More or Less

Here we are.

December 31, 2010.

Already.

This was the most emotional,  roller coaster-esque, flying by faster than a 747 kind of year.  It was filled with many births and too many deaths, milestones, personal achievements, descions and more.  In a few short hours, we will be opening our resolutions from last year.  And quite honestly, with the exception of one, I cannot remember any goals I had set for myself.  However that has not stopped me from already deciding on what my resolutions for next year will be, more or less. Let me explain.  In 2011 I resolve to:

do more     weigh less     finish more     give more

     volunteer more      be more creative  

use more imagination     save more

      live on less      buy less      try more

move more     plan ahead more      donate more

      spend more time outside     read more

organize more     recycle more      waste less

watch less tv     procrastinate less

       on the computer less but blog more

(not sure how that one will go but we'll try)

complain less      Praise more

and on and on and on and on

I had a dream 2

I had actually been awake for a few hours before I remember that I had a dream about Dad.  The details are a little blurry but I can't help but chuckle every time I relive this dream in my head.

I was at my parents house.  I has just gotten back from getting chinese food for Mom and me, was getting her settled into the dining room chair and distributing food when Dad strolled in, limp and all.  He sat down in the desk chair facing us and rested his elbows on his legs and slightly laced his fingers as I remember him doing so many times.  He just sat there smiling away listening to Mom and I talk, about what I don't remember.  I had just taken a bite of a dumpling for the first time and thought it was really good so I offered Dad a bite.  He just laughed and shook his head.  And that was the end of the dream.

I guess Dad doesn't like chinese food, even in the afterlife.  :O)

I had a dream 1

Bree's Wordless Wednesday

Jacob's Wordless Wednesday

(Jacob's first piggy back ride)

Holly/Christmas Cookies

December 5th - Holly

The holly plant has long represented immortality.  The leaves represent the crown of thorns worn by our Savior while the red of the berries symbolize His blood. 

Somehow she managed to get paint on her eye as well.

Ornaments made from oven-baked clay

Bree's very berry holly ornament

December 6th - Christmas Cookies

The origin of the Christmas cookie can be traced back to Medieval Europe.  However it wasn’t until the 1870’s that cookie cutters became available in America.  Legend says that during the middle ages a woodcarver and his wife made cookie molds to tell the story of Christ’s birth.  Cookies were then given, not only as food to the poor, but to share the story of the Nativity. 

Christmas Cards/Candy Canes

December 3rd - Christmas Cards

A tradition that start in the 1840s in England, Christmas cards were sent by schoolboys to their parents to report on their progress in school.  By 1874, a German immigrant began printing beautiful cards in the United States that people liked.  Within a few years he was printing several millions a year.  Other Christmas card companies began popping up until it became the gigantic business it is today.

December 4th - Candy Canes

Turned one way, it looks like a ‘J’ for Jesus.  Turned the other way, candy canes remind us of the shepard’s staff, whom were the first people to hear of Christ’s birth while watching their flock at night. The white of the candy cane symbolizes the Virgin Birth and the sinless life of Christ.  The red symbolizes the blood Jesus shed to give us all eternal life.  

(Bree's Candy Cane)

Showing off her candy cane outfit

Wreaths

December 2nd - Wreaths

The circl of a Christmas wreath is a never ending ring, a reminder of everlasting love from our Lord and King.  The Christmas wreath can be seen on many doors in our neighborhood as a sign of 'Welcome', inviting all to enter.  This can serve as a reminder of Christ's invitation for all to come to Him.  The middle of the wreath is a bare and empty space - a reminder of what life would be without Christ's love and grace.  The material that wreaths are made from is usually evergreens - representing eternal life. 

A taco wreath for dinner

and marshmallow wreaths for dessert.

(Bree got ahold of my camera again.  And this time she left sticky fingerprints all over it.)

 

And what would the Christmas season be without a paper plate and tissue paper wreath??

A Mommy and Bree creation

Advent

December 1st - Advent

Definition #3 - the period before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

Advent calendars were popular with immigrant families.  They usually are comprised of little windows or houses with flaps to be opened each day of the month of December up to and including, Christmas day.  Behind these flaps was a poem, scripture, fortune or piece of chocolate candy.  Each day this would be a ritual to open the little door for that particular date and receive a reward or verse.  Children relished this wonderful tradition, and families still celebrate the twenty-five days leading to Christmas with advent calendars to this very day.

Pulling the first tree off our new advent calendar

Bree still isn't fully recovered from the flu so much so that Daddy opened her advent gift.

Instead of a small piece of chocolate a day, we got semi-large chocolate Santas to eat.  A little bit each day of course.