Sacramento, CA

Against all odds, the missing Dominguez family was blessed with their own Christmas miracle when they were found alive and well yesterday afternoon. They had been missing since Sunday when they got lost looking for the perfect Christmas tree. Many people believed that they would not be found alive as the mountains saw a ton of snowfall over the past couple of day. Somehow, by some miracle they managed to survive with only mild hypothermia.

The family didn’t have any food or water and no survival skills. Yet somehow they managed to live through their ordeal anyway. They apparently camped out in a concrete tunnel underneath a mountian road. They wrote the word “Help” in the snow and a helicopter pilot–who wasn’t even supposed to fly because of the weather–found the father waving his hands in the air next to it. Anyway, I won’t go into more details, but you can read them yourself in today’s Sacramento Bee.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who prayed for their safe return. Few people believed that they would be found safe and sound–yet somehow it still happened. It just goes to show you how much can be accomplished with the power of prayer. In any case, because of this little miracle, this is certain to be the best Christmas the Dominguez family will ever have!!

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On Sunday afternoon, Frederick Dominguez and his three children–Christopher, Alexis, and Joshua–disappeared in the mountains near Inskip where they were looking for a Christmas tree. None of them were prepared for a long trip out in the snow. In fact, they were only wearing T-Shirts, jeans, light jackets, and sneakers.

They certainly weren’t prepared for the snow storms that have been hitting the area over the past couple of days. As of now, rescue teams are hoping that they managed to find someplace to hide out during the storm–like one of the many cabins that dot the area. However, tehre has been no trace of them so far and Madde Watts of the Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team said that “The elevation ranges from 4,000 to 6000. It’s been really cold up there. The weather has moved in, the terrain is difficult. It’s desperate, all right.”

In any case, their future isn’t looking too good right now so I would entreat anyone who believes to pray for their safe return. It would be such an immense tragedy for their mother to lose her entire family so close to Christmas–especially over a Christmas tree. Frankly, I think there have been quite enough tragedies this year already…

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Weather.com is forecasting another wet week for us here in Sacramento, with a high chance of showers through Wednesday. I’m admittedly the last person in the world who would complain about this–I adore the rain and wish it would rain every day. However, I know that the weather will produce all kinds of mischief in children who are bored and have nothing better to do. (It’ll do the same for some adults out there too for that matter!) Thus, I’ve put together a few ideas for fun things that you can do with your children to keep you from driving each other absolutely insane.

The first is simply to get them out of the house so they can’t destroy it Cat in the Hat style. My personal reccommendation would be to cart them off to Fairfield to tour the Jellybelly Factory. It would make an excellent selection for three reasons. The first is that it is a walking tour through a factory–what better way could there be to tire out your kids and let them vent all of their pent up energy? The second is that admission is free so that everyone can have fun without straining the bank accounts too much. The best part though is that it is in Fairfield and not too close to the city itself. It’s about 45 minutes away which makes it close enough to drive and yet far enough away that it probably won’t be too busy or crowded–especially during the weekdays!

If you don’t want to leave the house, then you could always find something creative and time consuming to keep their little minds busy. My personal choice would be scrapbooking. Kids of all ages love arts and crafts projects–especially ones that involve pictures of themselves. They may not get tired out from it, but since it is so time-consuming this is not likely to matter very much. Plus, Teresa McClary has some really wonderful ideas up here at (Scr)apropos so you won’t have to go searching too far for page layout ideas. Her site also has a variety of digital how-to videos that–as I know from personal experience–will help prevent a ton of stress and guarantee that everyone has more fun in the long run…

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