Best Christmas in Years

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas this year as I have. 
Mine started weeks ago with an early present...

I love this little bee ornament made out of wine corks!

Nico got into the spirit...

And Vindaloo wouldn't be outdone.

I had my surgery the Friday before and Corriney made me a get well stocking, with all the things I could possibly need: purple sidewalk chalk (my favorite color), 2 crayons, a seashell from Florida, glass pebbles and acorns - for my crafts, pennies, a foam square - for more crafts, homemade caramels (great medicine!), a Cutie orange, and bandaids for my tummy.  She even put a bow on the top (though this picture is sans bow because I needed some of that medicine.)

Connor started our festivities on Christmas Eve with force...from the dark side.

Christmas morning was exactly as it should be - lots of love and gifts in our pajamas around the tree, with cherry turnovers to tide us over till breakfast.  Corinne really got into the giving spirit and made Gaga and I jingle bell necklaces, and she re-purposed one of Connor's hats for her daddy.  The straps are her addition. By the way, those are her Silly Hands (boxing gloves) next to Ryan that Corinne asked for from Santa.  She's going to need them to defend herself from Connor, who got a nerf dart gun!

Corinne loves her bird wings and was flapping all around, and Connor was giving chase with his dart gun.  Corinne flap-flapped, "I'm an endangered bird!"

Gaga gave Corinne an art box, and she got right to work making a beak, and a feather for her head.

My boyfriend Jeff joined us made a great addition to our family.
 After breakfast we split up for showers, naps, and some down time before reconvening at Gaga/Papa's for dinner.  Corinne had helped Gaga make the decorations for our centerpiece.

Ryan insisted we reinstate our old Puzzle on Christmas tradition.  Corinne got right in there too because of the birds. 

Mom put up her floating tree again, with Dad's touch...the one red ball, and mine - the cardinal.

And Connor was quality control, making sure I was warm and cozy under my new heated throw.

This was a fantastic Christmas all together, and I hope you all had a wonderful day too.

Winter Wonderland

Two weeks ago we had snow and temperatures in the single digits, right in time for my Penny Pick-Up week.  I spent the week driving around a UHaul, meeting up with volunteers who had visited our participating schools to pick up their sacks of pennies (30 lbs each!) or going out to the schools myself.  On the day that it snowed, I was scheduled to meet our Boulder school halfway between Boulder and Denver in the Butterfly Pavilion's parking lot in Broomfield.  I ended up getting there a half  hour early since I'd left plenty of time expecting to crawl along the highway at an even slower pace.  While waiting for the teacher from the Boulder school, I decided to go in and mingle with the butterflies.  I stepped  out of the freezing cold and snow, into a tropical jungle.

This little oasis was perfect warming medicine before I headed back out in the cold. 

Around the World in 7 Gifts

Besides crafting off of Pinterest and making bird wings for Corinne...

and a dinosaur tail for Connor - shhh, they're for Christmas! -

I found the Shop For A Cause type marketplace at the Lutheran Church in Evergreen and went a little nuts.  Every vendor there had items that were made by someone in another country as a means to alleviate their situations, which needed to be alleviated in some way or another.  For example, I bought a beautiful navy blue silk wallet that was made by sex slave trade survivors in Cambodia by Sak Saum for Freedom. .  That was going to be a present, but, alas, it wouldn't work out for the intended, so, sigh, I'll have to use it myself.
I did get a number of other gifts for others, and some for me, and so I'll skip some of the items, but will name the organizations!
I did get a beautiful journal for myself covered in recycled saris from lovecalcuttaarts.com - sold at the Yobel Market table.  Yobel Market brings together a number of amazing products from different organizations like Sak Saum for Freedom and Love Calcutta Arts.
Bead For Life - beautiful paper bead jewelry from Uganda, and Haitian Creations (gifts) made in Haiti, and another beautiful scarf from India and One Mother.org, which is the same organization that started my world wide philanthropy challenge.  I also got a beautiful skirt and a stuffed animal from Dsenyo, products made by women in Malawi.
And, I got a few things (gifts!) locally, through the Women's Bean Project.  Vindaloo helped herself to the Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix so that's no longer a gift.  Sigh. 

Not only did I got a lot of great gifts and things for me, but I was able to check off a number of countries on my list! Since I'd already checked off a couple of them, like Cambodia and India, I'll be adding a couple others on behalf of those countries.  I can get pretty creative justifying things in my budget when it's for things like these!

Cambodia
Canada (On behalf of Sak Saum in Cambodia)
Ecuador
England (On behalf of local US - Women's Bean Project)
Finland
Germany (On behalf of Bead for Life, Uganda)
Haiti
India
Kenya
Malawi
Netherlands (On Behalf of  Love Calcutta Arts.com, India)
Norway (On behalf of One Mother.org, India)
Pakistan
Peru
Romania
Senegal
Sweden
Uganda