Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
A glimpse of Christmas Eve and Day
Christmas Eve.
We had a great Christmas, very relaxing and spent Christmas Eve with just the 4 of us, and Christmas Day with Nick and Grace's Grandparents and Uncle here too. A big dinner in the afternoon, lots of playing with toys, games and checking out gifts. And Dan cleaned up the kitchen for me...I couldn't have asked for more! :)
Monday, December 24, 2007

"Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will come to all the people; for to you this day is born in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men." Luke 2:10-14
Sunday, December 23, 2007
More Free Graphics at pYzam.com
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Christmas Greetings from the past!

Me and my little sister, we are very close in age. I was 2.5 and she was 1 here.

This was the photo from my parent's Christmas card in the mid 1960's. I'm on the left with my 2 brothers and sister Betsy. My parents had 4 children in 5 and 1/2 years. Those handmade stockings behind us were knitted by my Mom. We now only live an hour away from my parents and my Mom still hangs those same stockings up every Christmas in their home. Yes, I grew up in the 60's and 70's and we have great memories of many Christmas' past.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Favorite Photo Friday
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Some really good news!

Well, dossiers logged in for the month of Oct. 2006 are officially "out" of the review room...that means that us Nov. 06 folks are now in!!!! Our dossier is being looked at carefully by CCAA. I'm so happy, and I'm looking at it as an early Christmas present. Now to get out of review and then more waiting. Presently there are about 11 months worth of dossiers ahead of us waiting to be matched. Hoping and praying for a speed up in referrals in 2008, and certainly even more so after the Olympics! :)
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
My favorite ornaments
Possibly my very favorite ornament is this Santa on a rocket. This is a very typical 1960's era Christmas ornament, and I remember it on my family's tree for many years (my sister has one too), until my Mom gave it to me. I'd be very upset if he got broken.
Well I have to admit, this wasn't exactly an original idea for a post. I copied it from RMJ. She inspired me to talk about some of my favorite ornaments on our tree. We have ornaments given to me by my Mom that were mine as a little girl, one's that I made as a child, one's Nick made growing up and all kinds of other ones. One in particular is rather unusual. It's what I call the "pretzel ornament," but should be called the "petrified pretzel ornament." Nick made it in 1994 when he was in 4th grade. There's a photo of him in the center and his teacher had the kids glue pretzels around the photo kinda in a frame. Then they put colored glitter on top. Last Christmas I asked Dan how much money would it take if he took a bite out of one of those 13 year old pretzels? He told me there was no amount of money in the world to eat one of those rock hard nasty pretzels. I told him, "come on they can't be that bad...they probably taste like cardboard (whatever cardboard tastes like) or something." He still wouldn't try one. Something about that ornament I just love. :)
Holiday swap thank you!
Thank you to the Konstantaras family from our WWF (worth waiting for) China 2006 yahoo group. We participated in a holiday swap and received a package yesterday with 6 gifts inside.
We received:
~a pine oil burner set
~some very yummy chocolate/raspberry truffles, bing cherry chocolates and chocolate covered raisins (my favorite)
~sugar cookie mix with a hot pad holder and...
~ an adorable play castle with a prince (2 I believe), 2 princesses, horses and carriage and pretty much everything and anything that a castle needs inside. Best of all...it's portable so can be taken to Grandma's house or on any other travels that Grace goes on. Grace thanks you for the castle and she has it all set up and is just delighted with it!
Thank you for your very generous gifts and we wish you and your family a Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 17, 2007
It's clinch time
I had a very productive weekend as far as Christmas preparations went. There's been a lot of multi-tasking going on around here I will say. I made cookies for a cookie exchange that I'm going to today, did some final shopping for Nick (with Dan's assistance), wrapped many gifts with my 2 assistants ... Grace (she tapes) and Jack our cat (who doesn't help, but MUST get on the table while I wrap and bite the ribbon or bows or lie down in the middle of everything), and also did mountains of laundry too, which is not really a Christmas preparation but I was way behind on it. Grace played outside in the snow some and we also took some time to see our church's live nativity. It was lovely. I hope you are all taking some time to enjoy the season. :)
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Thank you Ashley!
I am a member of a hair bow exchange in my Nov. 06 LID group, the November Nightingales. Hair bows are always a good thing around here I say and you can't have enough of them. My friend Ashley gave to us (Lily) this month. Ashley has superb taste and I can tell that her little girl (also Lilly) will be one well dressed little girl. She sent us an adorable multi-color korker bow, a red grosgrain bow with a gingerbread man embroidered on it (which Grace may have to borrow ), and a panda bib and panda socks. Ashley was so thoughtful and included Grace by giving her a snowman nightlight which now resides in Grace's bedroom. She also gave me a festive spreader that is totally "me" as far as something I would pick out. I emailed Ashley a thank you, but wanted to say again that this wait is very difficult sometimes but if it wasn't for the wait I wouldn't have met her and so many other genuine and kind people that I now call my friends. I consider Ashley my friend and know we will meet in person someday. Thank you again for the gifts! :)
Friday, December 14, 2007
Some favorite photos from the past week
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Guess I should have a Blue Christmas tree?
You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree |
![]() For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace. You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy! You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better. You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that. Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies |
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Greetings from the frozen tundra!
This morning when I got up to walk our dog Molly it was 8 degrees below zero. That is awfully cold to me, and the temperature is usually in the minus area more like in Jan. or Feb. in Wisconsin. Guess Winter is here to stay. We are getting more snow tonight. Grace has been having a blast playing in it. :)
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Graceful Gail
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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