Being Thankful

No photos today, no pretty pictures to look at.  Grandma-ma has words and feelings to share about being thankful. 

Gratitude (or thankfulness), as defined in the dictionary, is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.   Expressing gratitude, being thankful for what you receive from those who love you are important parts of life.   When you receive a gift it's because the gift giver is thinking about you.  That you will enjoy the gift, that it will make you smile, bring laughter or enhance your life, and that you are cared about by the gift giver.   

Gift giving is not an obligation, saying thank you is.

When you take the time to create something special for someone, or purchase an item that you know will make the receiver happy, you are as excited about giving that gift and hearing about how happy the person is who received it.    You feel this way because you care about the person.  It hurts when you don't hear from the person you sent a gift to.

Grandma-ma also understands how busy everyones lives are...but guess what?  Grandma-ma's life is just as busy.  She works full time, she manages three booths at a store, she takes care of Grampy, Kota and Atlas, and she tries to be a good grandma-ma to 6 wonderful grandchildren.  

 It's not just about grandma-ma, though, it's about all friends and family members.  When you don't say thank you for a gift given from the heart for  birthdays, holidays or just because someone is thinking of you, it hurts.  It hurts deeply because it is a rejection by someone you love.  It says that you don't care about the gift or the gift giver and don't bother sending anything further, because the giver is not important.  Is that the message that you are sending to the giver? 

We are very fortunate to live in a time of great communication tools.  Cellphones and emails and IMs...so many ways to say thank you.

It's such a simple and easy thing to do, pick up the cell phone and call the gift giver.  We want to hear from you because we love you and we care about you and you are important to our hearts.  We even enjoy the voicemail message of joy you leave on the phone.  Did you know I save many of them to listen to them over and over again because they give me such joy to hear your giggling voices.   I am thankful for each of you because I love you and miss you and wish I could be nearer to all of you.  Another reason why hearing you say thank you for a gift given is so precious to me.

Fingernail Chameleon

Hello my raviolis.  Grandma-ma has been very busy these days and has not been keeping up with your blog.  I hope you forgive me because I think of you all each and every day.  Well, today I'm back and want to share with you a very exciting discovery... the worlds smallest chameleon.

They are so tiny they can fit on your fingernail.  This species is renowned for its ability to blend in.  Balanced on the tip of a scientist's fingernail in Madagascar, the-three centimetre reptile is no bigger than the flies that form his average-sized cousin's lunch.

These little guys are so small they fit on a match head.

Hard to spot: Scientists believe chameleons may have evolved on Madagascar.  The new additions to the chameleon species are only found in an area just a few square miles in size.

Wouldn't it be fun to see these little chameleons up close one day?  So, next time you are looking around the park or a playground, remember, there are tiny, living things all around you. Take the time to look closely, you might be surprised what you see or sees you.  Love you all..grandma-ma.

Mediterranean Pizza Pie to make

Hello my raviolis.  When Grampy and I visited the Aurora Colorado raviolis we had pizza from  called Papa Murphy's. What makes this pizza chain unique is that they do not bake the pizza, they just prepare it for you to take home and bake completely there. One of the unbaked pies they brought home was something called a Mediterranean Pizza and as the pie was baking it smelled exactly like the pies we would get in Vincenza, Italy. When they took it out of the oven I saw it was filled with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, feta cheese and garlic and oil on a crisp crust.   

  This pizza is so good and is light and easy to make. About 180 calories per slice (6" by 6").  I made this for grampy and he loved it.  Below are the ingredients you will need.

Ingredients: 

1. Pillsbury's refrigerated thin crust pizza dough 
2. Jar of sun dried tomatoes...sun dried Brushetta works well too 
3. Container of Feta cheese 
4. crushed garlic  
5. fresh baby spinach 
6. olive oil 
7. Mrs. Dash Italian seasonings (mostly greens) 
8. shredded Mozzarella 
9. some breadcrumbs or corn meal 

PREHEAT Oven to 375 degrees

 Roll out the dough to fit the entire cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil and then spread the crushed garlic all over the dough.

 Spread the sun dried tomatoes and sprinkle the herbs all over the dough.

 Now add fresh spinach to your taste. 
I actually double the amount you see here.

  Cover pie with the feta cheese and sprinkle a little bit of the shredded mozzarella (less then 1/2 cup). Now bake for about 15 minutes.

 

This pizza is so easy to make and very tasty.  I hope you enjoy making it my raviolis.  Grandma-ma loves you all.

Special year for 2012

Hello my raviolis.  It's a new year and 2012 is a special year. Can you guess what makes 2012 special?  What makes 2012 special is that it is a leap year.  A leap year or intercalary or bissextile year is a year containing one extra day.  This day falls on February 29th which gives an extra day making a total of 366 days for 2012.

The Mayan Calender has leap year days inserted into it.

This type of calendar is a solar calender.  It is based on the period of revolution of the Earth around the sun, which is approx. 365 days. 

A lunar calender is based on the phases of the moon.

