World's Greatest Dad...Really!

Wait...I thought it was still October! What happened to the rest of the year???

Well, it is Christmas time, and it's been a very very VERY busy December. Every year I think I'm going to have a much better planned-out Christmas holiday where I get everything done early and I'm relaxed and peaceful. This was not that year. Like many people, we have been hit hard with the down-turn in the economy, and it's been a difficult year. But while Christmas is a bit on the sparse side this year, it hasn't been without its joys.

Here's one thing that has brought a lot of joy:



You'll notice the ones on the right are rather sparse...there were 18 of them. Similar story for the ones on the left...there were 35, but no more. So yes, these have produced a lot of joy. A lot of joy and probably a lot of pounds, too. Santa is so generous so we like to treat him well. I made the usual sugar cookies with cream cheese icing for him (a personal favorite of his, I'm told), but I've added a new treat this year as well. I call them Chocolate Ridiculous, because they are so good it's ridiculous. (Jenster, you'll appreciate these!) A Chocolate Ridiculous is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiched between two Ritz crackers and dipped in chocolate. (Insert "OH MY GOSH!!!" and Homer Simpson noises here)

See what I mean? Ridiculous.

Here's something else that made this season special. The girls and I went to a local craft store earlier this week so Little Bit could pick out something to make for The HOFFER for Christmas. She decided to paint a T-shirt for him, so she picked out the shirt while I found the paints. She started painting the back as soon as we arrived home, writing things like "World's Greatest Dad" & "My Dad Rocks!" The shirt sat on the kitchen table for a while to dry, then I suggested she hang it up to finish drying someplace secret. She hung it on the inside of my closet right on the door handle but neglected to tell me. So when I opened my closet door in a hurry later that day, the shirt with still damp paint flew off the handle (no pun intended!) and into a heap on the floor. It wasn't ruined, but it didn't come through unscathed, either. Upon further review, Little Bit was satisfied that it was still good enough to give as a gift.

The next day, she took the shirt out of my closet to paint the front, and again left the shirt on the kitchen table to dry. Unfortunately, Yummy, who is very mobile and very nosy, saw the shirt and decided to investigate. She pulled the shirt off the table into another heap on the floor. This time we were not so fortunate. Little Bit was crushed...she had worked so hard on it and was absolutely furious with Yummy. She was ready to throw the shirt out but I suggested she at least hang on to it to show her daddy how hard she had been working on a gift just for him.

When the HOFFER came home, Little Bit very sullenly showed him the shirt. I knew he would handle it well, but he answered her in such a precious way that it nearly brought me to tears. He very genuinely and lovingly told Little Bit that she had given him the best gift he had ever received. She (and I!) were rather incredulous, but he explained: "Little Bit, you gave me a gift from both you and your sister. The back is what you did for me, and the front is what Yummy did for me. I have a gift from both of you, and I love it!" He knew the effort Little Bit had put into it, and he validated that for her. When all was said and done, I could tell that was a special moment for her, and that her daddy had fixed things so that everything A-okay. I am certain she will always remember this Christmas for this precious moment. I know I will.

HOFFER, you really are the world's greatest dad. It is a privilege to be married to you. I love you.

Final Holiday Thoughts, Facebook and Picture Day!

So Queen Flowerpot brought out her soapbox--and I LOVE it when she does--and reminded me that my list was all about "doing". My Christmas was a very "Martha" Christmas. You know, Martha in the Bible? It's found in Luke 10:38-42:

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

I really relate to Martha. It bugs me when I am "slaving away" (drama queen!) at something and others sit around, seemingly oblivious to the massive amount of "stuff" that needs to be done. It's very self-centered of me. Jesus would probably tell me the same thing He told Martha. After all, isn't Christmas His birthday? Why shouldn't He get what He wants? I love the Christmas "to-do's"...they make great memories and traditions...but they need to be in balance with what's truly important about the holiday. It's not just a cliche'; Jesus really is THE REASON for the season.

Thanks, Flowerpot, for the reminder. You can get up on your soapbox with me ANYTIME!

*********************************************************************************

I did it...I finally took the Facebook plunge!!!! On one hand, it's a drudgery to have one more computer-related thing to keep up with. On the other hand, I have friends from high school that I haven't seen since graduation that I found on Facebook, so I'm very excited about that. I was tagged by one such friend to post a 25 Random Things About Me, so if you are on Facebook, I would love to have you check it out. I had fun writing it, and it's a little different from the 7 Random Things I posted here last year.

