Christmas Goodies with Good Friends Galore

Well, I know this has taken me way too long to post but I definitely wanted to share with all of you some of the wonderful moments from our Christmas season with good friends galore. You'll see "my boys" B. & T., and their grandparents (our neighbors S. & L.), my good friend Ms. Major who were all so very generous with us and also very generous to include us in their lives this Christmas and throughout the years! We are truly blessed and had a great time.

The boys collect nutcrackers and as you can see; I think he liked them!

S. & L. liked their James Dean movie set we gave them along with the necessary snack foods; popcorn, milk duds and hot tamales!

B. & T. checking out their Nutcrackers up close and personal! They gave me an awesome 1950's advertising calendar that I love and it's hanging in my office right by my desk. It's awesome and so are these guys! They're growing way too fast though...

He had been wanting a Chef Nutcracker and guess what I got him? You got it!

Check out the hubby's Florida State apron; I got one too but didn't take a self portrait; we love them and S. & L. had them custom made for us. Thank you so much! Can't wait for the hubby to wear his while he's grillin' us some steaks!This is my dear friend Ms. Major who is truly that; She's Major folks! She came over and did way too much for me for Christmas this year, check out all the cool stuff she got me in the pictures below; I loved it all and love you too Ms. Major!

Ms. Major loves her snowman watch I gave her!
This is a book that Ms. Major got from her aunt and it is HILARIOUS! So, if you haven't seen it you've got to go out and find it and read it and give it to someone deserving of its' humor! The oppossum kind of says it all, huh? More of the book...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Plumbing Problems can cause a girl to need a margarita...

Know what this is? This is my kitchen floor...AFTER we had to pull up our beautiful hardwood floors due to the water leak....read below for more fun filled details....it's been a tough week and a half around here....Happy 2009! Well, I have a lot more to tell you about the title of this entry but let's just say that if any of you get any bright ideas to pour something called "Liquid Lightning" down your drain....DON'T! It could wind up costing you your hard wood floors, 3 hours worth of plumbers bills, holes in your wall, a Sawz All cutting through your vintage maple cabinets,new countertops and so, so much more! I'm going to post a few pictures here but stay tuned as I have to totally renovate my kitchen, thanks to a $8.88 bottle of crap from Walmart! Seriously, don't even think of putting this stuff down your drain!
This is our kitchen after we pulled up the hardwood floors, removed the moisture barrier fabric, mopped, called the plumber, emptied all the cabinets...THis is my dear sweet hubby after he'd already put in a long day of work painting helping us pull up some old asbestos tiles from the 50s that were under the wood, under the linoleum under our cabinet. He was spraying a bleach mixture to kill any mold that had tried to grow as the water sat under the cabinet for a few days. Note to all other hubbies: If you notice a water leak at your concrete foundation, don't wait to tell your wife since "you knew she'd be mad" as it won't go away, it will only get worse! God love him!

THis is the water stain at the base of one of our blonde cabinets; thank goodness it looks worse in this picture than it was. Trust me though; it was plenty bad enough!

I'm going to post more on this so stay tuned as we try and move forward. We've decided to go ahead and make other changes that we've wanted to do since we already have the whole thing torn apart; new floors, new 1950s boomerang Formica countertops, a new cast iron sink (that I got and awesome deal on at Home Depot for only $50.00 as it was the display and they were switching out their models that day...thank goodness I found a deal in the middle of this nightmare...), , a new retro faucet and maybe more. Whew, I hope I win the lottery!

