2007 in Review

Best Fiction (first time read): The Lion, The Witch, & the Wardrobe

Favorite Non-fiction: Personality Type: An Owner's Manual

Favorite New T.V. Show: Life

Favorite Continued T.V. Show: Lost

Worst Moment in Sports: It's a two-way tie between he Oregon Ducks loss of Dennis Dixon and the Blazers loss of Greg Oden

Favorite Commercial:


Movie to Cause the Most Nightmares: A two-way tie between Children of Men and I Am Legend (with the exception of Ratatouille, the only two movies we saw in a theater this year)

Best Vacation (only vacation in many, many years): Christmas in Victoria, British Columbia

Best Food Blog: Smitten Kitchen

Biggest Laugh At Someone Else's Expense: Poor Miss SC

Favorite New Toy:


Hardest Decision of the Year: Transferring Trinity from Woodlawn Elementary to Columbia Christian

Scariest Moment: Connor's close encounter with a waterfall

Favorite Connor Quote: I love my mommy so much my brain hurts!

iTunes Song Receiving the Most Plays This Year: Bad Day by Daniel Powter (thanks to Trinity)

Favorite New Song: Justin Timberlakes' What Goes Around

Favorite Picture:


or Maybe This One:


or Maybe This One:


Happy New Year!

Photo of the Day

Fiona at Trinity's Christmas program - by Allan

Christmas Get-to-Know-Ya

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper - there's something anti-climatic about watching someone open a bag.

2. Real tree or artificial? REAL - hello, this is Oregon. I think it just might be a crime to use something fake here.

3. When do you put up the tree? We get the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving; it takes a week or so before we drag it into the house.

4. When do you take down the tree? Usually the weekend after New Years.

5. Do you like egg-nog? Blek.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The cheerleading outfit my mom made me when I was seven; the dollhouse/book shelf my dad made me that still fills one wall in my childhood room.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? A magnetic one. I think Fiona may have lost Jesus this year.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Dad or Mike.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

10. Worst gift you ever received? There's been some clothes given to me that, let's just say, didn't work well.

11. Favorite Christmas movie? While You Were Sleeping (does that count?).

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving for the most-part.

13. Have you ever recycled a present? I'm sure I have.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything but the oyster stew my family insists on making each Christmas Eve.

15. Clear or colored lights on tree? Clear on the tree; colored on the house.

16. Favorite Christmas song? Lots of them - O Holy Night; Mary, Did You know...

17. Travel or stay home? Almost always at mom's house; this year we're traveling & taking the folks with us.

18. Can you name all of the reindeer? Sure thing.

19. What is on top of your tree? A star we bought with a gift certificate that we received as a wedding gift from a little boutique in Gresham.

20. When do you open presents? Christmas (anything else is just wrong).

21. Most annoying thing this time of year? Bad Christmas music.

22. Favorite ornament theme? Theme? Is there supposed to be a theme? Our tree is a great mish-mash of homemade, antique, childhood, and a few specially purchased.

23. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? Ham, Texas potatoes, homemade rolls, pie.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? I'm with Cherise - a clean house and a long nap!

I tag EVERYONE! Merry Christmas:-)

No More NaBloPoMo!

I made it! I don't know when I have been more relieved to see the last day of a month*. This exercise in daily blogging has been more of a challenge than I anticipated. It seems that every night at around 11 pm I would jolt with the realization - I still have to post! I thoroughly stretched my creative & writing muscles, though, which was the point.

In other news: My new MacBook arrived today! Any wagers on when I'll actually pry it out of Allan's hands and get to play with it myself?

Still no news: My dead phone is still...dead. In order to use a fantastic 25% discount on a replacement, I had to have it shipped. It has made its way from China to Alaska and is catching a dogsled from there.

And finally: We in the Northwest are gearing up to be slammed by a trifecta of storms this weekend. Snow! Wind! Rain! Cold! It should be a fun one.

Have a great weekend!

* Besides starting a day late, I missed one day due to extremely needy sick children - please let me set you down so I can post!.

On Turning Five

No more four year old going to bed now! Connor proudly declared a few minutes ago. Clearly age five takes one well beyond the realm of "little boy". We had a great day of celebration for this important milestone. I'm sure Connor would tell you that his favorite part of the day was getting a new train (or two or three) for his Thomas collection or maybe it was seeing the amazing Thomas cake that Grammy made. He thoroughly enjoyed his party with more than a dozen friends, playing games and being as loud and rowdy as our little living room could handle. One part of the party that I surprisingly enjoyed was Connor opening his gifts. This was not the greedy free-for-all of tearing through paper and ribbons to expose the latest and greatest worthless gadgets. Rather, from one family Connor received two trains which he had played with for the last few years at their house. The same was true for three cars given to him by another. His friends looked at their own things and chose with care what they knew Connor would love. It is a tradition that I think is worth perpetuating. The other especially meaningful part of the day happened before the cake and presents. We asked the kids to answer one question - What is something that you like or love about Connor? I was touched as his friends each in turn shared a simple way in which Connor is a blessing. I like how Connor is funny! I love that Connor is smart and lovable. I like how Connor shares his trains and his birthday cake! Connor is nice - he's my friend. I like Connor's eyes. Those are some insightful children! How right they are on all accounts.

Happy 5th Birthday, Connor - I love you more each day.

Let There Be Rejoicing!

I wish I had a video clip to show you from this evening. During our Life Group, Allan mentioned that he had driven home through some snow. This bit of news sent the children, especially Kevin Crumrine, into a complete tizzy. I thought the poor kid might blow a gasket from his overwhelming excitement. Allan quickly went into thorough explanations of altitude and snow elevations, while I stumbled over an apology to Leah for the night that was to come in their household (he won't go to sleep now!). When we had prayer time with the children, we went around the group and each finished the sentence, "Thank you God for..." and of course snow was mentioned. Just a few minutes later, lo and behold, I got to make the greatest announcement of the day, Kids, It's Snowing!! There was much screaming and jumping. And more screaming and jumping. The joy was beautiful and contagious.

Thank you, God, for the snow-