welcome 2012

We came home yesterday after a 10 day visit to NY while the kids were out of school.  Always too short.  And always two long travel days on each end of the trip.  We are all still exhausted from yesterday's marathon drive. 

We did have a nice break about 8 hours into the trip when we stopped in Virginia for about an hour and a half to visit with Caroline and Aunt Lila.  We met at DQ, the kids got to eat, the grown-ups got to have ice cream, we exchanged what may be the last of the hand-me-downs (Carl has caught up to Colin...sigh)  and took a few pictures before we headed back out for another 6ish hours on the road. 

Happy New Years!

We returned home so late last night, the twins did not even realize Santa had left them presents!  They discovered them this morning along with his note explaining how he stopped here first and snuggled with Molly & Angus.  Gretchen has been cracking up all day about how he told them Mrs Claus packed him a lint brush for cat hair! 

Here's our tree with Santa's gifts under it.

 We have to get a storage system of some sort before we can open 1600 more Legos in this room!

 Then they got to open fun gifts from Aunt Lila, Uncle Rod, Caroline & Colin!  Thanks for the fun ornaments and gifts!!!!

As for the other vacation photos.  Give me a couple of days to get to that.  My sore throat is back and my sinus infection may never have left.  Carl has a pretty runny nose during the week - and then on Friday night, 12/30, at 11:30pm he woke crying that his ear hurt.  He never complains about being sick, so I knew I'd have to take him to the walk-in clinic the following morning.  He woke me several times during the night in pain, but by 8:30am, he was sound asleep.  When he woke up, it was very obvious his ear drum had burst and drained the infection.  Probably why the pain subsided enough for him to fall asleep.  And, yes, the other ear was infected, too.  So, we have pink stuff in our fridge for him. 

Plus, tomorrow I am getting my new crown put on my tooth.  Wednesday morning I have a phlebotomy (which, can turn into a full day's event if those people don't have their act together), Thursday the kids have dentist appointments after school. 

And, to top it all off...... I edited many day's worth of vacation photos at my mother's house already.  I spent hours doing that only to forget to transfer them to the thumb drive to bring home.  Having edited photos 700 miles away does me no good.  I have to re-do them all here.  (Don't ask, there is no way Mom could email them to me.  Even if I could talk her through it, some files are too big for Yahoo to attach anyway.)

I'll get to them (and the stories that go along with them) as fast as I can.  I still have not done all our Disney photos. 

I think I will resolve to take fewer photos in 2012.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our loved ones reading this!  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday!!

Thought it would be a good time to share the pictures of the kids with our real Santa from Lew's work holiday party.  This is the 5th year we have photos with him! 

The company does a superb job on this event.  We look forward to going each year.  They host it on 2 nights so that all workers can find time to attend no matter which shift they work.  When you arrived this year, you got a number for your spot in line to see Santa and Mrs Claus.  This was a new addition last year and worked really well again.  They had a screen up showing what numbers needed to be lined up.  We only had to physically stand in line for about 3 minutes.   This gave us plenty of time to be crafty.  When we entered, they gave us a bag for each kid to put the projects into (the bags were new this year also) so we didn't have to juggle as much as in the past.  We still had the glitter glue issue and not being able to place those items into the bag, but I think next year we are going to insist gently request that Gretchen not use any glitter glue on these projects.  She loves this party.  These craft projects are right up her alley. 

This kind of shows you the whole room.  As you see, there are tables of workers helping kids with various crafts.  You can also see the trees up on the stage area.  That is where Santa and Mrs Claus are seated with elves helping them hand out the presents.  This year, the kids received stuffed penguins which they love.  Off to the left of this picture is where the dessert table was located.  Mmm... the red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips were delicious!  There were also a couple employees dressed up in costumes running around throughout the evening.  There was a toy soldier that works with Lew and someone in a big mascot type snowman costume.  That person was having fun.  They kept taking the cotton balls from one craft project and throwing them at kids for a snowball fight.  Both kids had a lot of fun participating the snowy fun!

Here are some of Lew's team members after Gretchen spent probably 15 minutes with them decorating a little tree!  They all agreed that she was the most thorough child all night.  You can see her penguin here, too. 

