My little brother Noah is seven years old.  He sent me a birthday card this year that is truly the best gift ever.

Hi Jessack Happy Birthday Love Noah

My DaD included a note which explains:

Jess,

Noah says that while the Pteranodon flies overhead you (in the orange jumpsuit) help Noah hoist the crystal of friendship to spawn the heart-shaped gem of happiness to kick-off Noah’s ultimate half-pipe demonstrations and celebration for your birthday!  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Love,

DaD

PS – Noah learned how to skateboard a few days ago!

Ty September Birthday Bear

Today is my birthday.  I absolutely love birthdays.  To me, this is my day to celebrate my life and all the wonderful things that have happened to me along the way.  I dream of all the things to come, and of all the great adventures I will be privileged enough to experience in the future.  To me, every day is a gift.  You can’t return it, so you may as well enjoy it and get the most out of every one.

Thank you to each and every one of my family and friends for being a part of my life.  Thank you to my readers for stopping by and for experiencing my writings.  Thank you so much!

My birthday wish is for each of you to have another year of amazing experiences and personal growth.  Live a little.  Laugh a lot.  Love your life.  You’re worth it.

Cheers!

My Ty Birthday Bears Collection

Happy 9th Anniversary, Andrew!  I love you!

Anniversary Rose, 2003

These little snow people are ceramic.  Andrew painted them in 2000 during a community ceramics class we took while still living in Burlington, Massachusetts.  They continue to bring us Christmas cheer, year after year.

Merry Christmas!

I’d like to start off by sharing a picture of our house all decorated for Christmas 2010.  This year we made the switch to all LED lights for our display.  They are bright in the river bed and subtle on the house, which we like.  The Garfield was painted by Andrew back in the mid-1980′s (vintage!) and we are thankfully he hasn’t been stolen or destroyed by the local teenagers yet.  This is only the second year we have dared to display him.

Christmas 2010

For the past two years, I have loved looking at the signs out front of our San Tan Village shopping mall.  They are beautiful year-round, but when they add the lights and bow for Christmas, they are something to see.  Usually I don’t pay much attention to commercial decorations but this display brightens up our community and it looks very classy.  The same sign is installed in at least five locations that I am aware of, all around the shopping center entrances along San Tan Village Parkway and Williamsfield Road.

I have promised myself for two years now that I would go take a picture of it, and this year I finally got off my butt and did it.  They are hard to capture because the lights continually change color hues, similar to the Disney castles at night.  I couldn’t choose my favorite color combination, so I have included three of the prettiest for your viewing pleasure.

San Tan Village Entrance Sign 2010

Merry Christmas, everyone!

For more Christmas fun, check out my Flickr pools for St Nick’s Lights, Christmas 2008 and 2009.

Christmas 2000 in Boston

Christmas 2001 in Our New Home

Christmas 2002 as Newlyweds

Christmas 2003

Christmas 2004

Christmas 2005

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2007 at Disneyland

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

A Thanksgiving riddle for you: Why did they let the turkey join the band?

The Green Family, Thanksgiving 2003

Answer: Because he had the drumsticks!

I would like to wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy birthday to my little brother, Noah, who turns a whopping 7 years old today!  I hope you have a great day, sweetie!

Noah, age 21 months

My Personal Ty Beanie Baby Collection

This is my personal Ty Beanie Baby and Buddy collection.  There are 332 Ty plush animals pictured, 299 of which are unique Ty Beanie bears.  This photo was taken on November 11, 2010 and my collection is still growing.  I also have thousands of Ty Beanie Baby Trading Cards that are not in the photo.

A large number of these Beanies reside in Holiday bins that are taken out and displayed throughout the year.  We have displays for Valentine’s Day, our Anniversary, Easter, July 4th, Memorial Day, Summertime, Birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The Beanie that started it all was the 1998 Holiday Teddy – I was hooked by the thrill of the hunt and the bell inside the Santa hat on that particular Beanie.  My oldest Beanie is Chocolate the Moose from 1993, and my favorite one is Fuzz the Bear because he’s so soft.  I must say though, Quackers the Duck and Daisy the Cow may also tie for first place because of how much of an impact they had on building a relationship with my husband while we were dating!

One unique fact about my collection is that I once had to sell it.  Yup – I was forced to sell it when I moved to Boston in 1999 and couldn’t pay my rent one month.  I sold it to my dear friend Andrew (for $800 if I remember correctly) who moved in with me not too long after that and eventually we got married.  So technically, a large part of this collection belongs to Andrew!  Ironic, eh?

Take a look through my entire collection on Flickr.  Every piece of this collection (and my newest additions) have been photographed and posted in my photostream for reference.