Thankful Thursdays

I'm thankful for:

• new perspectives
• my warm bed
• a roof over my head
• my cozy house, decorated for Christmas
• time with friends tomorrow night
• the REASON for the Season

Merry Christmas to You (from Kelly's Korner & BooMama)

***EDIT - I didn't read close enough the first time around - NieNie and MckMama were also given the chance to give an HP TouchSmart so make sure you check out their blogs, too!

For anyone who needs or might need a new computer soon (or knows someone who will) - Kelly at Kelly's Korner and BooMama have giveaways for a new HP Touchsmart computer. How cool is that?!?

Go check out Kelly's site to enter!

OR

BooMama's site

I Triple Dog Dare You

The real life Christmas Story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34332302/ns/us_news-weird_news/

More Than Christmas Gifts

To go along with the Advent Conspiracy, I thought it might be a neat idea to share some Christmas gifts that also give to someone in need in some way, shape, or form.

Of course, there are TOMS. For every pair of shoes purchased, they give a pair to someone who needs them. How cool is that?!

If you want something a little more "springy" - there are Sseko's. A group of women in Africa make these shoes, learn about business, hard work and so much more. The cool thing about the actual sandals is that you can change out the straps.

The beads on these necklaces are made out of paper. Again, women in Africa make these necklaces and benefit from their sales. Several of my friends who have traveled to Africa have necklaces like these and they are so pretty!

I know there are LOTS of other organizations/companies who do similar things - these are just a few of the ones that I'm aware of. In the spirit of giving but focusing on the REAL meaning of Christmas, I can't help but think if you can find a way to give to multiple people in some way at the same time, why not?

If you know of other organizations like the ones above - I'd love to hear about them!

O Christmas Tree

I can't wait to see all of the Christmas tree's on Kelly's this week! Hop on over and check them out for yourself.

Now, without further adieu, here's our tree!

Nothing too big or spectacular to add to this year's tree. (I took the picture pre-new rug) We got 4 new ornaments during our road trip this summer (one from each of the following places: Grand Canyon, Redwood Forrest, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone) and of course, the tree skirt that I made.

I love our Christmas ornament theme - each ornament has a story to it. Most of them are gifts from friends (yay for getting married close to Christmas) or ones that we get from the places we visit (we have ornaments from our honeymoon in Hawaii, trips to New Mexico, Canada). I guess our theme is "things we've done together" and I love it.

Merry Christmas!

Thankful Thursdays

This week I'm thankful for:

• the cold weather. It's crazy, I know but everything about the Christmas season fits so well together.
• two weeks of work until Christmas
• laughter (always)
• getting things done
• homemade egg nog lattes

Amen

If you haven't heard about Nie, you need to read her blog. She's pretty cool (from what I can tell of her blog, at least.)

I REALLY like her post today.

To GOD be the glory, great things HE hath done.