One more new thing this year was the addition of Santa's Movie theater...  they had Christmas specials showing and had a popcorn machine right there to serve the kids.  Carl spent his time eating popcorn and watching TV while Gretchen crafted.  I did get him to make me a couple ornaments.  One was a reindeer style that he has made for the past few years. I love having a series!  The other one was a style he has also made in the past, but this year was much more into it.  He was sticking those foam stickers onto a ball ornament.  He was psyched that they had gingerbread man shaped ones!  He is really into the Gingerbread Man story this season. 

Lindy joined us at the party, too.  He was helpful in keeping an eye on both kids with me while Lew chatted to all his work buddies, but even moreso as a helper for carrying some of the glitter glue creations until they dried.  Oh, who am I kidding... they weren't dry by the time we left.  Everyone knows glitter glue takes 187 hours to dry.   But, we all had fun... and her ornaments are now dry and beautiful!!

If you want to look back on our photos with (the real) Santa, click here for the 2010 entry and click here for the 2009 entry that includes photos from 2007 & 2008. 
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Merry Christmas from us and the Clauses!!



can you pass along a message for me?

I know there are 3 of you loyal readers seeing this... if you see them, can you let the other 182 people on my Christmas card list that they are not going out until next week?   Cool.

lighted gardens

We went to the local garden's light festival.  People who live in cold areas have light displays in local parks or on lakes and they can drive through in their cars with the radio tuned to a specific station to hear holiday music while they enjoy the beauty of the season.

Well, here, it isn't that cold.  You don't have to hole up in your car to enjoy a light display. 

We walked through the gardens Monday from 5:00 to 7:00.  When we first arrived, someone told us Santa had no line and that he normally had a long line.  Their suggestion to go right there was a great one! 

Here is Santa (our fourth visit with Santa this season and not once have my delightfully naive children questioned why the big guy with the beard has looked different 4 times.  They just remind him that he already knows what they want.)   I remember meeting this Santa several years ago at Golden Corral.  He sticks out in my mind because he is the Santa who told us that he will find us at Grammie's, but he also likes to let children know that he truly knows where they live.  He will leave a present or two at our own house to find when we return from vacation. 

In this picture, he is explaining to the kids that he does not make the Naughty or Nice List.  He actually has no control over the categorization.  He simply has access to the list.  He told Carl & Gretchen that it is up to them and their behavior to keep themselves on the Nice list.  They are in control of their destiny! 

After wishing Santa a Merry Christmas, we headed back to the Lego display.  It is one guy's personal collection.  150, 000 Legos!  So cool!!!

Then, we headed outside to walk the grounds.  We were especially on a mission to find where the popcorn smell was coming from.  Carl was obviously hungry and extremely whiny (which for him, means loud and dramatic... not fun.)  The popcorn only took the edge off his behavior and loud announcements that Daddy was hurting him (by simply holding his hand) and other fun out in public outbursts.  Gretchen continued to be her usual combination of Big Ken and Aunt Lila... she talked to everyone she met!  People love her!  In her best Grampie style, at one point we overheard her telling someone how to find Santa's tent.  She had no clue.  But, she gave them directions.  Making crap up.  Grampie was famous for that. 

I forgot the part of the tripod that attaches the camera to the legs, so I didn't get a ton of cool shots, but I sure enjoyed just walking around in the beautiful weather and enjoying them all.

 The gazebo with grape vines was beautiful!

 Normally, the gardens close before dusk, so I have never gotten to see the bottle house at night. 

Nearby, they had bottles on the trees.

After, we headed over to Five Guys for dinner.  Perfect ending to a great evening!

wordless Wednesday... retro Christmas tree edition



1975.  Aunt Joanne's tree.  Kenny is 2.  Big Ken's mustache... well, it speaks for itself, right?  Oops... not wordless.  Oh well.

on the first night of Hanukkah my parents gave to me

some underwear for my hiney. ♫

It is pushing the term 'ecumenical' to it's limits to mix carols and holidays and even throw in the word "hiney", which, by the way, my kids don't use. They still say "butter beans".  But, "hiney" fit better in the song.  Hey, a shiksa's gotta do what a shiksa's gotta do.

Waxed paper, lighter still on the table, 2 out of 3 dressed in Christmas clothes, underwear strewn about.  Can you tell we thought the first night was tomorrow and we'd be in NY? 

By the way, they love their underwear.  And... by the way... last year Carl got underwear for Hanukkah and to this day, when he picks one of those pairs, he tells me "This is my Hanukkah underwear."  So, don't laugh too much at the underwear.  Besides, I'm guessing 99% of you are going to find some in your stocking come Sunday morning.

Happy Hanukkah