It’s supposedly been the worst blizzard in 30 years last night/today. Trysten’s school was canceled today (which is very exciting to me, I love having him home) and Zach worked from home so we had a terrific day of relaxation and coffee/cocoa.

For just 15 minutes the kids played outside. Turns out they didn’t enjoy the blizzard-y winds and such, not that I blamed them as I was cozy and warm drinking coffee and reading my book…inside.

Dailah and Tariku have been sledding for pretty much 3 days straight. Tariku gets the sled up the hill, Dailah sits in it, Tariku pushes her down then chases her and brings it back up.

I know, I know…you want to squeeze them don’t you?

Tariku writing his list to Santa-notice in particular the tongue of concentration.

And the completed list.

Every year we go outside, come inside and have hot cocoa while writing Santa. I’ve let them progress to actual coffee mugs and they love this for some reason. I personally think it’d be worth it even if they broke one.

I’m fairly certain all of them were particularly cute today. But this girl, was killing me. I stepped back and couldn’t believe how much she’s grown. These are 3t PJs, I swear they fit yesterday. Today? Clearly not so much.

The kids love making forts/beds. This one was for their stuffed animals.

I payed particular attention to this blanket. It’s the one we sent Tariku while he was in the care center. It’s traveled a lot of miles and it’s (and we) are no worse for the wear.

Ending the night with a little “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Tariku saw daddy’s hat and just slipped it on. A little (what was that mouse’s name?) but a lotta cute.

A very good day indeed.

I love this time of year for many reasons but one of them is because my good friend, Becky, always invites us over to her house to put on a traditional Hanukkah celebration. It’s grown over the years as when Trysten was the only child we’d sit around the table and she’d recite the traditional passages, etc but 2 more kids for us and 1 for them (plus many others!) that got pushed to the side a bit this year.

Have no fear, there was a lot of traditional stuff happening and we loved every minute.

Beth brought just her eldest to the celebration. Thomas might be the sweetest boy I’ve ever met.

Oliver, Trysten and Tariku. Love this picture because Oliver kind of looks like a future serial killer and Trysten just looks like a goof. A few things Trysten has learned in school this year: bunny ears and the phrase, “that’s tight” to describe things that are cool. For example, “Oliver, I like your shirt, that’s tight.”

The Menorah

The many, many kids enjoying color time (Dan, Becky’s husband, was also doing his part to celebrate Hanukkah by playing the song made famous by Adam Sandler).

Becky teaching the kids to roll some matzah balls. Trysten fell in love with the soup many years ago and asks for it a lot. Part of me wants to make it once in awhile (truth be told the entire family loves it) but the bigger part of me wants this to be something special Becky does for him.

And then of course Dailah teaches Eli the proper way to roll the dough into a ball.

The beautiful hostess. Mmmmm, that soup is making my stomach ache.

The real hostess “Baby Cates”. Dan and Becky’s little peanut, she couldn’t be cuter even if she were created on a computer program. The lucky princess gets to celebrate what her parents fondly call “Christmaskah”, all I know is it equals lots of presents!

They really do love each other a whole lot.

You like coffee? You like water? Are you feeling lucky?

Go to Jody‘s blog and get involved in this extremely fun thing we’re doing for water. Seriously already did it and though it’s Christmas and I should be thinking about who I can give some of those gifts to should I win, I’m only seeing how it would all fit in my house and in my hand. So sue me.

Do you think you could see all of those goodies in your home and in your hand?

Go here. The whole week this will be happening. For just $5. Seriously.

Saturday my truly amazing father-in-law invited my family to the big show. Clearly, Dailah needed no convincing, I didn’t either. Feeling frisky we decided we could take on my nephews as well, one big happy family!

It, of course, did not disappoint.

Have you been holding your breath for pictures? You should have been, because this tree takes the proverbial cake.

It’s Charlie Brown meets the Klipschs.

It’s the little tree that could.

It’s perfect because it’s us. Different, a little quirky, kind of perverse and perfect in the imperfections.

And one of my new favorite ornaments. Guess where I got it. You’re right, at the Water4Christmas etsy shop. Follow my tab on the sidebar and get something cool like that for you!

His newest plaything-these jumping stilts (can’t remember their actual name). What you guys don’t understand is that Zach is a really amazingly, gifted professional. I used to be in marketing and all of my skills don’t hold a candle to this guy.

He bought these so that he could walk around at job fairs, and the clincher? He’s having his mom sew him an Abe Lincoln costume to fit (He works at Camp Abe Lincoln). Seriously, it will be a huge Abe Lincoln jumping around. If you were a potential camp counselor or the parent of a potential camper, wouldn’t you want to go to camp where that guy is the Director? Me too.

He’s kind of amazing. And he’s all mine.

The full view.

Point of perspective, this is Zach’s friend Devon “Sharky”. I think he’s something like 6’5″ or so. Zach makes Sharky look like a cute little toddler. So bizzare. Needless to say, I come up to about Zach’s naughty bits, much to his pleasure and my chagrin, I imagine.

is kind of amazing. I’ve seen lots of her art for the last few years I’ve been able to call her “friend” and there hasn’t been anything I haven’t liked. In fact, I’m going to commission her to create my new tattoo (though she doesn’t know that yet, hey Amy!).

