Christmas and Family Galore

We spent the weekend with my family. My brother Dave and his family came up and stayed with us, and then Sat. night we had all the Brim's for Soup and rolls. What a crowd - we counted about 45!!!
Here are four of my brothers, a sister in law and a niece. Just to total it all up for you, I have................ my mom,5 brothers (and sister in laws), 18 nephews and nieces, and 14 great nephews and nieces!!


We sat and chatted, ate, and then ended the night with Mad Gab and Catch a Phrase. It was so fun! I am so blessed with a wonderful family - I love them all!!

At one point I walked back to the laundry room, and was struck by how many shoes were there (which equals a lot of people belonging to those shoes!!). These are not all the shoes as a lot of people left their shoes in the garage!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

A White Christmas!

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas.........................

Randy and I went for a 4-wheeler ride in the beautiful snow and sunshine. He had me take a picture from the back side of our house - isn't that beautiful? I think I see a Christmas card for next year!! The best part is - you can't tell that we have absolutely NO landscaping.......just beautiful snow!

On Christmas Eve I mixed up the dough for Orange Bowknots and shaped them and set them in the garage overnight (because my 2 fridges were too full :-) and then I took them out about 6:30am and popped them in the oven at 8:30 and by 9:00 we had nummy, fresh rolls (with scrambled eggs and maple bacon! These are so good! If I get enough cries for the recipe, I'll post it. It's my friend Sally's recipe and they're a tradition at her house - and at ours now too!

My brother and his family arrived safely from Florida on Christmas Eve, so we went over for coffee at my mom's Christmas morning. This is me and my brother Steve, we're only 1 1/2 years apart so we grew up fighting like cats and dogs, but now I kinda' like the ol'guy! :-)


We are having my family all over on Sat. so the whole gang will be together then, as my brother and his family from Corvallis are coming up today! I'm so glad we'll all be together - this is the first time since my dad died (just over 6 months - can you believe?) that we'll all be here. That will be so nice - especially for my mom!

Even tho' none of us looked our best I had my brother take a picture of us by mom's tree. I don't have a picture of all of us together since last December - that is so sad!!

Cookies with the kids.........................

I love traditions!! Today, was one of my favorites.........cookies with my Scheib kids! These are my "nieces and nephew" by friendship :-) and we have been making cookies every Christmas for at least 6 years - maybe more (I'm sure Tanya knows).

Here are a few of the samples - we love sprinkles!

Brenna went first....................
.............then Alyssa....................
...................and Ethan was very "manlike" about it..............slap that cutter down, and................. "get 'er done"!!
Tomorrow I get to babysit Randy's nephew, he's 5 months old, and oh so cute! Randy's mom usually watches him on Tuesdays, but dad ended up in the hospital today. They've ruled out stroke and heart attack, so we wait for more tests and hopefully some conclusive results.

Baking and sampling!!

I love being snowed in! Well - I realize we're not technically "snowed in", but since I don't like driving in ANY snow, I consider myself "officially snowed in". The best part is, 1)my gifts are all done, even the handmade ones, and that means no last minute crunch, 2) the Christmas baking is actually getting done, 3) I'm making progress on the afghan I started 2 years ago for Nathan (since he's 6'4" I think I'll be crocheting forever!), 4) I've gotten to watch a couple of my most favorite Christmas movies,5) and last but not least, I have eaten, and eaten, and eaten!!!

Here are the almond sticks wrapped and ready to hand out!

Brandon reminded me yesterday that we hadn't made donuts yet!! It's our family tradition to make donuts (mom makes them) when it snows! So yesterday I whipped out these babies! They're called "Crispy and Creamy Donuts" and they are yummy!

Here's what was left after we had our friends over last night!

And here's MAX enjoying the fireplace and just "chillin" - is that the craziest way for a dog to sit or what?!? It cracks me up everytime.


Tomorrow I will post more of the Christmas goodies!

All snowed in......................and lovin' it!!!

Today was the kind of day I love..........it started with SLEEPING IN!!! I love going to bed knowing school is canceled and we have no schedule!! I got home about 2pm yesterday and had visions of finishing gifts, doing Christmas baking, and some checkbook work! All that got done (besides laying in front of the fire reading and watching TV) was dinner! Isn't that pitiful???? But I did finish a good book!! Here's a dark picture of our house in the snow tonight - I will get one tomorrow in the daylight!

