SHRINKY DINKS! A friend from Scrapshare sent me a package awhile back and included a pack of Shrinky Dink paper. I haven't done Shrinky Dinks in years and was excited to try it with the kids. It took a little longer than anticipated just to get them all colored and cut, but we did get to finish quite a few pairs of earrings for me and some gifts for family. And all 4 kids made a Christmas tree charm that they want to make into a necklace.
Who can forget the magic of Shrinky Dinks? Watching them curl up and shrink was so much fun the kids were fighting over who got to stand closest to the oven. Humph. Well, it wouldn't be a family craft time if there wasn't at least one fight!It was great fun, and I've got some fun, funky, mildly obnoxious holiday earrings to wear for Thanksgiving and Christmas! :)
God's protection on the road. I spent the night away with some friends for a girl's night in. On the way back to Jerusalem, I was driving a friend's car and a tour bus turned left in front of me. I praise God that he gave me the reflexes I needed to respond. The bus driver never saw me coming for some reason, but I was able to make a hard right turn, avoid the divider, and come to a safe stop on the side of the road. It wasn't until we were stopped that I realized how close we had been to a terrible accident.It was scary and we were all pretty shaken up afterward, so someone else took the wheel and we stopped just a quarter mile up the road at a rest stop where we were able to unwind, laugh, and regroup. The rest of the trip was uneventful.I am thankful God had his hand on our car and we were all safe.
Silly surveys! I love filling them out and reading them. It's like my grown up version of Slam Books! I stole this one from my friend, Beth's blog!Getting to Know Me...Christmas Edition 1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! While I do use gift bags for showers, etc. I don't use them for Christmas. Half the fun of Christmas morning is getting lost in the piles of wrapping paper!2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. I have said if I can't have a real tree then I don't want one. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I'm not a big fan of fake trees. I've never had one in my life and I never plan to. I will make my children promise that if I ever get too old to get my own that they will get a real one for me. Bonus if we get to cut it down ourselves! :)3. When do you put up the tree? Given my own choice, I'd do it the weekend after Thanksgiving or the first week in December. But while living here we get a free Christmas tree from the Israeli government, so we take it the day it is offered, which is the last Tuesday before Christmas. It's been the 18th, 19th, 20th...I think as late as the 22nd. 4. When do you take the tree down? When it's dead? :) Usually the first week of January sometime. It's so depressing to take it down, I try to avoid it.5. Do you like eggnog? Non-alcoholic, yes! YUM!6. Favorite gift received as a child? My Boom Box, my cabbage patch kid, my vanity set, Golden Dream Barbie, and a bike. 7. Hardest person to buy for? No one. I can't think of anyone on my list that regularly causes me trouble. Some years I don't have a great idea for someone, but then the next year they're the first one I find something for.8. Easiest person to buy for? Scot, because I know him so well. Not always, but usually I know exactly what I want to get for him.9. Do you have a nativity scene? Many. Too many to count, actually! Since coming here my collection has grown exponentially! I now have many sizes and shapes of nativities made of olive wood! I love it!10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail!11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I got this hideous silky shirt with pictures of horse shoes and chains and other weird stuff on it one year. Remember that one, fam? :)12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf, A Christmas Story, and It's a Wonderful Life13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?I shop continuously throughout the year, but really kick it up on September. I find it hurts the pocketbook less and reduces the "impulse" buying at the last minute.14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'm not sure if I've ever recycled a Christmas present. None come to mind. I have recycled gifts, but I think they were wedding and/or birthday gifts...15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Soupy was on my list growing up. I love some cookies and always enjoy Christmas dinner. And Gertrude Hawks Peanut Butter Smidgens. Mom always gives us some of those. They last about a day!16. Lights on the tree? Yes, blinking madly and making us all have seizures! :) Scot doesn't like the same mad blinking as me, so we switch it up. I love the twinkling setting, where they just blink randomly. I love Christmas lights and can't wait to see them when we return to the US!17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay home AND visit family close by. Never travel away from home at Christmas.19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Of course!20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither. We put a crown of thorns on top of our tree to remind us why Jesus came to earth as a baby.21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve we open the ornaments that Scot bought for all of us and that me and the kids got for him. :) I love that tradition! The rest Christmas morning!22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? When people start discussing all the nasty parts of Christmas and how annoying things are and how they don't like blah blah blah. I don't like negativity in general, but at Christmas, it just bursts my happy Christmas bubble! :)23. What theme or color are you using? Our theme is anything goes! I love my olive wood nativities, but the deocorations are completely mismatched and we like it that way.24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I miss Mam-mam's Heaven. I always looked forward to that every year.25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Honestly, I can't think of any one thing. I always enjoy scrapbooking supplies and books and favorite shows on DVD and music. I'd love a mother's ring one day. I'm not sure I've ever said that out loud, so I'm not anticipating one for Christmas. :)Can I tag someone???? I'd love to see Joanie and Sherry and Brynn answer these! :)
Friends to scrapbook with! I was a lonely scrapper for awhile. Then I found Scrapshare and an online community, which made me feel less lonely. Then the woman of SS alon
g with many from churches across the US, helped me get a scrapbooking group going here with my Palestinian friends. It's been a small group up until now due to space issues, but there are big plans to make this something much bigger. But for now I am thankful for my faithful friends who have taken the love of scrapbooking and joined me in the insanity! I don't do lonely so well!
