My first time at IKEA

Last night after work I met Jenny at IKEA here in Charlotte. I have never been to an IKEA store and I was pretty impressed with some of the things they had. I got a great buy on a queen-size duvet cover for the master bedroom and it was only $14.99. It was originally $29.99, which is a great price before the sale. I picked up 2 containers to store pasta, a rattle for the impending grandbaby in August, a candle and 4 rolls of wrapping paper. I could have bought some more things but that was as far as the $$ would go that visit! Jenny and I ate our dinner there too. I had the swedish meatball dinner, which was really yummy! I love the Lingonberry sauce they serve with it too! I didn't realized you could buy Swedish food there too! What an awful lot of things under one roof! I will definitely be going back when I need some more things. It was also a great way to spend time with Jenny!

Some Christmas Pictures

This is John and I by our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.


Megan and Ken by our fireplace on Christmas Eve. My son-in-law didn't feel well so he doesn't look his best.


This is Jenny and Kevin on Christmas morning right after they told us we are going to be grandparents in August!


We always have orange danish Christmas morning and Megan continued the tradition this year at her house!


Megan and Ken's Christmas tree.


This is a portion of the beautiful gift my son-in-law, Kevin made for Jenny. The butterflies are made of maps. The maps are places of meaning to Jenny. Examples: Where she was born, where she has lived, where they were married, where they live, London and Paris because she had traveled there. It was an amazing gift! Kevin did an excellent job!


This angel has been in our family for about 20 yrs. I bought her from a decorative painting artist that lived in the next county over from where we lived. She did a beautiful job. She is hung up every year.


I have 2 Trish Romance prints that John has given me for Christmas years ago. This one is called "Star of Wonder". I love her paintings! She lives in Niagra on the Lake. I just thought I would show you it. I also was trying out my new camera that John gave me!!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I know our family did! We have had a tough year but Christmas seemed to wash away all the "bad" part of 2009 and we are looking forward to a wonderful 2010!

I've got wonderful news!!

Yesterday we had a wonderful Christmas with Megan, Ken, Jenny and Kevin. The very first gift was from Jenny and Kevin. They gave us a box and the tag said it was for John and I Love, Kevin and Jenny. We opened it up and there were baby dishes (sippy cup, little baby spoon, bib) and the note inside said you will need this when you babysit! They are expecting in August!! We were so excited and happy! Jenny had experienced a miscarriage early this year and so this news was just wonderful for our family!! We love you Jenny and Kevin!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

I hope all my blog friends have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! This has been a long year and I'm looking forward to having a really great 2010!

Love y'all!

Sherri

A Christmas Meme

I don't usually do Meme's but I thought it might be fun to do one for Christmas! I got this one for Karen's blog, which is http://overbackyardfence.blogspot.com/. Thanks Karen!


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate. I detest Egg Nog!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Every gift is wrapped, but if it is too large I put it in a gift bag instead of wrapping it.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We always use the little white lights for decorating and the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, I always put up a mistletoe kissing ball.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The village goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving, the rest throughout December.

6. What is your favorite Christmas dish? I love Cream Cheese Cookies. It is a recipe my Mom used all the time when I was growing up!

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? I remember waking up and creeping downstairs with my younger sisters in tow and opening all our presents up before my parents got down to watch us! It probably isn't a fav of my Mom's but it is mine! We had so much fun!! I think I was 9, my sister Sue would have been 6 and Sandy would have been 3!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Unfortunately, a neighbors daughter that lived 2 houses down from us told me when I was in kindergarten :(! She was really mean about it too-she showed me where my Mom had hidden the presents.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We open 1 gift after Church around midnight or 12:30. That has been a tradition in my family as long as I can remember.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We have ornaments on the tree that were my grandparents and John's parents. We also have ornaments that John and I have collected for the 30 yrs. we have been married. We put tiny white lights on the tree too and tinsel one strand at a time! The tree topper is an stained glass angel I made about 26 yrs. ago!

