A Glance Back

It's hard to believe that I've been bloggin' for 6 mos! I wasn't sure at first if I'd find enough to write about, but I suppose if you think about it long enough, there's always something to blather on about. I've enjoyed spending a little bit of time today going back and looking at entries made earlier this year. I think that's the best part of blogging for me: keeping a diary of some of the more everyday things that happen in our lives (and some major events as well!) A few of my favorites:

A little Charlotte attitude
Troubles with the VCR

Mike gets baptized

Life doesn't go as planned

One fine rainy day

Favorite photos

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

I'm enjoying my family today, but scheduled this post in case you were able to grab a moment to yourself.

You know all the hoo-hah over the expression "Happy Holidays" in lieu of "Merry Christmas"? Personally, it's never bothered me either way. In this day and age, I consider it astonishing if a cashier wishes me a happy anything. So if it comes in the form of "Happy Holidays", I throw a greeting back at them and am on my way. When you think about it, there are a lot of events on the calendar this month. We live in a country that is a melting pot of ethnicity and traditions, so of course December isn't just about a Christian Christmas. For instance, there's the tradition of Santa, Kwanzaa, Omisoka, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day, Al-Hijra,Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, and even occasionally Eid-al-Adha depending on the year.

I understand"Merry Christmas" is a Christian expression that a non-Christian may not feel at-home with (probably because it's a combination of Christ and Mass. Mass is a festival, so basically it's a festival honoring Christ.) But I think those people are the minority, at least according to polls stating that 80% of Americans identify themselves as Christian.

What I do believe is that most folks genuinely want to have a single, all-encompassing greeting during the month of December. However, I don't think "Happy Holidays" is the answer for the generic greeting. Why? Well, "Happy Holidays" doesn't mean what you may think it means.

"The word 'holiday' itself is a middle English derivative meaning 'holy day'. The word denotes a religious festival, a consecrated day called a 'holy day' – a day set apart. When people tell you 'Happy Holidays', they are, in effect, saying 'Happy Holy Days'. "

When I look to my trusty Webster dictionary, which I still haven't retired, it states that Holy means

"set apart to the service of God; characterized by perfection and transcendence, commanding absolute adoration and reverence, spiritually pure, Godly, evoking or meriting awe."


Further, when I look up in the dictionary the word holiday to see what it says, the first thing listed under the definition is holy day (the other meanings are a day off or vacation, which really doesn't apply to this discussion unless you're going skiing in Aspen, and if you were, I wouldn't say, "Happy Holidays", I'd say, "Have a nice holiday". Actually, I'd probably say, "Have a nice trip." Anyway, I don't think the cashier at Target is wishing me a nice vacation or a happy day off. I'm a stay at home mom. I never get a day off.)

So it seems to me that if someone is looking for a politically correct, non-religious, non-Christian, non-Jewish, non-Muslim, non-non way to wish everyone they meet a happy something or other, "Seasons Greetings" would probably be about the only safe bet I can think of. Just wait and see if it doesn't catch on.

Get 'Er Done

Looking at the calendar to see what was going on for the week of Christmas, I had to shake my head over the crazy schedule and all the things we needed to get done and the places we needed to go. I look forward to all the things associated with Christmas. I love going to church and celebrating God's amazing gift to us, visiting with friends and family, wrapping presents, all the goodies to eat, and watching all those Christmas movies!

What I don't particularly like, but always feel obligated to do, is take a few "formal" shots of my kids on Christmas Eve in all their finery. It never goes well; they're always cranky when I want to do this. I don't know why.

Christmas Eve 2007

Most people would give up, but I feel compelled to document every moment of my kids' lives, plus I feel like the "end of the year" photo is important. So this year I decided to try doing the photos before Christmas and see if I had any better luck.

Eric wasn't too keen on participating, but told me I could take two photos. No easy task since the kid has a fake smile plastered to his face every time the camera comes out. Talk about a little pressure to get them right the first time. After a bit of teasing and joking to loosen him up, one of those two photos was a good capture of Eric. I love the snaggle tooth out there front and center. It's real, ya know? And although Eric isn't in the nice sweater he'll wear on Christmas Eve, I find that I don't care what he's wearing since I got a natural and happy expression from my 'lil man! A bit of Photoshop here, a little Photoshop there.....and the cartoon character on the shirt is a goner!





Now Charlotte is a natural in front of the camera (most of the time)....a natural ham, that is. She was also very anxious to give the ole Christmas Eve clothes a trial run.

