Brand New Year!

While I am still wondering how in the world that 2008 passed by so quickly...I am so excited for this brand new year of magic and miracles.

Happy New Year to you and your family!

May this year have much happiness and laughter and be full of all the things that really make your spirit soar. Remember everything you need is already here and the magic is all around you!

Just reach out and grab it.

Thank you

There has been so much generosity sent our way this Christmas season that I have been a bit overwhelmed by the love and gifts. I have no way of properly saying 'thank-you' to those who have graced our lives without naming themselves.
If they read our blog I can at least public express myself.
Thank you so very much for the amazing gift of the generator left on our back deck with the card 'from Santa'. This means so much to have an extra measure of security to make sure Lydia's machines can still run without power from APS. My heart is so full that our lives would be so blessed by this love. Thank you is not even adequate. May you be blessed a hundred fold and always have more than what you want or need.

mid day real quick post

Why I blog.....

MEMORIES

Last week I was preparing a Christmas gift for relatives far away and trying to get photos together and all. So I turned to my blog. There was a whole year of JOY! I sat and cried happy tears for a good hour over all the fun and wonderful things our family had experienced in the last year. If it was not for my blog I wouldn't have the recap of life instantly at my fingers. I have always been someone who journals. I have some entries from as far back as twelve but I can tell you that blogging is a whole different level of wow. I still am in the love with the process of pen to paper. I will always love fresh ink and parchment. I am cherishing the fact that now the pictures are right there with the posts. If you have some time today...go back through the last year of your blog and SMILE.

Whirlwind of holiday

We do not just celebrate for one day. Oh no...... I got the brilliant idea years ago that we would drag the Christmas spirit out for at least a week. In some ways it is marvelous, the children do not open all their gifts at one time so they appreciate what they are given and there is no anti-climactic holiday is over feeling.

We begin by sharing our Christmas eve with my former husband and his wife Liza with her children RJ, Aiden and Anna. Mark and I have been divorced for 12 years, so that is a none issue. It is like having relatives we just do not get to see very often. Liza's incredibly talented mom, Roberta joins in too. Liza is the sweetest! She is always so gracious and loves to cook new things. We always feel so welcome in their home. She made a yummy baked chicken salad this year and the desserts were fabulous.

Afterwards we go to the Temple to see all the lights and feel the Christmas spirit with the lovely music playing. It is a wonderful feeling.

This year we then went straight to the airport. Nana was coming!!!! Michael's mom arrived around 8:30 pm , her plane was a little late and then we couldn't find her. We were so happy to see her at the baggage claim area. She will be staying with us until Jan. 7th.

Christmas morning was filled with stockings and Santa presents.

We don't open anymore gifts until the evening. Afternoons are spent enjoying what you have received, eating and visiting. That evening we celebrated Chanukah and shared with Nana what it was all about. We then watching the movie The Nativity and talked of Christ. We opened gifts that were sent from relatives far away before bed.

The rest of the week until New Year's Eve is spent relaxing and enjoying each others company. We plan out our 'Kindness Kapers' and school and enjoy the break from everyday. Each evening we open one or two gifts. Now please don't think we buy/make tons of stuff. When you have 5 kiddos it is a lot of gifts. Tonight was the children's turn to give the gifts that they got for each other and us. They are always so excited to give even if it is "nasty" lip gloss (lol)

I am sure Nana probably thinks we are crazy as the tree still has plenty under it. Dragging it out works for us. The children really play with the things they are given and take time with them. Instead of the open it and toss it aside for the next thing event that never brought us joy.

Guess what family.......................... here is all of us in one picture!!!! Can you believe it? Miracles never cease.

Merry Christmas to All!

