Holiday Favorites

Christmas break is always one of the best times of the year. Here is my list of favorites from Christmas Break 2008.


My favorite....

*Christmas Food: Sugar Cookies


*Christmas Tradition: Christmas Light Night


*Christmas Gift: Jewelry from my mom, although my husband wishes it would be the skillet he told my parents I really wanted for Christmas.


*Christmas Letter: Alan and Emily's. I look forward to it every year because it makes me laugh, plus it's the only letter we get that is written by the male in the house. That's worth extra points.

*Christmas Card Photo: Professionally - Ryan and Miriam; The one the kids think is the funniest: Cooper in the dryer


*Quote from the week: "I don't have to use my silverware because I'm a crocodile!" (2 yo)


*Movie (from those we watched during break): Made of Honor


*Phone Call (during break): When my husband called me last night from the roof and told me he was stuck up there and asked if I could come rescue him.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Happenings

Life is fairly low-key around here, which I guess is good, but I'm going to sum up the holidays anyway.

• We have yet another new addition to the family. Some friends of ours got our boys a fish for Christmas (they asked first). The kids love Tommy, who got his name because he's blue like Thomas the Train. I sure hope he fairs better than all the plants we've tried to keep alive.


• We are also the new proud owners of a 10-in-1 game table, which arrived because we had to take back some other gifts that were broken or did not work like we thought they would. The 60% off sale had something to do with it too. This table brings much joy to the 6 yo and much grief to the 2 yo, mostly because the little guy can barely see the top.


• Speaking of taking gifts back, that seemed to be the theme this year. Broken parts, gifts too hard to operate, missing pieces...it got so bad my son started asking after each gift he opened, "are we going to have to take this one back too?"


• We took the boys to see "The Tale of Despereaux" because we had free movie passes that expired tomorrow. None of us really liked it, and we spent as much on a small popcorn and two drinks as we would have on 4 movie tickets for a movie worth watching.
• Sunday morning my 6 yo was innocently playing on the floor when he instantly started crying like crazy and holding on to his neck. The pain kept him from doing much all day, but by evening he was moving around slowly, although he looked a bit crooked. A trip to the chiro today gave us the diagnosis of torticollis. Interestingly enough, he had this as an infant and couldn't turn his head all the way to the left. Six weeks of physical therapy did the trick - until yesterday. The chiro says he'll have him good as new soon, which I think means about 3-6 months of visits. Oh, and he says when this is cleared up, he probably won't suffer from allergies either. It's safe to say I'm skeptical, but the kid does need to be able to turn his head.
• We're getting ready for another Illinois trip. I wonder how 10 hours in the carseat will feel with torticollis?

Catching Up

On the 7th and 8th days of Christmas break, my true love gave me to me...
eight crazy cousins...
seven hours of eating...
six layers of wrapping...
...five extra pounds...
four games of cards...
three noisy toys...
two happy children...
and a date-night with my wonderful husband.

We interrupt this Christmas song...

for a silly kid moment.


It used to be that when kids would say something really cute or memorable, people would say, "Oh you have to write that in their baby book." Now when something funny happens, I find myself saying, "You HAVE to blog about that."


Interestingly enough, I am way better about blogging those moments than getting out the baby books anyway. So, in lieu of locating and dusting them off, here's what had me laughing today.


Those of you who know my 2 year old have noticed that he has a bit of a thumbsucking habit. Well, today, for the first time ever he came up to me and asked if I would wash off his thumb. Thinking he must have something on his thumb that doesn't taste the best (not gonna mention what I thought it might be), I said, "Sure, what's on your thumb?" He paused for a moment, obviously trying to come up with the right word, and said, "ummm...sucking stuff?"


To which I replied, "Your thumb is just wet? You want me to dry it off?"

"Yes. Dry it off."

And so I dried it for him, and asked, "Why do you need it dry? Just so you can put it in your mouth again?"

"Yep." And off he went.


Apparently he got a memo today that the most sophisticated thumbsuckers only suck DRY thumbs.


