Christmas Craziness in the Neighbour hood... what fun! :D

Christmas craziness starts long before Christmas day around here. Nearly a month is spent in preparation... Especially for those of us who make most of the gifts we give. Besides those of us who are procrastinators and take forever to decide what to make or buy for people :P The majority of the craziness this year took place on Christmas Eve. Me, Mom, and Aunt Sharon (aka the Neighbourhood womenfolk :P ) kicked the menfolk out of the house for the day so that we could wreak havoc (or work miracles) in the kitchen, unhindered by grubby little hands trying to sample everything. ^_^ It was nice to have a little bit of girl time for a change, and I always enjoy makin schtuff in the kitchen.
The day before, mom and I had started a couple of the treats that took extra long to make due to having to chill out before being dipped in chocolate. Well one of those was these little cheescake deallies that you're supposed to dip in semisweet baking chocolate mixed with butter. Well we didn't have the baking chocolate so we used chocolate chips. Unfortunately mom and I BOTH forgot something we had once before learned... if you put butter in chocolate chips and melt them, the butter makes the chips stiffen up eventually. So our cheescake dipping flopped for the time being... Besides the fact that dipping crumbly crust in chocolate kinda doesn't work anyway :-/ sooo, being disheartened (BTW this is the 24th again) by that, we decided to skip it for the moment and move on to the cookie dough truffles (yes they are as amazing as they sound :P thus we have to make them every year)... Now I distinctly remember that in the past we used plain chocolate chips to dip the cookie dough truffles in... so we skipped the butter this time :P Well I got stuck with the task of dipping and prettifying the truffles. I guess I was good enough at it mom and AS decided to leave it all to me :P Meanwhile they set to work making pies and fudge and stuff (fortunately, for fudge you can use chocolate chips melted with butter :P )... After much success with the cookie dough truffles I set about to tackle the chocolate-coating of the cheesecake bites... all 90 somethin of them :-/ (I oopsidently made them a wee bit small :P) Lemme tell ya my back was killin me by the time I was done O_O I had to devise a method of chocolatizing them without losing the crumbly crust and without making too much of a mess.... I feel so accomplished. But I was so exhausted when I was done that I couldn't do anymore :P So I went to walmart with AS to pick up a couple things we forgot for one of the salads then went over to the school building to do something and ended up chatting with Teresa for a while :P fortunately everything was pretty much done so I wasn't missed too badly :halo: and we had fun... didn't we Teresa? :D
So anyway after that was all done we piled up some of the goodies we had made, grabbed some guitars and a Christmas movie and headed to UJ's house for a little Christmas Eve party :) AS had already planned for the guys to have dinner over there, so we joined them (saved us a bit of work ;) ) for dinner, then we all proceeded to eat too much chocolate and sing every Christmas carol we could manage to think of. We were gonna watch the Christmas movie we'd brought too, but it was getting late ish and we still had stuff to do at home! So back we went and set about wrapping last-minute presents. Of course, I had already finished mine... But I'm so obsessed with wrapping boxes that I managed to acquire the task of wrapping presents for Brian and Nathan. (Brian's I had wrapped earlier in the day, Nathan's I wrapped in the evening ^_^ ). Call me silly but I thought it was the perfect way to end the day :P Even though I hurt from being in such an odd position for an hour or so wrapping presents :P
Ok so enough about Christmas Eve :P Christmas day dawned as any other day. A pretty pink sky peeking through my window with plenty of noisy birds to remind me to wake up. I looked outside and saw that it had frosted overnight. I chuckled to myself... white Christmas indeed... Knowing the day would reach somewhere in the 60s. Humbug... I want snow. Whatev :P It was a while before everyone else roused (it HAD been a late night...) and finally around 9 o'clock the uncle and aunt arrived bearing gifts from afar (aka the other side of Ava). We started out with a family picture, then a reading of the Christmas story, followed by an insane frenzy of present-opening, then finally breakfast. Incidentally, it's a bad idea to have breakfast last. You see, the way we usually do presents is that someone will start by handing someone a present, then that person picks out a present for someone else, and so on... Well the problem we ran into is that people would open their present, ooh and ahhh, then proceed to unpackage their present and begin exploring or playing with it. Meanwhile everyone else is sitting there glaring at them and groaning and finally someone says GET SOMEONE ELSE A PRESENT NOW. Not good for the Christmas spirit :P Thus the present-opening was taking too long. So everyone was getting hungry and the food was smelling awfully good. So in the impatience of it all the last 25 or 50 % of the presents were opened in a somewhat disorganized manner and I missed half of what everyone got :P oh well... life goes on. Anyway we spent the remainder of the day tinkering with our new toys, stuffing ourselves at the table, and watching a DVD Brian got for the family and watching "It's a Wonderful Life" ^_^ And that's pretty much how the day went :P
So anyway I only ended up making a couple presents this year and the rest I either bought or regifted :P sad, I know... but I'm bankrupt and I lacked inspiration since I've exhausted the use of wood and horseshoes and a lot of times ppl are just plain bored with what I give them :roll: But I did manage to do some woodburning which was slightly different and most definitely cool... except I need some better tips for my wood burner :-/ darn that stupid thing LOL :D
Ok for those of you who care, here's what I got for Christmas: Aaron got me a cool little guitar pick that hopefully I won't lose so easily :P Brian got me a cool Chris Rice CD... Nathan got me a Jeremy Camp CD... UJ and AS got me some pens to add to my collection and a little horsehead keyrack deally thing whatever it's called... Grandma (or Aunt Dawn rather :P ) sent me a horse calendar... Mom and Dad got me a beeeaaauuutiful new ESV Bible (YAYNESS! just what I asked for :D :D )... and Isaac got me a Fujifilm Finepix S1000 digital camera O_O I feel so spoiled... **Sigh** yeah so this Christmas was at least as good as last year :D Certainly as surprising... God is good. What else can I say? :D
now... for your enjoyment (or torture... :P ) here are some pictures from the day. They are not in order by any means... some I took with my new camera, some are off mom's camera :)