Today my mom and I had our annual almond stick baking day scheduled! I've really had the best end of the deal in this tradition, as my mom buys the supplies (which aren't cheap) and then she mixes up the dough and the filling the day before. Then she comes over and we assembly line the batch of 16 almond sticks. We've been doing this for years and it's a tradition I love!!! (Did I mention she only takes 4 sticks and leaves me with 12?) I keep teasing her that as long as I can get her wheelchair up to the counter she will be doing this with me!!! (no, she's not in a wheelchair yet - that's how many more years we have ahead of us :-) This is mom rolling out the dough - she's a pro at this!
...........then she passes it over to me and I fill them, seal the edges, prick them with a fork, brush them with egg white and stick them in the oven!!!

We taste test them as soon as they're cool enough to take a bite! I love the flaky pastry and the almond paste filling when it's warm - nummy!! (That's for you Debbie doo!)


Tonight Brandon has friends over to play rock band (for those of you who know what this means to the noise level in my house tonight - I appreciate your sympathy!!). I have sloppy joes simmering and hashbrown potatoes in the oven for them to swoop down and gobble up!

Maybe - and only maybe - I will get something productive done tonight! I have to admit that since I have the next few days at home with nothing pressing to be done, I just might have to put off productivity until tomorrow (after I sleep in that is - because.....school is canceled!!!)

Baby It's Cold Outside....................

I feel if it's going to be this cold, we'd better have a good ol' whatcom county snowstorm - drifts and all! What a great day today - it's cold and stormy - and I don't have to go anywhere!! I'm working on getting some handmade Christmas gifts done, I have a batch of bread in the pans rising, chicken thawing for a comfort food dinner, Christmas music playing, Max is napping in the sun, the dryer is going, and my oldest son, his friend, and my hubby were just all in for lunch! I love days like this!

Here are some more Christmas Decorations for you. I can't really show pictures of the gifts I'm making until I've given them to the receivers, because that would ruin the surprise!

This is the "Pottery Barn" bench and shelf my hubby built for me/us :-)! We ended up without a front coat closet because of some remodeling we had to do in the building process :-)! Isn't he talented? I just ripped the page out and handed it to him and here it is! I have to buy baskets yet, but it came in the house Friday just in time for our 10th annual Christmas Sing company.

Here is our nativity - I think it's a necessity when you're decorating for Christmas! You'll notice our angel's arm is broken off, and there are several others that have glued on pieces, but we've had it forever and I can't bear to replace it!

Kathi and I flew over to Idaho on Wed./Thur. to visit Judy McKay and we had a blast! This is dinner at PF Changs - can you say chicken lettuce wraps - nummy!!


Judy's daughter Hailey is learning to play the piano, and therefore, so is Judy!! We played a couple duets for the kids - what fun it was to sit next to my friend and play piano!

P.S. Judy - be thankful, this picture is better of you so I put this one in :-)!

Spencer is 15 and we used his car while we were there - I can't believe how big he's getting and how fast he's growing up!


Hailey is 6 and is reading and doing math and all that smart stuff. It was so fun to hear her play the piano - she's very talented!! Keep up the good work Hailey!

Finally a Christmas card!

Here's the 3rd card from Stamp Club the end of Nov. It's a 3x3 card that uses the Season of Joy Stamp set. The background was done with the Versamark pad and I used bashful blue and chocolate chip CS. Isn't that a cutie?! :-)


Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, in the last 2 weeks we've been to Salem, OR, Spokane and Pullman, WA taking Brandon to tour colleges. He has chosen Whitworth in Spokane, which we are very happy about! Now it's time for all those fun financial aid and scholarship forms!!

Here are a couple shots of my laundry room - which - if you've been here you know this is what I look at when I'm sitting at the counter in my office! Nothing extraordinary, but I think the snowflakes and blue theme look adorable in my blue laundry room. I think this is my favorite paint color in the whole house!


Tomorrow Kathi and I are heading on a blitz trip to Idaho for not even 48 hours! We get to fly out of B'ham Wed. @ 5:40AM (YUK!) and get home Thur. @ 11:25PM! We are going to visit our good friend Judy (who left us 7 years ago!!!!!). It will be fast but fabulous! I will post again on Friday! Enjoy the rest of your week!

