Christmas in a Hotel

can be fun. So far this week, we have made decorations and "gingerbread" houses. I even brought the kids' stockings to decorate our room. Christmas gifts can be opened just as easily sitting on a hotel room floor as around our tree at home. Is it the same? No, of course not, but we have made it the best it can be.

I haven't actually taken any photos of the kids' creations yet, but I will.

And, whose Christmas Eve would be complete without hanging out with friends like this one? ...


We spent Christmas Eve at Sea World. The majority of our time was with the dolphins as they were a lot of fun and very friendly.

You Tube

I have likely watched a total of fifteen things on You Tube which tells you that I am NOT really into the whole thing. I have seen "Jessica's Affirmations" and something about a horn a couple of years ago but I don't really remember what that was all about. I just watched a disturbing thing about the "Bedtime Intruder" that my 8 yr old saw at a friend's house today. Yikes! He may not being playing there anymore.

Anyway, the other twelve things I have watched are videos that my trainer does. She has a whole series about making healthy eating choices and exercises to prevent/get rid of certain problem areas like saddle bags and muffin tops. Anyway, she would really like to see her stuff get out there a bit more, so I am going to promote it here.

Here are some of the search items you can use to find her --

The FIRM-inator
Step4ward Fitness
Shelley Gray

Or you can just click this link to get you started . . .

The Firminator on You Tube

Names

My 8 year old played on a fall baseball team. Most of the boys were people I did not know before the season started. By the end of the 10 game season, I felt like I didn't really know them much better. Part of it was due to having quite a few substitute players as a few of our team also played football or had other commitments and missed some or all of fall ball.

HOWEVER . . . In an email that wrapped up the season, the names of the official team were all listed and it helped me feel a bit better. See if you think you might get confused too while trying to keep at least some of these guys straight . . .

J.T.
T.J.
Brennan
Braeden
Holton
Kolton
Luke
Chandler
Robbie
Titan

VOTE NOW

From another friend, just sharing . . .

Friends, we need your help.

We recently informed you that Blood:Water Mission is being represented in the P&G Clean Water Blogivation campaign. The blog with the most votes will receive a $15,000 donation towards tackling water issues. Pamela Crane, our Africa Field Manager, wrote a blog for Blood:Water, and it is currently in 2nd place -- we need your help pushing us into 1st!

We're only 800 votes behind! But NEED your vote to pull this off. There are only 2 DAYS LEFT! A few seconds of your time can make a huge difference. Here's what you have to do...

Visit Pam's blog, read her story and vote: http://pamthenomad.com/archives/1458

**IMPORTANT** Voting takes just a few seconds, but it is a 2 STEP PROCESS:
1. Visit Pam's blog & Enter your email address and click on the ‘vote for this blogger’ button.
2. Confirm your vote through the link in the email you receive.
You MUST confirm your vote in the email or it will NOT count.

You can VOTE DAILY, and we'll need your votes everyday until midnight Aug. 27 to surpass the leading contender. Please share the link with your friends and encourage them to vote daily as well.
Tweet about it. Facebook it. Be shameless because something as simple as a few clicks could make a tremendous impact on the lives of a community in Africa.

*** NOTE: If the blog is slow or stopped loading because of the response. Please check again later in the day.

Thanks for your time. Together we can do this.

Hannah's Socks- service project

I am generally on the look out for good service projects. I particularly like ones that include action because most of the projects I look for or create are for use with kids. When the "project" just calls for a money donation, I don't feel like most kids get much out of it because most kids don't use their own money for things like. Generally it seems that parents hand out the cash or write a check that the kid carries to school or church. As is likely true for most busy families, they probably don't even talk about it much.

If the story is good enough that I can make an impact on the kids from my presentation end, I will do money or item collections. A while back I came across one that had a good enough story -it all started with one little girl- that I did use it anyway and asked for the kids to send in socks.

So, if you are looking for a service project for your family, school, church, or community group -or just want to read a heart warming story- check out Hannah's story by clicking the following link.