Philip showing mom something on HSA :P

Philip playing his new compact electric drum kit. He played that thang ALL day till mom half screamed at him :P hee hee

I took Isaac's mug shot with his fancy new HSA window sticker :P unfortunately his windows are tintned too dark :-/ grrr

Uncle John opening whatever Aaron gave him... I missed what it was :P

Isaac, designated cameraman...

Aaron listening to the Bible being read while clutching his precious stocking and whoppers :P

Nathan... guarding the presents :P

Dad reading the Bible with Brian looking on

Aunt Sharon and Colton... I have no idea what they were doing :P

Philip eating candy while listening to the Bible :P

Me listening to the Bible

My awesome camera

My awesome Bible!!!!

In case you have a hankerin to see any more pics, you can check them out here. and that concludes this lenghty blog. If you made it through, congrats... you deserve a cookie :P Until next time,
~Linnae

Almost... But Still no Snow

Yesterday I think we had all of 19 degrees show up. Leastwise that's the biggest number I saw on the thermometer. Not that I was watching it as much as some people in this here household :P So anyway that's even cold for my warm-bloodedness ;) Not to mention the wind chill. I thought surely we would get snow. All we ended up with was the paper snowflakes that grace my window :-/ darnit... Oh yes a few flakes fell. But would you believe that in spite of those below-reasonably-frigid temperatures we got freezing drizzle?! Do you know how disappointing that is? Especially when people north, south, east, and west are getting snow! **sigh** so Ava's weather bubble is working again. I don't mind it so much during tornado season... but I want snow! :P Weather is so funny sometimes...

