Life with my sister

Last night I hosted my annual Christmas Exchange. We exchange cookies and an ornament. It is always a fun, festive time with my girls. I started doing this when we lived in Mississippi and enjoyed it so much I have held the event each year since (except in 2009 when Henry arrived at Christmas). Every year I have new faces to add to the group and I always count that as a blessing. As you well know, there is never a good date in December where all invited can attend. I am always pleased with the turn out though. Small or large, sweet times at Christmas with friends is always precious. The cookies are always fun and the dirty Santa with the ornaments is always a hit. This is my signature cookie for this event. The white ones are 2 Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle. They are dipped in almond bark and sprinkled with peppermint The red ones are Oreos dipped in red Wilton melting chocolate and sprinkled with peppermint. Red Neck Caviar is always a crowd pleaser. The bowl is alway...

Yes, it is early, but I am in panic mode with the baby coming. I told Mama that one would think I was preparing to die the way I am making final preparations and such. So funny. I love going home to my festive home each night. It helps me to relax and that is much needed in these last days. This is our den. We did not put the tree in here last year but this year I modified everything because I knew with Henry here it would be a lot different for us. This is the living room. This is where the tree was last year. Henry's Nana gave us her tree that looks just like the one in our den so I could have two. This year it was too big of an undertaking to put up two full trees. I hope to have that one in front of this window next year. We will cross our fingers with a one year old in the house. Maybe he can go to Nana's that day! This is the other side of the living room. I have acquired a collection of alpine trees at yard sales and after Christmas sales. I created a little forest her...