As promised here is a picture of the paper rack that Dorene got for me.  I have both 12 x 12 and 8.5 x 11 paper so I put all of it in the rack.  I decided to just put my plain cardstock in it and keep my patterned paper elsewhere.  For now this is how I'm going to organize it but who knows how long that will last.

Mark and I went over to Phil & Sue's around 8 so that we could get the Avanti's bread started for dinner.  Then we ate the stratta that Sue had made for breakfast (delicious!).  After that it was time to open gifts.

We got DVD's, a game for our Wii, crock pot cook books, Mark got a new keyboard and mouse from Jeff, among other things.  We must have been good this year. :)

Like every year, we celebrated Christmas Day with Mark's Dad's side of the family.  Don & Patsy were even here from Alaska.  All of us think that it would be awesome if some year EVERYONE could get together, including all of the cousins. 

Everyone seemed to have a great time as you can probably tell by the pictures.  Phil made his famous manicotti, which was delicious.

Steve got a new pair of lips from Sharon, Wayne, and Jonathan.  Everyone brought a $15 gift for the grab bag game.  It was a really great day.

Here is the slideshow for Christmas Day.

Mark and I hosted Christmas Eve at our place this year.  For lunch with the Gilberts we had Italian Beef sandwiches.  Then it was time to open gifts.  The theme this year was anything theatre related.  Jeff and Dorene got us the top 10 movies of all time and some popcorn and other treats for the theatre. 

Ironically, Mark and I got both Elizabeth and Rebecca movie baskets.  We picked out a scary movie (their favorite type of movie) for each, added a bowl, some pop, popcorn, boxed snacks, and a blanket.  Even though we wrapped the gifts differently we pretty much got movie baskets as well. 

I got the neatest thing from Dorene and Jeff...it was a scrapbook paper organizer.  I will take a picture of it later, with all my paper in it, and post a blog.

Later, the Kvackay clan came over for some snacks and then ham and cheesy potatoes, among other things.  There were some really nice gifts given for the gift exchange.

Here is the link to the Christmas Eve slideshow.

We have made it a tradition to get together every year before the holiday and make our Christmas treats. 

This year it was at our house and we decided to make caramel corn, peanut butter blossoms, Baylor family fudge (of course!), marbled chocolate treats, a Christmas Tree sugar cookie, and turtle treats.

After about 2 hours of baking, we decided that we had enough treats.  Now we have to refrain from eating them before tomorrow.

Enjoy the pictures here.

This year we are hosting Christmas Eve at our house with Sue's side of the family.  Christmas day will be with Phil's side of the family at Phil & Sue's house.  Then the first weekend in January we are going to my mom's new apartment to celebrate Christmas with them. 

 I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!

While Phil was gone we tried to keep Sue company as much as we could.  The weekend of the 14th our friend Michele was here visiting.  We decided to cook a delicious meal for them.

The weather wasn't the greatest so Mark decided he would go pick up his mom since he has four wheel drive.  After dinner, we decided to all go to take her home.  We stayed and visited and played with Hank. 

He is about 55 pounds now, and as playful as ever.  He likes to wag his tail so his whole butt wiggles.  He then backs up into you, hence why Sue calls him a velcro dog.  No, his eyes aren't blue, they are brown.

Here is the slideshow to all of the pictures of Hank.

 As you may know, Phil was gone for a week and a half for work.  While he was enjoying Memphis, Sue was "enjoying" having a house in shambles so the people could put in the hard wood floor.  She was not able to have Mark and Jeff move the furniture back into its place because Phil still had to put the trim back up. 

So Phil decided to send her flowers because he she was putting up with this and because he missed her.  It's always hard to be gone for that long unless you can go together. 

Phil is now home and the house is back in order.

 

Last night we had Bill, Tanya, and Lauren over for pizza.  We also gave them their Christmas gifts and showed off the basement.  Lauren had fun opening everyone's gifts.

Here is a link to all of the pictures.

Last night we went to Cherry Bowl in Rockford for a bowling benefit.  One of Tanya's friends has been diagnosed with breast cancer so she decided to help coordinate the benefit. 

I don't know all of the details but I do know that a lot of the money was going directly to Lucinda to help her pay for her medical expenses.  There were a lot of gifts for every one to win. 

Every so many strikes that people got they drew a name to win a prize.  My name was drawn and we got two Bears Miller Light pint glasses.

Before going to Cherry Bowl we went out to dinner at Outback with Bill, Tanya, Jennifer (Tanya's sister), Brent (Tanya's high school friend), and of course Michele.  We all had a great time at both dinner and bowling.  Mark and I won all three rounds of bowling!  Actually, Mark won because I hardly hit any pins.

Michele is here for the whole weekend.  Today we went out to Jessica's for breakfast and tonight we are having Sue over for dinner. 

Here is the night's slideshow.

 

We went over to Phil & Sue's last night to let Hank out and go to dinner with Sue.  So I decided to take more pictures so Phil could see what it looks like.  Here is a link to all of them. 

We finished the theatre room!!!  They came to install the carpet yesterday and after that we moved everything in!!  It was SOOO nice to be able to relax a little last night.

Here is the slideshow to the room with carpet.

Here is the slideshow to the finished product.

Actually, we still have sound treatments to do and other decorating, but we will take our time on that.  At least we can watch tv and movies in the theatre now!!

   

Phil & Sue decided to have hardwood flooring installed upstairs.  Here are a few pictures.  We will try to take more after it is sanded, stained, and coated with poly. 

When we first decided that we wanted DVD shelves in the hallway, we were going to make our own.  Then we decided that it would be easier to get shelves from IKEA.  After putting up all of the trim and looking at our current IKEA shelving we changed our minds again and figured it would look best if we made our own.  So that is what we did.

Mark started out by using 2x4's to frame the area.  We then used oak veneered plywood for the sides.  Mark had to router the grooves for the metal pieces for the shelving.  To finish the front we used oak pieces.

Then it was time to make all 18 shelves.  While Mark stained the main shelving I sanded all of the shelves with Mark's Dad's random orbital sander.  It was actually kind of fun. 

After we were finished staining and polying we installed the metal shelf pieces and then the shelves.  We were very excited in how the finished product looks.

Click this sentence for the DVD Shelves SLIDESHOW.