Well it wasn't all bad... The meadowlarks came out in flocks like I've never seen before to munch in the grass... I've not seen many Meadowlarks around here, especially not in winter. But there must've been at least 20 of them out there O_O I asked them to pose, but they weren't terribly obliging :-/

Well at least this one was nice enough to somewhat pose where you can kinda see his pretty colors... I got one to show off all his colors but wouldn't ya know it the pic came out fuzzy :roll: stink. I'll just have to go back to the Cardinals... if they'll show their pretty bonnets again :P

Anyway so I hoped for better this morning. I knew the likelyhood of actually waking up to snow was pretty much nothing seeing as how the previous day had been naught but freezing fog and drizzle. The miserable er kind of cold. Ho hum. I was pretty much right. But at least everything was covered in some really cool ice. And it did make everything wintry and pretty... so I won't be sore about not getting snow :) And really, when the ice fell off the oak tree above the mailbox, it does look kinda like it snowed :P

Here is mom's peach tree, sporting some cool ice crystals. It's kinda like a super thick frost ^_^
Lovely, isn't it?

^frozen, shriveled up persimmons^

^Happiness my widdle ice pony^

BTW I do NOT recommend having barbed wire (especially loose barbed wire) where horses can get to it... fortunately we're ok so far... but it's upsetting... anyway it makes for a schweet pic :D

^this is one of the really cool oak trees on our property^ (not to be confused with the plain ol boring oaks which inhabit the forest :P they're cooler when they can spread out a bit)

^Isn't that about the cutest face you've seen all day?^ :) haa ha ok so I'm biased but I think Happy is one of the adorablest horses ever :D

^He wanted me to get his profile shot. Look how cresty he's getting... chunky boy :P

^Here's a lovely cedar tree which the horses love to stand under on hot summer days... and cold winter days too :P it's all nice and covered in ice^

^closeup of said tree^

Weatherschool question... which way was the moisture coming from? :P hee hee

^Closeup of fatso Samson...^
he framed himself between the trees :P And yes, he really is that fat. He almost looks preggo O_o haa ha!

^ and my poor mangy-looking old man, Cash^
Still cute as anything though :) I love those little Arab ears... and big eyes... and widdle head ^_^

And that's all for today... Maybe soon there will be snow. Is that too much to hope for? At least one good snow? :D ok so maybe not till Jan or Feb :-/ but we ARE halfway through Dec! :D

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :)

This is one of the bestest times of year, don't you agree? Winter is one of my favorite seasons (if you've known me very long you probably know I have four favorite seasons :P ) I love the cool, nippy weather, and the near-constant promise of snow, as well as the bare tree branches that bear a sort of eerie beauty, and the fuzzy animals who kick up their heels in the cold. And of course, I love Christmas. Last Friday we listened to Christmas music while en route to a party then home again, and last Saturday we set up our tree... it gets more interesting every year, I think :P

But aside from Christmas, the best part of winter is the snow. Unfortunately we don't get much snow in MO, and when we do it's usually pretty lame compared to what we used to get in the mountains :P But I still enjoy what does come. And this year, it has come somewhat early. At least, early for what I've experienced in 6 years... But not too early. I think it's right on time :)

^see, it didn't even stick on the driveway any... just a bit in the grass and on the rooftops. \/

But enough to be kinda pretty and get one in the mood for winter :P

^Here's a subtle hint for ya... :P j/k ;) LOL but solid surfaces are a good place to tell exactly how much snow you didn't get ;)

^Of course, the animals thoroughly enjoy the snow :P Well some moreso than others... but they look nice and cozy in their winter coats.
^Don't take it personally that Danger is sticking his tongue out at you. He was just telling me that he was hungry .Samson makes a good snow pony, don't you think? He needs all the snow he can get :P

Julie doesn't much care for the snow. But I think she's used to it after 22 years of contending with it :P

Of course, the yunggins don't have as much experience with it, but they don't mind it one bit.^Killer wanted a picture with me since this is her first snow :P

