Alex turned 11 today

Our grandson Alex turned 11 today! How can that be, it just seems like yesterday when he was born....we went over to see Alex today and give him his card (and a wee bit of money), enjoyed a cup of tea and the antics of their cat. Below are a couple of photos I took.

grandson Alex with his birthday card

Papa, Alex and Gramma

Muffin, their cat climbed in the Christmas tree

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Well Christmas has come and gone. I hope everyone had a wonderful one.

My family starts our celebration Christmas Eve. It’s always been our tradition to have it then as we’re a blended family. As the kids got older it was comforting to us to know they’d be home Christmas Eve, then spend Christmas day with their ‘other’ parents.

So this year my oldest son Matt, youngest son Mark and his family and my stepdaughter Tracey all came home. This year Tracey’s boys Alex and Thomas were with their dad...we sure missed them. And stepson Steve and his family weren’t able to make it down either and they were missed too.

Christmas morning was lovely, because as Tracey didn’t have the boys she stayed overnight with us. After she left to go home we headed to my older sister Lyn’s for a lovely ham lunch and a visit with her daughter and grandchildren. After that we went to my youngest son Mark’s home for Christmas dinner. And oh my what a lovely dinner they prepared. There was turkey, ham, prime rib, awesome potatoes, lots of vegetables and pumpkin tarts for dessert.

Santa was very good to all of their children. I spent part of the evening having a tea party with my little granddaughter Madison. She got a cleaning set with broom, dustpan, mop and sponges and had a grand time sweeping up after dinner, LOL!

On Boxing day my darling hubby made a great roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings. Tracey and her boys, Alex and Thomas along with my son Matt joined us.

Here are some wonderful photos I took over the weekend.

Our Boxing Day

Tracey, Thomas & Alex

Alex

Tracey & Thomas

our Christmas tree

beautiful roses from my hubby

Our Christmas Day

having tea with Madison

Madison loves to clean

playing with Uncle Matt

playing with Yogi

Seb is really Awesome!

Our Christmas Eve

almost everyone around the table

Madison enjoying her dinner

having a cuddle with Gramma

Madison having some juice (daddy's in the background)

Tracey

Rachel (Seb in the background)

Kassandra with her gift

Jesse with his gift

Mark & Rachel have 2 new fur babies, on the left is Abraham, a Lab and on the right is Yogi, an English Mastiff

Stamptacular Sunday TREEmendous

I made alot of these tree cards for Christmas this year in all different colors. The stamp is from Stampin Up. I used the snowflake embossing folder for the background, added 3 red gems and a big white bow to finish it off. I love how they turned out. I'm entering this at: Stamptacular Sunday - TREEmendous

First and Latest or Greatest entry 3

Here’s my third entry for the Crafty Cardmakers challenge; were you take one of your first card made and either the latest of greatest card and enter them both in their challenge.....

Here is a Christmas card I made this year. It's one of my favorites I sent out. I think my cards look better now because I bought a Cuttlebug this year. It just adds that little bit more to a card. I also believe belonging to my wonderful card group (Making Greeting Cards) has helped me tremendously.

This is a Father's Day card I made in 2008 for my darling hubby. I was just learning how to do iris folding and now it's one of my favorite techniques.

First and Latest or Greatest entry 2

Here is my 2nd entry for the Crafty Cardmakers challenge; were you take one of your first card made and either the latest of greatest card and enter them both in their challenge....

I made this card in Oct 2010 for friends of ours that just got married.

I made this card in Sept 2006 for my neice and her hubby

First and Latest or Greatest entry 1

Crafty Cardmakers has this great challenge going on until the 10th of Jan 2011. You take one of your first cards made and either the latest or your greatest card and enter them both in their challenge.....how fun is that? LOL! You're allowed to enter 3 time but they have to be separate posts.....here's my first post.

I made this one in Sept 2010 and is one of my favorite ones because it was my first try at making paper roses.

This is an Anniversary card I made for my hubby, and back in 2005 I didn't know about OMS so my coloring isn't very good on this one.

Christmas Cards for my Grandchildren

for 2 year old Madison

for 7 year old Kassandra

for 8 year old Thomas

for 9 year old Sebastian

for 10 year old Alex

for 10 year old Jesse

for 18 year old Jordan

for 19 year old Chris

for 19 year old for Danial

Merry and Bright

Here's a Christmas card I made to enter at Stamptacular Sunday for their Winter Wishes challenge. The pretty background paper is from a friend of mine and the stamps are from Stampin Up. I've added some Stickles to the stars for some extra sparkle.

Christmas Bear

isn't he just the cutest bear! I found this a while ago at Free Digital Stamps. It was a lovely freebie from Robyn's Fetish (thanks!). I'm entering this at Crafty Creations for the Beary Project.

It's all about the shoes

This card has lots of things going on, but I like how it turned out. The shoe is from Jak's (thanks!). I've embossed the vellum with the textile embossing folder, added lots of flowers and some pearls. I'm entering it in the following:

Cute Card Thursday - Floral Frenzy

Delightful challenges - Embossing

Sew Many Challenges - Flower Power

Stamp Something - Digi Day

The Cuttlebug Spot - Favorite Embossing

A Candle Glowing

This pretty candle is a free digi from Birds Blog (thanks!). I'm entering it at Meljens Design for their color challenge of red, green and gold.

A Jolly Snowman

Isn' this an adorable snowman? He's a free digi from Spyder's Corner (thanks!). I just had to make a card with him. I used lots of gems on this card. I'm entering it in 3 challenges:

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Christmas Card

Whoopsi Daisy - Ribbons and Bows

Digital Tuesday - Baby it's Cold Outside (plus a digi)

Seeing Triple

Die Cut Dreams has a great challenge this week....seeing triple! As I mentioned in an earlier post I made lots of this style card. Who know I'd need 3 to enter in a challenge, LOL! Last week I was lucky enough to win at Die Cut Dream, woohoo! That was such a nice feeling....looking forward to receiving some goodies in the new year!

a blue and white tree

I loved making this card. I actually made a couple of dozen in all different colors....it's just so clean and simple. I'm entering this at Papertake Weekly Challenge for not using Red or Green in a Christmas card!

Warm Winter Wishes

This is one of my favorite stamps. It's from Stamping Up. The sentiment is from Birds Blog (thanks Bird!). I've used the snowflake folder on alot of my cards this season. I'm entering this at Saturday Challenge - Christmas

favorite color combo

Pink has always been one of my very favorite colors! That's not to say I don't love other colors, I do. The tree is from Stampin Up, at the moment I'm not sure the name of the set. I stamped it, then cut it out with pinking shears. I used the snowflake embossing folder for the b/g, added a bow and some gems. I'm entering this at:

Stamp Something

a different sketch

I saw this sketch challenge at Friday Sketchers and thought what a very different sketch to try and do! This is the end result. I used the snowflake embossing folder, tried to make a tree shape, lol....stamped a poinsettia and used my favorite color pink! I'm entering this at:

Friday Sketchers - sketch

Sew Many Challenges - snowflakes