DOWN TO THE FINISH LINE

So.... In case you were wondering, I managed to finish up with everything Christmas Eve day and  I took a few photos to show you so you can see how busy I actually was. The photos are of the prep area waiting for me to start putting everything into gift bags.

There were 22 of these nifty red bakery boxes filled with cookies.....  I really like the boxes and think they add so much to the gift. If the cookies aren't up to snuff at least they look pretty, don't they?

.......and there were 6 tins of fudge and 12 mini loaves of Christmas breads.

Snickerdoodles anyone? I made the tags on the boxes and wrote the name of the cookie on the reverse side.

I did the same for the breads.

The baked goods and homemade fudge ended up in gift bags that were delivered to neighbors and friends on Christmas eve. This year I also made the Christmas cards which is something I've never got around to trying before. I liked making them so much I'm going to try to make all of the ones I send out next year.

We had a lovely Christmas and I'm going to spend this week enjoying the peace and quiet and rest up from all of the work spent getting ready for Christmas. I'll be taking down the decorations and putting them away the weekend after New years.  We have a tradition in our family. The decorations are up for the most part for my birthday and come down a month later after my daughter's birthday.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and at this time I want to wish you a very

~Happy New Year~

As always, thanks for stopping by. 

Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year

May your Christmas be filled with love and happiness and we will see you all next year.

             Warm hugs,

              Maddy Rose and the North Pole Bears

More on our Christmas preparations

Hi everyone, it's Bellamine and Wendy again. We're going to show you a couple of photos of our decorations that didn't get in to our last post and to tell you what we've been doing to get ready for Christmas.

Mom painted some paper mache gift boxes to put under our little tree. Although they are empty now we're hoping that on Christmas morning they will be filled with little pressies for us. Perhaps some candies or toys will be in them when we open the lids and look inside.

There's a snowman box almost like the one our mom has and a cute ginger boy and a Christmas tree that's next to the star. Thanks Mom.

In our last post we really didn't show much of our tree because we didn't have it finished. Now it is and we're really happy with the way it turned out this year. Our mom has been collecting the ornamnets for this little tree for almost 30 years so we guess it's her tree as much as it is ours. Doesn't it look like it has snow on it? Mom said we could choose a Santa to sit next to it so we picked this one cause we like the pressies in his arms.

Mom is always rearranging things. If you look at the last post the three little Chrsitmas bears were on the other side of the everygreens and those BEE-U-TEE-FULL hand painted wine glasses weren't there. The wine glasses were a gift from our mom's friend Miss Crystal from Crystal Clear. Mom has already tried them out and says she thinks they make the wine taste even better. We asked for a sip to see if she was right and thought the wine still tasted YUCKY!!

There's a new ornie on the big tree that came in the mail the day after the wine glasses. Do you see it? It's a BEE-U-TEE-FULL beaded ornie with beads that spell Maddy Rose that our dear friend Karen Anne from Ireland Brady made. Mom just loves it and she and our grown up sister want to learn how to make some so we can have even more on our tree next year. We would make some for our little tree but it's really hard to work with beads when you have paws.

Today we're putting on aprons and giving our mom some much need help with the Christmas baking. We're hoping that we're going to be making gingerbread boys because one of the ingredients is mole-you-know-whats. Heheheheheheheheh Get it? Mole-asses. We know it's not really said like that but it's funnier when you do say it that way. It always makes the boys laugh.

Well that's it for us today. We're going to check the blog list really quick to see if we missed any posts and then we're off to help with cookies. Mom always lets us eat the ones that get broken and we feel a case of oopsies coming on.

Hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy

Holiday Decorating

Hi everyone, its Bellamine & Wendy here and we're going to show you what we have done so far to decorate for the holidays. This is just the beginning so we may have more to show you closer to Christmas.

First we're going to show you our big tree in the living room and go on from there.

The tree is 7 1/2 feet tall and is decorated with only handmade ornaments. Most of them were made by our mom and we helped with some of them. Other ornaments were made by our friends and relatives.

