Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas

Our 2010 Christmas greeting.

Wish you all a wonderful Christmas.  Remembering what it's 'really' about.


Considering how far behind I've been this year with everything to do with Christmas, as I sat to write this I drew a blank. All that keeps happening is I hum these words “Oh what fun, it is to ride (on a one horse open sleigh)“. Then, it came to me. Of course, this year has been a 'ride' and it's also been 'so much fun'. Are you ready to take a walk down memory lane with me?

We've had a year with a many changes and lots of business trips for Jacques. The business trips are in preparation for our move to Ontario in 2011. One of the most memorable trips, was the one to Orlando in April. Luckily, Noah and I got to tag along! While there, we had some family fun at Universal then while Jacques was in meetings, Noah and I had fun at Disney. The week we were there was the hottest week that winter! We spent lots of time at the pool and soaked in all the vitamin D we could get!

On July 1, Jacques & I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows. It was an amazing day complete by Noah walking me down the isle that was filled with rose petals. It was an amazing experience that I recommend to anyone celebrating an anniversary. That night, Jacques & I enjoyed a romantic night away. At the end of it all, we made a promise to each other that we will do it all over AGAIN on our 20th anniversary!

After much research and praying, we made a big family decision to home school Noah. The original reasons for our decision, changed already after we attended our first home school conference in May. Since school began, we have seen improvements in Noah's behaviour, maturity and overall learning progress. The more progress we see, the more committed we become to our decision. At times (very few though), Noah does miss the social aspect of school so we make sure there is plenty of opportunity to be social with friends through extra curricular activities and play dates! Our favourite activity happens every Wednesday. We call it “Friends-Day”! We pick up one of his friends from school, then have them over for a full afternoon of play! Also, once per month Noah and I volunteer in the Kindergarten class to make cupcakes with the kids. In January, we will begin volunteering once per week in the Kindergarten class to help the children with their reading skills.

This coming year has many changes in store with our move to Ontario happening. Early in the new year, we will list our house in hopes for a quick sell (at least quicker than last time). If needed, we will rent in Grand Falls to finish up Jacques job. We are all very excited for this move to happen and all the possibilities the new year brings.

So it comes time to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas.

With much love and many warm blessings, from our family to yours,

Jacques, Tara & Noah






Sunday, December 19, 2010

Family Time

Let's back up a bit before we talk about fun family time!!!

Friday night, we went to a supper at Jacques work and I had my first ever Fondue (all around).


  • The appetizer was a cheese fondue (which I did not like).
  • The main course was a meat fondue (my new favourite meal).
  • Then, the dessert was a chocolate/fruit fondue (my 2nd new favourite thing).
Considering our Christmas Eve tradition for the last 3-4 years (but NOT last year because they ended up closing early), has been dining at Pizza Delight, we all agreed that we needed to make a NEW tradition that didn't involve a restaurant bill!


So a FONDUE is what we agreed it would be.


Unbelievably, ON the LAST weekend before Christmas - we went shopping as a family to find a fondue machine!!!


We ended up finding both machines, one little ceramic one (heated by a tea light) for the chocolate and an electric one for the meat, both for under $35 TOTAL!!!  (a bonus to shopping right before Christmas, on sale)


Naturally, we had to try it out before Christmas Eve to make sure it would work.

So the beginning of our fun family time began with a Fondue!














Also, this is now Noah's favourite thing! 






After our fondue, we played a new game (new to us, but a classic for sure)!




At first, Noah had a little difficult time as Jacques read the directions.





But, once we began playing, he caught right on and enjoyed it



After our mean game of scrabble, we all came down to watch
ANOTHER one of our favourite Christmas classics, Home Alone!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it.  At 7:30pm, I was out cold and went to bed!

Yet, some more family time that I LOVE so much this time of year!

Cookies (and lots of them)

133 cookies to be exact!




Every year, I make a gift for each of Jacques employees.

This year, I made these cookies as a little 'add on' to their gifts.

Naturally,
the boys of the house were upset
that they saw ALL those cookies
but couldn't eat them.



So I told Noah to do a math problem
(division with a remainder)
which is something he had just learned this past week.


I told him to divide 20 into 133.

The answer:  6 (remainder) 13

He seemed a little confused, until I told him that the 'remainder'
was the amount of cookies THEY could eat!

And did he EVER like division with 'remainder' now!!!



Last day of school...

...before Christmas holidays!





You see, what I continue to learn about home schooling is that:

WE make our schedule!

SO, when I was looking forward to our schedule for next week,
I realized that we were starting 3 new units
 in grammar, science and spelling. 


Then it hit me...

let's take our break starting NOW!

We don't have to take the same break as the public school,
because WE make our schedule!



So this next photo is Noah's LAST work before Christmas break began....

a math test!

He was super stressed and feared he would rush to finish!

INSTEAD, he ended up taking extra time!

I was SO proud...

he ended up getting 18.5/20 on this test!


WAY TO GO, Noah!!!






This next photo is the moment he completed his test!

Onto the video games!!!


So:

here's to Christmas VACATION where I'm sure we'll


play too many video games

watch too much TV

and

eat way too much food!



Let the HOLIDAY'S begin!!!




My favourite gift

One day, we were baking away when Noah left the kitchen.

He said, 'Mom, look at the Christmas tree?', where he was sitting like this! 

What a character!

What could a MOM ask for to beat THIS gift of a child!

Well, I know for me - this is by far MY favourite Christmas present this year!!!

Amazing Grace, by Noah




I can't even say how PROUD I am of Noah's performance at our Christmas church service last Sunday!


