I found this in an article I was reading on another blog. It was part of an article written by Diane LeBlue.
There is an Arabian proverb that states: a friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
Isn’t that just fantastic? We all need friends and family like that.
Auntie Claus is a cute book about Santa’s family and how they get one of their own to understand the spirit of giving and receiving.
We spent this Christmas Eve with my family on my dad’s side and then went to Sean’s mom and dad’s house to celebrate with that side of the family. A few pics…
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| From December 2008 |
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| From December 2008 |
Colm and his cousin Luke
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| From December 2008 |
Pretend like you’re fighting aliens
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| From December 2008 |
Fight aliens with Liam’s new Ben Ten Alien Force boardgame that he bought at Walgreen’s with his allowance that has been played umpteen times in the past four days.
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| From December 2008 |
Have your dad give you rides around the house
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| From December 2008 |
Make snowflakes to celebrate the first day of winter
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| From December 2008 |
Our church hosted a Posada this evening. We did the traditional Posada walk and (tried) to sing the song that went with it even though it was in Spanish. There was TONS of food…everything from various types of tamales to chocolate chip cookies. The kids played games, made crafts and got their turn at whacking a pinata.
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| From December 2008 |
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| From December 2008 |
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| From December 2008 |
(You won’t find Colm in any of these pics…he was at home sick and WAS NOT HAPPY that he was missing the Posada and the pinata. Sean got to stay at home with him.)
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| From December 2008 |
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| From December 2008 |
Our neighborhood is having a Children’s Holiday Walk tomorrow. The kids gather together and then walk through the neighborhood singing Christmas carols and enjoying all the Christmas decorations. There are three stations set up throughout the neighborhood where the kids can “refuel” with cookies and hot chocolate. We made some Pumpkin Spice cookies today to give to our neighbor whose house is one of the pit stops.
Sean could always get a job repairing Ataris. (Yes, we have an Atari. We probably have more than one; I bet I could find another one if I dug through those tubs in the basement.) I hear there is a high demand nowadays for Atari repairmen. 🙂
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| From December 2008 |
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| From December 2008 |
Battle of the Books is a competition they have at the boys’ school for the intermediate level kids. The kids have most of the school year to read a list of books (there’s about 20 on the list), the kids are put in teams and then they have sort of a Quiz Bowl-type of competition over the content of all the books. The librarian has read most of the books, but she asked another mom and I to help her finish up because she was worried she was going to run out of time. (I think the “battles” are in February.) So, I have been assigned Finest Kind. My job is to read the book and to make up about 25-30 questions about the book for the kids to answer during the battle. I am not too worried about it except that the questions have to follow a certain format. I am sure I will get the hang of it once I get on a roll. Maybe she’ll even let me do another one if I don’t mess this one up too badly. 🙂
