Table for Eight

Can't believe the snow the East Coast is getting. Now, that's a blizzard!

ZuZu just parked a chair in front of the microwave and set the timer. When I asked her what she was doing,  she said "setting the timer for 180 minutes. Then it's bedtime and Santa comes." ( Duh, mom. ) I don't know about you, but Santa never came to my house at 6pm on Christmas Eve. He was always making appearances at parties, eating tamales and waiting for the elves to hitch up the sleigh to the reindeer. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. (Happy Christmas Eve everyone!)

New York Rockefeller Tree. (Next year I'm totally adding crytal angels with trumpets to my tree display.) Merry almost-Christmas!

Jr. earned his Arrow of Light award at Cub Scout Pack Meeting last night. Go Jr. it's your birthday. . . It snowing a lot! (Which we love. We heard Mammoth got like 10+ feet and Jay said, "Then, why don't we live there?" We love the snow!) We should have named Harriet "Snowball."   LuLu and ZuZu are in the snow non-stop.  Lu time two. Zu times two. Gpa Austin gave our family 200lbs of chocolate. I've personally eaten 2lbs already. Pack Meeting. Photogenic Cub Scout. (Yes, I'm biased.) Great Cub Master--and dad--he's been working in this position for over 3 years, I think. That's dedication. Award time. The moms get a pin when their Cub gets an award. (Oh, I'm orange.) Jr got this NICE plaque for earning his Arrow of Light. There was a little ceremony to the award, "crossing over" to Boy Scouts. Our street on December 21, 2010.  Cam and Harriet-the-dog. ...

Has anyone seen Malibu Barbie? She promised to stop by and visit once we got our tans. Well, it was worth every penny. And I really mean that. I think Jonah and I just gave each other the gift of laughter for Christmas 2010. The spray-on tan is hilarious. Don't you agree?

Three things on my mind today: 1. Cookies. 2. Adjective-Based Goals. 3. Spray-On Tans. First, cookies. I love baking. But I remembered this weekend why I don't bake cookies all that often: I can't stop eating them! Seriously. When I bake a loaf of bread, I never think about eating the whole dang thing. It's too filling. But when I bake 164 cookies, there's a chance--a real chance--I'm going to eat 16 of those gingerbread boys before I realize, "hay, I may be overdoing it." (And when I say 16, I really mean 22.) Oh well. Oh--and this was the first year I bought the icing at Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating section. It probably doesn't taste as great as homemade, BUT it sure is PURTY! We bought frosting with glitter, edible metallic stars, and easy-to-pipe shiny red and green frosting. And it was all 50% off-- love that ! Second, adjective based goals.  I'm still working on my 2011 New Year's Resolutions/goals , and...

This morning I'm thinking about how important it is to be grateful. And I'm wondering just how grateful my heart is--how much I show my appreciation in life, for life. Why the deep thoughts today? (It's always something . . . LOL!) Well, because yesterday I administered a final at the university where I teach. And it began at 7am--an ungodly hour (which is funny because it's a religious institution). I didn't choose the time, and either did my students; the university creates the finals matrix for all courses in order to make the best use of buildings and avoid scheduling conflicts, etc. But my point! Because the final was so early, I was thinking my students might not have breakfast before class. So, I stopped and bought Krispie Kreme Donuts for them. Once I arrived at the final, my thoughts were confirmed: most students had not had breakfast and the donuts were quickly devoured. And here's were my deep thought for the day comes from. NO ONE...

Dave had a great bday--although it was a busy work day for us both! (Finals for me and the Toys for Tots Drive for his work. PS: His company is amazing. They took everyone out to lunch yesterday, then gave them each $50.00 to purchase 3 toys to donate to Toys for Tots. And tonight, for the Work Christmas Party, they have Neon Trees playing. It makes me feel like there are so many good people in the world. Cheese.) Early morning December 16--Dave's bday. Even earlier--when we got up on Dave's bday. (My final began at 7am.) His bday present: new "running" shoes. Funky, no? Birthday morning.

We're so happy to celebrate YOU today! XO xoxoxoxoxoxo 

2010 was the first year--EVER--where I wrote New Year's Resolutions and actually worked on them all year long. And you know what? I think this year I grew more than I had in other years. (You can laugh now. I'm not exactly unbiased in my self-assessment. LOL!) Maybe what I mean to say is: having resolutions written down helped me to CHART/SEE the growth this year. And I have loved that! (Kind of like when you are a kid and you chart your height on a wall. It's so exciting to see where you are--and where you were.) So, where I used to see resolutions as kind of "wishful thinking" or "pie-in-the-sky" ideas, I now see them as really really helpful. And with that in mind, I'm beginning to think about my 2011 New Year's Resolutions. Here are the ideas I'm thinking about--"borrowed" from MSN or Yahoo. I can't remember which. I like these resolutions or concepts as starting-points. They seem like ideas that would help an...

It's bday week here on Hysteria Lane! (ZuZu's yesterday; Dave's on Thursday.) And ZuZu had an AWESOME 8th birthday! She got a ZhuZhu Pet. (That's funny now that I think of it: a ZhuZhu for ZuZu.) Chocolate-Chocolate Cake. (Homemade by Jr. and Cam.) For the Digital Time Capsule: It was a great bday. We love turning eight! ZuZU opened gifts (picked out by Papaya), had a pancake breakfast, went to school, played the Wii, got checked out for lunch with LuLu (to go to Quiznos), came home to a homework-free afternoon (our decision, not her teacher's--LOL!), had our 2010 bday dinner tradition of  hamburgers (grilled by Jay), chips, and soda . . . and then blew out the candles on her chocolate/chocolate birthday cake! (PS: And I think my favorite part of the day--LuLu seemed AS excited as ZuZu to celebrate the day. How nice is that? A sister that loves your bday as much as you do. I love that.)

We hope you have a beautiful day--because we heart you so dang much! AND, Gma Mary, Happy Birthday to you, too! We love you!

Life gives us more than enough reasons to frown (poverty, war, disease, the economy, global warming, conservative talk radio, etc.) . . . but here's my deep thought for the day: laughter releases us from the prison of sorrow, negativity, and frowny faces. If only for a few seconds, when we laugh, we feel relief. We feel joy. I love that. And I love the people in my life who help me LAUGH (and smile) every day. They remind me that even though life does give us real reason to frown, life also gives us greater reason to SMILE . Have a beautiful weekend! (And PS: Now, you can laugh because I think I'm a motivational speaker. LOL!) *********** And now, my random photos from the week: Cam's checked out 2, 345 books from the library this week. (I like the Little People Missionaries set up on the counter watching her. Who did that? That's funny.) ZuZu and LuLu painting with ZuZu's new art set from Gma Mary. Thank you Gma! They love it! (That's Jun...