Go Duke Go!

Yesterday we had an opportunity to take the girls to their first Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. I grew up going to the games with my dad so it was fun to be able to take the girls along. Maddie kept asking "What are they saying?" whenever the students would start a chant. The Cameron Crazies seemed to have toned things down a little (or at least for this game) so thankfully we escaped without learning any new words. Anna was fascinated with the score board and thought watching the game was fun but long. The girls did a great job cheering on Duke.

On our jaunt through campus to get to the stadium:



Getting ready:



Anna enjoying the popcorn:



Maddie doing her many faces:

Learning to Sew

For Christmas my toy was a sewing machine! Growing up my mom would make my Halloween costumes and some dresses and today she owns an embroidery business, so I've always been around sewing machines but never had I tried to use one. Mom got me a Brother CS 6000i and I quickly read through the manual. My sister-in-law was visiting after Christmas and she got me started by showing me how to thread the machine - sometimes reading the directions is not quite enough. After I practiced a little on an old sheet, the first project was a sock monkey which quickly turned into 3 since all of the cousins wanted one. They turned out much cuter than I anticipated.

It was nice having a beginning project that only took some old socks; there was no worry about messing up. The pattern came from here.



My next project was a hobo bag that I purchased as a complete kit from Michael's. The pattern itself isn't the best purse ever since it is a little flimsy but it was fun to sew and I even added some of my own embellishments with a metal snap and decorative stitching.



Then I moved on to skirts for the girls using a basic rectangle as a pattern. I have a ways to go to perfect the best way to put these together for this go around it involved taking my sewing machine apart since I locked up the motor :). But I hope by summertime to have some cute outfits made for the girls.

Christmas Wrap-up

I haven't done a great job of updating my blog, but my scrapbook for the year is done thanks to digital scrapbooking! So here's our Christmas in pictures.

The girls had a great time at Disney on Ice with Mimi watching Tiana, Cinderella and Rapunzel. We also made our yearly chocolates and had the annual Burckart/Horton dinner.



For months Maddie had been asking for a Jessie doll, from Toy Story, so her Christmas Eve morning (the way our current schedule works, its just easier to open our family presents Christmas Eve morning) was filled with Jessie items including a doll, shirt, pajamas and a hat of her own. Anna enjoyed opening some Barbies, Marble Run and a jewelry box she could decorate herself. Christmas morning the girls woke up to a giant cardboard box in the form of a house, it has since been beautifully painted.





On Christmas Eve we traveled to Burlington to have lunch with Pop & Divi, Uncle Kevin, Uncle David & Aunt Stephanie and cousins, Marley, Rainey and Henry.



Christmas Eve night we went to Danville, Virginia to spend some time with my mom's side of the family. Great Aunt Velner (in the Santa hat :)) is always entertaining and it is nice to catchup with those family members we only see once a year.



Christmas Day we traveled back to Burlington to open presents with Mimi (forgot my camera :( ) and have lunch with Divi's family.

It's interesting to go back and look at the pictures we took this year; I feel like so much is missing. I wish I had pictures of the family reading of the Christmas story (this year in the Jesus Storybook Bible), our nativity on the mantle, the Christmas tree overflowing with items for the food bank (thanks to generous co-workers), the daily advent time spent with the girls via the Jesse Tree as we daily anticipated Christ's birth. Hopefully next year :).

Merry Christmas!

from our family to yours...

Family Photo Session

Making Chocolates

Kid Day at NC Food Bank

As we continue our month of trying to be intentional in our thanks --- giving, we had the opportunity to participate in Kid Day at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC (located off Falls of Neuse near I440). Kid Day is the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month and runs from 2-4pm. It is intended for kids ages 5-12 though we did take Maddie with us since she is fairly well behaved. I had been told about Kid Day from a friend but I still wasn't exactly sure what to expect. We arrived a little early and hung out outside. The girls enjoyed this painted wall mural of fruits and veggies.

Once inside we had to fill out some paperwork and wait for everyone else to get settled. On this particular day there were at least 50 volunteers including a boy scout troop and indian princess tribe. Some kids were there for community service hours and others just to help out. It was neat to go on a tour of the warehouse and to hear a little more about how their programs work.

Our job for the day was to sort the canned goods from can day at the NC Fair which was 18,000 pounds of food. We were particularly looking for "pop top" meals. These would be items such as beef-aroni, chunky soups or other chef boyardee meals. These items are very important to the food bank because of their backpack program which is "intended to meet the nutritional needs of children during non-school hours, specifically weekends". It was pointed out that meals are best that the kids can open and heat by themselves since the kids may not otherwise get a meal.

Here are the girls sorting the cans and putting them in the right bins.

Maddie wore out about 30 minutes into running around and so we sat on the side for a little while but within an hour and a half all 18,000 pounds of food had been sorted. There was lots of corn and beans which are very important for other ministries they supply but we didn't even fill a box with pop-top items for the kids. The guy coordinating said they do this particular activity with kids to show how hard it is for them to get items for their backpack program.

So... if you are participating in a food drive this holiday season please consider helping the backpack program by donating some of their most needed items (list also available on their website).

Grains: Graham and/or animal crackers, light popcorn, whole grain cereal/granola bars, individual cereal boxes

Protein: Spaghetti & meatballs, raviolo, beefaroni, lasagna (pop top or microwave cups preferred)

Fruit: Canned fruit/fruit cups in light syrup, dried fruit (raisins, plums, cranberries), applesauce

Miscallaneous: Fat-free sugar free pudding cups, 100% juice

Also, for those local, our family will be collecting these items as well to take to the food bank in December so feel free to drop them by and we will deliver them for you.

This was valuable time spent for us this past weekend, not just in serving but also in educating us more about the needs of those in our community. May we not just hear and learn of the needs but also work toward meeting them.