Gift Swap Package

Gift Swap Goodies

This holiday season, I made the big huge leap and joined in with Becca’s Famous Gift Swap, and WOW! am I ever glad I did. Check out this amazing bundle of goodies sent by “Dory“, a fellow blogger and Chicken Lit Bookclub friend. Little did I know that by sending my list of gift likes/dislikes to Becca, I would be matched up with such a perfect holiday gift picker with:

Fuzzy socks! Barnes & Noble gift card! European deco stationery! Chocolates! Power bars! Photo collage frame! Holy presents!!!

Please excuse me whilst I calm myself a tad. But really, Dory, this has got to be the most amazing gift swap package a girl could receive. *sniff* Ok, now I’m getting all teary-eyed. Is that actually supposed to happen? Maybe I should put on those fuzzy socks…?

Thanks Becca & Dory for making the holiday so much sweeter.

Christmas Cookies

Christmas Cookies

Can you guess what the Catholic Family did today? Exactly. We made holiday cookies and left a complete disaster of the kitchen/dining area! No really, it was serious family bonding time… except for the fact that my Pampered Chef cookie press would not cooperate and pump out all those special spritzer delights that I create every year. Not only that, but the stupid thing cut my finger leaving me to bleed all over the place, thus adding to the festive atmosphere of it all.

But I digress.

Band Aids are such niceties during times like these, aren’t they? Cheers to our big cookie fun!

Attack of the Advent Shark

November 30th marked the first Sunday of Advent, aka the 3-week preparation before Christmas, when people scramble around like headless chickens trying to do the impossible. But if you’re a 4th grade catechist like me, you’re also making crafts in CCD class, which is exactly what we did yesterday. So what did we make? Well, we saran-wrapped big long tubes of peppermints for counting down the days, topping them off with a hand-decorated paper star. Of course, what would an Advent star be like if it didn’t have a sweet little sharky tadpole? Boring, right? That’s what Catholic Son thinks, too:

Xmas Deco Time

It’s that time of year again, the time when the Catholic Family and I yank out all of those dusty Christmas decoration boxes from the cellar and go crazy making the house look festive for the holidays. Yet this year we had a newbie to unload thanks to a certain brother-in-law with a sense of style all his own: a Moravian Star Light. Funky, don’t you think?

But my people wouldn’t quite be their normal usual selves without a ‘lil experimentation during the putting-together-process, now would they? Of course not. Hence the Catholic Girlie in her attempt as the new Ab-Fab Moravian Statue of Liberty: