Embracing Life

Wishing you and your family a joyous holiday season! Merry Christmas! 2008 2009 2010

I thought it would be fun to have the kids make Christmas cookies for their teachers this year: Colin got ahold of the mitten-shaped cookie cutter, and loved it so much that I finally had to stop him. There were just too many mittens! ;)  Plus he didn't quite get the concept of using it each time on a fresh piece of dough, so he kept stamping it over and oved in the same spot.

Connor mentioned making a gingerbread house a few weeks ago.  I found this one at Michaels. I had thought about doing a real one, but this way, he could keep it in his room if he wanted. to.  Instead, he wanted it to sit on the bay window so that he can look at it when he eats. There were two gingerbread people that came with it, but he likes to play with them, so they aren't living in the house right now. ;)

With Love Blue Christmas Card Shop Shutterfly for beautiful photo Christmas cards . View the entire collection of cards. Here is the Christmas card we sent out this year.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Because I don't want to forget these moments: Keira is scared of the real Santa and of fake elves.  Apparently she is also now scared of toy Santas as well.  And Santa ornaments.  My mom has a small tree in the living room that is decorated with only Santas.  Keira does not like this tree.  Yesterday, Mom had the twins because they have colds (which they graciously shared with me).  Anyway, there is basket of Christmas toys that can be played with under supervision (plastic snowglobes, Santa dolls, etc.)  Keira was immediately scared of the two Santa dolls, so my mom told Colin to follow her and they would put the dolls away so Keira wouldn't have to be scared anymore.  Colin said ok, and started to follow my mom.  My mom suddenly heard screaming.  She turned around, and saw Colin chasing Keira around, trying to touch her with the Santa.  Sneaky little fellow. Mom called me yesterday, during the twins' naptime.  She said I ...

Today is my birthday.  The nice thing about having a birthday on a Monday is that you get to have a birthday weekend! On Saturday, my sister, mom, and I went to a Victorian Christmas (in a nearby town, there is an old house owned by the historical society and every Christmas, they decorate the house and you can tour it.)  The plan had been to have dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday and my dad's birthday (on Wednesday) yesterday.  But we figured he would be called out to snowplow (he was - he works for the DOT), so we moved it to Saturday night.  We had lasagna and then birthday cake! My parents got me a beautiful ring, along with a sweater and a shirt.  My sister gave me a brown sweater, some french vanilla coffee, and Lover Mine in paperback to add to my BDB collection. On Sunday. as I was upstairs putting laundry away, I heard whispered voices downstairs. A few minutes later, all three kids came up singing happy birthday and giving m...

I know that for some, this is not the time of giving, but the time of being overly stressed out about all the thousands of things that need to be done.  As a mother of 3 young children, I am used to having a to-do list a mile long, so I don't find that my stress is anymore apparent than during the other months.  I have noticed though that I now have a lot more deadlines!  Packages to be mailed, cards to be ordered (DONE!), cards to be mailed (almost!), Christmas shopping to be completed, and presents to be wrapped.  Some of the ways that I try to make this time of year less stressful (or perhaps that should say - ways that I try not to add to the stress already living inside me) are easy things to do, if you just commit.  And start planning a little early. Create a budget.  By October, we had money set aside that we would use for Christmas shopping.  I also created an Excel spreadsheet that helps me keep track of the budget.  Working with cash...