PINTEREST ....... I LOVE IT !!

I've just discovered PINTEREST. Well I've known about it for a while, but never really done anything with it.

You know how you find something nice, but you're not really that sure of what you are doing and so you don't do anything.  Well sometimes anyway.

Finally I decided to go and have a look,  a proper look at Pinterest and now I LOVE IT !!  I am totally hooked on it.

I've got a board called MOVIES on my Pinterest and this movie is on there.

This is on my CHRISTMAS board.  I love these stars ... they look awesome.

Oh there are so many cool and wonderful ideas on here relating to Christmas.  I feel Christmas will never be the same again.

I love the fact that you can go to other people's boards and get ideas from there.

I love all the ideas that people have ...... some of the things are just so beautiful.  I love the fact that there are so many gorgeous things in one place.

Oh, and I'm so into reading and I found this on Bookfari and absolutely loved it.  So I added it to Books board on Pinterest.

I could sit here for hours reading ..... Love all the storage in this area.  All my books in one place (well not quite).  I have way too many books, I admit that.  Books are my weakness, I confess.

The library is my second home.  Oh but not if I had this in my home.

This water feature was in the garden of a special friend of mine and I love it.  I thought it was so nice and pinned it on my For the Home board.

So people, I'm hooked.  I love Pinterest.  I love all the ideas that are there.  All the nice things.  I love the idea of pinning these things on boards of your choice.  I love the idea of sharing these things with other people and them sharing with you.

So Pinterest, you get the big thumbs up from me.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER ..... and Uni results, an exciting day ...

MOTHER 

and 

DAUGHTER

Willow Statue

This is what my daughter gave me for Christmas and I just love it.

These statues are so pretty. 

Just quietly there were a few tears when I opened this one.  She has a beautiful heart my Miss 20.

And she gave me a lovely pair of gold sleepers which I am now wearing all the time.

I am a frog collector, my friends know I collect them.  Not real frogs, although not from a lack of encouragement on the part of miss 20, who thinks I should definitely have real frogs.  Still thinking about that one.  Just different frogs in varying forms.

Don't ask me why I love collecting them, but I just think there is something nice about them.  Although I'm sure not everyone's cup of tea.

I got two frogs for presents this year.  

So here's the other frog I got ....

There is a standing joke between some of my single friends and I that one day we will kiss a frog and he will turn into a handsome prince.  She even gave us all packets of red lolly frogs a couple of years ago and said we had to kiss them and they would turn into handsome princes.

Looks like I've been led astray, either that or she actually believed that fairy tale.  Either way there hasn't been much luck to date.

I just thought this guy might have finally been the lucky one.  Oh, well, back to kissing lolly frogs.

 

Ooooops !! A slightly creased towel.  Did want to take a photo before she used it.  This is what I gave Miss 20 for Christmas ....... Eeaw from Winnie The Pooh.

Miss 20 loves Winnie the Pooh and especially the character of Eeaw.  She and Eeaw are very alike, at least according to her.  I think she relates to his rather anxious and depressed nature, and the fact that he never seems to have many friends. You should have seen her face when she opened the wrapping on this present.  She was so happy. 

It has been a busy and yet, relaxed week.

We had a lovely Christmas day and spent it together as a family.

We had two births in our extended family ...... a great niece and nephew .... one born just before Christmas and one born today. 

Christmas has been and gone and we are heading into a new year.

I am so looking forward to the year ahead and in the next week I will start to set out my goals for the coming year.

Today I got the results of the first Uni assignment that I handed in and I got full marks.  I was so excited.  Like a little kid in a toy shop.  I was so excited I wanted to cry.  I got such good feed back from my Tutor and I was so relieved and excited to know that I had done the referencing perfectly.

So today and this week have been excellent.

Such a good mark and feed back has motivated an otherwise slightly lacking in confidence individual to keep going in her studies.

..... I know it's only the start, but it's the start of the future ....

Hope you have all had a good week.

What are your plans and goals for 2012 ?

What would you love to achieve ?

FAMILY, FRIENDS, FOOD, FEELINGS AND FUN ........

Tonight is one of my favourite nights of the year .... Christmas Eve.

Since I was a small child, on Christmas Eve we have sat in front of the television and watched Carols by Candlelight from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.

Carols by Candlelight is an annual event on Christmas Eve, that is held to raise money for Vision Australia.

If you want to know more about Vision Australia

follow this link.

Thousands and thousands of candles held up in the air and waved from side to side.

 

Santa is always there to entertain the children of all ages.

Children sing by candlelight.

