3 if 3

The final gift that I bought myself was totally spur of the moment and last minute. The Wednesday before Christmas I got an email from Amazon advertising a deal on the Cricut easy press. The savings on this was so incredibly large that I just couldn't pass it up and it said that I would get it by Friday. Easy press is basically a big iron with adjustable heat temperatures you use it for applying either heat transfer vinyl or infusible ink. Surprisingly this did actually arrive in just 2 days. It was on my front porch when I got home from work Christmas eve.

 And that is the end of the gifts that I bought for myself. I may have gone a little overboard but I was so good all year long that I thought I was worth it

So tomorrow we go into 2022. However you plan on spending this last day of 2021 I hope you have a Happy New Year's Eve and I'll see you next year.

2 of 3

Today is a miscellaneous assortment of gifts that I gave myself. First there is all of the crafty things. There were a couple stamp sets, some dies, a pop up card kit and an explosion box punch board. 

 

While out shopping one day I came across a Pioneer Woman kitchen gadget set on sale for $7 that I couldn't pass up. I also bought myself a insulated tumbler for either hot or cold drinks

1 of 3

Only three days left of 2021. The next three days I'm going to spread out posting the gifts I bought myself for Christmas. Today are the clothes I bought myself. One pair of pajamas, two shirts, a pair of leggings, and a pair of jean leggings. Also not shown in the picture is a pair of slippers

Good thing I got myself the pajamas because normally Amanda always buys me some and this year she didn't.

A bit more from Christmas eve

 Christmas eve I took a total of 4 pictures then I put the camera down and just enjoyed the rest of the evening. Two pictures were Presley standing in front of the tree and two were her opening her first present. I'm just posting one of the four today.

She's just grown so much it's unbelievable. Last year she opened her presents and then cried because she wanted to go home to see her mother. This year she was very sociable and I think, enjoyed the visit. 

We didn't have any snow for Christmas but we did get some yesterday morning.

Christmas with the kids

Our celebration was on Christmas Eve. My daughter and her husband came over and my son and Presley came over. Presley's mom was a no-show for the second year in a row. Amanda and I are both big Pioneer Woman fans, so there's always Pioneer Woman gifts.

 Last year she got me a mini Crock-Pot this year she got me a big one. She also got me the plastic containers and she said Rob picked out the icing spatulas

I got a good laugh out of this next one when I opened it. I bought her the exact same Pioneer Woman throw.

 The other gifts she gave me were a sweater and some liquid hand soap

My son apparently was in charge of my gift because it was cash stuffed into a card.

To answer Ginny's question from the other day, she asked if I sell the mice that was in one of the pictures I posted on Christmas day. Honestly, I don't sell anything any more. I'm lucky if I can even get myself to make anything. I've pretty much lost my mojo. I do enjoy gifting things when I do make them though. If I can ever get myself to make more of them I'll let you know.

Finishing out the year

I think I might be able to fill this last week of 2021 with posts about Christmas. I hope everyone enjoyed their day yesterday. I'm back to work this morning.

Yesterday morning Gibbs and I started with opening the presents I wrapped for the two of us. He was a very lucky dog. He got a new bed, 5 new toys, 3 bags of treats and a lick mat. I spread a little peanut butter on it for him and he really enjoyed it. It kept him busy for quite a while. Now I need to think of other things I can spread on it for him.

I'll blog about Christmas eve and the gifts I got myself on another day. I will tell you one thing I got though. It's the best gift I could have given myself. As you may know I started a weight loss journey on September 1. When I weighed myself on Christmas morning I finally dropped down to the healthy weight range. I'm still a ways off from my ideal weight but I am no longer considered over weight.  

Merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas

I wish you a Merry Christmas 

I wish you a Merry Christmas 

and a Happy New Year

 

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not may you find peace and joy today

Happy Christmas Eve

 I've always liked this one. Wishing you all a Happy Christmas eve.

For lack of something better

 A memory came up on my Facebook page and I thought it would be the perfect picture to share today since we are so close to Christmas.

It said this was from 5 years ago but I'm not sure if that's when the picture was actually taken. 

What's in the bag?

Yesterday's post had questions wanting to know what was in my treat bag from my neighbors. So, today I have answers. This is a picture of what was inside the bag minus the few that I ate already

The bottom is a square pretzel then a Rolos candy melted to it and topped with an m&m. They are the perfect combination of salty and sweet and they are most delicious.

In other news, I've had the last two days off. It was a little bit of heaven having two days in a row. I got the extra day because Christmas falls on my regular day off. Today, tomorrow and Friday are going to be crazy at work and I'm looking forward to quitting time on Friday.

Who's that knockinq on my door

Yesterday between 4:30 and 5 there was a knock at my door. I opened it to find the young family across the street standing there. Their little boy held up a small package and said Merry Christmas.

 such a sweet thing to do and it really made my day.

Short but sweet

 Sunday was an all around rough day so today I'm simply going to wish everyone a happy Monday. See you all tomorrow.

More from the village

Here we are starting the final week leading up to Christmas day.  Just a few more pictures from around the village.

This couple loves to hit the ice.

The mailman is especially busy this time of year

Even the village dog is sending out a letter to Santa.

And of course Santa himself is extra busy right now.