I just scrapped 4-12x12 pages in my scrapbook...........

I just had to share.......Remember the staycation we had a few weeks ago? Well I decided to print those pics off and scrap them right away. You see, I don't often get to work on pictures for my book. I'm busy getting the kids books done, and figure I can finish our book when the kids have all graduated, which our middle son is graduating this June, so I've spent all my scrappin' time on his book. I have him caught up to his Freshman year, so I think I'll have his book done for grad!

Anyways, here are the layouts I did. I'm definately not a fancy scrapper - pretty plain and straight forward - but they're DONE!


I'm also hoping to copy a project my friend is making this December. It's a Days of December scrapbook. It's a mini book and you just take a picture a day and scrap it.....you know.....like foods, decorations, people, etc. I can't wait to take my first pic tomorrow. I will keep you posted on how it's going!

Christmas is at our house.............

My husband's rule is "no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving", so on Friday - the decorating began - complete with Christmas music blaring!! I didn't get too far on Friday as my pre-lit Christmas tree decided this was the year not to light. So I left it sitting there, half put together and irritating me. We were having friends for a birthday party Sat. night so I had to face the tree Saturday morning. It took me 5 stinkin' hours to take off all the lights - clip by clip. Each branch had a light running to it that was clipped on! Yikes! My friend Kathi came and she undid the top layer of the tree. By now it's 2:30, I have 8 bins of Christmas stuff open and strewn on the floor, my tree is naked, the table is covered with stuff to be put out, and the kitchen counter is covered with everyday decorations to be stored away. I still have to make dessert and an appetizer, and I haven't even showered. Did I mention they were coming at 5:30? Sometimes I quesiton my judgement! Well I got it all done, I did have to go with the "less decorated Janice look", and pulled the wet hair up into a up-doo. We had an awesome time with our friends - there was much laughter and good food!

Here is the rebellious tree after I put on new lights and whipped it into shape!

I'll post more decorations through the month, it's nothing impressive, but it's home!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to say Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends! I am so grateful for all the blessings God has given us, health (which I am even more grateful as I watch my friend deal with her 2nd blow of a cancer diagnosis, children (which I just had breakfast for my whole family at the table this morning with my 20 year old too - I love it!), a beautiful and warm house, a pantry full of food, enough scrappin' and stampin' supplies to keep me busy for months, (possibly years!!), friends galore that make me laugh and encourage me to walk with the Lord, a husband that is so constant and loves me (which at times I don't even like myself a lot), Randy works so hard and is a wonderful provider, but most of all I am thankful for the gift of Jesus Christ and salvation - which is a beautiful segue to why I love Christmas!!!!

Club and Cookies

Last night was stamp club and we made 3 great cards, so I thought I would post them for you to see. I'll show you the first one that I put on the blog a couple weeks ago.......

This card uses Pick A Petal and Wonderful Words stamp sets.

Here are some of the ladies hardly working - oops - I mean working hard..................

Aren't the color combos for this card fun? This card uses the True Friend Stamp set.




We made one more card but I'll save that for the next post.................now on to cookies!

The girls told me I needed to put this recipe on the blog. So here it is!!

CAKE MIX COOKIES

1 box any flavor cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil

Mix ingredients. Bake 10 min at 350 degrees!

These are a great quick and nummy recipe. You can whip them out last minute, and it's very easy - easy enough for kids to make by themselves. I do several variations as taught to me by my niece (thanks Marla!). Here are a few flavor options, but don't limit yourself to these...........
be creative.............

Lemon cake mix /top with cream cheese frosting
Choc. cake mix/creme de' menthe frosting
Funfetti Cake Mix

For last night's cookies I used a white cake mix and added white choc. chips. For Christmas I like to make the white or choc. cake mix, frost them with vanilla frosting and sprinkle with crushed candy canes!

I love leftovers........................

I sat down the other day and decided to make a bunch of cards with the stickers that I had left from the Simply Scrappin' Kit that I made the cards from for the class. These stickers were left after I made the original 16 cards that I have shown over the last week.

So far, I have made 10 mini cards (3x3) and 3 med. cards (3x6 which is the size of the 16 cards)!! Isn't that fun!! I still have stickers left too!!

