Meet Hemi

The sweetest little white ball of fluff ever.(if you haven't read yesterdays post. Santa brought us a new kitty for Christmas. [Our beloved Cocoa went missing 3 weeks ago and we are finally realizing it's probably for good.])
After almost a week with our newest family member, we just don't know how we survived without this much cuteness. Hemi is his name and cuteness is his game. He is a Flame Point Himalayan and we think he's a slight mix of Oscar the Grouch meets Yoda

He's even cute when he sleeps and since he's almost 9 weeks old. He still sleeps a lot. (In fact he's asleep on my lap as I'm typing this.)
The whole family just loves him.

Even the dogs like him. And just try to tell me that this shot doesn't belong on a greeting card: There is definitely no such thing as a replacement for Cocoa, but at least Hemi has brought some smiles back into the house.
*hugs*

Remembering Christmas

Today I thought I show you how our Christmas went. For us, most of the celebrating actually happens on Christmas Eve. The kids all get to open 1 gift.

Which happens to always be P.J.s from Grandma H.

I pull out the Christmas China and have our big Christmas dinner. In years past, I've made a big dinner with ham or turkey, and all the fixins. But MBC has always remembered going out for Chinese food with his family on Christmas Eve, so this year we made a compromise, I let him buy Chinese food, but we ate it at home on my China (And I must say, I could get used to this as a tradition. Dinner was yummy and SO easy.)
Then we read the Christmas Story out of the Bible. We have a flannel board set that the kids use to act out the story as I read it. And then we got to decorate the cake!
You see, on our very first Christmas together, MBC told me, he thought it would be cool to make Jesus a Birthday cake every year, to really show our kids (when we had them) what the holiday was all about. I LOVED the idea and we've made a cake and sang Happy Birthday EVERY year. (This year's cake)
This year "Big Bro." decided he was old enough to do the frosting I still did the writing, but "Princess" and "Deputy" helped "Big Bro." with all the sprinkles. Since 2009 candles would be a slight fire hazard, we do one candle for each kid to blow out.
Needless to say, Santa gets left a piece of birthday cake instead of cookies with his milk. But he's never seemed to mind.
Speaking of Santa...
This year our special visitor came a little earlier than normal and surprised the family with a family gift.
They, honestly, weren't expecting this.
What a fun surprise. And the kids really liked it. I don't think that "Deputy" has put it down for more than an hour since.
Christmas Day is spent opening gifts
Even the ones that Daddy decided to cover with packing tape.

Now let me ask you, could there be anything cuter than watching your brand new, white, fluffy kitten, on Christmas morning?



I will tell you what is NOT fun though. It is not fun when your 7 year old comes down with the stomach flu at 10 am and it kicks her toosh so bad that she can't even get dressed after her bath without falling asleep.
So, "Princess" and I stayed home and watched Christmas Movies, (and I rinsed out a lot of bowls) while MBC took the other kids to his families Christmas Dinner and saw all the other grandparents etc.
Over all though, it was a great holiday. "Princess" was only sick for 24 hours. We made it to MBC's extended family breakfast on Sat. We've played a lot of Rock band 2 and Hemi (the new cat) is officially a part of the family.
I hope that all of you had a great holiday as well!
*hugs*

When What To My Wondering Eyes Should Appear...

But my name flashed across the screen of my t.v. so dear.

So, I really entered to give it to MBC, and thought I had no shot at getting it. (Apparently, it was the grand prize giveaway for the month, people have been able to enter for the last 30 days. I entered the morning of the give-away.) When I got the phone call, I turned into a giddy school girl, I almost screamed, I laughed and didn't believe it. So much fun.

With all of MBC's back problems you can't guess how excited I was to see his face when it got delivered for Christmas.
Here's hoping that your Holidays are full of fun surprises too!
*hugs*


P.S. You can track Santa at: http://www.noradsanta.org
For the story on how it all got started click here to read the FUN story.

That Good King

Congratulations to Momzoo who was the first who knew that the last Weekend Words was Good King Wenceslas (all spellng versions were accepted.) I love this one, such a lovely message.

Good King Wenceslas (English Carol)

Good King Wenceslas look'd out,
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath'ring winter fu-el.

"Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know'st it telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I shall see him dine,
When we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went,
Forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind rows stronger;
Fails my heart I know not how;
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page,
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
Shall yourselves find blessing.

I hope that you are all enjoying this holiday season. We are so excited for Christmas around here. And as a total aside, today is my blogs one year anniversary. I started all this rambling 1 year ago today. Thanks for coming along for the ride with me. It's been great!
Many hugs to you all!

Blog Awards

Thank you so much to everyone who was kind enough to bestow one of these wonderful awards to me. I feel very honored.






















*hugs*