Here are the Christmas cards we sent out to family and friends.
(I scanned this from the original. If you click on the card it will enlarge to make it easier to read)
We hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!
Sketchy Santa
I am posting a link to a blog that has been circulating throughout Facebook. For a good holiday laugh you definitely need to visit Sketchy Santa's!
Enjoy!!!
Santa and His Elves
The Organ have been officially "Elfed"! I could not let this holiday season pass by without having a little fun. So here are 3 different versions of "Elf Yourself".
Enjoy!!!
The 25 Days of Christmas?
I absolutely love Christmas! This holiday is very special to me for two different reasons. The first reason is because as an adult I have come to a greater understanding of "the real reason for the season" (sorry for the cheesy quote!). The second reason is because as I get older I appreciate more and more just how special my parents made Christmas every year. One of the things I remember from my childhood Christmases is having an advent calendar. I remember it was always a paper calendar with perforated doors. It was so exciting to open a new door each night to find a little surprise.
Since I have been married, the advent calendar was definitely a tradition that I wanted to start in our family. Since we don't have children yet, it wasn't a pressing issue but I was always on the look out for not only a cute wooden advent calendar, but also an inexpensive one.
Three years ago I found a nice wooden calendar on an after-holiday-clearance sale at a craft store. It was not the style I was looking for, but I figured I couldn't pass up an $8 deal. I knew I could be creative and paint it more kid friendly. So for the last two Christmases I have set it out to be displayed in its original form.
The other night Mike & I were watching TV and he said "Do you know that there are two number 16's and two number 17's on your calendar?" The jokester that he is, I figured he was pulling my leg. But after promising he wasn't fibbing, I looked at the calendar and this is what I saw...
I am still in shock that for two years this has sat in the living room and no one, not even me, has noticed the numbering. So I guess I will definitely be repainting this advent calendar. Who knows, maybe I can sell it to some other unobservant person and just buy me a new cute one.
Organic Update
A few months ago I made this post. Thanks to some great guidance from friends and family I wanted to share with everyone the solutions to my Organic problems.
Dishwasher Detergent: My solution to this major problem came from me just switching from a liquid detergent to a powder detergent. I am currently using Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Powder and there is no more mystery film on any of the dishes!
Deodorant: I got rid of the organic deodorant that I was using and switched to The Crystal. Mike has been using one for 3 years now. I wish I would have made this switch years ago! I still sweat, after all it is a deodorant, not an anti-perspiriant, but no odor what so ever! They aren't that expensive and they last for over a year. I got mine at Kroger for around $5.
Laundry Detergent: This is the one area where no one really had any information to share, so on a whim I tried a detergent that I had never heard anything about. I bought ECOS: Magnolia & Lily. Thankfully I loved the detergent. I just finished the first bottle and I plan on buying the same detergent when I go back to the store.
To all of you who helped lead me in the right direction on these issues, I can not thank you enough!
The Naughty Kitchen
A few months ago Mike traveled to Dallas for a business trip/conference with the company Behringer-Harvard. All the guests of the conference stayed at the Hotel Palomar and were treated to an amazing dinner at the restaurant in the hotel, Bistro 214. Little did they know that they were going to take part in the reality show called "The Naughty Kitchen with Chef Blythe Beck".
The show airs Tuesdays at 9 central on the Oxygen Network. We finally caught Mike's episode on TV. The episode is entitled "Reviews, Revenge, & Redemption" and it originally aired on November 11th. Mike is seen on a few occasions standing around socializing. Then at dinner he is sitting directly to the right of the Behringer-Harvard lady. We originally started watching the show just so we could see Mike, but over the season we have really come to love Chef Blythe and all her Naughty Kitchen staff!
Below are some grainy iPhone pictures of Mike and Chef Blythe.
Martini & Dixie
I couldn't post about Thanksgiving 2009 and not talk about the two 4-legged members of our family. This was the first time since Martini was with her litter mates that she has been around another dog for this length of time.
Both pups got along fine. You could tell at times that Dixie "puppy energy" was a little too much for Martini, but what do you expect from a 6 week old puppy.
Here are a few pictures of the two of them together...
I just love the next 3 pictures...
I am so glad Kyle brought Dixie to our house for Thanksgiving. I can't wait to see how the two girls interact at Christmas, when Dixie is 4 weeks older and probably 3 times bigger.
