Whew!

What an exciting couple of days! Christmas Eve and Christmas day are crazy for my family. I LOVE all the craziness and running around, there is just something about Christmas that makes me happy!

Every year JP's Aunt Pat and Uncle Honey have dinner at their house on Christmas Eve. This is when the little cousins all exchange gifts and get to play together. Tink had a ball playing with all the little girls. Syd is her favorite, they are six months apart and will go to preschool together next year. This is when everyone gets dressed in their Christmas finest and has time to sit and visit and relax. I always enjoy this party.

Christmas day is always a little more rushed and running between families. We got up early and opened gifts at home with Tink. My parents came over from across the yard and watched Tink open gifts. She took forever this year! There is no ripped paper flying like when I was a kid. Tink opens each gift hugging it and exclaiming it is just what she has always wanted, then stacking the gift neatly in a pile and throwing away the paper before opening the next. Can we say OCD???

After our gifts were opened, JP's dad came over to drop off gifts to us and visit with Tink. We then headed to JP's Mom and Stepdad's for breakfast with all his siblings and their families. We opened gifts there with Meme, Pappoo, Court, Chad, Racheal and Shelbi. After leaving Meme's we headed home to drop off gifts and run across the yard to my parents house to open gifts. I helped my mom make dinner and we spent the rest of the day there.

When we got home later in the evening it looked like a bomb had gone off in my recently cleaned house! There wasn't a place to sit or walk for that matter that wasn't covered with toys or boxes with clothes. It took us all evening to unpackage the gifts and get them put away. Tink didn't know what to play with first. I'm pretty sure she has no idea what half the gifts were that she got.

A couple of her favorites are her Chou Chou Baby "My First Tooth," a fur real lion cub, the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie (or "Chick-a-chick-a wa-wa" as my youngest nephew insists it is called), Cinderella's castle and a princess scooter.

JP got a Wii. Thanks to his twin sister, Court. Thanks Court! I'll never get him off the couch now!!

I got some new clothes, three new books including "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", some new snowmen for my tree, and gift certs for a mani and pedi and dinner out. We also got money from both of JP's parents, so we can buy a new tv (ours is ancient and everyone has a greenish tint to their skin now).

What a couple of days!! Today I am back at work. Yuck! Tink cried for me to stay home with her today. Oh how I wish I could have! Tonight we are off to look for a new tv.

A birthday card

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I just wanted to say thanks for all the blessings you have given me this past year. I promise to try to get to know you better in the upcoming year.

I hope you are celebrated the way you deserve to be on your birthday.

Love,

Me

This is why I can't make dinner anymore.

For those who don't know me IRL. I hate to cook.

There are a few things I can make from scratch that are great. Like my french toast, fabulous! For anything else I pretty much need a recipe for it to taste good.

I find cooking to be a chore, not something I enjoy. Luckily for me, JP likes to cook and is a great cook. We tend to share the cooking duties at our house.

JP was kidding with Tink last night and asked her what she was going to make us for dinner. To which she replied with a totally serious expression on her face "Princesses don't cook."

I burst into laughter. That's my girl.

I am going to have to remember this and use it as my new reason not to make dinner.

A weekend full of suprises.

I took Tink over to the Moore's on Saturday to play with her best friend Boo. The girls had a great time. They exchanged gifts with each other and decorated gingerbread men for our trees and also sugar cookies. JP joined us later and we all went out for Mexican. A fun day was had by all.

I found out the Moore's are expecting a new little bundle of joy this coming summer. I can't wait!!! Boo doesn't seem too concerned about the new sibling. I know she will make a great big sister.

Tink is very jealous! She is sure we need a real baby at our house. She promises to help take care of it and love it and she will even tickle it and make it laugh. I hated to burst her bubble, but that's not gonna happen. JP and I have discussed this, we aren't having any more kids. Not that I wouldn't love another baby, I love babies. If I could stay home all the time I would seriously consider it. I can't, therefor, no baby.

Our frog bit the big one, so to speak, this weekend. He was quite cute. We had him for over a year. He was an aquatic frog that stayed with the fish in our aquarium. (The last of the fish died in Oct.)

Tink has now ammended her Christmas list to include: two frogs, some fish, a new cat (our's died back in the spring), a dog that loves her more than Reese does and a real baby.

I think I'm headed to the pet store tonight to look for fish and a frog. The rest are not an option.

I know I'm on the good list now!

I just did my good deed for the year.

I work in an insurance agency. My boss has a good friend who owns an agency in a town about an hour away. I occasionally talk to the girls at that agency on the phone, we help each other with computer problems or such.

One of the girls called a little bit ago. She is in desperate need of a Wii. There are none to be found in the mountain town she lives in and the Toys r Us in my town had 3. TRU would not hold the Wii for her, it is first come first serve. Could I possibly run over there and buy one and she will drive down tonight and buy it from me?

Sure. I'm feeling the Christmas spirit, why not.

