whoosh...

That is the sound of the weekend racing by me. So much went on, and not a picture to show for it.

Well, not exactly. There is this one, taken by Shelby.

And this one, captured by Olivia. Dave and I celebrated anniversary #11 last night and the girls each took a picture of us before we left for dinner. It's nice having kids big enough for stuff like that :)

The rest of the Holiday weekend was filled with fun and family...and another round of the barfing bug for Shelby. That is a big reason why I was not out and about taking pictures. She was sick Tues-Thurs so we did split shifts at each family on Thanksgiving, with the other one of us staying home with her. No pics required of that. What I wish I did have pictures of was our Thanksgiving with my family. Most of the cooking had been done on Wednesday, a good thing, since at 10a I got the call that my Mom's oven was not working. Yep, 10a on Turkey Day! So lickety split, Plan B was in place, all food and family moved to my sister's home and it went off without a hitch. We used plastic utensils, paper plates with jack on lanterns in the center and drank from disposable cups to make things as easy as possible. And guess what? The food tasted incredible, maybe more so than usual and the tiny prayer of thanks that came from each of us around the table, was definitely sweeter this year. I am not calling anyone out by name, but there were more moist eyes this year than dry ones. So, the picture of all that goodness is in my mind, not on my monitor. And that is OK.

Today, I have a persistent 8 year old BEGGING to get out the Christmas decorations. No rest for the weary, right?

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a short gratitude list

A 2009 photobook now complete (ish) through September!
My family, with a special shout out to my sister Kelly. Darned grateful to have her.
Health
Good food
Blogging--and the new doors it is currently opening for me
Starbucks holiday flavored drinks :) Once Dave gets home I am heading there for a treat as I am stuck home with a pukey girl again.

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a birthday celebration

I can finally reveal the gifts I made for my best girlfriends from High School.

Festive, Be Merry banners.

And here we are having a humongous, family style meal at Maggianos. Honestly, they bring out an embarassing amount of grub. And yes, we also enjoyed some tasty wine to go along with the feast.

Our tradition is to exchange birthday gifts just once during the year. The other gifts this time around were personalized stationary and address labels, Tervis Tumbler initial cups in a super large size, cute pumpkins for Halloween decor and Bath N Body snuggly socks and foot cream. Does it get any better....good friends, good food, good wine and we each come home with 4 gifts. Yea, us!

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evolution of a smile

Lately I have been so aware of how Olivia's changing smile is such an indicator of how much more grown up she looks to me. I have had this idea in my head for awhile and although for some reason PhotoShop beat me up on this one and for the life of me, I could not get the drop shadows to work, I decided to call it perfectly imperfect and move on. It tells the story and down the road, even I will probably forget what what it was that entangled me. For products used, go HERE.

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the photo shoot

One beautiful, grown up looking girl.

A sassy one up a little closer (and yes, I am wishing that shadow on her face was a bit less harsh).

And then, without giving away the whole surprise of receiving a Christmas card, the family picture. In my book, if everyone is present, and looking the same way, it's a keeper! The only mystery that remains is which card did I choose? I already uploaded to Kodak, and since I have never used them before, I got 50 prints free making the cost of my cards, including shipping, a mere $6. I also ordered each of these as an 8x10 (from Costco, my forever trusty source) to replace my existing photos in my large matted frames. All in all, a productive day, despite the fact I feel like crap-ola. I think I am fighting off a cold.

(Thanks to my neighbor for stepping in to shoot a few frames of all of us together. He got this one. Go Dave!)

I made the scarves from these directions. Super fast, easy and perfect for this occasion. I got the fleece at JoAnns.

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