What Kind Of Christmas Card Are You?

You Are a Family Photograph Card

The holidays are very special to you. This time of year is all about your friends and family. You love to make contact with those you may have lost touch with. You are likely to include a long letter with your Christmas card. You get truly sentimental and emotional during the holidays. You believe this is the time to bury differences and make amends. Your family is the most important thing in the world to you. You will do anything to make sure they are happy.

What Kind of Christmas Card Are You?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

Uptime America

A friend sent me this video and it's definitely worth passing along. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Saga of the Eagle

Remember last summer when we got this really cool Eagle?



Well, we wanted to get a taxidermy small animal to put in his talons and put him on a log on the porch. We have a log from one of ours trees that we dropped this summer and it's seasoning in the barn for next summer. In the meantime we have the thing in the basement being moved around every few weeks. ;) Well, I came home for lunch the other day and discover that my crazy husband is having fun where there isn't any.



In another picture that I can't show yet he had some cute penquins looking REAL scared hanging from the darn thing. The things I put up with lol. MM keeps things interesting.... I'll give him that.

Long Lost by Harlan Coben

Dan Brown calls Harlan Coben “the modern master of the hook-and-twist—luring you in on the first page...only to shock you on the last." But there are plenty of shocks all through Long Lost, as Coben brings celebrity agent Myron Bolitar face-to-face with a love from his past, who may or may not have blood on her hands. Myron is pleased to see he‘s getting better at his sideline in sleuthing after he deduces, correctly, that his urgent summons to Paris at the behest of an old lover isn’t about rekindling their flame. But he didn’t expect to find Terese Collins the main suspect in a gruesome murder, the victim being her ex-husband. Terese swears she’s innocent, regaling Myron with the story of her marriage, assuring him it was good until the sad breakup she didn’t want, and never saw coming. But does he believe her, especially the part about not having heard from her ex until the phone call that brought her to Paris…and put her at the scene of the crime? Myron isn’t sure. And when a startling piece of evidence surfaces, baring Terese’s long-buried family secrets, Myron must seek answers that will take him where he’s never gone before, in a foreign country where nothing is as it seems.…

I've read a lot of Harlan Coben and enjoyed them a lot, but when I started this I was wondering if I'd read it before. I guess it was just a lot of the same characters and similar scenes. I had not read it. I really like his character 'Win', he is 'superman' in every sense of the word. I would recommend this book if you like mystery, suspense, and action.

Pink Glove Video

I got this email from my sister and enjoyed the video. It says that when it gets 1,000,000 hits then they will make a huge contribution to the hospital - when I just watched it it was as 98??? so let's get it over 1,000,000!

Our daughter-in-law, Emily (MacInnes) Somers, created, directed and
choreographed this in Portland last week for her Medline glove division as a
fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help
promote their new pink gloves. I don't know how she got so many employees,
doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and
they all had a lot of fun doing it.

When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge
contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the
community. Please check it out. It's an easy and great way to donate to a
wonderful cause, and who hasn't been touched by breast cancer?

Blood Game by Iris Johansen

Eve Duncan returns in a thriller that pits her against the most evil mind she has ever encountered: a ruthless killer who taunts her with his every move...and who has a special affinity for blood. When a Georgia senator's daughter is found murdered, and her body drained of blood, Eve Duncan is drawn into the web of Kevin Jelak - a serial murderer who is on Eve's short list of killers who might know something about her missing daughter Bonnie. When a goblet of blood is found in Eve's refrigerator, she knows the taunting is over...and the games have begun. As Eve and Jelak engage in a dance of death, Eve must call upon those she loves and trusts the most...even if it means bringing them into the game as well.

This was another murder mystery and it sucked me in right away. It had the vampire twist in it which I didn't think I would ever enjoy reading, but there are just a lot of weird people out there that are VERY strange. Don't want to give too much away, but it had characters that could talk with the dead. Very interesting concept of what can happen if you are still and listen. I'd recommend this book.

12nd Day of Christmas

I've had a broken but usable umbrella for years. Now that I have a new (different) car, maybe it's time to get a matching umbrella to carry around in the car.



I'm really not picky, just something in a black or grey that works with a push of a button (do they make any other kind anymore?). The old flowered one will still work well to leave at the office to use in an emergency.

Teaching Aids

This is a sponsored post, all opinions are 100% mine.

When your child is having trouble in school you just want to help so much. I remember wanting to get scholastic education materials for my children to give them a helping hand. School is only open so many hours and you can only put so much into those few hours. Everything we can do at home to help support and reinforce the process I am more than willing to do.