I really tried to avoid the whole Facebook thing, but I had to finally give in. Little Bit wanted a page so bad, so I caved. She's the main reason I joined: I wanted to be able to see what it was all about and keep an eye on her all at the same time. Check me out if you're on Facebook too!

*********************************************************************************

My internet connection is finally fixed, and I can now post some pictures!!! YIPPEE! It's embarrassing...all it took was the push of a button. Argh...that's maddening. Anyway, here are some pictures I've been wanting to share. Enjoy!

I think she's about 3 months here.

No, we didn't give her the ice cream!!! But oh, she wants it baaaaad!!! That's my girl!!!

Wonderdog has great respect for the Dog Whisperer!

The HOFFER came up with this idea: Baby Bit's pacifier holder attached to the bottle to give her (him?) a "hands-free" feeding system. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed.

Baby Bit is about 2 months old here. Little Bit loves her baby sister! Next are some shots from Halloween:

My "little mermaids" and their daddy.

Little Bit and a friend from school...a very grooooovy girl!



Two Little Mermaids

My Littlest Mermaid


I'd better stop there...Baby Bit is HUUUUUNGRRYYYYYYY!!!!

Holiday "Hmmm"s

Was your holiday fun? Ours has been busy yet quiet. Not much planned but so busy with preparations for what little we did do. I'm looking forward to Little Bit going back to school next week, and yet I have loved having her here. She has touched my heart in some very special ways. At bedtime she gets cups of water for The HOFFER and me to keep on our bedside tables overnight. One night she pre-made some bottles for Baby Bit and put them in the refrigerator before heading to bed. One of the Christmas gifts she made for each of us was a "Gift of Words". She wrote out an anagram of our names plus Mommy and Daddy, and the words she came up with for us were so very sweet. Here's what she wrote for us:

D ude
A ctive
D addy-tastic
D addy-fun
Y ou rock!!!

M ommy-tastic
O ptimistic
M ore better than any mommy
M ore helping than anybody
Y ou are nice


I love the "D is for DUDE"...spot on!!! Oh my goodness...my daughter is the sweetest. I am so blessed.

I am craving some normalcy and routine. My brain just isn't up to the activity of the holidays this year. Perhaps a "new baby" thing, but I really feel like I've blown it to a certain extent this year. I know I'm still adjusting to Baby Bit and figuring out the "new mommy" thing again, but I still think I should've been able to make the holiday time more special than it was. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, maybe not...I don't know. But the holiday is about over, so I can only go forward from here and try to do better next year. This time of year is one of Little Bit's favorites, so I hate that we didn't do more festive things. Thankfully, she doesn't seem very disappointed in her break, I don't think. At least I did my Christmas letter with pictures this year...although I have yet to send it out. Well, it's more than I did last year.

So what do I wish I had done this Christmas?

1. Get my Christmas shopping started and done much earlier, like July
2. Bake cookies and other goodies to give to neighbors and friends
3. Not leave teacher and classmate gifts for last-minute
4. Get Christmas cards/letters with pictures out by first half of December
5. Decorate house, inside and out (we did get the tree done!)
6. Make hot chocolate (the recipe on the Hershey's cocoa box is THE BEST!!!)
7. Check out Christmas lights more often (Little Bit loves doing this, especially in her pj's)
8. Set out cookies for Santa (even though we've had the Santa talk, we decided to go ahead and set cookies out for him anyway, just because it's fun.)
9. Had breakfast, lunch and dinner already prepared and ready to go into the oven so I wouldn't end up cooking and cleaning the kitchen for the majority of the day
10. Watched more Christmas specials with my family

However, since I'm so optimistic (Little Bit used this one because she couldn't think of a word that started with O!!!), I'm going to be glad for the things I did do:

1. Printed out Christmas newsletter with pictures of both girls to send out
2. Decorated tree
3. Made cookies for Little Bit's classmates and teacher, plus had extras to give out (a total fluke but still warrants bonus points!)
4. Made it to Little Bit's class Christmas party and took pictures
5. Drove around neighborhood looking at Christmas lights at least two, maybe three times
6. Drove through "Santa's Ranch" light display (required a 30-minute drive south of town and a 40-ish minute wait in line just to get in, plus $20 entry...ouch)
7. Didn't arrive empty-handed to brother's Christmas shin-dig...took cookies
8. Had my traditional gift-wrapping time while watching the traditional 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" on TBS
9. Watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" about six times and "The Grinch" about four times with Little Bit
10. Had a sweet baby added to my Christmas celebration
11. Read through "What God Wants for Christmas" with my family


At least I had more positives than negatives. That's not such a bad thing. And again, maybe I'm being too hard on myself. But there are women out there who can do all this stuff and more in addition to having a baby...I'm just not one of them. It seems I can't get my act together since bringing Baby Bit home. I've never been very "together" in the first place, and having a baby seems to have brought my worst incompetence to the forefront. My consolation is that I know what I need to work on and what to plan for next Christmas. And while I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, I do love having a fresh start, a clean slate, or a second chance. And that, for me, is the beauty of the new year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!!

