How Old Is Jesus?

My sister and her hubby have done a great job teaching Raegan and Trace about the true meaning of Christmas. They believe in Santa, but they also know that Santa isn't what Christmas is really about. They know it's about Jesus' birthday.
As a matter of fact, they may have done too good of a job driving home the fact about Jesus' birthday. Because the other day while driving down the road, Raegan asked my brother-in-law, "Daddy, how old will Jesus be on His birthday?"
Like any good husband, He turned the question over to my sister. He called her at work and handed Raegan the phone, and Raegan asked Crystal, "Mommy, how old will Jesus be on His birthday?"
I'm not really sure that they gave her any kind of definitive answer. I think saying "Over 2000 years" would have been a little mind boggling to an almost five year old. But hey, at least she knows whose birthday we'll be celebrating!

Tuesday's Top Ten

For today's top ten I give you the top ten things I have to do before Christmas:

1. Buy a gift for my mom and dad. I have bought a few little things for them, but I'm stumped about what to get them...

2. Buy a gift for my brother. This is easy. He takes money or gift cards from anywhere.

3. Buy a gift for my brother-in-law. This requires going to Dick's Sporting Goods to buy a gift certificate because this is what he wants. I really should have already done this, but I never go to Dick's so I haven't.

4. Buy a gift for my sister. She wants a gift certificate from the Spa Personal Appearances. The trouble with this one is that I'm not quite sure where this place is. Finding new places is not one of my strengths...

5. Buy a gift for my cousin Scott. I have NO IDEA what to get him. None at all. He never asks for anything. Ever.

6. Buy some stocking stuffers for Alaena, oh and also a stocking. I've been stocking slack...

(There is certainly a money spending trend going here...)

7. Buy some wheat bread for our Christmas party here at work on Thursday.

8. Go to my Raegan and Trace's Christmas program at school on Thursday.

9. Go Christmas caroling with the church.

10. Be in the Christmas play Sunday night.

So it's gonna be a little hectic around here before Christmas. What last minute things are you guys gonna be doing?

Monday, Monday!

Well, here we are at Monday again, and I can hardly believe it. This past weekend was a little hectic. But I've learned several things. First, I learned that Alaena is apparently going to be very likely to get bronchitis. That is something that is not going to be much fun, but at least now I know so I can watch her very closely and at the first sign of a wheeze, she'll be headed to the doctor.
I also learned that my child gets very hyper after a nebulizer treatment. I mean, we're talking feet can't be still, crawling and walking around in circles hyper. I would go to put her down, and her feet would be moving a million miles a minute. It was hilarious, but also very tiring because I had to chase after her making sure she didn't get into the Christmas village, the Christmas tree, etc. But it was a fun weekend.
Lastly I learned that a night of sleep after a night of no sleep is heavenly. So I'm in a great, well-rested mood this Monday morning. I hope all of you are too! Have a good one!

Tuesday's Top Ten

Today for my top 10 I give you my top 10 favorite recent pictures of Alaena:

Just kicking back, this may be one of my favorite pics all time of her:

Bring on the grub! She may not have gained weight very fast, but she is serious about some food!

Crawling, this is a rare site. Normally she is trying to walk around things, so my crawling pic opportunities are rare!

Excited to see mommy! That is the smile I come home to every day. And the smile that makes it SOOOOO hard to go to work in the morning.

Ma, put the camera down! I'm trying to eat!

Hmmm...if I'm really sneaky, maybe I can get this block from the nursery into my diaper bag...

These teeth are good for something...

This is one of her favorite things lately. Since she's dicovered her tongue, it's rarely in her mouth.

Another fine example of showing off the tongue!

And finally, Christmas card pic 2008. Showing off all eight of those pearly whites!!

