Holi-daze

We are 7 days into December. A mere 17 days until Christmas people. How did that happen?

So the trees, yes treeS, are up. The front porch is wrapped in garland and accented with poinsettias. The snowmen are out. The advents are in full swing.

And honestly I still feel so unprepared this year. There are ZERO gifts wrapped under the tree, various gifts in various stacks around the house, some still in the process of being made. Gifts that need to be shipped are going to be cutting it VERY close this year, ones that need to be ordered even closer! No cookies have been baked. No Christmas clothes have been worn. I really need to get on it. Oh and did I mention that the kids shower is leaking...right through the wall into Tori's closet. Cue plumber!

But in an effort to make myself feel better I am going to ignore all that and make a list of reasons to smile today. My favorite elf says the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear...but I don't sing. I list.
1. Duh - its Christmas. December. Magical.

2. Giving Tree - lots of stress this week but 117 kids wishes fulfilled, totally worth it

3. Coffee with Cinnamon Maple creamer. Amazing.

4. My beautiful new coat, ready to go. NYC Baby. 9 days!!!

5. My awesome kids doing random acts of kindness all month long. And ENJOYING it. More on this later.

6. The silent night (ok so its morning) I am experiencing right now, just me and the puppy sitting in a quiet house twinkling with Christmas lights.

7. Third Day Christmas CD - my favorite!! Though Michale Buble, you now come a close second.

8. Fun stuff coming up quick on the calendar - seeing A Christmas Story live with Taylor, J & T's Christmas party, Tori competing in the Mighty Mu math competition this weekend, NYC, and only working 4 days of the kids 17 day stretch of no school. That's 10 days of cookie baking,Christmas crafting, ice skating, bike riding, gift wrapping, movie watching fun.

Sunday Snapshots...

So that blog I love, the Kelle Hampton one, does this thing called Friday Phone Dump, and its ingenious because I don't always have my camera, but I always have my phone. And random pictures are a great way to represent one's time. And random pictures, even on a phone, is a great way to grow as a photographer. Angles, lighting, subject matter, etc...all good. That being said...Sundays are my lazier slow mornings. I get up crazy early because my body has no concept of sleeping in and we don't go to church until 9 so Sunday Snapshots it is...9 photos accompanied by 9 two word captions.

Family * Kayaking * Running Again * Los Mariachis * Rainy Day * Giving Tree * Sewing Again * Red Cups * Front Porch * Furry Baby *

You've been RACK'd!

We used to have this Advent Santa thing. He was made of some kind of felted material that looked worse each year we took him out of the box and had a string hanging from his beard with a mitten which never quite made sense. You tucked the mitten in the appropriate day of the month to countdown and that was it. But he was not exciting, or cute, and so he often went forgotten making him highly ineffective. Last year we had an awesome candle from England - the kids loved lighting it and it was a total success...but the problem with candles when you burn them is that they melt. So it was a one time kind of thing.

So the advent has begun, the craziness of Christmas has begun. And the cookie baking, carol singing, classic movie watching, Christmas tree decorating, Jesus birth celebrating part of me is LOVING it. But the mom who doesn't always get it right, who wants to give her kids everything they want but still not spoil them or make them materialistic...she's in over her head.

So this year advent in our house is an attempt to teach, or maybe reinforce things we've always taught, what Christmas spirit looks like, that God gave a gift of love and kindness and that we are to celebrate Him and His son by doing the same.

Enter 25 days of Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (Thank you Pinterest!)! Whether you celebrate Christmas because you are an American or because you are a Christian celebrating the birth of our Savior I encourage you to join in. Trying to think of 25 things we could do as a family and not spend hundreds of dollars stretched me in amazing ways. Sometimes its the little things that go a long way. So even if you are not counting down this season - join us in our random acts of kindness!

Um...ding dong ditched sounds terrible but its actually cute. A box of Hostess ding dongs delivered to a neighbor, we have neighbors with kids that will love it!!

