Phew!!!!

Well Christmas is over. Is it bad if I say finally? Christmas seemed to go on and on over here.

Let me begin my Christmas tale with a picture of my Christmas tree. This tree gave me so much more grief than it was worth. I have decided that from this year on I will be anti Christmas tree. Okay, that's a lie. It started out when Jonny threw out my old Christmas tree and then didn't want to fork over the cash for me to get the tree that I really wanted. To make a long story short we ended up getting this real one. Which I must say was a pretty nice looking tree to start with. I bought some pretty new red lights to go on my Christmas tree but while cutting the tags off the lights I accidentally cut through a string of wire. Jonny attempted to fix the lights but they only worked about 75% of the time (please note that during the time of this picture it was the 30%). Anyways, here is my tree.

Because Alanna was spending Christmas with her father's family this year we had our own little Christmas at our house the weekend before actual Christmas. Alanna was pretty excited to find out that she got to open presents early.

I'm not sure Emerie really understood what was going on. But we have cute pictures and that's enough for me.

I'll sum up the rest of Christmas really quickly:
Christmas Eve we spent with the Chapman's and all their family. We had a great time eating, playing games, and did I mention eating? BTW - I have never seen so many presents in my life - just thought I would throw that in.
Christmas Day Jonny's mom came with us to my parents place for Christmas supper. My parents had gotten us a deep freeze for Christmas which was delivered earlier in the week but they also surprised us with a gift certificate to Costco as well. Hello Boxing Day shopping.
Boxing Day, after shopping of course, we were back at my mom's house where my whole family got together, including Alanna. I counted 37 people for supper. We had a Chinese gift exchange. After the exchange Jonny and I ended up with an ivory colored table lamp and an ice fishing thingamajig. After trading with willing participants we brought home a fleece blanket and a CD holder book thing. Now because I've been talking about Christmas's at my mother's house it is only fitting that I now post the long awaited before and after pictures of the renovations to my mom's house. You should be able to get the jist of the reno's by these pictures but as you can imagine they don't do the room any justice.
BEFORE:



AFTER:




Last night (being Thursday) we had Gibson Christmas at my house. Even though I took down my tree the day before (oh well). Dave and Deb and their family and Kelvin and his kids and of course Jonny's mom all came over. It was nice to have everybody together because it is a rare occasion.
Hmm, let's see, other things that happened over Christmas. Ah, yes. Santa Claus showed up in Marcelin on Christmas Eve (my mom's brothers and sisters and what not were all there, basically everyone that was at mom's on Boxing Day except my family). Santa showed up with dark sunglasses and gloves on so no one knew his true identity. I guess everyone was a little skeptical about letting him in but what do you do it's Christmas. Anyhow, Santa ended up proposing to my cousin Jolene (congrats Jo). I saw the video footage and it was really sweet. The same night there was another engagement. My Dad! Nuff said.

I hope everyone out there in blogging land had a most excellent Christmas and will have a great New Year. By the way - I am extremely excited about New Years. I will post pictures of that later. We are having a murder mystery party - I've never done one before - how exciting!!!!

Oh yeah - for Christmas I got beautiful bedding to decorate my beautiful head and footboard that I got for my birthday. I thought I had pictures of if but apparently I don't. I will get them and post them in my next post.

Hey You!!!!

Hey there faithful readers! Everyone please go and check out my friend Megan's blog. I really enjoyed her latest post.

Something New

Just giving you all something new to read:

You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

-Christopher Robin to Pooh

My Conversation With God

Me: God, I feel fat today.

God: Leah, do you think that I am perfect?

Me: Of course.

God: Do you believe that I created everything in this world?

Me: Of course.

God: Do you think I make mistakes?

Me: Never.

God: Then why do you think that I would make you anything less then beautiful. Everything in this world has been created exactly the way that I intended it to be.

Me: If this is the way that I should be then should I stop exercising and eating right?

God: Your body is a temple that I have given you. It is up to you to look after your body and make the most of it. Remember I am with you always, Leah. I am here to give you the strength and encourangement you need.

Leah: Thank you. Through you, God, I know all things are possible. Praise God.

Just For Fun

Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack,I've been too long, I'm glad to be back" Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos.But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

What's" Your Theme Song?

