Home Sweet Home

During a blizzard in the Prarrie

Ginger bread house: Dec 2008
Christmas time is here! Dec 2008

Yeah.. it does have a Calvin and hobbes look to it, doesn't it?

Derek and I made one before this one with

a choke chain and cow bone in it's mouth.

I thought it was funny. Mom found it disturbing ;)

Christmas Decor

My East facing window

Nestled in the freshly cut tree hides a

fragile cream colored Christmas bulb

I think December 2008:

Picking the tree is very tiring. Cutting the tree down is SO much easier

Our "back yard" Dec 2007

Glistening in the afternoon sun is a

ice-laced ash tree

The "front yard" Dec 2007

Ethan and Hannah Dec 2007

My home means a lot to me!

I could be quite happy staying home all day, so long as we have the animals, friends and family. the more family with me the better. Cooking is a blast – I loved our kitchen despite it’s irritating qualities. My bed room was probably the best place to be, especially when the dog was able to hang out up there with me, and the Christmas light were all up, glowing happily despite the setting sun. A back drop of blushing pink, tangerine neon and captivatingly vivacious blue hung behind the two six pane East and North facing windows in my room.

My favorite spot to sit and wrap Christmas presents, starting about this time of year, with Stacie Orrico and Nicole C. Mullin belting out Christmas lyrics in the background, was in the corner of the room, between the East and North facing windows. Snuggled under my periwinkle blue plaid feather down blanket, with a cup of home made hot cocoa, harmonizing along, wrapping gifts in boxes, then duct tape, then paper, then another box, more duct tape, and finally topping off with wrapping paper and an elegant bow, I would sit in that North-East corner, glancing out the window to watch the sun set, listen to the wild out door noises (such as the occasional mountain lion scream – not a comforting sound), the cats bawling, my family laughing down stairs, the dogs talking and snow floating down, grazing window panes, resting on tree branches, dead leaves and golden brown grass.

This is what I wanted to do this year, again, after enjoying Thanksgiving, and picking out the biggest, most lush, and fullest Christmas Tree from Tananbaums Tree Farm, the weekend following Thanks Giving - an art form in our Home: The Thanks Giving dinner and season as a whole. We probably would have started decorating the house for Thanks Giving by now.

Honestly, what I’ll miss the most, is not having Christmas at home this year. The wood floors, smell of pine tree overwhelming the house, Christian artists humming Christmas carols on CDs, and the incredibly light décor about the entire house (including some bed rooms and sparkling beneath the snow, hanging from the house). Colored lights sparkling from beneath red gauze boes, peeking out between sparkling snow, and soft green pine needles on little pine trees outside.

Thankful for Hands

As we approach thanksgiving in our home we also begin preparations for Christmas - cleaning and gifts for others, ideas for food and decorating.

One of the things I am enjoying the most - as we prepare for Christmas - has been fixing a doll I bought over the Summer while I was traveling around the country. The doll was hand made out of spools with a large wooden bead for the head.

The dress that the doll came in was a simple green cloth that once served as a sleave to a shirt, I think, and now serves very well as a bussel under the red dress (which, as you can see I didn't iron before applying to the doll). Although my skills don't exeed anything beyond amature, I do envision this doll to look something along the lines of an elegant lady from the royal French courts before the French Revolution.

I'm not sure what to think about the Cruella Devil black-on-white-conflicted doo, but I suppose it will have to do for now. Perhaps it can be exchanged for jet black curles underneath an elegant hat.

Hands are a wonderful thing. They give and create. If that isn't what this whole Season is about, I don't know what is.