New Year's Eve 2010

Happy New Year's Eve to you! Hard to believe that yet another year has passed and I still think it's weird to write twenty-ten for the date.

The past two years, I've chosen a "word" for the year. Last year's word was organize, which made me think I did any thing but that, so I'm not choosing a word this time, definitely not this year. Instead, I'm going to come up with New Year's Resolutions that I can truly keep. I might already be doing them, so I think I'll stick with something positive and obtainable. Really...isn't obtainable the key to success and I don't want a repeat of last year. Organize? Smorganize!

I did get one project done, thanks to my hubby, that I decided to do back in 2007, 2006 or 2005....put knobs on the cupboards in the kitchen. We've lived eight years without and I knew I wanted to say at least one thing I accomplished while on winter break.

Before

After

Before

After

Thank you, Lisa Ford, the the use of the template. It came in handy!

New Year's Eve
We decided to eat out at Mazatlan tonight for dinner. Tyler had a New Year's social obligation, so he didn't dine with us. Madison got a darling new haircut, which I love!

Grant ate a ton of cheese tonight. He's going to "bound up" until mid-February. :)

So, what are you doing to ring in the New Year? Any resolutions for 2011? I'll post mine tomorrow!

Have a safe and happy 2011!

25 Days of Holiday Craziness Completed

This whole taking five photos a day was a wee bit adventurous for one working mom like myself. Let's say I didn't get it done, but I did figure out a photo for each day and I, of course, wouldn't want to disappoint you without completing the project, so here I go.....

December 10th

I bought six fabulous holiday cookies and thought how cute would that look if I was trying to make a cookies for Santa photo. Since Christmas is still fifteen days away, I happily consumed it for Santa. I can't say that I needed the calories more than Santa either!

December 11th

It was a weekend of scrapbooking bliss with some of my scrapbooking friends...Angie, Amy and Kristi. We are wearing red waxed lips that were leftover from our last crop. We are always creating photo opportunities to scrap, of course!
December 12th

We attended A Christmas Tale performed at Calvary Community Church, which our neighbor kids (the Blacks) each were a part of. They are one cute family and we are fortunate to be their neighbor!
December 13th

I caught my co-worker, Katie, confiscating computer mice and gaming controls from my classroom. Oh, 'tis the season of naughtiness! BTW, she wasn't taking them away from me! ;)
December 14th

Andy and I went shopping by ourselves and it was incredibly peaceful. I found ready to eat fruitcake on the shelves of Hy-Vee and asked Andy to hold it up for a photo. Think of the possible titles for this picture?
December 15th

This is what it's like to go shopping with a teenage boy...not a lot of conversation going on.
December 16th

I don't have permission to take this child's photo, so I deleted his face. I thought it was sweet that he brought his homemade nativity set made by his grandma for Show and Tell. I so love when kids want to share their stories with the class. Such a proud moment for a five year old!
December 17th

It's the Campbell Christmas party at Rosie's house. I did take a picture of Rosie (the hostess) and many of her beautiful home, but I knew my two blogging friends (Mindee and Tracey) would be the only ones to look at this blog. It only made sense to use their photos! ;)

December 18th

I couldn't decide, so I'm posting two photos. My sister, Jill, and her family stop by on their way to my parent's house to let their dog run around and to let the kids stretch their legs. Jill is newly engaged and marrying a very nice man named Mirvin. This is Mirvin's son, Matthew, with Grant in the below photo. Aren't they the cutest?? Now Grant finally has a cousin that's just his age!

Then I needed to add the photo of Madison at the Nutcracker. I have been waiting for years to take her...just a mother/daughter bonding event. I can't say it was much to Madison's liking. She yawned a lot and said to me after the first applause, "So, there's no talking, huh?"
December 19th

I normally don't post my picture, but I thought this was a decent one of me. I love my new lime green vest from my parents. A vest from the Vest's....clever, huh?
December 20th

It's Girl Scout meeting night and the Cookie Train Car is complete. It is all totally the girls' idea and looks just like the girls made it, which is should. You should see our competition, some look like architects constructed theirs! I'll post pictures after the event on December 30th.
December 21st

I couldn't find much to photograph, but is this not the prettiest present? It's a watch for Madison that I bought at my new favorite store called Blu Velvet. I heart that shop!!
December 22nd