This years Vision Australia 

Ambassador

One for the teens

HI 5

One for the kids

Tim

Campbell 

Australian 

Girls 

Choir

Marina

Prior

and many more artists

 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, places to go, people to see, but it's good to know that there is family to share the day with.

Working in the morning

My great niece is being blessed at church

{ family }

Will see my brother, his wife and their two little children 

{ family }

Then I'm off to deliver a meal to a friend

Then on to have lunch with my son and his girlfriend and family at her place

{ more family }

Then I'm guessing it will be back home again

to sleep and recuperate.

Most people seem to need to find time to rest and relax after a pretty busy week.

Christmas to me is about the Saviour and his birth first and foremost, and the gift that he is to the world.

Christmas is about giving: gift giving and giving of your time.

Christmas is about 

Family

Friends

Food

Feelings

Fun

 

To all my blog friends have a wonderful day tomorrow ..... Have a wonderful Christmas.  Appreciate what you have.  Enjoy the time that you have with your family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

AND

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

LIGHTED CANDLE BLOWING IN THE WIND

A Lighted Candle

Blowing in the wind

Children singing 

and 

Adults too

Christmas Carols

My boss put on Carols by Candlelight at our work

She read Twas the Night Before Christmas 

to the children and they loved it.

We had a BBQ and everyone came along and enjoyed themselves

Then miss 20 and I went to check out a few houses with lights all over them.

 Some of the photos came out a bit blurry but I put up the photos anyway ... the lights look gorgeous.

 All the trouble that people go to and the work they put in to making their houses and their streets look beautiful

 These lighted reindeers were gorgeous and their heads were bobbing up and down

I've realised how magical all the lights make this time of year.... how pretty it makes everything look.  I'm so glad miss 20 made me make the effort to drive down this street and have a look at the lights.

THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL

I watched this short film clip the other day and I found it very touching.  It is particularly pertinent during this Christmas time, the season of giving.  I hope you enjoy it.


Christmas is a time of joy and happiness.  It is a time when we all try to be a little kinder to one another.   It is a time when we enjoy buying gifts and giving them to one another.  In the world today we have people from many and varied denominations and of varying faiths and religious and spiritual practices.  I personally am a Christian and at this time of year I celebrate the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.  To me he was the greatest gift that we have ever received.


His birth was a very humble one.  He wasn't born in a fancy hospital with all the modern conveniences that we are used to today.  He was born in a stable, surrounded by animals.  To me this makes his birth even more miraculous, and more wonderful.


I am so grateful for the wonderful gift that my Heavenly Father gave me, that of the Saviour.  I am grateful that he came to this earth and set such a wonderful example of love and sacrifice to us all.  He was the perfect example and showed us all how we should live our lives.  He taught us to give service and show charity to others.


I am grateful for the perfect example that he set.  His example has made me want to be a better person, to love others more, to forgive others more and to be a little kinder to all those around me.  I'm not perfect, but I'm striving to follow his example. 


My hope is that we will feel the spirit of Christmas not only at this time, but in our hearts always. 

WILL THE CHRIST CHILD COME ? .....

I shared this story a couple of years ago and I truly love it ..... it is a wonderful story ..... so I thought that I would share it again and hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

One Christmas we had an interesting experience that I would like to share. Halfway through December we were doing the regular evening things when there was a knock at the door. We opened it to find a small package with a beautiful ceramic lamb inside. We looked at the calendar and realized that the 12 days of Christmas were beginning!! We waited excitedly for the next night's surprise and only then, with the gift of a matching shepherd, did we realize that the lamb was part of a nativity set. Each night we grew more excited to see what piece we would receive. Each was exquisitely  beautiful. The kids kept trying to catch the givers as we slowly built the scene at the manger and began to focus on Christ's birth.


On Christmas Eve, all the pieces were in place, but the baby Jesus. My 12 year old son really wanted to catch our benefactors and began to devise all kinds of ways to trap them. He ate his dinner in the mini-van watching and waiting, but no one came. Finally we called him in to go through our family's Christmas Eve traditions. But before the kids went to bed we checked the front step - No Baby Jesus!! We began to worry that my son had scared them off. My husband suggested that maybe they dropped the Jesus and there wouldn't be anything coming. Somehow something was missing that Christmas Eve. There was a feeling that things weren't complete. The kids went to bed and I put out Christmas, but before I went to bed I again checked to see if the Jesus had come - no, the doorstep was empty.


