A Very Judge Christmas.

There is a huge pile of Judge toys in the front room. He sure got a great haul this year. He loves new friends. He loves to make sure they are surrounding him at all times.

He also loves to take friends out with him and let them wait while he sniffs the perimeter. Here's his new friend, Beaver, waiting on the back porch while Judge does his business on Christmas morning.

Here's my boy enjoying the hot dog that Gramma Jojo and Grandpa Jay sent:

What a merry Christmas for a (mostly) good dog.

Christmas

I started to make Christmas cards and never was able to finish. I ate too much. I ate too much CANDY. I'm still eating too much candy. I didn't get a chance to call anyone and just chat. I still haven't taken that family picture. Nothing went quite as planned.

I did get some very precious days alone with husband, which is something we haven't had in . . . almost a year. It was better than good. That's all I really wanted for Christmas, to be honest.

I'm having a hard time getting back to reality after all the merriment this past week.

I'm also getting bigger and bigger by the second and it only gets more and more difficult just to breathe and move around. Here's the belly today - almost 33 weeks:



And here's the belly with some of my Christmas loot:


a coat that fits over baby bump,


The Sewing Bible (to help me expand my talents, hopefully),


and the gigantic box of chocolates that husband got for me.




All in all, it was a pretty merry and bright Christmas.
Hope everyone's holidays were just as great.

Ho, ho, ho!

Can't wait for Christmas. We've got some good time off and family to see.

Lots of love and yummy food to be had.




(Do you love our penguin friend? He is so cheap and silly that I can't help but be happy when I see him. Also, Judge hasn't even tried to eat him and that's a real Christmas miracle.)

Lizards.

On sunny days in the late fall and early winter, Judge sits by the sliding glass doors all day and wants to go in and out constantly. Why?

Because there are lizards crawling up and down the glass. It makes Judge crazy. He can't get them through the glass, but as soon as he's outside they hide out of reach and out of sight.

I like seeing them. I had a pet lizard growing up. I called her April Gadget (after characters from Ninja Turtles and Rescue Rangers, of course). We bought bags of crickets to feed her in the winter. In the summer, we caught grasshoppers in the raspberry bushes for her to eat. She seemed to live forever.

Judge and the lizards are enemies. He's trying to protect his property. He never catches them, so he just whines and whines and tries to get out the door faster.



I really love those lizards.

(Yes, even if they do make my dog an obnoxious mess.)

Our Winter Wonderland

Here in the south, our winter looks like this:



Foggy, frosty, grey and cold. No snow.

In an attempt to make my own winter wonderland, I hung some snowflakes and icicles in the windows. That way I can look out the window and pretend it is snowing but I don't have to get cold or wet and I don't have to drive in it.

I found out it is pretty hard to take good pictures of them, by the way.



In other news, I'm in love with the Christmas tree. I don't even care that there aren't any presents underneath it yet. In fact, I hadn't even remembered that presents are supposed to go there until husband reminded me.


It makes the room look so happy.
It welcomes me home when I come through the door.
It's my nightlight.
It reminds me that it is almost Christmas already!
It's Judge's new favorite hangout spot (he loves to sit next to it and watch the cars go by).


And there is really nothing better than a nap by the tree with the lights all sparkling.


(Usually I'm in the recliner next to Judge. Husband and I are like a couple of ninety-year-olds . . . sometimes we even share a blanket and hold hands from our respective recliners while we watch our stories.)

A little TMI:

My belly button has all but disappeared. Not popped out, mind you. It is slowly being stretched out and swallowed up . . . I think it will be completely gone by the end.




Is that too much information?


PS - please DON'T click on the picture to make it larger . . . it is big enough already.

30ish weeks.

We're getting there. On Christmas Eve I'll start my 8th month.
I'm starting to wish I could wear sweatpants all the time.

Yesterday husband knocked on my belly and baby knocked back. Pretty amazing, right?

New Favorite Store.

Well, in the mall anyway.

The Learning Express!

Mostly because I want things like these for my little girl:

Calico Critters





Melissa and Doug Play Food Sets


Don't they just make you wish you had all the money in the world to spend on toys? I know it will be a while before she will even care about any of this stuff, but I love it so much. I just can't wait.



Also, have I ever mentioned that Babyland General Hospital is merely an hour and thirty minute drive from our house? That's right, it's where Cabbage Patch Kids come from. You can adopt one as soon as it comes from the patch! I haven't been able to drag husband there yet. We'll get there soon. He won't be able to say to no two begging loves-of-his-life, right?

(My kid looked a lot like this one, but with a yellow dress. Her name was Alice.)

One Lazy Dog + One Unmade Bed

This is what happens when I turn my back on that combination.


How could you not want to take a nap immediately?
Judge looks so comfy on pillow and blanket mountain.

Christmas is coming . . .

the goose is getting fat.
Well, I'm the goose.
Okay, not fat - but round as round could be.
(The point where my lungs feel crushed most of the time.)

Not a whole lot is going on around here except my lack of readiness for Christmas.
Where is this month going?!

In the meantime, enjoy this little song that I listened to growing up:

What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?

Fun with Felt.

We had a crazy and fun weekend. We ate two fabulous Thanksgiving meals, worked Black Friday shifts (I had to work the 5 AM shift, husband closed), got some great deals at the mall, "glassed it up" twice at McDonalds, fixed a leaky faucet, had a glucose screening, partied after church with a casserole mixer, and on and on and on. I made two very delicious pies and one pretty mean casserole. It was a great warm up for an entire month of projects, crazy holiday hours at work and much more baking.

I've already started some holiday crafting with a serious felt fetish. Judge likes the felt, too. For some reason he wants to either eat it or sit on my lap while I embroider it. He's strangely fascinated. I've got lots more I want to do, but we'll see how busy it gets now that it is officially December! (This post is mostly for my mom, because I tried to send her some pictures of the stuff I've been working on and the email didn't quite work.)

Wreath, with Felt Hearts
(that I need to actually hang on the door)


Stockings
(for the whole family, still working on Lil Girl's)


Christmas Ornaments
(not made of felt, but pieces of the old broken chandelier that was in the house when we got here)



Tree Skirt
(also not felt, but made from material I got in a little bundle from Goodwill)




Did I mention that I love my sewing machine
(and my husband, who pretends to be really excited about these projects and tells me how cool they are, even when I'm not sure he really cares about felt at all) ?