Christmas Whirlwind

WOW! The past couple of weeks have flown by! I have so many pictures I want to share that I'm going to have to pace myself. Grandma Susie and (Great) Grandma Dot arrived from Wichita on the 20th and Monica and her family arrived on the 23rd. They arrived from Houston, Tx. We had been hoping for a white Christmas and we got it! We did some sledding in the front yard and on the sledding hill the day they arrived...

Here are some pictures from the 23rd. I will try to post Christmas pictures soon!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Nestle giveaway.. who doesn't love chocolate?

Check out this great Nestle giveaway over at Sittingonanoak All you have to do is leave a comment to enter the giveaway. Also Terra has a great fudge recipe on her post!

On a side note... I hope you are all doing well this holiday season. Yesterday was Connor's last day of school so he is officially on break. Alex has one more day. I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks to relax, enjoy christmas with family and friends and of course eat too much! I'm trying to pace myself but I know when grandma arrives with her yummy treats (hopefully some of her famous fudge). I won't be able to contain myself... Let the sugar buzz begin!!

We are also looking forward to Monica, James and the kids to arrive. We haven't seen them in over 2 years so we are very excited. Alex is so anxious to see his cousins he can hardly stand it!! Every morning he asks me "how many days til my cousins get here??". They live in Houston so we were really hoping to give them a white Christmas... There is a little snow in the forecast on the 23rd, lets hope we get enough for the kids to sled and have a good snowball fight!

My shopping is almost completed. I have lots of wrapping to do but it's one of my favorite things to do and I like to do it with Susie (My MIL). She is the best wrapper I know. Her packages are always beautiful. I'm looking forward to sitting up a big table, grabbing a glass of wine and wrapping and rapping :-) away!

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays. What are you up to and what are your holiday plans??

Fa-la-la Bad Haiku Festival

Join in the fun with the Fa La La Bad Haiku Festival over at Laura's Catholic Teachers Musings blog.


Christmas songs are swell

I love some Michael Buble

Cant beat his crooning!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXr7sx9aHgg

Wordless Wednesday

Decorating the tree

Well we've had our tree up for days but I've been a little under the weather so we hadn't decorated it. I woke up this morning finally feeling better... after about 10 days! I thought maybe I had a sinus infection. I finally broke down and went to the Dr. yesterday. She said it could be an infection or it could be viral. She gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. I decided not to fill it right away because if it was viral it would go away on it's own. I'm convinced that it was because I decided to break down and pay my $30 co pay that I'm now on the mend.. Wouldn't you just know it.

Anyway since I was feeling better we decided to decorate the tree this morning. Connor said he didn't want to because it was too light outside. At first I thought he was on one of his emotional roller coasters that he's been going on lately but after some thought I understood that the ambiance just wasn't right for decorating. After awhile he came around though and we did get it decorated.

Do you have any traditions when it comes to putting up and decorating the tree? We usually put ours up close to Thanksgiving, either the day after or the weekend. The boys usually do the majority of putting on the ornaments. They love to look at ornaments from years past. Alex especially enjoys finding his "1st Christmas ornament". He also has several penguin ornaments. Connor loves moose and has several moose ornaments that are special to him. Grandma (Susie) has given us many ornaments over the years and we always enjoy seeing them. Grandpa (Dick) has a special shamrock santa that he made one year... Mark and I still have one from our first Christmas together. I especially love the ones the kids have made at school over the years. I think they become more special each year that goes by.

Here are a few pictures...

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

From Decorating the tree 2009

Great expectations

Mark came up with a great idea. He thought it would be fun to go to a Christmas tree farm and let the boys pick out a real christmas tree! We have not had a real tree since the boys were born. We always used to buy real from one of those places that cut them down and sell them. The boys have never known the wonderful smell of a real tree at Christmas. We thought they would be really excited. So we got all ready to go and drove to the "Christmas tree farm". When we first arrived we were looking around as we drove up and were a little dissappointed that the trees didn't have a very pretty shape to them. Right away I started visualizing a little spindly Charlie Brown tree.. but then I thought "that's okay, it's all about the experience, it doesn't have to be perfect." Okay, so now I'm back in the mood. But the boys aren't with me. They are walking around unenthusiastically. We decide to leave the tree farm in lieu of another we heard about that was just down the road a few miles. So we pack up and head that way. As we pull in we see that these trees look a little better........until we get up close. We just couldn't find the perfect one. I found several that would work but the boys just weren't into it! They said they would rather just put up our artificial one! What???!! What is wrong with these guys? I thought they would be so excited to cut down their own tree. I had visions of it tied on top of the Suburban and happily trekking home.........but no. So Mark and I shrugged our shoulders in confusion and headed home.

In all honesty I think their blood sugar may have been low. They wanted to eat asap. I can't think of any other explanation.

Alpacos (looks like a mix between sheep and a llama)

Wordless Wednesday

Alex and friends on a snowy day a few weeks ago on our back deck.......now why didn't I think to get one of him and Connor for our Christmas card????