Wishing you a very Merry Christmas! May the day be everything you want it to be.
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Category Archives: Holidays and Seasons
Christmas Eve
It’s here. The day before Christmas. I actually woke up feeling stressed. Can you believe that? I was thinking about all that I had left to do and wondering how I would get it all done. But you know what, I did.
We started out with a usual morning routine. Breakfast, playtime, some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Then we got ready to go out and brave the world of Target.
It actually wasn’t too bad. Not nearly the nightmare I was expecting. We got a good parking spot and were able to find all the items we needed. Easy peasy. Then we headed home and Isabella napped while I wrapped presents and watched a movie with Ceige.
When Isabella got up, we decided it was too nice out to stay inside so we donned our jackets and headed to the backyard.
We played soccer.
Isabella has always been good with her feet. She was kicking like crazy in the womb and as a baby would use her feet for all kinds of things. She was a monkey girl!
Then we got out the basketball.
Cj was teaching her how to dribble and bounce. She did great for her first go at it!
We also played catch with the football but her interest in that was short-lived so CJ and I played while Isabella drew with sidewalk chalk.
I didn’t feel like cooking so we ordered a pizza and went the easy route. Mmmm…I sense a new tradition forming…
After dinner we did our usual ritual of taking a picture with Santa hats on. We literally had to take 8 pictures before we could get one to turn out.
It was either blurry.
Or CJ looked drunk.
Or Isabella was looking away/blinking/messing with her hat/messing with her face.
Notice that I look pretty much the same in each one – abominable arm and all.
Finally we got one where we were all looking at the camera with our eyes open.
OK so Isabella looks pissed off and tired. Can you blame her since it was taking so long? Even Samson – who I wasn’t going to even try to work in – was sighing and groaning at the length of this operation.
Once we were done we each got to open one present – an ornament. We drew names this year because otherwise we’d end up with like 12 new ornaments just amongst the 4 of us. Oddly enough, CJ and Isabella drew each other’s names and Samson and I drew each other’s names.
Isabella opening her Elmo ornament.
CJ excited about his new Thor ornament.
And I got a little Christmas cupcake ornament. I think Samson thought it was real. He was really eyeing it…
After that and a quick bath for Munchkin, we all piled in the car and drove around to look at Christmas lights. Isabella was singing like crazy and I was able to capture some of it on video, including this rendition of “Happy Birthday” to Samson.
Isabella sings Dr. Knickerbocker and Happy Birthday
Once we got home, it was time to top the night off with everyone singing to Samson over a cupcake.
Yes, that’s a Hostess cupcake. I was ill prepared this year so on the way home from looking at lights, we swung by a gas station to buy Bailey’s Irish Cream and a package of Hostess cupcakes. At 8:00 pm on Christmas Eve. We’re so cool.
Speaking of Bailey’s, it’s time to head downstairs to enjoy said liquor mixed with the hazelnut vodka gifted to me this week, while watching A Christmas Carol.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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10 Christmas Questions–part 2
Ok, let’s try this again. The last time I tried to put together the remaining 5 questions, my computer crashed and got rid of it all. Bah-humbug. But, there’s always a second try so here we go…
6. Worst Christmas present you ever got – a used Dirt Devil hand vac. The bag was even half full of dirt! And before you ask – no this wasn’t an white elephant gift. It was an honest to goodness real gift. It was actually a couple gift for me and CJ. We even tried to use it and it wouldn’t turn on! Regifting fail!
7. Best Christmas present you ever got – the most recent one that stands out in my head is my Steelers blanket from last year. I friggin’ love that thing! It’s so soft and cozy warm.
From childhood I’d probably have to say my Cabbage Patch Doll. I think I was in 3rd grade the year that they were so popular. Parents everywhere were storming the stores to try and get their hands on one. I had a weird thing where I only wanted to have black CPDs. I thought they were cuter.
8. Most bizarre Christmas – probably the one from 2 years ago when we got a big blizzard and we literally had to postpone Christmas because no one could get out of their houses! That was Isabella’s first Christmas so it was actually kind of nice to have it be our little family spending the day in our jammies, watching movies, eating cookies, napping and enjoying each other. And then we got to celebrate with everyone else 2 days later when the roads were clear!
9. How many ugly Christmas sweaters do you have? None. I’ve never even bought one for a gag. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it. One year for work we had an ugly sweater contest so I took a red sweatshirt I already had and doctored it up but that’s as close as I’ve come. We’ll stick with ugly Christmas socks in this house!
10. Something new that you did this year which you’ve never done for the holiday – every year we try to make it to one new holiday event around town. Last year we went to SAC Museum on Christmas eve.
This year, we went and saw the Gingerbread House Display at the Mormon Trail Center. I had no idea what to expect but it was actually pretty cool. There were rows upon rows of gingerbread creations (not just houses).
Some were fun ones done by kids just starting out. Others were more professional and very intricate.
Here was a cute little pumpkin patch one complete with a working bonfire!
And this little fall scene was pretty – with the colored leaves, kids playing in the piles and a pumpkin wreath!
