Merry Christmas!!

As we speak my ham and turkey are cooking right now. So I have a sweet aroma of cherries and almonds in the air from the ham glaze. Soon it will be apples and walnuts. hmm Christmas dinner. Can't wait for the family to come to share good food, laughter, and good company. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Music On Christmas Morning

This something I found in my women's bible. A song that was written by Anne Bronte.


Music I love - but ne'er a strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine;
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
upon the wintery breezes borne.

To greet with joy the glorious morn,
Which angels welcomed long ago,
When our redeeming Lord was born,
To bring the light of Heaven below...

With them, I celebrate his birth;
Glory to God, in highest Heaven,
Good will to men, and peace on Earth,
To us a Savior King is given;
Our God is come to claim His own,
And Satan's power is overthrown!

A sinless God, for sinful men,
Descends to suffer and to bleed;
Hell must renounce its empire then;
The price is pain, the world is freed,
And Satan's self must now confess,
That Christ has earned a right to bless.

~ Anne Bronte (1820-1849)

Caught Up in the Hype

Do you ever feel that you are losing yourself in Christmas? That the idea of Christmas is gone? What happened? Why am I saying idea instead of spirit?

As I and many others out there get caught up in the gimmicks, the idea, and the falsified image. The gadgets, the technology, and the junk. I feel that I am not teaching my children the real meaning of Christmas. The expectation of gifts are getting greater and greater each year. I see it more now that I have two children. I have no one to blame except for myself, and maybe the media. So as I talk with Rick about this today. I said to him next year's Christmas is going to be different. We are not buying are children any gadgets, game systems, or electrical devices. We are not going to ask them, we are going to just buy what ever.

Christmas is not about the gifts we give or about what we receive. It's about the birth of Jesus Christ. The man we owe everything to. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Jesus. Him being brought into your life for the good. Doing good deeds for others. Christmas should not be this depressing and stressful. We do this to ourselves. We should be enjoying and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Mt 1:21
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.

Mt 2:10-11
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw a child with his mother Mary,
and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their
treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and
of myrrh.

The Mom Song

A friend of mine shown me this clip on Youtube. I think it's quit a catchy tune. I know all the mom's out there well like this one.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

Stick!

About a month in a half ago we got a new cat. Well we didn't exactly get the cat the cat found us. One morning as I was going to take my daughter to school. We hopped into the car and we heard a loud cat cry. I get out and look around the car. I didn't see anything so I got back into the car ,and still could hear the cry. I thought to myself "no it couldn't be," but sure enough I opened up the hood of the car, and starring back at me was a black kitten frighten to death sitting at the back of the engine. It quick bolted into the engine where I could not reach. Scared that it would get sucked into the fan of the engine. I quick shut it off. I look at my daughter sitting in the car, and I said to her " there's a kitten in the engine!" She than said with a scared look on her face " Don't kill it Mom!" Needless to say after hours of getting it out of the engine. Plus assuring my daughter that I was not a cat killer. We got the cat out, and we ended up keeping it.

So we needed to think of a name for our new little kitten. As all of us thought of names to name the kitten. Rick picked Cider, Keanul picked Shadow, I picked Sassy, and Roz picked Stick. We thought we would do it the political way. Draw names out of a hat; so that everyone thought it was done fairly. We all put the names in the hat and drew. And low and behold the kitten's name is Stick! Our newest family member. You can only sit back and laugh at this.

NO WORK!! WOOHOO!!

Well this week I'm off of work. I took this week to get ready for the holiday cheer. So this week I will be shopping and visiting. But so far I have been cleaning and trying to catch up on some laundry. Not so fun. The whole week won't be wasted on cleaning.
Well the oven doctor finally called this morning and said he would be over any where between 9:30 and 10:30. I don't understand why people can't give you a particular time. Why does it have to be in between something? Any who he coming and I'm happy.
Have a good day everyone!

9 More Days to Christmas!!!

Can you believe there is only 9 more days until Christmas, and I have not went Christmas shopping yet!! Crazy. I know starting to get late. I'm a last minute Christmas shopper. I need to get a move on it. My daughter Roz has been counting down the days. She is so excited for Christmas. Christmas is definitely for the kids, isn't it?

Well my oven has been broke for the last week. Tomorrow it will be finally fixed. Now I can do some holiday baking. I love the smell of cookies cooking. The sweet aroma fill through out the house. hmmmm!!

I Have Been Tagged!!

I have been tagged from my sister today.
So I will try my best on five facts about me.

1) I too don't like to make small talk with strangers. I'm quite shy at first. Let's face it sometimes you just don't know what to say!

