Christmas with Oscar and Emma

Our very active grands received tunnels and tents from us this Christmas. Oscar seems to get the hang of it right away. He always had the biggest grin whenever he surfaced from one end of the tunnel. Of course, he was rewarded for his actions by a very animated Poppa. It was hard to imagine who had more fun.... Oz or Poppa.


We got to watch Emma open her tent and connecting tunnel via Skype a few days after Christmas. She really enjoyed the opening gifts part of Christmas and according to her Momma thought getting a gift from Diva and Poppa every day (on her Advent Calendar) was something she really enjoyed. She really liked the Hello Kitty Bling!

Poppa and Diva definitely had some quality time with Oz. This was such a sweet time watching Mr. Wonderful and Oscar playing dinosaur. They were both growling and looking fierce . They were putting together a dinosaur puzzle. (Rather Poppa was and Oz was taking the pieces out as quickly as Poppa put them in.)

Little ones certainly make for a fun Christmas. I've put away the Christmas ornaments till next year. Hope you had a wonderful time with friends and family.

Christmas Wrap up

Mr. Wonderful and I spent Christmas with my mom in Virginia Beach. We got to spend 5 days with her and discovered several things that needed to be repaired, replaced or fixed while we were there.

It really was a "Divine Appointment" as many of the things we discovered by accident. I was making Christmas cookies for Boy Wonder and Suzy in my mom's kitchen and realized how dark her kitchen is. I was having difficulty reading the recipe so I knew Mom would have an even harder time. Solution: Mr. Wonderful put under the cabinet lighting so she can see better. He had it installed by the time she came back from her hair appointment. Mom does not like change but did have to admit it was easier to see and cook.

Christmas day I became a bag lady. My mom does all her own yard work and gardening. Several weeks ago, the Nor'easter hit Virginia Beach with 60-mile-and-hour winds. Needless to say, quite a few leaves decided to fall during that time and Mom felt it was her personal obligation to the neighborhood to rake up and bag them. Fortunately, she got sick after a few hours in the yard and after coughing for a day or two and finally getting over it.... decided to leave the leaves exactly where they wanted to fall. She told us "The leaves don't bother me" which both of us knew was a big fat fib.

   Christmas day, after the presents were unwrapped and everything was cleaned up. Mr. Wonderful and I went out and bagged and raked leaves in her front yard as well as her back yard. Naturally, Mom complained the entire time but was thrilled to have the task completed. We managed to rake up 14 bags of leaves and inspired her neighbor to rake her front yard. By the time we finished, Mom had made an incredible Christmas dinner with all my favorites, so we felt like it was a good trade-off.

While working in my mom's yard we discovered that she needed some drainage gravel on the side of the yard where the drainage comes off the house. I had talked to her about the rather large trench it was making between the driveway and the yard before and she was not in favor of doing anything. Mr. Wonderful decided we really needed to do something about it before it became a liability by having someone fall and break an ankle or also having the driveway collapse because of the ground being washed away. So we decided that forgiveness was easier to obtain than permission and we filled in the trench with drainage gravel.  my mom was not happy with my decision. (This is the reason I also bought her roses for her table to soften the blow a bit.)

By the time we left, we had taken her to pick out carpeting to be installed in two weeks when we all gathered for her birthday. I had replaced her hot mitts (because I got burned taking out items from the oven) and Mr. Wonderful had repaired her printer so she could print out pictures we sent her. So for one brief moment in time, I was the golden child. It's always good to end the year on a high note with your mother. We (the three daughters) plan on making the pilgrimage home for Mom's birthday in two weeks.

Christmas Lint from my brain.....

Today is one of those catch-up days and cross things off the to-do list.

Mr. Wonderful and I leave tomorrow to spend Christmas with my mom. She is getting excited about our coming and has already informed me of the Christmas dinner she is planning. We keep telling her not to cook so much and she keeps ignoring it, so the Christmas tradition continues.

We plan on being in New York to spend time with Tim, Suzy, Oscar, and Andy. Since Oscar doesn't know one day from another.... any time we get there will be Christmas. I'm wrapping the gifts now and putting them in a separate bag. I'm sure if he is like most boys, he will enjoy the box more than the gift!

