Macy and Goldilocks and The Three Bears

This is one of Macy's fav books for now. She had me read it over and over, and she liked to talk about the beds, slippers, and chairs of Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.

Stella's Door

 Boys and not nice people have cooties! Well, maybe boys are not filled with cooties if they are nice. Just don't enter her private lair unless you have permission.

Christmas

We left for Christmas to Utah on Dec 22 and returned home on Dec 30 . It's harder to post on the iPad and I'm too busy (!) while I'm away so over the next several days I will be posting pics and commentary.
We got delayed in Las Vegas and finally got home and fell into bed at 3:30am. Not fun. Rick is sick, coughing constantly, and his hip and shoulder both hurt. He just couldn't get comfortable and was miserable. I keep trying to get sick, and keep battling it. Throat and chest hurt a little, my voice is funny, but I'm determined to not get full-blown sick. Apparently the flu is raging here in the US.

Rick, Paige, the ggrrls and I went sledding one day. It was cold and I thought I would go back to the house early with Hattie. Nothing doing!! She loved it and got upset if she didn't get to go down on the sled every time it went. After we finished sledding, Paige let the ggrrls play on the playground for a short while. As we were walking back to the car Hattie figured out the outside time was over; she got upset and kept pointing to let us know she wasn't finished.

Paige, Hattie, Stella, Macy

 

 Hard to keep this little ggrrl off the sled; of course she couldn't go down by herself, but I think she would have.

Sisters having a great time!

Three beautiful ggrrls in Christmas dresses

Hattie and Macy are both a little sick. Paige said in her text with the pic, "Everytime I unplugged it, it kept making too much noise." I didn't understand the unplugged part, but oh well. I told Rick the pics are super cute but I wish Paige had taken the pacifier out of Hattie's mouth. He explained that was the unplugged part. I must not be too quick.

Stella Bella and Macy Moo and Hattie...why doesn't she have a second name?

I'm going to start writing down the things the little girls say because it is forgotten so quickly. I can only remember a few things my own kids said; always so adorable at these young ages.

The girls were doing something uncooperative and Paige had asked them several times to cease and desist, finally she told them she would cancel Christmas if they didn't start behaving. Stella looked at Paige and told her, "You can't cancel Christmas because that is when Jesus was born."

Macy is sick with the croup, has that real seals cough and is on medicine. It must be quite yucky because she told Paige it's not good and to sell it at a yard sale.

Decorating for Christmas

I haven't been home on Christmas day since we moved to North Carolina in Aug 2007. Most of the years have been in Utah, but one was in Indianapolis with Jason and the boys.

The tree has seemed like too much work to put up so only two times have I done so. Actually, at no time did I put it up. That first year in 2007 Scott put it up and decorated the entire house with every little bit of decos I had (while the rest of us drove to Wilmington to the beach). It was really cheery, hap hap happily Christmas! Then last year Rick put up one of the trees I got at Hobby Lobby, and he did lights and a few decos on it.

I have always put out those decorations that I like, especially my nativity scenes, which I collect, and I set them out this year. I also set out other decos that I like. We looked quite festive.

This year I was all aboard with putting out both my Hobby Lobby trees (they are tall, pole-like with a few branches stuck here and there and I love them). They came with white lights and we added colored lights and some decorations and an angel and star topper. Then we put out some big balls on our front trees and bushes.

For some reason when my iPad focused, it always made the lights look like the tree on the left. I had to quickly take the pic to get the lights like the one on the right. I think both ways look pretty.

This is a metal crèche that I bought last year during the after Christmas sales. It's 2 feet high and I love it.

Comments on an article in BloombergView about Obamacare

"They promised we could keep our healthcare plans, our doctors, and our costs would go down $2,500 a year. They said it would not increase our costs. They said more people would be insured. They said the government would not come between us and our doctors. They claimed the insurance companies would pay for everyone's birth control and also the taxes on the Cadillac healthcare plans---but didn't relay the fact that not only would the insurance companies pass their costs on to us, they didn't tell us that soon everyone's plan will be considered a Cadillac plan.

They lied about the IPAB. They told us essentially that the inefficient government (who was going to take over the entire healthcare system--he who writes the rules rules) was going to be able to insure 30 million people at no cost to us.

The truth is Obamacare is a massive wealth redistribution plan in which we in the American middle class are the ones who will pay the Obamacare bill for the entire country. There will be 30 Senators running for reelection in 2016 who voted to pass Obamacare. This means we will have another chance of ridding our country of the politicians who insisted on cramming this Socialist program down our throats and ruining our healthcare system!"

Atlas Shrugged

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.”
    John Galt