The BEE-U-TEE-FULL polar bear ornie is from our friend Prudence and her mom.

Bellamine, that little snowman isn't handmade. Is it?! I thought Mom said this tree was just for the handmade ornaments.

It's OK Wendy, Mom said I could put my snowy ornament on the big tree cause he's too big for our tree but maybe we shouldn't say anything about it and nobody will notice.

This cutie pututie ginger boy was made by our auntie Maggie. Isn't he the sweetest little softie?

Our mom has many collections and one of our favorites is her collection of Christmas bears. 

She puts some on tables

and sits others on the mantel

and some are put on the buffet

Another thing our mom collects is Snowpeople. There are many different kinds of snowmen like the two here made of iron and there's a hook that holds a Christamas stocking.



and then there are the softie snowies like this little family here. The mom and dad were made by our auntie Maggie and their son was a gift from our grownup sister Bambi.

 Bambi also gave us the little Snowman snow globe under our tree.

We especially like the Snowman painted on this little house. If you look close you can see where is says, "Let it snow....somewhere else." Teeteetee

In the weeks between now and Christmas we'll be helping our mom do some more decorating and help her bake cookies and make candy to give to our friends and neighbors. 

We will also be watching Christmas movies and wrapping gifts and being the best little bears there is so we get lots of pressies from Santa and our mom.

That's it for today. Now we're going to go see if our mom needs help with anthing like maybe licking a spoon or taste testing something. We think she's making peanut butter fudge today.

See you all really soon. Remember that you need to be on your best behavior if you want Santa to leave you lots of pressies.

Hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy

and the winner is

Only twentytwo more days and it will be Christmas. It hardly seems possible doesn't it? I still have so much to do and am so far behind on everything. I think it's because I try to do too much and never leave myself enough time to do it all and then I start feeling stressed and when I get too stressed I get sick. That just makes me more stressed because when I'm sick I'm not getting anything done.

Having said that I'm keeping this simple. No need to make a big production out of it. Right??

Here is Santa's old bag:

and here is the list of names that went into the bag:

1. Flora @Bone Head Studio
2. Prudence @The Bears Blog
3. PKlaw
4. Lori @Apple Grove Treasures
5. Sara @Salmon Falls Prims
6. Julie @Julie’s Little House
7. Amy @Bumble Bee Lane
8. Wendy @Raven wood Whimzies
9. Linda @Buzzing and Bumbling
10. Pippirose @Pippi Stitches
11. Kay @ Kay’s Kids
12. Maggie @Off My Rocker
13. Pam @yoborobo
14. Karen Anne @Ireland Brady
15. Oma Linda @Olde Baggs ‘n Stuft Shirts & @Ye Olde Crones Gazette
16. Mary @Colony Mountain Stitcheries
17. Diane @Lavender Dreamer
18. Akasa Wolfsong @Stone Soup
19. Miyako @Orchid’s Daily Voice
20. Stacy @Magic Love Crow
21. Dessa Rae @ Dessa Rae Original Art Dolls
22. Beverly @Rhissanna
23. Susan @ Glen Oaks Primitives
24. Bren @eSynergy
25. Crystal Donnelly @Make it Easy
26. M @Off Center
27. Martha
28. Carmen @mi pequena evasion
29. Katy @The littlest Thistle
30. Mary @Marmmies Mammy’s and Me
31. Ana Camara ….acamarah.50@gmail.com
32. Rosa Maria @Contrustes
33. Ascension @mis miniaturas
34. Drora @Drora’s Minimundo
35. Sherrie @SympleThymes Cloth Art
36. Burning Rubber ?
37. Laura @ Cobblestone Creations

And here is the Santa:  



and the winner is: 

number 25. Crystal Donnelly of Make it Easy.

Congratulations Crystal. I'll be emailing you for your address and will have your Santa in the mail as soon as I hear from you. 

I want to thank everyone who entered the drawing and to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday and as always, thanks for stopping by.