end of the year fun

We've had a great Christmas break!

The kids have gotten to hang out and watch movies


































hang out and play in the tub,

























Daniel quickly decided this was his favorite present, before it had even been opened! He carried it around for the whole week before Christmas

it turned out to be a very cool circular saw!




We had a small party for Alexis at home. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate and pink icing, per Alexis' request,

then Daniel helped me decorate it with princess sprinkles.

Alexis is SEVEN!!

A few facts about my oldest daughter:

she is trilingual

she loves girly stuff, but can hang with the boys as well

she is top of her class in linguistics

she is excellent at math

she loves animals of all kinds (and wants to be a Vet someday!)

she is a natural born leader and loves to direct

she is my favorite daughter and I love her very much!

yes, Virginia

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"
VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

SANTAAAA I KNOW HIM!!!

Every year, Emil Kletke becomes Santa. And every year, we go to visit him at his "summer home"

Alexis says she wants a puppy, but not a real one.

Daniel says he wants the electronics deptartment at your local store. "a phone, remote control, computer..." etc He really is a Chin lol

the process of Christmas

I really do like Christmas :) I like the preparation, and I LOVE the shopping. One of my favorite things to do is gift shopping. Every year my church adopts local families who have a little trouble making ends meet. We can buy a certain dollar amount of clothes and toys for each child, turn them into the church and they get distributed to that family. Sometimes there are parishioners who want to donate money but either hate shopping or just don't have the time.

That's where I come in.

I take the donated money and the children's information, buy the clothes and toys, wrap everything up and drop it off to the church. A perfect arrangement since I haven't worked in 6 months and wouldn't have the money to do it otherwise!



Daniel and I were shopping at Meijer and I couldn't resist capturing the pure joy a few fish can bring




This week we had our annual "drag the tree out of the attic, and into the garage, use the leaf blower to blow off all the dust from the parts and put it all together"
Alexis was excited...


Daniel put on his Bob the Builder hat and pitched right in!

It's beginning to look a lot....

like MICHIGAN

The musical!

The musical, The Mystery of the Manger, was a great success! We had a blast, are glad it's over, but are looking forward to the spring musical!

Christmas Season

A new craft I'm learning is Chinese brush painting, it is HARD!!



Daniel and I went power shopping Wednesday. We hit Starbucks....

Found a few weird pieces at Big Lots,

Flasher Santa!

and the game that needs no explanation...

naughty list?

oh I am such a naughty blogger. I've got pics and stories, here are a few!

It's a winter wonderland at our house these days....aren't you glad we live in michigan?

I made B.L.T. deviled eggs for a party at church, they were a big hit!

I bought some sculpey and had fun with an idea Kelly Parsons gave us at Mothers Morning

Alexis saw the doctor and was put on a nebulizer. She's getting retested for allergies next week!

For moms birthday last month I made a polka dot blueberry pie! Here it is, unbaked

:)