It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas festivities have arrived and we are all in FULL swing! This week has been busy busy busy...and I don't see a slow down until Christmas is over. But...I am not complaining! I love the business of the Christmas season. Monday was a quick Tupelo run with Mom, Tuesday night I had a cookie swap and spa party at Paige's house, hosted by Kasie and we all had a great time! Here are pics of my cookies I made! They were technically supposed to be homemade, but I got away with the cuteness and not being homemade haha.

 Oh, and I almost forgot....our Sunday School party last Sunday was a hit! We painted Christmas trees, had christmas tree brownies, and snowmen powdered donuts!! Here is a picture of them opening their gifts from me AFTER we all recited our memory verse :)

 And...Maggie Lynn styling in her new glasses from me haha. She is to cute!

 So....last night was crazy! I come home from running and making a run to the grocery store to buy things needed for our bank Christmas dinner today and tomorrow and come home to find my memes car in my driveway? So I walk in and they have apparently made BJ leave and had planned a scavenger hunt for presents in my house! WE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!!! I had soooo much fun finding all the presents. From my tanning bed, my lunchbox, the microwave, under the sink, in the closet, and even in the washing machine lol, they had them hid everywhere, and even stuck around to watch us hunt for the gifts. I am so very thankful for those two women in my life. There is no way I could have made it this far in life, nor be half the person I am without the love and guidence from them. I am thankful everyday for God blessing me with both my mom and Meme. I don't deserve near the things they do for me, but I am very greatful and appreciative of all they do. They've made this Christmas great already for both of us, and I could never thank them enough for always wanting to just see us smile. Here are a few pics of what I got hehe!

 A framed picture of me and my Daddy!! Don't you love the semi mullett haha. I love my Daddy!

 MY STEVE MADDEN BOOTS!!!!! I bought a pair just like this 2 years ago and have literally worn a hold in them. After frantically looking all year for a new pair, I was told they weren't made anymore....but look who came through! Mom and MEME! Always on the look-out and I am wearing them TODAY!!! I am forever thankful :)

AND....new perfume that I had been wanting to test out, and my all time favorite, can hardly ever find, the best ever perfume.....Ralph Lauren BLUE! I am beyond spoiled.......


Tomorrow the bank will have another Christmas lunch and we are closing at 4 instead of 5:30....THANK GOODNESS!! After that it is off to Grandma and Papa T's, followed by Christmas Eve at Mrs. Karen's, Christmas Day at Grandma Allen's for lunch, a swing through in Ashland at Aunt Deb's to see Suzy, Meme, Nanny, and the rest of the fam, then Memaw's for supper. And finally, Granny's the day after Christmas at lunch! WHEW!!

I am excited for all the places we are attending, and very greatful that I have so much family still here and so close together in towns that I CAN attend all these Christmas events. Family is one of the most important things in life and as I grow older, I realize everyday that I am beyond blessed with an amazing family. I will be sad of one thing....no Christmas at my parents house this year. They have church at 9AM, so we would all be rushed to get there EARLY that morning and get things accomplished. BUT, I will see them at Grandma Allen's for lunch, then the day after Christmas at Granny's....but with me I may have to sneak some more time in with them! I'm not quite used to this "not at home for Christmas business yet." :)

Anyway, I've done enough rambling for the day. I will be back for an update AFTER Christmas! I wish all of you and your families a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

With Love,

Laken**

9 days till Christmas

The tree is so much more complete with gifts underneath!

Room Complete...MOSTLY

I feel like I will always be adding, taking away, moving, swapping and such to our room but these are so far the completed pictures and I'm very pleased! Can't wait to have our Christmas Party Sunday!!

And I forgot to get another good picture of the door with the "I" in train, but I do have it up lol.

Sunday School Room

Since our cruise, BUSY would be the best word to describe my life until now. Something to do everynight....from my brother's ballgames, to birthday parties for the neices, seeing Santa (pictures to come later), church of course...or just being TIRED. Well this week it was my PRIORITY to get my Sunday School room finished before Sunday, and the week started out good. I got the border up and little things here and there, but had already decided that I wasn't going to go "over the top"....just keep it simple. Yeah right! As I kept working, I got this crazy idea in my head that I would hand paint the walls of a train and train symbols. I hope I don't regret this when I go to RE-decorate, lol. We may keep the train theme all year haha!! But I must say.....I am oh so PROUD of my work so I had to post a picture. This is the result of Monday and Tuesday nights work for about 3 hours each night....and lots of paint and patience lol. I am not totally finished...still have some touch ups, and the track to paint at the bottom.

And when BJ saw this picture he thought I spelled "Aboard" wrong...the picture makes the "O" look like a "U" but I assure you...its an "O." I bought the letters at a party store and the letters came with connectors for the letters to hang, which is why they have the lines above them.