Oops, cut her toes off. It's still sort of a cute photo :-)

While I was shooting the photos, I paused to take a quick peek at some information on the camera and happened to see this photo below. Tears pricked my eyes as I stared at the image. Charlotte is such a loving, giving person, who is always thinking of others. She's silly and funny, sassy and smart. She loves Jesus, loves helping other people, and can light up a room with her brilliant smile. It's all of those wonderful qualities on the inside that makes her the most beautiful little girl I know.

Oh Look! Another Christmas Card!

I love to mail out our annual Christmas card, but this year I'm refraining from doing so in an effort to not spend money that we don't have anyway. This is the first year in over a decade that I haven't sent out Christmas cards. It feels unnatural. Okay, okay, I did send out just a few cards, but you can hardly fault me for sending cards to our out-of-state parents and siblings.

However, I figured I could at least post it on my blog. If you're someone who loves to decorate around your house with the cards you receive, and you want to pretend that you received my card in your actual mailbox, please feel free to print it off. No one will know.

Merry Christmas All!

click to view larger

Bailey The Unknown Reindeer

This hysterical Youtube video was shared with me. You will laugh out loud!!

(tip: If your speakers are on, turn off my "radio" down on the right before hitting the play button.)

Mint Chip Freeze

It's recipe time......Here's a dessert that's likely to please most folks. Makes a 9x13 pan full of it.


1 (15 oz) package cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter cubed
2 squares (1 oz ea) unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened (peppermint ice cream would be awesome here too...or cherry garcia....or.....)
1 (8 oz) carton cool whip thawed

Place cookies into a blender or food processor. Pulse a few times till it's crumbs. Dump into a large bowl and add 1/3 cup melted butter and mix well. Press into buttered 9 x 13 dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, cubed butter, and chocolate. Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly....at least 10 minutes. (Now here's where I deviated from the recipe. I also put in about about 3 tbl of cornstarch to help it thicken up a lot. If you don't do this, the mixture will be a gravy-like consistency. It'll eventually be put in the freezer anyway, but it seemed a bit runny to me. Just my preference.) When thickened and bubbling, remove from heat, cool completely (place some plastic over the top to keep a skin from forming.)

Remove crust from fridge. Spread ice cream over the top. Spoon cooled chocolate sauce over the top, spreading evenly to cover. Freeze until firm. Depending on your preference, you can either spread the cool whip all over the top and freeze it that way or put the cool whip on when you serve the dessert (depends on if you want cool whip frozen or not.) Either way, remove the dessert from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to making cutting easier.

I wonder what this recipe would taste like using mint patties instead of Oreos, and the mint chip ice cream replaced with chocolate. Hmmm???

A Woeful Tale of Slow Death

(Oh I can hear you saying, "And a Merry Christmas to you too. Geesh.")

So back to our pre-lit Christmas tree. I had discussed some problems we were having with it a couple weeks ago (see story here). After the cheap fix, things were looking good. That is, till Thursday. I was in Eric's bedroom hanging out with the kids after dinner. From his room you can partially see the tree in the living room. And that's when I noticed that the lights on the top 10-12" of the tree are unlit. I can only conclude that the 6th Christmas for our tree is it's undoing. Mike and I are just (sort of) laughing about it and holding our breath, quite unsure how our tree is going to look come Christmas Eve and morning. We're of the mind that the only lights on the thing that'll be working are the $2 strand we picked up at Menards a couple weeks ago.

Thankful Thursday

Here's what I'm thankful for today, in no particular order:


1. Photographs. Yours, mine, and everyone else's. I love looking at them!

2. Pizza. Thank you to whoever invented it. I love it and will never tire of it.

3. My new winter coat that I found in October (there's a whole story to go with it.)

4. The Library. Our local library has a great selection of books and movies and has great kids programs. I've always loved going to libraries, and still do.

5. Palm Trees. What an awesome tree to look at.



Feel free to share what you're thankful for today!

A Few of My Favorite Ornaments

I'm not sure why you would be the least bit interested in our tree ornaments, but I feel like posting a few photos of some of them. So there you go.


An angel blowing a trumpet. My Mom gave this to me years and years ago. I love how it reflects the tree lights.


It's hard to see, but if you look on the photo, there's an itty bitty 10 mos old baby sitting on the floor in front of the tree (hard to believe Eric was ever that small!). At the time I worked about 30 hours a week, and our baby sitter took the photo and made the ornament.



Long before Keats and Milo were adopted into our family, I had two other cats - Alice and Trixie.Shortly after I got pregnant with Charlotte, Trixie died from cancer at 15 years of age. I bought this ornament the Christmas after she passed away. I still miss her persnickety ways.




