Hey everyone. How're you all doing? Getting ready for the holidays? It seems to have come up so fast this year! We're still having money problems and other issues, so our Christmas won't be spectacular; just a quiet dinner, no gifts. But I still love this holiday, the decorations, lights, music and snow make it seem so magical.

I think I'm coming down with something. A lot of people are sick right now, and for the last week I have been sneezing like crazy - every couple hours I have to sneeze 2 - 5 times. Much more than usual. And today I woke up with a cough. Hopefully I keep fighting it off.

We went to see my cousin Angie and her son Jacob yesterday. This is his second Christmas, and he's gotten so big since last year! He was born 2 months early, and he was so tiny for the longest time. Didn't even have eyelashes/brows or fingernails. Then earlier this fall, he was bit in the head/face by a full-grown huskey (who had bitten 4 other people before!). The dog bit around his head and the teeth dragged over his eyelids, nose, cheeks. An area on his foreheard was peeled back, and he needed to have plastic surgery but by some miracle didn't have any major injuries from it. He has a large scar on his forehead, which may need more surgery as he grows, but the bites JUST missed his temple, eyes, could have taken his nose off... could have been so much worse. But now he's walking around and talking (well, trying to talk) and he's just so adorable and everytime I visit them, it makes me happy for the next few days lol. Brought him his Christmas presents, one was a Pooh Bear stuffed animal for Christmas, and it's practically the same exact size as he is - I was worried he might be afraid of it, but he latched onto it and was hugging it and carrying it around Well, trying to. He would trip on it, fall on it, then roll around the floor on it and cuddle with it. So cute. I have pictures of him I plan to put up, sooner of later. I don't have any of when he was first born, because he was in the hospital for a long time, and then we didn't want to go over to their house right away when he came home. But I have pictures of about 2 months old and up, I just gotta post them!

I had my surgery on the 24th of November. For those of you who wished me well & were wondering, sorry I haven't updated since then, I just haven't felt much like it. I won't go into much detail, but good news - the surgery went okay, the suspected problem was found (which now at least gives me a firm diagnosis) and treated as much as possible (you can't completely get rid of it). Bad news, two other problems were found (both of which could be causing my health issues) and I will probably need to have one, maybe even two, more surgeries before my insurance expires in 2011. Not nice, as I've already had 4 surgeries in the last 2 1/2 years, but if it fixes or at least helps the the problem, that'd be good. I didn't have to stay in the hospital, I was there for about 8 hours total, with a 6-7 hour drive round trip. That night and the entire next day, I was so naseous (even though they gave me two different meds for neasea, then an extra one) I didn't even want to move my head and I spent the better part of the day throwing up. Must have been a reaction to the anesetia they used, because I never had that with my other surgeries. I'll have to remember to mention that. I had two inscisions, one about 2 inches the other about 1/2 an inch, which had dissolvable stitches. I still haven't had my follow up appointment, due to the holidays and the fact that the Dr wants me to be completely healed up before she sees me, I don't get to see her until the 7th of January. I didn't talk to her after surgery, so other than what my Mom told me (what the Dr told her), I don't have much detail about anything yet. Just gotta wait a few more weeks. Oh, one cool thing, the Dr took pictures - inside me - of the initial problem before & after the treatment and of the other two problems, and I got to keep copies of them .

I'm working on a huge Christmas journal/feature, which I plan to post on the 23rd or 24th. I will be posting a Yule/Winter Solstice journal/feature on the 21st, and I also have some Winter-themed features ready to go after the holidays.

My "Winter Wonderland" contest is going well, I've gotten some nice entries so far. But in the last 2 days 4 people have sent me entries that don't qualify for more than one reason (mainly that they're photography), so please please please read the theme, requirements, and rules very carefully. See the news article here: [link]

My Newest Art -

I found this CSS by =phoenixcreation last winter, downloaded it to my computer, and never got a chance to use it. I love it, it reminds me of the Narnia books & movies. The lamp post in the snow is one of the most memorable scenes for me, just something so odd and slightly magical. I decided, to kick off my winter-themed features, I would do a Narnia/Lamp Post/Snow feature to go with this beautiful CSS. Hope you all enjoy!

- an excerpt from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis -

Lucy stayed behind because she thought it would be worthwhile trying the door of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To her surprise it opened quite easily, and two mothballs dropped out.

Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up – mostly long fur coats. There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one. It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a step further in – then two or three steps – always expecting to feel woodwork against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.

“This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!” thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. “I wonder is that more mothballs?” she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. “This is very queer,” she said, and went on a step or two further.

Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. “Why, it is just like branches of trees!” exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air.

Lucy felt a little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well. She looked back over her shoulder and there, between the dark tree-trunks, she could still see the open doorway of the wardrobe and even catch a glimpse of the empty room from which she had set out. (She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.) It seemed to be still daylight there. “I can always get back if anything goes wrong,” thought Lucy.

She began to walk forward, crunch-crunch over the snow and through the wood towards the other light. In about ten minutes she reached it and found it was a lamp-post. As she stood looking at it, wondering why there was a lamp-post in the middle of a wood and wondering what to do next, she heard a pitter patter of feet coming towards her. And soon after that a very strange person stepped out from among the trees into the light of the lamppost.