The best Christmas ever

I can not believe it! My sweet husband got me a vitamixer for Christmas. Thank you Sweetheart!! Just what I wanted. It's going to get a lot of use. He also got me a book about training for a triathalon. I love it.
Of course, I was thinking about Christmas last year and what a great present little Miss Sadie was. She still is my favorite gift from last year. I love that little girl. I have three gifts just like Jesus...only I call mine Jackson, Boomer and Sadie.
Merry Christmas

All I Want for Christmas

Here are a few of the things on my Christmas list this year:

Santa, I really haven't been very good....but I'll try really hard next year if you bring me these presents. :)

Llama,Llama Red Pajama

I've been wanting to make puppets for about three Christmases now. My friend Kellena really likes books. Because she likes them so much, I thought I could pair a book with a puppet as a Christmas gift for her family. However, because she is such a bookworm, she already has a large assortment of books. I had to spoil the surprise and ask her what book she wanted for Christmas. She told me her three year old has been reading Llama, Llama, Red Pajama (from the library). Unfortunately, I didn't have a puppet pattern so I had to make it up. I struggled a bit with how to make the neck look long enough. Also, there are no forward facing pictures in the book so I had to mirror image the face. I was a little nervous that I would work all day on my poor llama only to have it turn out looking like a scared giraffe. (It does look a little like a scared giraffe, but I think it turned out quite cute.) What do you think?
PS. I ended up getting her the book: "Llama, Llama Misses Mama". I liked the story a little more than "Llama, Llama Red Pajama". Jon didn't like the "pajama" book because he felt that it was teaching children bad bedtime behavior. There's also a "mad at mama" sequel where Llama and Mama go shopping. Llama doesn't want to be at the store so he throws everything out of the grocery cart. The "misses mama" sequel is about going off to school and how Mama will always come back for him. No unacceptable behavior. Just the kind of book Jon would approve.

A few of my favorite things

Last week we had a birthday party for my friend Pamela....As part of the favors Erica made this great gift bag containing a few of Pamela's favorite things. What I liked most about it is the simplicity of the items on the list. Pamela finds happiness in things like homeade jam and sipping tea from her favorite mug. If I were to make a list it would contain things like: traveling somewhere new, swimming in the ocean (something I never get to do in the freezy Oregon beaches)or going on a ten mile hike. (Haven't done that since I had kids...I get the feeling a 4, 3 and 1 year wouldn't enjoy it too much). It got me thinking that maybe I need to find more simple pleasures or it will be a long time before I can go to my happy places. (Moving to Hawaii isn't an option at this point). So I'm working on a list of my top ten favorite things (at least for today)

10. Snuggling with my kids and their Daddy
9 Hugs and Kisses from Boomer and Jackson
8 Sadie wanting her Mommy
7 Creating some fun new craft
6 Going for a five mile run
5 Sunshine
4 Christmas lights
3New Socks
2 Free time to work on blogs, and read others blogs
1.Good food

I also like pants that stay up and don't show my underwear, Sleeping in and when my boys are playing together.

Michelle