Wordless Wednesday #17 ~ An Old-Fashioned Minnesota Snow Storm

The front yard.

The backyard, (somewhere near Narnia by the looks of things)

"Wrapping Up" Christmas 2008

This past Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Christmas with our kids, or at least the ones that live in MN that were able to make it. Of course, Jessica and Christian are living here with us now, and Sarah and Brad came down from "up north". Ruth and Dan drove up from the twin cities area, but my son Joel said he was having trouble with the battery in his Jeep, and was afraid to try to drive it this far. His gifts are still under the tree. If he doesn't come to get them...I guess we'll be forced to use/spend them ourselves, and eat the contents of the basket from G & G, (including the much-sought-after "grandma buns" that are waiting for him in the freezer).
CJ got a really cool tool set from Sarah and Brad. He loves it, and has been "fixing" things and people ever since. He says he is a "workerstruction", which I believe means construction worker in Fouryearold. Here he is, sitting on the couch between Ruth's husband, Dan and Sarah's husband, Brad.

Molly received a messenger bag kit that you decorate yourself, with iron-ons and fabric paint. She really seemed to like that, and had it completely finished by Sunday afternoon.

Molly had been telling everyone that she wanted earrings for Christmas. She got earrings from us, and some from Jess on Christmas Eve, and more earrings from Sarah and even more from Ruth on Saturday. She should be set in the earring department for awhile!!

The other gift that CJ got from Uncle Brad and Auntie Sarah, was a Minnesota Wild sweatshirt. It's a bit big, so when he tried it on later, he told his mom that he didn't want to come down and show it to us, because he was afraid we would all laugh at him! She told us not to, so we tried our best not to snicker. He'll grow into it...eventually. (I'm not really sure what Ruth is pointing at here).

I ended up getting a few of the things that were on my list too. Sarah and Brad brought me a Shark cordless floor and carpet cleaner. It was not the exact one I had pictured here, but it works just great! I had also asked for the two Narnia dvd's. I got them. In fact, I got 2 copies of "Prince Caspian", (one from Jess and one from Ruth and Dan), and 3 copies of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"! Jessica, Sarah and Ruth each gave us one of those!! Apparently, they didn't compare notes to see what each other was getting, after they had all read my blog. That's okay, I had already opened the ones from Jess, so I may donate that one to church library or something. The one from Sarah and Brad is a 2 disc collector's set, so I'll probably keep that one. I took the two dvd's from Ruth and Dan back today, and got 2 more karaoke discs to add to our collection instead! They'll come in really handy on Tuesday night for the Youth Group's "Pre-New Year's Eve Party" at church.

After we finished exchanging gifts, we put the extra leaves in the table, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, red and green Jello, and scalloped corn. Sarah brought some yummy cookies for dessert too! So much for Weight Watcher's this week!

My daughter Jessica's corgi, "Bart", has been sleeping in his crate in the laundry room every night since they came to live with us. Sarah and Brad brought their lab/springer mix, "Buster" with them too, so we stacked the crates and made bunk beds for them. Here they are:

It was a real "three dog night", when you add to them our dog, "Jake", who is also a lab/springer mix. He thinks he's a people though, so he sleeps upstairs in Molly's bed with her. Here they are:

Ruth and Dan only came up for the day, so they didn't bring their 2 dogs. That was probably a good thing. I suppose we could have found room in the laundry room for a couple more crates, but their two pups are quite young, and may not have liked being away from their humans all night.

We all had a great Christmas here on the farm! Even if it did seem a bit like the place had "gone to the dogs"! Happy New Year!

All I want for Christmas is...

I don't usually make Christmas lists. Generally, I just wish I had enough money to go shopping and buy great things for everyone on MY LIST. That's what would really make me happy. But every year, someone is bound to ask what I want for Christmas, (and someone already has), so...Here is my Christmas wish list:

Because I have a carpeted floor in my kitchen now, I think one of these would be ideal. That way I wouldn't have to drag out the big ol' vacuum cleaner to pick up a few Cheerios or whatever else we happend to spill on the floor. After all, they vacuum up nuts and bolts on the infomercial, so they MUST be good! This should also work great on the wood floors I have in my office and in all of the upstairs rooms.

My husband is the AWANA commander at our church. Many a Wednesday afternoon, he has called me and asked if I would please make some kind of handout for the kids to bring home to their parents THAT night. Therefore, it would be really nice to upgrade from my old Print Shop 12 to the brand new Print Shop 23! It would also come in quite handy for creating my own greeting cards or party invitations etc. I could have lots of fun with this.

Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved the C. S. Lewis "Chronicles of Narnia" series. I've read almost all of the books at least once, and would really enjoy having DVD's of the two movies that are out so far, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian" which comes out on DVD this coming Tuesday, Dec. 2. I'm also really looking forward to the next big-screen Narnia adventure, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". I can't wait!

Everyone that knows me well, also knows that I am a "VeggieTalian". What's a Veggietalian, you ask? Why, it's someone like me, who is trying to collect every VeggieTales DVD ever made. So far, I am only missing two of the "VeggieTales Classics"; "Larry Boy and the Fib from Outerspace and "LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed. I actually do have one copy of each of these movies, but they are part of a 3 disc Larry Boy set, so I would love to have the individual DVD's of these two movies to complete my VT Classics collection. And then I'll probably give my 3 disc set to someone else.

I am also missing "God Made You Special" and the brand new "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" Movie that just came out on DVD in October.

Oh and my copy of "A Snoodles Tale", (which really belongs to Molly), has seen better days and needs to be replaced. I don't think it will even play anymore.

So there you have it, that's about all I can think of right now, other than world peace and good health, happiness, wealth and prosperity for my family and our friends. How 'bout you? What do you want for Christmas?

P. S. I was just informed tonight that "Mama Mia" will be out on DVD on Dec. 16th. I went to that with "the girls" for Sarah's birthday. We had so much fun! I wouldn't mind owning that one either.

Week 8 weigh In ~ A day late

Because our town only has WW meetings on Mondays, and that being Memorial Day this week, I had to wait until today to weigh in. I also had to drive almost 40 miles to do so. I was really considering putting it off another day, since I didn't think I did all that well, what with the three day weekend and all. At the last minute, I decided to make the trip to St. Cloud after all...and I'm glad I did. It wasn't a tremendous loss or anything...but it was not bad. I'm down another 2 lbs. for a total of weight loss of 18.6 lbs! I just can't seem to break that 20 lb mark. The good thing is, I don't have far to go this week...and it will be fun to get my star at my home WW meeting site.
And...since I was in the area today, I decide to go across the street to Petter's Warehouse and see what I could find. I hadn't been there in ages. About 2 years ago, I found myself a bedspread, a couple of matching decorative pillows, and 1 matching curtain for my bedroom. The problem is...I have 2 windows in my bedroom. All this time, I've had one window with no curtain...just mini blinds on it. It wasn't too noticeable since it is mostly hidden behind the headboard anyway...but I really wanted another curtain. Guess what I found today....tada~ I found my curtain. Yippeee! I had all but given up finding one at this point.

I also found an audio book called "Finding God in the Land of Narnia" by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware at Petter's for just $2.99. I started listening to it on my way home...it seems very good. I had been looking for some kind of audio book to listen to while I use my treadmill. I figure if I only let myself listen to it while I'm on the treadmill, (and maybe while washing dishes), if it's interesting enough, it will get me to do those things more often. The same authors also wrote "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings". The funny thing is, my hubby and I were just discussing the other day about how I'd read some of the Narnia books as a kid, and other than the similarity between Aslan's death on the stone table and Jesus' death on the cross, I had no idea there was any deeper meaning behind the stories. I just enjoyed them because they were really good stories. Speaking of the Chronicles of Narnia...

I went to see "Prince Caspian" (the second chapter in the chronicles ), about a week and a half ago. It was VERY good. I would recommend it to everyone, but I would caution that there is a lot of violence in it, (not blood and gore, more like epic battle scenes), and may not be appropriate for very young children. We brought a bunch of 5th grade girls to it...I don't think I'd bring anyone much younger. They are working on the next 3 movies to be released in the next few years; "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", being the next one. That was one of my favorite books of the series...I can't wait. Check out the "Prince Caspian" Widget on my sidebar if you want more information on the Chronicles of Narnia.

May 27th is a date that brings both joy and tears to this family. In 1952 it was the day my mother and father said their wedding vows to each other. HAPPY56th ANNIVERSARY Mom and Dad!!!

And sadly, in 1998, my husband lost his first wife, and my step-children, their mother. So Ray, Sarah, Dan and Ruth...my thoughts are with you guys today too, as you mark the 10th anniversary of that loss. I'm sure you all miss her dearly.