Wow...do I feel out of touch! And no wonder...my last post was two weeks before Christmas! It was a pretty busy holiday, but we have had some good down time and great holiday fun. However, I could've used another day or two added to our break. As consolation, we have a four-day weekend coming up over the MLK holiday, so my wait will be rewarded.

I am the only one in my family that doesn't really care if I get gifts on THE DAY (be it Christmas, anniversary, birthday, or any other gift-giving day that I may have inadvertently left out). Big Bit (a.k.a., The Hoffer) and Little Bit are ADAMANT about having their gifts on THE BIG DAY, regardless of what that BIG DAY might be, but I don't care. I know that if I am required to wait for my gift for whatever reason, my reward will be great. And let me show you just how great my reward was:






Do you know what all this is? It's my Christmas present, which came last Thursday. Big Bit did some last-minute shopping for me and bought NEARLY EVERYTHING on my Christianbooks.com wishlist!!!! WOO HOO!!!! Does he rock or what???? CLEARLY I have been a VEEEEERY good girl!!!

Little Bit woke us up bright and early on Christmas morning, squealing that Santa had AT LONG LAST made an appearance at our house and would we PLEEEEEEEEASE GET UP SO WE CAN OPEN PRESENTS!!!! In a stroke of genius so we could stay in bed for a few more minutes, we told her to go check to see if the cookies and carrots (for Santa and reindeer) had been eaten. She was then told to grab the stockings and bring them into our room so we could dump them out there. My stocking had (among other things) two large pieces of paper sticking out of the top, which was the receipt of what had been ordered, along with a note from Big Bit telling me what he had done. As an avid reader, I could not have been given a better gift!!! There were also a couple of CDs and DVDs that I had been wanting, as well as three books on tape for my mom that I had already picked out. The coolest part: three of the books he bought for me were pre-orders that will be coming to me in January and May! THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!!! Want to see what I got? Check it out:

Christy, The Complete Series DVD
Amazing Grace--DVD
Second Chances--DVD
Who We Are Instead--Jars of Clay (CD)
Redemption Songs--Jars of Clay (CD)
A Passion Most Pure, by Julie Lessman (arriving in January!)
Ten Thousand Charms (Book #1), by Allison K. Pittman
Speak Through the Wind (Book #2), by Allison K. Pittman
From A Distance, by Tamera Alexander (coming in May!)
Defiant Heart, by Tracey Bateman
Freefall, by Kristin Heitzmann
Autumn Blue, by Karen Harter
Remember to Forget, by Deborah Raney


(Do I sense that some of you are making notes of which ones you plan to borrow?)


Deep In The Heart of Trouble, by Deeanne Gist (coming in May!)
Lanterns and Lace, by Diann Mills
Her Cinderella Heart, by Ruth Scofield
This Heavy Silence, by Nicole Massarella
Before I Wake, by Dee Henderson
The Truth Seeker (book #3 in O'Malley Series), by Dee Henderson
The Healer (book #5 in O'Malley Series), by Dee Henderson
The Rescuer (book #6 in O'Malley Series), by Dee Henderson
Flies on the Butter, by Denise Hildreth


Not sure exactly why he bought books #3, #5 and #6 but not #4 from Dee Henderson's O'Malley series, but believe me, I am NOT complaining!!! I decided to start with "Ten Thousand Charms", by Allison Pittman. I'm enjoying it so far...it's holding my attention, but it's not so riveting that I'm neglecting my responsibilities (the true definition of a great book!). I read the short bio about the author and discovered she lives about an hour south of me in an area of town we frequent! How cool is that!


New Year's was pretty quiet. We saw the ball drop, and we watched Robbie Maddison fly 322 feet and 7 inches on his motorcycle...TWICE! It was INCREDIBLE! Even though he didn't go as far as he had hoped, he still broke the previous record. He jumped higher than a six-story building and longer than a football field! It was amazing. Here's the video, for those of you who missed it:




Surprisingly, that's all I have for now. Glad to be back in cyberspace!!!