My word for 2012

I chose the word appreciate for my word of the year for 2012.  It is easy to say you appreciate all that you have, we do it all the time.  However, I wanted to be more cognizant of the many aspects of my life that I never fully appreciated.
In looking back, I tried to appreciate the gift of each day we were given.  So many bad things happen in the work or your time just runs out.  The ability to recognize each day as a period of time to use for anything we wish is something I tried to be more aware of and not just let my time drain away.
I don't think I have been as appreciative of the people in my life as I wanted to be.  My husband, children, grand children and friends all are part of what makes me grateful for my life.  I try to be flexible with the traits that make folks who they are, but I still have those moments where I mentally stomp my feet and shake me fist.  The problem is me, no one else.
I am certain that I have pretty well learned to appreciate my home and my circumstances.  I don't need a bigger house, or new furniture or a different car, I like what I have.  Envy, is less a part of my life, and what there is of it is usually gone in a flash.
Last of all I have learned to appreciate my faith.  I can talk to people more readily about what I believe.  I used to feel like a fraud and that I was just talking about stuff I didn't really know, but I appreciate the gift of confidence.
My word for 2013 is learn.  I am 65 years old, but I still don't know a lot of important stuff.  I am going open myself up to learn and change if necessary.

Children's Christmas Program 2012

We went to the Children's Christmas program at church tonight.  It was cute as always.  The theme was telling Christmas stories at a sleep over.  Wyatt got to reprise his role as Joseph this year, he still is easily distracted, but he remembered his lines and did much better in general.  Andrea and the other smaller children just came up to sing, but they added much to the cuteness level.  After the program, the fellowship committee served breakfast which was really tasty.  If you hadn't been in the holiday spirit before you would have been after watching these kids.

School Picture

School photos are just not the same as they used to be and that is not all bad.  Wyatt brought his picture package home last month with this picture in it. Me, being the elderly person that I am could not figure out why there was a regular sized black and white photo and the long skinny colored photo. The skinny photo was to odd a shape to fit in a wallet.  Nicole had to say "Mom, that is the way it was meant to be."  Once she said I could see what it was supposed to be, not to bad at all, and Wyatt took a good picture. I did this layout Friday night at the monthly crop at Across Time and Page.  I have been seeing pages where the paper was torn, layered and rolled a lot recently and wanted to try it.  I like it, but I think I am going to try it a couple more times to see if it can be refined a bit more.  The main problem is that the rolled edges aren't going to stay standing up when I put it in an album, but it is still a cool technique. 

The Christmas Season

We actually started thinking about Christmas earlier than usual this year.  I normally have a mental block about shopping before Thanksgiving.  It just does not seem like the right thing to do.  However, when we went to Dallas last month we stopped at Ikea.  That store has more gift ideas than you could ever use,so we started our shopping then.  Then I refused to leave the house on Black Friday and shopped online.  A few more gifts purchased, the rest was easy after that.  The result has been that we are a lot less stressed and I think we have been pretty practical about our gift purchases. 
However, that does not mean we won't submit to the temptations of last minute purchases.  It is just the way we are.