the gift of a goat

This past weekend, 8 families got together to celebrate the gift of a goat. Rather than exchange Christmas gifts, the friends decided to give the gift together to a family that would really benefit from it, and to teach our kids a bit about helping others. Through Heiffer International, we were able to buy a goat for a family, that would enable that family to have nutrition as well as a source of income.

It truly was a group effort. One family purchased the book "Beatrice's Goat", that told the story of how the gift of a goat changed a little girl's life and enabled her to attend school, which is being passed among the families to share with the kids. Another family offered up their amazing home to bring all of the families together to celebrate. Each family brought delicious food to share. Two friends and I got together to make decorated goat cookies, and John located a button maker and drew the goat (above) so the kids could decorate their own momentos of the event.

It was a great celebration, and a gift that I hope becomes an annual tradition.

a gift for John

Our handmade gift for John this Christmas was a little love note. I used a sewing machine to make the lines on fabric for the "ruled paper", and Lio and Paloma used a disappearing fabric pen to write their messages to John. I embroidered over their handwriting, and the ink disappeared a short while later. I think it's the sweetest gift ever - a little bit of them captured in time.

playroom love - not as much

So, the excitement about changing the playroom space for Lio and Paloma was completely dashed one day before Christmas. When John was getting ready to install the hanging things from the ceiling, we realized that there was no possible way to safely install everything without doing some construction to the ceiling. If this was our "forever" house, we would go for it. But with wanting to move we just thought it was a bad idea.

We were stuck without any other ideas of what to give the kids from us, so at the last minute we did paint the puppet theater and did our best to make the space look different and fun.

Even if I'm the one who's most disappointed that we didn't get to do our original idea, the kids do seem excited about the changes! Paloma has been loving playing "cafe" in the space, and Lio loves that the curtains can close and he can have a totally private area in the alcove. I'm still in the process of making tons of pillows for the couch, and I think with the small touches there can still be a bit of playroom love, only not as much as originally planned.

playroom love

John and I have been planning to update the playroom for the kids for Christmas. We just really need it to be a place where it's bright and colorful, but most of all a fun place to be. IKEA has been the perfect spot to find those special things that will really transform the space for Lio and Paloma.

Just how cool is this hanging chair? I would love to sit and read a book in here! I think they will love it, too. Now we have to just find the perfect place to hang it so that it won't bang into walls.
An indoor climbing ladder? How great would that be as a kid?! Again, placement will be key.
And some hanging bars - I know, I know, again w/the placement!

We have a few alcove-y areas, so my favorite find was this great striped canvas, ON SALE!, for $2.99 a yard. I'm making ceiling to floor curtains to hang in front of the opening of an alcove - to create a stage, cafe, private nook area, etc.

And look how great this fabric is!

Not on sale, but just bought a bit to make some whimsical pillows for the couch in the playroom.

The only project that we had hoped to get done, but have just run out of time for, is refurbishing a big puppet theater. It's too much work to take on a few days before Christmas, but I think it would be a fun addition to the playroom.

I hope that with these changes the kids have some playroom love.

Photo Shoot '09

We were completely inspired by the crewcuts catalogue this year when planning the photo of the kids for our Christmas card. Last night and this morning the snow was falling and looked so beautiful on the trees, so John set up the props and we took the kids out to snap some pictures.

I love how they turned out.

Happy Holidays to you all!

making cookies

Paloma and I had a great day making cookies

for the Lanzador Christmas get together.

She pulls her chair up to the counter and she's there

every step of the way wanting to help.

She's really good at listening and watching, then trying it on her own.

And after awhile I was just the one putting the cookie trays in the oven.

They turned out delicious - not a single one was left

(even Paloma and Lio commented on how

they didn't even get one at the party!) -

and I think it was because they were made with so much love.

collecting

Oh my! Paloma loves collecting "Littlest Pet Shop", and it's one of the main (out of the very few) requests in her letter to Santa this year. So the question is, does Santa add to the already out of control collection?