Our family wishes all the LIGHT and PEACE of this day to surround you and your family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Love, The Callihans

Last minute gifts- Magazines

I am all for gifts that last and have worth! There is nothing worse than a gift that has no value and is just a trinket purchased to fill the "gifting requirement". You all know what I am talking about. A gift that one runs out and grabs because they feel obligated to give. 'Cause you have to or because you have no idea what to give. Here's an answer......
A magazine subscription! Like this one from Living Crafts or Victoria Magazine or Countryside
or Readymade.
Any magazine can make a perfect gift. Does your recipient have a favorite craft, like to decorate their home, treasure modern art? There are so many magazines out there that would be just perfect for that person. Just purchase the latest copy, write a heartfelt card explaining you have purchased a subscription in their name and you have given a great gift that will also last the whole year through.

Happy Chanukah!

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah. We brought out the menorah, threatened Thayne a few times to not blow out the candles, read a story and created (not very successfully) 6 pointed window stars.

This will be our 8th year of celebrating what has become for our family a very special holiday time. It is a long story why we started but it has to do with Jesus' childhood and the miracle that Lydia is to us. The children have greatly looked forward each year to the calm that the nightly candles bring. Chaiya has learned the blessings in Hebrew and loves to take her turn saying them.

This evening's story was a book by Eve Bunting called 'One Candle'. A truly beautiful story about having hope in the most difficult times.

We usually light the candles, read a story while they are burning and have an activity such as a craft or playing driels. Latkes and other fried food are important. Probably one of the few times during the year that I fry anything.

Even with the fun stuff it has become a time of reflection for our family; of the abundance that God gives us and of the miracles that our in our lives every single day.

Last minute gifts- Time

One of the best gifts of all is your time. Okay, well sometimes it might cost you a little money. A perfect last minute gift is the gift of a membership. Memberships to museums, zoos, etc... with the promise of you ( your time). These are gifts that last a full year and carry with it the best gift of all...memories! We purchased a zoo membership last year for our family and went more than enough times to know all the animals names and when feeding times were. The kids loved playing at their "private" park. It was great and we have lots of memories. Like Quayde almost throwing up after getting a whiff of the tiger's excrement. oh yeah.
Anyway; time enjoying each others' company is worth every penny of the membership! It makes a great Christmas gift for the whole year.

We elfed the kids

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Last minute gifts- Magnetic Puzzles

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite gifts that I created this year for my nephew. This was easy, fun and I want to make some for myself.

First I went to one of my favorite authors' websites Aaron Shepard. He has a page with extras from his books. Many of the illustrations are on pdf that you can download. Other children's illustrators and authors have extras on their sites . Jan Brett has fabulous stuff too!

I printed off some of the beautiful illustrations, first one on plain paper then I printed one on a magnetic sheet. I then use my paper cutter to chop it all up! On some of the copies I used my wavy paper scissors. I made plain squares, triangles, waves etc..

I made varying degrees of difficulty with each puzzle. Placed the plain paper copy and the pieces into plastic bags.

I purchased a metal (not aluminum!) cookie sheet from the dollar store. They are smaller than regular cookie sheet and just the perfect size. I used some paint to make it personalized. The puzzle pieces stay on , this is totally portable, non-messy and tons of fun. With older kids you could use copies of famous works of art.

QOTD

My friend Melissa dropped by this evening took survey of the living room and dining room table and said, " Hey you guys look like Santa's elves either that or Vietnamese sweatshop workers"

The gingerbread man says......

Go Visit the Gingerbread Village at Prescott Resort, then come home and make your own.


There were only about 1/4 of the entries that are usually displayed at the resort. I was kind of sad about that....maybe we can make an entry next year. This one above won a ribbon and it was created by the resort ???? The first place entry below was amazing! I can't even imagine the work that went into making all those windows.

This little igloo though was our very favorite! Small, petite and very sweet.

Then we came home out of the freezing , sleeting rain and started to make our own gingerbread houses. I might mention that it was already almost 9:00 pm by the time we all got started. What happened to the day? The consensus was that most of the candy tasted gross but they all still seemed to get a sugar high even not consuming it. I think the last child finally fell asleep at midnight. Oh but what fun we had.

