numana

since my dad cannot sit still long enough to plan his retirement, we willingly accepted the challenge of assisting in the new venture he has embarked upon. numana. it is simply an organization born in the small town of el dorado, kansas, with a mission to accomplish great things. our family was fortunate enough to assist in one of the first food packaging events, with the benefits of our labor sent to starving children in haiti. together with the salvation army, numana is helping to provide at least one healthy meal to each child who attends school...this, with the hopes that their parents will send them (if for that reason alone). wOw...what a blessing the evening was! after coleman poured a carefully measured cup of rice into the bag (which was filled with soy, vegetables, and a vitamin tablet by me ma, evan and jessica), austin and alexis carefully measured the weight of the bags, before passing them to me or jessica for sealing. following the sealing process, hampton and evie carefully patted the bags down flat for easier packaging. garry, then placed the bags of food in a numana box before sealing them for delivery! our family alone packaged 2,000 meals in about two hours. while we were there, over 30,000 meals were packaged. in the two day event, nearly 300,000 meals were packaged! what a great feeling to do something so simple, yet so wonderful, to benefit children who are literally fighting for life daily. the kids had an absolute blast (hampton repeatedly said, "this is so fun, mom!") i must also admit that there have been a few tears shed as well. at bedtime, they remember what we did and why we did it. coleman, through tears, said, "i just feel so bad that they don't have food and water!" a humbling, yet magnificent opportunity to do something good! coleman even asked to take a bag of food home, to see if it tasted ok! so thankful to have been a part of something of this nature! thanks, dad! you do many great things!

christmas morning 2009

wOw! santa was extra nice this year, delivering just as each child wished! austin happily found tons of jordan gear, new lebron nike shoes, xbox and games. coleman was happy to spot the scooter he had requested, along with two new pairs of shoes, clothes and new wii games. hampton was happy to pull on her new uggs, before playing with her new barbie house, airplane, and bike! what a fun morning! oh...and he ate ALL of the cookies, and drank ALL of the milk! the reindeer enjoyed the carrots! merry christmas all!

christmas eve

we celebrated a quiet christmas eve (just as we planned) with the christmas eve candlelight service at church and a special fancy dinner at chester's chophouse. we realized at the beginning of dinner the very reason we enjoy date night at chester's so much! the chef was nice enough to make hampton cheesy mac and cheese and the boys shrimp and fries, per their request! what a treat! once again, santa made a debut appearance, and hampton was enamored...following his every move! for dessert, the kids enjoyed the "bag of doughnuts," a special treat we often bring home for the kids...homemade doughnuts with chocolate dip! after dinner, we ventured out to look at the lights of wichita in the blizzard. the last pic is one of our drive home. it was nearly impossible to see the road, due to the blowing snow, but we made the most of it! hampton didn't go to bed until late, and coleman was unable to fall asleep because his tummy hurt (from the excitement, i think). made for a very long night! i think we made it to bed around 2 am. hmmm...i get it now! (the very reason our parents made us "hang out" in their room in the morning for a while)! a merry christmas to all and to all a GoOd NiGhT!

christmas eve eve

'twas the night before christmas eve that we celebrated the morris family christmas at our home. we feasted on yummy appetizers and wine, and simply enjoyed just being together! a surprise visit from santa was the highlight of the night, as the kids were able to share, once again, their christmas desires. dad was surprised with a ping pong table from the kids (to hopefully curb his desire to "take" ours...we like it, we like it)! rich and garry were kind enough to assemble dad's table on christmas day so that we could begin the ping pong tourneys! hampton and evie broke into the wonderful sparkly makeup that aunt ju ju found for her...and they used an entire tube of festive red to cover their faces (hampton is so proud, in case you couldn't tell)! thanks! they both ended up in the shower at the end of the night, and i am still finding glitter in the tile! what a fun night! we all enjoyed a multitude of wonderful gifts throughout the evening, however the most precious to me, was the fact that we could all be together. i have been truly blessed with an unbelievable family, that keeps growing in number and growing in love!

baking buddies 2009

my sweet sister jen & i, along with the extraordinary help of coleman, hampton & evie, endured a ten hour baking fest this week! we have been baking together annually since we were old enough to stand, and have continued the tradition our mom started of baking peffernuse! of course, we dabble in a few other recipes, which change each year as well...merely to break up the monotony of 21 batches of the small, time consuming cookies. the peffernuse recipe calls for 28 cups of flour, which we have to mix with the other ingredients in a very large container. this year, my hand held kitchen aid mixer decided that this would be it's last. in addition to the peffernuse, we made fudge, chocolate dipped pretzels, snowman cookies, & peanut butter surprise cookies. the kids had such fun decorating their very own cookies, and hampton was eager to share that she had added dimples to hers. we once again had fun visiting, rolling, laughing, baking and wrapping, but at the end of the day we were truly exhausted! as my husband meandered in the door from work, he wondered what i made for dinner! seriously? he gladly departed to pick something up, after the look on my face! oh the joys...this day each year is at the top!