The lunar calendar, used by the Muslims and the Incas, is based on the moon's cycles.  This type of calendar is based on the periodical cycles of the moon around the Earth, with each month lasting about 29 or 30 days.

Lunar - solar calendar.

This type of calendar features lunar months in to a solar year. The luni-solar year starts the new moon after the spring equinox. Normal luni-solar years have 12 months in a year. Luni-Solar Calendars are used by the Mongol Empire, which emphasizes balance and harmony between the sun ("Yang") and the moon ("Yin"). Also the Coptic, African, and the Aramaic Christians use the luni-solar calendar, so do the Jews.  Luni-solar calendars are also of great popularity among astronomers over the world, as they claim that this calendar type helps them calculate new moons, and when to hold seasonal events.

No matter what calendar you use, remember that you have an extra day of fun this year which also means I have one more day this year to love you all. 

Christmas Puppies

Hello my raviolis.  Christmas will be here shortly and I thought you would like to see this happy video of puppies around a christmas tree.

I hope you enjoy this funny video.  Love Grandma-ma.

Marshmallow Wreath

Hello my raviolis.  Here is a very simple wreath you can make out of marshmallows.  It is easy to make and would look pretty on your door or you can make smaller ones for your windows.

You can use both large and small marshmallows to make your wreath.

Start with a styrofoam wreath base.   Suggest starting off with an 8 or 10 inch form.  5 or 6 inch form if you want to make smaller wreaths.

You will need a box of toothpicks.

And at least two bags of marshmallows (large size) and one bag of small marshmallows.

Start by pushing toothpicks about an inch apart and pushed halfway into the foam wreath.  Once you have half the wreath filled with toothpicks, you can begin pushing marshmallows onto them.  Continue to do this until you have covered your wreath with squishy marshmallows.  Then put in the refrigerator overnight to let the marshmallows relax and stick on the toothpicks. You are now ready to hang it on your door or from your windows with a pretty ribbon.

How fun was this?  Send me a photo of your marshmallow wreath so I can put it up on your blog.  Love Grandma-ma.

iPod holiday joy

Hello my holiday raviolis.  Sometimes you hear a song that just makes you joyous and happy and wanna dance.  This young man wanted to bring some joy and laughter to holiday shoppers so he called up his favorite Christmas song and began to dance in his local mall. 

This is one of grandma-ma's favorite Christmas songs and if I heard you playing this song on your ipod, I would be dancing with you no matter where we are...the mall, McDonalds, the gas station...you name it.

Watch the people around him, some are enjoying it and others don't know what to do.  Hope you dance to every song you hear and love.  Grandma-ma

Crazy KitKat

Hello my raviolis.  Grampy and grandma-ma spent thanksgiving in NY with Kit Kat and her family. We had such a good time and while there, I showed her how to make a no sew tutu.  Using tulle on rolls, you cut them in lengths of 20 inches (start by cutting about 50 of them) and then measure a piece of elastic around your waiste and tie it off.  You will then tie each piece of tulle around the elastic band.  To make this easier, slip the elastic band around a small pillow or a binder as shown in the photo below, while you are tying each piece to the elastic. 

You keep tying the tulle until the elastic is covered and then your tutu is finished and read to wear.

Silly Kit Kat decided to shove some tulle up Grampy's nose. Grampy is a good sport.

Kaitlyn then decided that Grampy should wear the tutu...on his head.  It sure is pretty with all of the pink and lilac tulle.

Kaitlyn decided that Diesel should also wear the tutu on his head.  That is one crazy Kit Kat.

Finally, the crazy Kit Kat put the tutu on her head.  Silly girl, you are supposed to wear it around your waist.  I can see you are having fun with your tutu.

Christmas Trees

Hello my raviolis.  Grandma-ma went to a Christmas Open House at one of her favorite shops.  They had lots of pretty things and a lot of unique christmas trees.  Here are a few photos of those fun trees.

This was a silver glitter tree. It sparkled a lot.

This tree was silver and filled with tiny elves.

Grampy would like this tree.  It was a palm tree filled with parrots in bright colors. 

Grandma-ma thought this was a fun tree as it was filled with old quad plate.

This was a huge tree and stuffed full of teddy bears.  It was a lot of fun to look at.

This was a princess tree.  Can you guess why?  Look closely.

Here is picture of the top of the princess tree.  Now can you see why it is called that?

We don't get a lot of snow in the south so a dealer made her own snowballs out of stryfoam and glitter.

Have a wonderful day my ravs.  Grandma-ma loves you.

Roadtrip around America

Hello my ravioilis.  Today I have a wonderful video to share with you.  This young man took video of all of the places he drove through when he decided to road trip around America visiting friends and relatives.  It put together almost 3 hours worth of video and then sped it up for a 5 minute trip around our beautiful country.

Grandma-ma and Grampy have driven through many of these places but there are a lot that we haven't.  I love to roadtrip, don't you?  Have a wonderful day, ravs.  Grandma-ma loves you.