Visiting my girls

I just got home from a wonderful visit with my daughter Kate and my girlfriends. Now that Kate has her own apt in her college city I have a place to stay to not only go see her, but see my friends that live in the same city. Kyle and I arrived Thursday afternoon around 5. (Kyle took two days off of school) Kate wrapped up her fall semester finals just that day so she was very excited to be done with school for 5 weeks. She finished up with 3 A's and 2 B's and as you can imagine, I'm one proud Mama! She is getting closer and closer to becoming a nurse with each semester completed. We spent the first night just hanging out with Kate and her darling dog Lily. Lily is now 1 years old and her disposition is one of the best I've ever seen in a dog. She is sweet, smart and very loving. She is very well disciplined as well. Although Kyle and I are terribly allergic to dogs, we have decided to just deal with the allergies so we can go visit Kate. I've actually found that if I don't touch her I'm fine. That is hard to do, because she is so hard to resist with the cute little face...but it is worth it not to be suffering with allergy symptoms. Kyle just "goes for it" and as a result he was sneezing and dealing with a dull sinus headache most the trip. He loves to play with Lily and even slept with her while we were there as can be seen here!

He loves her so much. In fact our whole family is so taken by her that Kyle and I have decided to get dog allergy shots starting the first of the year. That way we can go visit Kate without dealing with allergies and she can bring Lily to our house when she comes and visits us. Just look at that sweet little dog!

On Friday Kate had to work during the day and Kyle's friends he wanted to visit were in school so I met up with my friend Janet for lunch and shopping at my favorite scrap booking store in the city. Kyle stayed behind at Kate's to spend time with Lily and do some home work. That afternoon Kyle was invited to go spend the night at his friend Steven's house. Once Kate got off work, I made her and I a simple meal and we went to the movie to see Russell Crowe's new movie which was great. After that we drove to the airport to pick up Kevin who had flown in from spending a week doing business in Florida. The three of us went out for desert and then stayed up late visiting.

The next morning I met up with a few of my friends for breakfast. These special ladies were my women's bible sudy group back when we lived there. Here is a pic of all of us after breakfast.

Left from right is Sandra, Me, Janet, Beverly C and Linda. We studied back to back Beth Moore Bible studies for a couple of years together. Also in our group was Beverly J, whom we missed having at our little reunion. She lives in Ohio now, and couldn't join us unfortunately. Also missing was Michelle who was in Texas visiting family and Debra who had things to do that morning.

After breakfast with the girls, Janet and I Christmas shopped a bit and then picked up  Debra whom we spent some time with later that day. Kevin spent the day golfing with his friend Mark, Kyle spent the day with his friend Steven and a few hours later in the day with Janet's daughter and his good friend Kayleen, while Kate worked. That night I made another simple meal and we all hung out together as a family in Kate's apt. Later that evening we watched Eclipse on DVD. It is always so great when we are all together and since it doesn't happen as often as we like, we cherish every moment of our time together.

This morning after a long leisurely breakfast together, Kate was once again off to work and we headed home. It was great to see Kate and my friends and I look so forward to visiting again soon. Here are some pictures of Kate's apt. It is such a wonderful little place, so cozy and comfortable and Kate loves it there.

 Kate has purchased all her furniture with her own money and thanks to a few hand me down decor items from me and a few things we purchased when we helped move her in 3 months ago....the place looks great!!
(Kate has been keeping her eye open for the perfect wall hanging for over the couch and is getting ready to purchase a coffee table)

 This little corner unit table is perfect in her breakfast nook. You may recognize the picture that was once in our bedroom and then our guest room in past homes. Now it looks great in her breakfast nook!

 The piece of furniture under the window is the bottom 1/2 of the hutch that goes with our kitchen table. There is not place for it in our current home, so Kate is borrowing it from us.

                                                                Kate's bedroom.

                                                                        ...and bathroom.

 The pic below was taken while standing in the kitchen nook. This is the ledge on the opposite side of the technical center. Kate is saving up for a flat screen TV which will go on a low stand and be on this wall. It is directly accross from her couch. The black shelves on the wall will have pictures of family and friends soon. Kate and I are going to go through all her pics and develop and frame some the next time she comes to visit us.

 Here is the other side, the "tech center"... Kate does all her studying here.

 Here is the kitchen. I love how this brand new apt comes with all stainless steel appliances, laminate wood flooring and faux granite laminate counters. Very chic! The entire apt also comes painted a beigy tan color.

Here is ANOTHER desk, in the kitchen. The little pink cage houses Kate's new rat "Little Chef". I love the puppy...but the rat...not so much! Kate however is an animal lover and loves all animals. This is her second rat (she had one in High School) and she just got her. One of her customers at work came in with the cage, all the accessories etc and said "I'd like to donate this" Kate's boss said that any of the employees were welcome to it and since another co-workers rat had just had babies....Kate decided to take the cage along with a new baby rat. Lastly, but not least, here are a few cute shots of Kate and Lily taken this morning before she took off for work.

                                                             Kate and her Lily Bell!

