Portable North Pole

For all of you with Kiddos out there. I would say Age 3 and up, this is an AWESOME thing to do in preparation for Santa's arrival. http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/ is the site and you can personalize a message from Santa himself to your kids! He will say their name (if it is something common), you can upload a picture in his book so when he opens it they see the photo and he talks about things specific to them. It is VERY neat. I sent one to L and one to K and my uncle said they loved it. Her are some photos of them watching!

L, K & B's visit to Santa

There are no words...

Allan 1917-2009

Rest in Peace dear Allan. Thank you for being the best husband to Grandma for the remaining 25 years of her life. You truly were the picture of a gentleman. We loved you like our own and we know you always loved us like your own too. You will be missed. So much...

ARCOLA -- Allan R. Gray, 92, formerly of Arcola, died Dec. 16 in Peoria, where he had been living the past year.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Jan. 9 at the Arcola Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Don Winch will officiate. Visitation will be an hour before the service.

Preceding Mr. Gray in death were his wife, Iola, who died on May 13, 1977, and his second wife, Margaret, who died Sept. 1, 2008. Surviving family members include two daughters, Phyllis (Stephen) Blain of Gardiner, Mont., and Shirley (John) O’Connell of Peoria; two stepsons, William Dodson III of Arlington, Va., and James Graham Dodson of Austin, Texas; four grandchildren, Phyllis Mahoney, Gloria Webber, John A. O’Connell and Bayard Blain; four step grandchildren, Julie Coco, William Dodson IV, Ann Loiselle, and Daniel Graham Dodson; four step great-grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Mr. Gray was salutatorian at Arcola High School and attended Millikin University and the University of Illinois.

A fourth-generation building contractor in Arcola, he left his fingerprints on many homes and buildings in the area. After retiring, he enjoyed driving the area and showing his family the structures that he and his father, Clifford Gray, had built.

He served five years in the Army during World War II and was a first lieutenant with the 392nd Engineer General Service Regiment. The regiment built supply depots and rebuilt destroyed railroads for military supply lines to the battlefront. He was involved in the Northern France, Normandy, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe campaigns.

He was a past city treasurer and was active in the Arcola Lions Club, Arcola Masonic Lodge 366 AF & AM and Royal Arch Masons of Illinois Chapter 66. He was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7862 and American Legion Post 639.

In 1930, he joined the Arcola Presbyterian Church, where he sang in the choir, taught Sunday school, and was an elder, deacon and trustee.

He was an avid bass fisherman, once catching a 6-pound fish on his own hand-tied fly in an "undisclosed" lake near the city.

Memorials may be made to the Arcola Presbyterian Church, 311 E. Jefferson St., Arcola, IL 61910 or the Arcola Lions Club, P.O. Box 134, Arcola, IL 61910.

Geaux Saints!

So I am not a huge NFL fan. I know, Gasp, Boo, Hiss. But be that as it may, my Aunt and Uncle came up with a very cute Christmas Card this year staring their 3 kiddos, my cousins L, K & B. I haven't posted photos of them in a while, mainly because they don't send me hundreds a week as they used to. I had to actually ASK for these and was told there were 580 images of this particular outing...sheesh you would think I could get a few! They are getting so very big!

I was thrilled to see L holding the ball correctly!

K our cheerleader in the making!

It's NEVER too early to start practicing your Heisman Pose! Good Job B!

A Correction....

Wow! It's a good thing that I just have a reader following of 14 people because Kippy so kindly (without making me feel like a total dumbass) pointed out that I called the ghost in A Christmas Carol, Bob Marley, where in reality his name is Jacob Marley. So no Kip, there were no dreadlocks to be seen, anywhere! My mistake! What in the WORLD was I thinking. I see no similarity here, do you?

