Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

(To the Left) Rob and our son with some of the youth at the Christmas Eve service. (To the right) I am in a band and we played at the Family Christmas Eve Service held at Mt. Zion. We were all a little nervous cuz other than playing in front of the youth it was our first "gig" :) We did really well.

Our Cozy Living Room at 11pm on Christmas Eve

All four of these photos were taken Christmas morning. The kids main gifts were bikes and it was nice enough to go out and ride them. Rob was excited to get "The Bread Bible" and a brand new standing mixer because he's been wanting to start learning how to make all sorts of homemade breads (believe it or not). I was excited to get socks and underware, honestly. And I bought myself a couple of sweaters today with a gift card. (Before anyone gets down on my hubby for getting me socks and underware he gave me my main gift - a brand new digital camera - a couple months ago.)

The Art of Anne Lavo Santacrose

Some of you know that my Grandmother (on my Dad's side) is a professional artist and I just love her artwork. Here are some of her pieces...

This one is actually of me, my brother Joe and my cousin Annie as children... I remember the day the photo was taken that Grandma later used to paint this... isn't that funny how you remember random moments in life?















This one is of my older sister Theresa, sleeping as a child. This piece hangs in my parents house.

The next few images are ones from my childhood that I will hold in my heart and mind forever... My Grandma's basment/studio... pastels everywhere... peices of art just starting to take shape... hundreds of frames...

These are her current works-in-progress....

I didn't know as a child that my Grandma's house was unusual, but now I realize how special it is. I feel especially connected to God through color and art and I'm thankful to have grown up with it all around me.

One of those days...

The kids didn't take a nap today (AT ALL) and I showered just to come out and find NO towel (not even a dirty one) and I was feeling totally stir-crazy. Well, on PBS they showed a kid bowling and my son said "Mommy lets go bowling!" And my daughter screamed, "Yeah! Bowling!" So I said "Why not". (They were like, "Really? Right now? Really?") So we drove out to the only bowling alley I know of - about 25 minutes away.

We got there at three, they put up bumpers, gave us two 6lb balls and we had the place to ourselves. My son demanded we cheer for him everytime and my daughter would throw the ball and then dance around singing "Wok and woll baby, wok and woll". My son could at least get some decent ball speed but my daughters was soooo slow that (no joke) at one point she rolled her ball and as she did my son said "Mommy I have to go to the potty" so all three of us walked across the room, found the bathroom, and as the last one of us walked into the bathroom I heard the ball hit the pins! Seriously... like so slow of a roll that you're thinking "is it going to make it or will it just stop?" So, bowling was fun but 10 frames seemed to take FOREVER. I bowled at 111 (with bumpers! Pretty crappy :), my son a 79, and daughter who refused to bowl the last frame because "I'm done" bowled a 65.

We ended there at 4:15pm (had spent a grand total of $11) and I still couldn't bare to go home so I took them to McDonalds playland and let them eat happy meals and go crazy with two nice little girls they met there.

We got home at 6pm and they are currently watching a video. When that's over, bed time. Today was a far cry from a normal boring day for us but I couldn't stand it today! Seriously I was like, ok I can stay home and go INSANE or we can spend $20 and they can have some fun.

Tomorrow, I'll have to figure something else out but hey! At least I made it through today!