January 20, 2014

Gifts!  All my pictures are gifts today, ha.

My dad breezed in and out this morning, and left these ear muffs behind.  I have been yearning for these for months!  Squabbles, piano practicing, blenders, leaf blowers....none of these day to day things can touch me now.  Score!

(That necklace?  Gift.  The striped shirt?  Hand-me-down from my sister.  Chair I am sitting in?  Hand-me-down from my parents.  My kid peed on it, though.  I did buy the pink shirt, and felt pretty guilty about that purchase too.  You can't see my pants, but yep: gift.  Mom combed Costco for every stretchy pair of pants they had in my size after Cocoa was born and dropped them off.

Coca says he's a "princess."  Princess Leia, perhaps?  Uh, that couch behind him was also a hand-me-down, but I bought the slipcover and pillows.  Ooh, big spender!  His pj's were his cousin's. 

This was my Christmas present from J- we had it mounted and framed this week.  I love it!  Limited, signed copy of this delightful Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli tea party a la Alice in Wonderland by Justin Hillgrove (Imps and Monsters.)  He's actually a local, he lives in Edmonds.  We'll hang it over the dining room table.  Which, as we know, was a gift from my parents when E turned two so that we could host the birthday dinner!

This was a gift last year, also from my parents,  but I have been using it at least once a day these past bit making smoothies, soups, muffins, sauces....I adore, adore, adore my Vitamix.  See this picture?  That's cubed butternut squash, WITH SKIN.  Throw it in there, cover with water, and blend for about five seconds.  WHIZZ BANG!  I froze this to make muffins later- we are still eating our way through holiday goodies.  My waist does not approve.  The colander was a wedding gift- it has rubber feet and rubber handles, I love it and use it almost every day!

This was also a gift last year.....a lovely Christmas check turned into a Kinect and some games for the family.  We don't play it all the time, but it is really fun to do together :)

Uh, the clock...yeah, J's sister painted that for us.  The flower arrangement on the console was left on our porch by our neighbors at our last house as they down sized.

Oh, and that husband up there?  Gift from his parents.  Cocoa is our gift from God.

You know....just about every nice thing we have was a gift.  We are a blessed family!