1000 Gifts {65-94}

65. baking day with my girls
66. little girl laughter
67. peppermint tea on a cold night
68. Sunday morning worship

69. the Christ child's birth
70. making ornaments
71. a new computer
72. Friday night with friends
73. little girls memorizing scripture and hiding God's Word in their hearts


74. starbucks on a lazy Sunday afternoon
75. friends who love me through a tough day
76. text messages from a hubby who loves me deeply
77. seeing the Nutcracker downtown with my girls at Christmastime
78. piano lessons

79. a daughter reading to us and seeing how much her reading is improving
80. a new book for Mommy to read
81. Christmas cookies

82. cinnamon scented pinecones
83. striped socks
84. sleeping in


85. coming in from the cold to enjoy hot cocoa
86. a live, drive-thru nativity
87. new glasses
88. grace, even when I fail, time and time again

89. sisters sledding
90. building snowmen
91. making cookies that remind me of my Grandparents and Dad who are now enjoying glory - enjoying the warm thoughts of those people who I've loved and lost
92. a hardworking hubby who braves the weather no matter how cold or hot to do his job every day
93. singing Christmas carols
94. a loving Daddy helping his little girls craft pretty snowflakes

Book Tradition {days 8-10}

On December 8th we opened "365 Travel Games and Activities" and from the AoC we read about Christmas pageants.



Ever since our oldest was able to talk {at about 2 yrs old} she was able to 'tell' the Christmas story of Jesus birth. Every year on Christmas Eve we go to my in laws house before going to the Christmas Eve service at church - and the girls tell the story of Jesus birth while 'acting' it out with characters and a nativity. So I guess in a way, this is our tradition of our version of a Christmas pageant.

On Dec. 9th for our 'book' we opened a cupcake kit - it came with a small cupcake pan, some decorating items and a recipe book with ideas for decorating. The girls are SO excited to try it out! We have a Christmas party we're going to next weekend so we're going to make the cupcakes for that day.

On Dec. 10th we read Rudolph's Adventure. We skipped the AoC book because it was Awana night. ;)

Twilight

So, I did it. I finally read Twilight. I never thought I would and that it would never interest me ... but I must admit I was definitely curious about what all the hype was about. Plus, I figured in a few years I'll have tween daughters and if they should happen to say they want to read it I'd like to have a preview of what's in store first.

Before I go any further I will warn you that I am going to mention some details about the book - so if you think you might read it in the future this is your spoiler alert. I won't go into all the details of the plot and everything, but still, don't say I didn't warn you in advance!!

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still reading? ok, here we go ...

Here are my observations:





First I really DID like the book. I was surprised by how much I liked it. It is a VERY suspenseful book that had me where I really couldn't put it down - especially the second half. I read the whole thing in just a few shorts nights and stayed up so late each night because I just couldn't wait to see what would happen next.





So the book is about Vampires. If you know nothing of this book than you may be surprised. Yes, it's about vampires - and yes, that's why I'm totally surprised that I read it. I actually worried at first that I was inviting bad thoughts {the devil} into my heart and my home by reading this book - but now that I'm done with it I don't feel that way anymore. I avoid horror movies and anything creepy at all costs. I read almost only Christian fiction. I read the stories that have happy endings - it's how I manage to sleep at night. I watched horror movies in my younger years and soon decided it wasn't worth it because I really am a person who loves to sleep peacefully at night. No nightmares for me, thank you very much! But I will say, that even though there were some scenes in the second half of the book that do get a little frightening - I never had trouble sleeping and never had any dreams about this book or the characters. I think I was very easily able to distinguish in my mind that it was fiction. I think that is a very important detail to remember - it's a really good fiction book - keep that in mind and you will not struggle with this book.





Anyway, moving on. Twilight is a love story more than anything else. It's about a teen girl who falls in love with a 'teen' guy who just happens to be a vampire. Much of the book is simply Bella and Edward talking and learning about each other and what makes them both so different from each other. And much of it is them falling in love with each other.