Yup, you got it. Tattoo time once again. Little did I know that foot tattoos fade and sometimes need to be re-done. So, I scheduled the tattoo project after my last day of work, so I could recoup over break. Nothing says the holidays like a new tattoo! LOL
December 23rd

We did some holiday light driving in Lincoln. This particular house made the news and definitely resembles the Griswold's house in my book! I wonder how much their electric bill spikes for the month of December?
December 24th

We spent our first Christmas Eve alone this year. We knew that we were, so we eagerly (okay, I eagerly) signed up the whole family to usher at the 6:30 service. We go to a very big church with five Christmas Eve services. We were expecting to serve about 5,000 people since last year's record was around 4,300 with extremely bad weather.
December 25th

I chose this photo since I thought it was a wonderful idea of Grandpa's. Grandpa Tracy had five coffee cups full of change just lying around his house and he graciously gave each grandkid a mug. The rule is that each grandchild must take their change and find a way to help someone else. They can't keep it. The money could be given to a food pantry, purchase a gift for a child off of a wishing tree or simply put it in the kettle for the Salvation Army. Each grandkid is suppose to report next Christmas what they did with the money. The coffee mugs had approximately $44 - $53 in each of them.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Updated Holiday Pics

Day 7 - December 7th (of course) - Holiday Decor

I could not find much to take pictures of, so I took photos around the house.

The kids made a tree with presents out of clay, which is now displayed proudly at our house.

This is my favorite nativity set that I purchased in 1988 on a trip to Mexico. I was a senior in high school and went with my Spanish class. I love the look of this nativity! I know I've posted this before...this year minus the rubber lizard.

Another family favorite...1950 Choir Boys. These little guys once sold for 29 cents each with the bottom still marked. They were purchased from my great-grandmother's pharmacy in Iowa. I still have a photo of my Dad at Christmas with these boys sitting in the background.

Our Christmas tree this year. We decided to only put one up and we went with the vintage looking one since it goes with my "theme".

Day 8 - December 8th - Letters to Santa

I asked the kids to write a letter to Santa for this photo.

Another night of no time to be creative!

Grant drew pictures and asked Madison to write "I am good".

Tyler is asking for basketball shoes. If you click on his picture to enlarge, you see he has errors in the Dear Santa. Thank goodness for computers and spell check!

December 9th - School Chorus Performance

Madison decided to give chorus a try this year. Tyler did not go out for chorus in grade school, so this was a new experience for us.

Madison had a part in ringing a cow bell.

No solos for her, but she did get to be a ding-a-ling! ;)

ps. Did you notice I didn't get 5 pictures a day? This is extremely hard to do!!

More Holiday Photos

Day 4 - December 4th

Our neighbors, Dick and Sara, always have an Open House the first Saturday in December. They invite their friends, family and, of course, the Broekers who live two houses down.

Their home is like a photo out of Better Homes and Gardens.

I am not kidding!

Every corner is just beautiful!

Speaking of beautiful...our Girl Scout Troop #365 drove to Elkhorn and visited Clara's Closet.

The girls brought their moms for some dress up fun!

The activity included picking out the "just right" outfit complete with a makeover, runway walk, photo shoot, autographs and cookies. What more could a ten year ask for??

Day 5 - December 5th

Second Sunday in Advent

This nativity is in the youth center and I thought it was funny that there's a Halloween decoration sitting behind it. It shows that middle schoolers decorated.

Brrr....it's cold outside! Andy and Tyler were determined to get those lights up.

Our third year using my homemade yard sign.

We are a perfect bunch of flakes!

Grant decorated the ledge that leads downstairs all by himself.

Mom takes a deep breath!

Our front door looks like this.

Day 6 - December 6th

Today is my practicum student, Kayte Kerr's last day in kindergarten.

The kids made her a book and we gave the one she's holding.

Miss Kerr will be missed! She is a phenomenal teacher!

Andy and Tyler worked out at the "Y". So I said, "Please take the camera. I'm having a difficult time getting five photos a day." :)

We had our Monday night Girl Scout meeting, which I almost forgot about. We are decorating our train car for the cookie kick-off next month.

Are you ready for some Girl Scout cookies??

Every year (for the past three), I purchase a set of holiday towels. Madison picked out this year's "Naughty and Nice" towels. So cute!