'Twas the day before Christmas

Don't worry, I'm not going to rhyme.

Today is my second-most favorite day of the year, mostly because it's the prelude to CHRISTMAS, but also because everyone is bustling around, cooking, wrapping presents and getting everything ready for that delightful day less than 24 hours away.

Every year my Mom has a Christmas Eve party, and this year they're finally letting me contribute finger foods. They don't trust me enough yet to prepare actual meals. One of these days...

Anyhoo, I was going to just make pigs in a blanket, because they're a crowd favorite and they're super easy. Then Brandi over at Twenty-Something Florida Wife shared her chocolate-peanut butter fudge recipe yesterday, and I was thrilled!

I've been wanting a good peanut butter fudge recipe for years, but nobody has had one. So, later today I will be making Brandi's fudge, and I'm sure it will be delightful. Thanks, Brandi!

Hubs and I opened our presents to each other last night, because we like Christmas morning to be all about the kids - for now, anyway - and he gave me an Amazon Kindle, which I love! I also received some new shoes, diamond stud earrings and accessories for the Kindle. Momma's happy. I gave Hubs an XBox 360 Kinect and a game everybody is apparently wanting, Black Ops or something like that. He was thrilled, so I did good. Oh, I also created a shirt online at Custom Ink for him;

It's hilarious, and he loved that, too. (He's been joking all semester that he's married to a college chick and that's hot. What a nerd.)

So, now we are looking forward to tonight's party and tomorrow morning, when we'll get to watch our daughters open presents and squeal delightedly over the ridiculously massive amount of Disney Princess stuff. After that we'll head over to Mom's so the girls can do presents there, then we'll spend the rest of the day at my grandparent's house with the family. It's such a wonderful time, and I very much enjoy my family, so it will be a great day.

THEN (I know, this is getting ridiculous) we'll be leaving on Sunday headed to the Smoky Mountains and my most favorite state of the US - Tennessee. I can't wait to see my Dad, baby sisters and family up there. Make sure you guys stop in next week and check out my guest bloggers! They have written some great posts!

I hope you all have wonderfully fantabulous Christmases - those who celebrate, anyway. For the rest of you, just have a smashing Saturday! Love and kisses, y'all!

In the words of The Beatles: HELP!

So, I'll be going to beautiful Tennessee the day after Christmas for a week to visit my totally awesome Dad, stepmom, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins.  They do have internet connection, but I'm sure I'll be having entirely too much fun to update my blog, which makes me sad. 

Because of this little vacation, I would like to have my first ever Guest Blog Week. 

Yippee. 

Are you excited?  I know I am.

What I need is five volunteers (yes, you) to write a post for each day for me - Monday through Friday.  I actually had about four people in mind specifically, but I couldn't find emails for all of you, so this is an open invitation.  If I get more than five offers, I will probably carry the guest posts over into next week or maybe use them later - if it's okay with the bloggers. 

Since my blog is about anything and everything, no specific topic is needed, but I did come up with a few ideas for y'all, if needed:

The Funniest/Most Embarrassing Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Face Punch

Top Ten Lists (Movies, Music, Hotties, Notties, Animals, Fetishes, whatever)

Why I Love/Hate Facebook (or Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Speidi, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Reynolds, etc.)

Somebody Has To Say It

Abnormal News

We Were On A Break!
If I Could Create a Television Show/Film, It Would Be...
My Life Soundtrack

Book Reviews

Interviews

Deep Thoughts

Wonderings/Ponderings

Jabberwocky

Ode to Johnny Depp/Captain Jack/Mad Hatter

Why Speidi Sucks

If I Were to Host an Infomercial, My Product Would Be ____ and My Pitch Would Sound Like This (MUST BE OVERLY CHEESY)

Why It's Okay To Crush On An Older Man As Long As He Has A Foreign Accent

Guilty Pleasures (No freaky-deeky, you pervs)

Why F*R*I*E*N*D*S Was the Best Show.  Ever.

Why Saved By the Bell Should Film A Reunion Movie

Of course, you don't have to use any of these ideas. 

You can comment on this post to let me know you're interested, or email me at jessicabparnell@hotmail.com
Once we establish your interest, I'll need your post by Friday so I can set all posts up to begin on Monday.

I'm so excited and hope you guys are interested! 

Toodles!

See, what happened was...

I thought once I finished finals it would be rest and relaxation, maybe a little Christmas shopping here and there...

Afraid not.

First, the DAY I finished finals, Hubs came down with strep throat.  Over the weekend, Hayden started running high fever...trip to the ER revealed she also had strep throat.  Then, two days later, Anna catches it.  So I spent most of last week taking care of three sick children.  (Note:  Hubs is actually 28, but when he's sick, he might as well be a five-year-old.  Males.)

A couple of visits to doctors later, Hubs and kids are feeling better. 

Yay. 

In between taking the kids to the doctor and babying Hubs I was super-busy at work planning and decorating for our annual Christmas dinner.  My boss, the Pastor, is older and apparently has an abundance of free time to come up with these crazy schemes and decoration ideas - this would normally be cool, but since I'm the secretary, that means I'm the one who has to try and make his ideas come to life.  These ideas usually take two or three days to complete. 

Luckily I'm brilliant and was able to pull everything together, and our dinner on Thursday night was a smashing success.  Yay.

Friday I cleaned house, finished Christmas shopping, wrapped presents and started packing for us to spend the weekend at Hub's parent's house in Baton Rouge.  All in all a great day, especially when Hubs brought in the mail and I discovered a letter from my school informing me I made the President's List. 

Woohoo! 

I was so excited and moved that I cried.  It sort of felt like validation for me - letting myself know that hey, I can actually do this - even with a husband and two children and a home to take care of and a job to keep.  Just call me Superwoman. 

I rode that high all the way through the weekend, and I'm still feeling pretty giddy about it now.  Hubs put the letter on the fridge, which is adorable and lets me know he's super proud of me.  

Our "Christmas Weekend" with Hub's family went well.  The girls received entirely too many gifts, as usual.  We hit the jackpot with cash prizes and some gift cards and pretty awesome gifts.  Made it back home this afternoon, had lunch at my grandparent's house, watched the Saints lose to the Ravens (boo) and then went to church for our Christmas Candelight Service.  

Whew.  

So, that's what I've been up to - not that y'all really cared.  This vacation is turning out to be not so much a vacation as much as more work for Jess.  How strange.