I know why people tend to gain weight during the holidays.
1) They don't have time to get to the gym because they're running around trying to figure out what to buy for that White Elephant exchange or that Chinese gift exchange. (By the way who came up with that name? - Why do the Chinese get that bum rap?)

2) They're depressed because they've ordered that hot new video game, Rock Band 2 from a whole bunch of online stores who consistently advertise it's IN STOCK when it REALLY ISN'T! Or is it...



3) Some of your relatives gleefully send you all the chocolate and fat you can eat!
Happy HOLIDAYS!

I bought a pre-lit tree many many years ago. Alas I fear it has come to it's last Christmas season...maybe I'll leave like it is for this Christmas.

I thought that with a pre-lit artificial tree, decorating for Christmas simple. So every year since the purchase I beg and cajole my husband and who ever else that had the misfortune of being in the house to drag the tree up from the basement.

So far - only a few groans and wails...

So it went for years - (I don't know how many because I can't remember when we bought this tree. I do remember we bought it at then end of one Christmas season from Shopko.)

This year, I was about 5 levels away from the top. (It has 11 levels I think) so, I'm halfway. Half of the branches lit up. Oh no!

I asked my brother in law the electrician to check it. He got out his handy dandy electrical device checkers and after about an hour found the burned out bulb. Yeah!

Then the next level was dark, but wiggling a few branches, it came on. (Whew!) I'm almost done! I'm at level 2 when - nothing the whole thing is dark. So what do I do - get on the internet to research how to fix burned out Christmas lights.

The Light Keeper Pro got some rave reviews. So I ran right out the next day and bought it! Lee says I love gadgets... He's right!

After reading all the directions on the web site (It seems so easy) and the paper directions, I was ready to go fix the branches.

Step 1 didn't work, Step 2 didn't work, Step 3 didn't work... It's a TOTAL and miserable FAILURE!! So after 2 hours tonight I GIVE UP!!!

I think it's time for a new 'granny tree' - maybe one that just unfolds when you pull it out of the box.

For the past 4 years I've been getting our Christmas wreaths from a woman named Cindy Kruse. She spends all year long collecting various fir trees, holly, antlers, pheasant feathers and all other manner of things. She creates the most artistic and long lasting wreaths ever!

This year we went to Lakeside Elementary School's annual winter Christmas fund raiser. She always has a display area and Becky and I bought our wreaths there from her.

In the past she's been kind enough to remake my wreath with the Santa decoration that I've saved from the first year I bought her wreath.

I got a new one this year. I think it's just as cute!

Karen told us about the Carriage House that she, Derek, Michael and Suzy went to see last Friday and got Lee and I very excited about it. So we stopped by on Thursday, but no one was home. We called and the son called us back and set an appointment to see it today.

It belonged to Virginia Wood who was an actress in the 60's and 70's. She bought the house 20 years ago and lived there until she died about 9 months ago. Now her son is selling the house.


We were interested as it might be a good investment. I guess the stock market dropping 40% might have some benefits.


The house is around 4,000 sq feet according to the For Sale flyer. It has 2½ bathrooms. One of them is really pink (the ½ bath is purple) and three bedrooms. I don't think Kagan would like the color scheme of the house.

The main bedroom is on the front of the house and has the turret room set up as a make up room. It was pretty cool. Again, I don't think Kagan would like the pink color scheme. It definitely showed a feminine hand in the decorating.


There are closets and cubby's and a lot of interesting under the eve spaces.


It also had a great many beautiful built ins on the main level of the house and a lot of beautiful wood work that we don't see too much now-a-days.

The stair case although not as grand as the Conrad Mansion is still really impressive.

Lee liked the main living room the best. It was a very comfortable room. You can see the library behind Jim. For an old house, they did a good job electrifying it. There were a lot of lights in the rooms. So it wasn't gloomy at all (even though it was typical cloudy Kalispell day).

Jim was telling us the Historical Society was interested in buying the house and he had shown it 29 times since June. (We were number 29) He's gotten some offers but nothing that was going to sell the house. Lee says he doesn't want to have to update it and it does need some updating for modern living so we'll see... I don't think we'll probably buy it or at least if we make an offer it won't be something the sons are going to be too thrilled about.

Carole Keller the fearless head of our women's ministry got a bunch of our Aletheia fellowship women together for a nice afternoon of gabbing (and eating calories that we didn't really need) at Vivian's restaurant.

Hey, but what's the Christmas holidays all about if you don't gain that extra 10 pound of insulation.
Besides, it's cold outside. And we need a New Years resolution to work on - or guilt if you're really such a goody too-shoe - where did that phrase ever come from.

