Happy Holidays!

Life has been coming at us fast. We spent Thanksgiving in Tennessee which is always amazing. I feel blessed that I have in laws that I am absolutely crazy about. Sam's family is an extension of him. I love each and every one of them. Now Christmas is right around the corner and we are coming into a new year. WOW! Where does the time go? My little one will be turning nine next week. It is not easy for me. We moved her room last week into her playroom and cleaned out all of her toys, and things she doesn't play with anymore. She now wants Bath and Body Works and cds and big girl things. Ahhhhh........It was a bit emotional for me going through some of her things as I packed them for storage. I ran across her bear that hung on the door at the hospital the day she was born and the past nine years just came flooding back to me. She is growing so fast and is every bit of amazing that I could have ever dreamed of. She is beautiful, smart and funny. When I count my blessings I count her a hundred times over, for I was surely blessed when God chose me to be her mother.

With the new year brings new things our way. We are planning on painting several rooms as soon as the first of the year passes. My health is proving to hold out very well this holiday season! THANK YOU GOD! It is always nice to breathe easy during the holidays. We were blessed by some of Sam's family over Thanksgiving with a treadmill!!!! It has been incredible! I have been walking every day and coughing tons afterwards. I have noticed my endurance has been building. Today when we left Peyton's Christmas party at her school I was able to walk down the street to where Sam had parked the car, instead of him having to go get it and picking me up. It was really nice. The cooler air really helps. It is amazing to feel amazing. THANK YOU GOD! I am sure I still have suffering in my future, struggles and hurdles, yet today was a good day and I take it a day at a time. So THANK YOU GOD!

I have been so inspired these past few weeks. Art has been pouring out of me left and right. I have been finishing projects that were once put off and starting new ones all the same. It has felt really good. I decided to get crafty the other night around 10 pm. HAHA I made our Christmas cards. I was very pleased with them. I have been looking in the stores and found nothing that matched our personalities. We waited too late to order the traditional picture cards that we usually get. So I had the notecards here from a previous project and decided to do them. It took about two hours to make 36 cards. I, of course, think they turned out fabulous. I hand painted abstract Christmas trees on the front of each one, red on half of them and green on the other half. Then just wrote a simple Merry Christmas on the inside. I am considering doing this every year from now on, coming up with a different design each year. I want them to be abstract, modern and simple. The possibilities are endless, I could do gifts, ornaments, Santa, or even elves. I do believe I will start this project earlier in the year however so when Christmas arrives it will be one less thing on my list to do.The front of my Christmas cards. I took the picture of them both together to show the green and red. =)
The inside.

Sam opened his Christmas gift from me. He couldn't wait. It was a Dremel tool. Yeah doesn't sound very exciting. But it is. He can now carve funky designs into wood. He is really excited as so am I. Sam is an artist is his own way. His dad paints but painting bores Sam. He loves power tools though. I can't wait to see what he makes. He is asking for a pottery wheel for his birthday so I am going to be doing research on that one between now and April.

This is all of the Welch household news for now. I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!! Love you all!!

Oh yeah World Peace and all of that Hippie Jive. =)