Two Early Christmas Surprises

Surprise--- it's a new puppy!!!

We had searched and searched until we felt that magic spark with this particular dog.  We had looked at rescuing a few dogs from the shelter.  But when we met them, it just didn't feel right.  We finally started researching goldendoodles and found that is what we really wanted because they don't shed, they are quite intelligent, and they are great family pets.

Last Saturday, we set out with 2 appointments to meet two different puppies at different locations.  They were all very far from our home way out in the country, so it took most of the day.

It was love at first sight for this girl.  She was so sweet, and cuddly, and had that wise old look on her face.  She wanted to chew everything in sight.  Her legs are long and clunky like a baby fawn.  She is energetic and engaged with everything around her.  She's perfect!

But my husband was a little concerned at how big she could get, so we still went ahead and kept the appointment to look at the mini-goldendoodle.  He ended up being a sweet boy, but we just didn't feel the same connection.

So we traveled all the way back to the first place and picked up our new girl.  I could hardly wait to get home and show the girls.

My youngest answered the door, and she just kept saying things like "What is this?!  Mom, what is it?!"  Then it turned to "Oh, she is perfect!" with tears of joy streaming down her face.  I have never seen anything so sweet and tender.  In this picture, you can see the twinkle in her eye, and it looks like puppy is giving it right back.

My oldest then came down and was absolutely delighted as well.

The story doesn't end there…..

The other surprise was early Monday morning, at 5:45 am to be precise, I got up to let her out.  I was talking to my oldest as I was walking down the stairs…. when "Timber!!!"….. I fell down about 4 stairs.  I thought I was at the landing when I really wasn't.

Ouch!  That hurt.  My first thought was, "I think I just broke my foot."

I hurried and sat down and started googling broken feet.  I decided I better get into the doctor first thing.
I am so glad I did because sure enough, after an x-ray, I broke my talus- the teenie-weenie bone connected to the ankle.  When I rolled my ankle, the ligaments pulled that baby right off the other bones.

How in the world do you take care of a giant puppy when you can't even walk?  I had strict instructions not to put any pressure on it, use crutches, and elevate it often.

So the Relief Society sisters came to the rescue.  We set up a rotation where different ladies from church came (often with their children) and let the dog out, ran in the snow with her, then fed and played with her.  They were wonderful and our little pup has met so many people of different ages I think it has been good for her.  And she is already on a good schedule because of it.

I wish I could measure this little dog's IQ.  I taught her to sit in one day, and to lay quietly when we do to the kennel to let her out.  She caught on so quickly.  She piddles the second we take her out, too.  This is a magnificent creature, as my husband said one night.  We are enamored!

In all honesty, I was not feeling all that merry and bright about my foot on Monday.  The timing seemed horrible.  But the song "Where are you Christmas?" captured my feelings so well.  It didn't seem like a good thing to happen right now, especially because this little animal is so dependant on me, as well as the rest of my family.  But as I was stranded on my couch with lots of time to think, and as the service people were giving us began, my spirit started turning around.  I was feeling so loved suddenly. People were grocery shopping for me and running errands, bringing dinner to me, playing with my dog, offering me rides, shoveling my drive way, etc.  Each act brought me more joy as I felt truly loved.  That is when I realized that I had "found Christmas"!  We celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of the Jesus, who was the ultimate giver of love.  He was (and is) the great healer.  The one who taught that "charity never faileth."  The wonderful friends in my life were the instruments in the Lord's hands, doing exactly as He would have and doing exactly what He taught each of us to do.  In the stillness I found in my living room, I found Christmas, which means I found Christ.  In all truth, it found me, through the acts of kindness of others.  Christ finds us if we take the time to ponder.  I think this might forever change my approach to Christmas to actually do less (which I have always wanted to do), and make time for stillness.  Not necessarily on a couch, but more time to think, ponder, reflect, talk to friends, serve others, simplify the gift giving- and give of myself as Christ did.

