Love Actually

Heat Miser

As a continuing tribute to holiday music, I am including this amazing tune that comes from an incredible classic "The Year Without A Santa Claus"
On the heels of the previous classics"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"

The wonderful stop action animators at Rankin Bass came up with a very interesting story of Mother Nature's kids fighting over where there would be snow during the holidays.
This is by far, my younger sisters choice for Christmas classic.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I posted last year, the most beautiful Christmas song.

Tribute to Christmas Music

Let It Snow

We have had two days of snow and ice. Mimi has had two days off of school.

On Sunday night we went out and had a major snow fight(with Zelda).

Deck the Halls Pt 2

We ended up with the stoutest tree in all North Carolina.

We also got the traditional teeny tree that has more ornaments than the big tree.
Mimi has several nativity scenes, and she reenacts, Jesus house.

Deck the Halls Pt 1

The Sipes family forged out onto Woodward Ave, to pick out our tree. We have gone to the same tree lot for ages and as Terry and I get older, we expedite the process.

We gathered up, leashed baby Zelda and ventured out into the tree lot.

I think it took maybe fifteen minutes to pick out our tree.

Aunt Zanne came with us to offer her expert opinion.

Baby It's Cold Outside

In true fashion of my children, I have two viewpoints dealing with the same subject..

Paulina has her Christmas dreams of schools end, eiderdown and cheese driven foods.

Mimi loves snow.
Tonight, Mimi requested a respite from my forced paper snowflake cutting to loll about in our pure driven Michigan snow.
Mimi gathered a ziploc of snow and I think she tried to make a snow angel in the driveway.

When Mimi and Jiejie spoke on the phone, Mimi assured her that the snow was fine, being kept in a cardboard box in our bed with a fan running to keep it cold.
She has since moved it to the freezer.

The reunited

This teeny clip is of Mimi meeting JieJie at the airport.

JieJie is usually greeted with a pile of beautiful handmade gifts and the occasional whoopie cushion is strategically placed on the passenger seat.

Happy Hanukkah

Last week, Mimi went to Annabel"s house to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.

In true Bean family tradition, Mimi was stuffed with glorious food and showered with gifts.

The most treasured of gifts being the boy that is Justin Bieber.

We now have reenactments of all sort of Justin Bieber moments, including walking.

Come Running

Thanksgiving morning at about 5:30 am, Daddy, Mimi and I pried ourselves out of bed for the Detroit Annual Turkey Trot.

We were joined by our dear friend Michael, who was running his first 5k.

I decided to run the mashed potato mile for extenuating circumstances,none of them having to do with me taking the easy way out.
We arrived in the city where 17 thousand other runners had gathered in all states of festive dress.

All of the city was lit for the holidays. It was really lovely to be there. The city was beautiful and the energy of the crowd made you feel faster than a speeding bullet.

Speaking of speeding bullets, Mimi ran at a pace of a nine minute mile. She kept turning around, begging me to run faster. I simply replied that I was pacing myself(yeah right).At the finish line we received a thanksgiving turkey stress ball, she has since built her turkey his own shoe box house with bathroom.

Our friend Michael was also in the top 20 percent of his running class. It was a very lovely way to start a fat filled day.
Next year, we three run the 5k.

stupidly happy

We are thrilled to announce that Anna has a new baby sister.

After a ton of waiting,the Zini family will be bringing home a beautiful girl.Yu Xin Qi is from Jiangxi province. She was born on 12-3-08,
Traveling next month, I think. We rejoice.

Baby Its Cold Outside

Yesterday morning, Daddy took Mimi to our local holiday parade.

The morning started with a huge breakfast at Nello's, followed by a proper heralding in the Holiday season with the parade.

The highlights included live reindeer,spring jumping guys,unicyclists and Mr and Mrs Claus,(who I must say looked a little like Belle Watling in Gone With The Wind.)
I lounged in my pajamas and watched 30 rock and the Real Housewives... Happy Holidays.

Super Baby

A week ago, Mimi and I finally met my dear friends new baby.

He is not quite so new(he is nine months old),and wow he is a beautiful super baby.

My dear friend Leon and I met doing a production of "The Secret Garden", back in 1995.
Back in the day,he and I would frequent karaoke bars and out do each other in bad singing for money.


Leon and his beautiful wife Andrea, were married in July of 2007(I had the privilege of singing at their nuptials).

Leon and Andrea are both theater folk, so I am sure that this baby will be singing, dancing and acting up a storm.

All I Want For Christmas

As my children assemble their list of Christmas wishes and dreams, I, have a request of my own.

This is a dream I have had for some time, and fortunately for me, these wonderful people have come up with a great idea. The Eglu company has designed a chicken coop for city dwellers.

They have also written a pretty convincing argument as to why my husband and neighbors won't want to kill me for raising chickens in my backyard.

I am absolutely in love with the idea of raising 2 beautiful hens in the backyard.
It would firmly cement our position as the Huntington Woods Hillbillies.
I also want at least one of these that I saw at modern kiddo

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

When Mimi was small, she was not thrilled with being thrown into a pile of leaves.
My how times have changed.\Photos and leaves/ Terry Sipes

Painted from more memory

kids

Painted from Memory