Happy Holidays

As you reminisce past holiday cheer and create new memories this year...

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Signs that Thanksgiving is upon us:

Tonight after I am full of the bird and pecan pie we are going to see one of my all time favorites...Kermit the Frog! :) I can not tell you how excited I am for the nostalgia that is The Muppets! So as I relive my youth I will leave you with a Happy Turkey Day and a frog....

Photos via Pink Sherbet, Cameron Nordholm and Digitized Chaos. All via Flickr Creative Commons.

Happy New Year

So I may be just a tad bit late....but I wanted to wish you all a wonderful start to the year! I apologize for not being the best blog hostess the past few weeks as things have been a bit crazy, but I've missed you all terribly!

Let me try to play catch up!

It started off a little unorganized...well a lot unorganized. Basically it looked like Christmas had exploded in my house!

Soon enough though everything was in place and I tortured the fuzz by making him take pictures in front of the tree. :)


We had a great Christmas party at work. Although I didn't win any of the door prizes, again, we had good food and fun conversations with coworkers that we don't get to see enough during our busy days. Truth be told I always secretly hope I don't win because I am afraid of being in front of crowds. Since Gabe works with me I always wish for him to win. Then I get to sit in the background and I still get the use of said prize!


After the Christmas insanity we spent a chilly morning at the zoo. The weather was actually perfect for the wildlife as all of the animals were very active that day.

After spending time at the zoo I do believe Gabe has started acting the part. LOL he will do anything in a picture that I ask him to do. I just don't tell him at the time that I am going to post it on my blog! ;) That will be our little secret!

That just about covers it!! Fill me in on your holidays! I can't wait to hear what you all have been up to!

Buried by Holiday Cheer

Am I the only one feeling a little overwhelmed by Christmas this year? It could be the fact that the likelihood of having a day off is looking slim for me in the foreseeable future, but the stress level is rising. Presents to buy, presents to mail and the fact that my dining room table is still piled with ornaments left to find their perfect place on the tree is making me feel more like the Grinch than jolly St. Nick!

I have at least started though:

The small tree in my living room is up and fully decorated in gold, purple and wine. I am really beginning to enjoy that tree so much that is has me contemplating a larger tree for that room. Please remind me that I am crazy if I mention to you all next year about buying yet another tree! ;) One 7 foot tree and three 3 feet trees have found their way into my home so I do believe I need to stop the madness! The bright lights of Christmas do somehow have a calming effect, despite the mad dashes to and fro that come with the season.

So as I try to dig myself out of the piles of Christmas decor, Barkley has found himself right in the middle of them. I swear I have more pictures of the pupster than some of my friends have of their real non furry children. I don't know if that is sadder for them or for me! LOL!

Where do you all stand on your preparations for the big day? Please tell me I am not the only one running behind!

Happy Turkey Day!

So once again it is that time.....

Time for the holiday traditions to begin again.

Time for me to once again watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and exclaim that next year I will in NYC to watch it in person, though that has yet to be accomplished!

Time for Santa to signal the start of the holiday season...now hurry up and start shopping!

Time for those yummy baked rolls, dressing, turkey and mashed potatoes. Pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and many more delicious treats are sure to pack on more calories than one should eat in an entire month...but they are oh so tasty!

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Also know that I am thankful for each of you who actually take the time out to read my blog. I have so enjoyed getting to know so many amazing bloggers from all parts of the globe.

Have a great day!

Halloween Weekend Recap

Finally I have caught up on my sleep enough to catch my blog up on the Halloween festivities! I promised I would come bearing pictures so here goes...

Before heading out I made a few minor adjustments to my Mad Hatter costume. Adding boots and removing a jacket that was included made it much more concert ready!



After leaving Houston Friday morning, then passing through San Francisco we landed in Reno, Nevada. The mountain views were gorgeous from our room at the Grand Sierra Resort.



My friend Shyanne flew in from New Mexico for the weekend as well and we started off our trip by gambling in downtown. We all lost! :( LOL!