That being said - I must say, there is A LOT of sensual desire going on. I would almost say 'sexual tension' between Edward and Bella. No, there are no 'sex' scenes in the book - but so much of their time together is about their strong desires for one another and does talk a lot about them touching, caressing, kissing, etc ... In a weird way, it's presented very innocently - mostly because Edward being a vampire has to be careful not to get too carried away with Bella so as not to ignite his vampire desires {for blood}. HOWEVER, there is a time where Edward stays with Bella all night, in her room and I would NOT suggest this book for any teen or tween girl. WAY too much sensual stuff going on!!! I do not think our tween or teen girls need to have any more ideas of romanticism, love and sensuality planted in their innocent minds. We need to protect their innocence as much as we can!





As a married, Christian woman who is secure in my beliefs I did not feel that this book caused me any sort of stumbling block. But for a vulnerable, young, insecure teen girl?? Could quite possibly happen! A girl who isn't totally secure in her beliefs about God, the devil and other 'creatures' ... could definitely cause you to think that yeah, maybe these vampires could really be out there living among us. Myself - not a doubt in my mind. But I wouldn't want my daughters to have those kinds of doubts or fears until they were grown women who were very secure in their beliefs. And honestly I'd rather they not read about such sensual desires until they are happily married women who can act upon their desires WITH their husbands. Why stir up feelings of sensuality in someone who is young and should not be acting upon those feelings/desires??



So that is my two cents on the book ... for whatever it's worth. Like I said, I did like it - just think there needs to be some caution used in who reads it. It definitely seems to be marketed to the teen crowd and I know for sure that I do not agree with that.

The book ends on a cliffhanger ... so now I have to decide - will I read the next one or not? ;)

The Nutcracker

Today the girls and I went to see The Nutcracker Ballet. It was my first time ever and the first time for the girls too. We loved it! So beautiful! So magical! We attended at this great old theater near us ... as you can see below it's a very neat place!

I did not take pictures there - we were not allowed, so this is simply an image from google. But it was just like the one we saw. I have never been a dancer and never took dance lessons as a child ... but seeing those ballet dancers in all their grace and beauty was certainly enought to make me wish I had!

It was a great little 'field trip' for the Christmas season and I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to go!

Custom Monogrammed Ornaments

I just LOVE finding inspiration from other fun, crafty Moms out there in the blogosphere! Kelly at Kelly's Korner posted about these adorable monogrammed ornaments she made and immediately I was like 'oh cool, I could totally do that!'

So I picked up a box of unbreakable ornaments at walmart - 12 ornaments for $5 - can't beat that! I chose red, just a preference of mine - but walmart had all kinds of cool colors from red to silver to brown, pink and turquoise!

I looked through my scrapbook stickers and found these pretty silver ones - perfect! Then I used my circle punch to punch out a piece of paper into a small circle and found a silver sharpie marker.
First, choose where you want the sticker- stick it on, centering it as best as you can. Next hold the piece of circle shaped paper over top of the sticker and carefully create small silver dots all around the circle. If you have a very steady hand you could probably do this without the circle template but I did not trust myself to make a perfect circle! Kelly made hers without the circle, but I like that it adds a nice little touch. You could actually do any design you want with your sharpie - I was just keepin' it simple.
Then I bought some very inexpensive silver ribbon and threaded one strand of thick and one strand of thin through the hole at the top. The thin one was tied so it can hang on the tree ... the thick one is purely decorative.
Aren't they pretty??!! I can't wait to give them to the special recipients!

Just a side note ... this would make a fantastic teacher gift! My girls don't go to 'regular' school - but they do have Sunday school teachers, a piano teacher and a homeschool teacher at Bible study. Now we have the perfect little thank you gift for them!

I highly recommend you go check out Kelly's blog - it's an adorable blog with tons of neat stuff to see ... and you'll see how cute her ornaments turned out. She used clear glass ornaments and filled them with colored shred - she also used some super cute ribbons. Check it out!

Today

Today was cold. This morning I had to take my daughter to a follow up doctor's appointment and as I stepped outside in the sunny morning air I literally smiled from ear to ear. Why? Because it's cold. The ground was frosty with a few small traces of snow leftover. It feels like Christmas season now. I love the cold, brisk air. I love wearing a warm coat and scarf and using the heated seat in my car.

