Courington Christmas Crossword Puzzle

I made a crossword puzzle with clues about everyone in our family! Click here to see the puzzle! You can print it off the website or copy and paste it into Microsoft Word to print it.

I'll try to post the answers later this week, but you should be able to figure it out pretty easily!

Untraditional Traditions

Daniel and I haven't been married very long, but we have created a few Christmas Un-traditions of our own. (Perhaps they aren't traditional traditions, but some of my favorite things about this time of year!)

My Favorite Untraditional-traditions:

• Christmas Morning Pajama Party - We stay in our pajamas Christmas morning and go to Billy and Mary's house. No one ven cares if you don't have make up on. I love getting to see the kid's new found treasures from Santa. The funnest part is the mad chaos when it comes time to pass out gifts. There are NO rules; you don't even have to take turns opening gifts!
• December 26th Christmas - We ended up not having time to open gifts with my parents on Christmas. At first we were a bit saddened by the lack of time, but now it has become the highlight of the week. When you go to bed on Christmas Night, you know that you still have one more day of magic! It makes the Season last just one extra day and that is priceless!
• Ole' Timey Cokes - At lunch on December 26th with my parents, ee drink coke out of the ole' timey coke bottles. You know, the old glass bottles!! I love buying the cokes a few weeks ahead of time and looking forward to Christmas Dinner everytime I see the bottles sitting there waiting to be drank!
• Pearl Christmas Lights - Daniel and I have these beautiful white light on our tree. They aren't your typical clear Christmas lights; rather, they look more like a pearl. I love seeing the lights glow at night time during the Holiday Season!
• Time off with Daniel - Daniel and I have been fortunate enough to spend the weeks before and after Christmas together since we've been married. We always buy a "toy" to play with during our vacation. It's usually a video game or board game. This year we are planning on getting Scene It! for Xbox 360!
• Watching Corny Christmas Chick Flicks that come on ABC Family's 25 Day to Christmas Countdown - The best one this year has been "Holiday In Handcuffs" with Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez in it.

What are your favorite Untraditional Traditions?

Busy...

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday with a Sinus Infection. I got a shot and 2 prescriptions. Ugh!

Daniel started delivering on Tuesday and has had a rough first week! He worked until 9:00 on Wednesday night and had to miss church! He was suppose to teach the adult class...

We put our tree up on Monday, but we still don't have the ornaments on it. Hehe. That's my goal for the weekend!! And of course we have Christmas decorations STROWED everywhere!! And I don't even mind...

That's my life in a few short sentences.

I liked Naniel as a stay at home husband, but I like him just as well when he works! ;) But I do miss him these days!

Thanksgiving Break!!!

I was off the entire last week for Thanksgiving. I've got to spend some time with family!! I have truly enjoyed my time off. We went to the Alabama vs. LA-Monroe on November 17th. However, the highlight of the week (other than Thanksgiving Day) was definitely our trip to Georgia. My grandparents passed away 12 years ago in a house fire. My Mom and I always take an overnight trip back to her old home town every Thanksgiving Break to see my "adopted" grandparents, Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw Ensley. They were my grandparents' best friends, so when we lost my grandparents; they lost their closest friends. On our trip, we went up Fort Mountain there in Chatsworth and rode around Berry College in Rome, GA on our way home. The leaves were beautiful at both places!! Enjoy the pictures!!
The first two pictures are from the Alabama game (AL vs. LA Monroe). The picture just above is a man who had elephants embroidered ALL over his pants. He was about 90 years old (no lie) and was the funniest thing we saw all day.


This is a picture I took at the overlook on the way up the mountain!
The prettiest colors I saw all season! Not the the prettiest view in the bottom left and excuse the mailbox; however, beautiful scenery!
A picture I took at Berry College while Mom and I were walking around.

These are not the best I took, but they had the pretties variation of color. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I have some pictures of our house, but I didn't want to post too many at once. It makes the load time take forever if you have dial-up service.

Chocolate Oatmeal Candy, Christmas Music, Old School Ninetendo,

As you read my title of this blog, you might wonder what in the world these things have in common... Let me explain.

As I travelled my 55 mile or 70 minute commute this morning, something caught my eye- a bright orange tree. How many times in life will you see an orange tree? Even during this time of year, it's very unique. Autumn is my favorite time of year this year. I love watching the leaves change and wave in the wind. I love waking up and opening the front door. It's like a special suprise just for me. What color will the trees be today? I am just now getting old enough to appreciate the changing leaves. I use to think it was weird to appreciate leaves changing colors. I just saw it as someting that happened, but this year it's so much different. Perhaps I'm growing up.

I have also been listening to Christmas music a lot today. One of my favorite Christmas songs is "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things".

Here are the opening lyrics of the song:
Raindrops on roses, And whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles, And warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages, Tied up with strings, These are a few of my favorite things . . .

The combination of these two occurences made me think of other small things in life like the things listed in my subject of this blog. The items in my title are little things in life that I truly enjoy. A few of my other favorite things are getting mail especially for me, carving a pumpkin, tomato sandwiches, finger painting, baking cookies, seeing someone I truly love that isn't family, a clean car, an afternoon nap, a crackling fire, and bubble bathes.

What are "A Few of Your Favorite Things"? I hope you have a safe Holiday Season and enjoy the leaves changing!!!

Gospel Meeting and Ladies Day at Oneonta

We got to hear David speak twice this week! Once on Sunday and once on Monday! What a treat! He is doing a Gospel Meeting at my parent's congregation in Oneonta. Oneonta will also have a Ladies Day on Saturday! Please keep this event in your prayers as they continue to work toward a successful day on Saturday! No big news just wanted to tell everyone hey and miss you guys!

family...

Can you believe Thanksgiving is three weeks from today? It seems just like yesterday, we were watching Addi begin to like Santa, enjoying Levi figuring out why a tree was inside instead of outside, and clapping at Hannah for sitting up in her Bebe Pod, and that was last year during the Holiday Season. Wow, time flies! I thought you might enjoy a trip down memory lane to the 2006 Holiday Season!!