• Merry {be-lated} CHRISTmas! •

Wow... the last couple of weeks have just been a whirlwind! I did most all of my Christmas shopping online (what a breeze!). Amazon Prime membership gave me free 2nd day shipping and no tax! I saved tons of money! If you're a shop-a-holic you gotta get an Amazon Prime Membership! It's well worth it. I had a few last minute gifts and stocking stuffers to buy and managed to do that on Christmas Eve, in between running to family dinners. We went to my grandma's for lunch and my mom's for dinner. The kids were excited for Christmas even though they knew mom was cutting back on the gifts this year. After the year we've had, missions trips and our eyes and hearts being opened up to the needs of soooo many people that we never thought of, it seemed senseless to spend lots of money on meaningless gifts that will be broken or thrown away or outdated in a year or so.

I once again spent Christmas Eve night wrapping gifts. Up until today there have been no presents under our tree and the kids haven't minded one bit. They know mom procrastinates on wrapping and Tanner is the only one who was even a little concerned (for a six year old I'd say this was pretty good). He just kept reminding me once Christmas break from school started how many days I had left to get his presents. :o) lol
Christmas morning came all too early. Tyler woke me up at 5, 6 and then finally at 8 a.m. when the other two joined forces with him we had no choice but to give in and open presents. :o) Tanner got his leapster he wanted, a snowboard and the G-Force movie he wanted. We watched it three times on Christmas day..... "Poop in his hand! Poop in his hand!" will be stuck in my head for MONTHS. Literally.
All Taylor ever asks for is books... and movies. So, she got a bunch of books that she has been wanting to read, and a few movies to add to her stash. She says when she leaves home, lives on her own and can't afford cable, she'll have a huge library of things to watch. Her favorites this year that she got were "The Notebook" and "Amazing Grace" and we added "Faith Like Potatoes" to her new favorite list. Pretty cool movies. She has a heart like no other.
Tyler seems to get some of the oddest gifts from everyone else in his family and even friends, but leave it to mom and dad to know what his favorites are. He got a DVD player all his own, board and card games and a couple of movies of his own. Did I mention we also watched Night at The Museum at least twice already....
We had winter storm warnings and went to bed on Christmas Eve with the snow starting to fall and within 24 hours were snowed in. Eric spent the day after Christmas blading the driveway and gathering wood. We got stuck in the driveway and the yard. Finally gave up and decided we really didn't need to go anywhere and have been hibernating.
See... hibernating in his man-made snow cave. I don't know how many inches of snow we got but it was nothing 'major' for a Missouri winter. However the wind has created some massive drifts around our house and farm. The kids have had a ball playing in the snow.
And mom.... well, I've been playing with my new Christmas present! Daddy got me a new serger so I could sew a bit more productively and stop cursing the crafting serger I was trying to use on clothing. I never really realized just how awesome a 'real' serger could be. Holy cow!!! I'm having a blast making clothes right and left. Lots of new dresses have been made, headbands and a new birthday outfit for a best friend's little China doll who will enjoy her very first birthday in about two weeks as an American Citizen! I'm excited! Let me clarify that.... her 4th birthday, but it's her first one with her forever family in America. :o)
I've been having so much fun making clothes and started an etsy shop (see the link in the sidebar), and creating a blog/website to sell boutique clothing as a fundraiser for our adoption advocacy mission. I hope someday the funds will be for my own adoption but if not.... I'm sure God will send us a family that is in need of financial assistance for their own adoption and I'm looking forward to being able to help provide. :o) If you want a sneak peak at the website, visit www.jhamkids.com  Remember it's a work in progress of lots left to be done. But I'm uber excited about it!!! Share the link with your friends!