So Much to Be Thankful For

So much to be thankful for this past month.  Including a budding photographer daughter who took this picture ;o)

We had a full house for Thanksgiving.  Our extended family does not live close by, so we celebrated with friends.  It was still very fun and special, and has been our tradition for many years.  We had new friends and old friends over and the missionaries (volunteers who serve people in our area).

Two unforgettable things occurred on Thanksgiving, a good one, and one we would probably all like to forget.

1) After the main course, we invited a whole bunch of people over to play games and have pie.  Everyone was to bring a pie to share.  I am kicking myself for not getting a better picture when the dessert bar was completely full of pie and all sorts of desserts.  It was fun and festive and very memorable, and very delicious!

The reason I didn't get a good picture was because of #2 (keep reading).

2) Just as everyone arrived and the dessert bar was full of all those pies, our 12 year old friend choked on a piece of hard candy and puked all over the floor right NEXT to the pies!  Like I said, this was at the very moment the last guest arrived, so there were people and pie everywhere!

So I tag-teamed her mama and got her over to her daughter, I ran like lightening to get towels, BLEACH, mops, etc.  And the Papa started cleaning up the mess while we cleared the area.

Poor girl… she had just told us at dinner her unforgettable Thanksgiving when she was an adorable 3 year old.  Now she will have a story to rival that one, bringing balance to the world.  I guess we can't have too much cuteness running around all at once ;o)  This was not so fun or festive, but very memorable.

After the "Hazmed" clean up, people actually ate pie-- and no one reported getting sick.  Whew!

Later in the evening, everyone broke off into groups and went shopping.  That was the beginning of shopping runs for my husband and I over the next 3 days.  Luckily, we didn't get into the crazy crowds and things went pretty smoothly.  I am not finished, but it was a good start.  I got gifts sent off to my far away family, and my Christmas cards are even finished!

We decided to get new ornaments for the tree this year.  We really need another tree so we can have a tree for all the kid ornaments.  I adore the kid-tree look, and I've always let my kids help set up the tree and it certainly looked kid-decorated some years.  But I decided after 20 years of marriage, to spruce the tree up a little and try a little something new.  I am glad I did.  We are all okay- no damage done even though we didn't use the old stuff.  It was still fun to look at the old ornaments.  Here are a few that I love:

And here are the pictures taken by my youngest.

Even Daisy got into the action:

I have been thinking about when the girls were little and all the little lessons we had about gratitude at Thanksgiving time.  Those lessons often involved making a long list of the things we were thankful for.  We made written lists on paper, talked about our lists, made giant chain-link lists with slips of paper that had a word telling what we were thankful were.  We talked about pilgrims and read different picture books each night from the books I collected.  I really do miss that sweet and innocent time.

Our family has changed and we didn't have a long list written any where this year.  But I can see that as our family has matured, we express that gratitude more often, all year long.  We kneel in prayer each day together as a family and individually, and hopefully begin each prayer with what we are grateful for.  I do hear thank you in my home at least daily for little things.  We help each other often, which is an expression of appreciation and gratitude for one another.  There is room for us to show greater gratitude for sure, but I can't help but feel thankful for the tender gratitude we feel in our relationships with each other in our home.  I feel truly blessed for the many, many blessings I enjoy, but also for the hardships that have stretched me (even though at the time I tend to not feel so grateful for them).  If I had written a gratitude list this year, the top of my list would have been family, friends, home, food, clothing, the simple things in life, and the knowledge and testimony of a Savior and Father in Heaven.

Jewelry Boxes by Bob

Introducing a new line of product: jewelry boxes!

 Aren't they beautiful?

They are of superior quality, handmade by Bob, of walnit wood.  He is an expert with wood and a retired chemist from 3M.  He knows a lot, I tell you, and is a pleasure to work with!  He also cuts the wood by hand for all of the cake stands that Rita Marie Weddings offers.

