Happy New Year!

As I posted before, I don't care much for New Year's Eve. I just like to roll right into the new year without any of that "out with the old and in with the new" business. I happen to like the comfort of the old and find nothing really wrong with the old. I know there is always room for improvement but I don't buy into the resolution thing either. I hope to be a bit kinder, gentler, and eat a little less while exercising more in 2009 that is about it. So on that note, Happy New Year. I hope it is a safe, fun night for everyone. See you in 2009.

Dave and Buster's

Let me teill you that Dave and Buster's was everything I hoped for. Lots of fun games spitting out tickets, adults with no little kids to run over as I went to play the games, and worthless prizes to purchase at the end. We ate shrimp and steak before gaming. We played shooting games, skee ball, wheel of fortune, deal or no deal. basketball, and many other nameless games. We won enough tickets to purchase a shot glass and a teddy bear wearing a D and B tee shirt. We ended our night with one last drink at the bar in take home glasses. I had a D and B long Island ice tea and John had an over and under shot. We like the glasses those two drinks came in so we sacrificed ourselves to have them. The bartender was so friendly, he even threw in two extra free glasses for us. We chit chatted with him a lot. We are back at the hotel now and it is time for bed. What a fun night we had! We have decided to call it our NYE so the pressure is off for that night. Yes!

Hanging out in the Hotel

We are in our Hotel room relaxing before our big night out at Dave and Buster's for some adult Chuck E. Cheese business. We shopped at IKEA this morning and purchased a futon/sleeper type thing for Alissa and Nathan to sleep on when they visit. The blow up mattress is just not cutting it! We then headed over to the Woodfield Mall which was overcrowded and overpriced. We did find a big warehouse called High Five advertising nothing over $5.00. Wow, that place was full of junk, not much even worth $.50 but we did find two good white elephant gifts for next Christmas. We overheard that the place would only be open until the end of January, Gee, I wonder why that is in the neighborhood it is in! I will be documenting our time at Dave and Buster's so watch for that update!

Slide Shows

I was having fun experimenting with making some slide shows. Sit back and enjoy!

It's all over and way too quickly!

It is hard to believe that all the planning and anticipation of Christmas is now over. I took my village down today as well as most of the Christmas decorations. I replaced them with my snowmen collection. The tree is still up but I am ready to take that down soon, too. As my daughter, Alissa says "we are done with Christmas and into the birthday season now." John and I found some good after Christmas deals yesterday which included a new Christmas tree for next year. When ours comes down this year, it will go in its box and out on the curb for the garbagemen. We got a really good deal on a prelit tree at Target, we could not pass it up. We also found some great deals on clothes at Kohl's, couldn't pass that up either. We had a nice lunch with Alissa at one of our favorite restaurants in Wauwatosa. After lunch we looked at her pictures from Jamaica. I think John and I would really enjoy Jamaica, maybe someday... I worked at school in my classroom for two hours today so it is all ready for my first day back, Jan. 5, now I can put it out of my mind for the rest of my vacation. John and I are heading down to Dave and Buster's inChicago next week. I have always wanted to go to a Dave and Buster's or as I like to call it, an adult Chuck E. Cheese. I cannot wait to play some skee ball! We will also hit IKEA and the Woodfield Mall on our trip down there. That brings us to New Year's Eve. I am not a fan of New Year's Eve. I like to just get it over with and roll right into the next day as if it is nothing special. John and I have done many things on all the New Year's Eves through the years. We just could never quite settle into one tradtion. Sometimes we went out with friends for dinner and the midnight noisemakers and hats provided by the eatery, sometimes we went to or hosted house parties with fun games, sometimes we prepared a special meal and watched a movie by ourselves, sometimes we traveled to St. George to welcome the new year on the beach, and sometimes we spent the night with our girls playing board games. Those were my favorite New Year's Eves, the ones spent with the girls. I have been waiting to babysit for grandchildren on New Year's Eve for a long time, but this year when I actually have a grandchild, Courtney and Paul are not going out so I can't babysit yet! I think John and I might do a movie this year, or we might grill some steaks, or we might play some wii with Mallory, lots of possiblities. We will have to see where the day takes us.
This has been a rambling post, but I have lots in my head tonight so what can I say...
Later...

Christmas Recap

One happy girl getting ready for her first big Christmas Eve!

Here are all the ladies just after church on Christmas Eve.

Here is Tizita in a new shirt. She is wearing a second new shirt on her head! Silly girl. She had so much fun opening her gifts and helping all of us open ours.

Here are the lovely ladies in their new Pajamas from Gigi. Tizita's have her name on the butt. Too cute!

