I also got and acrostic poem written in my honor:

 And the cutest set of hands that have ever made a heart:

 Meg, Enu and Elle accompanied me and my mom to a fun mom and me event at The Wilds. The Wilds is an amazing conservation  park where you can see animals in a natural way, no fences for most of them!  We had a great time and got to pet a few animals that we normally wouldn’t pet: a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, a possum, a gray fox and a corn snake.

Top my day  off with homemade lasagna from Meg and my Dad and I had quite the nice day ;) I hope yours was blessed as well.

I don’t like breakfast in bed. I hate eating in bed, even late night snacks, so breakfast foods are just impossible for me to  enjoy.  I don’t want crumbs on my pillow or syrup on my sheets.  I just don’t like anything about it.

Except for the look on the kids’ faces when they bring it up. I do adore those faces. They are so happy and so proud, giggling and arguing  bursting into the room to awaken me.

Bless them.  If I am treated to this custom once again on Sunday, I’ll be sure to ahh it up and let them know how awesome they are.  Then I’ll eat my carrots with a side of ketchup (okay, I’ll quietly skip the ketchup) and try not to mess up the bed too much.  This may be my last year of my surprise, you never know, I may miss it someday. I probably will miss it someday, but I cannot help but hope they choose an everything bagel over cereal this year!

This  Cheryl’s Cookies Shamrock Treat  is just $5 with shipping included.  It also has a $5 rewards card included for future purchases.  A sweet, inexpensive  way to tell someone….what do you tell people on Patty’s day?  Oh yeah to tell them:  Kiss Me I’m Irish and I sent  you a cookie.

Another fun St. Patrick’s Day gift is a tub of green pop corn from The Popcorn Factory!  Green Butter Popcorn is sweet, salty and buttery so you cannot go wrong satisfying your cravings.  This sells for $9.99.

I used to not do much for St. Patrick’s Day other than put green food coloring in the toilet (told the girls that the Leprechauns peed in it!) and when the girls are in Kindergarten they make Leprechaun traps.  Years ago I started buying Hubby Guinness beer though and I think he likes this tradition!  I may have to step it up a notch and start sending out these fun cookie cards and popcorn tubs to friends and family as well.

Or maybe I will just order them for me and eat them while the kids are at school. Baahaaahaaa!

Do you want to win a St. Patty’s Day Cookie Card and Green Butter Popcorn?  Simply leave a comment  telling me what you find attractive about Leprechauns.  For an extra entry you can like Cheryl’s Cookies and Brownies on Facebook, please come back to this post and let me know you did.

Giveaway is for US and Canada addresses only and you most likely will not get your treats in time for the St. Patty’s Day Party you are planning.  Three winners will be chosen random.org.  Contest runs March 7th until March 11th at noon.  Thanks!

(Disclosure:  I received a sample of the above products and no other compensation for my time and opinion.)

Since we have brought the girls home, we have celebrated with an Ethiopian meal, Coca-Cola and a small gift for each girl.  I try and make the family meal the center of the celebration, not the gifts.

I bought the injera earlier in the week, but made the Dora Alechea (mild chicken stew), red lentils and yellow split peas on my own. I’m not one for cooking, but I enjoy making this for the family. I also try and burn traditional incense to make the kitchen smell a bit like an Ethiopian kitchen might. Mita and Enu love the smell and it has brought back memories for them.

Check out my pics of the food!

Happy 2012!!!

So, I was thinking about doing a New Years post and thought I would look back to last year’s posts to see if I had written one.  Turns out, I did write one! Here it is.  If you had the interest in clicking you would have read that my goal for 2011 was to become more organized.  Ouch. I had kinda forgotten about that somewhere in March. Oops.

So did I become more organized?  I think so.  Am I so much more organized that others have noticed…probably not!  A goal that needs to be continued it seems.

As 2012 approaches I have a few things I want to accomplish.

1)  I want to make more reading goals, as I completed my three reading goals for 2011 and was very pleased with myself for that.  This will be another post, once I figure out exactly what my goals are.

2)  I want to figure out my camera better. (FireMom I need you on this one, maybe I can pay you in coffee beans?!)

3)  Once Enu is settles in school I want to work more. I love my job.

4)  Oh yeah. I need to become a domestic goddess.  Hmmm. I won’t even pretend that is possible!

Any special goals for 2012 for you and yours?  Have a great New Years and I hope that 2012 brings many blessings to you and your family!

Every year I put out lots and lots of Christmas books and DVD’s/VHS movies. They are put around the tree and on top of the TV and around our den. It used to be contained to a small basket, but in the years my collection has expanded.  This year I sadly noted that many of the books we have outgrown.  Part of me wants to keep all the books forever, but I have to be realistic of my space.

After reading Firemom’s book advent activities I have decided to let the girls wrap up some of our books when we pack up the Christmas decorations this year.  I will buy some more books in after Christmas sales to make it a pile of 24 books and we will give it to my niece next Thanksgiving so she can have an advent of books next year.

A few books I will keep forever.  Here are a couple of them that I just cannot bear to give away:

You Are My Miracle By Maryann K. Cusimano Love

Little Drummer Boy  By Ezra Jack Keats

If You  Take A Mouse To The Movies By Laura Numeroff

There are a few more of course by those are a few off the top of my head.

I thought I would pass on my Christmas idea to help other mom’s who also have families outgrowing the good old traditions.  If you have any ideas about older kids and traditions please share them!

(Disclosure: I was not asked to write about these books, nor are they affiliate links.)

I am blessed in that Christmas has always been  a special time, not one of loneliness or regret.  Of course, I have always been aware that the holidays can be hard for those who are grieving a loss of a loved one or for people who have no one to celebrate with. Being aware of and actually living through a holiday season grieving are acutely different.

While I cannot claim to know the loss that my Ethiopian girls have suffered, I  have lived with them for several holiday seasons now. We are about to celebrate our fourth Christmas as a family.  The first Christmas in 2008 wasn’t too rough as the girls as I kept a low profile Christmas and skipped a lot of the events that we normally do, although I did notice Mita was agitated at our Ethiopian Christmas celebration (January 7th or Epiphany) and even left our meal prematurely.

The past two Christmas seasons have seen an escalation in emotions, misbehaviors and outbursts.  Sadness that they will not be celebrating Christmas with their father is evident as they make Christmas cards for him and help make his annual photo book.

It doesn’t matter that in Ethiopia they may have received one outfit and some popcorn for Christmas, that Santa would skip over their house. It doesn’t matter that they wouldn’t have a tree with an iPod or American Girl doll underneath.  He is not with them and that is what matters.

Remember that no matter how wonderful your adoption has been, there is still a loss there that needs to be recognized.  December is a month for families and when your family has been fractured it cannot be ignored.

I encourage us all to remember those who have suffered a loss this year or in years passed.  Let us be gentle with them in our celebrations.

My brother and I started a tradition of waking up in the middle of the night and pulling everything out of our stockings and seeing our big gift from Santa. Santa always brought the big gift.  A big plus for in our house is that Santa did not wrap his gifts! That is how we knew the gift was from Santa.

What I didn’t realize was that Santa wrapped other kids’ gifts.When I found this out I was no longer a believer, so it didn’t matter.

Then I got married and had kids.  Hubby’s Santa did wrap!  He wrapped the big gift and the stocking stuffers!  It was a time for copermise and Hubby’s side won!

Santa wraps at our house now. I help him get special gift wrap so that his are different looking than ours…..this parenting stuff is so complicated!

There is my five minutes of Stream Of Consciousness about Santa Wrapping!  Life changing I know! Does your Santa wrap?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post at AllThingsFadra.com
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.