this year, we're really going to observe advent. we talk about it every year and last year we got somewhere with some of our traditions, but this year, we're really going to observe advent, and celebrate christmas on the twelve days after christmas, culminating in a 12th night celebration.

i am noticing a lot more talk of "getting presents" between rowan and sawyer this year. they're getting more and more excited about christmas, and while i don't want to steal their excitement in the giddiness of receiving, i want them to also begin to get excited about giving. i know they have it in them. this year, i made a raggedy ann doll for my niece ramona, and the boys fell in love with her as she grew from fabric in a bag to torso with a face to doll with hair and clothes. they constantly asked to play with her and did everything they could to keep raggedy ann a secret from ramona until we opened gifts on thanksgiving night. i think it was sawyer who just couldn't wait any longer and told laura (ramona's mom) about the doll the day before thanksgiving. but when it was time to give the doll to ramona, as she opeend the present, sawyer stood over her dancing from one foot to another, totally giddy to see raggedy ann in her new owner's arms. when she opened the present sawyer scooped up the doll and held it up high for her parents to see and then finally gave it to ramona.

so in advent, we will prepare our hearts from the coming of the chirist child and His return. i am looking into some celebrations for the different days in advent (the four sundays, st. nicholas day, st. lucia day, etc..). i'll share what we find and what works and flops this year. i have a feeling it will take us a few advents to figure out what traditions are good for our family. but i can't wait to see what takes shape as we learn how to prepare our hearts for the coming of the King.

Thanks to Stephanie, a fellow blogger and lover of sewing, I was tagged for this meme. I'm going tag Sursumcorda (because I know how much she LOVES memes!), Kelly (Kelly, my link goes to your husband's blog and I can't find your's anywhere - do you still have a blog?), Bonnie, Reynie, and Serina.

 5 facts about me, some random and some odd:

 1. I used to live two blocks away from Princess Diana. For six whole months.
 2. I had better seats than Prince Charles at a play in Stratford Upon Avon. I "discovered" him at the end of intermission, couldn't watch the rest of the play because I was star-struck, royally pissed off the little old lady behind me (she called me a damn yankee! Really!) because I was distracting her by staring too much at the Prince.
 3. I cannot eat meat with gristle or fat. Once I bite into a piece of fat or gristle, I'm done with meat for a good long time.
 4. I have a soft spot for cheesy music. Like Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Sheena Easton, and Styx.
 5. I think it's all the rain we've been having, but I'm just not anywhere near being in the Christmas spirt this year. Normally I can't wait for the Christmas seaons, but this year, I could probably do without it. I'll just have my Advent and move on, thank you.

Here are the meme rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Don’t break the chain!

i can't speak highly enough of a particular book series that has been in our home now for two months. i recently read somewhere that when your child can recognize their name written down, they are ready to begin reading. rowan has recognized his name for several months now, so i jumped at the chance to begin teaching him to read.

i scoured web sites and blogs for recommendations on "how to teach your child to read" books but none of them grabbed my attention as much as the bob books. these books are not teaching books so much as fun little books that make it fun for your child to read by themselves. i bought the first in the series two months ago. the books are full of short words and characters with short names like Mat and Mac. they have pets like a dog and a cat. filler words like "mad" and "sat" complete the story.

both rowan and sawyer sat down with me on our couch and we opened the first book: rowan began sounding out the first word: MMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT. MMAATT. MAT! MAT! all i was doing was pointing at the letter and he made the letter's sound as my finger went across the word. he immediately learned how to sound out letters in a word. that first day, he completeled reading one whole "bob book" on his own - without my prompting him in his sounding-out.

sawyer is so eager to read them just as he hears his big brother reading it. he knows the sounds of letters, but is still learning the lower case letters - he doesn't quite recognize them as quickly as rowan does. adam loves the books because they're just his size. they're a little bigger than the larger-type index cards and only 10-15 pages long. he sits with one of the books in his lap turning a few pages at once making the same sounds he hears rowan saying: "MMM," "CCCC" or "TTTT."

i'm loving watching the excitement rowan has when we tell him how proud we are of him. i love the enthusiasm of learning he's displaying. can i wrap this up and save it for everything he and his brothers need to learn? will they always be so enthusiastic about learning new things? i'm excited for the day that all three of them are sitting in their favorite spots devouring a favorite book on their own.

tonight, i carry on the cleaning frenzy. i hadn't one moment to straighten up over the past few days. fortunately, i had a lot of help from guests cleaning up in the kitchen, but the rest of the house was neglected by me, and now it's getting a clean sweep through. i'm only straightening...the cleaning will come once we bring up the christmas decorations. and since we only put them away just a few months ago (hey - at least they were in a box in the corner of the living room, and not still displayed!), i'm not in any hurry to bring them back up. but for the sake of the kids, a christmas tree will happen, and so will the twinkle lights.

tomorrow is laundry day, play-time, and down-time. perhaps a batch of cookies will be made.

next sunday begins advent...my favorite time of year. we have a busy week in preparation for advent...lists and gifts; traditions to begin and to carry on. i will probably blog a little less (especially after another post-a-day-november), but hopefully get to spend some solid time preparing and waiting; as is advent.

it's late-ish night, and i'm about to have a late night bowl of cereal. is anyone else a cereal-at-night snacker? i actually prefer it to morning...

today's entry is is short. it'd be sweet if i didn't choose raisin bran for my bowl-o-cereal choice for the night...so it's just short. we still have a housefull of guests, and we're all in zombie-mode. :)

g'night.

Thanksgiving Chickens Adventure
After getting to the 400-mile place, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lizzy's house, we begged and begged. Finally he let us go see his CHICKENS! When we go thtere, all 15 chickens were asleep. When we went back, mom said it was time for bed. We couldn't sleep so we got lucky...mom let us stay up for a couple more minutes!

