It's Beginning to look alot like Christmas

I used Glorious Treats' Snowflake cookies to texture this! hahaha

Origami Ornament

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods
fill up with snow.
-Robert Frost

In the bleak midwinter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen,...

Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.
Christina Rossetti

“Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers”

Berrily Bursting

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.”
-Pericles

Wall of Bows

"“In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.
It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.
We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

-Albert Schweitzer

Also...This is our 20 foot Christmas Tree, today trailing in the wind on the way home from cutting it down. Every year, it cracks me up that it flops off the back of the car, so this year, I took this funny shot. If you want to see last years' expedition, click here.
This year was a repeat. We love this family tradition but it is so much work for John. We are very grateful that he loves it so much.

Symphony of Childhood

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love,
the things you are, the things you never want to lose.
~From The Wonder Years

The Ballet Teacher

Bailey's very good friend, Raina hugging Miss Elece

I liked it in small too.

On another note... we went to Britton's cross country awards banquet last night and she was presented with MVP (most valuable player) award. Now she needs a letter jacket to put it on but tells me she won't wear it, "too embarrassing". Her boyfriend David made a school record last week for the longest run for a touchdown in football. They go to sections tomorrow. Everyone tells them what a cute couple they are.
I think Britton is looking forward to sports being over for the holidays.
She has plans for iceskating, hot chocolate and...
mistletoe to put in his locker..
(but can't kiss him...too contagious, Did I say I wasn't minding this illness!?! heehee)

Textured Birthday

Birthday Ballerina

'Once upon a time, something happened to me, it was the sweetest thing,
that could ever be, a fantasy, a dream come true,
it was the day that I met you '
-unknown

By Candlelight

"God gives us dreams a size too big so that we can grow in them. "
~ Unknown

Dreams Come True

Blushing Lace

Its Bailey's 4th Birthday today and its going to be crazy. I wanted to stick this in here quickly to keep my daily posting record on track. Dediccated to my lovely little girl! Happy Birthday darling.

To live long and achieve happiness,
cultivate the art of radiating
happiness.
- Malcolm Forbes

Sunbeam Slumber

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.
- James Herriott

Protecting the Throne

The mathematical probability of a common cat doing exactly as it pleases
is the one scientific absolute in the world.
- Lynn M. Osband

Waiting on the Next Idea...Poised

Of all animals, the cat alone attains to the comtemplative life.
He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha.
- Andrew Lang

Barrington Recovering

As you can see, he is doing well after his injury. We saw the doctor today and he should be able to snowboard again in two months, so by the end of January. He will probably go back to school tomorrow and is in good spirits. Thanks for all the prayers!!

Oh, and I forgot to mention... Barrington declared it 'NO Shave November" and he has kept to it. (He wanted to see if he could grow a beard and he did!) He shaves it this afternoon since tomorrow is December so I'm glad to get a shot of him in it. I think it looks really good on him, after I was horrified by this thought. He looks a little Omish! (His private school relaxed their rules on this just this year). Rachel, also let him know that she liked it but preferred the clean shaven look. (luckily!)


The cat has been wanting to come in and keep him company...

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods.
Cats have never forgotten this."
- Anonymous

The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant -
- and let the air out of the tires.
-Dorothy Parker

The Christmas Leaf

Once upon a Christime, it came to pass, that a very little, brown leaf who held on so tightly to her old oak tree home through many of Autumn's blustery winds, finally was blown away in the last days of November. Then when all hope seemed lost, she happened to flutter to the ground, before the feet of a little girl dressed all in red, who thought to pick her up and see what she was made of. Something special about this little leaf, that only the little girl could see must have existed because she found herself brought into a home and placed on the most beautiful, evergreen she had ever beheld. There she spent many days of bliss and joy, warmed by a twinkle light and surrounded by more beauty than the little leaf could have ever imagined, playing witness to a happy family's holiday moments as they celebrated the birth of a child who, like her had the humblest of beginnings. A child, she saw, who was special if only a little one would take the time to see what he was made of.

Beloved in White

My little one in her Strausburg Christening dress, I just adore this photo and wanted to do something special with it. Please indulge me these quotes...(Thanks for looking)

My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Song of Solomon 2:16.

All things are literally better, lovelier, more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed.

-Ruskin,John
^3 The Stones of Venice, vol.ii, ch.6.

The oldölike childrenötalk to themselves, for they have reached that hopeless wisdom of experience which knows that though one were to cry it in the streets to multitudes, or whisper it in the kiss to one's beloved, the onlyears that can ever hear one's secrets are one's own!

-O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone

Thanksgiving to Christmas In Transition

It is always a little happy shock to me to go from oranges of Thanksgiving time to bright reds of Christmastime.

Trying out the lovely Japanese paper textures.
And more oil...

Pure