Love in Any Language

Sometimes I miss my grandma.* I can remember when she and grandpa lived nearby for a short while (so long ago...). I used to love to hear her tell stories. For those of you who don't know, my paternal grandparents were missionaries to various South American countries back in the day. Mostly to Punta Arenas, Chile, since to my grandpa that was "the end of the earth." (somewhat of a story there... I won't bother explaining :P ) Anyway... I would love to sit and listen to all her magnificent stories of what God did for them while they were in various countries. Sometimes she'd sing songs in Spanish. She taught me "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish :) I guess it's a big part of why I always wanted to learn Spanish.
So fast-forward a decade or so. Grandpa died in '99 and grandma spent the next few years in OR with her children out there. Then along about '03 she came to MO for one of her infamous 2-week-visits :P (I laugh when I say this because I remember so many times when grandma and grandpa would go for a short little visit and end up not coming back i.e. moving :P ) Well eventually she ended up staying. We had quite the adventures while she lived here. Some good and some bad. But that's not what this blog is about :P You see, during this time I was in high school.
In high school I decided to finally officially study Spanish, since I had always loved languages and Spanish was at the top of my list to learn. I had a hefty Spanish textbook which, unlike the self-tutoring I was used to, required a teacher, and one who spoke Spanish was of importance :P Since dad is often busy with things pertaining to Teen Harvest, grandma became my Spanish instructor. This was a most adventurous time for me. While I enjoyed studying with grandma, she would sometimes wear my patience thin (which, I'm afraid, is a generally difficult task :-/ ) by constantly saying the same thing. Commenting on my wonderful accent, how enormous my textbook was, and how important conjugating verbs is. Oh and did I mention they don't teach conjugation well enough these days? Oh bless her soul sometimes grandma would get stuck these ruts at which point my lesson would quickly deteriorate and I would be forced to return to such unlovely and arduous tasks as **gasp** Algebra. *groan* ok so in retrospect, Algebra isn't so bad, but at the time it was such punishment. At any rate, I'm getting off track again :P
Studying Spanish from a Christian standpoint, a huge goal to me was to study the Bible in Spanish. During one of my lessons with grandma, she gave me a Bible in Spanish. Granted, it's a sorta cheapy soft-cover that was made for prison ministry (LOL) but hey! What do I care? God's Word is God's word no matter what it looks like, no matter what language ;) I set right away to packing it around hither and thither, doing my best to try to decipher what it was saying. I found it most fascinating the particular words the Spanish translation used, and it really brought a whole other aspect to my Bible studies. It was awesome, to say the least. And it does have the sentimental value too, of course ;)
After high school, I didn't have so much time to study my Spanish, thanks to jumping right in to college. Also during that time I had to move from grandma's mobile home (we had set up a mobile home for her right behind our house and I moved in there to keep her company and to make more room in our tiny house) into the "big house" aka our newly-built addition. During this time a tragic thing happened-- my little Santa Biblia disappeared. But I was so busy I don't think I noticed...
Finally came the day I finished college *confetti* and I found myself feeling kinda bad I had mostly forgotten what little Spanish I learned in high school. Then one day God flat out told me to "hit the books" so to speak and really learn Spanish. So I dug out my old honkin-textbook and that's when I realized I didn't know where my Biblia was. Devestation. I looked high and low and upside down and under and every-which-way but I couldn't find it. BLAH. Stink. ARGH. Pffftttt. Rawr. **sigh**
Then **angelic choir sings** Aaron found it. Awww what a good widdle brudder. He didn't even know it was missing :roll: guess I should've asked him in the first place, right? Don'tya love it when you're looking for something all over then someone's like "oh I know where it is" and tada! it's right under your nose? ^_^ lol oh well. I's happy 'bout it :D
So now I finally have my Santa Biblia back :D Oh yeah. B-)