This was a whole scene of Santa’s village and workshop. I like that Santa is lounging outside on his chair as if he’s on the beach. I think the elves filling a bag with coal is a nice touch too!
One fun touch was a scavenger hunt! They had sheets of paper with various items listed on it that you had to find amongst all the creations. We found all but 2, then had to ask for help on those.
They also had a little play house for the kids and some gingerbread cardboard cutouts.
Ha ha! I caught CJ in the gingerbread LADY cutout! He said he’s comfortable with his masculinity so it doesn’t bother him. To be fair, I posed in the man one.
And then Isabella took her picture in both!
She had lots of fun running around the house too, and peeking out all the windows and doors.
All in all, it was a fun little adventure and I would recommend it. The detail on some of the pieces was really quite amazing. Makes me want to try my hand at it!
That’s it for the questions list! 2 more days until Christmas! Can you believe it? And I still have one more present to buy which means I have to go to a store.tomorrow.on.Christmas Eve. [gulp]
Pray for me.
P.S. Isabella totally cooperated tonight while brushing her teeth! She even said, “I brush my teef then mommy brushes my teef. That’s cooperation!” I don’t have any delusions that this will last but I’m happy for one hassle free night!
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You Capture: Festive
I haven’t done a You Capture in a long long time (like since September). Just haven’t felt like taking a lot of pictures – particularly assignments. But there’s something about the holidays that makes everything seem photo worthy.
My angle on this topic was to take pictures of Christmas trees from different and interesting, well, angles.
This is Isabella’s playroom tree, taken from above. I wish the purple had come through a little brighter but the lighting wasn’t quite right. Still, there’s something magical and mysterious about this one.
Our big family tree, as reflected in the mirror atop the fireplace mantel. I like the contrast of the modern spiral tree in front and the traditional tree in back.
This, my friends, is a bottle of home-made hazelnut infused vodka. A co-worker gave it to me as a gift. Isn’t that awesome and totally original? I haven’t tasted it yet but I’m thinking it’d be real good with some Kahlua and ice. Or just in my morning coffee. Would that be wrong?
And last but certainly not least, Samson asleep on his chair, in front of the tree. Yes, that is HIS chair. It has a special blanket for him and everything. He really REALLY wants to get up and snuggle with us on the leather couch but he’s not allowed. He tries though. He’ll come over and stare at me, batting those big golden lion eyes. It melts my heart. And then I send him to his chair. Sorry dude, we paid too much money to have you claw up the nice new couches. Besides, he looks super cute with all 90 lb.s of him curled up in a tiny little ball on his chair.
As I was getting Isabella ready for bed last night, she started singing “Police mom and dad” to the tune of “Feliz Navidad”. Should I be concerned that her first fill in words to a song involve calling the po-po on us? Whatever it is I didn’t do it! I’m innocent I tell you!
And that will do it for this You Capture. For more, head on over to Beth’s!
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Amazing
What better way to celebrate the holidays then to surround yourself with screaming kids and loads of carbs? I can’t think of one.
That’s what we did tonight. Our whole family – CJ, Isabella, my mom and dad, sister, brother-in-law and their 3 kids + a family from my parents church all met up at the Amazing Pizza Machine for dinner and “fun”.
As we were waiting in the lobby for everyone to get there, a woman came up to my mom and me and asked if we had seen a nun. At first I thought this was the beginning of a joke so I waited for the punch line. Turns out she was really looking for a Sister – her blood sister actually. The nun soon spotted us and came over, wherein my mom took to praising her for wearing her full garb out in public. For those that don’t know, my mom was a nun once herself. No my dad was not a priest. Guess how many times I got asked that question any time someone found out about my mom’s habit?
Anywho, eventually the gang arrived and we sat down at a table for 15. We downed pizza, pasta, breadsticks, fruit and cookies and then the kids started getting antsy. I can’t imagine why…
Isabella looks high – or evil. And my nephew Ben seems to be in a carb-induced trance.
Finally we headed to the machine part of the Amazing Pizza Machine. Isabella is too little for a lot of the stuff there but she did have fun playing those that only involved hitting a button. She figured out that the more tickets the machine spit out, the better so she got really excited with each one. It was so fun to see her get in to it. Made me forget about all the brats other kids running around.
Her cousins are older and were going on some of the rides and playing other games. She enjoyed watching them. She even helped her cousin Micaela play Ice Ball (aka Skee-ball).
By the by, Skee-ball was my favorite arcade game growing up. And not to toot my own horn but I was pretty darn good at it. I didn’t play tonight because I didn’t want to embarrass all the kids but I so could have kicked their butts.
At one point there was some weird looking dude dressed all in black giving me the stink eye. He gave me the creeps. I later discovered that he is a priest. Oops. Didn’t notice the white collar before. God bless us everyone!
Finally it was time to go. We were all tired and overstimulated. So we counted up the tix – Isabella had earned 65 all by herself! So proud! The only toys they had there for 65 points were junky so we just left. It wasn’t worth waiting in the long line for (or fighting off the redneck looking couple behind me).
All in all, the night was great – especially seeing Isabella so excited and having fun. And really, isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
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Team Trader Mom 