Today I wore a thick sweatshirt and thick wool socks in the house while I finished addressing my Christmas cards and drinking a warm, spiced Chai tea. And I lit a candle - just because. I have so many candles and I always forget to use them, except for special days of course. But I'm trying to embrace the everyday moments more, light those unused candles, breathe in their yummy scents!

Today we snuggled together to watch the Polar Express. I dozed off. I have such a hard time staying awake for movies! My hubby always laughs at me! I love, love, love the music from the Polar Express. {wow, Josh Groban gives me chills ... listen to it below if you have a couple minutes.}



Day 6 of our book tradition we read: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss {I love Dr. Seuss books, I love to try to read them fast - trying to keep up with all the silly rhymes! Am I the only one who does this I wonder?}
We also read from the AoC about The Wise Men ... did you know the Bible doesn't say there were 3? We only assume that because there were 3 gifts mentioned.

Day 7 we read: The Littlest Christmas Tree {such a cute story about growing and becoming - tons of spiritual application in this small book!}
And from the AoC ... we read about Nativity Scenes. We are blessed to have about 6 sets in our home which were all given to us as gifts. Do you have one? If not, consider getting one that your kids can play with - when I was young we had a soft set that my Mom had sewn. It was great because we could play with the characters and tell the story of Jesus birth and my Mom didn't have to worry about us breaking fragile pieces. Most of mine are fragile. But I still let the girls touch them ... they are just things after all and even if they were accidentally broken it would be OK. What they symbolize is so much more and I certainly don't mind the girls acting that out every day!

Today I started 'eating healthy' again. I know, I'm a glutton for punishment trying to do this at Christmastime aren't I??!! But I figured if I can stay on track for Monday-Friday then I can allow myself to 'cheat' a little on the weekends when we always seem to have events and parties and stuff. But you wanna know the funniest thing? Today I got a package in the mail from a dear friend. In the package - stuffed to the gills with my favorite candy and chocolate that you can only buy in Canada!! Yep, God sure does have a sense of humor doesn't he?? Are you wondering if I ate any of the goodies? Yes. I did. But only the mini size and I did count it towards my food plan for the day. See, I can do this!! hahaha ...

1000 Gifts {36- 64}

36. communion {the bread and the wine}
37. singing Mighty to Save and knowing in my heart that my God certainly IS MIGHTY TO SAVE!
38. seeing my Mom at church every Sunday
39. quiet Sunday afternoons
40. working at the flower shop
41. being creative
42. Christmas movies - snuggled together with my family
43. free books for helping the girls through the 'tween' years
44. Ranunculous
45. snow
46. cold weather that makes it *feel* like Christmas
47. big tins of popcorn to share with the ones I love
48. fiction books
49. a hard working hubby
50. laughing with friends till your sides hurt
51. the warmth and scent of candles filling a room
52. Christmas cards arriving in the mail
53. winning something!
54. a clean school room
55. our Bible study friends
56. fellowship and good food
57. girlfriends who love me just as I am
58. the promise of heaven
59. sparkly Christmas lights
60. thoughtful daughters, buying and wrapping gifts for others from their own little stash of money
61. welcoming our youngest daughter into the family of God
62. peppermint mocha creamer
63. a heated, comfortable home
64. a daughter who loves to help

Are you still scratching your head, wondering what Ranunculous is????

I present to you ......


Ranunculous! {otherwise known as one of my very favorite flowers!}

I am a winner, I am a winner!

No, this is not my way to doing self-affirmation exercises with myself!

I never win anything. Never. Ever. EVER. Until now! I always enter all these cool giveaways on all these awesome blogs and never win them. I admit, it's a little disappointing. After all, who doesn't like to win things, right?