Gabe is giving the slot machine a piece of his mind for taking his moolah!



The slot machines can make your head spin after awhile.

Thankfully we had other ways to spend the better part of our Saturday! The last Papa Roach show of their Monsters of Annihilation tour was that night.

Gabe and I dressed up for the show. Here I am with the pimp daddy himself. LOL!


Of course I can't chronicle a Papa Roach show without adding a couple of pictures of the guys themselves! Here I am with them making fun of me for blinking! LOL! I love those goofballs.

Here we all are during meet and greet. Not sure why I look six months pregnant here, but rest assured I am not! ;)

We had an amazing weekend of costumes, friends, awesome music, parties, meeting great new people and travel.

Now it is your turn! I want to hear all about your Halloween fun!

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone has a fun and safe 4Th of July!

What are your plans? Mine include family, BBQ, hopefully fireworks depending on the rain and of course red, white and blue cupcakes!

A Special Happy Monday

Not only is it happy Monday, but it is also Memorial Day!

Thank you to all of the troops who have served and are currently serving to give us the freedom that we have. It is all because of your hard work!

How will you all be spending your Memorial Day?

image courtesy of flickr

Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Barkley got his Easter present yesterday. Something tells me that this will be one rabbit who will not be hopping down the bunny trail!

How are you going to celebrate today?

first photo courtesy of flickr

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all are having a wonderful day!

In the spirit of this day I decided to watch a classic love story that for some reason I have never gotten around to watching.:

It was a really lovely movie and quite fitting for Valentine's Day. I will certainly be adding this one to my classic movie collection.

Love photo courtesy of flickr.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!

I really appreciate all of you who have found Joy De Vivre this year and those of you who have been loyal readers since the start. It has been great to get to know all of you through your thoughtful comments. As 2010 rolls in I have some fun things in mind for new features that I hope you all will enjoy!

Best of luck in 2010! I look forward to sharing it with all of you!

Merry Christmas Eve

I have so been neglecting my blog this past week! I promise to update you all really soon on all of the adventures of the week: going to NYC, meeting my lovely bloggy friend Dorkys, seeing the Rockefeller Christmas tree for the first time, being an extra on Good Morning America, etc., etc.

First thing first though and Christmas, as we all know, is tomorrow. I am so not prepared this year as I have bags of things that still need to be wrapped. I am using the term wrapped loosely this year as everything that I have bought since leaving for vacation will be thrown into a Christmas gift bag!

So off I go to the store and back to finish things for the Christmas festivities, but I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! May Santa bring you everything on your list this year!

If Christmas Has You Frazzled....

pop over to flickr and type in Christmas in the search box. Sometimes we forget to stop and see the beauty that comes with the season as we are rushing from store to store.

Happy Hanukkah

For all of you celebrating I wish you a very Happy Hanukkah!

Weekend Recap

This extended weekend has went by way too fast, but I certainly tried to make the most of it! Friday I was up and out of the house at 3 AM! This meant that I did win the bet my mom and Gabe made with me. I usually can not drag myself out of bed and that hour, but with the prospect of finding great bargains I was up at 2AM and singing Christmas songs at that! Unfortunately for me our bet was of the verbal manner. If I would have known I could really be up that early I would have attached some type of monetary value to make it worth my while!

There were so many bargains Friday! I was able to complete all of my Christmas shopping, except for three people. There were also several cute things that I couldn't live without for myself as well. ;)

Saturday, before attending a surprise party for a friend, we managed to get all of our inside Christmas decorations up. It is such a chore, but I love them once they are in place.

Barkley was right in the middle of the action:

I started moving the Nutcracker's mouth and talking to him so I think he was quite confused! It was pretty darn funny!

He then took to attacking King Kong, which was fine since it kept him from attacking my ornaments. Maybe he was just trying to help us by making it look like it had snowed!

It certainly is looking like Christmas now:

Today I worked on a gift for my Secret Santa present:

I hope you all are having a great weekend as well! Did you find any bargains?