Thanksgiving 2011

While the irony that I love pictures and am not photogenic in the least is not amongst the things I am thankful for this year, I am greatly blessed. I saw a fantastic quote somewhere, author unknown, that reminds me how very very blessed I am.

"Some people are so poor, they only have money."

Challenge Nation Tampa

Things I learned this weekend:

1 - I have really fun friends. And they are awesome in that they encourage me to think outside the box. From a mental and spiritual stand point I have always known this, they challenge me in new ways on a regular basis. But this weekend the challenge was physical.

2 - Scavenger hunts are like adventures for yuppies. Fun, creative, learning new information and a sense of accomplishment without the risk and expense that real adventure seekers have. Like a mini-vacation from responsibilities.

3 - I am out of shape. And I don't want to be. So for the 124,464,887,934th time I am going to attempt to start running. (I do have two sweet labs visiting who are making me get off my tush so that seems like a good segue into the great return to exercise.)

4 - Random Tampa facts.

Tampa is Native American for sticks of fire. There are not one, but two statues in Tampa that could pass as sculptoral representations of this. And we can make a human pyramid.

Tebow is now a FL legend. And if you ask a random stranger on the street who happens to be wearing an out-of-state sports team to post in a football pose and you follow that with "Let's Tebow" they will automatically lunge for this prayerful position.

Rosalind was the lead female role in As You Like It. Her statue forms the center of a bench at the Plant Museum located at the University of Tampa. And posing like her is ridiculous. But fun.

12 clues, 11 locations, all over the streets of Tampa and we proved that not only could we complete it...we didn't do half bad. 9th out of 52! Next stop for the "Pink Ninjas" Great Urban Race...3.24.2012.

Postview?!

I love when you go to watch your favorite show and you're pretty positive you missed an episode but it doesn't matter because they give you that awesome flash of "here's what you missed" so you know exactly what is going on. Well consider this the "here's what you missed"...because I have been TERRIBLE at blogging this month.

- Because of Tori's spooktacular tournament Halloween weekend we had to squeeze in our usual traditions. But we got it done. Tori and Tristan carved their own pumpkins this year (werewolf by Tori, vampire by Tristan) and not to be out done Todd worked with his tiny pumpkin to make a silly toothed pumpkin. I snapped pictures, tortured kids with pumpkin goo and was excited about my spray painted pinterest inspired candlebra.

- We sent October packing with some Halloween fun. Both kids were mesmerized with the idea of having fangs and so we left the Halloween store with no costumes but two packages of fangs. After much discussion they decided to go trick or treating as what we call "Disney style" teen vamps. You know spiked hair, overdone makeup, knee socks with mini skirt for Tori and Rock On t-shirt for Tristan.

- November has meant lots of work for both Todd and I, tons of exams and projects for Tori, and the end of baseball season for Tristan.

-Todd took a quick trip to Colorado for his birthday to hang out with his brother Trent and to see his mom and the area he grew up in. After seeing his pics I was reminded why I hold the camera on family vacations. Lots of pics of random things...a computer they eventually used for shooting practice, airport terminals, his brothers house in detail, etc. No mountains or even a picture of he and his brother. So here are the two good ones - him with his mamacita and on a mountain where they went shooting.

- Meanwhile Tori headed off to the Florida Church of God State Youth Convention with 100+ other middle & high school students from our church. They listened to speakers, went to classes, completed scavenger hunts, ate junk food and rocked out to Sidewalk Prophets live.

-Back at home Tristan and I had a crazy weekend. Tristan's baseball tournament FINALLY finished, he spent the night at his grandparents while I headed to Peter Pan at the Straz center, and then we checked out LegoLand Florida. Honestly you can get more bang for your buck at a million other places in Florida - but we can now say been there, done that. And Tristan had a friend with him so that made the whole experience better for him!

Still alive!

We are still alive but SO busy. And I swear I have taken pics of life in general. So I will be back...tomorrow night with some updates and some photos! In the meantime Happy Friday!!!