Christmas Countdown Day 20 - Let's Make Snowflakes!

I've been playing today...

When I was a kid, my Mom would bring out construction paper, scissors, markers and tape then let us go gung ho on making snowflakes.

These days there are websites dedicated to all kinds of creative  styles, designs and patterns. I went "shopping" for free patterns and look what I did?!

 I thought these were pretty cool. I wanted to cut more out, but my hand said, not today. ha ha ha ha

I'm a Star Wars fan and I love anything Disney, so what better way to show my fandom than to make snowflakes of some of the patterns.

 I even cut a couple patterns of my own design too.

If you have a sharp crafting knife it would be much better to cut out these. I don't have one so I used what I had... kitchen scissors.

Yeah Mickey! 

If you'd like to do some of these with your kids, or if you are like me, a kid at heart, here are the links to a couple of the websites that I got the free patterns from.

Star Wars link

Mickey Mouse link

If you want more patterns, just type in free snowflake patterns and voila, you'll find all kinds of cool designs.

Have a great night everyone!

Christmas Countdown Day 19 - Gifts, Crafts, Snow

I love giving gifts. I mean it puts a smile on my face and warms my heart. To receive gifts makes me really hesitate and feel ... odd, uncomfortable... weird, until I heard something last night, that made me realize I need to change my feelings about receiving.

Pat Williams in his book, How to be like Walt, wrote "If you don't know how to graciously receive, you don't know how to really give." He further went on to say that people who are awkward and uncomfortable in receiving are not giving freely. They are trading.

It really took me by surprise. And I had to stop my audiobook and have thought on it all night and all day today. Which lead to me to be more aware of HOW I receive and HOW I give.

The law of love (attraction) goes on feelings, not actions. How one feels when giving - genuine or in hopes of recein, will sow up in the results around the person. Give when you feeling giving. Give to give, Give out of love. Nothing less.\

And receive in the same way.

So on that note... 

 

 I stopped in at my work place and talked to the head boss briefly. He gave me a box of one of Mom and Dad's old favorite wines and the receptionist gave me a bottle of a new blend of wine we make. She told me she'd heard about me and my accident and said she hoped I'd have a great Christmas. Well, I was in shock. But I graciously accepted and thanked them both. This really made my day feel extra special.

When I got home, I put all my gifts away (yes, I received other gifts too) I'd received and put groceries away, prepped supper and then pulled out a craft project that I haven't worked on since May.

I figure I will work on it a couple times a day and perhaps I'll be finished in a few years. Hee hee

It's a rug that I will want for my new home, so it has to be done sooner than later.

As I was getting ready to write this blog tonight, I had a knock on the door and my neighbor came to give me a lotto ticket! He wanted to say thank you for me being his friend.... brought tears to my eyes. Such a sweet old man. As we chatted I realized it was snowing! A lot!

My neighbor told me we are to expect about 18 or more centimetres (7 or more inches) overnight. Well, let's find out.

As for now, I'm sitting here having a glass of wine, salmon and salad for supper and watching Matrix Reloaded.

Until tomorrow everyone! Thank you for giving me the gift of reading my blogs and telling me you enjoy them. G'night. 

Christmas Countdown Day 18 - Fun with a Fire Truck and Caroling

Many of us, love Christmas music. I have always enjoyed listening to carolers and looking for different ways they carol. Tonight the Fire Fighters in Oliver gave me a show of caroling I've never seen or heard before.

It was fabulous! I found out they have been doing this for over 20 years. What an amazing thing to do. This is why I love small town living! These little bits of historical traditions are so important to the health and growth in towns. I'm grateful I got the chance to see them tonight.

I wish my friends could have joined me, but I figured I'd take enough pictures and videos that they could be excited enough to come see it over the next few days...

If you can't make it in person. Here's a link to the live feed where you can watch it on your computers, phones or tablets...

The truck is running a different route over the next few nights so I'm including the mapped routes over the next few nights. In case you want to come see them in person.

Have a great evening everyone!

Christmas Countdown Day 17 - Day with Disney; Walt Disney

Ever since I can remember I was fascinated by Disney. From the Saturday morning Cartoons to the Sunday night Disney Movies and the theme parks, merchandise and even the games. As an adult this fascination hasn't stopped. It's evolved really. Don't get me wrong, any chance I get I will plug in (or rather now that Disney + is out, I tune in) to watch one of the classics or current specials and if I get a chance, head to Disneyland or Disney World.

