Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve...Still hasn't come yet... Passing the time with his bff Baby (grampa) is responsible for this! Notice Fasika is still trying to be "ghetto" and has rubbed off on her cousin Frankie!! This is the 2nd annual "be proud of what your Baby gave you, yo!"

Another cRaZy Christmas is over..... Apparently Santa thought we were all exceptional all year long-- I'm thinking he might have been watching the wrong family!!! For the past few weeks I've been threatening the kids with "Santa's watching" and "Do you really think that behavior/language is going to land you on the nice list??" Apparently the kids know Santa is a bit of a softy and is extremely flexible when it comes to them breaking the rules.

Is it bad that I sit here tonight..... thankful that Christmas is over?? Let me break it down for you...

Top 5 reasons I'm glad Christmas is over:

1. I can't afford another trip to the mall-- Seriously I'm sure GMAC is also happy Christmas is over-- they are patiently awaiting my car payment!! I have come to conclude that I can't afford Christmas AND my bills! Thank God Christmas only comes once a year!!!

2. I'm ready to put my house back in order. Ready to take the tree down and all of the clutter that decorating brings.

3. FOOD. I'm so full that I want to start my new year's diet NOW! (haha, that urge will be gone by morning, I'm sure!!)

4. The "Santa is watching" threats just aren't working anymore. I can now "ground" them from all of their new gifts-- hahaha!!

5. No more Christmas music at Walmart-- did anyone else notice that Walmart started playing Christmas music right after Halloween this year?!?!? Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously it was sooo early.

After all of the excitement and all of the presents the kids are finally sleeping!! Right before Thomas fell asleep, he said "mommy, how many day's till Christmas??" That same question I happily answered several times a day for the past 25+ days.... I answered, "365 sweetie!! Just enough time for mommy to catch up on bills and pay off Christmas 2009!!!

A little bit of Crazyness......

I'm not sure whose idea this was, but I got stuck taking the pictures!! My 3 kiddo's plus my sisters 2, always = TROUBLE! My nieces, Chesnee and Francesca are a couple of crazy little girls! Chesnee is the cutest little DEVIL you'll ever meet!! Francesca is just a sweetie (& and little sour too!!) Anyway, when you get the whole crew together they are sure to melt your heart (OR drive you crazy.... right Meme??)

Soo, here they are

CUTE....
Like O.M.G!!!!
VAMPIRES... (yea, vampires.... idk)

Silly (normal for kids this age...)Hott (Hott?? yes I said Hottt. At this age, you might ask?? That was deff Chesnee's idea!!)
I'm not sure what happened to the "typical" photo shoot poses, such as say cheese, silly faces, mean faces. Oh how times have changed....

My excuse....

Ok, so I don't have an excuse...

So here was the conversation last night right around dinner time:

Thomas: Mommy, what's that smell??

Me: That's dinner....

Thomas: Dad's home??

Me: Nope, not yetttt...

Thomas: Well, what's that smell?

Me: Dinnerrrr

Thomas: But where's dad??

Me: On his wayyyy

Thomas: but....?

(with a confused look on his face...)

And then the sad reality hits-- When daddy usually walks in, SO does the smell of dinner-- yup, that's when you know you get take-out wayyy too much..... oh and one last hint-- when you call the local restaurant (Behind the Scenes, soooo yummy!!) and they say... "You guys want the usual??"

Sad, so sad!! So tonight (just right now), I've decided that I'm going to get better at planning dinners around here-- Not only is take-out expensive, it's just NOT healthy. And it's not like I don't go to the grocery store every week and spend way too much money, and I really do LOVE to cook, so this should be an easy task!

Ok, that's my plan-- as I sit here (waiting for Chinese to arrive! yum!) I'm already thinking about next weeks dinner menu, and it does NOT include McDonald's, China Town, Behind the Scenes, Friendly's or Applebees!! =)

Ok, got to go-- daddy's home, and SO is dinner!!

WARNING: It's Contagious and I HOPE you get it!!

Soo over the weekend I had a special request on my ETSY website for 5 of my Hands for Africa Pendants, it's by far my largest quantity of necklaces in a single order-- so I was curious and asked the buyer if she had a handful of friends/family in the adoption process, and she said....

"Actually no. My friends and I decided last year to give money to a charity instead of gifts for Christmas. I am giving a donation to Doctors Without Borders as their present this year, saw your pendent and thought it would be nice to give them so when they wore it they would think of the donation."

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

I just packaged up the necklaces, added a few of my favorite decals and sent it on it's way-- I feel so honored to be a part of this!! It gives me even more determination to fundraise and put all the money to good use. Sometimes I sit here and I think of how much needs to be done, it's so overwhelming, it almost seems like a task that is impossible achieve. Then I come across people like this, like Debbie and I realize that every little bit helps-- and if we all pitch in WE can make a difference, to a child, to a family, to an entire village. It's contagious, one person gives and touches the heart of another and it continues on and on and on.... soo, the next time I sit here and think to myself... "can I truly make an impact?" I will be at peace and know I can because I am inspired by people like Debbie and maybe, just maybe, someone will be inspired by me and someone by them and on and on and on... I can only hope.