Christmas Eve 2007

I can't believe that Christmas is already here! I had dreams that Santa Claus came last night and forgot to leave gifts. That was one of the worst nightmares I ever had and even made me wake up to check the calendar. I am always the first one up in the morning so let's see if this holds true for another year. Even though it's just us this year we are still planning on having a turkey diner tomorrow, my mouth is watering already.
As for every year, the school has a 'Gift of Caring' tree and the kids get to bring an ornament home, we purchase the gift for someone on the ornament and send it back to school. This year made me bawl my eyes out because I bought for two moms. One mom wanted a gift card from a grocery store so she could buy food for Christmas, and the other wanted toiletries ( I went a little crazy and bought her a nice brush, toothbrush, a shaving gift pack with shampoo and conditioner, and a body lotion gift pack with soap included. I can't imagine asking for these things for Christmas and wish them better years to come.

I am finally putting up some photos from our 'Reindeer Run' which had a great turn out. It was almost freezing that morning which made the muscles really tight and harder to breath but we still made it the whole 2 1/2 miles (4 km) with three very brief stops. This week alone we manage to hit around 15 degrees Celsius during the day but get all the way down to freezing at night. This is about 10 degrees cooler than average for winter. We definitely feel it a lot more this year than last.

Do you love our antlers? They even light up! This photo was when we finished the race. When we finished we were given raffle tickets and prizes were given out when everyone finished. We won a gift certificate to a restaurant called 'Pei Wei'.
While we took part in the race Ted hung out with Isi playing on the playground. I had to have a picture of Isi's hair when she came down the slide.

Yesterday we visited the Zoo for their annual 'Zoo Lights'. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun with mule/wagon rides, carousel rides, and of course all the amazing lights. I knew it was going to be busy but never did I expect to see that many people in one place. It was nuts but well worth it.

We miss everyone and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love The Sfikas Family

Well, I know I have waited too long to post when I have a ton of things I want to share with all of you. We have slowed down lately since soccer is finished, along with tennis lessons, and weekend chess and it has been really nice to do what we want when we want and just have fun as long as the homework is done. Homework and projects are driving us crazy! Even at this moment I am practicing staining paper with coffee for Athena's Egyptian Newspaper she made to make it look antique and it's due tomorrow!
We had a community event called, "Snow Day In The Park". Above is Isi falling in love with Daisy bear who runs a booth where you can make your own Teddy just like 'Build a Bear' but they are mobile so you could actually have this company come out to your house for a party.
The kids actually got to play in snow that was made just for this day. Isi enjoyed it as well and was happy for hours just trying to walk on it without slipping. I could have done without it since I found out I was just tall enough to be a snowball magnet and Isi was just short enough to be missed entirely the whole day.
A crazy rainstorm came through Phoenix. I thought for sure this water was going to come right up to the sliding door but the rain would let up just enough here and there to keep it from coming any closer. The 'wash' system they have in place around here works amazingly well so there was no flooding in our area. Because it rains so little here when it does something weird happens to the pavement and it becomes as slick as ice. You wouldn't believe how many cars had slid off the roads and into things like the brick walls that we have around our yard.

Hera has been a crafting maniac lately. This is a 'lime, milkshake puppet' she made. You can move the mouth with a stick that is glued to the inside. She has made many flavors and has been mass producing them for all her friends at school because they are in such high demand. Hopefully that ends soon cause I would really like to have some of my kitchen counter back. I also keep telling her she needs to start charging money for her work.

Both girls participated in,"The Clash" (chess tournament) this weekend. Hera won one game out of four which is pretty good since she is still just a beginner, and Athena won a trophy for placing 22nd in her division ( kids from here till about 12th place have won two to two and 1/2 of their games). I am so proud of them and expect some even higher results in the next tournament.

Here is my finished dining area after repainting the whole thing. The 'Aztec Brick' looks much more muted in person but I couldn't get good enough lighting to really show it off. The rest of the walls were painted in 'Bagel'. I am very happy with the results and can't wait to start on the next area. I even already have the paint for the next living area.

My littlest Isi has days where she throws tantrums left, right and center, wants to be naked all the time, and doesn't always take naps anymore. This can lead to time outs and in this photo she had fallen asleep in her time out spot after refusing to apologize for hurting one of her sisters. She is so cute!!! It took all my will power not to pinch her to pieces.

Chat more soon!
Charmaine