A pictoral goodbye to 2008

that's not to say that I won't be posting more about 2008 in January...but here are some pics which require little commentary, and a far past-due for posting.





































There you go, knocked out all of October and November with one post! Whee!


Happy New Year!

12 days of Christmas

well, yesterday was another flurry of last minute Christmas crafting. and I have managed to take photos of all but one of the gifts I made this year...

But that's not what this post is about.

we're trying to keep up with the momentum of Christ-focusing we did during Advent, and so are celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. We've been reading about the magi, La Bafana/Babushka, and continuing to listen to Christmas music.

One of my new-favorite Christmas songs is by a band I've never heard of before...Downhere



I love their sound! I want their whole album now. They have a Queen sound, as well as maybe the Killers...yay! What fun!

The song is just so full of the true meaning of Christmas. It's awesome.

Happy 4th or 5th day of Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas!

We've had an incredible winter wonderland going for the past few days. I love snow! I hate driving in it, but it's fun to be stuck at home.

My brother and his wife are staying with us to avoid being stuck at their cold little place, so it's like an extended holiday.

Maybe on Christmas I'll have time to post some crafty goodness and some Otters in the snow pics as well. We'll see.

I hope you all have a joyous Christmas, remembering what Christmas is really all about. God loves us so much!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Husband!

Hi all,

I really have a ton to share, but, as usual, no time--no time to upload or edit pictures, and certainly no time to blog. Expect lots of Christmas stuff during the 12 days of Christmas, when things slow down a bit.

In the mean time, Tom, my dear and wonderful husband, is doing a great job (along with his brother) at keeping new content coming on their webcomic. So, go check out The Legendary Boys Of Floyd, and wish Tom a happy birthday--and vote too!

Craft Addict Give-Away

I am usually too lazy to blog about other bloggers. (Although, please check out my ever-expanding blog roll, to the left and down, lots--and I mean lots--of great blogs on there)

Despite my laziness though, I thought this Craft Addict Give-away was such a great give-away, I had to share it. Not so much because of the stuff, although that's cool, but because the requirement for entering is to comment there about our favorite charity.

In addition to Easter European Outreach, my other favorites include The Mobility Project, Alpha Counseling--a local christian counselor that saved my marriage, but has no website--and, just this year, Advent Conspiracy.

Click on the give-away links above to enter, or even on the title of this post, or, on the graphic, kindly provided by Craft Addict herself (I'm a new reader of the blog, so it's an assumption that Craft Addict is a gal, I hope I'm not wrong! ha ha)

Happy St. Nicholas day-eve! (which we *are* celebrating--maybe over-kill since we'll still have Christmas day present-opening as well. *shrug*)

Christmas Prep

Well, I'm actually aching over not taking advantage of cyber-monday free-shipping deals. It hurts. BUT, I don't really need to buy stuff. I don't.

Plus, I don't have my own credit card anymore, so I couldn't even hide it from Tom until the bills arrived. He'd know, and then it wouldn't be a surprise, not to mention us not having the money for that sort of thing.

So. There you go.

Yesterday, Eve was bored while I painstakingly crafted an advent chain for her. I look forward to the days when she can wield the scissors safely and effectively. But, she really really LOVES the advent stuff.

So, we made green paper hand prints and "built" (aka taped to the window) a hand print tree. On this will "hang" (with tape) the little coloring project jesse tree ornaments

We made a no-staples, no glue*, paper advent chain. Half of one anyway. I ran out of time, and needed to pay bills after the kids went to bed, so the rest will have to happen tonight or tomorrow or whenever--hopefully before we run out of the chain as it currently stands.

*The chain itself uses no glue, however, for Advent, I glued the devotionals to the inside of the links. Now you see why I ran out of time before I ran out of crafting duties.

Our first day was yesterday. She colored a small picture of a stump with a shoot coming from it, while I read a bit from Isaiah (11:1-2). The devotional was about David and how God has a plan for us.

She wanted to read the "story" (the devotional) again, right away. Instead, I read to her about David from her beginners bible.

I'm really looking forward to Advent.

Now I have to decide--really quick--if we're going to do St. Nickolas day.