An Award, and A New Year...

..Well, I was *awarded* awhile back, but I just haven't gotten a chance to post about it until now! This cute little thing is from Raquel of God's Daughter, a personal friend of mine. :) Very sweet young lady! <3

There are some very simple rules for this tag/award:

Name five things you love about blogging, then tag five friends!

..Easy enough, don'tcha think? ;) So..

~~Five things I love about blogging~~

1. "Meeting" new friends, of course! <3

2. Getting the chance to be a blessing, and more often, BE blessed to/by fellow bloggers. :)

3. Getting a comment as soon as I post. ;)

4. Having a sort of on-line diary where I can tell the world my thoughts!

5. Sprucing up my blog, and quickly click "view blog" as soon as I change the littlest thing on it...:D

..And NOW, I award five lovely young ladies who have blessed me...

Miss BleahBrianne -- She always leaves such nice and thoughtful comments! And is also a faithful visitor..:) Thank you, Bleah!

Miss Grace -- A sweet young lady whom I hope to recieve a letter from very soon! ;)

Miss Irie -- She, as well, leaves lovely comments, and visits my blog often! <3

Miss Camille -- A sweet girl {and commenter ;) }, you can tell, from her lovely blog!

Miss Katie R. -- My *newest* pen-pal, and, of course, as lovely as they come! :)

..And ALL of you deserve this award, rest assured. 

Now. Can you BELIEVE that this is the last day of 2010???!! Goodness gracious...where has the time gone? No, I won't even ask...;)

Do you have any special "traditions" for New Year's?? Stay up till 12:00, perhaps...break open a bottle of Martinelli Apple Cider? Blow horns and throw confetti? Or simply go to bed? I'll tell you what we have planned--a Chinese dinner at a restaurant called the "August Moon.." we always go there, every year. Then, we are going to a "gym night" thing, where we will play games till 12:00...*yawn* :) 

In the case that I have no further contact with the computer until then...

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S, 2011, EVERYONE! 

..May the LORD bless you this year. <3 Thank you for giving me one successful year of blogging! 

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Blessings for this New Year!

Christmas Has Come and Gone...

...For Christmas this year, Mom and Dad got us a wonderful, exciting present...a laptop for all of us kids to share! :D It is SO nice, and fast, and..sleek! Much, MUCH better than the one computer we have..so, anyways, I am typing away on the newby's lovely, smooth keyboard, sighing with satisfaction as the internet signal comes up with an "excellent speed" signal. ;D Haha...

Anyways. How were ya'll's Christmas'? Okay, AKWARD sentence structure there..you grammar geniuses correct me there...:)

~We had a wonderful one--on Christmas Eve, we had ALL of my dad's family over (he has six siblings..well, had seven, but my Aunt Vicky passed away several years ago..:( ), and we had a big potluck/gift exchange among the kids. =D One of my gifts "from" my little cousin Maley {;)} was a Starbucks giftcard!

..Oh, goodness gracious, I looove Starbucks! When we go. Which is..never. :) No, I'm not a coffee drinker, but they have other good things there, as you may well know...

Anyways. I hope to gather a group of girlfriends soon and go spend the giftcard...I wish you all could come! <3

~On Christmas Day, we had our Grandma and my Mom's sister and family over for dessert/gifts, etc. We had a lovely time here!

...Our Christmas tree is getting a little dry now, as it is situated quite near our woodstove. :( Ah, well...all good things must come to an end. I remember reading a sad story about a certain Christmas tree--I don't remember what it was called or where I read it--telling of how the tree thought that it would always be happily set up with lots of lovely adornments and admirers...and then, of course, it was thrown out after he holidays.

I wonder if that's how our tree feels? I hope not. And I'm being sort of silly, aren't I? ;) Bear with me, Dear Friends!

Don't forget to read the last post about an upcoming GIVEAWAY that is soon to make its appearance in honor of reaching the 100 follower mark. Thank you to all of the sweet commenters who said such nice things! And I already have one sponsor...<3

Blessings to you all! If YOU would like to help sponsor my giveaway, e-mail me at:

lmmorud@gmail.com

An Important Announcement...

..Well, I have hit it. The big One-Oh-Oh! 'From Under this Umbrellla' *officially* has:

100 followers!

Thanks to Miss Zoe Luna for helping me with the last number! :) I am super-duper excited that so many dear friends enjoy my blog enough to follow, and hope I make it worthwhile for you. ;)

In order to make it even more worthwhile, however, I want to do what every good blogger does when they reach a mark in their blogging career. Can you guess?

That's right--a 100 followers giveaway! No, this isn't the giveaway post, merely a "pre-giveaway-post," to get you ready and excited. So, come around here often in the future, for you might just happen upon a very large giveaway.

One more thing: I would love to make this thing as huge as possible...so, if any of you are willing to sponsor one or more prizes from an Etsy shop you have, or merely from your own dresser drawer, please let me know via e-mail:

lmmorud@gmail.com

..if you have an Etsy shop, keep in mind that I will be doing some advertising for you! ;)

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Blessings to you all! I can't wait for this..spread the informal word, if you'd like...