Kicking of the Season

Ah...the house is quiet. I finally have time on the new computer. We finished eating Ice Cream, drinking Hot Chocolate and watching "White Christmas." I got my Turkey dinner at Cracker Barrell, and the day was good. When we started watching White Christmas I started giggling, which of course my family thought was crazy, but I just at that moment felt so happy and content to be sitting with my little family, all cozied up in blankets, sipping hot cocoa and kicking off the Christmas season with my favorite Christmas movie of all time!

Today I also started phase 1 of Christmas decorating. Ok, something you should know about me. I like too many styles of Christmas decoration, so I have divided my house into themed zones. Zone 1 is the kitchen. The Kitchen is more bright and vibrant colors. Whimsy if you will. Lana and I had a lot of fun today decorating and listening to Christmas music. I am a little anal though, so I had to come up with something for Lana to "decorate.". I was quite pleased with the idea. I had some clear glass balls that I bought last year and never did anything with. I gave them to her, along with a bowl of sugar, a funnel, and a spoon. She spooned the "snow" into the balls, and then placed a little piece of garland into it to look like a Christmas tree. We then tied them off with pretty ribbon assortments and hung them on the chandalier. At the end of the season I will just dump out the sugar and she can do it again next year. HMMM.... I think I just started a new tradition. Lana is now all about the sugar. She also filled a votive and made one for her room.

So it was a good day. Still missed Laura. But Stacy and I shared with each other and the kids how much this year has meant to us and it really made this day special and full of new moments and memories.
Tomorrow...Phase 2! Any guesses on which room and what style???

Just Not the Same

(Laura and I reveling in our Thanksgiving success 2005.)

Sunday in church our pastor was giving a Thanksgiving message and I told Stacy that I got overwhelmingly sad thinking about Thursday. Its not that I don't have alot to be thankful for. Believe me, God has done incredible things in my life this year. It's just sad for me without my Sister here. Thanksgiving is our day. We cook, we laugh, we drink Starbucks Mocha Frappacinos, we yell at our kids, then say how thankful we are for them. We laugh at our husbands for playing too much x-box, we watch Marmi, The Pap, Granddada, and Nana, enjoy the grandkids, we talk about getting up really early the next morning for big shopping, but really, we never do. We're always too tired from all the Thanksgiving day prep.
Thanksgiving has always been a day that I REALLY look forward to spending with my sister. We are like minded, so there are never too many "Hens in the kitchen." We understand each other, we laugh at each other (Laura is one of my biggest fans and for that I am appreciative of!), we have known each other for a really long time, which of course always makes things easier. We can appreciate each others desire to cater a bit to our husbands weird eating issues. We love each others kids as much as our own as you can get. We triumph in the finished product at the Thanksgiving table. We enjoy every second of the togetherness that we can.

So this year, while I am thankful that God has been so gracious to me, I am also a little sad. Sad that I'm going to Cracker Barrel and not Atlanta. Sad that I have a new little niece that I can't hold this Thanksgiving day.
BUT...I am thankful. Very thankful that I have a sister that chose to follow the Lord to the ends of the earth. That is sharing the gospel with those around here. That has been blessed with a husband with the same heart, and blessed with 3 beautiful little girls. I am thankful for the time I got to spend with her earlier this year. Thankful for that gift. Thankful for pictures and memories. Thankful for the phone and internet to be able to keep in touch today.

I'm thankful for God's goodness this year. He has blessed me exceedingly and abundantly this year in many ways. So even though I am a little sad, He is still good. He is still gracious. He is still loving. He is after all, still God!