HANNAH'S STORY

NSTR

In case you don't know, NSTR means Nothing Special To Report. Of course, I made this up, but it definitely seems more fun to have some kind of cool code as my title instead of just putting it right out there that I have nothing juicy to share. If I used "Nothing Special To Report" as my title, people probably wouldn't keep reading.

I bet my code pulled you in though . . . didn't it? Come on, it is okay to admit it . . . it worked!

Our overnight guest is still here, expected to leave in the morning. She has done fantastically well other than a couple of times being scared by her friend's (my daughter) at home outbursts. These outbursts don't usually happen in public and NEVER at school I am told, so this is the first time our sweet friend who is a former classmate has had to witness them. They are disconcerting so I don't blame her for being uncomfortable.

Our neighbor friend has been here for a couple of hours as well. The kids all just got done eating dinner and have some various games going on at the same time- some sort of hide-and-seek/attack game. I think the girls recently pulled out of this one and are now doing tunnels and tents again perhaps. Who knows for sure? No one is crying and I hear lots of laughing, so I am assuming all is well.

Earlier in the day we went to open gym, picked up lunch at Chick-Fil-A where I got lunch for all six of us for only $2.99 (yea for coupons!!!), worked at church for a bit, came home for some quiet time, swam, and played Wii before dinner.

We had breakfast for dinner since it is Friday-- a tradition we started about a year and a half ago. Tonight's dinner was a bit different from our usual fare as I served bacon (nice and healthy, I know!), potato thingies, and fruit pizza. If someone could please tell me what the potato thingies are called I would be grateful because the kids and I are tired of me calling them potato thingies. In case anyone is reading this and wants to help, they are like tator tots but in flat rectangular form. Much like a potato wedge, but it is not a wedge shape. I want to call them hashbrowns, but for some reason my mind thinks that hashbrowns are not nice and neat in shapes rather more like shredded potatoes. I don't know! and in the great scheme of things, I realize that it doesn't matter so I am okay with that.

Back to our dinner being different tonight, our friend cannot eat plain eggs (in baked goods she is ok) so that took out some of our usual items like scrambled eggs or omelets. I didn't think french toast would work either, and we already had pancakes just a couple of days ago. So bacon, potato thingies, and fruit pizza we settled for.

As for the fruit pizza, it seems like something that was often served 10-15 years ago, but I don't see it much anymore. I have made it a couple of times in the last six months and people always seem so excited to eat it. In case you haven't made this before or just plain forget how, I will post the recipe here -->

FRUIT PIZZA
1 tube sugar cookie dough (or 2 c sugar cookie dough from favorite recipe)
1- 8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1 T milk
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
misc fruit, sliced

Spread the cookie dough on cookie sheet or pizza pan. Bake for 12 min at 350 degrees. Let cool. Mix cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar until smooth; spread over chilled dough. Cut cookie into desired pieces. Add sliced fruits on top. Chill until serving. (Some suggested fresh fruits- banana, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple. By cutting the cookie crust before adding the fruit, it makes for a nicer presentation as the fruit doesn't get all sliced up and/or drug all over the top.)


Well, I will wrap up my NSTR post with that sweet treat. Happy Friday, Everyone!

Life Goes On

... and not in a bad way, but sometimes it gets away from me. Obviously much time has passed since I have been here. I see new followers I don't know and some strange comments on my last post that don't seem to have anything to do with my post. Oh well . . . I guess that is what happens with a public blog, eh?

All is well in our world, but so much has happened, I don't even know where to start. Maybe I will just start with today.

We have a friend staying with us a couple of days while her parents are out of town to be with a sick relative. Adding an extra one to the four permanent ones doesn't make things harder but it is sometimes interesting fitting someone "new" into our schedule, even the relaxed schedule of summer. A neighborhood friend also joined us for much of the late afternoon and evening hours; he is here enough that he just goes with the flow.

Today was mainly spent sleeping in (we had LOTS of company last night), playing Wii, swimming, building tents and forts, eating, and enjoying a movie night.

It was the first official day of football for the season, so the man of the house stayed busy with that today. He did make it home surprisingly early (just after 8PM) but crashed in bed not much later as he has an EARLY morning tomorrow.

As I am getting tired myself, I will sign off for tonight, but I will try (really try) to come back more often.