11. Snow! Love it or dread it. I love it! We don't get much snow here where we live now, but we used to in northwestern NJ where we used to live. I don't like a whole winter of it though.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? For our first Christmas John gave me a black onyx ring, which I still wear today. One year he also gave me a diamond necklace he designed himself and had a jeweler make for him. The diamond was his grandmothers!

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? I love that our family is together and that we are all celebrating the birth of Christ. I love the Christmas cards I receive from people I don't hear from very much throughout the year.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Cheesecake!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It used to be cutting our own Christmas tree on a local farm, but we don't do that anymore. Probably setting up my nativity scene right after Thanksgiving. I also love putting up my Dickens Village.

17. What tops your tree? A stained glass angel I made for us about 26 yrs. ago.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving-I love to see the look on the recipients face when they receive something they were not expecting!!

19. Candy Canes? I really like candy canes. I love the red and white colors swirling together. I also love the peppermint flavor.

20. Favorite Christmas Show? I love The Bishops Wife-an old black and white movie. I love The Holiday as a more recent movie.

21. Saddest Christmas Song? The Christmas Shoes. What a tearjerker!!

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song? All of Nat King Cole's Christmas songs and Josh Grobin's too!

Megan, Jenny and I baked cookies last night!

It was cookie central at our house last night! Megan and Jenny came over for some cookie baking. We had a really nice time! We made 3 different kinds of cookies (that was all we had time for). First up was Megan's Craisin cookies! They are so good with the craisins, white chocolate chips and oats in them. We made a double batch so there would be enough for all 3 of our families. Next up was my cream cheese cookie recipe! I love these cookies! I used to make them with my Nana and then my Mom. I always made these with the girls when they were little too. Jenny was up next with a sugar cookie recipe of Rachel Ray's. She had gotten these woodland animal cookie cutters at IKEA (squirrel, moose, porcupine, etc.) so we made those. They didn't quite turn out the way she wanted but they were all right. Live and learn!

Here are a few pictures of the craisin cookies and cream cheese cookies:







I also thought I would show you this cute snowman cookie plate I've had since 2001. I love this!

Whirlwind Christmas Shopping with Jenny!

Yesterday Jenny and I went Christmas Shopping and we had lunch. It was a wonderful day spent with my youngest daughter! Jenny works 2 jobs so I don't get to see her very often and yesterday was our day!! We started out at our favorite bead store called On a String. Cute name I think! We bought some beads, of course and then proceeded with our shoppng. Next stop was a Comic Book store. My son-in-law, Kevin (Jenny's husband) is a graphic artist and collects book sets of comic books (only certain ones). I bought him book 3 of the set he is collecting. On to Marshall's/Home Goods. Found lots of things for Megan (my oldest daughter). Then we proceeded to Old Navy and I bought a sweater and fleece for myself with my Christmas Bonus! Then on to Brixx Pizza for lunch. Girls have to eat after so much shopping! We walked passed Coldwater Creek so of course, I had to stop in. I bought 2 tops (on sale) for myself with my Christmas Bonus $! Then on to Ulta. I bought Jenny a few things she picked out for her stocking and then I bought an Ulta Gift Card for her and she thinks it's for someone else! Jenny then had to go home so we headed on back to our place. We brought everything in the house, chatted for a minute and she was off! John was working so I decided I needed to finish shopping so I drove to Wal-Mart and bought the wonderful Singer sewing machine Jenny has always wanted. What a great sale on the Simple Singer! I bought some sewing notions for her too (straight pins, bobbins, scissors, etc.). I was also able to buy John a new pair of jeans for another Christmas present for him (on sale also). Then I headed over to Burlington Coat Factory and I bought my other son-in-law, Ken a wonderful leather coat. The coat was originally $298 marked down to $99.99!!! He has been fixing our computer (ridding it of virus', added things, upgrading, etc.) and we wanted to do something nice for him. His leather coat he has now is old, the zipper is broken and he needed a new one. I'm really excited I could do this for him this year! Thank goodness for the Christmas Bonus!!

Well that was my day! I ended it with reading my book and I was almost asleep when John came in! Whew! Funny thing he asked what I did with myself all day! I told him, "If you only knew!".