Just as I suspected.

A normal Sunday with very little out of sorts- except for the cable/internet going out for a few hours but that is no shocker.

Church-lunch-groceries. The girls saw Astroboy with Kevin as planned while I did the grocery part. Home to supper making, cleaning, and laundry. Happy Sunday to me.......still have good ol' Lady of Camarin Day to look forward to if I can just make it through Monday.

Wanted to take pictures of the girls in front of the tree. I swear the older they get the harder it is to get their photo. Lots of complaining, fussing, funny faces whenever I attempt it. Regular comedians they are!

I am really enjoying the Christmas tree (as I do every year :} love looking at all the ornaments on it and remembering them. I have a ball with dancing ladies on them that Esther gave me when I first had my own apartment. We have a Disney one that we bought the year we went there for Christmas. Gingham bears from Julie and ceramic ones from Micki. And these two that the girls made back in 2004:

The girls love the tree too. Sitting around and talking about Christmas and the ornaments and the decorations has become a past-time for us. I think its making us a little less homesick.

Hard to believe we are down to the teens- 19 days to go.....

Oh, and here is a shout-out to the Twilight fan....you know who you are...I think the guy in the back is the werewolf right?

So long since I blogged!

So sorry for the long delay- though some may be relieved to not have had to follow the Gillam saga....

All is well, some computer issues- some Kevin on my computer issues, but its all good now.

The sad thing is there hasn't been a lot missed!

Today was a big day here. Madison got a B time in her 50 back, taking off 2 and 1/2 seconds while she did it! Very happy for that. Coach Toshi also very happy. And poor Ellie who was due to take off a chunk of time in her 50 free (really has been working at it, and has improved a lot) ended up with her goggles around her neck from the dive, so did the whole of the event via head-up freestyle. If any of you have ever wondered if head-up free was as fast as regular free....let me assure you it isn't. Ellie added 20 SEC to her goggles-on-head-in-the-water time. Good news for Ellie, did fine in her other events- not taking off time but not adding. Both girls swam well on their respective relay teams.

Here is the link with their ranking- look for them in events 5, 7 and 9.

http://guamswimming.org/results/2009-10/20091205lc.htm

Swim meets here are so different. They expect a lot more discipline from the kids- no DS's, books and such. They are to focus and sit quietly between events (which really means lots of talking with your neighbor just don't run while you do it).

They do a Japanese-style cheer before it starts. So cute- they all bunch in a scrum and the coach yells "Tsunamiiiiiiiii" and the team yells "hite....hite......hite" Which translates into something close to "Tsunami, fight.....fight......fight". The cheer must work because I think the team has all the best times on the island.

Coming up on Sunday- which means church and groceries. The girls and Kevin are going to see Astroboy while I work on the house. I am a little excited for Tuesday- Lady of Camarin Day don't ya know- not sure about it, but it means a day off for me! I plan to do a lot of sitting.....wishful thinking works sometimes.

December-day two.

On the second day of Christmas...... packages were packed and ready to be mailed! Throw in the cards we wrote out and we are ready for Christmas! Ok, so maybe we have 50 more gifts to wrap before then, but we are definitely on a role. The best news of all this....Kevin lost the rock paper scissors and is the one who has to take it all to the post office on his lunch tomorrow. So send your angry letters to him if your packages or cards don't arrive :)

My favorite time of night- the girls usually read for the last half hour or so before lights out. Always so peaceful, I think they look forward to it as much as we do.

Hope December is treating you as well as it has us- 23 days and counting!

Welcome December!

The girls loved making gingerbread men over the weekend and decorating the house. It was all part of our December/Christmas "kick-off".

Today being the first of December, the girls woke up excited to put the first guy into the pocket of the "25 Days of Christmas" calendar we have, courtesy of Grandma Gillam- its become a favorite tradition for the girls for many years now....thanks Grandma Gillam for that.

The problem is too much hype too fast. I know it will sneak up on us quick enough, but none of us can wait to be off for Christmas break.....3 weeks will go by fast-right?

We have left the Christmas village to go up until next weekend, partially to try and space the decorating out and partially because I ran out of steam. My flickering candles are in all the windows and Kevin put lights on the trunks of our two palm trees out front. Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....except for the palm tree part- oh and the humidity, high temperatures, shorts and flip flops- beyond all that it does still slightly resemble Christmas, somewhat....

Here are Maddie's cookies..... (the girls took their own pictures of their cookies by the way).

Ellie's gingerbread men....

So the countdown is on. Merry -almost, still 24 days away -Christmas!

Sorry, again...

The internet was mostly down tonight- it rallied right at the end of the evening but I am headed to bed. I promise to blog-it-up tomorrow.

Night all :)

Straight on to Christmas.....

Putting away Thanksgiving and pulling out Christmas.

It all still seems so wrong with palm trees out my window.....just sayin'.

The girls are loving some kitchen time- Maddie making popcorn balls and Ellie anxious to get started on her gingerbread men. No one is looking forward to going back to work/school tomorrow, especially with Christmas in the air.

Happy day for the Staples. They have chosen their new puppy- and its the red one! The one that Ellie and I were pulling for.....very exciting, can't wait to meet him. Congratulations Alyssa, Matt and Graeme....I hope you gave him a hug from Uncle Sam :)

Thanksgiving- Day Two by Ellie

(first.....just wanted to make sure there was a picture of Aggie because I say that every blog deserves a dog)

This is adding on to Maddie's Thanksgiving list. first of all I would like to say Maddie is not nice because she said to never put a 7 year old girl with flour because she will get messy. This is not true because I was making pie- pumpkin pie to be exact. I did a very good job my mom said.

1.Always put flour under dough when rolling dough.

2. Always and I mean ALWAYS have a good tune on while doing this.

3. Have a stuffed turkey on your table for decoration (we have Turkey Joe- Aunt Julie gave it to us when we were younger and he is a very special tradition for us).

4. Make rolls, they are delicious.

5. Play a good game of "I am thankful". You can pass a coconut to play if you are in Guam- otherwise you could pass an apple around and each say something different of what you are thankful for.

6. Always have corn on the cobb- it is delicious, I had three (tee hee).

7. If there is somebody you know that doesn't have family at their house invite them over to have some fun and eat with you- we had Mr. Thornton over to eat with us......he played Wii with us too.

8. Never forget to make something like our mom does every year- this year it was the green bean casserole.

9. You can have indian corn on the table for decoration and candles lit.

10. You could use gold cuttlery because its fancy and when you put it in the light it shines. Barb likes to be fancy so she gave them to us (but we never use them because momma doesn't like fancy).

11. Always take a good picture of your mom and dad cooking in the kitchen cause I did that.

Happy after Thanksgiving to all!

From Ellie