Because she loves her panda

If you haven't checked out my sister's blog lately, please do so! Her latest post had me crying and realizing how much I take for granted.

So, here is part of what I'm thankful for. I have a healthy, intelligent, beautiful child who makes my world beautiful. And because I love her so much, I want her world to be beautiful. Her world is very small right now, but a large part of it is her very large panda that goes everywhere she goes and sleeps with her every night. So, after reading my sister's post, I was watching TV and saw a commercial for the World Wildlife Organization. The spokesperson was none other than Noah Wyle (ahhh. He will forever be Dr. Carter to me. sigh.) and he was explaining how polar bears are going to be extinct in our childrens' generation if we don't do something. Where have I been that I didn't know this?@! So, I jumped on the website like Dr. Carter told me to and discovered more endangered animals that need our help that I thought were doing just fine. Of course, the panda is one of the animals but I did know they were not doing so well. The thought of R telling her children what a panda or a polar bear "was" broke my heart. I decided that starting in January, I will either adopt a panda for R, or join the WWF's Wildlife Rescue Team or both if I can talk my husband into it! :-) I urge you to check out the site and then imagine a world with no polar bears, pandas, meerkats, tigers, or orangutans. Please help the animals.

This is how much I love you guys.

I have a BABY and I should be SLEEPING WHILE SHE'S SLEEPING, but instead I'm catching up on my blog because I know some of you out there check it every day for updates on the most beautiful baby on earth. So, would you please do this tired Mommy a favor and leave a comment! I feel like I'm talking to a wall on here.

Ode to Crayola

A cute moment while Darrell and I were playing with Princess R and her crayons.

I read on the Crayola site that the average child in the U.S. wears down 730 crayons by her 10th birthday. That's interesting, but I want to know how many I can expect Miss R to EAT by her 10th birthday.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, of all the trees most lovely.

I've been pondering Christmas family traditions now that Darrell and I officially have a family :-) All of my best holiday memories revolve around comforting rituals that I grew to love. The sight of the Christmas boxes coming into the house, Momma's cocoa and fudge, drinking orange juice out of fresh oranges through peppermint sticks, getting to see Tiffany and Lacey on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, desperately trying the find the Beloved Gingerbread Men Ornaments as soon as the ornament box came out and making sure the scent was still there, opening one gift on Christmas Eve, Daddy arriving on Christmas morning wearing a funny hat. I remember being so excited by the time it was finally bedtime on Christmas Eve that I couldn't sleep . . . long after Santa stopped coming down the imaginary chimney.

When is it that we begin to lose the wonder and anticipation of Christmas? I can hardly remember the last time I felt truly excited about the upcoming Christmas. The thought of those lost Christmases saddens me, now. Well, okay, except for last year. This time last year I was too busy willing labor not to start until 2010 to care what day it was.

Now Darrell and I get to create traditions for R to cherish. Of course, being the anal retentive person that I am, I have been busily researching Christmas traditions online, bookmarking sites with great ideas, jotting down recipes for possible treats, and overall stressing out about How I'm Supposed to Choose the Traditions R Will Love 30 Years Down the Road.

This is where my wonderful, easy-going, never in a hurry, drives me crazy with how s l o w l y h e m o v e s husband comes in. He makes one off-hand comment and the perfect Phillips tradition is born. We will cut our own Christmas tree!!!! Because he came up with the brilliant idea, my assignment was to find a place to acquire the tree. This led to an hour of research comparing the three tree farms closest to us, the types of trees each one offered, the fun "extras" at each farm and then a tangent of which tree is best for staying green, dropping fewer needles, holding heavier ornaments, having a better scent . . . you get the idea.

So, we ended up at The Kinsey Family Farm! I can't say enough about this wonderful haven of Christmas bliss. Hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous trees to choose from, free hot cocoa or apple cider, a cute ornament when you purchase a tree, and really great people. We had so much fun and R will have pictures and videos of the very first year we cut our own tree.



After Darrell cut down our tree, we got a tractor ride back to the barn! Our tree tagged along behind us.

The farm is humongous.




I saw this gorgeous scene as I left the farm. It made me glad I never moved to New York.

What I want most to show you in this post, I can't convey by words or pictures. I saw the lights from the tree reflected in R's eyes this morning as she gazed at her ~very first~ Christmas tree. At that moment, I would have found a way to give her the world if she had asked me for it.

My hope for all of us is that we rediscover the childlike innocence and wonder of Christmas.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

My little girl saw her first snow!! We had great big snowflakes falling all day Monday. R didn't know what to think. I held out my hand to catch some snowflakes, so she tried to, too! Very cute but unfortunately no picture available. Here is a picture of her looking outside at the Winter Wonderland. Well, not so much Wonderland as Ground Too Wet for Snowlakes Land.



Thankfully, she is not yet old enough for the "There's no
school tomorrow, right Mommy?" question. My poor Mother.