That's how old my dad would have been today. Last year, the first time our family celebrated his birthday without him, I wrote this post. I'd forgotten about that. But, I did actually go to church today...though not for an actual service, just to take Noah to religious ed class. I'm in the process of finishing up a little project about my dad to hang in our house and had it in my head that it was something of a birthday gift, but didn't get it finished by today like I'd hoped. With luck, I'll have it done by the end of the week. In the meantime, here's a layout I did almost a year ago about my dad and his birthday:

Not sure if you can read the journaling, so I'll include it here:

Happy birthday, Dad! You’d have been 58 today. I’ve been trying to think of something we can do as a family every year to celebrate your birthday...some little tradition we can start so that we can feel together even when we’re not. When I asked Joe if he had any ideas, he mentioned that every year he’d ask you what you wanted for your birthday and you’d say simply “go to church and say a rosary.” So very like you. I wasn’t able to convince all the others, but I did go to church today for you. Nathan came home early so we could go to the evening service as a family. The homily was amazingly fitting. The priest talked about advent and the word “prepare.” He emphasized how we must prepare not only for the material trappings of the season but how we must prepare our lives for God...how we must live a life of faith and service. Dad, I can’t think of a single person who was more prepared to meet God than you. I wish you were here to blow out your candles, but I know that you are in a better place and that you are at peace. The way you lived your life simply leaves no alternative. So, even though we were not at all “prepared” for your death, I find comfort in the fact that you were. And so, today, I celebrated your prepared life. I have no present for you, but you’ve given me a priceless one...your example.

Happy birthday once again, Dad. I love you.

(More on our ornament projects and all tomorrow...)

Happy start of December, everyone! We're in the home stretch now, eh? This first of December started off a number of things for the month:

Countdown books. So, after Options today, I gave the boys their countdown books and they were, predictably, thrilled. It was too dark to take pictures, but trust me...they had a blast coloring those first pictures.

Ornament a day. After the coloring, we made our first (and second) ornaments for our ornament a day attempt this month. (They were so excited after finishing the first one, they simply had to do another and I caved.) I decided to start out easy and just did a simple store-bought kit today (beaded candy canes and beaded wreaths)...will work up to more complicated ornaments. I have to admit that I was starting to have reservations about the whole thing and, in particular, was wondering if I should make more of an attempt to do more "crafty" unique ornaments...but, after seeing the boys' delight with such a simple thing as stringing silly colored beads on wire, I'm good now with simply making an ornament a day...any ornament. If it goes well, maybe next year we can shoot for more ambitious style. :) Oh, and realistically, I won't remember to take a picture every day, but I will take a picture of each day's ornament and try to post them once or twice a week, okay? If you have any cool ornament ideas, I'd LOVE to hear/see them! (If tonight was any indicator, I may need more ideas than the list I have now, lol.)

Advent calendars. In years past, we've had the somewhat traditional wooden door hiding a little ornament that you take out and hang on the door or on a tree sorts of advent calendars. No complaints really. This year, with our ornament a day (which is basically the same thing as the advent calendar act anyhow since the boys get to hang their completed ornament on their own little tree each day) and our countdown calendars and the overall lack of space after you take those into account, we've opted not to use those wooden ones. Because I'm weak, though, I did buy them this one. It's only day one but they're in love. We'll see how well it goes considering there's only one calendar and three boys... ;)

For next year and the years after, I'm thinking the stands of mittens or stockings like in Kaitlin's post here are simply adorable. I may have to start collecting tiny stockings. ;)

Elf on the shelf. I hadn't heard of this until a year or so ago when a friend mentioned it. Then I saw it in a catalog. And another. Then, I found it in a local toy store and accepted it as fate that I must have one. :) So, today, our very own Elf on the Shelf was welcomed into our family. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. Regardless, he sure is a cute bit of decor. :)

Wrapped books. We started this a year or two ago (I think two) after reading about it somewhere. We take a bunch (at least 25) of holiday/winter themed books and wrap them up individually. We then put them under the tree and the boys take turns selecting and unwrapping one (sometimes more) each night leading up to Christmas for their bedtime story. It's been so wonderful. The boys (for the most part) stop asking to unwrap any other presents that may appear (as they're getting that unwrapping bug out of their system each night), and we don't have to read "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" twenty five times during December (nothing against Rudolph, of course). Plus, it's just a nice little reminder that time spent together is a gift all its own.

Whew. With all that going on pretty much every day during December, it's no wonder I'm tired. :) Do you have any daily routines you add each December? I'd love to hear about them (because, obviously, I don't have enough going on, LOL!).

I'll readily admit I still haven't really gotten into actually using my Facebook account (hanging my head). But. I just found out about a cool site that's basically a paper crafter's version of Facebook. It's called Paper Craft Planet. How does that information get you free Prism paper, you ask? Well, the lovely design team leader for Prism, Tami Mayberry, has just started a Prism group over there and is hosting a giveaway this week! Pop on over and join the group for your chance to win!

...is that you can't always post what you're working on because certain people who might happen to be the intended recipients of said work may be reading your blog. ;) Yup, happily finishing off more projects here but can't post them. I can, though, post this:

I'm silly happy about this little piece that I finally got around to making. I've been saying that I'm going to do it for a long while now. See. I collect coasters at restaurants. I don't really know why. I kept saying that I was going to do something with them, and now I finally have. This isn't all the coasters I've collected, obviously, but I think it's a nice little representation. I simply cut them into squares and arranged them on some nice white Prism cardstock...stuck it all in a 12x12 frame...and hung it in the kitchen. Totally simple, but isn't it fun? :)

So, what are you creating lately? (It's okay...chances that the recipients of your gifts will be reading the comments of my blog are slim, right?)

Okay, I'm going back to those other crafty things now...

I thought about making a list of things I'm thankful for yesterday. I didn't quite get to it. :) Yesterday, we went down to my brother's new house about 45 minutes away...the first time we've ever spent Thanksgiving with family without being in Washington with a LOT of family. It was a quiet but nice changing of the guard. We had a delicious meal and ended up with the inevitable leftovers. The kids had a seemingly good time without incident (which is saying something for having had an 8 year old, two 6.5 year olds, three 3 year olds and an almost 3 year old, lol). Sadly, we're going to have to thank the Wii for that one. This is pretty much how the older kids spent the entire day:

The two little boys (Micah and Aaron) spent much of their time watching their big brothers. The two little girls watched Strawberry Shortcake and played with the dollhouse in the other room. :) I'm sure if we'd turned off the Wii and involved them in some other activity, they'd have done fine. But we let them have their fun for the day.

Not much else to report right now. Today's been a very lazy day around here. No Black Friday shopping for me. :) If you did venture out, here's hoping you had a good time and found some great deals!