December 30, 2007

Cynthia's Moving Day!

It takes the Begin clan to move a sister from a snug 2 room adorably quirky and sooo European apartment to a lovely house with a bedroom loft, a fireplace, a high ceiling and a wall of windows that must have provided an outrageous view of the storm we just had - ah, the sound of the rain while being warmed by a toasty fire! Heaven!

That's 6 adults, 4 kids, 4 vehicles, a little bit of {umph} muscle, a healthy dose of laughter and a surprise at the end...Bloody Marys and goodies from the Buttery!

While we would have helped without the Bloody Mary, once announced, it was the carrot at the end of the stick! ;)

Let it be known, we work for delicious treats!

O Great Spirit,

Play:



Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me! I am small and weak, I need your
strength and wisdom.
Let Me Walk In Beauty, and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Let My Hands respect the things you have
made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make Me Wise so that I may understand the things
you have taught my people.

Let Me Learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock. I Seek Strength, not to be greater than my
brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make Me Always Ready to come to you with
clean hands and straight eyes.

So When Life Fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame

{Native American Prayer from "A Grateful Heart"}

Sonoma Weekend

Kaitlin, Breana & Nicolas had a lot of fun up in Sonoma.
Hopefully more pictures with a post by Kait & Bea will come shortly!

December 22-23, 2007

We spent the weekend before Christmas up in Sonoma. I tried to contribute to the bits & pieces needed to keep the property running smoothly through the winter season - some how I come up short on the 'To Do' list while clearly Bill, Mia & Dan manage to check off a slew of things.

After our bike ride into town Dan & I helped Bill & Mia with raking and distributing the leaves back out to the front vineyard. I thought of taking snapshots of Mia raking leaves, Bill on the tractor, Dan kicking the big pile of leaves {to distribute out} and me running with the worn-out blue tarp snapping behind me [after we've dumped the leaves from it] but thought I'd leave that to the imagination.

At the end of the day, as we are at the end of every day, we're rewarded with the dramatic departure of the sun. Dan holds out until the bitter brittle end as I retreat inside by the fire. I'm not as hardy, I guess.
Our departure came too soon - we can stay here forever. Thankfully Christmas was before us and the celebration was to begin and to continue at home in Santa Cruz.
Nanni Begin with her 3 youngest "punky-poohs".

Breana's Winter Choir Concert - on the bottom, third from the right.

Dispite being sick, we were commited to making it a special day for our Dan. After Breana's Choir Concert we blew out candles amidst the glow of our Christmas lights and celebrated him.
We hope he understands how important he is to us three - how much he means to us - how thankful we are to him.

We had more to celebrate in December : my Parent's 43rd anniversary, Mia's birthday, Dick's 60th birthday, Billy's 3rd birthday and his brother, Noah's 1st...
Kaitlin & Breana didn't participate in Blue's activities but they did gather for cake...who doesn't gather for cake?

Those engrossed in football, of course!

(Dan & Matthew)