I especially liked to work with my kids over the summer break. I would sign up for a program that would send papers to be filled out every week and we would take them camping with us or wherever we were going. The kids liked having a little structure in their day and filled them out right away and awaited the next one. There was a lot of encouragement and praise for doing a job well. We did this program with both kids in both reading and math. When all the papers were completed and returned fulfilling the summer program they got a certificate of completion and a couple of reward. I remember a frisbee as one gift.

Both my kids were good in school, but I still felt the need to reinforce what they had learned. I can't imagine having a child with a learning disablity. All the hours of at home work to just keep them from slipping backward. I'm sure an intervention of this kind would be most helpful from folks that know how all children learn. And we know that children have different learning methods.

Do you spend a lot of time after school helping your kids with their homework? I hear from family members that their kids have hours every night. Then other kids have no problem and seem to do the homework on the bus. Wonder what makes some kids learn more easily? Solve that question and we'd have a lot more peaceful evenings.

11th Day of Christmas

Are these the cutest canape knives. I have other interesting styles and like pulling them out whenever we have some kind of spread or dip that is made easier with a utensil. Too cute!

Roses in December

I've been meaning to post this picture that we took on December 1st of a rose in our backyard. It's a little frozen, but still hanging on and it has an image of a face in the photo. Today is the 10th, and the last two roses finally dropped with the first snow.



Can you see the image of the face? I can clearly see an eye on the left (being the right eye) and the outline of a chin and cheeks. Anyone else see what I'm seeing? I can't remember another time when a rose has hung on for so long.

10th Day of Christmas

And while this is a 'wish' list, I saw some cool red lacquer chargers . I have gold ones, but for a change the red would look nice for Christmas.



The hard thing about buying this kind of thing is the number that you need. I think I have 8 of the gold, but we're at 9 already when you count my Mom coming to dinner. Right now the two babies still sit in highchairs, but that won't be for long.

9th Day of Christmas

I saw these towels recently at Pier 1. The kitchen always looks better with fresh new towels. And as far as I'm concerned I like getting them as a gift because I always have something else to spend my money on besides 'pretties'.



Am I that different that I like getting stuff for the house for Christmas? Just checking.

8th Day of Christmas

Of course, once we buy ourselves the wii then we'll have to get a wii fit to go with it.



Now this I've heard tons about. One of the gals from work has it and says she gets a better workout from this than her workout from the gym that she belongs to. And she saves a ton of time by not having to drive a half hour each way. Can't wait for Christmas morning lol.

Muffin's First Steps

I can't believe it, but MM caught Muffins first steps on video.



Wish we had gotten her face, because she was very pleased with herself and so excited. It won't be long before she's running. She is a very busy lady and doesn't sit still for a minute. MM also gave her her first hair trim. Just enough to keep the stray hair out of her eyes. Here she is sporting her new look.



We also got to spend some time with Peanut this weekend and her new thing (that we failed to catch on video) is she comes up and shakes your hand and says "nice to meet you", then walks into the other room and grabs her backpack on wheels and waves over head saying "bye". It was so cute and she did it several time. LOL She just had us busy all evening. She's also sitting on the pot a lot, but we didn't get any action (if you know what I mean) lol.

7th Day of Christmas

Okay, so no one has to get this for us because I think we're getting it for each other. I've heard so much about the wii that I think we're finally ready for one. I'm pretty sure we are the last household in the state to get one, but we usually get around to these things.



I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this.

6th Day of Christmas

I have a fun collection of Mini American Girl Dolls. Don't know where else you can find them, but I'm sure they must be available locally. I can't believe that I already have 10!! of them.

The ones I don't have are Julie


How could I have missed Rebecca


Emily


and Ruthie


The ones I have already are Kit, Samantha, Felicity, Kirsten, Kaya, Nellie, Molly, Addy, Elizabeth and Josefina. They are really cute and come with a story book of their life and times. Peanut noticed them once (they are in the guest room) and we got them out to play with. She's a little young yet, but she enjoyed them under my supervision :). I think it's something from my childhood to always want more dolls.

5th Day of Christmas

I'm not really cheating here, but MM wanted a new steering wheel cover for our new car. If you're interested in buying this for him be sure to shop around. The last time I bought one for him I overpaid by going directly to the maker, I found out later that I could have gotten it for less.



That's a 2005 Chevy Malibu - Grey.

4th Day of Christmas

For some reason this year I need to wear layers. You can ask anyone I was always too warm, but this year I need another layer. this mockneck tee in Oatmeal Heather size L would go with a lot of things that I already have. Hey, this kind of fun lol. Think I'm going to have a lot of trouble real soon though, it's hard thinking of more stuff.

3rd Day of Christmas

I love lounging around in the evening in my velour bottoms (I do wear more that just the bottoms :))... problem is I only have one pair. I like this color in size L regular length.



