Warm and Cold

Warm - Miss and I finished our paper chain garland this morning. She was so excited to see it hung over our patio door.

Cold - Our weather got cold today. High in the mid 20s. Brrrr.

Warm - While Playing with Miss this morning around the Christmas tree, she gave me lots of hugs and repeatedly said, "I you so much" (I love you so much). I could have melted.

Cold - Our furnace died today. Rather, it was unconscious for a while. After a long cold morning and early afternoon of calling our home warranty company, waiting for them to find someone to come on a Sunday, finding out that they couldn't find anyone, finding someone myself, and getting them out to revive our old furnace so that it can limp along a bit longer, we now have heat again. For now. I will be taking bids tomorrow for a new furnace. Today Miss was all bundled up in the house.

She had fun when I told her to keep her hood up to stay nice and cozy warm.

She kept putting her fingers in her ears saying, "Keep ears warm. Nice, cozy." Loved it.

Warm - We have only one space heater. So when it was getting really cold in the house by mid afternoon, I put it in the family room, turned on the TV so Miss would stay parked in front of the heater with Lass and me, and put down our picnic blanket so we could have a "picnic snack" after Miss's nap. I don't let her eat or drink outside the kitchen in our house, so it was a rare treat to have a little picnic in the family room. "Nice, Cozy."

Oh Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree has provided endless hours of entertainment for Miss. We have spent much time around it as a family. She loves to touch the ornaments and we play a game where we say things like, "Where's the gingerbread man?" and she looks all around at the ornaments until she finds it and points to it.

She loves to show her favorite ornaments to her sister.

They hold hands and Miss gives hugs and kisses. We sing lots of Christmas carols. Her favorites are Jingle Bells and Oh Christmas Tree (which I had to look up the words to because I couldn't remember them). She's starting to get into "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" which she calls the "Santa song."

Tonight my hubby and I are lounging in front of a fire, with the tree all lit up nearby. The girls are in bed, he's playing guitar, I'm drinking a glass of wine. I feel like I'm in a movie on Lifetime, Television for Women. It's good. I'm off to visit with my husband.

Hello Snuggle Bear

Time to Get Crafty

Now that Christmas is rapidly approaching and Miss is getting to the age of being able to do crafts, I have been in a majorly crafty kind of mood. Two days ago I went nuts in the craft section of Target, buying pipe cleaners and construction paper and sparkly pom-poms and regular pom-poms and glue and googly eyes and all sorts of other stuff. Yesterday was a dreary day, perfect for pulling out these newly acquired treasures and getting into some crafting. I decided that we would make gift bags for Christmas gifts. I have tons of paper bags that I have saved over the past year (I used other ones last year, but not decorated nicely), so I pulled them out and informed Miss that we would be making the bags pretty.

She was quite intrigued buy this idea. She was even more interested when I got out the craft stuff I planned for us to use. I told her we would be making a Christmas tree on the bag and she was so excited.

I was quite excited too. I has sparkly pipe cleaners to glue on for garland and sparkly pom-poms for ornaments. Miss had a "ball" picking out the ornaments she wanted to use. I put glue on them and she stuck them on. The only problem was that they wouldn't stick. I couldn't get the glue to hold the pipe cleaners or the pom-poms in place. I tried and tried, but to no avail. I haven't crafted in so long, and really who knows the last time I used pipe cleaners and pom-poms for anything (Monday school crafting in LP??), so I had no idea they wouldn't stick. Maybe they would have if I'd been able to hold them in place until they started to dry, and then allow them to sit motionless while the glue dried completely. As if that was going to happen with a toddler eager to stick on the next fluffy and sparkly ornament.

So, we switched to plan B. I cut paper to make garland and ornaments. Miss stuck them on. And then, to her delight, I got out the most important component of any holiday crafting project. What, you ask?? Why, glitter of course!! Miss went to town sprinkling it all over the tree, where it stuck in the spots I had squirted glue on the garland and ornaments.

Naturally, it stuck to more than just the tree.

Happily, we finished the project and got it cleaned up. Though it didn't turn out the way I thought it would, we had fun, and Miss was very proud of her finished Christmas tree bag, which is currently holding a gift for her Daddy, ready to give on Christmas.

Next up - More bags with Santas, Snowmen, and maybe a reindeer, though I'm not sure if that falls within my artistic ability, a paper garland, more cookies and who knows what else??

Somebody's Ticklish

New Favorite Song

My big girl loves Neil Diamond. A girl after my own heart. She asks for this song over and over, and dances like mad every time. In this video she's a little camera shy, but it's a good example.

And I have a fabulous video of Lass giggling, but for some reason I couldn't get it to upload to my iMovie. I'll figure it out and post it soon.

A Baby Named Cliff

Oh boy. I read about a baby boy named Cliff today. He's an orphan. He has Downs Syndrome. He lives in a crummy orphanage in Eastern Europe. You can read more about him HERE. His story breaks my heart. Jeannett, the momma who writes the blog Life. Rearranged has taken on the task of raising money for little Cliff to help with the costs of his adoption so that, hopefully, it will be easier for a family to adopt him. This is a cause I felt compelled to give to, and to share with others. So, there it is. The button for the blog post about him is on my side bar to the right, so you can see a little photo of him too. Again, a glaring example that I have so, so much to be thankful for. I'm hugging my girls extra tightly today.