It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's been quite the crazy week!  How often have I repeated that same sentence?  

Last weekend saw Twink's first gymnastics "team" competition.  She didn't place but she did a great job.  Scoring an impressive 6.8 on the vault, which she hates!  She did really well in my eyes.  I cannot imagine the pressure she felt going in to that competition.  It was a long day.  Luckily, my mom drove since she used to live in the area of the gym where the competition was held and I had my own personal navigator.  A big thank you to her for going with us, driving and missing her scheduled "girls night out" with her friends because the day was extra long and the team girls wanted to get dinner before we came home -which they certainly earned with all of those hard hours of competition in.  Thanks Mom!! We really appreciate it!!

Then, this past Wednesday night, my sister in law hosted her annual Christmas Ornament (Holiday decoration) exchange.  That is always a load of fun, this year especially.  D put out a fabulous spread and introduced me to 14 (12?) Hands red wine.  YUM!  The ladies that attend this exchange are fun to be with any day and especially fun when we exchange the ornaments and steal the gifts from one another.  Another huge thank you to my SIL for hosting such a fun night out.  (Too bad the weather was crappy!!)  I came home with a really cute present luminary and I can't wait to put a candle into it to see how pretty it looks all lit up! 

On Sunday, we picked out and brought home our Christmas tree.  My hubs lovingly put it up last night and if the kids can get all of their homework done and we can have a relatively calm dinner tonight, we'll decorate it tonight.  "IF"  got it?  No promises.  But I do promise that I will post photos when we finally get it all done. 

I can tell you that the kids were super excited about the tree coming into the house.  So excited that they thought they didn't need to do last night's homework.  That they were exempt because the tree was coming in and going up.  Not so in my book.   "IF" they do not get their stuff done today, that tree will sit there, with lights only, until this weekend when we are "off" on Saturday (after we take Guinness to the vet.)  Don't you agree?  When do you put your tree up and decorate it?  On a school night?   Or on the weekend when you can all enjoy the task at hand and get into the spirit?? 

Fun post(s) coming up this week:  my friend Alison is going to be guest blogging here on Family, Scrapbooks and Coffee!!  I may have her on two days instead of one day --- we'll have to see how it goes.  She recently went to Disney for the first time with her family and is going to tell us all about her trip with her husband, her in-laws and her two little boys!!  I am so excited to have her share her escapades!