Preparations for Christmas

Eleanor made her annual visit for Thanksgiving (she's the blonde on the left) and we got to spend some time with her a couple of weeks ago. She shared what she has been up to, and I have to mention that she dated a real-live Malaysian prince... and looking back all she has got out of the experience was the claim that she has dated a prince. But alas, he wasn't her Prince Charming:) But Ashley had her Prince Charming with her!

We ate at American Cafe, where our waiter was in a hurry to clear out table. He took my plate while I still had a third of my burger in my hand!
The funniest part of the evening was when we were leaving and Samantha started walking toward her car without saying good-bye to Eleanor. When Eleanor accused her of this, she said, "No, I wasn't walking away without saying Good-bye, I was just exercising." She was just exercising her lying abilities... unsuccessfully...

Since I'm not stressing out over finals, I helped a lot with decorating our house for Christmas. I made a new bow for the Christmas tree (my mom thinks I should go into the bow making business) and I helped put up our outdoor lights as well. I made a mess of the strand of lights I was laying out, proving I don't have a future in the light-hanging business!

I've also been doing some crafting getting ready for Christmas. Last weekend, we completed 30 wooden letters to donate to the Winter Wonderland at the local prison for the inmates to give to their friends and families.

Ashley and I quickly took over the kitchen and I recruited Martha to help finish. Since we did not know who they were going to be given to, Martha and I had some fun coming up with names that each of the letters represented.

These are some of my favorites! I'm volunteering at the prison to help them "shop" for their gifts and to wrap them and I hope these letters are a hit!