Ever since we have been young, my dad started the tradition of taking our picture as we came into the living room and saw the gifts for the first time on Christmas morning. We have kept up this tradition and every year no matter where we lived we took a picture of the girls that morning looking into the room at their gifts for the first time. Here are the five of them coming into the living room through the very same archway that my brother and I entered for so many years! They are sporting their new pj's, also a Christmas tradition.

One of our traditions is Christmas Day brunch which always includes making donut holes. Here are Alissa, Mallory, and Tizita rolling the dough into little balls. Tizita was a big helper.

Our final celebration was at John's parents house in New Berlin. It was the first time that they had met Tizita so it was a very special Christmas for them. She stole their hearts as she does to everyone who meets her. Here she is having fun rolling a sausage.

It was a most memorable and wonderful Christmas all around!

Let the festivities begin!

Courtney, Paul, and Tizita arrived yesterday to begin our Christmas celebration. The ladies (my mom, Mal, Tizu, Courtney, and I) went shopping yesterday at a very fun store. Mallory had gotten a gift card for the store and she didn't need anything from there so she kindly let Tizita use the card to pick out whatever she wanted. It is a store with a variety of items including many cute children's toys and games. It used to be one of Mallory's favorite stores but as a sixteen year old, she has outgrown those kind of cutesy kid things. Tizita had a marvelous time just touching things and talking about them. She finally chose a monkey purse, small monkey pad of paper, special crayons, and a gel pen. Thank you so much, Mal for the generous gifts! After the shopping trip we headed over to have a latte at one of Mal's favorite coffee shops. Again, Tizita stole the show with her cute expressions.
We came home and just hung out together. Grandpa came home and had his Tizita fix, Gigi did her teeth brushing business with Tizu, and we all had a great beginning to our Christmas.
More updates coming later...
Merry Christmas everyone!

Not me! Monday

I did not take down the Christmas tree in my classroom today before my classroom Christmas party tomorrow just because it is one less thing I will have to do before my vacation starts! No, not me, not on your life!
I did not eat more cookies today than most people eat in two weeks, no not me, I only eat sweets in moderation.
I most certainly did not spend two hours this afternoon playing pathwords, twist word, and guess the sketch. I don't waste my time on computer games.
I am not at all anticipating the birth of the 18th duggar baby tonight on TLC . Who really watches those kind of shows. I also would never laugh at them for any reason, not me, I don't make fun of people.
I most certainly did not find any dust bunnies under my bedroom furniture while cleaning today.

These "Not Me, Mondays" originated on the "My charming kids" blog which is located on the right. I don't quite get how to do all the links to include my post on hers and I am not sure anyone would really care about my post, but I like her idea so I just borrowed it and am using it on my blog.
That being said, I would never "steal" anyone's idea without permission, not me!

The Christmas Cookies are frosted and we are on a sugar high!

This is a Christmas scene of sorts. That brown animal is Dominic the Donkey made especially for Tizita and Uncle Chedda. Th Santa is a brown Santa for Tizita.

Here are two mittens. Can you guess which one is Mal's and which is mine?

Sorry it's fuzzy, but this is Mallory's best piece of art. I questioned why she wanted a turkey for Christmas I think it was just so she could decorate it! Courtney would have been proud of the time Mallory took to do this one cookie!

The finished cookies. My girls will be able to pick out which ones I decorated and which ones Mal did.

For many years, ever since the girls were little we have baked cookies. We always came over to my mom and dad's house to bake for several reasons:
My mom always watched the stove so the cookies never burned
My mom always did the dishes as we worked so we never had to clean up
My mom never cared how much flour and other ingredients we got on her green kitchen carpet. She always cleaned it all up.
We always made our favorites like No Names, spritz, chocolate chips, and ended with white sugar cookies. The flour really flew then! Alissa always wore navy blue or black so she could wipe flour all over herself. (Even in College she wore dark colors for the same reason) Mallory joined us as soon as she was old enough to help out. When my dad was alive I am sure he cringed as he saw his kitchen being dirtied up so badly! Luckily he stayed out of our way and suffered in silence.

Now John and I live in that house along with my mom so I don't encourage the flour messes quite so much. The green carpet has been replaced with linoleum, but my mom still watches th cookies bake, does the dishes, and cleans up. Last year Paul and Nathan joined in the decorating fun. We had cut out six of each design and each of us decorated one of each kind. We then had a competition judged by John, my mom and Kev. They picked their favorites of each catagory. Don't remember who won, but chances are it was usually Mal or Courtney and let me tell you why. Both of these ladies take so much time on each cookie whereas Alissa and I just frost and throw on sprinkles. Alissa and I do ten cookies to Mal and Courtney's one!