2) I'm fascinated by other cultures. It's interesting how other people live. Don't you think?

3) When I go to bed I can not fall asleep unless there is absolute silence and every light is off. I would not make a good 3rd shifter.

4) Three of my biggest pet peeves are.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people leave the lights on, and there is nobody in that room.
The second one is when the toilet seat is left up. If your a women you feel my pain.
The third one is when people put drink containers back into the refrigerator that only have like a swallow, sip, a small nothing. Why?

5) When I was a kid about 7 or 8. I too like the kid from Christmas Story got my tongue stuck on our backyard fence poll. Thanks to my lovely big sister who said "lick this it taste good!!" Like a dumby I say " Okay"(like a dope) As I'm stuck there she's laughing and then leaves my there until my mother came out look for us girls for supper. Memories!!!

I did the elf

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1319738025

Oh Christmas Tree!!

Yesterday we finally put up the Christmas tree!! It almost took out my eye, but I'm okay! Rozalynn and I decorated it. She inspected each ornament that went on and ask did I make this one or Keanul? I had to just laugh. She handle each one with care and excitement. I love these moments. When Keanul was this age he was the same way. Each ornament was a treasure.
I watched some of the Packer game. I'm glad to say they pulled threw with a win.
Took a nap that I greatly needed. Then the family and I went out for supper and to Old Navy. I like that store. It has a lot of great deals. Got Rozalynn an outfit for under $20 shirt, pants, and a turtleneck. Can't beat that.

One More Day

Today's topic on Oprah was a book called " One More Day" by Mitch Albom. It's a story about a man that is lost in his life. Divorced, children no longer speaking to him, you get the idea. But as he is driving back to his home town he gets into a car accident. As he is in a place between the living and the dead; he is able to spend one more day with his mother that had past sometime ago. As his mother in that one day helped him put his life back on track. It's a book about love, forgivness, and having one more chance. It's seems like a very touching book. I would like to read.

As I was thinking to myself; if I had one more day to spend with someone I loved who would it be? Who has past in my life that I would like to spend one more day with? Seeing how my mother, father, loving husband and children are still here. I can think of 2 people who I would love to spend one more day with. One would be my Grandma Hale, and the second would be my Grandpa Chiang.

My Grandma past away in April 1994 of heart failure. She was a great lady even though I did not see her often. I loved her dearly. When my sister and I were young we lived with my Grandma while my mother and father were going though thier divorce. She made large quilts that would fill the whole living room. I remember my sister and I would lay or play underneath as she worked way. We would sometimes sneak off and start playing in our room, and she would yell "Girls come back in here." You got to remember back in those days there was no Cartoon Network. There was Days of Our Lives. Which to a young child is quite boring. But I still remember that hour glass and the sand of our time saying. The smell of the kitchen is so fresh in my mind and nose. The smell of baking and her cooking. hmmm! Her homemade ice cream she would make with fresh strawberries from her garden. The day that I would spend with her would be us just sitting in the kitchen. With a bowl of her strawberry ice cream of course. A day that I could get to know her, and her to know me. A day of questions, laughing, joy, and tears.

My Grandpa Chiang past away in September 1997 of heart failure as well. He lived in Taiwan. I was never able to meet my grandfather. My mother moved to the United Stated in 1973. I was born in New Orleans in 1975. My father was in the United States Navy when he meet my mother in 1971. My mother doesn't not speak very much about the past. Trying to get information out of her is like trying to get a new pickle jar lid open. Hard and tough. I guess I need to get a better gripper! But anyway, I would spend the day talking to him. I would have like to have known him. What kind of person was he? What did he like and dislike? So many question and things I don't know.

Don't get me wrong I do not live my life in any regret at all. I love my family to the highest tilt. God has truly blessed me and my family. I know that someday I will have my one more day. That one day I will be able to see my grandparents, and be able to sit and talk with them. That day is just not today. But when that one day does come; it's not just my grandparents I want to sit and talk with. I would also like to sit and talk with God and Jesus as well.

Feeling Better!!!

Well the cold is gone and I am feeling great. Back to the normal. Rozalynn has bounced back and back to school. Rick is slowly getting back on his feet. I blame him, he had the cold first and spread it to the family. (lol). So the Christmas season has started. I'm a slow starter. Always have been. I am slowly getting into the Christmas Spirit. I have been listening to Christmas music on my way to work. "I've been dreaming of a white Christmas!" I love Christmas music. It's cheerful, soothing, and it just seems to brighten the start of my day. Work has been busy. I have been putting in more hours at work. Which is good for me; see how my children have expensive taste!

Hope everyone had a great day.