christmas traditions

 (photo by Hannah) 

One of the best things about Christmas are the traditions that each family makes and continues to keep year after year. 

One of my family's Christmas traditions is that every day, starting on the first Sunday of December, we read a chapter from our Advent book together. We have three special books, each telling the Christmas story in a different way, and we choose one to read each year. We like to make a big pot of hot chocolate, curl up by the fire(if we happen to have one at that moment) or around the table, and Mom or Dad will read out loud. We have been doing this ever since I can remember. 

Some of our other traditions are 1) the siblings always draw names on Thanksgiving and we try to keep it a secret who we have and get a gift for that person. We open these gifts on Christmas Eve along with any other random sibling gifts, and we open all our gifts from our parents on Christmas morning. It's a lot of fun trying to keep yours a secret while trying to figure out who everyone else has and who has you. :) 2) Every Christmas morning we have a breakfast of Breakfast Casserole, cinnamon rolls, and orange juice/milk/egg nog. 3) We make a big feast of hors d'oeuvres and eat them on Christmas Eve. 

(photo by Chavonne) 

a word from Chavonne:

Christmas is one of the absolute best holidays! You get LOADS of food to eat, candy, presents and you can hangout with friends and family. PLUS, you get to snowboard, ski, skate, snowmobile, etc. Definitely one of my favourite holidays. =D

Even though i love all the food i get to eat, and candy (and presents are great), i love seeing my family. I love my siblings faces when they open a gift that they've been wanting for a very long time. I love how everyone is always in such a good mood and smiling and laughing. I also love how Christmas morning is one of the ONLY mornings where teenagers will actually get up early. =P

Now, for those of you who are from German families or who know German families you've probably heard (or know) how German families will open all their gifts Christmas Eve. Now we don't open all of the gifts Christmas Eve at my place, but we do open 1 gift, and that's because we do have some German blood in us. We also have some other Christmas traditions like, some kids will sleep beside the Christmas tree, we always have Eggs Benedict (with different kinds of meat) for breakfast, and we always have some one hand out gifts. Now i'm not going to list all of our family traditions for Christmas, because that would just take to long. Just giving you a bit of a glimpse though of what Christmas is like with my family.

I hope you're Christmas is a very happy and wonderful Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone [:

p.s. I also love the Christmas music. Music can make anything and everything so much brighter and happier. 

What are some of your Christmas traditions? :) 

good news

I saw a dog today!

Yes that's an Elf quote and you know what that means! It;s Christmas!! :D I don't have time for a whole long post, but I wanted to let you guys know there's a Christmas themed photo contest running over at Fountain of Mercy! I hope you'll head on over and enter! :) Here's my entry:

Friday Post-summary on favourite books

Hannah's favourite book:

My favorite book series is the River of Time by Lisa T. Bergren. 

It's about two girls who go back in time to the 14th century and essentially fall in love with the handsome knights and lords there. One of the guys is already taken, and that creates a lot of disagreement. Of course, the team we're rooting for is also up against a team of their mortal enemies and face many dangers from that. I'm not going to give away the ending, so that you'll still want to read it, but the gist of it is that they face a lot of trials and try to somehow find love at the same time. 

Here is a short video book report that I made for the first book. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jHaM5azsUU&feature=plcp link here to this) 

I love it because it's the perfect mix of everything I love in a book (or in this case books) -- action, romance, a little bit of mystery, and of course, comedy. As well as sci-fi, the whole series involves so many real life circumstances that we can relate to, it draws you in. Even when cast into another time, the heroine -- Gabi -- stays very real-life. I hope you decide to read this series, because you're seriously missing out if you don't! It's just seriously the best thing ever. But you won't know that until you read it. ;) 

I have a lot of favorite movies, but I guess I'll share one of my recent favorites that is a perfect movie to watch with your family during the Christmas season. :) It's called the Twelve Dates of Christmas. 

It's about a young woman named Kate who is doomed to repeat the same day over and over -- twelve times to be exact -- until she learns to forget about her ex-boyfriend, care about other people more than herself, and get things right with her blind date twelve times over. 

My whole family loved this movie. It's nice because it doesn't have all of the bad scenes to fast forward, the violence, and the profanity of a lot of movies now. There is some language, but it is definitely on a smaller scale than most movies. It is really good because it is not only about falling in love, it involves comedy and learning to care about others from a random guy who helps you up at the mall to your neighbor. I really enjoyed this movie, and I hope you will, too. :)

Chavonne's favourite book:

One of my favourite books by far would be, "The Vow"

This is a true story, about true love, loyalty and trust in God.

I have not seen the movie yet, but its on my "movie list". (Its probably not as good as the book however :P)

The book starts off as a young woman and man (both single) and how they start their courtship and soon fall in love. Not 2 months after they marry however they crash and the wife is seriously hurt so bad, that she does not remember her husband and starts going through angry phases.