Tonight is our last crop night and I'm feeling a bit weepy and sad. I know I'll be back, but I always struggle with goodbyes. But, I'll enjoy my friends tonight. We'll laugh and have a great time. I'll think about goodbyes another day.
A husband who takes the time to read to his kids. When Scot is working at night, the bedtime duty falls to me, and I realize the sacrifice he makes and the patience he has. While I'm always there for the showers/jammies/teethbrushing part, Scot takes over and does the Bible/story reading part. The kids love it. He not only makes it educational (they are now memorizing a Bible verse for every letter of the alphabet and have completed through K), but fun!We are not talking about some 5 minute story time. Sometimes he's in there for over an hour, reading favorite books and stories until the kids are asleep. They are currently on their 4th (or is it 5th?) read-through of the Chronicles of Narnia books. With Daddy it never gets old.The kids sometimes feel cheated when I tuck them in. Oh, I give the best hugs and kisses, but I don't read nearly as long as Daddy does. Scot's amazing. I look forward to seeing how this sacrifice of time that he makes nearly every day enriches our kids lives in the future. And I love that even Thomas, our 9 year old, begs for more. "Just one more chapter, Daddy! Pleeeeaaaaase!" :)
Christmas music! Oh, I love Christmas music! I can't get enough of it! I buy some new stuff every year. My sister recently wrote that it's that time of year when iTunes becomes as addictive as caffeine and you can't stop buying Christmas music! So true!My purchases this year so far? Tracy Chapman's version of O Holy Night. I'm working on a collection of different versions of that song, seeing as how it's my very favorite Christmas carol of all time! I also bought John Rutter and the Cambridge Choir's Christmas music, by Scot's request. He prefers chorale music, and I love it all, so everyone's happy! I also bought Harry Connick, Jr.'s newest Christmas Album. Good stuff, all of it!I begin listening to Christmas music much earlier than many. It's not unheard of for me to listen to a Christmas song or two year round, but I begin in earnest sometime in October. iTunes has made it much easier to feed my addiction, including the ability to create specialized playlists! Oh, that's like mixed tape heaven for this music lover! :)Christmas music makes me happy. It helps me think of happy times, snuggled up and enjoying the Christmas lights on the tree. My parents have 2 records that I used to listen to when I was small. I'd love to find those exact recordings on CD. The memories...Yep, I love Christmas music. It's the most wonderful time of the year, afterall! ;)
Laughter. Oh, boy, do I ever love to laugh! Sometimes I laugh at what other'
s may consider inappropriate times. I find laughter puts people at ease, smooths over rough situations, and makes people happy. So I laugh often and I laugh much. And I laugh a little too loudly most of the time. But hey...that's just me! :)I am so glad to have family and friends who enjoy laughing as much as I do! First, my mother taught me about the hysterical laughter, the kind that happens spontaneously, usually about something completely stupid. You know the kind: you can't even catch your breath. Yeah, Mom is great 
that! My bff, Mara, and I have always enjoyed breathless laughter. My sister plays her part. All of us together! FUN! Scot makes me laugh like no one else, with his dry sense of humor and sarcasm and quick wit. I love to watch him laugh so hard he can't breathe. He's always so in control of himself...unlike me! No big shock to anyone when I lose it completely!And finally, my kids. They've got the laughter gene too! They can laugh hysterically with me over the silliest stuff! And they love to try to get me to laugh, too. They can be silly, witty, and just plain hysterical! I'm going to share some pictures from our zoo trip yesterda
y. See if you can tell which ones were intended to elicit laughter! :)I love laughing, so if you are an old fuddy duddy, we probably won't get along. But if you enjoy laughing, then let's hang sometime. Nothing helps heal my heart better than laughter. And ice cream, but laughter's better for me. That whole "you burn 7 calories/minute when laughing" thing. Yep. It's even exercise!