Well a couple weeks ago I left a comment on MckMama's blog on one of her 'name that photo' posts. What I didn't know was that it was a contest in disguise and she picked MY quote as the winner! wahooo! So exciting! What I won is this adorable stuffed animal/pillow/blanket ... it arrived in the mail the other day and it's simply adorable!! My girls are a little bit old for this type of thing {although they too would probably love it!} so, I have a very cute little baby girl in mind to give it to for Christmas! I can't wait to give it to her!
{Sorry this image is teeny, tiny ... if you'd like to check out this adorable croc or any of the other cute Zoobie pets, click here.}
AND, I also won something else! Yes, I'm a double winner friends! Can you believe it? A couple days ago you may have noticed that I posted what seemed like a strange post about April Showers blog and about how by simply posting this paragraph I was a winner. Well I am! A winner that is! I won a $50 gift certificate to choose any services from her blog design business! Yippeee! I have always wanted a custom blog design ... now I get to choose some goodies to spruce up my blog! I can't wait! {I'm not sure how long it will take her, I know she does a lot of blog designs, but rest assured when things get changed around here you will be the first to know!}

What else is new? Well we had our first small snowstorm last night. It only left about an inch of snow and a lot of it is already melted this morning. But I broke out my favorite dressy black coat for church this morning and it finally 'felt' like the Christmas season.

Last night the kids, hubs and I snuggled up together to watch the 'Pixar short films' - some of them were so funny we were laughing so hard. I also bought one of those large popcorn tins from Walmart - you know the ones with the three kinds of popcorn in them? Hubs loves them and we buy one every Christmas ... so we all enjoyed delving into that while we watched the mini movies last night.

And I stayed up WAY too late reading my book last night. I can't tell you which book it is yet - I want to finish it first, then I'll share how I felt about it. Don't you just love the element of mystery??? haha ...

Oh, one last thing - the books we've opened and read for days 3-5 are:

Day 3 ~ Christmas without a tree {did not read our ADVENTure book that night}
Day 4 ~ 101 Holiday Jokes {did not read ADVENTure book that night either - busy night}
Day 5 ~ Ripley's Believe it or Not Special Edition and read about 'December 25th' in the ADVENTure of Christmas book - which will now be referred to as AoC from here on out. ;)

Whew!!

Is it possible to party too much in the month of December???

This first week of December I:

~ went out for dinner with hubby on Monday to celebrate our 13th Anniversary
~ went out for dinner on Thursday night with my 3 girlfriends to celebrate my friend's birthday
~ went to our MOMS Christmas brunch on Friday morning at church
~ went to Panera with my daughters for lunch on Friday
~ hosted a Partylite candle party at my house on Friday night
~ went to McDonalds with my Mom and daughters for lunch today

OH my word ... I'm going to have to start weight watchers BEFORE Christmas ... forget about waiting for the NEW YEAR! LOL

Anyway, all that to say that I am truly blessed. There are times when my life feels so busy, but it's full of so many good, good blessings. Wonderful friends and family and opportunities for fun, fellowship and food. I promise you I do not PLAN for my weeks to be as busy as this one was - but neither can I complain when it's full of so many blessings.

At our MOMS brunch yesterday I felt an overwhelming sense of gratefulness. There were about 35 women who gathered, each bringing a special dish to share. We have childcare and we were able to sit and talk and eat. Then we had a short devotional, some special music, and a time to sing some carols together. It just felt like a nice, peaceful morning to quiet our hearts before the busy Christmas season. We also gave each Mom a copy of Lisa Welchel's book 'The ADVENTure of Christmas' ~ yep, that very same one that I always sing the praises of!

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A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend and she expressed that Christmas is a really tough time of year for her. She has gone through some tough times and unfortunately when she did, it happened to be Christmas time ~ so therefore every year she finds herself thinking about those painful memories at this time of year. I'm not going to single her out on here, but I know that she will probably read this. And I want her to know that what I'm going to write next is meant to encourage and uplift and I am in NO way trying to make light of the difficulties you've been through. { I love you friend!}

I can totally empathize with her. This time of year can be tough for me too. I know that may come as a shocker to some of you, since you've seen how much I love Christmas. But trust me, it's not without it's pain as well.

Let me explain. You've heard me talk about my Dad. He died of leukemia almost 6 yrs ago. Let me tell you some of the events and the timeline and you'll see why it's hard.

