{A Funny from my brother}

This is from my brother who after hearing my mom recount the incident involving Aaron & the Santa debate at school. Of course it didn't go down like this but I just love my brothers comic sense of style. Don't you?

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{Merry Christmas}

We opened the presents last night - I know heathenish right? Well, I couldn't wait and neither could the kids, so I guess if we go to H E double hockey Sticks, so be it.

Thank you Mom - the kids loved your gifts & I listened to Distant Serenade - all the way thru! - and it just made me feel sooo good. I sure did miss it. Ruth loved her little tin "purse". She is such a girly girl - don't know where she got that from.

Aaron & Sam loved their gifts too. Aaron whipped out the art stuff right away - well at least until he got our gift (a nintendo ds lite - black like he asked). Sam got one in blue but his is the regular ds & not the light. They stayed up late playing on em. Maybe I will get to sleep in tomorrow? lol

Again thank you for sending the package w/all the goodies. We all loved the gifts and William loved the coins - he was fascinated by the dates & countries they came from. Below are the images from the early unwrapping. Tomorrow we will do crafts & have ham - I will post pictures of our crafts, don't worry. Miss you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas - even though we can't spend it with you - know that you are in our thoughts and hearts!!

*P.S. we had a secret santa gift left on our porch w/gifts for the kids & William & I. It just made our night - A knock at the door and when I opened it no one was there but a large package w/goodies for the family and all I saw was the red glare from the break lights of the car as it sped away - what a sweet & thoughtful way to end the evening.*

Enjoy the images!

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{Winners}

It's time to announce the winners of my holiday give-a-way, that's right I said winner(s). There are two. I had a hard time choosing and have modified my give-a-way a bit so that I could help out 2 families.

Here is what the nominated will receive:

* A free session (worth $100) and a $300 gift certificate for prints

Here is what the person who nominated them will receive:

* A free session (worth $100) and a $150 gift certificate for prints

And the winners are:

1. Gabby who nominated Gina

2. Sara who nominated her parents

Congratulations! I will be contacting the winners later today!

{When good imaginations...}

are just too good for words...enjoy my favorite snowman comics from Calvin & Hobbes!

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{He's Free!}

Well my brother is now officially a free man! He got out of the slammer this morning and is now able to do things without asking for permission, like cooking! He missed cooking. It's been 2 years and now he is going to cook his famous fried chicken and I am going to miss it because I live over here and he lives over there. *sigh* I did however get to talk with him this morning and then again this evening. It was so good to hear his voice. He did call me a *blankity-blank* this evening because of the Twinkie I sent in his Christmas package (something that he did long ago that I just won't let go - and probably never will).

Images taken by my mom - I swiped 'em from her myspace album, since I couldn't be there.


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My dad came over and helped the kids build a snowman - well part of one. It got too cold and the powder is just not sticking like it should for making a snowman. Maybe in a few days we will finish the snowman. But they did get most of the bottom of the snowman complete. Now just for the middle & head and then we can do the accessories!

I did make a really nice stew to warm them up - I took the bag of celery hearts and chopped them up, a whole red onion - chopped, a can of stewed tomatoes that I chopped and added some boneless skinless chicken breast tenders that were frozen and after they cooked in the juices I chopped into chunks then I added some abc pasta that I found in the ethnic aisle of the store. Below is the final result. There were no left overs. (oh yeah and some grill seasoning for chicken & salt to taste).


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