Check out this picture of Oscar! Doesn't he look like he will be in fine form to rip into Christmas gifts? I love the little devilish grin! Suzy says he runs everywhere and is quite the climber. Looks like this Diva and Poppa will get a workout trying to keep up with him. I'm sure we can convince Mom and Dad to take a much-needed break and spend some time together and let us enjoy some Oz time.

Check out this adorable picture of the divine Miss Em and her braids. It's probably a good thing we don't live closer cause all it would take is this look and a "Pl-ease Dita" and you know I'd be buying her a pony or a convertible. We talked with her last night on Skype, and she is enjoying her Advent calendar and according to Becky likes to wear the bow all day. I'd love to have her as my present this Christmas.

We will definitely be missing our Canadians this Christmas. Jerry is working most of the holidays and the cost of traveling makes it hard on all of us. We will be doing some video conferencing so that will help us see Emma's reactions to her gifts. Can you believe our girl will be 3 in January?




Uncle Andy will miss bringing his favorite niece a beautiful flower for a beautiful girl. Speaking of Boy Wonder.....congrats on the two B's and one C he got as final grades in Accounting and Statics (both very hard courses that he will never have to take again! Yippee!)

Look how much Emma has changed!


We will be on the road tomorrow so would appreciate your prayers. We are taking the laptop so might have to sneak out to post.

Merry Christmas!

Coming up for air....

She's back! Yep, I'm coming up for air from my Christmas seclusion. All the Christmas letters are out,( I've written so many Christmas letters for staff at the mission that I'm not sure who I'm talking for at any given time.)

My gifts are all mailed out (about 30 including friends and family.) My advent calendars arrived late but many of my friends use them for decorations until after Christmas anyway. My Tea Cups filled with various teas and pithy sentiments from me ended up being "Emergency Stress Relievers "instead of Advent Calendars.





My Christmas decorations are up.....our tree gets smaller every year with just the two of us. Pictures of our grands dominate the tree including a small hand print of baby Oz that his mommy made us last Christmas.

Our Canadians got their Advent Ribbon just to find out that some of the gifts had been opened .....(hopefully yogurt covered raisins and Hello Kitty socks aren't illegal in Canada.) They didn't open all of them so my labors weren't entirely wasted! You can bigify the picture to see the details of each little package on the ribbon.


Would you believe I was in such a hurry to get my gifts mailed that I forgot to take a picture of my tea cups? I stole this picture from Melli...(guess it was a good idea that I sent her one.) I love nothing better than sitting down with a good friend and catching up on our lives over a hot cup of tea or a steaming cup of coffee ( with peppermint mocha creamer!) I figured this way they would know how much I really miss each and every one of them.


My Christmas shopping is done. Now comes the part I love best. Just sitting here in my little nest, enjoying the Christmas music, great smells from cookies baking in the oven, curled up with a good book in my favorite chair with a great cup of tea watching the predicted foot of snow coming down with no place I have to be.

I love Christmas for all the right reasons!

Santa's Elf reporting for duty....

I'm about to go into Christmas seclusion. I've been knocking out newsletters lately for us, my mom and the Mission and now I need to concentrate on working on my Advent calendars for my friends and family.

It's a labor of love and I think I'm just about ready to go into warp drive and jump into them ( especially the ones I need to mail off .) I'm getting to make one for Emma this year (her first) so I'm especially excited about that one. I wrap up raisins, Hello Kitty socks, and treasures that every 3 year old girl will find irresistible.

Emma just had her first Christmas recital. She loves to sing and dance and goes to music class. They play instruments and sing. She loves to play the guitar with her daddy and I'm told she can strum with the best of them. (Not that I would be at all biased!) Her momma took some video that I'm interested in seeing of the recital.



In the interest of full disclosure I should add this new picture of Oz. Apparently he can shake a mean maraca. Can you believe how big he is getting? We are excited about spending some time with him in the next few weeks.

I'll be posting pictures of some of my Advent calendars as soon as I actually sit down and make them. I love this time of year!

Emma's Christmas Picture

What's cuter than a little girl giggling? This picture makes me smile every time.