Giveaway

Hey, folks!  Just a little heads up that I'm hosting a little giveaway through my business at Zana's Ninis.  You could win a sweet Organic Blooms ornament.

Sometimes, there is sadness.

I like to talk a lot about the happy things in life; because, who wouldn't rather talk about those than the sad things? 

Recently, there has been a lot of happiness.  My little facebook newsfeed has been filled with births, engagements, and all of the precious things in life.

There has been a lot of sadness, too.  Phone calls and quick messages whisper the news, as if everyone is afraid that if they say it too loud, it will become too real.  More mamas and daddies than should ever have to say good-bye to their babies.  One mama, delivering their sweet little boy soon after they named him and found out he was dying and then gone. 

I don't really have words.  I wish my words could wrap up the all the hurt and pain and slip it away from them.  I am safe in my warm little apartment with my sweet little family, but they have had their hearts ripped away, and I wish I could stop it.

I wish I could stop it all.

Stream of Consciousness

 

I'm a little on the scattered side of things today.  Prepare for an entry along the same lines. 

Anni's big Christmas present came in a big box.  The perfect place to color to her little heart's content.  It's the first time I've really seen her going to town with the crayons... I kind of love it.

One day we just decided to decorate.  Our tree is a little bit on the Charlie brown side of things.  Why, you ask?  Because the first year we put it away, we somehow lost a leg and each year after we've tried to compensate for it with heavy books to balance the tree out.  This year, we had to graduate to bricks... except those bricks broke off another leg.  Now our tree is leaning against the wall, waiting for a new stand.

But some pretty bokeh fixes that, right?

On Sunday we drove four hours through the mountains to Mesa State University to watch a friend play percussion in their Christmas concert.

The view made the drive totally worth it.

And this little girl?  Was a total trooper.  We remembered the baby this time, and she cuddled and "shushed" her to sleep.

She very briefly stayed in her seat to watch the show... but a good portion of the time we sat outside the doors and she clapped as the performers ran out to get ready for the next part of the show.  However, she did fall asleep near the end, so both Daniel and I got to watch Erika work her magic as she ran from instrument to instrument.

 

You can see her in the very back middle peeking over the rest of the band.  It was a lot of fun!

After a rather large dinner, we made the four hour drive back home, admiring the same mountains in the moonlight.  It was beautiful.

end scene.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

The St. Nicholas Day tradition we now do with Nugget is one that both Daniel and I had when we were little.  We both always had oranges in our stockings, though I don't think I knew the symbolism until I was in college or later.  The symbols we put in Anni's stocking (as well as a few other fun things) are a candy cane to represent St. Nicholas' bishop staff and oranges and chocolate gold coins to represent the gold he left for the three sisters for their dowry.  Anni's favorite thus far?  Her foot book and the gold coins (definitely an easy chocolate for her to eat).  We also had some treats in our stockings, but it's not as fun to watch us open them :).

*I just realized I called the bishop's staff a mitre in the video (which is actually his "hat")... oops!  Just pretend I was still sleepy eyed from having just woken up.

Rosettes - we made them!

Today my sweet friend Sarah came over to visit.  We decorated the tree a little and made these super cute rosette bracelets/sashes "following" this tutorial.  I had seen these around on headbands and sashes, but didn't know they were so simple to make!  Really, we just glanced at the tutorial and then started off, making both of these within an hour.  I think we did great for our first attempt!  We made a cute bracelet for Sarah (see above) and a sash for Anni (below).  Anni's obviously isn't really meant to go with that outfit, but I wanted to show off how cute it will be (looks like I need to trim the backing a little).  The biggest piece of advice I would have if you try to make your own is to keep in mind that the rosettes will have big gaps in between if you don't almost overlap them.  Welp, that's about all I've got.  Miss Anni has been sick all week and we've missed all of our normal outings and will be missing an ugly sweater party tomorrow, so it was really nice to have a friend keep us company.  Here's to a weekend of recovery (and gingerbread... because we need to pretend we're partying even if we can't go to one)!