Old Log Theater

The day after Thanksgiving was spent with Tony's mom and his brother's wife and daughter as all of us girls went to see, "Hansel and Gretel" at the Old Log Theatre. The kids loved it and even Fantaye sat well throughout the performance. She got a little antsy towards the end, but I didn't have to scold her at all and that was fabulous. Before the show, they enjoyed the candy cane that Santa gave them and we took some pictures of the cute cousins together. After the show, we headed over to our local farmer's market that had some Christmas vendors set up. We breezed through the tented shops, but we preferred the enticement of the warm trolley ride with Santa instead.

The old fashioned trolley is a refurbished original and they do a good job of using it to add history and a little fun to holidays such as Halloween and Christmas. On this ride, Santa was on board and because he had a captive audience, he talked to the girls much longer than a typical Santa. Fantaye kept trying to get away because they filter you in and out pretty quickly at a mall Santa and she thought she was supposed to be done, but he wanted to ask them questions. How old are you? Where do you go to school? What grade are you in? What do you like about school? They were very confused by him and Raina said, "that Santa sure did ask a lot of questions. It was kinda weird". They never asked me why the two Santas they saw a couple hours apart looked totally different.

It's fun to do these holiday things together and I would love if the after Thanksgiving play became a family tradition for the girls. Thanks for the great day Grandma!

Julie

Blasphemy

This a Mama quip that I am not proud of and it will haunt me for a long time to come, I'm sure...

I got my kids to bed late again tonight for the second time in a row and admittedly, was perhaps a little more rushed than I should have been and as I started out saying The Lord's Prayer, (as I have done for 38 years without a problem) I said, "Our Father Who Fart In Heaven". You should have heard the giggles. It will never be the same again. So sad.

That's what you get for dreaming of your couch people! And let that be a lesson to you!

Julie

Happy Thanksgiving

The night before Thanksgiving we made a Gratitude book that we will write in every year to record what we are thankful for. Daddy said he was thankful for going geocaching with his girls, so Thanksgiving morning we decided to do a geocache on our way to our family gathering in Mora, just to make Daddy happy (and because it was a beautiful morning to be out in the woods together). The girls ran down the trail excitedly as we brought up the rear, enjoying their exuberance. At Thanksgiving, the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and having their own toast. As usual, Fantaye had an accident while playing on a tread mill and she cut her head open. Par for the course. All in all, it was a very fun day and we are very thankful for our family and nature!

Julie

Pre-Thanksgiving Traditions

Today, Raina, Fantaye and I had a very fun, crafty, day. One thing about my kids, give them some glue and crayons and markers and they are very happy chicks for a long time. They never get bored. Well, this morning they decorated their mini Christmas trees for their rooms and they painted the new, little boxes that store their special ornaments. Then we decorated foam stars with stickers and Merry Christmas wishes to create ornaments for Christmas trees that are donated to charity. Later on tonight, we will put together our first ever "Thanksgiving Gratitude" book.

Online Capabilities!!!

FYI- Yesterday our Gifting Water site was linked up to charity: water's website so that you may now donate online directly from our website, www.giftingwater.com. Go to the "donate" tab and you may make an online donation to our campaign. It will tabulate our totals and once we receive all of the packets on Dec. 4th, we will send in all of the remaining donations for everyone to track our progress. Let's watch that number grow to $15,000.000 and our goal of three wells for Ethiopia will become a reality!

Yeah!!!!!

Julie

Note For Christmas

We are now quite certain that the girls DO NOT need any more dollies or stuffed animals for Christmas!

Tony

World Health Information

Before help

After help

According to the Associated Press and the World Health Organization, "diarrheal diseases such as cholera and rotavirus, kill 1.5 million kids each year, most under two years old. The children die from dehydration, weakened immune systems and malnutrition. Often they get sick from drinking dirty water".

No mother should have to bury her baby because she only had dirty water to offer. No child should suffer because of the lack of clean and safe water. We can make a difference. Our dollar goes SOOOOO far in Africa and we recently had confirmation that the money we raise for charity: water WILL all go to Ethiopia, so let's get involved! A 20.00 donation will give one person in Ethiopia clean water for twenty years!!!

See www.giftingwater.com to see how you can participate in the Swimathon or donate!

This Thanksgiving, let's be thankful and giving! And as Tony likes to say, we are not too proud to beg. :)

Julie

Dining for Dollars

Today we had our first Dining for Dollars at Culver's to raise money for Gifting Water. Raina was the cutest (and probably smallest and youngest) worker ever! She had so much fun taking trays of food out to the dining room and running to-go bags out to waiting drive-through vehicles. She was a very conscientious, friendly and dedicated, two-hour employee. I have no idea how much we raised yet, but if nothing else, my daughter learned what it is to be a part of something charitable and to contribute her physical labor to a cause. What fun!

Julie

Comfort

As a parent, there are few things more wonderful than knowing that you are able to give someone absolute comfort just by offering your presence. Last night, I heard Raina crying in her sleep, obviously having a bad dream. I stroked her face and hair and kissed her and said, "It's okay, Mama's here. I love you". She instantly quieted, took a deep breath, snuggled into me and fell into a deep, content, sleep instinctively knowing she was safe. What a gift it is to be a parent.

Julie

3-D (Daddy Daughters Day)

What a fun day! On Saturday, Julie had plans with friends for the entire day and night. So, I got to spoil the girls silly from breakfast to bedtime!

Breakfast: "Byerly's" for jelly doughnuts and "Caribou"

Then to the "Midtown Global Market" to partake in "The Smooch Project". It was a lot of fun, and I hope that we will be able to get some of the awesome pictures that she took of the three of us and of just the girls.

Lunch: Right next to Smooch just happen to be the Annual Chilli Cook-off for the Global Market. This was a blast. There were more entrants than listed on the ballot, and we tried ALL 17! Shocker, but Raina and Fantaye both voted for the "Nomad's" chilli, which had chunks of injera in it. It was very good, but I liked the Southwestern Chilli.

After lunch, while we were on our way north up to Shoreview, we got sidetracked in the woods for a quick geocaching adventure.

Then went to meet up with the EKC (Ethiopian Kids Community) in Shoreview to swim at the giant play pool "Tropics". Unfortunately, five minutes into our swim, we were told to get out due to someone finding doodoo in the pool. Yuck! That was enough for us, so we joined others in the huge playgound climbing thingy also at the community center. After a couple hours of that along with great conversations with some new friends, we needed a snack.

Ice Cream! Ice Cream! Ice Cream! "The Village Scoop" hit the spot!

On our way home, we decided we were still hungry, so we stopped off at Bruegger's Bagels in Uptown for a little dinner.

Then, finally, we went home. The girls were having so much fun together, that they asked if they could have a sleepover together in Raina's room. Like I was going to start saying no to them this late in the day???

What a fun day!

Tony