The poster in the middle has Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

And the letter say ALL ABOARD FOR JESUS.

And my door...you can't tell but there is gold glitter sprayed all over the door, which really makes it way cuter, and as I was putting them up, my "I" tore, and I haven't remembered to get that up yet. I'll be working on it tomorrow though!!

The Weekend is Near

Friday is just around the corner, and to my surprise, I ended up having a half day that needed to be taken or I'd lose it. 12 o' clock tomorrow can't get here quick enough! Normally I would be super lazy and sleep all day, but I've got lots of work to do. I'm way behind on decorating my Sunday School room for my little beginners so that is the main objective on my to-do list for Friday! Although I'm still not totally sure where I'm going with it, I'm NOT leaving until I at least have something in my mind. (But my plans are to finish :) so wish me luck) Our theme this quarter is a TRAIN. "All Aboard God's Train" is what I'm using for my door....so I'm hoping to make it look like a train station as much as possible!

Looks like my weekend is going to be jammed full as well.
*My brother's ballgame Friady @ 5
*Saturday lunch, shopping, and pampering with Mom & Meme + last min Christmas shopping
*My brother is spending the night with me Saturiday night, which I'm sure will include Reid Harmon too
*Sunday is the Christmas Concert at church, morning & night

Our choir has worked really hard on this concert, so if your in the area, or able to come, services start at 10 AM on Sunday morning, and 6:30 PM on Sunday night! We would love to have you!

I guess that's all I have for now! Hope you all have a good Thursday and a great weekend!

Christmas Time!

I was going to wait and write a more thought out post tomorrow, but I HAD to post a picture of my tree tonight! I have actually had my tree up and decorated since before our cruise but felt it was missing "something." Well, we all went over to my mother in laws tonight for chili, family time, and decorating her tree, which we do every year, and she made me a bow for the top of my tree and it is absolutely PERFECT! It was just the missing piece I was needing! I'm a little behind on the wrapping part, so yes it's empty for now, but how cute is my tree skirt? Lol.

Monday....Monday...

Christmas cards are DONE! I'm not totally satisfied, but they'll do. They were a little more plain than I would have liked, but again with all the cards we send out, the cost was reasonable and they were "ok" for my suiting lol. Here is a preview.....so if I don't have your address on my mailing list, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!

As I wrote about last Friday, Pine Grove held their annual Ladie's Christmas Dinner and I was able to attend with my mom and it was such a great night. The ladies all get together and decorate their tables as a formal tea setting with Christmas decorations everywhere and have a small devotional with a guest speaker. Oh, and the men and youth boys serve with bow ties and towels on their arms...which is priceless lol. Mom's table, as well as all the others were beautiful...I wish I would have gotten more pictures but the lights stayed dim most of the night. Here are a few pictures of me and my family from the night! And excuse the red eyes...I've been cursed with that awful train since I was born. Every picture...I ALWAYS HAVE RED EYES. :)

Have a happy RAINY Monday! I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind sleeping all day, I know I wouldn't!

Finally Friday

Yesterday was the 1st of the month, today is Friday, as well as the 3rd of the month for SS checks and boy is this bank rockin. My phone has rang non stop since 8:00 on the dot this morning and hasn't let up yet. So this post will be short and sweet and to the point. Not a lot going on right now except for my dilema on our Christmas Cards :( This years cards WILL be the death of me. I've been looking, searching, and frantically trying to find the perfect card for our picture, and I either hate the card design or am refusing to use Shutterfly because of the outrageous pricing.....we normally send out close to 50 CARDS!! I'm hoping to get that accomplished this weekend....HOPING I say! Here is the picture I am using for our cards...excuse my thumb lol, I had to take a picture of the picture to get it on here. This was taken on our cruise and I thought it was great for our Christmas Card :) BJ thinks I'm crazy for sending a picture of just ourselves since most cards are usually of children lol....but I have always loved cards and believe some people actually want to see us lol. (Don't tell me otherwise if you don't though lol)

 This weeekend we have the Christmas Parade in Holly Springs and this year our church decided to enter with a float. We will have that parade this Saturday night, as well as taking the float to Collierville tonight for their parade. Wish us luck! I wish I had pictures to post because they have done a great job with everything on that float. Unfortunatley I won't be attending the parade in Holly Saturday night for I have plans of spending the afternoon with my MOM, who I feel like I haven't seen in ages since our cruise....so we are both in need of some mother-daughter time. Pine Grove is holding their annual Ladies Tea Dinner (I think that is what they are calling it lol) so that is where I will be, and am excited to see how mom's table is put together!

Have a Happy Friday!

