T'was the night before Christmas......

It's Christmas Eve and there was soooo much to do today.

 ----visit Santa (taking in one more visit before he takes flight)
 ---- Christmas eve lunch (love spending special moments like this with my little ones)
 ----make cookies and sweets (we're so excited for CHRISTMAS!!)
 ----set out luminaries along our driveway and sidewalk (taking a spiritual moment to reflect)
---- Calls to NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) This North American defense follows Santa's route around the world.

We're beyond excited.

We wish you a very..... MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE

strolling among thousands of luminaries

May visions of sugar plums dance in your head

Be safe, be warm and have a good night......
(CLICK HERE to check out our Christmas eve blog from last year)

chilling....

Hurray for Winter Break!!!!!

Bam, Fifi, Cookie and Sweetheart are officially on holiday break all this week and next; up till after the New Year.

We are sooooo EXCITED.

We're happy to say good-bye (for now) to the morning rush hour

We're happy to stay in our pj's all day long (if we so please)

We're staying home today, making cookies (and making our home smell sweet)

Now if only it would SNOW!!

KINDNESS IS CONTAGIOUS

Random acts of kindness...

This morning at Starbucks.... someone paid for our Starbucks drinks.

Wow!?? That's so sweet.... so random.....SO RANDOMLY SWEET!

Of course, we continued the act of kindness forth to those behind us.

Committing random acts of kindness is absolutely contagious... on our way home we were thinking of other ways we can continue this thoughtful action.

you're safe to resume the rest of your life.....

What's the big idea behind this stone and clay Mayan calendar made in the fifth century B.C.

It was a calendar of calculations of seasons, drought, rainfall, gods and moon phases.

But to think that this calendar was a prediction tool for the demise of all known civilization??

WHAT??

Isn't it know that the Mayan had more than one calendar..... in fact several have been found.

Isn't it known that this isn't the end of LIFE.... but rather ONLY the end of the 13th b'ak'tun and the beginning of another cycle.

In light of the days leading up today....  from now on..... we should celebrated life.
12-21-12 is the beginning of anew.....
 a day to be kind to another.... be respectful.... smile..... and when you receive it...... pass it on to others.

I like this kind of prediction..... the prediction of a better tomorrow.....

What are you going to do???

sleepless in ABQ.....

Whew... what a day;

I helping my kiddos study for finals
I promised a good friend of mine with her furniture shopping

I'm so exhausted..... (uh oh) the little one is running a fever.
I guess bedtime will have to wait another night...

 oh how I look forward to winter break

laugh therapy.....

I have a good friend who decide she wanted to rearrange her house today.
She says I'm a good friend for helping her redesign her living space... (I think she's a good friend for trusting my decisions)

Any ways.... we've decided she needs new furniture.
She says she needs my eye for design.
I laugh when she says that...

Good friends are good to have.
Good friends are hard to find.
Good friends are GOLD

Darwin the monkey.....

Why is it when we go shopping we see angry husky dog with an attitude
 But when others go shopping they see a cute macaque monkey in a shearling coat!!

This macaque monkey is sooo CUTE......

Apparently he got lost his mommy while shopping in Ikea in Canada.

Poor little guy looks like a sad lost child wondering where his family is...
My kiddos and I agree that this little guy is soooo Crazy ADORABLE and we hope he reunites with his family before Christmas.
Oh my.....a monkey in a coat!!! Isn't that just so stinkin' CUTE!!

It's Christmas time...... in Costco

After school today we decided to get ourselves in the holiday mood...... So we headed to Costco--our favorite little place. (hahahaha.... Costco is hardly considered little)

...surrounded by several hundred poinsettias, wreaths, and thousands of Christmas decor and cheer. 
...we began to see people with that certain twinkle in their eye

Call it what you may....but I'm a late holiday shopper.

I'm not one those that shop in July or even the dreaded Black Friday.
If anything I like to begin my shopping the week before Christmas sometimes a little earlier.
As we left Costco I remind my children, "Remember SANTA is watching.....his elves are everywhere."

They laugh at their insane mommy....
I said, "You don't know. Santa's elves might be disgusted as a..... HUSKY

 

 

But then, the Husky stared an icy glare.
"YOU TALKIN' TO ME?"
We laughed so hard...

HOPE

What can we do to help Newtown, Connecticut??

With the intense media coverage of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary we feel the need to do something.

Perhaps we need to push a bill to ban personal ownership of automatic and semi automatic assault weapons...

Perhaps healthcare could focus more on those with mild to extreme mental health or mental stability...

Perhaps we need to make our communities, towns, villages and cities more proactive...

We need to know our neighbors and our neighborhoods better....

Its time to begin the healing process....

Its time to honor those children and teachers. 

Its time for positive-random acts of kindness in their honor

Its time for HOPE and KINDNESS to shine brightly......

My girls giving a shadow of love to the kids of Sandy Hook

but momma they're kids just like me.....

When Cookie, Sweetheart, Fifi and Bam came home from school on Friday they had already heard about what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary school via the teachers,  smart phones, and from other students. This was the buzz...

They were sad for the murdered children and teachers from Connecticut.

It was true, I told them.

We talked about it the horrible, terribly awful thing that happened in Newtown, Connecticut.
Cookie and Sweetheart said, "But Momma, they're kids just like me. Why did he do that to kids??"

My heart tore...

I had to try to explain mental illness to my elementary school, middle school and high schooler...... People who suffer from mental illnesses have moments when they do not think like you or me. There is something in their brain that does not allow them to comprehend reality, common sense,or humanity; there is often a blurred definition of good or bad to them. Sometimes they know they suffer from mental illness and sometimes they don't know...

It's ALL so hard to explain.
The heart break is real.
Even though we're over 2,000 mi away, it still doesn't make it any easier to tell a child.

We hug, we shed a tear and we say a prayer...

unfathomable