The next morning, we got dressed. Uncle Kenny said that we could go out, feed the chickens and see if there are any eggs. They layed three eggs and I got to feed the chickens two times! Uncle Kenny told us we could feed the chickens scraps later on, when the rain cleared. I was having a great day!

I also got to make a turkey. I also payed the piano. I also made a craft. I also made a friend named Miss Pretty Pretty (a brown araucana).

The End.

I can tell you for sure that there were a few more visits out to see/feed the chickens (those chickens had their very own thanksgiving meal scrap plate), and much more talk about how they were doing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

if rowan is this excited about thanksgiving, i can't wait to see his anticipation of christmas. we are busy and bustling around today...the kitchen hasn't had a moment of peace.  we have some baby backs in the smoker for dinner tonight to go along with a mexican lasagna, steak fries and steamed broccoli.

thanksgiving checklist:
 - turkey has been picked up and chilling in the fridge
 - two pumpkin pies baked and cooling, one apple pie cooking
 - stuffing assembled in the garbage bag
 - beer and wine chilling in the fridge
 - one visiting family here, one on the way
 - presents made and wrapped

and looky at what i get to snuggle with anytime i want (and give back to the proud mama and papa when she starts to fuss)...this is baby astrid millay, 3 1/2 weeks old.

every night, we are asked the same question by rowan: "how many sleeps until ramona gets here, and then how many sleeps until sadie and gabe get here?"

today, ramona and astrid and their parents (my brother andrew and his wife, laura) arrived safely here in our little neck of the woods. we enjoyed a big dinner at mom and dad's house across the street while sawyer found his wrestling match in ramona. the girl can body-slam like hulk hogan. they wrestled and played, giggled and ran around. tomorrow, the rest of the cousins arrive. sadie and gabe have a little baby brother, charlie...but last time rowan and sawyer saw him he was merely a baby blob. they probably won't remember him until he's old enough to wrestle either.

as i type, our three boys are snuggled up sleeping soundly ready for the big day before thanksgiving: when everyone is here, we get our turkey, and the house fills with smells of apple and pumpkin pies.

this evening, my mom and i shopped for all the ingredients for our thanksgiving meal (except for the turkey...we pick up the bird tomorrow or wednesday).

earlier in the day, i watched a segment on some news program about how to cut back the calories in your thanksgiving meal...something that i'm not too concerned about with the thanksgiving meal since it's only once a year that we get to eat it.  any way, from this segment i learned that the typical caloric intake in one thanksgiving meal is around 2100 calories. per plate. including dessert. then they gave some pointers on how to cut the calories. for instance:

• eat only white meat. if you insist on eating dark meat, don't eat the skin (i can't stand dark meat)
• give yourself only 1-2 tablespoons of gravy on your potatoes (i normally skip the gravy, but i'm going to try it this year, since it'll be made from a fresh bird)

there were others, but i got distracted and was gloating in my ability to only eat a 1400 calorie thanksgiving-day plate already instead of a 2100 calorie plate.

now, i'm off to make some butter and shortening crusts for the pumpkin and apple pies. and i'll leave you with the simplest recipe ever for something our family calls, "stained glass window cookies" (although it's a candy, and not a cookie!), my brother andrew's favorite (so it's always included in holiday get-togethers). The original recipe calls for sprinkles of coconut on top, but we're not coconut fans.

Stained Glass Window Cookies
1 12 oz. bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of colored marshmallows
1 stick of butter

Melt butter and chocolate chips together over low heat (or double boiler) until melted and blended. Remove from heat and let stand five minutes. Add entire bag of marshmallows and stir until completely covered.

Pour everything onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Using sides of the waxed paper, shape into a log. Tape waxed paper over top to hold shape and refrigerate until hardened (several hours).

blogging on a daily basis has become such a lesson in priorities. there are some days when i can get a post off by 10:00 a.m., and here i am on a sunday night at 9:14 and it's one of the first times i've been at the computer today. weekends have become busy around here!

i recently acquired my library copy of Bend the Rules Sewing. and i'm sorry to report that the library is not getting it back. unless i decide to just drop the $15 and buy it for myself. but $15 can get a lot of fabric, you know. and library books are free (until it's overdue, i know!).

speaking of fabric...i'm completely addicted to online tutorials. i want to make everything i find directions for...but i'm finding the practicality of my favorite tutorials to be null. like these adorable elf shoes....but who could wear them? however, i'm loving the soft-soled shoes and apron tutorials i'm finding!

this blog is doing a series on celebrating advent...my favorite time of year! looking at the advent wreath pictrues and reading about advent gets me so excited. kenny's favorite parts of advent are the hymns we get to sing. hymns that give you goosebumps and shivers...kind of like those gems we get to sing in easter.

and geez...how 'bout them steelers this week? i should offer my good friend mike tomlin some good heart-felt support after today's game.

i love the kinds of saturday mornings we had today. all three boys were happy to do whatever they wanted for OVER AN HOUR! kenny worked on the computer while i sewed away. i made major progress on the gifts and i'm SO EXCITED to give them away! the boys ran around, played together, danced together and made a huge mess. have i mentioned how much the daily housework is suffering just so i can support my sewing habit?

today, i leave you with rowan's latest potty line:

as he sat on a public restroom toilet the other day, i asked him if he was done and he paused before he answered and then said, "hmmm...i think i need a book."

to which i naturally replied, "a what?"

and he answered in a little pretentious, annoyed voice, "you don't know what a book is? you know, like when you're on the potty!"

i guess boys can learn pretty early.