Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ho Ho Horror....

Today was the day... the long anticipated, once a year, visit with jolly ol' Santa Claus. Time to climb up on his velvety red knee and rattle on and on about all the fantastic toys we would love to wake up to under our tree Christmas morning.

Well, ours went something like this... wake up, get dressed for work, car decided it needed some new parts and would not start. Thank God the hubby knows how to do these things and fixed it up quickly and saved us money doing it himself. (He can fix most anything! He's good like that. :-) A few more little incidents... then everyone is dressed with smiling faces and happy to be on our way to Santa.

We arrive to find a very short line... awesome.


Make it to the front of the line and there he was in all his glory... SANTA. He had the happiest smile and was waving to us. I swear, he had a magical glow and I wanted to smile and jump up and down  waving like I was 5. To my Littles... it was more like "Ho Ho Horror".  :-\ Abbie hid her face and would not go near him. Josh touched the seat of his pants on the jolly old elf's knee and panicked.

Here we have it.... the 2011 Christmas shot.... Santa, Josh with a less than pleased look on his face, and mom in mid "cheese', Abbie is invisible. (You know, now that I look at it... that little elf guy in the lower right hand corner is kind of creepy. Hmmmmm.) Sorry Santa. We hope that this doesnt mean we wont get the goods Christmas morning. We have been pretty good.


We have had the same Santa for the last 3 years. Another words, this is the only Santa the Littles have ever seen. Pretty cool. :-)

After the traumatizing event, we headed toward the reindeer carousel. After a brief reminder not to jack with the reindeers antlers... we waited our turn for a spin.





So they are not afraid of a shark, nor a taxidermied racoon that very possibly could have been rabid.... but Santa? Well, he is just simply terrifying. So this year, we visit Santa from a distance.  




Little goofballs. The "Cheese!' face.




I love them. 


After a short visit with Santa, we were on our way back home. Side note: Abbie vomited in the car (car sickness sucks - poor kid). A turn into McDonalds drive-thru for a Happy Meal, to once again be happy...and we were finally home.

Its okay Santa... I like you.

Can you hear it? Journey - "Don't Stop Believing"... *throws my hand up rocker style*

The gifts are starting to fill the space beneath the tree. (Thankful we are blessed this holiday season.)
So much to look forward to yet, dear friends coming to celebrate this weekend and a family Christmas party coming up!
Tis' the season for wonderful stuff....




Friday, November 25, 2011

Erection Day!

This is my favorite time... the last quarter of the year. With October's costume planning/scary movies/sugar overloads, then November's time for Fall colors/giving thanks/delicious meals/friends and family, then there is.... the magic of December. The beautiful end of a full year. The sights/sounds/smells and the smiling happy faces...and the anticipation of what that jolly old elf Santa will bring us under our tree, is.... electrifying.

We celebrate our Lord's birthday this month!

Today, the tree is erected. Yes, the enormously rousing "erection day". (Sounds kind of dirty doesnt it? Erecting the tree does bring me great pleasure.) Day after Thanksgiving the morning coffee is made, cinnamon rolls hot from the oven and Christmas tree trimmings brought down from the attic.



I love this martini mixing Santa.




The tree this year? Use #101 for a Pez dispenser... cover your Christmas tree in them.
(Got about 90 of them on the tree before my hands got tired of wiring them on.)




It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


Looking forward to friends and family, big warm sweaters, knee socks, late night gift wrapping, delicious deserts, Christmas light drive throughs, the annual picture with Santa, baking cookies and everything else that comes with it!

Most of all, celebrating the birth of Jesus! What a birthday to celebrate!





Thursday, November 24, 2011

I am thankful...

I wonder how many people truly are "thankful" in every sense of the word? Give thanks everyday... no matter who you are or where you are in life, there is always something to be thankful for, even the smallest of things. I am thankful and blessed in so many ways.

Happy Thanksgiving!



I cannot believe this year has gone by so fast! We are now flying towards seeing that old familiar fat guy in red.
Woo-hoo! The lights, baking smells, sounds and little lit up happy faces are a wonderful climax to the end of a full year!

Now its time to get the tree up and tune the radio in to Chrsitmas tunes (which by the way, the radio in my car  has been for several days before Thanksgiving hit... found by accident, I was beside myself when I heard the Grinch Christmas tune fill my cars interior.... one word... awesome). Oh the crafts, the baking, the gift wrapping, seeing family and friends... can I get a hell yeah?!

Speaking of crafts, my cousin in Washington crochets the most fabulous beanies/hats for newborns-adults (look for her on Facebook - "The Hat Rack"), she inspired me to try out a hat of my own... after several choice words and ripping the yarn stitches apart several times... two days later I ended up with one cupcake hat that my oldest is now the owner of. (My cousin made this look so easy! Well its not. She is just really talented.)


Tutorial for cupcake beanie found HERE 

Now I am off into the abyss of holiday greatness!
So very thankful...

First fire of the season.... love.



Monday, October 31, 2011

These things are fun and fun is good.

The month of October, is all about spooky/silly/sugar high fun! We filled our month with what else? Crafts, costume making and enough sugar to put us in sugar shock.

Coloring wooden masks... toddlers and markers = bathtime.


  


Made the Littles new blankets to drag around. His pirate themed and hers well, smiling breakfast foods? Yes, because she dances around ever so cutely singing "There's a party in my tummy...so yummy, so yummy." ( Except hers is more like "so yahhhmee"...lol.) This comes from the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, that shows smiling happy food dancing in your tummy. I think the writers of this children's program have been partaking in some uncontrolled substances.



One must take a break from crafting to refuel and redecorate the dining room with chicken noodle soup.

Who me?


The latest in hair fashion accessories.



Sidewalk chalk "makeovers".



After the makeover... gorgeous dahhling.



Halloween is also the time to break out every orange and black outfit you can! I love my jack-o-lantern necklace! It is an October wardrobe staple year after year.


And these heels... well okay, so they are not Halloween related. I bought them in October!
They make me feel super hero-ish. I love the electric blue color.



 Pumpkin painting...



Big sister supervising...




Pumpkin carving...






Biggest Little's Hello Kitty pumpkin and my Lorax pumpkin.

Speaking of Dr. Seuss's Lorax... check it out... this year's costumes.
I give you, Thing 1 & Thing 2 escorted by the Cat in the Hat!






Abbie was an old pro. This year, she boldly marched up to doors past spooky spider webs and glowing pumpkins to ring doorbells and say "Trick or Treat!".  Baby brother was not sure what was going on... but he quickly caught on to the fact that once a doorbell was rang, people would come out and throw fistfulls of sugary goodness into your bag! 



After a few doors and realizing they were scoring big in the candy loot department... they were quick to get to a door and to try knocking on it if no one answered the doorbell quick enough...lol. (At one point I had to tell them "No!" when they started trying people's doorknobs! It was the candy driving them to do it.)



After 2 hours of trick or treating, it was time to take two tired Littles home, clean out candy and scrub the blue from their blond locks.  Between the candy & the chocolate pretzels (What'd you think I was going to let a holiday pass without them?), we have enough sugar to keep us high for weeks!



October 2011 is done.
Next up... Turkey Day!