One other note. We always start out so gunho on decorating and then about halfway through we get so sick of it all and we also get very hyped up from the sugar high. I remember my girls just running around the house like crazy women when they were little after licking the frosting.
Oh the memories of cookie baking and frosting. This year Mallory and I worked alone with my mom cleaning up our messes. Mal wore an Illinois Wesleyan blue shirt and got flour on it in honor of Alissa. She also made some beautiful cookies in honor of Courtney. Even is they couldn't be here to bake with us, we felt their spirits here in all we did. Time to go taste test a few cookies now!

"Thanks be to God for his Indescribable Gift". 2 Cor.9:15

My 16 ready to go up into church for the program.

Our Children's program was a huge success this morning! 16 of my 22 children braved the snow and cold to come and join in the celebration of our Saviour's birthday. The theme of the program was the Bible passage in the title of this post. My children sang very loud and didn't seem too afraid of all the people looking at them. I am glad that it is over for another year and I am very proud of my little ones for a job well done. Tomorrow and Tuesday I have Christmas parties with my classes and then we are done for our Christmas break. I am looking forward to some fun activities with the kids now that the program is behind us.

They're Backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

I just talked to Alissa and they are safely home. They arrived in Chicago about 2:00AM. John was able to watch the plane take off from Sangster Airport in Montego Bay and then track it until he came to bed while they were somewhere over Orlando. I tried calling at 4:30 AM when I woke up and they were just waiting for their shuttle to take them to their car at the hotel. They left the hotel at 6:30 and rolled into Milwaukee at 8:00. She says they are going to sleep now and that they are not tan, their sunscreen worked. I wil have to wait for more trip details until Christmas.
Thanks for your prayers and kind thoughts. They helped to keep me calm.
Now I am getting ready for my kids program. I hope a few little ones actually venture out in the below zero weather to come to church and sing with us. If not, I will understand! It is cold out there. Have a good Sunday, everyone and stay warm.

A Night of anxious waiting

Alissa and Nathan, the happy honeymooners were due to fly out of Montego Bay and arrive in Chicago by 9:00. Well due to our bad winter weather and ice and snow at O'Hare their flight won't even be leaving Jamaica until 9:00. That is the latest report from Nathan's blackberry which is now out of juice. With the winter weather warning lasting throughout the night, I am thinking they may not fly out until tomorrow which is probably better. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers for safe travels. Hopefully by the time you read this, they will be home safe and sound.

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Tizita Desta!

Today Tizita Desta, our first granddaughter is two years old. Here she is on the first day we met her. Already bright eyed and exploring her new home in her new life. What great big changes for such a little lady!
Becoming a grandparent is something I had been looking forward to with great anticipation. I watched good friends become grandmas and while being very happy for them, I was also a bit envious.
Finally we heard that Courtney and Paul were "expecting" our first grandchild, but not in the usual way. There would be no nine months of watching Courtney's tummy grow and feeling those kicks and seeing those ultrsound pictures. This was unchartered waters for me. I tried to learn all that I could about adoption and Ethiopia. I spent hours reading forums and blogs about families who had adopted from Ethiopia. I met two grandmas through the forum who already had their precious little ones home. They assured me that when I saw that child for the first time all the right grandma feelings would be there.
Boy, were they ever right! The minute Tizita came walking off that plane holding so tightly on to her mama's hand I was a grandma with all the love and pride that any other grandma feels when meeting a biological grandchild.
Different process, same outcome!
In ways, I feel that Tizita has been with us for so much longer than three months. I can hardly remember life without her. I know that it is a grandma's right to brag on their grandkids and I have to do that a bit now.
Tizita is very funny. She loves to joke with us and make us laugh. She has a lot of her Aunt Alissa and Gruncle Kevin's humor in her. Her facial expressions are simply precious with those big brown eyes and that cute smile.
She is such a loving, trusting child considering the life changes she has faced. She freely gives out her hugs and kisses to anyone that requests one.
She has learned so much since arriving although I think she brought many skills and good manners with her from the Care Center. It is obvious that she was well taken care of and loved by the nannies there and also by her first family.
She learns new words on a daily basis and loves to mimic everything we say. She is right on target for her developmental stages and she is healthy as can be.
Sometimes my mind wonders to the years ahead and what challenges she will face being raised in a white family and in a basically white community, but then again, with all the love that surrounds her it should be fine. I think all grandmas worry about their grandchildren's futures not matter what their circumstances.
I better wind this up. Sorry it is all over the place!
Happy Birthday Tizita Desta! We love you to the moon and back and we are ever so thankful to God for his perfect timing and match in giving you to us.