Vivian's sets a really nice table and although I gorged myself at lunch, I still managed to scarf down 2 little petite sandwiches. The best part was the little treats that came afterwards. She makes some really great home made tarts, short breads and other tasty treats that I don't even know the name of.

Viva Christmas!

So my grand plan was to create these really cool aprons to send to Chrissie and Nicole for their first Thanksgiving extravaganza cooking experience. Becky and I went to Joanne fabrics because:
1) They sent me a coupon luring me there with a whopping 40% off and other misc smaller coupons saying they'll take $5, $10, $15 off merchandise.
2) I had this bright idea....

Well after aimless wandering around all the aisles we came upon a display with pre-made aprons. Yes! I am all over not having to cut out the aprons, sew them and hope they come out right.

Then we came upon some cool iron ons "MISO Cool" (with a chinese to got box under it) and "MISO Cute". It WAS too cute. So there was my 10 minute project.

I got it home and of course it took me a couple of days to get at it. When I tried I almost burned the apron as I heated and ironed and heated and iron. The first effort did get scorched and the iron on transfer didn't iron on! ARGHH!!!

Ergo - it's just cookies and recipe cards and now I have to air express it to Haiwaii!

No good deed goes unpunished.

I just discovered this extremely talented artist! You can find his flicker account here.

Of course I think his camera robots set is the coolest!

I wish I was that talented! Then I wouldn't have any junk lying around my house ... or maybe there would be more.

Testing how this works.

I've been working, working, working in the garden. It's a never ending chore.

Part 2. Clearing out the rocks that were put in - oh maybe 30 years ago! Never use that in landscaping if you're not going to religiously blow/rack/feverishly clean up the debris that even supposedly maintenance-free plants produce. (Maintenance free plants is an oxymoron!)

I did manage to replant one area right by the front door. They look a little thin right now but I'm going to be putting in some more spring flowering plants soon.

Here are a couple of my fav pics.

I hope there will be great rewards next spring!

So, it's 90 degrees here in Montana. What does Sandi want to do? Work outside in the yard of course.

Being a transplanted Montanan, we still try to keep up with the neighbors, ergo the pre-requisite ol' pickup truck. This was yesterday, when the temp was only 80... shucks, Josh had only gone to the dump once when this happened.

Here we are at 8 am this morning. We prepped the stumps by watering them overnight. This is our second stump removal exercise.

Click the arrow button to play the video.

Ok, so I was a little too excited! You try digging these things out! 2 down and five more to go...

A beautiful tulip bouquet from Kagan - What a sweet guy!


This should have been uploaded on the her actual Birth -a-Day, but better late than never!

Here she is giving her mom that cheesy smile!
There's no getting away from shutter happy proud mommy; I even make her pose at the office. She's such a good sport.

Becky got a little present from Karen at the office. Karen made the vase and that beautiful flower is from her hibiscus plant from home!

She doesn't look 27 does she?

Friday night was date night. We went to see Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I liked it a lot better than the last movie (Forgetting Sara Marshall). Here's a blog on this movie.

It's a cute story, predictable but entertaining.






Here's a picture of Lee buying a little something something to hold him over during the show.

She had a fire in her chimney. Luckily no one was hurt. Megan was the only home at the time and she was in her room. A neighbor walking her dog by Ann's house saw the fire shooting up the chimney and tried to break into the house because she thought no one was home. Megan did not realize the house was on fire because all the smoke was outside of the house.

Ann has been saying she's seen the hand of God working these past few weeks in her life and is grateful.

Here we're presenting her with a card and some cash. Kimber thought she might want to roast some marshmallows.....

So we went to the movies Sunday night and saw the "romantic" comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
How do you check out whether you should spend almost ten bucks at the movies? Get online and check the reviews right? This one got pretty good reviews from both critics and movie goers. So we thought we were safe. NOT!
The first five minutes into the film (after about 20 of previews) we get to see the main character Peter Bretter (Jason Segel of How I Met Your Mother fame) au naturel, full frontal shots! As if once wasn't enough, we are graced with it a few more times later during the film.
The story would have been totally funny if not for the gratuitous nudity (of Jason Segel - I mean who wants to look at big white dough boy's privates? and the nudy pictures in the bathroom bar scene.)
Aiy Yah! This movie is rated R but I certainly wouldn't want my teens seeing it. It certainly deserves some sort of heads up for people.
It's too bad because it did have some good punch lines in it and would have been a good movie except for the gratuitous nudity.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall should be renamed Forgetting Peter Bretter!

Grandma and Grandpa took the cats for their annual check up.
See how happy they are about it?

Verdict:
Sylvester gained another pound.

Grandma needs to quit filling his food bowl sky high!