12 days of Christmas??

Did you know there are 12 days of Christmas?? It's pretty amazing to think that we are still celebrating Jesus' birthday for another 7 days!! So on this 5th day of Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and wishes for the upcoming New Year!! I hope your new year is filled with as many blessings as we have been given!!

snow days and squirrels and extraterresterials

Can you believe that the school district I work for actually closed school twice in 2008 already!! WOW!! The girls couldn't go out the first day as it was completely icy and really cold out so we watched the squirrel eat the remainder of the halloween pumpkins. Take a look. This was right on our front porch!


We watched a movie too. They picked ET, you know the kids movie with the extraterresterial from outerspace. Well I thought I would include some pictures of my extraterresterials for you to see.

some old news. . . . st. nick day

So anyone that knows us, knows that we are NOT Santa Claus' #1 fans. So we are trying really hard to keep the Christ in Christmas and so we chose to tell the girls about St. Nicholas instead of trying to explain and re-explain Santa. They have been overwhelmed by Santa in school and we wanted to keep it simple. We read them the story of St. Nicholas as a bedtime story on St. Nick's night and had the girls put their shoes out by the fireplace. See below for what St. Nick brought. ;-) (whistle, gingerbread girl cookie and lollipop)

Christmas Eve and day pictures

Aren't they cuties??

girls on christmas eve, before church and after church

christmas morning. . . . in their footie princess pajamas

Congratulations to TOMS SHOES!!

Congratulations to Toms Shoes (and the people who bought shoes). . . . 37,000 pairs of shoes purchased exceeding their 30,000 pair goal - so . . . . . this means that 37,000 children in ETHIOPIA will receive a pair shoes. Great news!! And very COOL!!

OK, some more pictures from up north

Here are some more pictures of the family up north during deer hunting and thanksgiving time. See, even Fenric wears orange!



More pictures to come of the "snow angels", the friendly squirrel on our first snow day, my three extraterrestrials, and st. nicholas' coming. . . . .

Stuff, where does it go??

Speaking (or rambling) about stuff and the over abundance of spending that happens at this time of the year, a friend sent me a link to this website: the story of stuff. It's a 20 minute video explaining our cultural consumerism and how it came to be and offers an alternative (or provides a challenge) to live a different way. If you have a few minutes take a look. It's pretty interesting. Bond and I just watched it.

Isn't it our responsibility as parents to

teach our children about the REAL reason for Christmas?? And to not just rely on the culture, public schools, society and all of the other capitalistic consumerism ventures?? (insert your own words there if you will)

I want my children to love and care for other people, not get all that they can get. I want them to be thankful for the 'stuff' they have and to be good joyful givers. My youngest daughter had a 'not so good' experience caroling with her little school friends on a fieldtrip. There happen to be a santa claus at one of the caroling stops and instead of giving a little something to all the children (hum, what a concept) he threw 'stuff' out into the crowd and my little daughter said to me, "Mommy, I just wasn't fast enough." (grabby enough, mean enough, greedy enough) What do you say to that! If I would have known that santa was going to be there, I might have decided to keep her home for the day.

Anyway, it's Jesus' birthday and my girls know that from their Ethiopian traditions. We are thankful for that, but there is the concern of the big fat man who wears the red suit. They've never heard of the gent before. We've had a few conversations about reality versus fantasy, (i.e. you know that deer, even reindeer don't fly, don't you?) So we are trying to be gentle, but yet instill the REAL reason for Christmas!! Today I asked the girls who they liked better, Jesus or Santa and I must say Jesus won hands down!! Go Jesus!!

Gotta Buy Something, BUY THIS, I did. . . . . . .

What is Christmas about?? Do you remember??

Take a look . . . . . . . .

WALL-E

AND EVE. . . . . . .

What a great movie! The girls like this movie and it's the first movie they were able to see on the big screen. We watched this movie over deer hunting/thanksgiving week. Ask my father-in-law about it and I'm sure he'll give you rave reviews!! He loves that environmental stuff ya know!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is combined with deer hunting and has been since 1993, the year before I married Bond. This was also my first year deer hunting. . . . Exciting hey?? Anyway, we had our traditional turkey dinner and the girls were in awe when they saw the turkey come out of the oven. They thought we shot the turkey out in the forest too! The first thing they said was, "Did grandma shoot the turkey?" Of course my answer was, "No, she didn't, don't you remember when we went to the grocery store and bought it?" Kidist reply, "No!" So there you have it. . . The turkey was indeed purchased at the grocery store in Jackson County Wisconsin. Exciting. . . .

Turkey is good food! The girls like turkey. I was hoping to make some traditional food for them as well, but it got very busy and it didn't happen. We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving too! The girls are taking a liking to Charlie Brown and for this we are happy. I'd rather Charlie Brown than Hanna Montana, or some other nonsense caricature. So I welcome Snoopy and Woodstock anytime.

Deer Hunting

So in Wisconsin, we deer hunt!! That's a fact! Anyone reading this that doesn't know we deer hunt, does now! I have some good friends that think I'm mean and nasty for hunting and shooting Bambi's mom or dad. But they don't understand that the deer do so much damage to farmers crops and let's not talk about the over abundance of those cute little deer that travel on the same roads we do. Unfortunately, they don't obey the same traffic laws that we do!

Anyway, the DNR or Department of Natural Resources, stated that the amount of licenses filled this year was about 25% down from last year. So what does that mean?? Well, either no one was hunting or there were no deer to be seen. We think a little of both. . . Anyway, we were successful this year again. We had three hunting and we all filled a tag. 2 buck and 1 doe! Lots of good eating this year. We hunted all opening day, Saturday and most of Sunday and for a few hours on Monday. As usual, we saw less and less each day. Then we took the girls out to see the hunting land. We put them in some orange clothes and went stomping around in the woods.

Then Bond had Kidist in his stand and I had Bayat in my stand. Grandpa and grandma went to grandpa's stand to sit in the warm sun. We sat about an hour very quietly and Bayat did happen to see a deer. Very cool!! Then we went stomping some more through the woods. It was all good!! They had a great time.

First snowmen (and lady)

The girls first snowmen!! Actually, one is a girl and one is a boy! Can you tell which is which??

Long Week~

So we've been home a while from the week up north deer hunting and NO, I've not posted!! Sorry . . . . It's been quite a week getting back into routines and food schedules, sleep schedules, etc. . . . . Who would have thought a week off would create such chaos!!

So a quick update, deer hunting was a success. Bond a doe, Gale, aka grandpa, a buck (I won't list how many points) and me??? Well . . . . I don't want to brag or anything, but yes, I captured an 11 point buck on opening day!:-) Yes, I am smiling. . . . But I did require my husbands help to complete the harvest. . .(Do you hear a story coming?) Another time. The girls had a good time and we had our first Thanksgiving as a family. It was good. I'll write more when I have more than a few moments. I do have pictures too, but hello download pictures and rearrange them~ Definitely another day! Sorry. . . . . .

Perhaps this weekend! That's all folks!