St. Nicholas Comes to 7074 Bluffpoint

This is a horrible picture.

I really, REALLY need to take some type of entry level photography class. All I want for Christmas is to know how to take pictures in low light...sigh.

At any rate, it seems St. Nicholas filled our stockings once again. From left to right, or descending order, whichever tickles your fancy:

Mommy received heather gray leggings, nail polish and dark chocolate.

James received a new "big boy" outfit and socks (since he got moved up at daycare and per his father "The babies in the new room are wearing real clothes--not sleepers--and WALKING! He's not ready for that!"), some bath toys and the classic ring stacker that even I remember from childhood.

Peanut received two containers of wet dog food, which will surely give her the squirts. She should have gotten a lump of coal because she has been full of accidents lately just with her typical kibble.

Daddy received OSU jogging pants, pistachios, Nutella and some Christmas candy.

We are happy happy happy to see Old St. Nick.

When we were kids, we would often leave our Christmas lists in our stockings and St. Nick would deliver them safely to Santa. My mother handmade her daughters' stockings. Like, by hand. My older sister Kelly's pictured a snowman, replete with snowflake sequins and metallic thread piping the picture outlines.  Kristin's depicted an ELABORATE Christmas scene--children witnessing Santa scooting down a banister into the living room. All in hand sewn cross stitch. Beautiful french knots on the girl child's night cap. (To this day Mom does all the french knots in older sister Kelly's cross stitch. Kelly's work is pretty good, too.) Regarding Kristin's stocking, I think the story goes that mom began sewing this stocking when Kelly was born, but it was so elaborate that she didn't finish it until Kristin...nine years later. It really is a work of art.

My stocking was simple in comparison. A large cross stitch Santa waving as he sunk into a chimney.
So simple, in fact, that my first grade year I was pretty sad of its lack of bling. Some things never change.

However, that year, St. Nick left a nice note in my stocking his special night, letting me know that he would be sure to deliver my list safely to Santa, who in fact, loved my stocking the best of all.

Changing the Layout, Gulp

If you hadn't noticed, the layout of Bloggie has changed. I am using the Blogger App a lot to update, and the pictures were never formatting correctly. (#firstworldproblems) You couldn't even appreciate litte Miranda's Christmas jammies before! So goodbye to primary colors and right angles and hello to trippy paisley and inviting orange!

Now if I can only get the widgets to format correctly...

Two Turtle Doves

Freedom From Want Part II

My version. :)
May everyone (Democrats included) have a wonderful, satisfying, abundant Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Freedom From Want Part I

Norman Rockwell's version.

30 Thankful Things

Lots of my pals on Facebook are doing this "30 Days of Thankful" challenge.  I am a little late, so I'm going to try and pound out thirty all at once, right now. I will tell you at the end of the post how long that took me to come up with all of them.

Ready.

Set.

GO!

1. Jeremy. He is an amazing father and a thoughtful husband. He is the calm, kind and patient to my distracted, flaky and flighty.
2. Faithful for my faith in Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father. Need I say more?
3. Reliable transportation
4. Healthy baby who is pretty mellow most of the time
5. Not one, but technically three jobs that I love. (does that count as three thankful things?)
6. Two-part harmony. I love two-part harmony, especially in country songs. See: Tim McGraw's "Angry All the Time" and anything by Big and Rich.
7. Warm things like down comforters
8. Soft things like rabbit fur vests.
9. Peanut!
10. The fact I don't have any food allergies.
11. My family's freedom from want. We don't need to have a grocery budget. Although maybe we should.
12. I am not that big of a Browns fan. Heaven help those that are.
13. I have been blessed to have several amazing female role models. In no particular order: my mother (who does it all and looks good doing it...always smiling) my older sister Kelly (who is busy as a bee and complains even less than my mother, if that's even possible) my friend Megann, (who manages to to work full time in an incredibly demanding professional job and simultaneously is a wonderful wife and mother and also finds time to stamp on a regular basis), and also my friend and spiritual mentor Deb Splaingard (such a wise woman, I was blessed the day she came into my life!)
14. Baby bath time and delicious slippery roly-poly babies
15. My ability to help children and families in a small way during my day as a pediatric dentist.
16. When I was in high school I was encouraged to have a real job. I worked at a convenience store. I had to work with a lot of different types of people, and lots of interesting people spend time at gas stations and convenience stores. That prepared me well for my current place in life.
17. Right now, I'm digging our church, Linworth Baptist, and the new friends we have found there
18. I am thankful that I have all of my Thanksgiving grocery shopping done already.
19. I am thankful that I have some of my Christmas shopping and decorating done.
20. I am thankful to have a mother that has an unreasonably busy personality. She is such a doer. Said mom helped me decorate my foyer for Christmas last week...I kind of wanted to wait, but she was all, "No, lets do it now, we have the time." I'm 99% sure I would have never gotten the decorations up at all had we not done it then.
21. I am thankful I have two days off -- although I make up for them evenings and Saturdays. Having two weekdays to grocery shop, buy diapers, wash cars, saves us so much weekend time. Also its wonderful spending days with James while he is young.
22. I am thankful for our son's daycare, Northwest Christian Child Care. They ladies in James' room are  so friendly, so helpful, and also have done a wonderful job. I know James would not be the sweet little soul that he is were it not for their input.
23. I am thankful that I can cook. I love cooking nice meals for my husband, family and friends.
24. I am thankful that my father had a great work ethic. I am thankful that he spent much of his life coaching, giving away his spare time to help improve the lives of kids in our town.
25. I am thankful I grew up in Fort Loramie, land of good stewardship and all things Catholic, Republican, hard-working, and cautious. It was and is a great place to live and grow.
26. USA! USA! USA!
27. I am thankful for my bible study, Bible Study Fellowship. I have learned so much about the bible, and met wonderful women along the way.
28. I love our neighbors and neighborhood. Our neighbors to the east, Mike and Jackie Flowers, pretty much are the best neighbors you could ask for. They are the type of folks who roll down the window and say hello at 7:00am, instead of just waving. We are the young folks on the block, and people are generally so interested in James and how we are doing.
29. I am thankful we decided to become parents. I won't lie, we weren't 100% sure that we were going to love this experience, but we figured we liked the idea of children enough that we should give it a shot. Frankly, its the best decision we ever made.

30. Our little James.
31. (why not!) My blog. Thank you Kelly for encouraging me to get it back in action.

(That took me about an hour, with a small hiatus for diaper blowout and subsequent bath)

Good Words

A blog that I love had this posted a few days ago. I really like it, so I'm passing it along:

There is someone you can forgive.
There is someone you can thank.
There is someone you can serve and lift.
You can do it wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel.
With this knowledge, life is beautiful no matter the pain, loneliness,
confusion, heartbreak, and sadness in the world.
How blessed I am and feel each day.

That would make a great prayer, wouldn't it?

PS: Hooray for fall!