The past couple days I've had a fair amount of driving to do and I'm not much into listening to music on the radio but rather like listening to an audiobook. Most of them are books like Rhonda Byrne - The Power, The Secret or I have a few biographies, etc.

I'd purchased a while back a book about Walt Disney. I try to feed my mind good things to focus on and stuff that will help me grow as a person. Well, one of my mentors had suggested a while back that I study successful people that I want to emulate. The things about them that I would like to add to my own personal character.

I've always been fascinated by Walt Disney's child like creativity and he is always talked about as a great leader, with flaws but he was great. He failed many times, he was bankrupt at least once, he was too trusting some said and ended up getting burned and yet he still had the audacity to dust himself off and ask himself, "Ok, now what?"

Thus I purchased this audio book titled, How to Be Like Walt - by Pat Williams.

It's funny, insightful and definitely gets me thinking.

In studying the great leaders, teachers, people in history and even those from our times, today, I see one thing they had in common... Imagination!

Walt said, "Every great leader is a dreamer, but not every dreamer is a great leader." That had me thinking... a lot.

Once I got home, I turned on the TV and hit the Disney + app and started watching The Imagineering Story. It's about Walt, his legacy and where Disney is going from here. About how people are working on filling his shoes and fulfilling his dreams as he would have wanted.

It's an amazing story and there is so much to learn from his life, including his faults to help me be a better person. I am so grateful that I grew up in a home where my parents never stopped me from dreaming, imagining and being creative. Now to just figure out how to get my mind to work like Walt's did.

It was a great day with Walt, between the listening to the audiobook, reading a book on him, watching and hearing his voice in the TV show, it definitely felt like I spent the day with Walt. And I really liked it.

Thank you Walt for being such a big Dreamer and Doer. You really knew how to get people to follow you, even after you're gone.

As Walt once said, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." So that means I still have time to find my impossible and do it.

Christmas Countdown Day 16 - What Symbol Represents Christmas Holidays for You?

Everyone has that one special tradition that they look forward to every Christmas holiday, I'm sure. That one symbol that says Christmas is here. I love lights! Particularly the decorations and lights outside. Since I was a little girl, my parents would bundal us up and drive us to the streets that were Christmas ready, by following the Lights Map. As I got older, these special streets and homes and yes maps started disappearing. 

Now it's really hard to find them. I think that's why I loved being in Vegas and Disneyland last Christmas because of all the beautiful lights and decorations.

Well, today I happened to be in the post office mailing a couple last minute Christmas Cards and I found this...

 The staff said that it's a very busy little mail box. I think they need a bigger one. hee hee

While I was there, a gentleman in line said that if I liked decorations so much I needed to go to Silver Sage Winery because they had the best decorations in Oliver. Well, that was a challenge that I couldn't pass up! The Best? We will see...

 4PM and I was out the door before it got too dark to see my way...

The beginning of their driveway greeted me with this.

                                                                               

This path of giant lights intrigued me. I've never seen these before. They were cool! But what greeted me at the bottom, took my breath away.

 This place was magical for Oliver. I was grinning from ear to ear. The guy in the post office did not kid about this being the best in town.

As I walked around I felt like I was in my own version of Disneyland. This is what I love about Christmas holidays.                                                                           

 I got giddy when I saw the Disney Characters. It's like my Christmas wish came true today.

Even Cinderella's carriage!

 Santa's sleigh!

    This was so cute to see, Santa in his own gazebo.

And of course, I just had to check out the little village. They had beautiful glass decorations hanging in the windows. So pretty.

    

 Mickey down! Call Disney 911! 

    It's ok, I found him standing just around the corner... hee hee                                                                                                                                                              

                                             

Spectacular. I just loved the decorations here. I'm so glad I went. I had to go inside too, because it was so pretty outside, I thought what could they do with the inside.

 Yup, they really know how to decorate inside too. So pretty.

Carolers! This was so pretty...

 Well, after that fun experience, I was driving home and found a few other places that were done pretty too.

 The Town hall looked so pretty. And so did the park across from them.

 One of the fruitstands was decorated too.

 Yes, I have to say it was pretty fun today to see all these houses and businesses dressed up for Christmas. Thank you Oliver for showing me your lights.

Tell me what holiday symbol represents Christmas for you. I'd love to hear all of them.

Tea and reading time now. G'night my friends.