Happy 2015!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

DIY Christmas Gift Ideas

Short on cash? 

Wait until the last minute to figure

out Christmas presents?

Like to have a personal touch

when giving gifts?

Here are some easy DIY gift ideas

that I found floating around the Internet

to help you out.

 

via

 

I thought this gift was a cute twist on

giving money/gift cards.

How can you go wrong with candy surrounding either?

 

via

 

For those of you who like to personalize gifts,

this is a perfect idea.  Not only is adorable,

but it is extremely low cost.

 

via

 

These coasters would make a great gift for

the neat freak who doesn't like water rings

on their furniture.  I like the fact that

you can find a pattern to match a person's house

and really customize them.

 

via

 

What a great idea for children or adults.

It's a Night Before Christmas Box.

You include items that people can

use before the big day.

via

 

Lastly, here is a gift idea for the drinker.

It's totally adorable and very affordable.

 

I hope you got some ideas here.

I know how difficult gift giving can be,

and hopefully this will help.

 

 

Random Photo Dump

I was going through all my pictures

and I realized I had several that I didn't share

on the blog, so I decided to show them all at once.

Creepers!

Happy me - birthday present from Todd.

Yummy birthday cake my mom made.

Drive home from work.

Loving life.

A little crabby! Hehehe

Speaking of creeper.

Goats

Like mother, like daughter.

My loves!

So is that random enough for you?

Which one is your favorite?

13 Days and Counting

Here's a little Christmas music to

help get you in the holiday spirit.

Getting Our Craft On

My brother-in-law and his fiance are getting

married in 6 short months.

Robb and Amber invited us over to help

with some of the wedding crafting,

and they made the deal sweeter by 

bribing us with food, so of course we

couldn't say no.  Besides that,

it's always fun to get together,

drink and do crafts!

I didn't get many pictures, but you'll 

get the basic idea of what was going on.

Amber & Robb's theme is something like Rustic Chic

(I think),

so we painted mason jars a peach color and blue color.

And although we didn't finish the mason jars,

Amber posted a pic on her Facebook that I stole

so you can see what the mason jars are 

going to look like.

I can't remember if she is going to put 

flowers in them, or candles, but either

way it will be adorable.

Amber's sister Crystal worked on her machine

trying to make labels the entire time we were

crafting, but because they updated the software,

she never did get it to work like she wanted.

Poor thing - I would have thrown the 

computer out the window because I have

NO PATIENCE!

Cathy and Amber worked on various projects,

but most importantly, they made fondue.

It was delicious!

Since Amber's sisters were visiting,

and they had never been to where the wedding is 

going to be held, we made a breakfast date at

Dennis' house, and Anne cooked breakfast

for everyone.

Sausage biscuits - if you've never

 tried them you have to!

Todd, Dennis and Robb surveyed the area.

Amber, Crystal and Cathy talked about wedding stuff.

Before everybody left,

Anne gave everyone parting gifts.

We each got our cookie package to take home.

Deliciousness!

It was such a fun weekend.

I can't wait to get together again and

do more wedding stuff.

I live for stuff like this!

Ed Sheehan - Thinking Out Loud

And because I've been terrible about posting 

on my blog, here's a little extra something.

I told Lexx when she gets married she has to use

this song in her wedding :)

 

BTW, the dancer in this video is Ed Sheehan,

the singer .  Pretty awesome!

 

Thanksgiving

There has been lack of post here on

the ole McComb blog because I've 

spent the last several weeks preparing 

to have Thanksgiving at our house.

Although preparing to have several people

at your house is lots of work, it is so much fun.

Todd and I both agree we need to have at least

one family get together per year

(If nothing else, just to get projects finished around the house).

There were only about 15 people in attendance, 

so it was a pretty small gathering.

I also did it pot luck style.

I made the turkey, mashed potatoes, 

stuffing and cranberry salad.

Everybody else brought food 

and a bottle or two of wine.

I didn't get any pictures of the food

because I was too busy running around,

and my good camera is in camera heaven,

so I left the picture taking to my daughter 

and her smart phone.

Here are a few of the pictures we managed to take.

My mom, mother-in-law, Uncle Lynn, and Brie.

Uncle Lynn and Brie catching up.

Robb and Amber (my soon to be sister-in law)

Bret and Adam

My dad and father-in-law

The gang...Alexxa, Austin and I

Todd and I

The food was fantastic and the company, great!

Overall I would say it was a success.

Can't wait to do it again next year!

 

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Interior Decorating

A couple of weeks ago Todd and I went

over to his Uncle Lynn's house to help

him decorate his fireplace.

 

Lynn had just had hip surgery and was

unable to climb a ladder in order to

mount the decorations to the wall.

Todd volunteered to help, so we took

a couple hours out of our weekend to

get Lynn's house beautified!

 

I love the way it turned out,

and had to share a couple of pictures.

Lynn was up and about using his walker.

 

I couldn't believe how well he was

 doing after his hip surgery!