These are so comfortable and they look a little better than plain sweats. Not that there is anything wrong with plain sweats, but this is a wish list.

2nd Day of Christmas

I'm making this a family kind of wish list. MM gave me an idea for him and I wanted to pass it on.



A little mini tripod for the camera, I didn't even know they made this kind of thing. Can you tell I 'hate' shopping. This would be really cool for all the times we're trying to balance the camera on a rock or something lol. It was small enough for him to fit in his pocket. We saw it at Meijers, but I'm sure it's in all camera departments.

1st Day of Christmas

My daughter had a good idea (one of many actually). Anyway my posts for the first 12 days of December will be things that I want for Christmas and where to buy them. Of course, if you can get it for less elsewhere by all means do it. Oh yeah, if you think of something else that I want more and I just couldn't think of it then go for it. You guys usually have much better ideas than me anyway.



I always seems to run out of my favorite fragrance Lily of the Valley by Crabtree & Evelyn.

12 Days of Christmas

In the coming days I'm about to list 12 things that I 'want' for Christmas. When starting this I thought "what did this mean or stand for originally?". I did some searching and came up with this explanation. So let's all remember to keep "Christ" in Christmas, it can be hard when all this commercialism starts.

From 1558 until 1829 CE, Roman Catholics in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning; the surface meaning, plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church.


Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality, which the children could remember.


a.. The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.


b.. Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.


c.. Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.


d.. The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.


e.. The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.


f.. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.


g.. Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.


h.. The eight maids a milking were the eight beattitudes.


i.. Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Ghost: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control.


j.. The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.


k.. Eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.


l.. Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.


So there is your history lesson for today. I found this interesting and now I know how this "very strange" song became a xmas carol.

Big Announcement

I've been dying to tell you our 'big announcement'. Our son and dil were over recently and they had made this adorable shirt for lil Muffin. I never got it... they had to say "LOOK!".





I've been keeping this back for a few weeks because they wanted to tell a few more people themselves. Not that anyone probably reads this blog and would spread it, but I like to be extra careful. So congratulations to all of us lol.

Just so you know every time they get a new dog that means another baby is coming lol. I'm sure that is just a coincidence, but that's how it's working so far *smile*. They got Fred (a golden doodle) and then a couple months later announced Muffins arrival, recently they got Jake (another golden doodle) and Pumpkin will be here in July. Yikes! Hope that isn't a pattern, because if they are going for more kids that house is going to get full real fast. Right now they have 3 cats, 2 dogs and 1 baby with #2 coming this summer.

The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

(Prologue)...."I AM THE HEAD COOKIE bitch and this is my party. The Christmas Cookie Club is always on the first Monday of December. Mark it on your calendar. Twelve of us gather, bringing thirteen dozen cookies wrapped in packages. Home-made, of course. We bring a dish to pass around and a bottle of wine".......

The Christmas Cookie Club, is a tradition started some sixteen years earlier. Marnie (the head cookie bitch) and eleven of her closest friends, have kept this tradition going. The friends share how they met, their joys, their struggles, their disappointments, and more. They laugh together and cry together. Their stories are told in twelve alternating chapters, each of which includes a tasty sounding Christmas cookie recipe for readers to try.


This was a perfect Christmas read for me. It gets me in the mood to start baking and get in touch with more of my friends that I just correspond with at Christmas time. Sometimes I really miss having life long friends like they are in this book. I think maybe I didn't have enough 'hardships' in my life. Not that I want any! The book tells of how friends met and became close as they helped one another through hard times and good times. They didn't give 'in depth' character builds, but a brief review of how they knew each other and what was going on in their lives at this time. I really enjoyed this as a quick read bringing back memories of many of my friends through the years. Oh yeah, there are 12 recipes and they looked good enough to try :)

Whiteout by Ken Follett

An injured lab technician, a missing canister. Toni Gallo, the attractive new head of the security team operating at the local pharmaceutical-research company, knows she has problems, but she has no idea of the nightmare to come.

As his family converges on a remote farmhouse in Scotland for the Christmas period. Stanley Oxenford is a worried man. Everything is riding on a new drug he has developed to fight a lethal virus; all have something to gain with the money he’s going to make. Toni Gallo, too, is out to prove herself as a woman up to her job. Then a blizzard whips out of the north, and as the storm worsens, the emotional sparks – jealousies, distrust and sexual attraction – crackle; desperate secrets are revealed; hidden traitors and unexpected heroes emerge. Filled with startling twists at every turn, WHITEOUT rockets Follett into a class by himself.


This was another book I started and just kept turning the pages. The author did a good job of developing the characters and they came alive before your eyes. I found myself screaming “I can’t believe he did that!”. Great book.