Merry Christmas Eve!

 We made it to Laguna Beach to 

somehow begin to celebrate our 

first CHRISTmas without our

sweet Dad.  The drive produced

much joy and buckets of tears.

We were praying that we did not

expect too much of ourselves as

Laguna Beach holds TONS of

memories for our family.

 After TONS of help, we finally got everything

to our room and the festivities began!!!!

 We opened several gifts and then

headed to downtown Laguna to

celebrate CHRISTmas Eve with

yummy pizza . . . always our first

night tradition.

The boys gave me my blog published in a

book . . . after a bucketload of tears, they

showed me the dedication page written in

one simple sentence by my Mike . . .

 Happy early birthday Sweet Tim . . . 26!!!!

Sweet and silly pictures of our incredibly

different CHRISTmas!!  We are still the same

family who loves each other so very much, 

but finding new ways to forge very unfamiliar

territory!!!  Now to try and catch some sleep.

We are praying that the salt air will provide

much respite for this very tired crew who

have gone on fumes for several weeks!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS!!!!!

'tis the Season.

 CHRISTmas most certainly has a different

feel around our home this year.  It is so

difficult to grasp the concept that two people

who were celebrating with us last year at

this time are now celebrating with Jesus.

 Truthfully, we haven't established whether

or not having CHRISTmas "right now" was

a blessing or not.  Usually on December 20,

we are sugar cookied out, over stimulated

with all of the CHRISTmasing, and ready

to dive into the gifts.  

 CHRISTmas will be most definitely

celebrated differently this year as we

get ready to load up the sleigh and

head to Laguna . . . one of our family's

most definite hot spots.

 We all immediately agreed celebrating at

home just didn't seem possible this year.

I am excited to get to the beach, snuggle 

with my crew, and listen to what God has

for us during the CHRISTmas season.

While we are celebrating differently for

our family . . . we have most definitely not

lost sight of the fact that it is our Jesus who

is the true reason for the season and cling

to His many, many promises.  We are one

blessed family and so grateful for our 

many, many blessings!!!

"The Lord is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped."

-Psalm 28:7

Sugar Cookies.

 Love my drawer of a bazillion

cookie cutters.

 Love fishing through all of them

to find my CHRISTmas cookie

cutters . . . Memories of YEARS

of baking about a million sugar

cookies come flooding back each

time that look through all of my

cookie cutters.

 Love my 28 year old cookbook.  It contains

THE tried and true sugar cookie recipe.

 Love my cookie racks that my Tim gave

me last CHRISTmas.

Love my cookie testers the mostest.

Busy As Beavers.

 Seriously, it is like Santa's workshop down

in my office.  We are busy little elves 

working away on our CHRISTmas projects . . .

I am not the ONLY one working into the

wee hours of the night.  My Luke is right

beside me working on projects of his own.

He has a little business of his own

going and is working on gifts for those

on his CHRISTmas list.

MIKE UPDATE:  We are working

diligently to keep his blood pressure

down.  Sometimes we are able to 

get it around 150/87.  When it is that 

LOW, we have a little celebration.  It

usually hovers around 167/95. 

He tries to do as much as he can.

But is VERY tired most of the

time.   We have a HUGE

PET/CT scan on October 24.

Prayers, prayers, prayers on that big

day.  We will receive the results on

October 30.

My View.

When I am not busy taking care of

hubby and kiddos, doing laundry,

working on my dissertation paperwork,

homeschooling, cooking, doing

chores, chauffering, grocery

shopping . . . I am looking at this 

baby and working breathlessly on

CHRISTmas . . . 

Love, love, love that I have an

amazing family and wonderful

friends to celebrate with!!!

It.is.just.around.the.corner!!!

Something Orange.

Can you guess what this will be?!?

Hint, hint: Think Halloween.

Finished pictures coming soon!!!

To me September means skipping

right to the holidays.  I am all about

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and

CHRISTmas.  We have a few

birthdays in between and are all

getting excited about the upcoming

seasons.

"And we know that in ALL things God

works for the good of those who love

Him, who have been called according

to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Deck the Halls.

With ONLY 116 days to go until CHRISTmas,

I am working hard on my favoritist holiday

in between all of the craziness around 

here including our very first day of school

this week!!!

I do not have a CHRISTmas quilt for our

home and am so in love, love, love with

this retro fabric.  It reminds me of a

decoration that you would have seen

in Gram and Grampa's home.  Luke frowned

upon me playing CHRISTmas caroles in

school . . . 

Love preparing for Jesus' birthday season!

Strippin'!

Woohoo!  My new vintage CHRISTmas 

fabric jellyroll strips arrived today!!  You

can just imagine the little peck on the

cheek that I gave my FEDEX guy after

he delivered this bundle of joy right

to my doorstep!!  In between my other 

quilts, caring for hubs and the boys,

writing that dissertation, and caring for

our home . . . I am goin' to be strip piecing

a CHRISTmas quilt that will adorn our

home during the holidays!  CHRISTmas is

only 138 days away for those of you

who aren't counting!!!

Hubs had day one off today from our

clinical trial.  Tomorrow we will 

celebrate day number two off and then

on Friday we will resume the fun

with our five days on again.  I do

so love the five on two off schedule.

It allows us to catch up on all that we

missed while Dads was sleeping.  We

are thinking that the tiredness may have

subsided a tiny bit and are praying that

next week only gets better.  We are

more than grateful that his blood

pressure is now under control, allowing

us to participate in the clinical trial.

Santa's Workshop

Now that chapters 1-3 are cooking again,

I have a few moments to breathe and

catch up on CHRISTmas projects!!!

You can find me blaring my Broadway

tunes and praise music down in 

the workshop.  . . . grateful for this little

respite from typing, thinking, and reading!

Husband has doc appointments the

first three days of the week, which

always keeps us hopping!  I am excited

that we have been able to continue

with the clinical trial even if my man

is more than a wee bit tired!!

Blessings for a wonderful week!!!