Christmas Ornament Exchange Reveal

This year I participated in an ornament exchange hosted by Johannah who blogs over at The Sirois Family.  Johannah and I became blog friends back in September when I participated in a mug exchange and was paired with her.  When she posted that she would be hosting an ornament exchange, I quickly jumped on the band wagon.

When the pairing for this exchange arrived in my mailbox, I might have let out a little squeal of joy when I saw my match.  I was exchanging ornaments with Shelly from The Queen in Between and she's been a blogger I've followed for quite some time.

The package arrived and the box was so pretty I almost hated to open it.  But the lid was quickly off and check out what was inside ~

So much good stuff!!  For starters, the card actually made me laugh out loud!  Shelly not only sent me an ornament, but lots of extras too!

But let's just chat about the ornament for a second - GORGEOUS!  This Li Bien one is available from Pier 1 and I love it!!  One side has the date on it so I'll always be able to remember when it joined our ornament collection. 

Shelly -- you really nailed your package to me and I appreciate the effort you took putting it together in this very busy season.  Thanks to Johannah, too, for hosting such a fun exchange.

If you would like to see the package I sent to Shelly, you can check it out HERE. 

Do you do an ornament exchange?  I love adding a few every year and this new one is perfect!

2014 Christmas Exchange

One thing I love about blogging is the sense of community among other bloggers.  When I saw the Christmas Exchange on Hill Collection I jumped on board!  Astleigh linked up bloggers who wanted to do a $10 gift exchange and off we went.

The person I was given to send a package to was Vanessa over at Xtremely V.  If you haven't visited her blog, you should hop over and check it out.  Her little one is adorable!

As luck would have it, the box I received was waiting for me when I returned home from a business trip last week.  What a great way to be welcomed home!  It's so fun to get home and have a special package to open before diving into all the other mail that had accumulated over the week!  The sender of  the package sent to me was Carrington at Momma Fussell.  She, too, has an adorable little boy.  I truly appreciate her taking the time to put together this awesome package she sent to me because I know how busy this time of year can be.

Just look at all the cuteness -- a Santa mug, cute socks, candy, cookie cutters and cupcake papers!

As you can see, I put my new cozy socks and Santa mug to great use in lightning speed.  Wassail tastes even better in a Santa mug.

Thanks, Carrington!  Hope you and your family have a fabulous holiday season.  You sure made mine a little bit brighter!

Linking up with Hill Collection -- take a peek at what the other bloggers got in their packages.

Weekending - December 5, 2014

The weekend came...and now it's over.  It seems like it went by just that fast!  I was out of town most of last week and when I got home my friend, Carol, had visited my house.  How did I know she had been here?  Well, because this was the scene in my family room.

You see, I'm really not good at decorating trees.  Carol, on the other hand, is THE BEST at decorating trees.  So for several years I've had her come to my house and turn my trees into pieces of art.  We have five trees through the house and I'll be linking up to Home of Malones Holiday Link Up on December 16 to show them to you.  Hope you will follow me so you don't miss them.

Friday night was date night -- and frankly, we should have just stayed home.  Ever have one of those date nights that just didn't go that great?  Eric and I were both tired and it was cold and rainy outside, but I really wanted to go see Beyond the Lights.  I had been looking at several theaters to see what and when things were showing and I might have taken us to the wrong theater at the wrong time.  Yes, I drove us several miles to a theater that wasn't even showing that movie.  Thank goodness Eric is good natured!  We did end up finding the theater where it was playing and then neither of us really liked it that much.  I would suggest seeing it after it comes out on DVD -- don't waste your money seeing it in the theater.

                                                           

Saturday night was Girls Night Out.  We were celebrating Sherri and my birthdays so Tracy surprised us on the dinner location.  We headed to Element in St. Louis.  Great atmosphere, great bar, GREAT food.  Definitely a winner location!

Love these girls!!

Cheers!

Sunday I hosted book club at our house.  We followed the gift exchange idea I found HERE.  It was really fun!  Start with your gift in front of you.  I printed little slips of paper that had instructions like exchange your gift with the person who will be travelling the furthest at Christmas, exchange your gift with the person wearing the most red, etc.  Enough slips were in the bowl for everyone to have two turns.  It was definitely a successful way to do a gift exchange and I will do it again.

One of the soups I made for book club was Tuscan Tortellini Soup.  I found the recipe (and this picture) over at Damn Delicious.  It was yummy guys!!  The recipe called for spicy sausage -- I used sweet.  It still had a baby kick to it.  Overall -- easy recipe and I will definitely make it again.  I fed the leftovers to Eric for dinner and he loved it!

                                                       

I'm planning on spending Sunday evening totally vegging.  I haven't done that in a while and the couch is calling me.  Plus if I don't erase some stuff off my DVR it might explode.  Hope your weekend was everything you wanted it to be.  Hope to see you here later this week for more Penny's Passion.

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

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Life of Meg

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