A Very Merry Christmas Indeed! :)

Merry Christmas everyone! I am back on blogger with TONS and TONS of pics from my "vacation". Don't get upset when you find you've been stuck on here for an hour lookin' at pics... I warned you. lol =D

Esara, Caldirwen and I kicked off the week (on Monday) with a little "baking".

Our ingredients:

Esara mixing the cupcake batter:

Me pouring it in:
I am very talented. I can pour cupcake batter while taking a pic. ;) lol

Well, they're ready to go in the oven:I'm messy, as you can see. :)

They're done!

And now they are all iced and read to be enjoyed:

And I took on a Christmas Challenge: to finish a 1,000 piece puzzle before Christmas day. Here's a pic of my progress from day 1 (Monday):

Tuesday:

Ty and I went outside "exploring", despite the fact it was 30 degrees outside and all I was wearing were some blue jeans and a short sleeved, blue t-shirt. lol =D Here's a pic of bubby running up to me:


Here's the pic of my Puzzle Progress from day 2 (Tuesday):

Sorry, I didn't get any pics on Wednesday, except of my Puzzle Progress:

Thursday: Christmas Eve!!!

Here's the Puzzle Progress for Christmas Eve, which was my "deadline":

Sadly, I did not meet this years Christmas Goal. *hangs head in shame* It was 11:45pm and I was trying, but I was just so tired, nothing made sense anymore. Before I knew it, the clock struck midnight and my time was up. :(

Well, here's some pictures from Christmas Eve afternoon...

Narthea making potato salad *yum*:

I decorated the table:

We had my Nana and Papa (my mom's parents who live next door) over for Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve, that's why narthea is cooking and I'm decorating. :)

(left to right) Esara, Caldirwen, Narthea and I:

We were so surprised, when all of a sudden a huge wind storm came and brought with it quite a bit of snow:

The ground was too warm for the snow to stick to it, but it stuck to everything else:

Hehe, I stuck my foot in a patch of snow on the porch:

Yes, my foot almost froze and I had to warn it up by the fire afterwards. :)

It snowed for about... 2 hours or more. Then, it all stopped and sleet came. *blech*

Our Christmas tree at night:

Now it's Christmas morning, we get up and open our abundance of gifts from our wonderful and giving family and friends. Sorry, I can't share the pics with you because they show our faces, but I do have pics of my presents!

I got a beautiful, purple, silk robe from friends at Church:

And BarlowGirl's newest CD, Love & War from mom and dad:

A beautiful "Love" necklace from my Nana and Papa:

A paint by number from Esara:

Four scarves from my Nana that she made herself:

Close ups:

An adorable, "so Eldarwen", breakable "purse" from Narthea:

I would so carry a purse like this! It's a jewelry holder. The top, dark brown part comes off.

A bath set from some friends...

...which included:

body spray (love it!):

lotion:

and shower gel:

Some silver, hoop earrings from Esara:

A $10 bill from my mom's aunt:

An adorable camouflage (love it!) purse from mom and dad with a matching wallet:

Some of my stocking stuffers:

Juicy Couture perfume (I love this stuff!):

Dr. Pepper Cherry Vanilla lip balm and a Mary Kay perfume:

A hair scrunchie (which is adorable, if I do say so myself!):

And what would a stocking on Christmas morning be without candy in it?!?:

(I got a bunch of each of those candies shown. I don't really care for PEZ's, but I love the other two!)

Blue house shoes from Me-ma and Pa-pa:

Purple house shoes from some good friends at our old Church:

A glass chess set (yes!) from mom and dad:

A $40 Wal Mart gift card from some people my dad used to work with (Thank you guys so, so much!):

And the most beautiful gift of all... a bronze, cross neckalce from Caldirwen:

I got some more gifts, but I'll have to share some pics of them with you later, I haven't taken any yet. :)

I am so thankful for all these gifts! I thought I was getting 2, or 3 gifts total this year, but I got like... 20 or more!! All because our wonderful and loving family and friends who "pitched in". Thank you guys/girls so much! I love you all and this has been a very, Merry Christmas indeed. :)

~Eldarwen Failariel~