'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

and all through the apartment, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (I hope!).

Merry Christmas from the Shivelys! May you have a relaxing, enjoyable holiday with your family and friends!

We are starting are Christmas festivities tonight with candlelight service at church. The Shively men are providing the music so it should be a wonderful service. Tomorrow morning we'll start the family rounds at my parents, then Jacob's aunt's for lunch, and then back to his parents in the evening. It should be a jam-packed, but fun day!

I'll close with a shot of our Christmas tree (there isn't too much extra room in the ole' apt for decorating, so this is the extent of it-besides the poinsettia on our kitchen table). Maybe next Christmas we'll actually have a house to decorate!

Ice, Ice, Baby

Those immortal lyrics sum up the past few days around here. Everything was business as usual, we spent the weekend getting most of our Christmas shopping done, we had survived the first two days of the week, and then the ice mist hit. The weird thing about it was that it snuck up on us. It started as a few rain drops and seemed harmless, but ended as an entire night of ice mist that turned every surface into a sheet of ice. Wednesday morning we both got calls for two hour delays, and then two hours later got calls that school was cancelled for the day. This morning we had a two hour delay, and are of course hoping for another tomorrow morning!

I am trying to cram as many Christmas activities into the few hours I had at school today and hopefully tomorrow. The kiddos are psyched (or should I say psycho?) for Christmas to be so close. In fact they even started arguing with each other about how many days until the "big day". I just have to keep telling myself, "One more day Kristen, one more day!"

I finished all of my work for the class I was taking this semester last night, but haven't seen my grades yet, so I hope they turn out good. I am very happy to have a few weeks off until the next semester starts!

This weekend we have Christmas with the Parmer's and break officially starts-whoo hoo! If anyone is going to be around over the break let me know, I'd love to have a mini-reunion!

10 days and counting!

While most sane people are counting down the shopping days until Christmas, I'm counting down the school days until Christmas vacation! These last two weeks are always some of the hardest, but most exciting days of the year. The kiddos are all geared up for Santa (I told them I have a direct line to the big guy to tell him who the good boys and girls are. Let's see how long they believe me!), I'm trying to decide what to buy for the last few people on my list, and trying to finish my final project and exam for the class I'm taking this semester. But I'm sure I'll survive when all is said and done.

As for the last few weeks, Thanksgiving was great. We went to Jacob's aunt's house in Greenfield for the day. The food was delicious, and I think we rolled all of the way home! We got our Christmas tree put up and did some internet shopping on Black Friday (you'll never catch me near those crowds!)

Last week was packed with the annual Christmas program at school on Wednesday, and a holiday tea party on Thursday. Jacob's same aunt that hosted Thanksgiving hosted a table at her church's tea. It was a really neat event. Each hostess decorated their table with centerpieces, favors for their guests, and used their fine china. Our table had a violet theme, it was beautiful. We had cheesecake (mine was had chocolate, peanut butter, and butterfinger candy bar pieces in it-yum) from the Cheesecake Factory, and were served tea by the men of the church. It was really cool, and made all of the guests feel really special.

This weekend we've done odds and ends, went out to dinner last night with my parents and Laura, and spent the afternoon watching the Colts.

We'll I'm off to get my last few hours of relaxation in before its back to the madness tomorrow! Have a great week!