Now you get to have some of Amy’s art too. She’s a fellow Ethiopian adoptive mommy (well, in progress, but that’s all it takes) and is selling to help with some of the costs. Look at this.

So go to her blog and you’ll be able to purchase one for you/your family/your aunt and uncle, whatever, it’s the holidays! The second my family is complete, I’m getting one of these for our living room.

You do it too, so we can have matching living rooms, it’ll be great!

I was cleaning out our storage room today, not fun stuff. But I got a bit nostalgic as I looked at some of the garbage-er, great keepsakes we had. The final box I put away was the one I titled “Water For Christmas, Wine to Water”. So, of course, I got to thinking about the other, lesser known people who made that specific night happen.

Like these two, my brother and his girlfriend. Marcus and Lindsey helped with set up and babysitting but also the night of. They were the front desk people (it was no coincidence that I picked two of the better looking people I know to greet guests) :), the first impression. I have no doubts we were able to take in as much money as we did because Lindsey was there “encouraging” people to donate. And wouldn’t you if you walked in and saw these smiles?

Then there was this group. Lindsey again, but then my friend Woody (you remember her, in the back) who came all the way from Des Moines and my sister, Kara (in the gray). Those two ran the wine table all night. Poured wine for 3 hours. I had set up enough people to cover every 30 minutes at all tables but lost track of time so there they stayed. Chatting, encouraging people to try the wine then try their hands at donating.

And my dear friend, Beth. She made more desserts then I even want to think about (Beth, was that your fudge? If so I want the recipe!). She is amazing, in every. single. way. She showed up 2 hours ahead of time to set up the dessert table then spent the rest of the night around that spot. Her husband works for the Symphony, who was having a big night themselves, and she sacrificed being by her husband’s side to be by ours and I’m so humbled by that expression of support. Not only that, but she was wearing an Ethiopian scarf, she is the Queen of thoughtful. Beth is pictured with Sherry who Leslie got excited from St. Paul. Sherry was maybe the happiest person I’ve ever seen to be doing something, anything for water. Her passion was contagious!

And then Cathy. Not only does she provide these most beautiful farm-fresh eggs that taste as happy as they look, but she got excited about water and told everyone she knew about it. She’s kind of a big deal in these parts of the woods so it was very exciting when she came on board. Cathy fell in love with Leslie, which is extremely easy to do, and the two of them are just a huge source of happy for me.

Though I didn’t get any pictures of these people, they came all the way from Minnesota. Dave and Tiffany and Tony. Honestly, there was just something about having them there that made the whole thing particularly special for me. I cannot believe I’ve been blessed to know them in this life. Such amazing, generous, loving people.

There were, of course, more and I might be blogging about it for the next year so get excited!

is today. I’ve thought a lot about this throughout the day. Mostly when I gave my kids their various medicines to combat things like I listed before. I thought about how easy it was for me to go to the doctor, then to the pharmacy, then home in a matter of an hour. In another day, the kids will be back to normal.

I thought about this because HIV (which causes AIDS) is a preventable, treatable disease. There is no cure, yet, but it’s not a death sentence anymore. For the last year I’ve done considerable research on this topic and in that last year a lot has been done on behalf of AIDS orphans and people living with HIV. The CDC finally overruled a law that had been in effect for decades making it more difficult for people to adopt HIV+ kids (that law was signed by GW but didn’t go through until recently) amongst other issues.

The government now recognizes that a person coming into the country who happens to be HIV+ is no threat to the public.

All of these are good things that are happening in the HIV/AIDS circuit. The bad? In Ethiopia alone, there are 92,000 kids living with HIV/AIDS. 33.4 MILLION people are living with AIDS worldwide. It’s a global emergency.

We can sit and say, “It’s not in my backyard”, but you’d be wrong. It IS in your backyard and even if it wasn’t, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything about it.

There are many ways to help. 2 ways we’re helping. We’re signing up to sponsor a child from AHOPE. We were able to tour the facilities when we were picking up our Tariku. You would not believe what this place does for HIV+ orphans (and, I would argue, people like me who had previously been rather out of touch with the HIV crisis). We’re also participating in the 5 for 5 campaign. Two things that I’ve done from the comfort of my couch. If we can do it, you can too, so do it.

We all know how passionate I am about water, but I must say my passion for the AIDS crisis is quite strong as well. How can it not be? When I try to see the world through God’s eyes it’s pretty obvious these brothers and sisters are crying out.

Proverbs 21:13 If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

If they’re not crying out, it’s because they’re without hope. And frankly, I’m not okay with that either.

If you’re not inspired by Proverbs (really, how could you not be?) how about this guy.

The first thing I decided to do was never say the word “AIDS” without putting the word “emergency” following it. … Six and a half thousand Africans dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease is not a cause; it’s an emergency. … —-Bono

But seriously. As I look at Tariku, at Trysten and at Dailah I realize there is so little that separates them and 92,000 kids in Ethiopia. Because I’m a mom I can hear the cries of the mothers across the world who are praying they die before their kids.

ABC is not the answer. One could argue the things I’ve done from my couch today aren’t either, but it’s a start. Why don’t you start today too?