To order or learn more, visit my Etsy Shop:

Walnut Jewelry Box

Our Spooky Misadventure

We had a funny experience during MEA (Minnesota Education Days).

We decided to have a family activity, but didn't have a lot of time for it.  Going to an apple orchard is a big tradition when living in Minnesota.  We have our favorite one out in Stillwater, but decided to try a new one down south.  Little did we know it was more geared to preschoolers.

The funniest part was following GPS directions.  The girls saw a Trail of Terror sign, and said "Ooh, that sounds fun!"  Not 2 minutes later, the GPS leads us to a very old cemetery and says "You have arrived to your destination."  We bust out laughing because A) this looked spooky like a trail of terror and B) the cemetery was definitely not our destination!  And of course it started raining the minute we stepped outside of the car.

Look mom… this tombstone is scary.  And tall.

Oooooh… spooky!  Scary!  We found our own Trail of Terror!

We did finally find our way to the orchard.  What we loved about the orchard was there were tons of squash and the apples were amazing (honey crisp and honey gold).  We stocked up on both.

All was not lost, we noticed on our way to the orchard the Worlds Largest Candy Store.  Huh?  Why I have I never heard of this place before?

It was really fun to look the novelty candies.  I wish this picture showed how long the building is- the end of the wall is probably 1/8-1/4 mile down.

Scary equals this giant gummy worm…. 5000 calories!

Yep, you'd have to be a real pig to eat all of this candy.

After that, it was dinner at The Cheesecake Factory then walking around the mall.

It ended up being such a fun outing.  And incidentally, the cheesecake was gone in about 10 seconds flat.  My proper girls' etiquette went down the drain once the cheesecake was put in front of them.

Monthly Wrap

The last few weeks have been filled with school activities, filling out college appications, homework, work-work, and making time for family.

Royal Youth- Young Women in Excellence

The Young Women at church, which include my daughters, had a really neat evening of highlighing their activites they have accomplished over the last year.  My girls gave short presentations about love and the big hike they took this summer.  At the end they all received crowns (cute) with a royal decree. The leaders borrowed a few of my cake stands for the refreshments.

In Health News….
This girl is nearing the end of her ortho treatment.  She wanted me to take a picture of her real teeth.  They took the front braces off to reposition them to move the roots.  It felt funny.  Hopefully, she is in the final stretch for just a few more months.

 This girl got to pick out a new set of glasses.  They are very cool.  This was her trying to decide which pair she likes best.

Musical Review
So my youngest taught me that sometimes being the star is working "behind the scenes."

She did Tech for the play, and she helped build the set.  It turned out so cool.  So she was able to put her art skills to work.  She also helped with props during the performances, so she applied leadership and organization.  Great job, Girl!

Community Events
I attended the Prayer Breakfast for our city with some local leaders and friends.  It was so early!  Can you tell…. I look sooo tired.  But totally worth it!  I highly reccommend looking up your city's prayer breakfast.  Many cities hold them and people aren't aware.  There is, of course, a breakfast served.  Also, it is a great gathering of community members with some really good speakers.  I have found it to be a very uplifting experience.

 

Hobby Time

This girl loves drawing, and makes time for practing it almost daily.  She took some pictures of herself to try to draw some self-portraits.  I thought that was a great idea.

Date Night
This was such a cute show with a really cute set.  The only problem is it was a spontaneous decision so it was almost sold out, and there were only 2 tickets left-- on opposite sides of the room.  So I got to gaze at my husband from across the room.  He is texting me love notes in the picture ;o)

Speaking of Spam… did you know there is a real live Spam Museum in Minnesota?  I wouldn't say it is on my bucket-list (actually, I don't have a bucket list), but if I had occasion to be in the vicinity, I think I would stop at it.  Before I saw the play, not so much.  But now I understand Spam got it roots from World War II, so I think I would stop to learn a little more about the war.

Orchestra Concert
My youngest had her orchestra concert.  It is always a joy to see the progress from year to year when they hold orchestra concerts.

And that's a wrap!