Las Posadas

Isn't this so neat! We are going to this tonight. So today we have read:




Las Posadas is just a wonderful tradition. Plus looks like there will be some good eatin'!

New Diet?

Could someone please fill me in on the new diet where you eat unlimited garlic bread 4 days a week without gaining weight, but actually losing it? I really would love that. Thanks!

Not a big surprise

Your Christmas is Most Like: A Very Brady Christmas

For you, it's all about sharing times with family. Even if you all get a bit cheesy at times.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

We sure do love the cheese around here.

HT: Margaret

Advent traditions

This is our Advent wreath that is on a table in the living room. This is before I added the pink and purple ribbons to the candles.



This is our North Pole village. My mother in law has maybe 4 sets of different miniature villages like this and she gave us a whole set several years ago. It is a total pain to set up, but the kids really enjoy it. The red stocking is The Jesus Stocking, a new tradition this year

Our Jesse tree sits on our front hall table. Last year I made the ornaments for the first two weeks and then I stopped. This year we will complete the ornaments! We also have a beautiful Advent calender from the Metropolitan Museum of Art sitting on the box that holds the Jesse Tree ornaments.


Another new tradition is our Advent Log. Because our wreath is in the living room, we only light it on Sundays. We have the log in the family room and have been lighting it to say our family prayers at night. Unfortunately, the candles are burning down so fast! I will get some better ones next year.



This is the beginning of our own children's creche. The "Jesus Box" is what Laine calls it! Joesph and a donkey are pictured, and we now have a sheep and 3 wise men too. This week we'll add some more figures.

Important to me

Mary Clare has now been with us for longer than she was not. We met her April 5th 2006. For some reason, I have been waiting for this milestone. It is just important to me. I also think about when I will be 43 and I will have been married to Lee longer than I had not been. Quirky, no?

Anyway, she has changed so much and just making this slide show brought me to tears remembering all we have been through together and thinking on what we missed. This sweet girl has brought so much joy into our lives, I simply cannot imagine our family without her.

I asked the Jake and Ryan the other day, lightly and out of the blue, "So, do you like having a baby sister?"

"Oh yes!" they both immediately said as they were kissing and smooshing her as they tumbled out of the van. That was it. A brief little moment in time that made me catch my breath and squeeze my eyes to try and cement it in my memory.

Enjoy the slide show and be amazed with me.

Nativity Play

Last Friday the Jake and Ryan were in our homeschool co-op Nativity Play. Jake was a camel.

I am pretty proud of this camel costume. My sister gave me the idea to use the foam. Amazing, isn't it? Staples, pom poms and glue and voila! a cute goofy camel!

Ryan was a sheep, a black sheep. The director assured us this was not type casting. He is the last one on the right. His costume was not as fancy, black sweatpants and shirt and a cotton ball mask.

Both boys remembered their lines and I could actually hear them, identify their voices, in the audience. My parents were able to come to the play too. After the play, there was food, of course, and familes decorated Advent wreaths to donate to the Our Lady of Peretual Help Free Cancer Home, a hospice center really. I hope these wreaths will bless all of the residents this Advent season.

Messing with blogger beta

Surprise! yes, it is still me. I have been messing with blogger beta to personalise this little ol' blog.

I also have been wanting to change my blog title. We really do live on a cul-de-sac that has a gorgeous old magnolia tree right in a middle circle. I love that tree and I love having this cul-de-sac where my kids play for hours and hours. The tree also holds our red baby swing that Mary Clare loves to be pushed on.

I do let the kids climb the tree though the grandparents (and maybe other neighbors?) are a wee bit disapproving. It is a tree just begging to be climbed though! I also let the kids ride their bikes around the very flat circle without their helmets. If they go into the regular road around the neighborhood, I make them put them on. Geez, I didn't mean this to become a true confessions of a neglectful mother post, but I am in the mood to divulge.