So I set off reading it and decided this time I would memorize a few verses. I started with Genesis 1:3 cuz it was nice and easy. 'sides, it has that phrase "Sea la luz!" which, besides its total general awesomness, is fun to use when flipping a light switch :D **feels powerful** hee hee :P
For the sake of learning the language, it is very good to learn some familiar verses so that my brain has an easier time correlating the meanings of particular words, thus making it slightly easier to memorize (besides making it easier to learn new words :P )
One thing I like about my particular Spanish book is that it is a Christian-based curriculuminin so they have verses in it that a student is supposed to memorize for school (even though I'm not "in school" :P ). Unfortunately, in attempt to make it easy they often put only parts of verses. I'm not studying this for it to be easy. So I look up each verse and memorize it in its entirety.
The other verses in order are: John 14:6 (isn't it beautiful?)
Ephesians 4:5-6 [I have not memorized in English per se, but it is familiar enough that it was good to learn in Spanish. It proves to be a bit of a tongue twister, however... or at least, so I thought :P (the part about todas las cosas, y por todas las cosas, y en todos vosotros ;) hee hee... say that ten times fast :P ) ]
And currently I am working on James 3:6, which I have nearly memorized, but it is kinda long... Just gimme another day B-)


And there you have it. The beautiful words of God in another beautiful language (indeed, far more beautiful than American English, no? :P )


* I suppose I should clarify that my grandma is not dead. She currently is living with one of my aunts and I will probably never see her again. She will be 90 on 5/2/'09

Camera-happy-daze :P

Globes are fun. Really, they are. But then, maybe homeschoolers are easily entertained. I can remember growing up, my brothers and I could spend hours playing with a globe. Such fun! I always thought maybe we got it from Grandpa N cuz he always had a collection of globes. But maybe it's a combination of that and whatever the common factors may be that seem to cause a lot of homeschoolers to have an obsession with globes and maps and such. At any rate, the time has come that our family needs a new globe. The last one we got was about 5 or 6 years ago now... It's completely dismantled, leaving only the actual globe itself intact. Which makes for some fun times of another variety :D Yesterday was Brian's birthday, so I took some birthday pictures of him with the globe. Of course, that sparked some imaginary flames so Aaron and I got in on the fun. We passed the globe and the camera, and here is the result. Most of the pictures are by me, including one of me, but all the other ones of me were taken by Brian. Enjoy. This is the first one we took... Inspired by me :P ...and it just got crazy from there. Happy 22nd Brian. I give you... the world. Heh :P

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from here on out they're probably not in order, cuz it's no importa... Anyway, this pose was Brian's idea :P

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Not sure what he was thinking here, but I guess he was feeling some sort of power over the world, holding it in his hands and all :P

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Now here, IDK what Aaron was doing... being goofy? Wonder where he got that from? :P Anyway I just kinda pointed-and-shot and this is how it came out :P

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something similar to this had been the original intent...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Totally semi-random shot :P Michael had come outside to mess up our photoshoot :roll: and Aaron was showing him something on the globe :P
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For some reason this shot reminds me of that song, AFRICA... wonder why? :P
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Here's one for my cousins... see?! Bolivia! :D Someday I will go to S America :D
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Ok, I'll admit... this was another one of my semi-brilliant ideas... It's supposed to be like a mock-up of those soccer pics the kids get sometimes :P hee hee

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Brian's interpretation of the same pose. At least I got a pic of him smiling ;) :P
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Soccer globe!

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Now this one my JRA peeps should get. I Love America. If you don't get it, that's ok. I'll forgive you :) and no, I didn't really kiss the globe. BLAH! I don't love globes THAT much :P
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Tree-hugging gone terribly wrong o_O note: the globe is made of cardboard :P
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This is the one I took of myself. I'm just bummed it came out a little fuzzy :-/ the edited version came out pretty cool, too, if I may say so B-)
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K so I was listening to Aaron tell me something... I'm sure it was brilliant :P
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I think he was playing keep-away from Michael... I just pointed-and snapped. Schweet, no?
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And there you have it. I think we're grounded from playing with globes and cameras now :P j/k ;) BTW, sorry if some of these are kinda distorted... I had an awful time loading them today! mebbe it's the computer I'm using :P Oh well... hopefully you'll find it in your heart to forgive me :D G'day!
~Linnae