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Those of you who have known me for a while know that I love me some rain gear.  I was even known as “the yellow boot girl” in high school.  That is not really an experience that I want to relive (nothing like high school public humiliation).   However, I still have my knee-high bright yellow boots and will wear them again one day.

Apparently, I still have this desire to dress for the rainy days.  Samantha received a cute lady bug raincoat for Christmas last year from her Nana.  (I would link to the picture, but since we switched sites, I have no idea where our pictures are.)  It was an 18 month size and she has really worn it.  It’s been a great coat, well made, and cute to boot.  Sadly, it has gotten a little small.  She can still wear it (at 27 months), but I know it won’t last much longer.

Recently, Nana told me that the new rain coats had just been delivered at Sam’s, where the old one came from!  I finally got a chance to run some much needed errands yesterday.  Sam’s was one of my stops, so I had to check out the new rain gear.  I found this cute green coat and the frog boots came from Target.

Of course, I had to let her try them on when I got home.  She can’t stop talking about the boots and goes to her closet to pull them out every chance she gets.  I hope she has many happy rainy day memories.

Some of you may know that we put up our Christmas decorations late, according to today’s standard, but also take them down late.  We wait until the Epiphany, or the 12th day of Christmas to take everything down.  It falls on January 6.  This year, we took down our Christmas stuff last weekend.

Both Brian and I took down ornaments off the tree, then he moved on to taking the lights off as I was boxing up the ornaments.  (Sadly, we did lose 2 glass ornaments when taking down our tree.)  This was the scene about half way through taking the lights off.

Oh my goodness.  I swept the floor after all was said and done.  Then vacuumed several times.  The vacuum got clogged and had to be cleaned out twice.  Poor tree.

Sometimes, Samantha wakes up from her nap and her hair is just so adorable that I have to take a picture.

I finished the curtains in the living room.  I did the window first.  I thought it would be easier.  The instructions I had were for 3 triangles in one window, and I just wanted 1 triangle.  They also instructed me to mount on a board (like a cornice I’m guessing) but I wanted to use a standard rod.  So, that meant I basically had to design my own and it was not exactly easy.  It turned out fine though.  It took me longer to measure, think, measure again, and think again than it did to do the actual sewing.  Brian helped me hang the rod.  Thanks!  Overall, it took an evening (after Sam went to bed).  Not bad.

I was putting off the one for the door.  I was nervous about making a rod pocket for the already existing blinds’ valance.  I wasn’t sure I would be able to mount it back, but I didn’t really have another option.  Magnetic rods are not made with a projection, so I couldn’t find one that would give me enough room to go around the blinds.  I finally just did it.  It didn’t turn out correctly, so I thought I would have to start over (luckily, I have about 1.5 yards of the material remaining).  However, I had a stroke of genius and decided to bust out the hot glue gun.  It was the best idea I had!  It turned out great, and I should have thought of that long ago!

All in all I like them, although I think they look weird because they are 2 different sizes.  However, the window and the door are different sizes, so I knew it would be like that.  It just looks weird because everything on that wall is symmetrical except for the new curtains.

Here’s the door:

I feel like everyone has moved beyond Christmas.  I am running a little behind, so I’m just getting around to posting our Christmas pictures.

Christmas started with brunch at the Betbezes on Christmas Eve.  I really like this tradition.  We enjoyed brunch then the kids began opening presents.  Samantha got lots of great gifts, but the #1 score (in her eyes) was a new shopping cart from Great Aunt Mary.  She barely had the patience for her daddy to put it together.  Goodness.

After naptime, we headed to mass.  It wasn’t as crowded as usual, so we actually had a whole pew to ourselves.  Our friend Kris took this family shot after mass.  It’s one of the few times that Samantha has actually smiled for the camera.  Thanks, guys!

We came home, had Chicken Tortilla Soup (yum) then nestled all snug in our beds.

On Christmas morning, we got up and opened presents.  Samantha got a few books and some hand glove puppets from Santa.  The hit was the Abby Cadabby magic wand book she got.  I like this shot because it shows Sam in her Christmas PJs and slippers, inspecting her new book.

As we were packing the car and getting ready to drive to Huntsville, I went to feed the cats.  We didn’t arrange for anyone to stop by because we were only going to be gone for a few days.  However, I discovered that we were almost out of cat food.  As in, we didn’t have enough to last a few days.  Uh oh.  It was Christmas morning, and I was sure that no store was open that carried our cat food.  Luckily, the Grissoms came to the rescue.  Thanks for buying our cats’ food and taking it by the house to feed them!!

We drove to Huntsville in time for lunch.  The kids were getting ready for their naps so we hurriedly opened presents.  Wow, what craziness.  If I had to guess a favorite from that bunch, it would be the keyboard from MamaLinda and Pop.  Now Samantha can play the piano and push lots of buttons while her daddy is playing too.  She loves dancing to the beat.

On Boxing Day, my mom and I went out shopping while the boys and kids went to the Train Exhibit at the Botanical Gardens.  I think it was a hit.  Of course, anything involving Jackson is sure to be lots of fun.  See a previous post.

On Sunday, we traveled over to Florence to spend some time with Brian’s family.  We enjoyed getting to see everyone.  We opened presents that night then spent a few days relaxing and playing games.  Samantha’s favorite gift was the rocking chair from Nana and Papa.  She loves it!  She also loved Chloe’s skirt and playing with wrapping paper, tissue paper and boxes!

We had a great Christmas!  Whew.  We were glad to spend a few days at home relaxing before beginning the new year!  Here’s one final picture of us in front of our tree at home.  (And you can see my new curtain in the background, and Samantha’s new white dot outfit from MamaLinda!)