Christmas Eve

Best Buddies. All ready for Christmas Eve service at our new church.

Princess Daphne and Queen Victoria all ready too. Kaleb is in there somewhere in the back. See if you can find him. He and Victoria are singing with their Sunday School classes. I like seeing all the children dressed up in their red and black. Victoria insisted on singing with her practice music sheet. She said she needed it to read. She cracks me up. We have 3 shy children and then there is Victoria who wants to experience it all.For the prelude, Daphne and Kaleb played their violins. Kaleb played Silent Night beautifully with Daphne playing the harmony. And then Daphne quieted the entire congregation with her Celtic song Christmas Eve. We were really proud of them for being able to offer their music and talents on such a special occasion as our Lord's birth.

Kaleb's Stocking is done just in time...

Kaleb's stocking is officially completed. (I know it is Christmas Eve, for a while there I didn't think I was going to get it done.) After many hours and years of working on this thing, I am happy to say it is no longer brewing on the back burner. At Thanksgiving I had only 1/3 of it cross stitched. Kaleb was so excited for his stocking to join the ranks hanging, ready to be filled with goodies, I didn't have the heart to let it go another year. Yes, it has been in the works for the past few years. It is a little odd that each of the kids so far had their stocking completed when they were 8 years old. I don't know how that happened. It just did. When I started on Kirk's we were barely married and was stitched "Kirk". After Daphne was born, I changed it to "Dad". So much more appropriate. So now I get to go to bed at a decent hour. I won't be staying up to 3 a.m. stitching away. I am getting too old to be doing that. At least for another 4 years, when Victoria is 8 and asking when hers will be done. The kids keep teasing that they are going to ask for one for my grandchildren. I said "no way". I will do them something else. This is all I have cross-stitched in the past 18 years! I would really like to try my hand at something else, thank you. (I managed to get Kaleb's favorite stuffed animal "Cheezer" to pose for a stitching. He is sitting on the dresser under the pig.)

AHHH Pretty Kitty

Our friend's kitty, Shotzey, looks so sweet under the tree. I almost didn't see her. She blended in so well.

Victoria's Ornaments

Victoria hard at work. We did have to convince her that red and green will turn muddy if she mixes the colors. I think that was intriguing to her. She did everything herself except for the glitter glue. It was a little hard to squeeze out of the bottles. She was very proud of her creations.

Cookie Delivery

I discovered that my Mom was working almost every morning this week until Christmas so we decided to deliver her some Christmas Cookies early to her work at 8:30 in the morning. When I came around the corner to where she was sitting I could hear her typing. Before I even knew it was her I knew that that was her typing. She has a kind of hyper typing sound. She is the quickest typist I have ever known. I would never be able to compete against her for the title. She automatically wins the Gold in that category. Anyway, she loved the cookies to go with her coffee. And so did her co-workers. Here is the kicker...she works at a Women's Gym. So I guess they are in the perfect place to eat cookies... They can run on the treadmill 20 min for every cookie that is eaten. Isn't that how it works?

All in a Days Work

Working as a nurse, you meet people from all walks of life. You find out what the world is really made up of. Don't get me wrong though. There are some really nice people out there. Long ago when I was a mere 22 working as a nurse for the first time my patients and their family would always ask me how old I was because they honestly didn't believe I was old enough to be their nurse. I constantly had to reassure them that yes, I was! So now that I am a member of the over 40 crowd, I don't have to reassure my patients families (since most of my patients are sweet little babies) that I am old enough. I am old. I look old. I have laugh lines! for pete's sake. I have 4 kids. If that doesn't qualify me of having experience, I don't know what does. SO...yesterday I floated to the maternity ward and was taking care of this sweet young girl of 22 who was 19 weeks pregnant with a kidney infection. She had a ton of visitors. One couple who visited, was this young Croatian and his cute little girlfriend sitting at the bottom of the bed visiting. I came in, hung my IV bag and left the room only to remember that I left some extra tubing on the pole that I wanted to throw away. I turned and reopened the door just in time to hear this young man ask my patient if she had any "young nurses"? I love to have fun, so I flung my mouth open at his response and said "I heard what you said". He immediately said he didn't mean it that way. Yeah...Right! Poor guy. His face was red and boy was he back peddling. Thanks alot! I guess I won't ever have to show my ID of experience anymore. Have you noticed that when you are young you just want to be older? But when you get older you wish you could stay young? As for being over 40...I think I like it. I like the idea of growing old gracefully. I may look older on the outside but I feel pretty young on the inside. I guess that is all that counts.

Visit with Santa

Nothing like a visit with Santa. Santa this year was a nice man. Asking the usual question..."so what do you want for Christmas". I am so glad that Victoria didn't pipe up with what she wants this year. I would hate to explain it to Santa. Then again he's Santa. He knows what every little boy and girl wants. So...do you want to know what she wants? She wants this little doggy from the Littlest Petshop... that comes with a little newspaper and are you ready? Poop. Yes, she wants doggy poo.