Now i'm not going to tell you about the ENTIRE book because that would ruin it for anyone who wants to read it later. I will tell you however, that it is a really good read, and encourages other people to trust God no matter what.

The real-life couple in "The Vow"

my abc's of thankfulness

a--adventure
b--blue eyes
c--my crazy friends and family
d--the delightful aromas floating in from the kitchen
e-- emotion
f--our freedoms
g--ginormous mugs
h-- happiness
i-- inside jokes
j-- joyful faces
k-- kindred spirits
l-- love
m--mothers
n--neon colors
o-- old navy
p-- people
q--quirkiness
r-- the redeeming love of Jesus Christ
s-- secrets
t-- (sweet) tea
u--unknown stories
v-- voices
w-- winning
x-- xanthophyll
y--Yahweh
z-- zakuska

Monday Photography- Dandelions

friday post

Psalm 46"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging."

Psalm 16:11

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore."

 (Hannah's photo)

(Chavonne's photo)

writing post

For the writing post today I decided to show you guys an excerpt from my nanowrimo novel. Here it is:

As I’m walking outside into the gorgeous sunshine and fresh air, I notice a boy standing by the bike rack and fiddling with the chains. Trying to unlock his, I guess. His dark brown hair is pushed up off of his forehead, and he has twinkling blue eyes, making one think he is laughing even when the rest of his face is completely serious. Now his brows are knit in consternation as he works at the padlock. When he finally gets it, a huge grin breaks out on his face, and I think he’s someone I would like to know.

Then I realize I have been standing there watching him for more than five minutes and I probably look like some creeper. I laugh at the thought, and he looks up at the sound of my laughter. Our eyes meet and his grin at me, although his mouth has straightened out into a line. I don’t know why, but I blush, and turn away, walking quickly back towards the house. I can feel his eyes following me down the sidewalk, and I suddenly want to break out in a run. I withstrain myself, however, and maintain a brisk walk down the white sidewalk.

Monday Photography-Tea cups

Its always right about this time that people start bringing out the coffee and tea for the cold weather, so i thought it only proper to put some photos up of a chine tea cup.

(Maybe i'll do a photo-shoot of some coffee =)...)

i was going to post these yesterday but i got a migraine at the last minute so couldn't.

Friday Quote

Friday Joke

This is the true story of George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi, who was going to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the shed. George opened the door to go turn off the light but saw there were people in the shed in the process of stealing things.

He immediately phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" and George said no and explained the situation. Then they explained that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be there when available.

George said, "Okay," hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again.

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I've just shot them all."

Then he hung up. Within five minutes three squad cars, an Armed Response unit, and an ambulance showed up. Of course, the police caught the burglars red-handed. 

One of the policemen said to George: "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

Storm Sandy

Today's Wednesdays post is going to be a reminder that we need keep praying for everyone who is being affected by Storm Sandy.

-The Three Of Us

a tribute to autumn

Friday Quote

Friday Joke

A Minnesota couple decided to vacation to Florida during the winter. They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday. His wife would fly down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an e-mail to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her e-mail address, and without realizing his error, he sent the e-mail. 

Meanwhile.....somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who was called home to glory following a sudden heart attack. The widow decided to check her e-mail, expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. 

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen which read: 

To: My Loving Wife
Subject: I've Arrived
Date: 16 May 2003
I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is not as uneventful as mine was.
P.S. Sure is hot down here!

Monday Photography-dress up photo-shoot

ocean eyes (prep)

Hey guys! who has ever heard of NaNoWriMo? Well that's what I'm going to be doing this November!! :) In the last few days, I've been prepping and getting all hyped about it. So you can see a little of what it's going to be like, here's some of what i've been doing:


Here's my pinterest board. It's so much fun trying to find exactly what my character's will look like and act like. You should be able to get the general feel from my board. :)

This is the playlist I've assembled to write to. It's not entirely finished yet, but it's going to be filled with music similar to the music already on there.

Here is a little thing I did to help get to know my character:

listening ...to the waves hitting the beach, the wind in my ears

seeing ...the ocean change from green to blue to grey and back again, his face play over and over in my mind

feeling ...the sea breeze on my face and in my hair, amazed that California could really be this wonderful in spite of everything

believing ...that this was meant to be. 

waiting ...for something amazing to happen. 

loving ...my dear family. 

learning ...that some things just don't last forever, but when they end, new things and better things are coming. 

missing ...Alex and Minnesota (i think she lives there at first but not sure)

hoping ...that this summer is going to be just as amazing as it seems. 

doing ...nothing in particular. 

So now you know what I've been up to. Maybe next time I'll share an excerpt with you. :) Is anyone else doing NaNo this year?

Monday Photography-Welcoming Fall