hurry hurry hurry till we're done!

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski

-White Christmas

Snow!  It truly feels like Christmas as I sit here preparing to write a rather long blog entry due to my lack of blogging next to our Christmas tree with so much SNOW outside!

At the beginning of this month my husband and I got a nice retreat and stayed five days at Grandmama & Opa's beautiful house while they were out of town.  We were asked to babysit for their adorable golden retreiver Buffy.

Although this is not a picture of their home it is essentially what their home looks like.  Through and through it is beautifully and traditionally decorated.  There is a wood burning fireplace (complete with wood from their own backyard) and the yard is huge.  My husband and I brought Penny, the family pup, over to play with Buffy and enjoy the freedom of the big yard.  Unfortunately, because of the extra energy she gets when she is at Grandmama & Opa's she got a little overexcited and fell on the newly waxed foyer floor.  At first she acted fine, but as the day progressed she lost mobility and eventually couldn't get up or down on her own.  My mom came over and we ended up taking poor Penny pup to the vet.

She was really having trouble, which was very upsetting for me to see my doggy struggling to even walk around.  She is so brave, though and braved the vet checkup like a champ.  Dr. Mike, our long-time family veterenarian diagnosed her with a sprained knee and gave her some arthritis medicine.

Well, that did the trick because she was as energetic and stubborn as ever, even whining at night when we locked her up to keep her relaxed (per doctors orders).  She was back on her feet very quickly and joined Buffy in all her daily activities.

Here's Buffy!  She is a sweet girl, but she is very needy.  What can you expect from the doggies in our family, they are all super spoiled...as they should be.  My hubby and I even sat in front of the fireplace one night and watched a movie.

It was very romantic.  We gathered our pillows and blankets and snuggled during the movie.  It made me hopeful for a fireplace like theirs in our future home.  

Our fireside movie was completed by our two housemates!  They were so cute though, we loved their company.

Saturday night we attended my husband's company Christmas party, a first for me, and Cassie came over to puppysit.  She had a special patient to take care of after all.  I'm pretty sure she had a great time by herself, vegging out, and hanging out with the pups.

The evening was so much fun, I had never been to a company Christmas party before, much less with my husband.  It was wonderful to be on my handsome hubby's arm, mingling with his co-workers.  The party was held at a glass-blowing factory, so we were surrounded by amazing glass art.

We didn't stay late, partially because Cassie was by herself with the pups, and partially because we only knew a few people at the party.  It was fun to be there with Aaron, having a glass of vino, de-stressing in a new environment.

I'm pretty sure my cousins Tiffany & Kevin, Kevin is a partner in the company Aaron works for, stayed later than we did and they have kids.  That's okay, I get tired early.

After five days of luxury, including freezers full of food, it was time to tidy up the house and pick up Grandmama & Opa from the airport.  My Aunt Tracy had been staying with my cousins while their parents were out of town and we all went to Mexican food at El Agave, which happens to be my new favorite Mexican restaurant.  

It was yummy, and the portion was perfect, not to mention the Marrrrgarrrita!

We had a great time, my parents came with Cassie, and we got to eat and catch up on the goings on within the family.  We didn't really have a chance to be bummed about returning home because the next day was St. Nicholas Day.

We keep the tradition of St. Nicholas Day in my family, we put our shoes out on the fireplace and in the morning we are surprised with a small gift from St. Nick.  

I got the Christmas CD I have been waiting for and some Christmas socks.  Maybe the Christmas socks will make up for those of you who disapprove of my music selection.  It's a guilty pleasure folks, don't poke fun.  My husband got the biggest gift, which ended up being the least exciting, undershirts.  He needed them and he also got a stocking so he was spoiled with necessities.

Marley and Penny were included too, thus the spoiled dog syndrome, and got christmas dollys.  Their gift to us was cotton stuffing all over the house from those same dollys which they promptly ripped apart.  Overall it was a wonderful celebration of the European traditional holiday.

The week got even busier after a short work meeting where I was assigned some new specifics in reference to my job.  I am so grateful to work for a company that trusts and values me as its employee.  Not to mention is understanding of my hours at school.  

These new assignments would have gone off without a hitch, but one of the programs used by the copyrighting company is not adaptable to Macs.

So now we are working towards a solution for that issue.  All this work reminds me of my favorite Christmas Movie/Musical Babes in Toyland with Annette Funicello.  There is a scene where all the children are helping with assembling the Christmas toys.  

