Magic in our own backyard!

We have always said our house had magic in it. It is because it is so old, over 100 years! In the spring lots of fairies live here and come from the flowers when they bloom. We make sure we sprinkle lots of glittery fairy dust in the flower beds so they will grow with the flowers. We leave little acorn top cups of water and rose petal plates of fairy food. The girls build fairy waterfalls on the rock wall for them to bathe in. All of this magic goes along perfect with our theme for the year. We have decided our theme for the year will be - "Magic in our own Backyard" - Most of our activities this year will reflect that theme and I am sooo excited! We have the coolest birthdays planned. I love having fun birthdays.
Along with all of the magic, one of the things that inspired our group decision was the photograph contest from American Girl. Kaity has taken the most beautiful pictures from our backyard. If you want to participate - http://www.americangirl.com/girloftheyear/2010/photocontest.php
We have a lot of cool ideas and are excited about all of the fun that will be happening in our backyard as we make the world a better place starting with our little corner.

Our Backyard

These were all taken by Kaity, she is a fabulous photographer and has an artistic eye for detail. Beautiful!!!

 

The comfort of predictable tradtions.

We had a fabulous Christmas. There are so many beautiful people in our lives that it would be impossible not too! This year we had our fun family tree with our handmade decorations and precious things the kids have made or collected over the years, and we also hand picked the most gorgeous tree ever off of the mountain behind our home. Our awesome nieghbors, that are more like family, took us up to get it. It is huge and beautiful.

As I reflect on our wonderful Christmas, I think about all of the traditions that we have, and we do them every year. They are so predictable. We all open one present on Christmas eve and of course it is PJ's. (Smart mom's can guarantee great Christmas day photo's that way ;) Then we change into jammy's and read the Christmas story out of the Bible just like my father did when I was a child. We leave Santa milk and home-made cookies on his special plate, and he leaves us a really neat book to add to our Christmas collection. We feed the reindeer too, they don't leave us anything but we are awfully glad that they get Santa to us. Actually they did leave us some reindeer droppings this year which was a real added bonus in the believe department. We either make or collect a special ornament each year.... and the list goes on.

We celebrated New Years in our traditional way as well - together. I am so glad we have always done that and I hope my kids want to do that every year. We eat snacks and watch movies. At midnight we watch the ball drop and drink Martenellis sparkling apple cider. The kids love it and it is our tradition. And as life goes on I realize that those predictable things are the things that bond us and keep us close, they keep us grounded and moving forward, the things you can always plan for and count on. When everything in life gets crazy - and it usually does - there are things you can count on. You will get a new pair of PJ's every year even when you are to old to out grow them, Santa and the reindeer will always be able to fuel up at our house Christmas Eve, baby Jesus is always lying in the manger Christmas day, Christ comes before everything especially presents and Santa, we celebrate everything together, and family always loves you.

CHEERS!