ooooooooooooooooooooooh

look kids, there's my reindeer!

and the little kids? they fell for it, sleigh, line and sinker.

the handsome little dude in the middle is henry. henry is going to be the ring bearer

in my daughter's wedding soon. :  )  he's pretty much enchanted me since 

the first time i saw him as a teeny baby. he's wise beyond his years, but he

really did seem to think there may be some deer swooping by at any minute.
he looked and he looked, till the sun nearly blinded him.

just look at his little face~ isn't he precious?

the darling little girls on either side of him are his twin cousins.

henry's mama and little brother stopped by to say hi~

a friend and i did a small craft sale in chaska 2 weeks ago and there

was a brunch for families and a chance to visit with santa. most of the kids

were terrified of the big guy, and i'm just going to be honest here- so were maggie and i!!

he was kind of creepy and before the brunch started he walked around and

tried to convince the grown up girls to have their photo taken with him,

and/or sit on his lap. 

NO THANK YOU.

sometimes cell phones come in extra handy- when we saw him coming over

to our table, maggie and i both grabbed our phones and pretended to

be talking to the easter bunny.

loved this shirt- yours truly had a baby on dec. 25th, and i 

thought it was funny and cute.

have you ever seen such huge eyes? she too was looking for 

santa's reindeer.

this "rare pair" willingly sat on santa and didn't shed a tear~

our table of goodies-

my partner in crime. i'm thelma- she's louise.

 one of the reasons i love hanging out with this girl is that

she is hilarious~~silly and spontaneous and always ready to do

something to make me laugh. (she's pretending to sing to the room

full of people here- and girlfriend can sing...in fact she'd sung at

a funeral before coming to my house). 

well, so long santa. no offense, but maybe a bit of a hair trim around the eyes before next year

would help with the scare factor- that and a little less creeping on the

mothers. asking all of us if we'd been baaaad little girls got old. just say'n~

hahaha hohohohoho hahaha

it's time for me to stop procrastinating now and get my 

presents wrapped- time's a wasting and there's not an elf in sight,
not a creature is stirring and if you should happen to see santa girls,
have your phone ready.

* hey will you join me in doing something to help the earth this Christmas?
according to better homes and gardens magazine, if every family in the
united states would save and reuse just two feet of ribbon we would save
38,000 miles of ribbon- enough to tie a bow all the way around the
earth!!!

only 2 yards each- let's do it- let's tie a ribbon around the earth together~

xo, beth

count down to Christmas~

   nine days and counting...

here are some photos of Christmas cheer to hopefully make you smile today.

we got snow where we live and all is right with my world again.

:   )

for the first time ever, we drew names in our family for gift giving.

it's great on the one hand because we all have a lot less gift buying to do-

(and for sure less gift wrapping!)

but I didn't get eric or adria's names and so for the first time since they

were born i'm not buying them anything... (maybe) haha

mama no likey~ feels weird.

this is not my neighbor pal murphy, but it looks just like him!

i made this into a little hand warmer heart last winter.

this is at my friend christa's house- she loves to decorate just like her mama~

pritnear kidnapped these two pups when i saw them on main street excelsior a couple

weeks ago. it was the coats that really amped up the cuteness factor.

i hope you got a lot of things crossed off your list this past weekend

and can go into the final Christmas countdown with a bit of

time to relax and take in the important stuff... i made three kinds of

cookies at the lodge and decorated up there. i'll show you some of that

in my next post. lars resisted cutting down a whole tree cause he

just wants them to stay in our woods, but i did get his help to cut boughs and make

two swags. one we put at the end of the driveway and one on the

cabin, and we cut a perfect little spruce top and that's our official

Christmas tree! it's darling and i love it.

we also made a trip to Alexandria for a surprise birthday party for

friend leslie. it was a blast and i think she really was surprised.

may get some pictures up to show you from that too, but for now

that's all, it's been a wonderful week at the cabin and now i'm heading south.

i have bookclub and a crown awaiting me. a crown for Christmas? you shouldn't have!

a tiara...a crown- just all so grand. just wish i could wear it on my head

instead of in my mouth~

xo, beth

hoarfrost:

frozen dew that forms a white coating on a surface.

i'm at the cabin for a week.  at about the half way mark on my drive

up north, the whole countryside was frosted in white. 

the technical term for this is hoarfrost.

it was so pretty~ i just had to pull over and dig around for my camera.

the frost, coupled with the low lying ground fog made for some

gorgeous scenery.

there is a looooong gravel road that leads into our place and 

now i've turned onto it and i'm almost there.

everywhere i looked, it was beautiful.

magical,

picturesque.

the cattle ranchers up north all have donkeys. there are many

wolves in our area that kill their cattle and the donkeys protect the

cattle. isn't that cool? they may be small, but they are mighty.

the way the animal kingdom works is amazing.

(we have our own nativity scene right down the road)  :  )

this is my favorite of all the frosty tree photos~

the lodge~ i'm there

wood from this big pile is keeping me warm while i type away here in my

big chair, a brown dog by my feet.

hope you have a great day,

xo, beth