Mike knows I love pretty ornaments. He picked this one out as a gift a few years ago. It's got spun glass all around the inside of the globe and reflects all the lights from the tree. Very pretty!



And here's the newest addition.....an ornament I picked up in Orlando. The year 2008 is on the reverse side.

It's A Happy Day In Illinois

I'm not a big political type person, but I have to disagree with some who say it's a sad day in Illinois. For me it's a happy day.....a day of rejoicing that our crooked governor was finally hauled off in handcuffs. For years he has abused his position and alienated the people of Illinois, who he is supposed to be serving. My prayers are for Patrick Fitzgerald and his team as they clean house in Springfield.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

So we finally got the tree decorated. I really would like to know what happened to our tree skirt. It went missing last year, and I have no idea what happened to it. It didn't magically turn up this year either. I'm positively perplexed what happened to it. Is it lost in our attic somewhere? Why didn't it get packed up in 2006? Was it thrown away, and if so, why? Guess I'll have to drag out a sheet to throw under there to give it a more finished look. Anyway, here it is. We must have at least a 100 unique ornaments on there, which you probably can't see (unless you click on it to view larger). I've been adding to the collection each year (I buy one for myself/family, each kid gets one, plus we receive them as gifts too.) It's an eclectic tree!

And just in case you missed it, let me zoom in for you:

Our kitty boys, Keats and Milo, who thankfully only like to hunker down under the tree, rather than up in it.

Thankful Thursday

I saw this idea on someone else's blog a couple months ago and thought to myself, "What a great idea!" This time of year tends to bring out some materialism in me, which I try to rebel against, but I'm only human.....I like to spoil my children at Christmas because we don't buy much for them during the year. This year I've had to to put the brakes on the "spoiling", and it's been a real exercise in self-control. So it's good for me to pause and be thankful for what we already have instead of focusing on the have-nots! And combine this with last week's message at our church (gratitude), and I think I've got myself a topic on which to blog!


Here are five things I'm thankful for today (in no particular order):

1. A computer with an internet connection! (of course!)

2. A warm, toasty home on this frigidly cold day!

3. My dear friend, Lynda, who visited last week. I always look forward to her annual visits!

4. My husband Mike, who has not shied away from taking on some odd side jobs this past month to help make ends meet. He's such a good provider for his family!

5. Charlotte's giggles. They're infectious.



It's good to hear other people being thankful. It's not that I don't want to hear out your problems, but listening to people being thankful is uplifting, don't ya think? If you've ever listened to someone complaining all the time you can probably relate to what I'm saying. So tell me, what are you thankful for this Thursday? Just click on the "wonderful comments" link and let me know (You don't need an account to leave a comment.....just click on the Anonymous option but remember to sign your name in the body of the comment.)

How I Torture My Kids Part I

I don't actually have a Part II in mind, but I'm sure something will come along that I can share with you all.

As for Part I, this is how I did it (unintentionally, of course. I would never seek to torment my own children. ;-D) Traditionally we put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. So Mike got down all the containers and boxes, including our pre-lit Christmas tree. Said tree is going on year 5 and has held up beautifully. But not this year, of course. Not the year Mike is laid off and we're pinching pennies more than usual. This year the pre-lit tree is only partially lit. The bottom row of branches is not lighting up. Mike tried changing the fuse, looking around for obvious problems, but nothing fixed these lights.

Of course the kids are jonesin' to decorate the tree. It's set up in the living room, it appears ready to go. But I told them they had to wait till I could do a "quick" (aka "cheap") fix for that bottom row of branches, which is blatantly unlit (to me. The kids didn't seem to notice or care). So for going on 3 days now they've been looking at this undecorated tree in our home knowing they have to wait to put their ornaments on there, although I see that there is one lonely ornament on the tree which Charlotte hung up there on Saturday night. She made an angel at church and came right home to hang it up. Each of the kids has their own little collection of ornaments going because every year I buy them an ornament, plus the ones they make, and they've also picked up a few more along the way from Grandparents. Each year they're responsible for putting their ornaments on the tree. It's been pure torture for them to wait when the tree is in plain view.

So Yesterday I had Mike pick up a $2 strand of 100 ct lights at Menards, and I finally got them strung onto the tree just moments ago (stuck them on top of all the dead lights.) The tree looks considerably better, in my humble opinion. And yes, Eric and Charlotte will get to put their ornaments on today after their lengthy wait.