a gift...

Just a little gift for a friend.

decorated...

Just thought I'd show you a bit of our decorations. The picture of our nativity came out blurry but it is especially beautiful this year. Sorry you can't see it.

The tree.

The garland was made from boxwood that came from a friend's yard. This is not the nativity I was referring to. This one is in the kitchen.
I really enjoy making these greenery arrangements. I think they make every room festive...
Here is another little one.
Well , it is finally Christmas Eve. We will go to Mass this evening with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We will then come here and have dinner together.

We are so fortunate to be able to be with some of our family this Christmas. We miss those who live far away-LOVE YOU GUYS!

May you and your families be blessed abundantly with the gifts

that come from God alone this Christmas Season!

oh those crazy kids...

I think this might be the consequences of watching How the Grinch stole Christmas just one too many times...

Anywho, thought this was pretty funny.

Big sissy has a 2 ltr. coke bottle in her hair (that's a lot of hair!) and little one has a water bottle.

This lovely note was on the door of my son's room...

If you enlarge it, it reads

I am disgusted with my room!

don't have time to clean it now.

I will clean it on the break,

it is the first thing I will do.

Please don't bug me, I am aware I am living and sleeping in a

PIGSTY.

It made me laugh because although I am aware of how bad it is, I have not said anything. But I do like this conviction and self awareness he came to on his own. He's growing up.

BTW, he got his license a couple of weeks ago. I feel such a loss of control. I find this new chapter very challenging. A whole new lesson in surrender to God.

A friend once said to me, just wait until you watch your two oldest children pull out of the driveway together in the same car for the first time. She was right, it was really hard, scary, I definitely felt a little nauseous...

As with everything else in my life, I must leave them in HIS hands.

thrifty decorations...

Hubby made this wonderful wreath. I love it! It now hangs on the side of our home with a spotlight shining on it at night and we are enjoying it very much.

A year or two ago after Christmas, hubby found two large wreaths out on the curb of a church next door to where he works. He took all the greenery off them and put them away. As I was driving down the road one day I came across some utility workers cutting pine branches away from the phone lines and the road was lined with large piles of greenery that would be disposed of. I quickly ran home to get hubby and we filled up the car twice with lots of fresh pine. The men were happy to let us have all we wanted.

It's so much more fun getting things this way rather than going to the store and

just buying them. Not to mention being able to see the hand of God that much more clearly.

I wish I had blogged more this Advent, but I didn't, oh well.

One of the things I like about blogging, is that it is really like a scrapbook or journal. I have journaled for many years and it is so nice to look back and see where

I have been and what I've done. It's helped me to recall those special moments with much more clarity and when I read about the more challenging times it reminds me of lessons learned and as St. Teresa of Avila said,"all things are passing, God only is changeless"

thoughts to ponder...

I have read this before, and came across it again this morning.

Makes a lot of sense to me, what do you think?

this and that...

For those of you that know me, you know there is little I like less than having my picture taken. But I will make an exception now and then. This one is of my daughter (who hates this picture, but let me post it anyway) and I at Rockefeller Center in NYC last Saturday. It is always a good day when I get to spend some quality time with one of my children individually. We met my brothers, for coffee in the morning, they were working in Manhattan that day. We then walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral for noon Mass. We found this gentleman playing some really wonderful, loud music on some very random found objects such as a piece of sheet metal, a wire shelf, an empty 5 gallon bucket, an old vegetable bin taken from a refrigerator and a few other things. To me this seemed like such a profound metaphor for life. I too like to create things out of discarded materials - to make something out of nothing.
In a way, it reminds me of how God uses us in many different ways to bring blessing to others. He can take our nothingness and turn into something beautiful.

Here is a look at hubby's little workshop. These are a bunch of wreaths in varying stages of completion. He makes hand tied fresh wreaths. They really are lovely. He is filling orders for about 30 so far and we will participate in our parish's artisan fair in a couple of weeks.

My least favorite plant would probably be the cactus. We have two Christmas Cacti that just sit around looking ugly all year (in my opinion-hubby likes them), that is until now when they bloom in radiant color. We have this fuchsia plant and another coral one. I think there is probably another metaphor for life in this somewhere, but I think I'll spare you. I stuffed some boxwood around the edges to make it festive. A friend from church let us at her boxwood and holly bushes yesterday, and let us trim to our hearts content. I want to put together some greenery arrangements for that artisan fair.

Hope you are having a great day!

clowning around...

We had a great time trick or treating this year. Our friends came for dinner and we all headed out around the neighborhood until there bags were heavy with lots of treats. A great time was had by all.

I really enjoyed making this costume for her. The best part was using what I had on hand to do it. I had the simplicity clown pattern, the colorful dotted fabric my mom gave me years ago, the red corduroy, denim, and vintage floral all came from the stash. My mother in law made the pom poms with her yarn stash.

Total cost in materials=$0, memories=priceless!