Day 365

And how does one spend the last day of 2009? Well, if you are the mom of two boys with colds, my day was spent cleaning. Last night was probably the worse because Aaron's temperature was nearly 104 degrees, but with a little bit of Tylenol and some sleep, he woke up fever free, but the nose is still running. Andy had a fever two days ago, but poor kid can not breathe due to his runny nose. I have disinfected a few toys but hope to complete the job later today or tomorrow. School starts on Monday and we need to be ready to start another year.

Day 364

I had some leftover cream because I had originally planned on making fudge before Christmas and it didn't happen. Well, what does one do with leftover cream? I make ice cream of course! I made a base of vanilla ice cream and have some Candy Cane Joe Joe's from Trader Joe's to crush up and mix in at the end. As you can see, I had a couple of little helpers who are quite mesmerized by the whole process. I'm just hoping they don't contaminate the ice cream with their cold germs.

Day 363

The most exciting part of my day was the trip to the library to drop off books and pick up a couple of books I had on hold. I took a class back in September and have been waiting patiently for the book by Scott David Plumlee. The other book I found online and it's all about metal, which is a passion of mine in the jewelry world. Of course, getting these books only makes me want to go shopping for supplies so I can do some of the projects.

Oh, and I'm almost there. :)

Day 362

Today we joined some friends at the Seattle Children Museum to spend some time playing together. One of the reasons we went was the festival, Los Posadas. Our friends attend Puesta del Sol which is the Spanish immersion elementary school in their school district and Los Posadas is the Spanish Christmas festival. It was fun to learn about a new Christmas holiday celebration and we received an activity book about several different festivals that are celebrated in the month of December throughout the world.

Day 361

This is my newest piece of furniture. When my grandma passed away a couple of years ago, I was asked if there was any furniture I wanted and since I live over two thousand miles away, getting any said furniture here was going to be a bit of a challenge. Probably by default I received the sewing cabinet that my grandma used to sit at and sew a few clothes for me. My parents brought it up this summer when they came to visit and I finally got around to clearing out a space for it in my studio.

Day 360

Tonight is movie night and since I received a popcorn popper for Christmas and the boys received the movie Up from Uncle Kyle and Aunt Robin, it was a movie night in the making.

We did enjoy the movie and made 3 bowls of popcorn. Andy didn't care for the salted popcorn, but enjoyed the popcorn sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Aaron liked the popcorn too and left me a nice mess to clean up on my red couch. We might have to start having movie nights more often.

Day 359

Content. Thankful. Blessed.

This is how I described myself on my Facebook status tonight. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to capture these feelings in a picture, so you get a picture of the wire jewelry magazines I received for Christmas. It was a lite Christmas for us this year and it's been one of the best Christmas' too. Mike and I have been teaching out boys that life is not about stuff and it seems that we have been successful in planting those seeds. After Andy opened up two gifts, he declared himself done opening gifts and was completely content with his game and matchbox car set. Aaron was more than happy with his Cars semi truck and spent the day clutching his truck like someone was going to take it away. Don't worry, we did open all the gifts from nana and papa and aunts and uncles. The boys are thrilled and excited and tomorrow we begin our thank you notes.

Day 358

It's Christmas Eve, the stockings have been filled and all the presents have come out of hiding. I am about to head to bed after a busy day of baking cinnamon rolls, zwieback and singing at two Christmas Eve services at church and just stopped to look at all the gifts, blessings and love my family has poured our to us this year. The best present I could have ever received is the fact that my parents and grandparents introduced me to Jesus Christ. He is my Saviour, Redeemer and without Him, I have no life. I pray that you have a chance to meet Jesus for whom we celebrate this time of year.

Day 357

Three stores later, I have finally secured these little pods of star anise. One of my friends had a little get together and made the best drinks, so I got the recipe from her and decided they would be great for Christmas dinner. The recipe calls for a simple syrup with star anise steeped in the syrup and it's amazing how difficult it is to find these pods. I found them at whole paycheck in the bulk section and was thrilled to have located them at a really good price.

Day 356

I figured since we were nearing the end of the year, there should be a little updated photo of me and all my glory. This morning I went to the grocery store to finish up my shopping for Christmas day and of course the comments are beginning because I am not due for another 14 plus weeks. So here I am at 25 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

Here's to another 9 pounder!