Christmas Season Stuff

And now I can concentrate on nesting for the rest of the month.
Here are the things left that I would like to do:

Make pecan cookies.
Decorate the house.
Leave out shoes for St. Nicolas Day, Dec. 5
Make front door wreath and Advent wreath.
Get a live tree (put on the front porch till we're ready to bring it in).

Make Mom's cheese balls.
Finish wrapping gifts.
Sing and listen to Christmas songs.
Mail out gifts to Germany, Vietnam, Colorado and Georgia.

Play the Christmas card game with Brendan.
Celebrate Advent with Konrad and Brendan;
eat Lebkuchen & Spekulatius and drink teas.
Address and mail Christmas cards.
Buy more Christmas cards for those who are left and send out.
Have friends over for mulled wine and desserts.
Decide what soup to make for Christmas day dinner.

We set up our first nativity scene. I have been looking for one for years and I finally found one that we all love. It's made by Habba and it's adorable.



Yum and these are the pecan cookies I want to make. I just need those delish Georgia pecans still!

The Kaiser's Portrait

I don't know if you are familiar with Photo.Stamps.com ? You can submit a photograph and have it put on a stamp. And that is what I did with the photo above. I used the stamps to send out thank yous for baby gifts last year.

I was surprised yesterday to of gotten an email from Photo Stamps saying that this photograph has been selected from thousands to be a finalist in their photo contest. I filled out the respective form and signed the agreement and today got a Congratulations that Konrad's photograph has made it to the final pick!! Brendan and I are so surprised and hope that his picture will be the one that gets chosen... if not, it is still so cool that they picked it as a finalist!!

If the photo gets selected as the winner, it will go on display at the Smithsonian's Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. (Ironically, the same museum where my poster is on display and where my last job at the Postal Service was).

This picture of Konrad was taken when he was just 2 weeks old. Brendan swaddled him and laid him on our bed to take pictures of him for his first passport photo. He got some great photos out of it, this one being the best and it has since gotten tons of compliments. My brother and some friends have told me that I needed to put it into a contest... funny how it's naturally found it's way to one!

So, keep your fingers crossed and thumbs tucked that the Kaiser's portrait makes it into the Smithsonian's Postal Museum! I'll keep you posted.....har-har.