Crocheting for Charity

Warm Hearts~Warm Babies has been my ongoing project for many years. If anyone is interested in knowing more, their website is: http://www.warmheartswarmbabies.org/ . However, I was reading a magazine this morning, and found a request for help. A 12 year old from Virginia is asking for 3-inch or 6-inch squares, either knitted or crocheted. She will put the squares together to make afghans for local babies in need. Her website is: http://onesquareatatime.wetpaint.com/ . Every little bit makes a big difference.

Christmas Eve

Cortney had a brilliant idea for Christmas this year. As Dean had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, trying to do things the best for everyone was a dilemma. So we had dinner about 5:30, just after Dean got home. After we ate, the girls opened their Christmas Eve packages - new pajamas. Got their pajamas on. Then the girls and I went upstairs. We had bedtime stories and songs. Then the 3 of us curled up in Riley's bed and pretended to go to sleep. It was hard to get Alexandra to be quiet, even when we heard Dean coming upstairs to get us. While we were "sleeping," Cort, Dean, and Aric were sorting gifts and stuffing stockings. So then it was "morning" and we could come back downstairs to empty stockings, and start the wrapping paper ripping. Our tradition for unwrapping gifts, is to go around in a circle, taking turns opening gifts one at a time. That way everyone can see what everyone else got. It was fun watching Riley's face when we were each opening her gift to us. She had made the cutest, pom-pom bears for everyone. This was her first year to make gifts (she's written stories and drawn pictures for us for years), but this was different in her anticipation. Cort's bear was green - her favorite color. Riley wrote and illustrated a story about her family at school. Hopefully, Cortney's blog will have the story and pictures posted. It was neat, and touching, and funny, too. After packages, the girls and I had to log-in their new webkinz. Then Dean and I had pie. Cort and Aric were too full of mashed potatoes. Riley and Alexandra had ice cream with chocolate sauce. Then the girls gave everyone hugs and kisses and went to bed. Aric and I drove home. It was about 9:30, so I just went straight to bed. Sometime later in the night, Sunil called from India and had to leave voicemail, to wish us a "Merry Christmas."

More Hats

On the 22nd of Dec., I went over to Celeste's to take presents - birthday and Christmas. The big ones asked if they could open their Christmas gifts when Kendra was finished opening her birthday present. It was okay with Celeste. And I was hoping to get pictures of them in their hats anyway. Micah wasn't sure he wanted a "girl" hat, until I explained that these hats with the earflaps and hanging strings are the hats the crazy snowboarders wear. That made it a cool hat. Their ears will stay warm, and that is the best part. Plus, these hats stay on, stocking hats have a tendency to slide up and off.

Jerran was asleep for his nap, so he opened his package later on.

We've decided that Callie looks like Morla, the turtle in Neverending Story.

Jerran telling me about Lightning McQueen, from the movie "Cars." He says it so cute.

Kendra's Birthday

Dec. 22nd was Kendra's 5th birthday. I went over in the afternoon with birthday and Christmas gifts. Kendra is such a cutie. She let me brush her hair up into a ponytail. And then I put in the fancy hair tie that I'd hoped would show in the picture.

At Church on Sunday, the 21st, the Primary children sang a Christmas Carol as part of the Sacrament Service. Kendra was the only one who was using sign language as they were singing. The whole congregation got a good chuckle out of Kendra throwing up her arms at the end.

Riley's Christmas Party

Riley's Christmas party was on Dec. 18th. They had crafts to do, as well as all the stuff to eat. Riley and Alexandra are working on Riley's snowglobe. They never could get the snowman to stick. So they decided it was like the Pixar snowman, who is trying to escape and burns his nose lighting dynamite. (Pixar Shorts DVD)

Funnies

After Alexandra's pageant, I stayed at Cortney's for a while playing with the girls. They wanted to play Tumbling Monkeys, which is a variation on Kerplunk. You pull out the sticks and monkeys drop. Riley is getting to be as big a cheat as Cortney. She kept trying to put her monkeys back in the top, or slide them into the ones that dropped. And Riley isn't the only cheater you have to watch, their cat, Tiger, stole a stick out of the tower and wanted to do it again.
The girls had been playing with their new Webkinz. Riley got a hummingbird, and Alexandra got a trigger fish. So they were carrying the new toys with them. I don't know what started the exchange between the girls, when I heard Alexandra tell Riley, "You are a cheater, and so is your hummingbird!"
Later, Riley stepped over some toys and slipped on a plastic grocery bag. As soon as she caught her balance, she looked down at the sack and said, "You scum bag!"
Not a good day for inanimate objects.

Crocheting

Riley's girl scout troop was collecting toys to donate to a charity. I made a teddy bear (but didn't get a picture of him) and a baby dinosaur.

Christmas Pageant

This was Saturday morning, Dec. 13. There are only 7 kids in Alexandra's class, so the 3 wisemen had to be the inn keepers. (No one wanted to be the inn keepers.)
Alexandra telling Mary and Joseph, "No room."


Going to get her crown.






The 3 Wisemen.

Worshiping Baby Jesus, who the Angel threw down on the stage delivering Him. :)

Singing Carols.

Giving.

Ringing jingle bells with enthusiasm!

Alexandra lost her jingle bell, the string broke.

Alexandra being comforted because she lost her jingle bell.

More jingle bells.

Alexandra learned sharing.

Her sharing award.

The class made presents for parents and grandparents.

American Citizen

On Dec. 3, 2008, Kulwant became an American Citizen. I'm so proud of him. He passed the test in November. These pictures are of the Allegiance Ceremony.

Kulwant, waiting for everyone else to be seated. (It took better than an hour.)

This is a picture of the backdrop on the stage.

This Kulwant getting his certificate.

Kulwant with his certificate after it was over.

Kulwant and Radhika.

Kulwant's certificate.

This was the first time that I had witnessed this ceremony. It was wonderful, and heart touching.

When everyone was finally seated, there was some instructions about passports, social security cards, etc. Then they all stood, and repeated the Oath of Allegiance, which is:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

Then, one at a time, they all when up on stage to receive their certificate. There were 114 new citizens, coming from 44 different countries. Most were from India or Vietnam; there was only 1 from Mexico. (The Seattle INS department holds this ceremony every day, and twice on Fridays. So in Seattle alone, there are at least 1,000 new citizens per week.)

Then there was a short video with pictures from all over American - both people and places. The background music was Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." I have it in my music list, if you want to hear it. The last of the video was President Bush welcoming them as fellow citizens. One line was, "You are now as much a citizen as any direct descendant of our Founding Fathers." Then we all stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance.

The whole thing was wonderful and touching. We have so much that we take for granted - so much, that we don't even realize that the rest of the world doesn't have.

A couple of months ago, Reader's Digest had an article about what the rest of the world thinks of America. They had done surveys in like 20-25 countries. Some things they think differently about, but there were alot of things the same. The amazing thing was as a part of this survey, they were asked if they would immigrate to America, if they could. 40-60% would, even snooty France - over half. India was 73%.

Even with a recession, we have more than the rest of the world. Here what you have still depends on what you are willing to work and sacrifice to obtain. We are not held back by caste, birthplace, or father's occupation.

A while ago, someone ran a contest to come up with another motto for the United States, which is "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Patrick Henry. It had to be 6 words or less. The one that struck me, was - "Our Worst Critics Still Live Here!"

We just had a presidential election. No riots, no fighting. No one was scared to go to work or school the next day because of how they had cast their vote. Think about it.