I'm waiting for him to get the memo about the fact that he is going to have to wear braces for 10 years if he doesn't stop.right.now.

The Fifth Day

On the Fifth day of Christmas break, my true love gave to me...a four hour school meeting.
...A semi-clean house...
...Christmas caroling...
...Crazy, noisy kids...
...And a 2 year old with a bloody lip.

The 12 Days of Christmas Break

Slightly similar to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", with a few minor (or major) changes.

On the first day of Christmas break, my true love gave to me...a 2 year old with a high fever.

On the second day of Christmas break, my true love gave to me...canceled plans with friends...and a 2 year old with a high fever.

On the third day of Christmas break, my true love gave to me...a Christmas celebration with family...rescheduled plans...and a 2 year old without a fever.

On the fourth day of Christmas break my true love gave to me...friends from out of town...jewelry from yesterday's Christmas...rescheduled plans...and a 2 year old who needs more sleep.

Stay tuned...

Almost Done

I'm almost done.

d.o.n.e.

DONE.

D.O.N.E.

DDDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE!!!


I was chatting with my cousin (who is a freshman in college) the other day about how teacher's look just as forward, if not more, to the end of the semester and a long break from school. She laughed and said that she always wondered if that was how we really feel. Yep, it sure is. I love teaching and I love my students. I have never regretted for one minute my decision to go into education. But I love having a break too!


I have one test to grade, one more grade to calculate and turn in, and then vacation begins.

I can't wait.

Performance Time

Sunday was my son's "Christmas Program" at church, which really just means that the kids get up on stage and sing two songs. Here he is getting ready to sing his four line trio. The excitement on his face is almost uncontrollable.

And here he is actually singing. First service was pretty good -- mostly on pitch with a little bit of monotone. Second service didn't go quite so well -- a little bit of pitch and a whole lot of monotone.
Oh well, he's six. But he's already talking about doing it again next year. We better start practicing now.

Can You Feel the Love??

Countdown to Christmas

Last year when I wasn't working, I had this faabbbuullouuusssss idea to make a 'Countdown to Christmas' chain for my kids. We wrote one "fun" Christmas thing on each link to do each day of December until Christmas. The activities varied from painting a Christmas picture, to wrapping a present, to making Christmas cookies, to looking at Christmas lights. Low key stuff - just the way I like it.

My kids thought it was great. So great in fact that my son begged to do it again this year, only he "wanted to do some things that were more fun than last year." Oh yeah, that line got me in the Christmas Spirit.

So here is my very brave husband assembling the gingerbread house for the kids to decorate. He took this on with our boys and our niece and nephew.

It looks yummy, but have you ever seriously tried one of these things? I kept looking for "NOT AN EDIBLE PRODUCT. FOR DECORATION ONLY." on the box. Thankfully, decoration was our main goal anyway.

And here is the Christmas puzzle cookie that was created the other night. It's gingerbread too, and actually pretty tasty. Just ask my hips. I'm wearing the evidence.

See how much fun this was? He was lamenting the fact that he couldn't eat the pretty yellow star. NOW.

His life is so hard. I'm feelin' his pain. Aren't you?

Tonight is Christmas light night, which we look forward to every year. I love this link of the chain. The lights are beautiful, it's fun family time, and it requires no creativity or baking from me!!!!

Stupid Me #2

December is turning in to be the month of posts of stupid things I have done. If things don't turn around soon, I am going to be really fed up with myself by Christmas.


Saturday and Sunday I went on a fabulous girls shopping weekend with two of my friends. We did lots of shopping, saw a movie, wrapped gifts, stayed the night, and shopped some more. Oh, and I had my Chinese restaurant initiation. Here's proof of me at PF Changs, my very first experience at Chinese dining.

On to the stupid part...Saturday afternoon we made a trip to Beau Monde, where I stocked up on $70 worth of make-up. Later that day we unloaded the car (so we could shop some more) and carried everything to the hotel room, where the make-up sat untouched for the rest of the time.