Stressful days for little ones

This week before Christmas is always a stressful time for our littlest ones at St. John's as we prepare for our Christmas service. We are on an every other year cycle. The Preschool through grade two present their service on the Sunday before Christmas this year and for that I am thankful while the 3rd through 8th grade present their service on Christmas Eve this year. Next year our little ones will be back on Christmas Eve. The 6:00 service is not the prime time for young children to perform so I much prefer the 10:30 morning service. Even with the better time slot this year, the practices leading up to the big program are stressful. Each morning this week we go over to church and go through the entire program stopping along the way to try and perfect the songs and recitations. I must say the Kindergarteners, 1st, and 2nd graders do a near perfect job while the Preschoolers sort of muddle along forgetting to turn around and look at the people, forgetting to sing or say their parts leaving me and the other teacher doing a duet. They pick their noses, make faces, and pull dresses up over their heads, but yet, when push comes to shove they are the ones that the people come to see because their antics are just so cute and their sweet little hearts are filled with so much love for their Savior. When they do remember to sing, the praises are coming straight from their hearts and their joy and innocence just shines through. Like the shepherds my little ones will be spreading the wonderful message of Christmas at our service. It will not be perfect, but it will be so pleasing to God! Now, Lord give me patience with them as we plod along at these practices.
Christmas eve services go way back with our family. I went to St. John's and was in eight Christmas eve programs, actually 16 since there were two each Christmas eve. The service was always magical with the wonderful songs and recitations. In between services we went back to our classrooms for a snack of 7 up and crackers, always 7 up and crackers! Oh the memories...
Both Courtney and Alissa were also in 18 services each (they also were there for Kindergarten, I was not) They have the same warm memories of those services and the 7 up and crackers, so does Mallory. We no longer do two services due to family dynamics and kids' attention spans these days. We have allowed them to get soft, but that is another entry. One of the hardest things for me to do was watch Courtney go off to her first Christmas Eve with Paul's family. I missed her so much that first year. I missed her in church at that very special service. It hasn't gotten any easier, but I have her, Paul, and Tizita here this year on the rotation so the service will seem complete. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a Christmas Eve service to enjoy this year.

Off to Jamaica!

On the coldest day of the year so far, Alissa and Nathan have just gotten to Jamaica and should be at the swim up bar as I write this! They flew out early this AM for their long awaited honeymoon. I will miss Alissa's daily emails, but I will survive. They were both so excited and I hope they have the trip of a lifetime!

Successful Birthday celebrations and a weekend of fun with Tizita!

At Mallory's basketball game on Friday night.

Sledding for the first time!

Some of our yummy desserts.

A Birthday dance with Grandpa and Mimi.

A moment with Grandma and Grandpa.

The two Birthday girls share a moment.

Mallory could not believe that she got a wii from all of us!

And the band played on... More than just a family, we are a band now! Trying out Mallory's new wii system!

Poor Mallory had to be in this old people band! We are very serious!

Here we are with Tizita afer singing "Happy Birthday" to her. I had to hold her party hat because she didn't really enoy wearing it. She did enjoy her little cake, though. Happy Birthday sweet little Tizita!

We had a very fun weekend. We started by going to Mallory's basketball game on Friday night. Tizita enjoyed her first taste high school basketball. She especially liked the Gosling mascot who came up and gave her high fives and watching Mallory cheer.
On Saturday we took her outside and gave her a ride on her new sled. We have a very small hill in our backyard and she took her first solo sled ride down that little hill. She wore a big smile the whole time so I think she liked it.
Alissa, Nathan, Mallory, and Kevin arrived from their lunch at Noodles on Saturday afternoon and the sixteenth birthday extravaganza began. Mallory was speechless when she opened her wii. She had no idea. We immediately got a band together and played for quite sometime.
We had a great birthday dinner and wonderful desserts provided by Alissa and Nathan.
More guitar hero and wii playing after dinner.
On Sunday we went to church and then had Tzita's birthday celebration. She enjoyed her Elmo blowers, but not the hats so much. Her cake was a big hit.
Alissa and Nathan left early Sunday to get ready for their honeymoon in Jamaica. Courtney, Paul, and Tizita left a bit ago. I cleaned up the house and am now relaxing and remembering. The best part is that I can still smell sweet little Tizita's coconut oil lingering around the house. It makes her seem not quite so far away.