A Christmas Carol

Last night I went to see the new version of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" with my Mom and Dad. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised besides the fact that it scared the bee-jeebers (yes a very techinical term) out of me. I had heard that it was a little scary, but SERIOUSLY? Bob Marley's ghost had my curling up on my Mom's shoulder like I was 5 years old and speaking of that, I would NEVER take my child to see this movie. Anyone who does deserves the sleepless nights due to nightmares and years of therapy. Okay, not really, but you get my point. This is NOT a moving for little kiddos. However, I was pleased at how good this movie was. With Jim Carrey, you just never know what you are going to get, but he did a great job. For the ones of you that haven't heard about the movie he voices/plays 6 of the character. Young, Adult & Senior Ebeneezer Scrooge and all three of the ghosts, Past, Present & Future. You can really see his manerisms in each character. This has always been one of my favorite stories and it truly shows the real meaning of Christmas! So, I highly recommend this film, if you are okay with getting a little bit spooked! Oh, and the movie was in 3D, so you got to wear the little glasses, which is always fun!

Am I Insane...

For WANTING to do these for our moving announcements? I was looking for a good DIY project as, like the Christmas Cards, Moving Announcments aren't cheap either. So I found these on a wonderful blog called Elzabeth Anne Designs http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog. Let me know your thoughts and if you would like to help when I call crying with my cardboard boxes and box cutter! Ha!

Handmade Moving Announcements
July 26, 2009

In case you haven’t noticed, I really love projects. Like, when I am faced with a life event, my mind immediately starts racing about what kind of projects I can do and usually the more complicated the better. See once I have an idea, it feels like a high at every phase from conception of the idea all the way until the project is finished. This is what happened when I decided to send out moving announcements for our new hours.

First, like everything in my life, I started my search on Etsy. I found amazing letterpress, digital, and even handmade announcements. However, none of them were just right. When I am searching for something, I can’t explain it-I just know when I see it that it’s what I’m looking for. This habit makes it very difficult for anyone to help me in my searches.

After etsy, I started thinking about moving, and boxes. Then I thought it would be neat to use cardboard to make some sort of postcard to mail to our loved ones. After about an hour walking around Michael’s trying to get ideas, I settled on some pretty vintage paper and some moving scrap book stickers.

From there, I went to the liquor store to do a little dumpster diving for boxes (classy, I know). I also went to the post office and grabbed a few address stickers and some priority mail stickers (both free).

Here is the finished (very affordable) product: I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!

Front:

Back:

So there you have it, handmade moving announcements that were fun, cheap and pretty easy make!!

Christmas Decorations....sigh

With the pending contract on our new home and the closing happening on the 29th (the inspection went FABULOUSLY btw), it wore me out to think about unpacking my 10 boxes of Christmas Decorations, putting up the tree etc only to have to take them down, repack and move them IMMEDIATELY after Christmas. So with a sad face I resolved myself to no Christmas decorations. Well, I did pretty well for the first 12 days of December, however yesterday I got an itch and I went out to the storage closet and started looking longingly at all my fabulous Christmas Decor. Plus I had gotten some new stuff in War Eagle this year! So, I did some modified decorations this year. It isn't CLOSE to being the same as having my twinkling tree, but it makes me feel just a bit better. Sorry the photo quality is lacking, but I couldn't muster the energy to take out the real camera since it's really nothing to write home about. I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas Decorations. Maybe I can come sit at your house! :-) Next year though, IT'S ON!

A Christmas Card Question

At what point does someone get removed from your Christmas card list? There are people on my list that I send cards to year after year with no return card. Now, I do realize that the reason we send cards is not because we expect one in return, however that does help. I have to say receiving Christmas cards is one of my most favorite things and I look forward to it all year. It is such a fun feeling to open the box and see those brightly colored cards! It makes the bills seem less gloomy somehow, but I digress. I sent 95 Christmas Cards this year and I would say my return is going to be between 50-60. Is this normal or not? Christmas Cards are expensive and by the time you add the ridiculous amount of postage you (okay I) have spent dang near $200. What are your thoughts? How many Christmas cards do you send out and what is your return?

Do you like my Blinkie?

Yeah I thought so! ;-p