Monday morning when I was getting ready, I couldn't find my precious bag of supplies. I looked around a little bit, but just assumed it must not have gotten unloaded at my house with all my other bags. So I called to check. No, no make-up there. So I called to check my second possibility. No, no make-up there. So I called the hotel. No, no make-up there. I have to admit, the first thought that went through my head was that the hotel cleaning lady just got a REALLY nice early Christmas present. It's terrible that I thought that, but I did.

For the next couple of hours I beat myself up that I had been so careless, why didn't we double check the room one more time, why have I become so irresponsible, blah, blah, blah.

Then I got the phone call. The people at the hotel found my bag. It was safe and waiting for the rightful owner.

Ahhhhh. The phone call didn't do anything to fix my stupidity, but it sure did make me feel better.

Don't Tell My Dad

I know my mom reads my blog sometimes, and my brother occasionally checks in, and even his mom will stop by, but I'm pretty sure my dad does not spend any of his time on the Internet. This is a good thing, because if my father would read this, he would either die from a stroke, or he would disown me as a daughter.

You see, my dad is a practical guy. I think I've written this before, but my father's picture has to be beside the term "risk management" in the dictionary. He's cautious, responsible, and as he would say, "simply a realist -- not a pessimist." That's still up for debate in the family.

My dad tried to teach me many lessons - turn off the lights, close the door behind you, don't leave your keys in the car...and fill up the gas tank when it hits half. Pretend the half mark is zero, and you will never have to worry that you might get into a situation where you'll run out of fuel.

One might say I've struggled with that last lesson. Two days ago I was in a town 20 miles away when my low fuel light came on. No problem, I thought, I'll just fill up after my son's doctor appointment. Turns out I didn't have any cash, or my checkbook, and I had for some silly reason taken my credit card out of my purse. Oh, and I hadn't yet activated my new debit card. More of dad's lessons down the drain...

That wasn't a huge issue at the time, because I had plenty of fuel to get home that afternoon. However, as I was backing out of the driveway to take my son to school the next morning, I realized I was now VERY low on fuel. According to my dash, I had 17 miles to empty. We live in the country, my son's school is in the "country" (a very small unincorporated, gas-station-less town), and we were on tight time constraints. The school is 5-6 miles from my house, so I did the math and off we went.

At first all seemed to be going well, but it soon became apparent that the "miles left" were decreasing at a much faster rate of speed than the miles driven. In the six (max) miles to school, I went from having "17 miles to empty" down to 5. Hmmm....

I tried to call my husband to let him know he might need to be on standby. His cell phone was off, and his work phone was down. Great. I got my son into school, grabbed the books I needed, and came back out to attempt the journey home. When I started the van, the little screen on the dashboard read "0 miles to empty". It's a mystery to me how I went from 5 to 0 while sitting in a parking lot, but you gotta love technology.

Wondering what I was going to do, I looked out my window to see Jamie driving in to drop off her daughter. I quickly tried my husband's phones one more time, to no avail, and then jumped out to see if she would rescue an idiotic friend. She said yes, she could take me home (like she really had a choice - what was she going to say, "No, I hope you brought a coat"?). Her concern about whether I was having car trouble quickly turned to laughter as I sadly entertained her with my story of stupidity.

The van stayed at school for the day until my very pleased husband (he actually handled it quite well) was able to take a gas can to its rescue. Of course, when we pulled into the school parking lot to fix this little issue, my boss was walking out the front door to his car. Just what I needed to feel even more like a fool. I very maturely asked my husband not to get out with the gas can until my boss drove away. It worked, and all is well again.

The morals of my story: Don't trust the technology in your vehicle. And...if you ever see me looking distraught on the side of the road, know that I still haven't learned my lesson, and please pull over to rescue me!

Because pictures are so much easier than words today...

Getting ready for Christmas...



Round one of Christmas cookies...as much fun as this was, there's sure to be more...



And fingerpainting gone mad....

Yep, he deserved it...