PARTY TIME

Sunday was my neice Maggie Lynn's 4th birthday and boy am I so thankful for this little girl. Being born at 25 weeks and weighing only 1.4 lbs. this little girl was born a fighter who is just as tough as her mom. As I've had the experience of watching her grow, learn, and develop a personality all of her own, I am more thankful to be a part of her life each day. Not to mention she is as healthy as can be, and has more energy than even she knows that to do with sometimes :)
Let me not forget the other bundle of joy that allows me to hold the name of "Aunt Yake." Mille Caroline will be 3 years old on December 16th, and words cannot even describe this little girl. Her facial expressions will have you rolling within minutes of holding a conversation with her, and she is definitly one to let you know whats on her mind. She is quick to be sneaky, yet even quicker to have that innocent grin on her face that'll make you want to squeeze her for days :)

These girls have been a tremendous part of my life over the years and I am so excited to see what the future holds for them. I don't have children of my own YET, but I'll tell you my love for these two girls is to the moon and back. I've heard several people say, grandparents may spoil the grandchildren, but nothing compared what an Aunt will do, and I am starting to believe that more and more.

So....the girls are really into the movie TANGLED right now so that is the theme we are going by. Some of you who don't know, this is really an up to date movie resembling Rapunzel. So after work we are all headed to the Thomas Tower lol, really the school building upstairs, for a Tangled party....!!!

            HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS....AUNT YAKE LOVES YOU LOTS :)



Oh and one more thing....did I mention SNOW today? Yeah...well about the time we pulled in the driveway yesterday it started spitting snow and it was freezing.....and this morning the ground was all covered. Of course it melted pretty quickly, but coming home from a cruise where it was around 80 degrees to snow was NOT GOOD for my sinuses. Therefore, I've already made a visit to the Dr. for a good ole sinus cocktail shot. I'm hoping to ease through this little bug with no problem. Here is a pic of the bank this morning with the snow.

Home at Last 4:17 PM

I am so very thankful to be in my home tonight, on my couch, with my tv, and my Christmas tree :)

The ride home wasn't bad at all. After touring New Orleans for a bit, catching a glimpse of Bourbon Street, The Riverwalk, Saints Stadium and such, we cruised on out back to good ole MS. We split the drive, 3 hours a piece, and are both surprisingly full of energy. I've already unpacked everthing, have my 2nd load of clothes in the washer, am starting supper, and cleaning in the mix. BJ mentioned this is the first vacation we've gotten home from and weren't just plain exhausted. The cruise was by far the most fun and relaxing vacation we've ever had. We....(well ME) are already looking for next years destination lol.

Just some fun facts we learned on our first cruise and little odds and ends thing we got to do:

*Dinner: this is your chance to try any and EVERYTHING you want. If you wish to have a bite of everything on the menu, you can totally do it.

The Pizza Pit and Deli are open 24 hours.

There are over 1000 workers with you on the ship taking care of your every need. Breakfast and lunch are open buffet, but at dinner, you never wait on anything. Each group of tables are assigned 3 waiters/waitresses.

We had mini golf, basketball courts, and volleyball courts all on the top deck of our ship.

Sleeping is amazingly soothing, and since with most rooms there are no windows, the room is total darkness, which makes for 9AM mornings seem like 3AM mornings.

I'm kind of at a standstill thinking of everything we did, but all in all again we both mark it as our best vacation....even compared to Hawaii, and it no doubt takes over Las Vegas. Here are a few more pictures of the inside of the ship, showrooms, towel animals, and the beautiful Cozumel. I've never seen water sooo blue.
Oh and the guy I'm standing with was Alite, who was our room steward and did a great job. He was from the Phillipines and he and his wife both work in Housekeeping for Carnival.

Bittersweet Ending

We have finally arrived back in New Orleans and are currently waiting to get off of the boat. I must say this is by far been the best vacation we have been on. The boat was gorgeous with tons of things to do, and Cozumel was amazingly beautiful. However, BJ and I both had to stay current on the motion sickness medicine. Since this was our first cruise we just thought the movement was normal, but heard several past time cruisers say that this boats movement was one of the worst. Good thing our first was the worst and we knew no different huh? As soon as the medicine kicked in we were both perfectly fine and had a great time. And the rocking was heavenly at night when time to go to bed haha.

Here are just a few pictures since we are getting ready to head out, and I'll be sure to post more once at an actual computer and not blogging from my phone. Oh and as you can tell, I wasn't able to do any blogging or use my phone period on the boat. $19.95 per minute and same charges for Internet use.

Bon Voyage

Well...we have made it successfully to New Orleans and already onboard the ship! We arrived early, had an easy check in, have eaten lunch, and are now exploring the boat and already gotten lost a few times. All I can say is WOW. We actually don't leave port until 4PM but believe me we have plenty of things to explore in the meantime. Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving.

Oh and did I mention the boat is already decorated for CHRISTMAS!!
Here are just a few pictures of our start...more to follow.