The tooth fairy finally found Annabel and she woke up with $4 under her pillow and hurried to wake me up to show me! I am not sure if she understood, but she certainly understands money!
Thursday the girls helped me wrap what seemed like a hundred gifts. We have two Christmas parties for the older adults at my job and I have learned that they LOVE door prizes. The dollar value doesn't matter nearly as much as winning and the more the better. But it is even more fun if they are wrapped. So I brought in all these little goodies and Grace and Annabel got to work! For Annabel to have never wrapped a present before, she is quite the pro now. They made short work of something that would have taken me hours!
Friday was going to be the only chance to decorate our home. Everyone else around had their trees and lights up, but we had to work it in.
It was another project that Annabel had never done, but once she got into it, quickly became a pro. There seems to be competition on almost every activity, but for some things, I'm not complaining, it ensures the job get done and gets done quickly.
It was great fun going through all my Christmas ornaments that I have collected through the years and see their reaction to each. Grace is still so new to this but it was also the first time in a long time that I had all of my Christmas stash together. The whole process brought back a flood of memories for me. But I loved to have the new appreciation for what is old.
Annabel hammered nails into the mantle to make sure that all the socks (stockings) were hung by the chimney with care. We have 11 stockings up for a total of 5 in our house. Maybe the extras are in case Santa wants to be extra generous!
Saturday was our day to be the social butterflies and we started the day at the mall for a preview showing of The Tale of Despereaux. A friend in the neighborhood offered us her tickets and we were glad to see this great movie. This is one of Grace's favorite books and the movie was just incredible.
From the time we arrived at the mall at 10:00a.m. to the time the movie was out, the mall became packed! I was glad to leave! There was lots of entertainment, decorations, and LOTS Of people shopping. I'm not sure where the economy is hurting, since it seemed to be doing so well there.
From the mall we went to the library, a quick lunch, and on to our friend, Beth's house to make Christmas cookies.
Beth had us over a couple of years ago to help make cookies for her co-workers. This time, she had four different types of cookies to make, from the very tasty peanut butter/peanut butter cup cookie, to stained glass cookies, corn flake Christmas wreaths, and cute chocolate chip cat cookies.
We had quite an assembly line set up and the girls enjoyed the creativity that each cookie brought. The accidents were tasty samples too. But then Beth surprised us with insisting we take the cookies!
During the middle of making the cookies, I remembered I was to prepare a meal for a family in the neighborhood. Beth made a special plate of cookies for that family as well.
We ran home while I quickly prepared a meal before going to our next engagement, The Ice House Cultural Center where Grace was invited to the Artist Reception, as her sculpture was selected to be shown. So she was among a very small group of students, as well as professionals who had their work displayed.
Pictures will be added later!
Our last event was the Holiday Home Tour. I misread the agenda and thought there were children's activities, but we missed those while making cookies. What was left was touring the homes. I was excited about the possibility but Annabel was sure she would be bored. But after the first house, she and Grace were wanting to hurry to see them all. Each was decorated beautifully for Christmas, but more importantly, the love, care, and attention to these fabulous old homes was evident. It made me want to run home and start working on our house!
While at the mall, we finally spent a gift card from Gloria at Limited Too. We didn't take the time to try on the outfits and when Grace got dressed, she realized we didn't buy quite enough. The sweaters, tanks, and leggings didn't leave much to the imagination. I quickly began digging through the boxes of clothes we had packed for next summer trying to find something that would complete the outfit! For some reason Annabel had packed all her skirts away for summer. I think we are going to have to add something better before they wear them next!
Today was the last day of Chinese school for the semester. We had lunch at the new favorite Chinese buffet which allowed the girls the delicacies that include chicken feet, congee, and stewed radish. They love it all!
By the time we were heading home, I knew we had done too much. We had tickets for one more event this evening, but instead, Grace wrapped presents for Grandmother, and Annabel went with Marcie to Target. I got some errands completed and I hope to actually get some cards in the mail!
It's hard to believe that Christmas is so close. Sometime in October I start hoping and planning on all that I will accomplish for the holidays. After tonight, I just hope that Santa shows up!
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