The village

 The Christmas village is once again all set up on top of my fake fireplace. It's getting a bit crowded and I think next year I'm going to have to either find a new way to display it or stop expanding.

New additions for this year are the village toy shop

The coffee truck

The Merry Christmas sign

And the firewood stack

I had seen a couple new buildings that I would have liked to have bought but knew I didn't have the room to add them here. 

I've also noticed that I don't light this up as much as I have in the past. Now that the basement is put back together I hang out there more than I do in the living room. Maybe next year I'll need to set the village up in the cave.

Random Thoughts.

 My intentions were to do a post on random thoughts that have been running through my head. Now that I am sitting here typing I can't remember a single one of them. This is why I should always write things down.  Even grocery lists. I will think of something I need the next time I get to the store, but if I don't write it down right then and there I will totally forget about it until after I'm done shopping.

I got some happy mail the other day. The title for my vehicle came in the mail. I have finally paid it off and now not only do I not have a mortgage payment, I no longer have a car payment either. It sure is a great feeling.

The other night I was curled up on the couch under a blanket watching tv. I thought to myself, this is exactly how I think I'm going to spend Christmas day. Except I'll have snacks. Now to decide what I want to snack on for the day.

Amanda sent me a couple pictures of her fur baby the other day. This is Ace.

New glasses

One of the girls at work bought me a new pair of glasses. I had to try them on and show them off the other day

 

They didn't improve my eyesight or my appearance but they were fun and good for a laugh..

Pick a house

I don't know which organizations made some of these gingerbread houses, and this wasn't all of them, but here are pictures of some of the ones that I took

Do you have a favorite?

shopping

Sunday after work I took a little walk with Gibbs and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was lay on the couch. I didn't go near the computer at all which is why I took the day off yesterday from blogging.

Monday was the typical start to the day off drinking coffee and reading blogs. Then I decided that I was kind of bored so I went to the mall to do some window shopping. Mall shopping on a Monday isn't that bad because there was hardly anyone there. This picture looks like it was totally empty but there really were people there. By the time I left it was even starting to get a little crowded.

 Of course I couldn't resist taking a picture of huge Christmas tree where Santa was set up. Santa wasn't there yet when I got this picture otherwise I would have tried to get a quick shot of him as well.

Tomorrow I'll show you some gingerbread houses that were on display for a gingerbread house contest

I think someone has been snooping

Yesterday I sat down to catch up on some of my favorite shows. Gibbs was standing in front of the Christmas tree and kept looking at me and whining

. It wasn't until he stuck his head under the tree and into a gift bag that I realized he has been snooping. He apparently knows that there is a toy in that bag and he wanted it now.

You can call me a Grinch but I didn't give in. These gifts are marked do not open until December 25th.

Happy Saturday

 Nothing on the agenda for today other than taking care of my laundry. It will likely consist of a lot of playing on the computer and maybe a few Christmas movies.

I was recently playing with my big camera, taking pictures of Christmas lights and decorations. I was rather disappointed in the pictures I took except for one that I thought was kind of cool.

I bought a pack of these snowflakes along with some white glittery icicles for the basement tree. 

I may or may not take tomorrow off from blogging. It will all depend on how much ambition I have today. If you don't hear from me tomorrow you'll know I was doing a lot of laying around.

TGIF

 I can't tell you just how happy I am that today is Friday. This has been a really bad week. I won't even go into all the stupid stuff at work that has been nothing but a headache. I'm looking forward to 2:00 today when I can punch out and head home. Although a quick trip to Walmart might be in order so that I can hibernate all day Saturday.

I have no plans for my day off so I'm only going to do things that I feel like doing.

I'm skipping pictures today because I don't have any ready to use and I'm just too lazy to go looking.

Hope your Friday is a good one and lets get this weekend off to a great start.

the basement tree

Just a quick post today to show you the tree in my basement. You'll notice scruffy Gibbs lounging on the couch. Obviously this picture was taken before he went to the groomer.

looking good

Yesterday was grooming day. I left work at 8 on my break to run home, grab Gibbs, and drop him off at the vet for grooming. At the end of the day I told the girls I had to go pick up my handsome dinner date. He was more than ready to go home

Sunday

Sunday Amanda came over to help me decorate for Christmas. I had all of the totes scattered around and I told her it looked like elves puked up Christmas in the living room. She suggested that I use that for a blog post so here it is

 

When she was done decorating the tree she put all of the Christmas presents under there as well. Then scruffy Gibbs posed ever so nicely in front of the tree for me.

 Yes, it's a little dark and hard to see him closely but that is so that you don't notice just how scruffy he looks. Today he is headed for the groomer and should be nice and handsome once again.

Trees continued

One more post on the trees that I saw at the festival of the trees on Saturday.

This one had a unicorn theme.

The most shocking thing of all happened while I was there. I witnessed one snowman holding up another one right there  in front of everyone.

I think he may have been after the money bags under this tree. 

Festival of the trees

Yesterday I needed to do a Walmart run. After I was done with my shopping I stopped at a very small local mall for their Festival of the trees. It wasn't a huge event but they had lots of decorated trees and a few crafters set up throughout the mall. Of course I took this opportunity to grab some pictures.

I'll continue tomorrow with even more decorated trees.