Way to go, Noah! Keep up your hard work and lots of practice. PLEASE don't give up because you have great talent!

My little helper this year!

I made a little boo-boo, by starting to wrap the Christmas presents when Noah was still working on school work - BIG mistake!  Geesh, WHAT was I thinking??? LOL 
This year, my little helper wanted to help with EVERYTHING Christmas, including wrapping!
Thanks for your help this year, buddy!!!

He did a pretty good job, for his first year, I must say!

I'm so happy I had help wrapping this year, considering I was at it (or wrapping) for almost 4 hours one afternoon!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Truly Enjoying the Season

I LOVE Christmas! 

Even though sometimes I demonstrate stress while trying to get everything done, I still LOVE it!

I think the part about Christmas that I love the most is: the JOY of GIVING.

It brings my heart such pure JOY to give.  It makes me feel happy and warm. 

When you think about the true meaning of Christmas, isn't this it - GIVING???  Christmas is ALL about baby Jesus.  Didn't God GIVE us Jesus.

TODAY, if you read this will you do ONE thing for me???  Will you GIVE something of yourself to just ONE person?  Pay for the coffee of someone behind you in the Tim Horton's drive through.  Offer to carry an elderly person's groceries to their car.  Make someone going through a hard time a meal and take it to them.  Anything that YOU can do, WILL (I promise) brighten their day.
 

Most years, I have all my shopping done, tree up and presents wrapped by December 1.  Some people make fun of me, while others think I'm crazy - and that's OK because I know WHY I operate this way.

You wanna know why???  Each year, I dislike that December is often consumed by running around, shopping in busy malls, rushing and missing the reason of the season.

I get all my Christmas stuff done, so that in December we can enJOY the reason of the season.  We have time to read from our homemade advent calender each day, we have time to make Gingerbread houses with kids, we have time to visit friends, we have time to deliver our home made presents, we have time to create rice crispy snowmen, we have time to celebrate JESUS.

This year, I hadn't been so sure that I would have it all done in time but I do, I did.  I got it all done.  This Tuesday, I mailed out the last of our Christmas greetings and presents to my family far away.

NOW...all we are doing is enJOYing the reason of the season!  We're visiting, we're baking, we're having lots of friends over to visit.  Best of all, we are finishing our school work up and were done as of TODAY for our Christmas Break.  YAY!

So when you go out there today....enjoy ALL the seasonal happenings!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010

To Do List

Since all my craft shows have finished, I've had a MAJOR to do list that I've slowly been checking off! 

I was behind on all my Christmas 'duties' and our house has a been a mess!

Well...I've been working hard on depleting the items on this list and it's finally getting smaller.  I'm starting to feel caught up again, just a few more things to do to finish and be back to complete normal!

We actually went visiting all day Sunday, what a thrill that was for me!  I say 'I feel like I've been so out of touch" this fall with all the craft shows, but truth be told - I HAVE been out of touch.

NOT ANY MORE though...life IS officially back to normal!

The only thing I have left is putting all the jewelry into semi storage, rather than having it all out.

This is the last of it, that I should have done by the end of the week.

YAY!

Life feels balanced again, and I feel great!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Blog-Jacked from my other blog...ETSY listings.

FOR SALE to raise money for KENYA and our ADOPTION.

All glass pendants are 7/8" or 24 mm square.

Each pendant comes with a chain, your choice of an 18" or a 20" sterling silver snake chain (925 stamped), or a black leather chord (19" - 22"), or a black waxed cotton chord, or a pink, turquoise, green or black ribbon.  DON'T FORGET TO SPECIFY.

More information about these pendants at the bottom of this post.

Each necklace also ships with an organza gift back.

$10.00 each  (+ shipping, approx. $2.00)

PLEASE NOTE:  All dollar amounts are in CANADIAN funds.

EMAIL ME for more information:  tara(dot)morin473(at)gmail(dot)com























LARGE SQUARE glass pendant (35mm or 1 1/3in square) or
RECTANGLE glass pendant (24mm x 48mm or 0.9in x 1.9in) 
with a 20" sterling silver necklace

$13.00 (+ shipping, approx. $2)








Glass Pendant RING (24mm or 0.9in square)
with adjustable band
$7.00 each (+ shipping, approx. $2)



Christmas Set, with matching ring

$15.00 each (+ shipping, approx. $3 - $4)






WOOD/SHELL Necklaces
made on beading wire, with a magnetic clasp

$10 each (+ shipping, approx. $2)










SOLIDARITY Necklaces for KENYA

All $10 each (+ shipping, approx. $2)
ALL sales go to Kenya to provide single women with an income.












Bracelet/Earring Sets
 $7.00  each (+ shipping, approx. $2)

$5.00 goes towards our adoption
$2.00 goes to Haiti to buy rice









Over the next few days, I will be posting many new items on Etsy but I'm giving YOU (my faithful readers) the opportunity to purchase directly from me. 


Your pendant is made with:
- medium-sized Aanraku bales which are nickel-plated and big enough for you to string ribbon or thicker chains through.
- all pendants come with an 18" sterling silver, 925 stamped (OR, a 20" sterling silver, also 925 stamped can be requested – I only have a few left and they won't be ordered again).
- your pendant will be shipped in a small organza bag

100% of your purchase supports our adoption of a special needs baby girl in Vietnam.

***Special Notes about Pendants***
- Pendants are sealed with a high-gloss finish and are water resistant but NOT WATERPROOF. Remove before swimming, bathing, etc.
- Small parts; not recommended for small children.
- Email me your favourite photo to have designed into a pendant?

Custom orders welcome! Email me for more details: chosenone(dot)blingwithaheart(at)gmail(dot)com