Winter Warmers

Aaahhh. . .Christmas break. . .my kids are home, and hubby too a nice present he and I saved and saved for all year long. . .to be home the entire month of December. I don't know what I will do when he returns to work!

I've been sewing quite a bit. These three scarves were made in less than two days! I added a snappish little flower pin to the red one. . .I found a great tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints for this. Really simple and really cute!

With a full week of break remaining, we plan on taking the kids to Butte Meadows for a snow day. They're always so much fun, we build snowcaves and snowmen (of course), we take turns on the snowskate and take the wakeboards (yes, they're made for the lake, but they work great in the snow!) We barbeque hot dogs and roast marshmallows. We always have such a good time. Chico never has a white Christmas so it's nice to head to the hills for a little holiday cheer. 

A Special Gift From Special Kids

My oldest, Hayley, volunteers two periods of her high school day to work in the Severely Handicapped (SH) classroom at Chico High. This is her second year doing so and she truly loves it. Being that my son, and her brother, Colby (half of the highly energetic twin set) was diagnosed to fall on the Autism Spectrum, I have a special place in my heart for these kids. It also reminds me of how lucky our family truly is that Colby is high functioning–not a day goes by without a prayer of thanks for that miracle. 

The kids Hayley works with are some of the more severe cases. Most with Autism or Down Syndrome, some without language and high levels of retardation. But they are a joyous bunch! They find happiness and self-satisfaction in things we mainstreamers overlook or worse, take for granted. The lovely gift pictured above is their Christmas gift to her this year. She loves them very much, hence her interest in becoming a special ed teacher. 

I'm so very proud of her and the young woman she's become. Graduation is approaching much too quickly and my little girl will be all grown up. She's beautiful inside and out and I can't image life without her.

Hug your children today and be thankful for who they are. . .I know I will.

Enjoy this blessed holiday season. 

And The Winner Is. . .

Ooooh, what a nice group of bloggers you all are! And I want to send a big THANK YOU to all who participated in Give Away Day 2008. It's such a great opportunity for each of us to see what the rest of the DIY world is doing. Your hot chocolate ideas were too fun! My kids are now after me to make homemade marshmallows! 

Well, without further adieu, I ran the random number selector thing-a-ma-bob and the winner of the give away is:

Bittycakes

Yeah. . .claps and cheers! Please email me with your mailing information and I'll get your scarf in the mail to you in the next day or two.

Thanks, again, for participating. . .check back soon. . .I'll have another scarf give away December 30th, sort of a Happy New Year give away. Enjoy your holidays!

Give Away Day!

As promised a post to warm you on those chilly winter days. As part of the Sew,Mama,Sew! Give Away 2008, I'm offering this cozy wool scarf as my give away! It was handmade by yours truly using a creamy wool, some of my favorite Amy Butler fabric and a fun rickrack. 

In order to be eligible for the give away you must leave a comment on my blog INCLUDING your favorite hot chocolate mix-in (i.e., peppermint stick, marshmallows)!  Also, leave a link back to your blog. . . so I can see what you've been up to. That's it! That's all you need to do to enter the drawing. The winner will be posted Friday, December 5th, so remember to check back in case you're the lucky winner. Oh, and yes I'm willing to ship internationally.

The contest ends at 11:59 PST, December 3rd! Good luck!

Happy Holidays!

Long Time No Post

I seem to have this love-hate relationship with the holiday season. I love the change in the weather, the leaves turning, the wonderful aroma of holiday cooking, Christmas music on the radio (love that!). I enjoy working in the kids' classrooms–constructing oreo cookie turkeys, baking up spirit cookies (above–school colors of course–CHS Panthers–GO!) for football games and spending the evening with my oldest daughter baking 8 dozen rolls (from scratch) for the SH classroom at her high school. As many moms do, I go and go and go and then Geez (here comes the hate part). . . I'm tired. And oh, what's that. . .there are 22 people coming for Thanksgiving? Okay. . .? I have this horrible aversion to the word "No." I volunteer for everything, just ask my husband, my mom and my kids. Thus, my lack of blog posts. However, some time during the past six weeks, I have found a bit of time for quilting and. . . Evan's Heart.

When the twins began kindergarten (5 years ago. . .sniff, sobb) I learned one of the moms, Tonya, facilitates Evan's Heart, collecting quilts throughout the year for seriously ill/terminal infants and children. She then delivers them to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving, each and every year. Needless to say, I jumped right on that bandwagon and complete a quilt each year. This year, I was asked by one of our local Girl Scout troops to teach a one day quilting workshop giving each of the girls an opportunity to make a quilt for Evan's Heart. As you can see, they did awesome! I'm so very proud of them!

I was also able to make and donate three quilts this year myself. What a wonderful opportunity to help others. . .and to appreciate the health of my five little ones.

And now, with Thanksgiving put to bed for another year, and a week or two to breath before room mom duties kick into high gear, I'm hoping to add another post or two in the next few days. I'm working on a cute little project as a giveaway on December 3rd sponsored through Sew,Mama,Sew! 

Enjoy your holidays, be sure to give from the heart, it's the best gift of all.