All this translates into this: If you sign up for the Simply Scrappin' Card class, you will walk away with 16 cards and envelopes, a mini magazine holder plus cardstock to make 4 mini cards to go in the holder (see previous posts), and enough stickers left to make even more cards! See the class details ie: date, time, cost, etc. in previous post.

Just to tempt you all, as a demonstrator I was able to bulk buy textured cardstock in the brown, olive, and red, so if you sign up for this class, I will give you an additional free 12x12 of that to get you going on more cards. That is enough to make 4 - 3x6 cards or 8-3x3 cards, or 2 - 3x6, and 4-3x3, you can do the math :-).

Get signed up now - the deadline is Friday!!

Here's a closeup of the cards in the top picture, just so you can get a better look-see. (is that a word?)

#4/4 Simply Scrappin' Card Samples

Here are the green cards! I sure hope I've completely convinced you that you need to come to this fun and productive class!

Here are the details one more time....... I forget to mention that if you sign up for this class and sign up a friend too (someone that isn't a regular customer of mine :-) you will both get $5 off the class fee!!!

WHAT: Simply Scrappin' Card Kit class
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 1st @ 7pm
COST: $25 for kit to make 16 cards with envelopes, mini magazine holder, 4- 3x3 cards and lots of leftover stickers and patterned paper to make lots more cards. If you want to make cards with your leftovers, you can buy cardstock from me by the sheet at the class, or you can bring your own (red, old olive, choc. chip & white are the colors in the kit).
For $35 you can get enough for 32 cards plus lots of leftovers for extras just like above.
RSVP: Please email or call me no later than Friday, Nov. 21st!

Thought I'd post a picture of our Friday night dinner table that I set for our Staycation. We had barbequed ribs, smashed potatoes, swiss green beans, and of course - Crusty Bread. Have you made the bread yet?

#3 out of 4/Simply Scrappin' Card class samples........

Here are the red cards. So far I have shown the brown and white, so today is red, and tomorrow will be green. Isn't this fun?!?!


Since the kids were home yesterday, we had a nice slow start morning - I love those! I decided to make something I had seen on the web. I love cute little things, and this falls right smack dab into that category!!


It's a mini magazine holder - how cute is that? It holds 3x3 cards perfectly, so everyone that signs up for the Simply Scrappin' Card Class will get to make one of these too. So, with all the sticker scraps you have left I will give you enough card stock to make 4- 3x3 cards to put in your mini magazine holder! It would make a great gift - if you can bear to give it away!

For you that are new to the blog, the Simply Scrappin' Card class are cards that are made from a Simply Scrappin' Kit - we add a few touches, ie: a little stampin' of course, ribbon, and punches. These cards are a blast to make, require little to no skill and they go together quickly!

So here are the class details!

WHAT: Simply Scrappin' Card Kit class
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 1st @ 7pm
COST: $25 for kit to make 16 cards with envelopes, mini magazine holder, 4- 3x3 cards and lots of leftover stickers and patterned paper to make lots more cards. If you want to make cards with your leftovers, you can buy cardstock from me by the sheet at the class, or you can bring your own (red, old olive, choc. chip & white are the colors in the kit).
For $35 you can get enough for 32 cards plus lots of leftovers for extras just like above.
RSVP: Please email or call me no later than Friday, Nov. 21st!

The night always includes goodies on the tables (usually choc.) and a dessert and beverage, along with lots of laughter and fun! Besides the obvious perks of a night out not having to answer the phone or the "mom" calls (you know - the ones that call from anywhere in your house!), you get to be productive and go away with a bunch of Christmas cards to keep for your own use or give to someone else to use!

More Simply Scrappin' Card class samples........

What a beautiful Monday morning! The weekend was actually not so bad. We hosted a "staycation" at our house this weekend and we actually had coffee on the patio both mornings and sat out there one evening. (A "staycation" by the way, is a new buzz word - it's when you vacation at home. We usually go away in the fall with our friends to celebrate birthdays, but decided it would best to not spend money we didn't have :-) This is what was on the door when they arrived.........................

Coffee on the patio Saturday morning - complete with fireplace and cinnamon rolls!


Alright, enough stalling, and reliving my fun weekend......here are the brown cards from the set we will do! Again - this is my version of these cards, you can do whatever you like, or just come and copy!

With my post tomorrow I will give all the final details. For now, save Monday, Dec. 1st to come to this class!