Amusing Logan

I am constantly amused by my 7 year old. Logan is currently obsessed with dinosaurs. When we go to the library he gets only books about dinosaurs. We of course have to be careful about some of that stuff, but he is obsessed. He is consantly drawing, reading, and "building" dinosaurs.
If you've heard of the Creation Museum, or the Answers in Genesis programs, you may be familiar with Buddy Davis. He is paleantoligist/creation expert. Logan has learned alot from his stuff.
Well, yesterday in the car Logan said...
"Mom, can Buddy Davis be my little "g" god?"
I was very tickled by this and then of course explained no, but he could be his mentor. That resulted in a phone call to the Creation Museum today to ask to speak to Buddy Davis. I had it on speaker phone so I could hear the person on the other end. She was very kind and polite and to my suprise did offer his email address.
So Logan painstakingly typed an email to Mr. Davis, were he included our town and zip code as well as my cell phone #. I deleted that part of course, typed a little note on the bottom that this was a parent approved letter and thanked him for his time.
So there we have it,Logans little "g" god has been invted to our home offically to build dinosaurs with a 7 year old. I'm sure he gets emails like this all of the time, but I truly hope he returns this one!

I'm BAACK

To some of you it may not seem that I have left. But to me, it has been the longest 4 days of my life.
The 7 year old computer finally crashed Thursday evening, leaving me cold and alone.
Dear Gwendy let me come over to her house until after 11:00 to finish my typing job, and ever since then I have been out of touch with the computer. It has made me sad.
Probablly a little more productive, but sad none the less.
Thanfully Friday we went to the T Rex named Sue thing and had a lot of fun with the other Mommas and kids, so that took up one day...then Saturday I worked on very cute Christmas crafts which I cannot show, but I am dying to, but can't since they are gifts for some of you!
Saturday night we went throught the hugest ordeal to try to get the new computer. Long story short, God is in control, knew we needed to wait one more day, and as a result we saved $200! PTL!
So today smart hubby got us up and running on the new computer. YEAH!!!!
Very happy with our awesome deal and to be back in touch with the real world.
Looking forward to not working this week and working on stuff with the kidos!
Toodles friends :)

Updated

OK...So I was at Target again today and bought these little mini cards. 8 for $1.
I cut them and fastened the front part to the front of the popcorn box, and used the other part as a label for the popcorn mix. I just used black marker right now, but I think I will acutally print a cute label and attatch it to the green card.
I got filler for $1 that will probablly last for all the boxes, and then of course tissue at dollar tree.
Oh, and the cool green yarn I got at dollar tree as well.
So, I think this is evolving into a great little gift.
Now lets just hope the actual popcorn recipe turns out good!

Idea # 1

My first submission for Christmas gift idea came to me today while at Target. We were looking for packaging for Awana, SS teacher, church staff gifts, etc...
Found in the dollar bins these hard plastic Popcorn boxes. Found packages of 30 red bags. Packages of 8 tags, and then I had got ribbon at Hobby Lobby last week on 1/2 price day.
Below is a link for Peanut Butter Popcorn Crunch. Will make a big batch of that and put it in the bags. I'm trying to think of a catchy phrase like "You really popped out this year! Thanks for all you do."
I think I will also Cover the front "Popcorn" writing, with handmade name tags.
Let me know if you have a catchy popcorn phrase.


http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Peanut-Butter-Popcorn-Crunch

Idea Swap

I thought it would be fun with Christmas fast approaching, to swap ideas!
I have posted some links to the left of some good websites I found.
If you have any good websites or resources, please comment on them here.
Also, if you have any good ideas for gifts for teachers, neighbors, church staff, etc... post those as well!
We have a great group of very creative people here and I would love to glean from you all as we enter this time of year. Which by the way, can you believe Thanksgiving is NEXT week? My goodness, where does the time go? I was just thinking that next Friday I will probablly put up my tree and start decorating for Christmas. WOW!!!
Oh, and on a side note, I am IN LOVE with the white trees with colored lights! I told my Mom that I really want to suprise the Family and get one for the den. I will still do my regular tree upstairs. Well I opened my big mouth the other day when I was at WalMart with Hubbie and he freaked out. He thinks they are hidious and that I am crazy! How dare he???
So do any of you have a Christmas tree desire that is out of the norm?
And don't forget about giving ideas!