolut toll aus!

Pasha got some "retro" skates from Steffi! I had turquoise ones as a kid! I loved them, and she loves hers too! She got up on Christmas day and put them on right away. She was driving all over the apartment with them!

Pasha had "Retro" Rollschuhe von Steffi bekommen! Ich hatte tuerkise als Kind! I habe sie geliebt, und auch sie liebt ihre! Sie ist am ersten Weihnachtstag aufgestanden und hat sie sofort angezogen. Sie ist damit durch die ganze Wohnung gesaust!

Martin is reading his stocking stuffer - the newest issue of the Archaeology magazine.

Hier liest Martin ein Geschenk aus seinem Strumpf - die neueste Ausgabe der Archäologie Zeitschrift.

My mother felt the urge to clean up! :-)

Meine Mutter wollte unbedingt aufräumen! :-)

The dogs needed to relax after the excitement the night before.

Die Hunde mussten sich auch erstmal vom Weihnachtsabend erholen.

Martin and I!

Martin und ich!

Here is my dad studying the owners manual of the camera.

Hier studiert mein Vater gerade die Kamera Bedienungsanleitung.

Pasha started to experiment with you Chemistry set that my best friend sent her. The grossest stuff was put together and my mom and I were forced to try it while playing Quirkle!

Pasha hat angefangen rum zu experimentieren mit dem Kit den meine beste Freundin ihr geschickt hat. Die ekligsten Sachen sind da raus gekommen die ich und meine Mutter natürlich probieren mussten während wir Quirkle spielten!

Gross! 

Igitt!

Sprite and tomato - not bad!

Sprite und Tomate - nicht schlecht!

Milk, vinegar, tomato and sprite! - Gross!

Milch, Essig, Tomate und Sprite! - Eklig!

----------------

This is how she forced no, begged us!

So hat sie uns dazu gezwungen  nein, angebettelt!

Snacks made by my dad! Super yummy!

Mein Vater hat uns Snacks gemacht! Total lecker!

I made those key chains as little stocking stuffers.

Ich habe Schluessel Anhaenger als kleine Geschenke fuer den Strumpf gemacht.

One of Martin's presents was a handmade lunch bag. I really tried to make it with manly colors but am unsure if it worked! Pasha's comment was: "Is it a purse? For him? Now that's just wrong!" But Martin loves it and is using it quite a bit so far! His comment was: "It's better than a plastic bag!" You can interpret it now however you want! :-)

Eins von Martin's Geschenken war eine genähte Pausenbrot Tasche. Ich habe versucht es mit "männlichen" Farben zu nähen aber ich weiss nicht ob es mir gelungen ist! Pasha's Kommentar war: "Ist es eine Handtasche? Für ihn? Das passt einfach nicht!" Aber Martin mag es und benutzt es soweit ganz fleissig! Sein Kommentar war: "Es ist besser als eine Plastiktüte!" Du kannst es jetzt so wie du willst interpretieren! :-)

We also made him a cover for his iPad. This one is really nice and he truly loves it! Turquoise on the inside and black on the outside! I would like one too! 

We haben ihm auch eine Tasche für sein iPad gemacht. Es ist wirklich gut geworden und er mag sie wirklich sehr! Türkis innen, und aussen Schwarz! Ich hätte auch gern eine!

So that's it :-)

Das war's :-)

Take care,

Me

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Last night after my parents settled in from their travel from Nuernberg, my dad unpacked a box of chocolates. This was a special box of chocolates. You see, when he was a boy his parents would always get one of these chocolates boxes and decorate the tree with it. 

So we did the same and had a lot of fun doing so!

After we were done, we settled down and watched the movie that's a must-see during Christmas: "Der kleine Lord"! I don't think that there is a German that has not seen this movie!

Oh, and while we decorated the tree with chocolates and watched tv, Martin filled the stockings!

Can one have too much fun? :-)

Take care,

Me