I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance; a scene filled with flowers and friends. I asked him what kind of wedding he wished for; he said one that would make me his wife.
O'Donnell's
For Christmas, my awesome husband got me a Beginners Singer Sewing machine.




 All I have to say is, if this is a beginners machine, I don't want to see a more advanced one for a loooong time! It took me two and a half hours to thread the bobbin and the needle through the machine.  Bobbin was easy. Threading the top of the machine down to the needle, not so easy.  There was this step I couldn't get past.  I tried and tried and tried. Cursed myself, cursed myself, cursed myself. What was I thinking!? I've never sewn before in my life.  By God, I was determined to finish my first "EASY" project.

After threading the machine, it was 10:30PM.  Please keep in mind, I am usually in bed by 10PM at the latest.  I pondered going to bed, then decided that if I didn't finish this project now, I would probably put it off.  So, a sewin' I went!

So, here is what I was trying to make.  A coffee coozie.  Looks simple enough, right?


                                                                  Courtesy of http://oursoftspottoland.blogspot.com

Wrong! I should have known this would be a disaster.

Actually, to be quite honest with you, the only thing that really went wrong, is the hook (hair elastic) that I originally had sewn onto the outer fabric didn't (SOMEHOW) get flipped out to the outer portion when I had sewn all the edges and went to turn the fabric right side out.  All in all, I suppose, it didn't turn out TOO bad.  Right?



Don't let this fool you.  There were many times that I had sewn the seam right off the pattern.  Oh yah.  Thank goodness for seam rippers, right? :)

My first thought when I pulled this off the machine at 11:45PM was....




Yah, I'm pretty much awesome. To be totally honest, my coffee coozie looks more like a huge pad.  Otherwise known as a "Sanitary Napkin." I had to add that in there so my mom wouldn't faint from her daughter using the incorrect term.  Shame on me. So, if anyone wants to go more "GREEN" (not the color, the act of using less, etc.) let me know.  Apparently I am stellar at sewing pads.  Oh! AND, they have a really absorbent core! There is felt inside :) Just wash and.... Okay, I crossed the line.

After having a laughing fit about my stellar project completion, I decided maybe Bailey could play with it. His reaction???




Yah, he just stared at me. He didn't know what to do with it either.  **SIGH**

LOL.

I showed this to my mom and she said she thought it was great for my first sewing project. Only a loving mother would say that to her DIY failure daughter.  :) Love you, mom!

But really, if that hook of rubberband would have been on the outside, all I would have had to do was sew a button on.  So, I guess in the grand scheme of things...not too bad, right?

**rolls eyes**


O'Donnell's
Hi guys! Oops! I stayed away too long, huh?  My bad! :)

So, Christmas happened and New Years happened.  Whoo! Yes, I plan on recapping these occasions! No fear.   I hope I don't bore you with tons of pics a videos though.  There's quite a bit though, so grab a cup of hot chocolate, coffee, wine...whatever.   I won't judge :)

So, every year we all get together to do Christmas cookies a few weeks before Christmas.  This year, only a few of us could get together because of conflicting schedules but we had tons of fun anyway!

 There seemed to be a certain little boy who thought it was the bees knees to throw toys into the toilet.  Luckily Kyle, the oldest nephew (ALMOST 15!) caught him.


Andy got the privilege of fishing out the toys from the toilet water.  MMMMM....






Great Papa got to come along as well. It was really nice to have him there!


THEN, only a few short days later came Christmas!

Christmas Eve is spent at the O'Donnell household.  We have a special dinner with extended family and then, when everyone skeedaddles (is that a word?), we get to open presents!! A huge gift this year, which will greatly increase the fun of my blog, was an iFlip!!! Heck yeah!! I see many videos in the near future. We had a wonderful time over there that night!




I know, I am a dork! :) Tis the season! Hehe.


So, on to Christmas Day! We were off to my parents house around 10. My mom couldn't believe I wasn't there yet. Hey mom, I have a husband to take care of now! :) We got there and both ripped into our presents. We both got tons of great things and couldn't wait for the kiddos to start arriving to open their presents. It's bedlam in that house on Christmas morning! I love it though! I will just post some pics and then some videos at the end. :)





Welcome to the family Andrew, now you officially have to help put toys together at Christmas :)


My nephew, Eli, got an Etch a sketch! Haven't seen one of those in a long time!







They grow up way TOO fast!







She is the spitting image of her mommy!



Why, Hello!!





My Husband!



Someone must have been telling an interesting story :)



They love their Uncle Andrew!



Okay, ready for some videos??? Good!

My youngest nephew, Ethan.  He was playing with a puzzle he got for Christmas and really cheezin' it up for his Granny, who obviously needs to pay more attention :)




A sweet thank you and some cookin'!!







No rest for the kiddos!





A little bit of everything!





It was a wonderful holiday and I am lucky to have the two best families in the world. Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday as well and got to spend it with the people you love the most.


Okay, New Years post is next time. :)