Merry Christmas

Have a joy-filled day!

Christmas Ornament Tea Party

Recently, some of my girlfriends (Betsy, Calina, Cindy, Dina, Karen, and Lily) and I got together for our annual Ornament Tea Party. I can't believe it. This was our 11th year of getting together! That's a lot of ornaments. Let see...there are 7 of us girls, times 11, equals...a lot of ornaments (I don't do math after 8 PM)!

For the first few years, we just made a Christmas ornament for each woman. What ever inspiration hit us, that's what we made. The past 4 years or so, we decided to choose a theme and make an ornament for each woman based around that theme. For example, one year was fairy tales. Another was fashion. This year was recycling. We all made ornaments out of either recycled items and/or items we had around the home. We were allowed to purchase one item.


We got together at Betsy's home and had a wonderful time. We ate, and ate, and laughed, and laughed, and ate some more.

Then, finally we got around to exchanging our ornaments. I can't believe how talented these women are! I was pretty impressed.

Try to guess who made what

Next year we're trying something a little different. We don't have to make an ornament, but we have to make something for each woman with red as a theme.

Calina and Lily

Betsy and Karen


Missing, Dina and Cindy, and Me (I'm taking the picts)

Eating Beauty

Emi-chan was sick on and off since before Thanksgiving. It's been miserable. Not only for her, but for Mama and Papa, too. She was waking up every couple of hours because she couldn't breathe. She wouldn't eat. Yellow-green snot hanging from her nose (sorry for the gross imagery) and all clinging on us (we're clean now). Whining. Crying. Yaargh! Finally, she's better, and Rick and I are exhausted.

Now that she's better, Emi-chan's appetite has come back - with a vengeance. She's eating us out of house and home! She's even waking up in the wee hours of the morning because she's HUNGRY. Emi-chan's been demanding 2 eggs every morning. Plus she's eating things she's never tried or liked before. Oatmeal, pork spare ribs, chicken stew, ice cream, cheeseburgers, b-b-q chicken, just to name a few. Oh! And she's eating bread!!! Lordy! We thought she would never, ever try it! She does have a few quirks, though. She likes wheat bread with hummus, and for white bread, she likes mostly the crust.


She also tried an apple today. A big, unexpected surprise. I've been trying to get her to try apples for months, with no luck. I've been peeling them, pureeing them, slicing them, making cute little apple bunnies with them. All ejected. Recently, Emi-chan's became obsessed with apples on TV and in her books, so today when we went to Safeway, I bought a couple for her to look at. Before I knew it, she was gnawing on one, and seemed to enjoy it. Yeah!

Now, if she would try to eat veggies...