More late night stuff

I feel like I haven't had any time to really sit and relax because I am still busy creating fun stuff. Good thing I love do this and I am always up late. The first picture is of a placemat chalkboard. I am so tickled with how these are turning out. They roll right up and you can take them anywhere. I didn't follow any tutorial per say. I search out a zillion sites to figure out how to make them. The fabric vinyl is about $10 a yard and I had a 50% off coupon and will get 8 out of one yard.

The spaceship is for Thayne, shhhhh don't tell! I am still working on the astronaut. The silver paint is proving more tricky than I expected. The tutorial for this is here. I made it a little different. I made a different style lining and didn't stuff it so that Thayne will be able to put lots of little aliens, robots and astronauts inside.

I'm off to create some more!

In the middle of the night

It is after midnight and this is what I am doing..... creating Christmas and enjoying some delightful blackberry sorbetto and not having to share it with anyone!

Carrie's Pic - Cold

This is the weather today! Actually it wasn't as cold as it looks because there is no wind. Yes, I still dragged all the kids out to our homeschool park day in this weather and they had a blast all bundled up.

why?

Our gingerbread man told us today was the time to go visit Santa at the mall. So we headed over the hill and found that our Santa who has been there since Quayde was small was still the same. Unfortunately the setting had NO magic there what-so-ever. In the past it was a rustic scene that was not filled with blatant commercialism. The camera was not so in your face and there was at least some room for belief .

Thayne just made some weird sound that Santa took for a choo-choo train and Lydia told him he could bring her girl jewelry. I am not sure this is worth doing again next year.

QOTD

Thayne as we are driving down the road, in the dark, looking at the Christmas lights screams (happy scream) "OH MY COW!"

Which is a combination of Oh My Gosh and Holy Cow.

The things that endure

One of the best parts of Christmas time is memories. You know...when you start to pull out the ornaments, the old cards and the misc. that gets packed away. Everyone starts talking," I remember when......."
Chaiya made this little nativity set years ago when she was much smaller and we didn't have very much in material possessions. It has been very loved and cherished. It once had more pieces and more of the main figures. This evening Thayne got out the small little box it is stored in. He took out each piece and placed it on the fireplace hearth. Then ran off to play for a little while. Just long enough for me to take this picture. He then came back lovingly placed each piece back in the tiny box and placed it under the tree. I am so very much enjoying him discovering Christmas this year.
Memories of Christmas' past and the hope of Christmas' future is something I cherish about this season. What are some of your favorite memories?

Carrie's Pic - Self Portrait

Here Carrie! Chaiya and I did the same thing. We have the same eyes, she just doesn't have the lines yet. LOL

OCD Tinsel story

What you are observing in this picture is the last of a very unique bit of tinsel. The box was purchased for .33 cents in 1987. This tinsel was lovingly draped strand by strand on my very first Christmas tree when I became a married woman. Every year after that up until the last three, some of this tinsel has been on our Christmas tree.
This small amount that is packed into a snack sized Ziplock in my hand is all that remains. I will treasure it always.
BUT....... not for reasons you may think! You see this is probably why I need therapy.

Once upon a time there were some marvelous children who lived in a slightly whacked out home. LOL
Their father insisted on putting tinsel on the Christmas tree every year. It was the crowning glory. Tinsel must be applied strand by strand and neatly placed on the tree so the perfect effect would be achieved. The tree always looked glorious. Probably the best tree in the neighborhood. Alas, Christmas day would come and go and the tree would become dry and a fire hazard. After all the ornaments big and small had been removed, the tree was hauled out to the back yard where eventually it was supposed to be firewood or something.

This is the part of the story where the nightmare begins.....
You see there it was still in all its tinseled glory when the North wind would come blowing. Rushing and gushing it would come along and play with the tinsel, blowing it all over the acres of land surrounding the house.

In the dead of winter, the children would have to go out and spend hours picking tinsel off of cactus plants and weeds. Now picking pretty silver tinsel off of cactus while the North wind is doing its best to bring in the chill is not a pleasant chore.

