Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Ruben and I have been gearing up for Christmas and filling our time with social gatherings and fun times. We are so blessed to have good friends and each other. It's nice to be able to stop all the craziness that is the holidays, and just realise that what you really want is to be together. :)

The weather is getting cold and it's finally starting to snow! Here Ruben is heading out in his winter coat to walk the dogs.

Leading up to Christmas we have been to a cookie decorating party, 2 dinner parties, plus I had 3 office holiday parties all last week! After gaining some serious holiday pounds, Ruben and I have tried to take it easy on the sweets this week. :)

But oh man were the cookies so good!

Here are some that Ruben and I decorated. :)




This is Tina Louise, who hosted the party with her husband Mike.

They had all kinds of yummy treats, including tea, coffee and hot cider.

Here some of the group gather around the table and decorate. :)

This is Maria. She was very focused on decorating the gingerbread house.

Aww! You can feel the cookie love!

What a fun time, chatting and meeting new people. All the while eating lots of cookies and sugar!

YuM! Ruben eats his bass clef cookie. :)


We also recently got our Christmas tree! We were blessed to receive another real free tree! I was worried that we had missed the give away or that the organization wasn't doing it this year. I kept looking for information in the local paper, but didn't see anything. I decided to call them, and it had turned out that we did miss the give a way day, but they still had a few and we were welcome to come by and pick one up. We took the first tree we saw and it is beautiful!

I love all the ornaments that were once Grannies, and also our bass cards that Ruben places in the tree. :)

I also put out my snow village, which always makes me think of Grannie too! I guess I have a lot of memories of all the effort she put into decorating and making her house so festive and fun! I want my house to be that way too, sort of connects us, and brings back wonderful memories. :)

Our stockings. :)

Here Ruben is wearing some mittens I made him. :) I was supposed to wait to give them to him for Christmas, but I got too excited and gave them to him as soon as I finished them. :)

Not only that, but it looks like it will be a white Christmas for Chicago this year! I woke up this morning to find our neighborhood cover in snow.

Here are the dogs in their sweaters running around in it!

Oh, I don't look to awake yet! ;)

So pretty!

Nikon love the snow!

Ruben and I have a quiet Christmas planned, hanging out together and cooking a yummy dinner and a Christmas day brunch. Luckily I do not have to work Christmas eve so we will be able to spend a lot of time together before I will leave for West Texas ont the 26th. Looking forward to see some of my family and friends very soon!

Much love and blessing to you all!

Getting Ready for the Holidays

I realized that it has been a long time since I have posted news.

November was somewhat uneventful, not only that, but my camera has been giving me fits lately!

Ruben's audition in Houston went well. He was only 1 out of 8 bassist invited to audition for the open position, which was a big honor considering that it was a national search. Unfortunately, he did not win the job there, but we know that God has a special job for him and we are willing to be patient until it arrives. :)

Thanksgiving was spent with a friend and some friends of a friend at a pot luck dinner. Ruben and I brought 4 dishes, and we ate way to much food (as your supposed to do I guess.) I didn't get any pics of our feast, but we did have a good time.

Other than that, it's been pretty easy going. I have been knitting and working on projects and getting ready to head home for the later part of the holidays. I fly to west Texas on Dec. 26th and I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends!

Hope to update you soon on mine and Ruben's Christmas plans!

Much love to you all!

Shannon