In our family the kids can open their stockings when they want to, but they have to wait to open any presents until Dad wakes up. So one by one they woke up very early and I also woke up to watch them. Even before they opened their stockings, each child checked to see if perhaps during the night the baby Jesus had come. Missing that piece of the set seemed to have an odd affect. At least it changed my focus. I knew there were presents under the tree for me and I was excited to watch the children open their gifts, but first on my mind was the feelings of waiting for the ceramic Christ Child.


We had opened just about all of the presents when one of the children found one more for me buried deep beneath the limbs of the tree. He handed me a small package from my former visiting teaching companion. This sister was somewhat less active in the church. I had been her visiting teacher for a couple of years and then, when she was asked to be a visiting teacher, she requested to go with me. I had learned over time they didn't have much for Christmas, so that their focus was the children. It sounded like she didn't get many gifts to open, so I had always given her a small package - new dish towels, the next year's Relief Society manual - not much, but something for her to open. I was touched when at Church on the day before Christmas, she had given me this small package, saying it was just a token of her love and appreciation. As I took off the bow, I remembered my friendship with her and was filled with gratitude for knowing her and for her kindness and sacrifice in this year giving me a gift. But as the paper fell away, I began to tremble and cry. There in the small brown box was the baby Jesus. He had come!


I realised on that Christmas Day that Christ will come into our lives in ways that we don't expect. The spirit of Christ comes into our hearts as we serve one another. We had waited and watched for him to come, expecting the dramatic "knock at the door and scurrying of feet" but he came in a small, simple package that represented service, friendship, gratitude and love.


This experience taught me that the beginning of the true spirit of Christmas comes as we open our hearts and actively focus on the Saviour. But we will most likely find him in the small and simple acts of love, friendship and service that we give to each other. This Christmas I want to feel again the joy of knowing that Christ is in our home. I want to focus on loving and serving. More than that I want to open my heart to him all year that I may see him again.

PEACE .... my wish for everyone this Christmas ....

YAY ... YAY ... and one more time YAY !!!  { jumping around doing the happy dance } ..... finally handed in my first essay for Uni.  That certainly has made my day.  Everything seemed to be on hold while I got that done.  No one at home could talk to me .... I was off in another world.  Well at least I had my nose buried in books.  Oh well, now that's over I can breath a big sigh of relief { Phew } and take a breather before the next assignment, which isn't far away.  Don't know how I'll go, but Que Sera Sera.  It's all a learning curve.  It can only go onward and upward from here.

Dark mulling clouds .... 
Friday Evening ......
Continuing all over the weekend ...
Right about now I thought I might need to get the ARK out the front of the house ...
well just in case ....

Didn't see Noah anywhere about .... but I do have 2 cats ....

It came pelting down .....

Then all was quite on the Western Front and I put the ARK back in the garage.




I still didn't like the look of the clouds

Then today out came this beautiful Rainbow

Perfect after all that rain

Just to add to the festive cheer and keep in the spirit of Christmas we've added these additions to our decoration tally

This little duck is so cute.  Miss 20 purchased this as a gift for my niece and nephew.  When you put it in the water it has a sensor on the bottom and flashes, various different colours. 

Very cute.

Then we bought this guy.

Now I'm positive the department manager saw us coming

and we had signs on our heads reading 

"SUCKERS"

yeah well that was us.

Miss 20 saw him sitting in the supermarket on the shelf near the main counter and fell in love with him .... but then she falls in love with anything cute and fury.

Well even I thought he was cute when we noticed that on his foot it said

PRESS HERE 

and when we pressed his foot 

he started singing.

Yep, he found a place in our house.

But this is my favourite Christmas purchase this year

I just love it.

I have wanted a nice nativity for a long time.  I look each year, but never seem to have the money when Christmas comes around.

But then I found this

with the word

PEACE

written on it 

and I just love it.

... and it even lights up ...

And that's my wish for Christmas for everyone 

PEACE

Really getting into Christmas now ......

Santa giving gifts

Today was the day to get into the spirit of Christmas, even though I hadn't been feeling like it.  We had our work Christmas Party today.  I work as a personal carer and the party was for Clients and Carers alike

Lollies

 It turned out to be a lovely day and everyone enjoyed themselves.  It was nice to see that people that might otherwise have no one to spend Christmas with got the share in a celebration.

Christmas Tree

Christmas is a special time of year but there are those out there that don't get to have Christmas with anyone and that is sad.   So today was a really nice day of sharing with one another: conversation, food, assisting those that needed it and seeing them enjoy themselves. 

Decorations

Santa and elves

Merry Christmas Balloons

More Decorations

Nuts and Pretzels

Christmas Crackers

BBQ Lunch

Soft Drink

Christmas Bells

Salad

Potato Salad

Fried Onions

Bread and Butter

Children Playing