Lately I've been:

* Busy putting our Christmas tree up. I had to go through the unfortunate event of having to remove and re-strand some of the lights (which was an absolute nightmare, thank you very much!). When I was finally done my arms looked like I had gotten into a terrible scratching match with a cat ~ and the cat WON! But when it was all said and done it turned out beautiful. Amazing what a difference 300 additional lights can make.

I will forever remember the look on Sam's face when he first came downstairs and saw it finally decorated. It was priceless. It made the fact that I stayed up until close to 2:00am working on it totally worth it. Most of my Nativities are out on display, but I still have a little more sparkle to add before I officially call it a day on the Christmas decorating front.

* Hanging out with these amazing ladies:
Because of different pre-school schedules, Bible Study, dance lessons, etc, I'm not able to see them as often as I'd like. But now that Bible Study is over and school will soon be over, we've been able to do quite a bit of catching up,... and that's been so fun!

* Able to go see a few of the latest movies:
Oh yeah, baby! It's New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight saga! And it was AWESOME! So much better than Twilight (the first movie). And the good news is that they're not making me wait yet another year for Eclipse, the third movie and my favorite book in the series. Oh no, I'll get to enjoy that one in June of 2010. I like to think of it as Edward's birthday present to me.

Scott and I got to go see The Blind Side. It was such a wonderful movie. So very inspirational. Sandra Bullock was phenomenal. And I also loved the fact that it's based on a true story of a Memphis family.

On Sunday afternoon my dear friend Cora called me and invited me to hang out for a while, sans kids. Hmm, let me think about that,... YEAH! First we went to a local craft show and then went to a matinee showing of this:
All I can say is Oh. My. Goodness! In all honesty, Precious was a very difficult movie for me to sit through. The subject matter is extremely deep and disturbing and heart-breaking and it tugged at my heart (and stomach) in ways a movie hasn't done in a really long time. At one point I actually thought we might have to get up and leave, but we stuck with it and made it through. And we're really glad we did.

* Working on my paper strips for our cute Santa Advent Calendar, which will be displayed tomorrow. Yikes! Can you believe tomorrow is December already? I never did get the advent calendar I so loved from Pottery Barn, but that's OK. I found one I really like at Marshall's for a whole lot less. And at the end of the day well, they both do the same thing.

Some of our paper inserts/activities included in the calendar are:
~ Seeing Santa and giving him our list.
~ Going to Trinity Baptist Alpine Village (for the 5th year in a row).
~ Baking Christmas goodies.
~ Going to Starry Nights at Shelby Farms.
~ Watching a Christmas movie of their (read Isabella's) choice.
~ Reading the Christmas Story book before bed.
~ Make Gingerbread Houses.

Well, that's about it for now. Stay tuned for a sneak peek of the SNL class we'll be teaching this coming Saturday.