Quick Takes Vol.17

 

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 Friday night the girls got to open 1 present.  Team Horning likes to extend the gift opening out as long as possible.  Sometimes it even goes into the New Year.

Theresa's present from Ella.

 

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Team Horning started the Christmas week with a party on Saturday night to celebrate the marriage of my sister. My brother and his lovely wife hosted a reception/dinner at their house. It was a great time full of visiting and catching up with some family we don't often see.

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Sunday morning brought Christmas breakfast/brunch to our house. My father-in-law is an over the road semi truck driver so we do holidays when it works for him. My mother-in-law who just moved back from Nevada came over as well, she was able to go and see my brother-in-law for Christmas in a city 3 hours north of Bismarck. Yes that means almost Canada but, not quite.

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Anne's present from gift opening on Sunday. 

This chair from Grandma is a big hit. Anne has been sitting in it to watch TV and to read books.  She also use it to get onto the couch.

Anne enjoying a movie.

 

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Christmas Eve found us invading my cousin's house for lunch and we stayed for supper too! The big girls went outside to play for awhile.  Look at the beautiful North Dakota prairie.

Laura playing outside.

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No midnight mass for this mama.  We did attend Christmas morning at 10. Afterwards it was more Christmas partying at my sister-in-law house. 

Eleanore with new fan. Ella and my mom made the shirt.

 

Christmas night brought the team to my aunt and uncle's house with more food and gifts.  Our family does a white elephant exchange and this year we brought 5 gifts so that the big girls could play. Amazing they each got a gift that is perfect for them.  Laura opened a giant (Sam'sClub) sized tub of animal crackers,  Ella opened a bag with a stuffed puppy and two cans of beans, and Theresa stole a gift, then had it stolen away later on. She then opened a tie-blanket. 

Theresa enjoying her blanket.

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Yesterday we went shopping, the Christmas cash from grandpa was burning a hole in everyone's purse.  Theresa purchased a Hot Wheel (big spender), Laura purchased a princess doll carriage, and Ella bought some Zhu Zhu items on clearance.

In case you don't know what a Zhu Zhu is. (ignore the date stamp on picture it really is 2012).

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Christmas Decorations 2012

I'm Linking up with Katie at NFP and Me to show off my Christmas decorations.

I like the idea of having my Christmas decorating on the web. Especially this year it maybe my last Christmas in this house if everything goes good in the beginning of 2013.

The first stop on the tour the tree

I took a lot of pictures flash, no flash, zoom, less zoom and this is is the best.  I really need a photography class in 2013.

 

 

Next up stockings:

 

 

 

This is the first year I hung the stockings on wall separating the living and kitchen. The wall is 8 feet so no little hands grabbing the stockings down.  Notice Edward the Elf was watching from a stocking.

 

Cabinet in living room:

This holds my Nativities and advent wreath.  For the last two years I had the advent wreath on top of the refrigerator, so that we could light it and say prayers which only happened two times. So this year I decided that I would put it where it would be seen. 

Closeup of the wreath

I put one of my nativity seasons in the middle.  I have read on some people's blogs about want a nativity scene but, not having money to purchase one.  I know for sure that two of mine are second hand ones. We have a Thrift store that has a Christmas shop and it is full of great decorations.

Top of kitchen cupboards will stay decorated with snowmen until spring.

This cupboard arrangement will be changed after Christmas it would be weird to have Santa and Ms.Clause looking at us in the middle of March. 

So those are the pictures of Team Horning's decorations for 2012.  Go over to NFP and Me and checkout some of the blogs.

 

Quick Takes Vol.16

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Spent the weekend working on cleaning out/up the house. We made our listing active this week. So far we have had one showing.  Keeping the counter cleared off and bedrooms looking good this week was not so fun. 

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North Dakota received some snow this week, so shoveling was on list of activities.  If you live near us and need a driveway cleaned out I have a child that is ready to work.

Anne shoveling

 

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While Anne and I shoveled Laura helped out by throwing snow back onto the driveway.

