Donate Life Float in the Rose Parade

If you watch the Rose Parade this year, be sure to look for the Donate Life Float (the artist's rendition is above). I purchased a rose in the memory of my organ donor, Sue, which will be part of the "Family Circle" on the float. This seemed like a particularly fitting tribute since Sue's passion was growing beautiful rose bushes. The tag on the rose I purchased says "In loving memory of the angel who saved my life. Please know that I think of you and honor your memory every day." Her daughter called me today because she received the certificate in the mail and we were both in tears. I'm really glad that this opportunity presented itself as a way to pay tribute to Sue. I think of her so often. I am looking forward to seeing the finished float in the parade.

Christmas Train Ride

Last night we went on a Christmas train ride on the Huckleberry Railroad at Crossroads Village. What a fun time! The train was built in the 1800's and runs on wood. It was really decorated nice for Christmas. We went with our friends Carol and Tom and their daughter Emma. The kids also got to sit on Santa's lap and ride a really fast old carousel. Probably their favorite part of the night was eating at Bob Evans afterward because they got to sit by each other and pass food back and forth through the "window" of the booth

We finally saw Santa!!!

We have been telling Joey he is going to see Santa for weeks now. First, we went to our city's Christmas festival, but then got too cold to wait in the Santa line. Then, Santa was going to be at Joey's daycare party, but he was sick last week and didn't get to go. Today we planned on taking him to see the Santa at Somerset Mall, but you need to go in person and make an appointment. I called ahead and they said that they were giving out appointments 3 1/2 hours in advance, so I decided to go while Joey was napping to try to get an evening appointment. I got there at 3:00 and they were already done handing out appointments for the day. So, we finally went to Lakeside mall this evening and waited in a 45 minute line. We rented one of the little car strollers from the mall that Joey is always wanting to ride in and that kept him pretty content during the wait. Anyway, I think the Santa meeting itself was pretty anti-climactic after all of our efforts. He wasn't really scared, but , as you can see by the picture, he also wasn't very interested.

Checking out the Christmas Tree

We put our tree up over the weekend. Joey has actually been pretty good about not touching, but he does like to take a close look at the ornaments once in awhile.

Ralphie's Brother

We went out to play in the little bit of snow that we had on Thursday. I bundled Joey up in his snowsuit. He looked like Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story" - the one who falls over when he tries to walk in his snowsuit. It wasn't really enough snow to do much with, but he loved being outside.

We have snow!

We woke up this morning to quite a bit of snow. Still not enough for sledding really, but the most we've had this year. It didn't really occur to me that this was really Joey's first time out walking on snow covered ground. When we were walking into Gymboree he kept wanting to reach down and touch it. Then he kept wanting to pick the snow off of his shoes. He was fascinated by it. Maybe we will go out and play a little bit when he gets up from his nap.

More Blogthings quizzes - I failed 8th grade geography

Good thing I don't have to retake the 8th grade any time soon. I never was good at geography. Give it a try!

You Failed 8th Grade Geography

Sorry, you only got 3/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Geography?

Cookie Baking

Yesterday, we baked our cut out Christmas cookies. This is one of my favorite traditions and I wanted to make sure that Joey was included. He stood on his little stool and watched me the whole time. He especially liked helping to "dispose of" the broken cookies.

Our New Pet

We put our lights up today, including a lighted polar bear that is new this year. Joey is so excited about it. He kept pointing at it saying "bear", then he wanted to pat it and kiss it like he does with the dog. Whenever he's being bad and we need to distract him, we tell him to go to the window to make sure the bear is still there.