Sept. 11 ~ He and my Mom celebrated their 33rd Anniversary {yes their 30th anniversary was 9/11/01 - a once joyous day now clouded with grief}
First weekend in Oct. ~ he became very sick, was hospitalized and was soon diagnosed with leukemia
Oct. ~ I flew down with Joy {who was a baby at the time}, he was so sick at that point that I literally thought he was going to die right then. I remember going out of the hospital and calling my hubby on my cell phone just sobbing saying that I thought my Dad was going to die.
Thanksgiving ~ he was doing better and able to go home for a few days, only to be quickly returned to the hospital b/c he took another turn for the worse. I called on Thanksgiving from my BIL and SIL's house and when I finished on the phone I just sobbed and sobbed again.
Dec. ~ I visited again. I brought Christmas gifts. It was such a struggle for me. What do you buy for someone when you're not even sure they will live another week, another month, another year? Things were not going well. He'd already been through several rounds of chemo and while I was there they told him that they could not keep trying b/c it was doing so much harm to his body. He was going to be going home. And we would not know how much time he would have. Saying good bye that time was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Dec. 26th ~ my Dad's 54th birthday
Jan. 10th ~ he went home to glory, one day before my family and I were scheduled to fly down to see him again.

**Edited to add: in case you think it's weird that I only saw my Dad twice in 3 months - he lived in Florida and I live in New England. Between paying for plane tickets and arranging people to watch my two babies it was all I could manage. And as I mentioned we planned a family trip down there but he died the day before we arrived. I just didn't want anyone to think I was being cold or distant during this awful time in his life!**

So between his diagnoses, the holidays, his birthday and his death ... this WHOLE season brings up very difficult and sad memories for me.

However, that being said ... I know that my Dad is in glory, I know that he is pain free, and I know that this should give me great reasons for rejoicing. So, I do have to choose to be joyful. I do have to choose to remember my Dad with love, but not allow myself to be consumed with grief.

Lamentations 3:23 says 'Because of the Lord's great love for us we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.'
{I love how it says we are not consumed}

I think that having children helps me choose joy. I want my girls to love Christmas as much as I do. I want to create traditions and memories that will last for generations. I want them to know that Jesus birth is the MOST important thing ... no matter how many toy commercials they see on TV. They don't really remember my Dad. And that brings me a lot of sadness. I can only imagine the joy he would have felt playing with his granddaughters and being all silly with them. But I can choose to tell the girls stories about him, and in doing so carry on his legacy.

So real quick let me hop back to the ADVENTure of Christmas book ... I think one thing I truly love about it is that it helps me to create wonderful memories and traditions with my girls. I know I can't rely solely on a book ... but there are so many good ideas and questions and activities in it that it's a great jumping point to get you going on building GOOD, HAPPY, FUN memories. Sorry if this post has been hard to follow but that was the point I was trying to get at. Yes, sadness can happen at ANY time of year. And it's certainly hard if difficult things happen at Christmas time. BUT, you can create new, happy, fun memories with your kids and I pray that the joy you feel will help to ease the sorrows you have experienced in the past.

I know they have for me.

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Remember I mentioned something about a Partylite Candle party?? just wait till you see the goodies I ordered! Stay tuned for that ... I promise it will be before Christmas!

Spruce up your candles

A couple weeks ago I got these candles on a clearance rack at Kohl's {love that store!}. They smell SOOOOOO yummy and I haven't even burned them yet! They fit in perfectly with my fall decor and colors - but now that it's Christmas they looked a little out of place. They needed something .... hmmmmm
{By the way, I DO know that the tall one is a different color, it's all good.}
Using only what I could find around the house I found some red velvet ribbon, my glue gun, scissors and a cute little snowman ornament.
I cut the ribbon to fit around each candle, hot glued the ribbon to the candles and voila! On the largest one I also threaded the ribbon through the snowman ornament before gluing it down.
It still needed something ... I looked around for a plate of some sort and came up with this cake stand and a couple sprigs of green garland.
Here it is in my bathroom! Quick. Easy. Cheap. Love it!
Here are a couple more shots from my bathroom - just wanted to spruce it up a little with some Christmas cheer! These shelves are on the wall above my toilet.
These are some star shaped baskets I was given a few years back - I fill them with Christmas potpourri, pinecones and cinnamon sticks and they smell so good! They sit on the back of my toilet.
Can you guess what my Christmas decorating 'theme' is???