We are SO looking forward to Kate having five days off from work the week before Christmas. She is coming to visit us along with Lily. We are looking forward to spending Christmas with them both.

Deck the Halls part one (the family, living and dining rooms)

I'm so excited to share pictures of our new home all decked out for the holidays. I've done a LOT of decorating in several rooms so I'm going to break this blog post up into two posts. Today I'll be sharing the family room, living and dining rooms and in the next day or two I'll share the rest of the decorated rooms along with the outside of the house. We are really enjoying the house all decorated and ready for Chrismas. This is truly one of my favorite times of year. I can't help but think of my Mom more than usual this time of year for many reasons. One is because of how many of her beautiful things that my wonderful Dad gifted to us after her passing. You'll see me referencing these things many times in this post.  Hope you enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for the rest!

Here is a pretty broad shot of our family room. I want to post a close up picture of the tree in my next post. We bought this tree new this year at Target. We went for skinnier then we typically like because it needed to fit in this exact spot so it couldn't be too wide. I think the tree looks great with all of our many family collectable ornaments from the past twenty years.

                                                                            A little closer up

...and here is my Mom's beloved Santa Claus collection. She LOVED these so much.

See the cute stuffed Santa sitting on the back of the chair? An old family friend and neighbor Dorothy made that. I just love that Santa. She passed away this year and Linda and Carrie if you are reading this...just know that I think of Dorothy everytime I see his little face with the rosy cheeks.

                                              here are a few closer shots of the Santas.

For those of you who have read my blog for several years now you know that this is Kate's Snowman collection. My Mom started it for her when she was a baby. Once Kate graduates from college, I will pass these on to her (and I'll miss them!) In fact 2-3 years ago I started buying 1 per year and have started my own collection as I've had a snowman collection in my home forever and I can't imagine not having it at Christmas.

These little guys fit perfectly in the built in entertainment center in the new house. (I'll be showing you Kyle's bear collection in the next post)

Here is a close up of one of the vintage looking ornaments I hung with ribbon from the mantle....and another shot of the mantle below.

I really had fun with this mantle this year. I bought the gold wire and tinsel trees at Home Goods and the glass votive candle holders at Walmart this year. The lighted greenery with irrridecessant fruit was purchased at Home Goods last year. The beaded garland that is swagged with the vintage looking red ornaments are from Walmart this year.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 The little framed pic of Santa was Moms. It was the perfect item to complete the mantle arrangement. (thank you Kevin for digging through the box and finding this and knowing that it would look GREAT hung here!)

                                           Here is a broader shot of the living room.

I love the simplicity of a bowl with Christmas balls in it. I've had this bowl from Pier One for many years and the balls that match our living room sofa are from Michaels a few years back. Just picked up the gold balls you see here at Walmart.

Here is my sweet angel collection. My Mom started this for me just a couple of year before she died. I've decided to keep the collection going for myself. Last year I purchased the angel in the red dress and I'm on the look out for this years angel.

This vintage Santa print was done by Mom years ago at her Frame Shoppe. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. So totally what I love now. Funny too, because my Mom had such a knack for being the very first to love things that would come into style years later. She framed this and gave it to me over 15 years ago and I honestly did not love it until recently. Now of course which vintage being all the rage and with maturity I've come to love the vintage look. Sadly, she also gave me a vintage angel that was in pinks and light greens that I just knew I'd "never like". So like an idiot I sold it at a garage sale a few years back. What I wouldn't GIVE to have it now!!!!  Take that as a lesson to think twice about what you are letting go of!

In our entry way you are greeted by this nativity scene. The reason for the season!

              (the painting above is there year round...done by my Mom of a Mission in California)

Here are my Mom's holiday houses. We also have a set of houses and I usually combine them together, but there was not a good place for them in this house, so I decided to put out Moms.

                                              Here is a broader shot of the dining room.

..oops this is back in the living room. I've had this glass votive holder forever. It was a purchase from a home PartyLite party. What I love about it is that you can change out what you put in the bottom part. Shells in the Summer, acorns in the fall etc. Of course for Christmas gold balls work great.

                        This centerpiece on our dining room table was new from Michaels last year.

This built in buffet/cabinet area is beyong perfect for my little woodland trees. This year I decorated them in all of my Mom's bird, acorn and cross ornaments. I bought this gold tissue lame at Joannes and draped it into a"skirt" for around the base of the trees.

Here is a pic of my Mom in a frame ornament with an acorn on it. These trees are dedicated to her.

See the little gold bird peeking down? That was a gift from my sweet Mother n Law Jean this year.

                                                    a closer shot of one of the trees

another shot of the trees.

OK blog readers....come by again in the next day or two for the the rest of the house (the kitchen, bathroom and close up of the main tree) and outside of the house!!

A day out with Kate

The day after Thanksgiving we took Kate to the mall for lunch and a movie. (Kyle had plans with friends) Our mall puts up this HUGE Christmas tree every year and it has already become a tradition to get pics in front of this tree! (we did it last year too) Here are some pics of us for this year in front of the tree.

Now we are counting down the days until Kate comes home for FIVE WHOLE DAYS the week before Christmas!