Life in the World that is Trace

This past Friday I went after I got off of work at 12 to pick up my niece and nephew from school for my sister. My niece was going to her cousin Emma's for the night, and Trace was coming to my house. Now normally picking them up from school is no big deal. They usually say that they've both been great, and they both usually have stickers in their folders.
USUALLY.
Not so on Friday. Apparently Friday was Raegan's day to test the limits of the K-4's rule about talking during lunch. It was also apparently her day to pick up her "BEST FRIEND EVER" who is apparently a K-3 student while they were in the bathroom. I don't believe it's a specific rule, but apparently it is frowned upon to pick up K-3 students in the bathroom. In any event, Raegan ended up with 2 demerits, marring a week of demerit free perfection.
Let me just say, it is not fun to pick up my niece when she has gotten two demerits. It puts me in the "bad guy" position with her, and I do not like it. I guess I've got to get used to that position though considering Alaena is quickly learning to test her limits.
Anyway, I had to drop Raegan off at her house with her dad. I didn't stay long. I didn't want to see her get into trouble. I mean, it wasn't really bad things. After all, she didn't hit the kid, she just picked her up because she was her "BEST FRIEND EVER!" Apparently best friend exuberance isn't appreciated in K-4. Oh well.
Trace rode on with me, and we hadn't even gotten out of the driveway before he said, "I had a good day. I got a sticker. Sissy had a bad day. She had a bad day."
Now this wasn't said in a cocky tone. He sounded pitiful. He felt so bad that Raegan didn't get a sticker or candy like he did. He may be only 3 years old, but he has more compassion than most adults. Well, he has compassion for his sister at least.
His love for the deer isn't quite so obvious. My dad is a hunter, and he was out hunting when Trace and I got to the house. This was quite upsetting to Trace because he LOVES his Paw-paw, but I promised that he would see Paw-paw soon.
When my dad got home, Trace asked him, "Paw-paw, did you shoot deers in the forest?"
And my dad told him that he saw some deer, but he didn't shoot any.
Then Trace said, "Paw-paw, when I get big like you, I'm gonna take my water gun, and shoot me a deer."
Because apparently water is lethal to deer. Who knew?
The next morning Trace asked dad to take him to the ocean on the tractor. We live about 5 hours from the nearest ocean, so dad was like, "Huh?"
So Trace said, "You know, the ocean in the forest." So our lake has now been upgraded to an ocean. Maybe I should keep this a secret. I don't want Ruffin becoming a hot tourist spot. It ruins it for the locals.
So don't tell anybody about the Ruffin ocean okay?
What funny things happened to you guys over the weekend?

Thursday Thirteen

For this Thursday I give you Thirteen Things I'm wondering about:

1. I'm wondering why I haven't gotten back some wrapping paper that I ordered for a fund raiser back in September (apparently no one has gotten anything back and the guy is contacting the school!)2. I'm wondering why in the song, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" there is a line about scary ghost stories. I mean the song is about Christmas, not Halloween. I guess it's possible they are talking about the story, "The Christmas Carol" but I wouldn't consider that a scary ghost story. So still I wonder if they just put the line in the song just because they couldn't think of any other line to put there.3. I'm also wondering why in the song, "Up on the Housetop" poor little Will got a hammer and lots of tacks. Maybe I'm too modernized, but I just can't imagine that at any time in history tacks were considered the best gift ever by any child. I feel a little sorry for Will myself.4. That brings me to the song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." First I wonder why someone would actually want a Hippopotamus for Christmas enough to write a song about it.5. Then I wonder how many children have pitched super tantrums to their parents begging for a Hippopotamus for Christmas since this song was written.6. I also wonder if anybody likes the song, "The Little Drummer Boy" Now, I have heard that Mandisa has a great version of it, but I'm talking about the original slow, seemingly eternal version of "The Little Drummer Boy" where these shrieky sopranos say, "Cooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeee they told meeeeeeeeeeeee, Par Rum, pum, pum, pummmmmmmmmmmm" while the basses in the background go, "Pum, pum, pum, pum" I really have never gotten this song...7. Now I'm kinda wondering why I listen to so much Christmas music I don't understand...8. And I wonder if any of the rest of you have turned your radios to the 24/7 Christmas music station in your area.9. Or if any of the rest of you have been seen going down the highway belting out, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause"10. I'm also wondering when I'm ever gonna find time to get Alaena's pictures taken so I can send out Christmas cards.11. And when I'm gonna find time to wrap gifts (especially considering I haven't gotten my wrapping paper yet, see #1)12. Then I wonder if the Christmas play at church is going to come together before December 21.13. Then I wonder why I'm wondering about all of this stuff. And why I'm not just taking time to enjoy this wonderful season. So that's what I'm gonna do now... What do all of you have on your minds today?

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Taking Things Into Her Own Hands

I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is now behind us, and we are charging toward Christmas full steam ahead. Last weekend was spent by most of my family members putting up the Christmas decorations, getting the ornaments on trees just right and such.
Well, at my house the ornaments were added to the tree. My sister had no such luck. Her husband had put the ornament box in the top of their building where only he could get to them, and he was on duty (he's a policeman). So she just put up the tree, figuring he would get the box of ornaments later.
The rest of the weekend was busy for them, so the ornaments never got added to the tree. Apparently this distressed my four year old niece a little more than my sister and her husband realized. A fact they discovered on the way home from church Sunday night.
My niece has hit a prissy stage, and she has begun carrying her little purse everywhere she goes. And it is often filled with random things, from fake lipstick to my nephew's little cars.
But Sunday night on the way home from church, she told my sister, "Mommy, we can decorate our tree now!" And as she said it, she pulled several icicle ornaments that she had "borrowed" from the Christmas tree at church out of her purse.
Apparently she thought the church's tree was quite overloaded while her tree at home was completely barren of ornaments! Crystal of course told her that she shouldn't take stuff, but I'm pretty sure she had a hard time not laughing while she was doing so!!

Random Number Picker Says the Winner Is...

Well, as promised today is the day that I announce the big winner of the giveaway, and the winner is...Crystal!
And I promise, there was no partiality in this drawing. I simply put everyone's names in order of how they were given, and her number was the one randomly drawn.
Thanks for all the participation. And keep looking out for more giveaways. I may just do this again!!