Stories That Make Me Giggle

I've been spending most of my weekend laughing at my kids and how silly they are. I need to tell someone about them so I may as well tell everyone. Although I'm sure they are only funny if you were there.

Okay well Emerie just makes me giggle at the sight of her. She has been so smiley lately - even when she's crying. Today in church Jonny, Emerie and I played the holy family. Emerie was supposed to be a sleeping baby Jesus, but the entire time she kept trying to stick her fingers up Jonny's nose.

Also, in church, we were singing Gloria and Jonny kept accidentally singing his harmony parts for the Christmas production - at full voice I might add. Needless to say we giggled through most of worship. This one may only be funny to choir members.

Alanna on the other hand is funny without even trying to be.
Last night I had Emerie in her crib while I was off doing something. Alanna was in there supposedly changing into her pajamas. I could hear Alanna making some weird noises and Emerie was shreaking with delight. I open the door just a crack so as not to be detected to see Alanna dancing around in her underwear singing the Grinch theme song in a voice specifically designed for Emerie. It took everything I had not to burst out laughing and ruin the little show.

Tonight while eating supper after the Elim Production (which was awesome, thanks Riki for coming with us) Alanna asks me "Was Mary really a virgin?". I say yes, of course, but follow up with "Do you know what a virgin is?". She says no but then changes her answer to a yes. She explained to me how a virgin is someone that they use as a sacrifice to bring rain.

Kids say the darndest things.

Elim's Christmas Production

I'm just putting in a plug for the Elim Christmas production. I went and watched dress rehearsal last night and it was amazing. This is the third year that I will be attending the concert and I tell you it just gets better every year. For those of you who read this blog and aren't already going or in it (obviously) definitely need to go. There are two professional singers that are singing this year. Leon has been here a couple of times already and has an amazing voice. Hiram (I'm not sure if he has been here before or not) is amazing. I love black guys - I told Jonny I was in love with Hiram last night but what I meant was that I just love how he dances. Also, the talent of the Elim choir members is incomparable. If you live in or near Saskatoon you need to go this weekend. There are shows Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings and one Sunday afternoon - all at Elim. I'm going Sunday afternoon if you want to come with me.

18 Days to Christmas

So last night was Wednesday which is typically reserved for cell night for female youth. However, there has only been two days that anyone has ever showed up. So usually I just sit at home (because I should still be available) but never really expect anyone to show up. But shortly after 7pm my doorbell rang. I have to admit that the whole hour was a little awkward because I had absolutely nothing prepared. But it was nice to get to know a new person from youth.

I just have to say - I really enjoy having Chantel here. Not only was she here last night to make my awkward cell group a little less awkward, but yesterday as she was leaving for school she says to me - "I just love how you dress all cute just to stay home for the day". What a great way to say something nice. She said it in a way that I almost believed her.

So I finally got a Christmas tree. What a fiasco that was. Thank you Jenn and Lisa for putting up with me. So this is the story - Last year Jonny and I cheaped out and bought a crapola tree from XS Cargo. When we moved Jonny said that he hated the tree and was going to throw it out and buy me a great tree this year. Fine. So now that Christmas has rolled around we have found that we have a little less money than we had anticipated we would four months ago. So what Jonny wanted to do was go to XS Cargo and buy the exact same tree that we threw out. ARGH! So after much compromise we ended up getting a real tree. This tree I must say is quite nice. It is, however, a lot bigger than any tree I have ever had before and so I don't quite have enough ornaments to fill it up. Plus, I put my silver beads on the tree and then took them right off again. See, the thing about real trees is that their branches to not stay up very well so with the beads it looked a little droopy. So I have my red lights (yes I changed to colored lights) and my ornaments (which I love - I buy a special ornament or two every year). It's okay - I like it in the dark. I'll have a Martha tree when the kids move out and take their ornaments with them.

Tonight I am going to watch the dress rehearsal of the Elim Christmas production. It'll be nice to be one of the only audience members. My sister in law, Deb, is going with her kids too. On Sunday afternoon I am going to the real show with My mom, Ron, Kellyn, Ronnie, Andrew, Avery, Ava, Alanna, Emerie, and Flora. I'm going to go early and reserve an entire pew.

All of my Christmas shopping is done. What a relief. But usually when I am done all my Christmas shopping this early in December it means that I buy extra things for people the rest of the month for no other reason than just to buy them. Oh well! I love Christmas shopping.