And I'm including this picture just beacuse I think the girls look absolutely gorgeous in the sunlight. And then I had to include th next picture because I don't want you to think our only adventures are on fake donkeys at the zoo! That's a shot of Maggie and Sc
oty riding our friend's donkey. :)
My baby sister, Regina. Seeing as how her birthday is October 16, I thought it would be fitting for me to give her a shout out today!
We were not always friends. I suppose I did not come to appreciate my little sister as a friend until I was off at college. Suddenly, as be both were growing up, we realized how much we had in common. Now, I can't imagine life without her. She makes me laugh the good kind of 
laughs~~the hard to catch my breath kind of laugh (notice a theme in my thankful posts...always something about laughing! I love to laugh!) She appreciates good sarcasm, cares for me and my family, is kind and loving, and she's a faithful friend! She isn't, however, the best package sender, though I suppose I can forgive her that one flaw! :)
She loves her nieces and nephews and they love their Aunt Danni. Ask me where the Danni came from! Thomas, when he was pretty small, struggled with the name Regina. It came out something like "Dajna." This evolved into Danni, and this is her name. My kids have actually asked, "Why do you call Aunt Danni 'Reg' or 'Regina'? Does she have another name? :) 
Reg has become one of my best friends. And I can't wait to just hang out with her where she lives and works! Maybe a little Office marathon...or Gilmore Girls...just chillin' with my sis!
Love you, Reg! :)
That in exactly one month I get to go home! Not that I've been counting the days down or anything! :) We fly out on December 15. This is the first time we will have returned to the US in 4 1/2 years and I am ready to go! That's it. That's what I'm thankful for today!
g with many from churches across the US, helped me get a scrapbooking group going here with my Palestinian friends. It's been a small group up until now due to space issues, but there are big plans to make this something much bigger. 
s may consider inappropriate times. I find laughter puts people at ease, smooths over rough situations, and makes people happy. So I laugh often and I laugh much. And I laugh a little too loudly most of the time. But hey...that's just me! :)
that! My bff, Mara, and I have always enjoyed breathless laughter. My sister plays her part. All of us together! FUN! Scot makes me laugh like no one else, with his dry sense of humor and sarcasm and quick wit. I love to watch him laugh so hard he can't breathe. He's always so in control of himself...unlike me! No big shock to anyone when I lose it completely!
y. See if you can tell which ones were intended to elicit laughter! :)
oty riding our friend's donkey. :)
My baby sister, Regina. Seeing as how her birthday is October 16, I thought it would be fitting for me to give her a shout out today! 
laughs~~the hard to catch my breath kind of laugh (notice a theme in my thankful posts...always something about laughing! I love to laugh!) She appreciates good sarcasm, cares for me and my family, is kind and loving, and she's a faithful friend! She isn't, however, the best package sender, though I suppose I can forgive her that one flaw! :) 
can sit and design album pages, journal about the events and pictures, and just lose myself in memories. I love to reminisce, and scrapbooking allows me time to do that. I love that my kids love to look at our albums and remember days gone by. I love that th
ey will one day have many keepsakes of their childhood to take with them. I love that it gives me the opportunity to write about people who are precious to me....
even begin to say thanks to all who have sent me scrapbooking supplies to keep me going! You know who you are and you know you bless my socks off!