Our Holiday Home 2008 - Enjoy

This is our vintage '59 aluminum pom pom tree in all its' glory - doesn't it look so much better with all of our antique 40's and 50's glass ornaments on it and with all the presents under there? So much better than the lonely tree photo I posted on my Christmas day blog. We love it. If you look close on there you might see the little hand made teddy bear ornament that my hubby made when he was a little boy...so cute... I told you guys he loves Christmas too!This is our snowwoman statue figure that stands about 4 foot tall that stands guard in the family room. I got her at Kirkland's home decor store a couple of years ago after Christmas at 75% off - I think I paid $10.00 for her and two woman tried to buy her off me as I tried to make my way out the mall with her. She's awesome.
This is just a little "scene" I set up on a shelf over the sofa in the family room. We love those Jim Shore collectible figurines and this is Santa in his sleigh with 2 small aluminum trees and some berry garland. I've also got vintage bark cloth framed pieces out on that wall and some awesome paint by number pictures from the 50s out there. We wrapped one of them with red foil like a present for a backdrop piece.

This little guy is "Frosty" that my hubby made in a ceramics class when he was 8 years old and I cherish him. Look at how detailed of a painter he was even at such a young age...isn't he adorable?!

This is a cute little shelf in my dining room that the hubby repainted for me that I keep most of my cookbooks on.

This is our art decor china cabinet where we keep some of our favorite treasures year around and where we put out little snowmen and some vintage shiny brite ornaments still in their box. Oh, and that clock? I love it and I love the sound of its' chime and I got it about 10 years ago at a garage sale for $8.00.

This is out in the family room. See how all out we go?! I got the rug at an after Christmas sale and put it in the shot for the picture and it will be there next year for sure. I got the couch from an ad in the local paper and love it as its' 84 inches long and in awesome condition, we got the 50's lamp from a garage sale for $15.00, and all the Christmas pillows from World Market after Christmas a couple of years ago. I'm so proud of the way it turned out for the holidays.

I made this wreath after collecting vintage ornaments for a couple of years and it makes me happy every year to pull it out and put it in the family room.

This is the top of my china cabinet in my dining room that the hubby bought me for our 5th anniversary.

Cardboard house I found at Marshall's this year and just had to have with the cute bottlebrush trees.

Out in front of our house. Got most of these decorations from garage sales too! I know you find that shocking, right? LOL! This is on a cabinet in our living room and I love this sparkly Merry Christmas decoration that I found at a cute local vintage shop. It fits perfect here and on top of this cabinet are the gold beaded deer that I made.

A pair of these plastic stand up Santas stood watch out by our front door to greet our holiday visitors! Who wouldn't love that face?

Close up of greenery swags I made to hang in the doorways between our living and family rooms. I LOVE these vintage pixie elves. I put them everywhere I can as they are so retro!

This is our Jim Shore nativity scene; the real reason for this season!

Well, this is just a little walk through some of our holiday decorations, as I forgot to take pictures of the bathrooms with their Christmas shower curtains and towels (yep, I go all out...) and the bedrooms with their comforters and greenery but it was all so nice and I was so proud to share it with you; I hope you all had a blessed and happy Merry Christmas and to all my friends that are reading this and who I got to spend time with over the holidays, we love you!

Retro Christmas Party at our Place! December 13, 2008

This is what our table looked like with all the wonderful food that we all pitched in and prepared. I love that my friends are all like me and love to bring a dish to make it easier on the hostess, and since that was me this time, thanks ladies & gents! I love my vintage Santa that stood watch over the treats as we all dug in! Watch out Santa, you'll come to find yourself face down in some pretzels later in the night; not that I'm saying that things got a little out of hand....As you can see from the set up on our carport, people took it serious when we said to "please bring your favorite adult beverage"! The kids in the neighborhood could have snuck up and had a hey day if they'd only known...LOL! I'm glad they didn't though as I wouldn't have wanted to have to explain that to their parents.

Don't you love my vintage plastic snowman and Christmas tree pieces that we mounted to our post, my mom always had these when we were growing up and I'm glad I found some for my house and I even found her some as she had sold hers or lost them in an Air Force move somewhere in our past and they always remind me of where we lived during our times in the Air Force growing up. Don't let these two "tough" looking fellas fool ya - best guys you'd ever wanna know! D. on the left is married to my friend C. (you know, the one who got bit by the donkey....) and L. on the right is our neighbor across the street who has helped me and the hubby more than you could ever imagine since he "took us on to raise" when we moved in the neighborhood! We love them both and their wives too! Thanks for coming guys and for being the first to arrive!

