Daily Festivities

           There have been a whole bunch of reasons for the lack of blogging on here lately.

• Decorating the Tree, Hot Chocolate, Christmas Movies
• Loosing Teeth
• The School Christmas Program
• Christmas Parties
• Participated in the Choir for the Christmas Concert at Church. (My highlight of the entire season, amazing music about the amazing event in Bethlehem.)
• Making Homemade Presents and goodies for friends
• Christmas Shopping for those perfect presents.
• Playing out in the snow that finally decided to arrive
• Made snow icecream with EggNog
• Making all kinds of goodies – chocolate covered bananas, sugar cookies, crab dip, and still hoping to get some toffee, fudge and cheese ball in.

           And more to still look forward to…

• Finishing up the homemade presents
• Visiting Family for the Holidays
• The Annual Journey Meal
• The annual Nativity performance put on by our kids (as well as the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. They just don’t know it yet.)
• Christmas
• Snowmobiling (hoping.)

           I’m not sure that I’m going have a chance to blog until after Christmas, so I wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and remember the real reason for the season. It’s all that really matters anyway amidst all these other things we do. I hope you all know how much we appreciate and love you. May you and your families enjoy this wonderful time of year, feel the peace of the season and look forward to a new year.

Let it Snow

           Here are a few layouts for all the snow here. It’s finally starting to feel like Christmas!  It can’t be Christmas until it’s a White Christmas.  Which also means I need to sit down one of these evenings and curl up to my husband, with some hot chocolate and watch the real White Christmas. It was a tradition growing up and I don’t think I’ve missed a year yet. :)

The Amazing Magical Bag

           A few years ago gave sister gave my mom, sisters and I all matching red bags with this poem she wrote. After seeing all your responses of being ‘bag ladies’ too she told me I could share it with you.

The Amazing Magical Bag
A bag is an amazing thing
In all colors shapes and sizes,
But it doesn’t matter so much as how it looks,
But on what you put inside them.
Take Mary Poppins for example,
With her magical bag in tow,
There’s a woman who knew how to pack
And the power one bag can hold.

For a woman needs so many things
To go from place to place,
Men can get by with one little wallet,
But for a woman, that’s just not enough space!
Sure a wallet can hold a drivers license
And perhaps a picture or two,
But where do you put the bills to be mailed,
And the movies and books that are due?

For a woman needs a place for her chapstick,

tissues, and comb, just to start
Her cell phone, planner, and address book,
Traveling with a woman is not for the faint of heart!
What if you’re a mom, just like a boy scout,
whose motto is “be prepared” before you go out?
How is a small slot in a wallet going to hold:

The extra diapers, and a change of clothes,
The wet wipes, the bottle, the toys and the snacks,
To prevent unsightly tantrum attacks?
Why one pocket on my backside,
Would have to be a mile wide!
And I’m sorry that just won’t do,
I still have my appearance

And dignity to fret about too!

(Not to mention I need to sit in the car-

To get to that someplace near or far!)
And what about meetings, and the doctor’s
And all the places I’ll have to wait?
At the dentist, the hairdresser’s, or for
The husband or friend who is always late?

Where will I fit my new book?
Or my current project in the works?
Somewhere in slot 53?
Between my insurance card and photo ID?
No it’s just not going to happen.
It can’t realistically be done.
So men can keep their wallets, but I for one
Prefer a bag, the amazing and magical bag,
No woman should leave home without one!

Cortney Astle Delgado

The Reason For the Season

           Lately I’ve been feeling discontent and frustrated. Not sure why. After listening to the Christmas devotional though this last Sunday I started realizing that it was coming from not truly having the spirit of Christ and being focused on him this season.  I felt a lacking and I was lacking him.  Yesterday morning as I studied, read some great talks, listened to some great Christmas music, it was reaffirmed even more so.  I decided I need to do less, go less places, less social engagements, less projects and have more time for family, more time to just sit and ponder this wonderful event, more time in the scriptures, more time being focused on the reason for the season. Anything else is going to leave me empty and feeling cheated this holiday season.  So yesterday we tried to do just that. We sat and watched the snow fall. The first snow of the season. Thick and lots. I enjoyed just being with my kids and going with the flow. I spent the day thinking constantly about the talk posted below. We listened to Christmas music, and for Family Home Evening we focused the lesson on him and this great event.   It was such a better day.  I thought I’d share some ideas I found that helped me get that spirit of Christ back in my life more, and also suggestions on how to get back more in yours if you feel like you are being swallowed up more in the season of busyness, parties, shopping and no time to ponder what it’s really about.
           - Website devoted to Christmas and feeling the spirit of Christ. (www.lds.org/topics/christmas)
           - Nativity Masks for your kids to play with (my kids had a blast with these. http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/)
           - First Presidency Christmas Devotional
           - Study his life during this season (LDS Institute Manual)