Todd climbed the ladder and did the manual labor

while Lynn stood back and supervised.

Here is the final outcome.

 

Lynn and I bantered back and forth

on how the snow shoes should be placed

(He liked them closer to the antlers,

I liked them further out.)

He of course won because,

well, it's his house and he can do

whatever he wants!

And a little closer look at the final product.

 

His house is coming along beautifully.

I can't wait to see all the other

cool projects Lynn has in store in the near future.

 

So, what do you think?

Did Lynn make the right call?

Does it matter, cause he won't change it anyway!

I Dream of...

Party Like a Rock Star

Todd and I went to our first Halloween party,

I think ever.

We are not big party people,

but when my friend Kim invited us,

we couldn't say no.

 

We got to her house around 7:30 PM

and thought that we would probably be heading

home around 10 or 10:30 PM.

Ya, that didn't happen.

 

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Just an FYI for you, the theme of the party

was "something from a song."

Alcohol may or may not have been involved.

We came in 2nd place for the costume contest.

 

Can you figure out what we were?

 

If not, here's the song we based our "costume" off of.

 

 

Alcohol was definitely involved here.

We were doing black cat impressions.

 

Btw, this is Lisa, my coworker.

She was Material Girl.

This is Kim, the hostess, and Lori my boss.

Kim was a bill, and Lori was a devil in a blue dress.

Here's a better pic of Kim.

Her costume was AWESOME!

 

There were also a couple pictures of

some of the cuter costumes I just

have to share with you.

 

Kim's sister and brother-in-law were

Pop Goes the Weasel

I believe this couple is

The Sound of Music.

 

There were about 30ish people total

at the get together.

It was super fun to see all the different costumes.

I, of course, didn't get pictures of any of them

because I was too busy being entertained

by all my drunk coworkers on the patio.

 

It was a great time, and I really enjoyed myself.

I just hope that Kim remains my coworker

so she has to invite us again next year!

 

Before I forget,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Be safe and have fun.

Bubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble

Because the kids aren't around,

and Todd is taking classes, I have

a lot of extra time on my hands.

I got bored this weekend and decided

to spruce up the house a little for Halloween.

It's been years since I've done any sort of

decorations, so it was kind of fun.

Curious about what I did?

Behold the magic!

I got most of the decorations at TJ Maxx and $1 Store.

As you can tell, I didn't go too scary because 

I'm a big baby!

It was pretty fun getting back in the groove

of the decorating train.

Now I can't wait for Christmas!

Have you done any decorating lately?

MIA and a Pounding Head

Sorry for the lack of post the past week,

but I had more important things to do....

like go wine tasting - and it was fantastic!

Four of us from work decided it would be

a good idea to taste the local wines.

Some were wine connoisseurs (or maybe just winos),
 I was not.

Personally, I'm not a big wine drinker,

but I thought it would be a fun experience,

so I raised my hand high in the air
when they asked who was interested,.

Kim, Lori, Lisa and I visited three wineries:

Gwinnlan Estates - the only place I bought wine.  

It was a Chardonnay in case you were wondering.
The owners were kind and knowledgeable. 
It was a great experience for my very first
time wine tasting.
 

Too Good Estate Winery - this was our second stop.
I found it to be very busy, and not as warm and friendly
an atmosphere.  All but one staff seemed not to
concerned if we were satisfied or not. 
I do have to say, however, that this winery had
a "cool factor".  They had modern artwork
everywhere, and a large waterfall/water feature
right outside the wine caves.
I actually think I preferred their landscape to their wines.
 

Fitzpatrick Winery - this was our last stop.
I really loved the setting.  The people were friendly
and took time to explain the wines.
And, after we were done drinking we bought
a wood fired oven pizza that they make right there
on their deck!  I loved this...
food, drinking, relaxing.
Does it get any better?

Those three wineries took us 5 hours to visit.

We didn't even begin to experience all the

wine goodness that the area had to offer,

but we have plans to go back around April next year.

I would show you several awesome pictures

that I took of the experience, but unfortunately

my good camera died - like for real - like a resurrection

couldn't bring it back.

One of the girls had a phone and managed to snap

two pictures the entire day (she might have been

a little preoccupied taste testing), but both pictures

were from Too Good.

Lori (my boss) and you who here.

This picture was actually taken inside the cave

where they store lots and lots of wine!

Lisa and me :)

This was where we actually started the wine tasting.

You paid $6 and you got a wine glass and several 

options of wine, including a 14 year old port.

This $6 also included barrel tasting.

 

Oddly enough, I didn't drink enough to even feel tipsy.

I really tried to limit what I tasted,

first, because I'm picky, and second, because I had

to drive home.  I would say over the 5 hours

combined drinking I might have consumed

one full glass of wine.

 

I didn't end up with a hangover the next day,

but ended up getting a horrible migraine

Monday and Tuesday

(totally not related to the wine tasting).

 

So that was my weekend in a nutshell.

 

Have you done anything new and exciting lately?