Teddy Bear Christmas

One of the fun Christmas traditions we have is my Mom's cute Teddy Bear Stockings. She made one for each of my siblings and myself when we were very little.

They are getting a little faded but still are working well. With my brother's family in town my Mom and I decied to add stockings for them as well. We found a cute bear pattern material in a mostly green shade. We've spent the last few weeks cutting and sewing.

I did most of the cutting of materials and my mom did the sewing.

 

The fun part was making the cute little teddy bear faces.

Teddy Bears all in a row

We finished the stockings on Christmas Eve, just in time for Santa. For another fun tradition, my Dad and I made some little Teddy Bear loafs.

We wrapped them up and handed them out to our friends with a little container of honey butter. Christmas is always a fun time of year for me. And with these fun traditions it makes it more enjoyable.

The Little Ones

This last week my older brother's family came down from Seattle to spend Christmas with us. It has been fun having them in town for a while. My little nephews are huge fans of legos so I helped them put together one of my old lego sets.

They have been playing with it ever since. My mom and dad have also enjoyed having them around. My mom gets to read to them every night and dad gets some grandpa time as well.

 

A while back my dad purchased a HUGE teddy bear from Costco. We've named it BB (Big Bear). The kiddos love it.

Especially little Jace

And even the big kids have fun with it. Meet my older brother Tony....he is such a big kid some times.

"Good-bye cruel world...."

I think he had more fun throwing BB over the railing than the kids had fun hugging the life out of it.
I also got to meet my little niece for the first time. She is so tiny and cute. Just got to love her.

On Thursday, I invited them all over to my apartment to have pizza and make Ginger Bread houses. The boys were so excited it was hard to get them to sit down, all they wanted to do was eat the candy. But after putting in a Christmas movie they settled down a little, enough to make some.

My hand got pretty sore squeezing that frosting but we got them all built.

Debbie and an unhappy Jason

I discovered that my home wasn't very Jason proof. We kept having to move things up higher.

 Here is Max and Ryan showing off their creations. They had a lot of fun. Max was even nice enough to give me one of his to keep.

Happy Ryan

Tony's "Tiny Tim" Evie.

They are so much fun to have around. I can't wait to see how they are at Christmas. Should be a blast.

Cookie Goodness

Today was a crazy last minute Christmas projects and present shopping day with my Mom. She just got back into town last night and with my brother's family coming into town on Monday. She and I were getting the last bit of things ready before they got here. While we were out at the grocery store we walked past the bins of sale objects and I almost walked right past my favorite treat for the holiday season.

I'm a huge fan of Oreos I have a lot of fond memories of eating Oreo cookies at my grandma's house after school when I was a freshman in high school. So ever since then, Oreos and No-Bake cookies are my two favorite. Every year around Christmas time they come out with their white fudge Oreos. I LOVE white chocolate, sooooo when I see these I always grab about three boxes of them.

These made my day....and Mom and I got a lot of stuff done. More to do tomorrow but at least we got the shopping done.

Good Books - Secret of NIMH

I haven't done a good book review in awhile so I thought I'd talk about one of my childhood favorites.

 The Secret of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. I was first introduced to this story by watching the animated film that came out back in the 90s.

The story is about a young mouse mother that is trying to protect her family. Her husband, Johnathan mysteriously vanished, leaving her and her four children to fend for themselves.

Frisbe Family

Johnathan

 Their winter home was a cinder-block in the middle of a farmers field. Every spring they were forced to leave their home when the field is plowed. But at the beginning of the story her youngest son is sick and can't go outside. She is faced with the problem of keeping him safe from the plow.

The story is of her quest to save her son's life. She is given some medicine from a family friend. And when she is told that it will take two weeks, she seeks the help of the great owl.

 

 The owl tells her to ask the rats for help. The rats are a strange bunch that have made their home in the farmer's rose bush. She discovers that her husband came from the same place as the rats, a place called NIMH.

Justin

Nicodemas

While with the rats she learns the secret of NIMH and how to save her son's life.

If you are looking for something similar to Watership Down, this is a good short read. The characters are likable and you are cheering for poor Mrs. Frisbe as she struggles to understand the secret life of her husband and struggles to save her family. I highly recommend this book to young readers. And the movie follows the book really well.