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We celebrated Laura Jo's 4th Birthday on Wednesday night.  She had a small family party just her sisters.  She wanted a snowflake party and I lucked out and Sam's Club had a little cake and cupcakes with snowflake rings.  She was very excited and enjoyed her party it was the best birthday ever or at least that was what she said that night.

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All the guests at the party excited to sing.

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I made it to the YMCA two times this week.  I am pretty sure that I am officially done working out in 2012. With no school next week I figure I will stay home as much as possible.   As I was lifting this week I was thinking that I should set some goals for 2013 so that I have something to work for.  I am not the best goal setter, I am still not sure if I buy into the whole SMART Goal setting idea.

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We saw Santa.


For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Vol. 15

 

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Last weekend Eleanore participated in The Nutcracker Ballet.  The Ballet had great dancing and music.  Northern Plains Dance brought in professionals which added excitement to the production.  Eleanore enjoyed being on stage and is ready for auditions for the spring production.

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Well, it is official our home is for sale.  The listing will be active starting Monday the 17th.  I have spent the last week preparing the house for people to see.  Here is the picture on the listing.

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Where are we going to live you might ask?  We are going to build a home a couple of streets to the north of our current home.  It is going to be a very similar house to our current home just bigger. The most exciting feature is a tie between a third stall for the garage and the coat closet by the front door.

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Our Elf on a Shelf Edward has been a fun addition to this Christmas season. So far he has gotten sick by eating too many Candy Cane Hershey Kisses, broke a stocking holder, and threw some ornaments on the floor.  My girls are worried that he learning naughty things every night when he returns to Santa and talks with other Elves.  

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No YMCA for me this week. I think that going up and down stairs and cleaning closets will count as a workout this week.

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Are you almost done with Christmas shopping yet?  Our home has been busy with wrapping gifts and getting everything stuffed under the tree. There are just a few more items that I want to pick up next week.  

 

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I like Christmas music and yesterday at Target I purchased Blake Shelton's Cheers, it's Christmas.  It is a great album that I know will get a lot of playtime.  

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Vol. 14

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The North Dakota Guard family suffered a loss of two soldiers this week.  Spc. Tyler Orgaard , age 20 and Sgt. 1st Class Darren M. Linde, 41 a father of four.   They were killed in Afghanistan and another solider was wounded in the attack.  Please add their families to your prayer list. - Thank You

 North Dakota National Guard soldiers killed in action.

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I went to Grand Forks with just the hubby to attend the 1-188th ADA Battalion's Family Readiness Group meeting.  I also got to attend the Christmas party - more on that later.  The information that I gained in during the meeting was great. Most everything I had heard before, but in the last deployment didn't apply to our family because our kids were too young. 

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The bigger reason to go to Grand Forks for the weekend shopping without kids on Saturday morning.  I hit Micheal's, Good Will, and Gordmans.  I also went to Great Clips for a hair cut!  I am almost done with my gift buying.

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Hubby and I had planned a date night for Saturday,  we did go to Ruby Tuesdays and then decided going to Lowes, Wal-Mart, and Menards was more important then a movie.   Which turned out fine because our hotel room door was right across the hall from the ballroom where the Battalion's Christmas party was being held.  It was fun, the unit hired a DJ with a Karaoke machine and had prizes to get people out to sing.   It was loud in our room so we just had to join in the party.

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Thank you to the family members that watched our girls. We split them up so that they were easier to watch.

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Last night Eleanore had a dress rehearsal for The Nutcracker Ballet.  The rehearsal was a Christmas party for a local energy company.  She didn't get home until after 10 but seemed in great spirits this morning.   She also performs on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.  It is going to be a long weekend of hair and makeup for me.

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All week the hubby was in D.C. lucky him.  I have been to D.C. three times and enjoyed it more every time. He was with training with Army and had the chance to see the apartments for deployment and I guess the setup is nice.  Much better then Iraq, which is hard to beat.

 

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!