This is my sweet S. (in foreground) and that's T. in the background. S. is the mom of sweet Abbie that you saw in pics from where they came to see my dad at the nursing home and is the sweet daughter of my childhood friend T. and is like a daughter to me as I've been in her life since she was born. I'm so proud of her and love her to pieces and this is the first night that she and her Aunt M. got to snorkel together...you'll understand later that she's still not quite able to keep up with me but I have had years, and years. of practice....I love you S.! At least you gave it a great try and you did way out last your mama!
Oh yeah baby, that's me (in my outfit that I worked in all day getting ready for the party and never got a chance to change ...) and my girl T., and her hubby D.. The music was crankin' and we were gettin' down tonight! We had so much fun and do you think this picture had anything to do with all the "refreshments" on my carport...hmmmmm...... See what you guys missed that weren't able to make it...maybe next year...Me and my girl continue to be "shakin' our groove thing, shake your grove thing, uh huh! At least she was still standing up at this point in the night; you'll see that very soon after this, she had to lay down on my couch for "a long winter's nap"....I love ya honey!

Hey you little sexy thing in your leopard tights and go go boots - you go girl! Enjoy that snorkel and thanks for coming and for my awesome Christmas present light that you guys made for us - we love it and we love you & the hubby!
That's S. having another snorkel and I have no idea what I was doing in this shot. Oh, and I have to thank A. for taking some shots of me at the party since I'm usually behind the lens and after seeing all these shots of me I know why! I look like the lumpy snowmen on my shirt! I'm really going to try and work on that for 2009...wish me luck!

Okay D., I don't mind if you check sports scores on that Crackberry but don't you dare work while you're at my party - you work too much anyway and tonight's all about fun! This is (L to R) D., C., and A., all such great friends that I love dearly and was so, so happy that they could all come and join us for our retro inspired Christmas party. That A. makes one mean bowl of gumbo and my hubby brags about it all year! Do you notice who is all of a sudden missing from this shot...T.; I think that she might have had to make a visit to my backyard and then somehow wound up needing a little nap on my sofa from too much "fun"! Oh, and it was only 9:30 p.m. when we lost her to the sofa but S. and D. weren't quite ready to go yet so we talked her into a little power nap...good thing too, since S. was needing a few more snorkels so that she too, could need a little "nap" later...

Here's Louise, of the now famous Thelma (a/k/a C.) & Louise (a/k/a T.) act having a little snorkel in my dining room. You see, Thelma & Louise (Rita's parents - and oh yeah, they didn't bring her to the party - can you believe it - I know, I know, she's pissed at us but it wasn't my fault...) are my adventurous friends who often times have run ins with the law (remember my story about them and the horse trailer and my NIL...) but sure know how to have fun! Thank goodness they had a designated driver tonight so we could go snorkeling!

D. & "Thelma" (a/k/a C.) chat in my dining room and "Thelma" is sharing a hilarious story with us about her son (I think that's what it was about...) and we were all busting up as it's never a dull moment with these guys. I'm so lucky to have such great friends!
Lullaby and good night, may my good friend T. sleep tight.....and that's all we're gonna say about that...good thing I had a pillow and blanket close at hand...
Okay, so this is a horribly taken photo as I didn't have the camera set to the right aperature as I had to run in and get it and help the hubby find a pitcher of water to wash a little "upchuck" off of A.'s new van door and get a cold rag to put on her face...but this is T's daughter S., letting go of a few appetizers and a number of snorkels in our front yard. Sorry sweetie, I guess you're not quite ready to keep up with your Aunt M. and maybe that's still a good thing...LOL!

We love all of you and thank you so much for joining us for our Retro Christmas party! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted but I was busy celebrating the season, going to parties, wrapping presents, shopping, going to friends, etc.....

I hope you enjoyed!

Stay tuned as I'm going to post more Christmas decoration photos and other stuff from Christmas soon!