The Gingies

A few weeks ago we made ginger bread houses at our Aunt's house and I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures...sorry.


Anyways everyone was competing to have the BEST house so we created categories so everyone could have the best house in their category. So I now present the Gingies Awards!!!


First category is "Most structurally sound"
And the award goes to...............................

Karen

 

Second category is "Fanciest Architecture"

And the winner is.....................................

 Janelle

Next we have 2 awards, "Most houses built and Most creative recovery"
And the winner is............................

Maike

Next category is "Best outside decorations"
And the award goes to...........................

 Gale

 Now we are to the "Most monumental" category
And the winner is..........................................

 Sara with the Washington Monument

 The next category we have is "Most times fixing a roof"
And the award goes to.............................

True

This next award is for "Most Redneck"
And the winner is.................................................

Justin

 The next category is "Tallest"
And the winners are........................................................

 James and Teeyl

 Now we have come to the "Barn yard" award
And the award goes to....................................................

 Marshall for his Chicken coop

 And last but not least we have the "Best inside decorations" award
And the winner is.........................................................................

 Grace

Well that's all the houses we have for today, thanks for joining us and be sure to tune in next year!!!!!!!

Remembering years past

Yesterday morning when I woke up, for some reason I started thinking about what I was doing this time last year. "It was almost wedding time", I thought to myself but then the more I thought on it the more I remembered.

Last year around this time this is what I was doing....

Decorating hundreds of cookies by hand, and yes I piped every single cookie myself

But besides wedding stuff I was quite busy in other areas of my life. I had just started a new job and was going through training classes. Training classes where I had to get certified, I thought a month full of training would be a breeze. Someone forgot to mention about all the state regulations and crap. Justin and I had also just moved into a new house. Now I can't remember why but for some reason or another I unpacked the whole house, before the wedding. Then you can't forget coming up almost every other weekend to Valentine to make sure things were ready up here. But we had the most beautiful wedding day and that's all that matters.

Now flash forward to this year, no training classes, kind of a new house but I didn't have to unpack everything this time and no wedding. I've actually had a wonderful holiday season (from Thanksgiving to New Years is the holiday season for me). I'm on winter vacation so what's not to love. 

Then for Christmas this year, first we are going to my parent's house for Christmas with them, then we'll come back to Valentine and have Christmas/ bday party with our cousin's. On the 30th we will have Ford Family Christmas out at Grandma's, (hopefully) go to Dodson's New Years eve party and then Christmas at Justin's parent's house. I know this seems like a lot, but it's spread out over 2 weeks so it won't be that bad. I'm looking forward to it, I love parties and being with family and so does Justin. I forgot to mention in there that we are celebrating our anniversary, but it's kinda a surprise for me so I'll have to tell you about it after it happens.

I wonder what we will be doing next year for Christmas......................................................

Maybe we'll go to Cali and spend the holiday with Kelsey and then for New Years go to Disneyland, that would be fun. Or spending Christmas at home then going to Florida for New Years in Disney World with my aunt and cousins. Once I'd like to go to one of those towns that is Christmas all year long, but on Christmas. Wait I know we could go to Ohio for Christmas then for New Years drive to New York for the time square thing, it's only about 4 or 5 hours from where my Grandma lives and that's like driving to Lincoln from Valentine. Oh the possibilities are endless, haha.

Online Christmas Shopping

This year because of the move to no where land, haha just kidding, I've had to do all and I mean ALLLL of my Christmas shopping online. I'll have to say it's kinda weird, in some ways good but I guess it's just different. It's one thing buying something online for yourself and if you don't like it return it, but during Christmas time if the gift I picked out wasn't what I thought it was there's no time to return it and get something new. Every site I've been on has warned me about delivery and getting there on time, and this was in November! And it seems to me that they raise prices of shipping around Christmas just because they can. That's why every site I bought from was free shipping.
But it hasn't been all bad, I did get all of my shopping done in one day. I never had to wait in any lines, deal with crazy crowds, fight for parking spaces or travel in traffic. Plus the other thing I love is all the gifts come to my door and I get to open them, so it's been like Christmas at my house for weeks!
It's been fun these past 9 months to realize all the differences about living in the Sandhills. Some things good, some annoying but we always seem to find the good no matter what.

The Sword and the Stone

 

Late Sunday night James informed us that he had a big school project due on Wednesday and that he needed some help. Being totally awesome, both Justin and I agreed to help. So over the last 2 days we have been working on transforming James into King Arthur. Justin and James designed his costume and I made it. James needed something to give out as souvenirs so James and I came up with an idea for that. James is going to have his class mates pull the sword out of a stone (which we also made) then knight them and give them a medal ( we made the medals too).

Now don't think I am at all complaining or moaning about this, quite on the contrary. I am very giddy and over zealous about this project! I only wish I was allowed to come see it in action. Just add another thing to the long list of why I wish I could go back to high school.....haha


Here are the pictures!!!!

King Arthur himself

The Sword and the Stone

King Arthur knighting Justin

Justin receiving his medal

Looks like Kaedo got one too

This is our favorite time of year

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And all of us here at the Simmons House have a different reason why we love it so much. Let's start with the youngest......

Kaedo

His favorite things are the cold/ snow and the new toys!

Georgie

 Her favorite things include playing with the tree/ decorations and sleeping on tree skirts

Janelle

 

My favorite things are giving presents and decorating my house

Justin

 And last but not least Justin's favorites are spending time with family and shoveling snow.