The oldest child vowed if she ever had children she would never subject them to that torture. Despite how beautiful tinsel looked, she was unsure she could ever have a tree with it adorned.

Then she got married , she just had to have the tinsel strand by strand on her Christmas tree!
After Christmas was over she then REMOVED the tinsel strand by strand vowing to use it again and remove it again every year.

Thus no neighborhood she lived in would been tinsel strewn and her children would be free from tinsel gathering. THE END


Hey, do they even still make this stuff???

What's inside

Our gingerbread men have all the calendar stuff that we are going to do. Make ornaments, go caroling, Christmas parties, reading certain stories / scriptures, going to the gingerbread village etc.... Mostly it helps create a little more magic. The kids are excited to open the little guy up and read what's inside. There are our traditions and a few new excursions in them also.

We have celebrated Hanukkah for 8 years now and this year it is very, very close to Christmas. I am trying to find a way to serve both traditions. I found some stunningly beautiful candles that are variegated at Borders but they are twice the size as the ones we normally use. This would be a major factor since while the candles burn is our quiet and reflective time. I'm not sure that the littles can be that peaceful for that long. We have a very nice brass menorah that I need to clean and prepare also.

Next post you will find out all about my OCD tinsel!

Let the madness begin...

Can anyone tell me what happened to November? I am feeling like it flew by with little regard to how long I really needed it to be. Rushing on the wind like the leaves from my front apple tree.

I spent the morning finishing up our little gingerbread men count down. They are simply cut from folded brown paper and I write the activities and all those wonderful, magical holiday happenings that will we do inside. Then the children take down the day and know what we are going to create or enjoy. I need to find a ribbon to hang them now.

Mom works, Kids play

We try to include a lot of fun when we go out of town to do weddings. We locate museums, malls, and other fun activities. This weekend the kids got to play at two museums , ride a carousel and go to a mall with a space playground inside.
The first museum was really cool with a Space Lab inside. They all got to go to a 40 minute show inside the planetarium. Thayne is really into WALL-E and I was hoping he would have a great time. They all had some major fun. I forgot to give them the camera though (which is a new lower end Nikon. Happy day no more black clouds). I was helping with the ceremony and reception for the second wedding at that time.

A children museum was also on the list for enjoyment and we got in a lot of exploring and playing there.

They played restaurant for hours! The littles were having so much fun 'feeding' the older kids. Chaiya pretended that she was a food critic. One thing that I love about homeschooling, is that my children are all very close and still love to be with each other.






Our hotel lobby all decorated! Michael and I got hot chocolate and enjoyed the quiet for a few minutes on Friday night. It was like a mini-date.





For those who asked.. my business is called We Do! We Do! It is a small wedding and event design business. We help people create and design the parties they want and serve them by helping set it all up and take it all down. Which is quite a lot of work sometimes. Kayla, it IS romantic!! Michael and I love watching people so in love.



I NEVER imagined that I would be doing this. I was a VBAC childbirth educator for over 7 years and did student midwifery. I did not test for my license here in AZ though. When Lydia was born with campomelic dysplasia, quite honestly my world fell apart. Here I was someone who tried to do everything the "right" way and I was blessed with not one but two handicapped children. Maliea has Turner's Syndrome. Their conditions are not related at all.

My holistic, herbal, homeopathic world was blown out of the water by the facts I had (and still do) a mini-ICU unit in my bedroom. I fully believe that Lydia is still alive by the alternative route I have taken with her care but it has been a long hard road.

One can not be gone at births when there is a special kiddo at home...so I was a paper lady for awhile until my sister and I started this company. I do love helping people and creating but at times I feel a great deal of inner conflict at the lack of integrity in the wedding industry. I don't know where my path is leading as far as all of this but I am so grateful for the talents that God has given me!
This year has been slower than last but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The kids are great about helping tie chair sashes or moving tables. They love their little mini-vacations. It's fun and a good thing right now.