Best of 2009

Best of 2009! (Well, technically, best of 2009 after April, because that's when I started my blog, and I'm not digging thru cd's to find pictures too.)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Mehindi

Family

Christmas!

This year we got a White Christmas! It began snowing on Christmas eve and we wound up with about an inch or so for Christmas. Christmas eve, we went to the candlelight service, then out to look at Christmas lights. When we came home, the girls were able to open one present - Christmas jammies. Santa came sometime during the night. He left the girls scooters and candy and all the adults he left lottery tickets. We were all going to go to Disney world if we won, but no one did. But Santa had a temporary lapse in judgement and left Lizzy a roll on bottle of body glitter. So she was sparkley all day as were the dogs. She used the entire bottle in one day.

Then we had Christmas dinner with my Mom and Jerry, and Theo's sister and Brother in law and their two children. We had all the traditional foods, including our yearly favorite, candied yams with burning marshmallows.

Then we all curled up on the couches and watched slept thru It's a Wonderful Life. And after that we read the Christmas story, sang carols, and FINALLY opened presents!

Deen's Birthday celebration

Yesterday Theo's sister's husband, Deen, along with 2 of his good friends celebrated their birthdays together. We had a wonderful time with good friends, good food, and good fun.

Deen - we wish you a wonderful year filled with lots of love. Happy Birthday!!

Since Mercy (Theo's sister) was here to dress me, I even got to wear my sari. Of course, being me, I shut my tail in the car door and ripped it.

Merry Christmas!

We wish all our friends and family a wonderful Christmas!


Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Mary's Dream

I had a dream, Joseph, I don't understand it, not really,
but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our Son.
I think that was what it was all about. The people had
been preparing for it for about six weeks. They had
decorated the house and bought new clothes. They'd
gone shopping many times and bought elaborate gifts. It
was peculiar, though, because the presents weren't for
our Son.
They wrapped them in beautiful paper and tied them with
lovely bows and stacked them under a tree. Yes, a tree,
Joseph, right in their house. They'd decorated the tree
also. The branches were full of glowing balls and
sparkling ornaments. There was a figure on the top of the
tree. It looked like an angel might look. Oh, it was
beautiful.
Everyone was laughing and happy. They were all excited
about the gifts. They gave the gifts to each other,
Joseph, not to our Son. I don't think they even knew Him.
They never mentioned His name. Doesn't it seem odd for
people to go to all that trouble to celebrate someone's
birthday if they don't know Him?
I had the strangest feeling that if our Son had gone to this
celebration He would have been intruding. Everything
was so beautiful, Joseph, and everyone so full of cheer,
but it made me want to cry. How sad for Jesus -not to be
wanted at His own birthday celebration.
I'm glad it was only a dream. How terrible, Joseph, if it
had been real.

Family Portraits

I always thought we couldn't afford to have an artist do our family portraits, but we went ahead and sprang for it today. Well worth the money, and these were surprisingly inexpensive.

My Amazing Daisies!

Yesterday we had our girl scouts awards ceremony and Christmas party. Here are some pictures of my Amazing Daisies. Also I tried to get pictures of the other girls as they came up since some people didn't bring a camera. Just click on it to download. Thanks to all the leaders who do so much for girl scouts, especially Mrs. T! And congrats to all the girls!

Yesterday evening we enjoyed the Christmas Concert at our church. They had special guests, This Hope, who were amazing. The whole concert was wonderful!

Then, this morning, we had Lizzy's 4 year check-up. She is in nearly perfect health, except for a little low on Iron and she has a cross bite. I have been worried that she has a UTI, but we won't know until she can pee in the cup. After drinking many glasses of water and trying a few times, we gave up and hope she can pee in a cup at home. Now I have to drive all the way back across town with a bottle of pee tomorrow.

This afternoon we had the Daisy girlscouts over to make and decorate Christmas cookies. Then we took a bunch of girls on a sugar rush to the nursing home. They did great and really brought some happiness to the older folks there. I forgot to bring my camera with me, but I took a couple on my phone so if I ever figure out how to get them out of there, I'll post them.

Live Nativity Scene

Saturday we went to the live nativity scene put on by the Lutheran church here. It is always a wonderful event. The camels are really cool too. Then we headed out to the S.E. Asian Christmas Mela that Theo wanted to attend. They had some singing by an old Bollywood singer and then some preaching and we had a nice evening.

2009 Pictures With Santa

Christmas Activities

This morning we went to Santa's village in Richardson. The girls had a lot of fun. It was really crowded but we got to see most of the houses. We plan to go back in the evening sometime and see the lights. After that we went to North park to get pics with Santa, but they said at 11am that they would call our number around 4. No way! Like I told the girls, why wait in line to see Santa's helper, when we could see the real one at our mall? So we went to the trains instead. They were really awesome! On the way home we stopped at our mall here in Plano where they have the "real" Santa. We even think we saw Rudolph's nose on the top of the building, but we couldn't be sure.

Santa's Village



The Trains at North Park

Mops Christmas Party

We had our Christmas party at Mops yesterday. It was lots of fun. All the table leaders decorated the tables so pretty, we had a fun white elephant gift exchange, and some delicious food. Esp. that amazing tomato basil soup!

Gingerbread Houses!

Yesterday was fun at our house as we had 16 children from Mops making gingerbread houses. Thanks to everyone who came! Hope everyone had as much fun as we did! To save a picture, click on it, then click "download" from the Picasa web album.

Downtown Christmas

The girls got to sing for the downtown Christmas celebration Friday night. They all looked so cute. They also had Santa come and carriage rides, but we were freezing so we went home. We have gotten so spoiled by the warm weather down here that a little cold sends us running.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Just a few pictures of our Christmas decorations this year. Usually I put up a few more lights around the window, but I didn't feel like it this year. Too much going on right now. I love the way the lights look at night. Wish we could leave them up year round!

101 Dalmations

Katie and I got to go see 101 Dalmations last night with girl scouts. It was a really cute performance. We had a great night and I'm counting it as a field trip for school today. Since we didn't get home til midnight (Katie's first time to stay up that late!) we sure aren't doing school today.

Here is Katie with her good friend, Carrie.

They didn't allow pictures, but I snuck one in as they were taking their bows. Almost too late.

Snow!

Snow in Texas!!!
This morning we woke up to beautiful big flakes of snow falling. Unfortunately, not quite enough for Lizzy to make a snowman, but it was still fun playing in it.

The field across the street from our house.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!