They sing a work song which includes the title of my blog.  Just goes to show my mind is wired into Christmas at all times, not just during the holiday season.  We FINALLY got the chimney swept at my parents' house after many years of allergy problems and we cannot wait to have a nice cozy fire on Christmas Eve.

I have to admit I half expected the man from the chimney sweeping company to walk in with a blackened broom and a rusty metal bucket and start tap dancing and singing "Step In Time," but all he had was a very loud vacuum.


The dogs have a very smart way of dealing with the cold that has set in here in St. Charles:

Looks a lot like hibernating, huh.  Not to mention Penny's method of keeping off of the cold ground:

She is a pretty smart pup.

My wonderful husband and I attended his sister Jill's Christmas concert at the St. Louis Family Church.  I have to say it was wonderful.  Being Catholic, church is very uniform and old-fashioned (and I am certainly not complaining,) so taking part in a service at Jill's church was a lot of fun.

I even enjoyed standing up and waving my arms when we were asked too.  My husband had our adorable niece Jordan on his lap throughout the program, he needed to catch up on cuddle time as we had not seen her since our move back to St. Charles.  I love seeing him with kids, it gets me excited for the future.

Getting out of the house so much made us realize how much the winter chill gives us cabin fever.

I suppose it is a common problem when it is FREEZING outside, but the beginning of winter is always the toughest.  Despite the chill, we attended our second Christmas performance at Academy of the Sacred Heart's Silver Tea.  The picture is a little blurry, but Cassie performed in it with her classmates and even had a solo.

You could hear her beautiful voice ringing out during the whole performance.  

I could not have been more proud.  Aaron, my Aunt Dawn, and I snuck out right after the performance and had a heart to heart at Dairy Queen, of all places, over some yummy ice cream.

The ice cream was delicious and it was wonderful to have some alone time with Dawn.  She had never had a chance to get to know Aaron and because she comes in town so rarely I loved being able to spend some time with her away from the hustle and bustle of family gatherings.  

We didn't get a chance to recover from our late nights because the next day we went down to Tiffany and Kevin's to babysit for Rachel, Ally, Jilly and Harris.  Jilly and Harris are the children of Kevin's business partner and are full of energy.  Jilly asked Aaron so many questions that I think he was tired out just by talking so much.  We had a blast babysitting four kids, the most I have ever had at once, and enjoyed pizza and popsicles for dinner.  The girls played princess, complete with princess costumes, and Aaron and Harris enjoyed some bug books and puzzles.  We even got all four kids to go to bed without a hitch.  Pretty impressive for a newly-married couple I would say.

Aaron and I were all tuckered out after putting the kids to bed, we spent the rest of evening relaxing.  I understand why parents of youngsters go to bed early, especially now that I have experienced what having four would be like. 

After quite the long winter's nap, we woke up to SNOW!  

I had been waiting for it to snow, it is an essential part of this time of year.  It was beautiful!  It was fun waking up with Rachel and Ally looking out at their wintery backyard.  They wanted to go out in the snow immediately, despite the fact that they still had on their jammies.  We had to get back to St. Charles, which ended up being quite treacherous, as they were suiting up to go out with their Dad for a walk.

It always amazes me how many bad drivers there are when the roads are treacherous.  Thankfully, my hubby is a great driver and got us home in one piece.  Penny was waiting for us and showed Aaron how much she loves the snow too!  

She played in it, ate it, and chased Marley around in it.  Guess her knee is healing up nicely!

She loves being a snow pup!

My husband and I celebrated our 6 month-a-versary on Sunday.  It was wonderful to look back on our Wedding Day.

Remembering the nerves, excitement, and love we felt that day was wonderful.

I even wrote my husband a note reminding him that the way I felt on our wedding day has only multiplied over these 6 months of marriage.

I have to admit, we could believe it had been 6 months, especially due to the fact that on June 12th it was very hot outside as opposed to the day's snow.  I even made my husband some special anniversary cupcakes.

I finally found his favorite cupcake and icing mix at the grocery store.  I know, he is spoiled.  My creative husband found a new Japanese Sushi restaurant where we will be celebrating our anniversary on Wednesday.  I am glad he didn't plan it for Sunday night because we would have been snowed in!  Have a fantastic week everyone and enjoy the snow!