Bag Lady

           Lately I’ve been addicted to crocheting. Working on 2-3 different projects at the same time. I have almost finished an afghan, a sweater is in the works and I just finished up a Christmas Garland, a bag for Mirian and this bag. I fell in love with the pattern and it was my marathon project during the Thanksgiving break.  But I GOT IT DONE!  The colors shown here in the photo aren’t exactly the correct ones.
           There is just something fascinating to me about taking some yarn and with twists, turns, knots and various colors you can make something beautiful out of it. There’s just something that satisfies the creative part in me by using beautiful colors and making something complex and beautiful from something so simple. It’s so relaxing, something I can do at night to unwind, do in the car when we’re traveling and can pick up and do in short spare moments throughout the day. Finishing the afghan for Mirian is next.Savannah has an obsession with bags. She has thousands of them and they are all filled with various things. Her nickname has become the bag lady because of a night when we found her tiny baby stroller in the hall with 4-6 different bags on them, some just plastic grocery bags.  They were all filled with “her treasures”.  It reminded us of someone on the street with all their belongings in bags in a grocery cart.  The other day Beau made a comment to her. “Savannah, you know I suddenly understand why you love bags so much and why you have so many.”  (It’s one of Beau’s trials in life.)  “It’s because your mom has lots of bags.” (Ouch.)  “She has a pink one, a red one, a ScrapGirls bag, a mesh one, a purse….. “ Ok I’m guilty.  I can now add a crocheted one to the list.

Start the Celebrating

           I love this month.  There is so much to look forward to and to do. Last night we put up the Christmas Tree and started decorating the house.  It just puts you in the spirit when those Christmas lights are glowing…. now we just need a bit of snow to make it really feel like Christmas. Maybe that’s why one of my favorite movies is White Christmas.
           Last year I saw a great idea on the crafty crow about doing a book countdown till Christmas. I loved the idea and decided that I would get ready so we could do it this year. I’ve gathered books from Thrift Stores, the Scholastic Book orders, and anywhere else I can run across a good Christmas Book.  There are a few that I would still really like, but figure I’ll gather them through time.  I used her list as a guide, but created my own based on books I could find. Today we started with a cute basic Santa Claus one… and then wrote our Christmas lists and pictures to send to Santa.  I sure don’t know what Santa is going to bring because these lists completely change from day to day. Maybe that’s a sign they don’t need anything.  Tomorrow is a book on snow and making snowflakes to hang from our ceilings…. I’m looking forward to it even if they aren’t. :)  It could easily be scaled back for just the 12 days of Christmas instead of the full 24.
           I liked this view from where I was sitting and it gives you a hint of what else we were up to yesterday.
           Thanksgiving was filled with fun and cousins.  Well they were having so much fun that in the process one of them accidently landed on Mirian’s Leg. She cried and for the next couple of days didn’t want to stand, move it or touch it. Pretty sensitive. She started doing better and would attempt to walk on it but just couldn’t get too far. So after a few days we decided it was best to just go get it checked.  The result? A compression fracture right below her knee. She was one tough cookie while the doctor pushed, pressed, jarred and tried to figure out what was going on.  I’m not sure they thought it was really broken since she just looked at them and flinched occasionally.
           She now gets to race around in this cast with the color of her choice. Pink. What other option is there?  She was doing good until last night when she had to go to bed. Then she FLIPPED out.  She had an itch and couldn’t get to it. Yelling and crying that she wanted it off, NOW! She didn’t want to sleep in it, and didn’t want to wear it anymore. TAKE IT OFF.  Sorry kiddo you’ve got a whole month with it. She kept trying to push it off with her other leg, and tried to unwrap the plaster.  Tired and not comfortable. Poor girl.  She’s reacting and doing pretty good with it though. Her leg was hurting her today, but she was basically up and around all day on it. The first in about 4 days.  So I think that was expected.
           It was bound to happen. This girl runs into things way too much and finds herself getting hurt all the time.  I knew she would not make it through childhood with out a few broken bones.  Here is the first one.

December Already

           The time has flown. We spent a relaxing holiday with our families over the break. It was nice to see family, relax and remember how blessed we are.  I am so grateful for the wonderful life and family the Lord has blessed me with.
           Today I finally get to share my big project that I’ve been working on for the last couple of months… ok many months it seems. I think everyone close to me will be glad that this is officially finished.  I was asked to do club for ScrapGirls this month. Which is a lot of work, but a great opportunity.  So here she is!
           A HUGE thanks to everyone that helped me out during all of this. I owe you big!