Shaken....not stirred.

Yes, shaken, not stirred.

I took my first shot at an alcoholic drink Friday evening after two months of being on the wagon. Of course I opted for a martini - an eggnog martini - from The Londoner which is on the square in downtown McKinney. I am a sucker for a martini! Eric and I had a little date night, which have been in short order recently due to my incapacitation, where we enjoyed a lovely dinner at the pub and then had a leisurely walk around the square where I snapped photos of the delightful window displays. The night was beautiful and the temperatures very pleasant. I really enjoy capturing photos of the displays after our Dickens of a Christmas experience last year and was hoping my Knight would accompany me so I would be safe from any harm and in the end we really enjoyed our time together and taking in so much Holiday beauty. We even stopped into one of my favorite little antique malls where I made a splendid little purchase which I will have to post later.
I enjoyed the Plonker's pasta which was really tasty. Plonker's is penne pasta with spinach and sun dried tomatoes tossed in a Gorgonzola cheese cream sauce served with garlic toast. It really was much better than I had anticipated and I am thinking we may be hitting this spot much more often since the few times we have visited we have never been disappointed. And the ambiance is so fun there isn't a whole lot to dislike about this place.


JOY

We all need some joy in our lives. We all need to see the joy that surrounds us but sometimes we need to search for it. It really is there, I promise. I am trying to make a conscious effort to find the joy lately and it is in the laughter of my kiddos, the pleasure of finding that perfect parking spot or just the satisfaction of a clean house and candles burning that gives you that little warm fuzzy feeling.

BELIEVE.....just believe.

I still believe in Santa. Do you? He brought me the only gift I wanted last year, it cost nothing and I got it early - does that prove that "yes Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus?
This snowman makes me smile. I wonder how much is that snowman in the window.

As I was listening to the Weather channel this weekend all I heard was "blizzard" for South Dakota. I am, as well as my kiddos, just jonesing for a little bit of 'weather' and some snow/ice would be a welcome event. The really cute thing is that Taryn seems to peruse weather.com quite often in a desperate search for anywhere that there may be weather. She gets on the site and types in a zip code and from there she goes to the map and then zooms in/out depending on what she sees then she asks us all to come look. She knows what all the colors on the map mean and I am thinking she could do as well at predicting the weather as the actual weathermen do. I swear she is as obsessed with weather as her mommy. And the weatherman is predicting that Arctic front to arrive on our doorstep around midnight. Our 79 degree temps today will be a blustery 40 tomorrow with very strong winds making it feel pretty nippy out there.
This little tree is made from a sweater which is stuffed and to complete the look, vintage buttons sewed on in random areas. This was a project at our December art meeting in 2007 which I completed just several weeks ago. I'm slowly pulling projects out and completing them but I'm not so sure I will ever be fully caught up. I think I have so many more irons in the fire than there are free hours in my month but I have made a commitment to myself to finish those which are most important. In fact, I finished a bunch of Christmas gifts today and that is a great feeling. And the fact that they are Christmas gifts means that I cannot post a photo until after Christmas.