My office manager suggested I drive on up the hill to the mall and get us Chick-fil-a for lunch while I was over there. Sounded great!

So I did.

When I got there it was so nice outside, sunny and 60! Wow! It has been raining all week and in the 30s. I shed my winter coat and braved the crazy parents at TRU and soon had a Wii.

Ok. Off to the mall.

That place is a mad house! There is no place to park and people every where. I parked a mile away, but it was so nice out, who cares.

When I got to the counter to place my order I realized I had my umbrella in my hand and I don't remember grabbing it in the car. I soon had my hands full of bags and cups and go to leave the mall. It started raining.

I adjusted my packages so I could hold the umbrella upright. Half way across the parking lot the wind started. Like 50 mph winds! My umbrella flew inside out and started pulling me across the parking lot. Then the torrential rain began. Seriously. I was soaked from head to toe. I had river of rain running down my face.

So, here I sit at my desk. Wet hair. No make up, it all came off as I dabbed dry with my Chick-fil-a napkins. In wet clothes.

It's a good thing the food was good!

I'd better be getting an extra nice gift is all I have to say, Santa!

Our first Christmas party of the season

Last night we went to Tink's dance class Christmas party. It was at the local roller skating rink. Tink has never roller skated before, well not really. She has a pair of skates that fit over her tennis shoes that she wears around the house and spends most of her time crawling to something to help her stand back up.

I decided to put on a pair of skates to help her around the floor. JP declined skates and watched from the sidelines. We were a bit pathetic. I tried to teach her how to walk in the skates, hoping she would learn how to balance herself in them. She insists on doing things her own way and is sure you should roll on skates. This leads to her feet flying in all directions.

Someone thought it would be a good idea to give the microphone and dj duties to an 8 year old. Not a good idea people! Someone should be smacked for that! Every 10 minutes he would turn off the music to announce different things. Like couples skate. Yeah, all the little 3 year olds care about couples skate or fast skate.

What an evening! I was worn out when we left there! Luckily Tink had fun.

Dear Santa,

Everyone has been asking, well my mom and JP have asked, what it is I want for Christmas. I couldn't think of a thing I really wanted. I have finally come up with a list. I know it's a little late, so I thought I should let you in on it too, so then I'd have a better chance of actually getting it.

1. For Tink to believe in Santa forever.

2. A clean house. It doesn't have to be spotless, just cleaner than it is now. You know, the dishes done, the frogs tank cleaned, laundry caught up, vacuum ran, those sorts of things.

3. A full body massage. JP got me one of these last year. It was GREAT!!!!

4. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by JK Rowling. Love her books, can't wait to read it.

5. A mani and pedi.

6. A clean dog. Really, he could use a bath and his teeth brushed.

7. The motivation to workout. I could really use to loose about 5 or 10 lbs and tone my abs.

8. A new job!!!

9. Our house to sell.

10. Bills paid off.


I think that's about it for now. If I think of anything else I will let you know. Thanks Santa! Oh, and if you can't fit it all into your sleigh, I'd settle for a new house at the beach.

Lots of Love,
Me

Christmas card

Dear Bear living in the woods behind our house,

I just want to say thanks for making yourself known this weekend by leaving your footprints in the snow on the hill overlooking my backyard. We have suspected you were up there somewhere for some time now, but had no idea how close you would actually come to the houses. If the sound under the front bedroom window was actually you last summer, please don't come back into the yard.

I know I usually just let Reese out to run a couple of times a day, but since you have made yourself known I am keeping him tied up in the front yard when he needs out. I am afraid he will run into you when he makes his nightly round around the yard. Reese likes to bark if he doesn't know you and he is a bit overweight so I'm pretty sure he would tick you off and not be able to out run you or have a clue how to protect himself. Reese is not happy about being tied up and honestly I don't like having to go out into the snowy yard to untangle him from around the shrubs and rose bushes that he has wound himself around.

I have heard you like bird food as snacks, so I have also stopped filling my bird feeders outside, hoping not to entice you into coming down off the hill. The birds are not happy either.

Since I explained to Tink how she can not leave the sight of grown ups while outside, fearing that she may unexpectedly find you napping under the pines in the back yard if she were to venture out there alone, she has been having nightmares. She is sure you are lurking around every doorway or in every dark closet in our house.

I just want to say that I am glad you have chosen our neighborhood as your home, but really we would all be a little happier if you wouldn't come down out of the woods. Even if you were only checking us all out from the top of the hill.

I do hope you have a very merry Christmas, but shouldn't you be hibernating this time of year? Just asking.


Happy Holidays!!
Just me.


PS - JP is a hunter. You may want to consider relocating in the spring, I'd hate to see you mounted in my house somewhere. Really. He has been known to threaten doing just this. Just saying.

Holiday pics

This is our tree this year. I was tired of the fancy ribbon and decorations that I usually hang on our tree. This year Tink and I decided to make a paper chain and use it as a garland for the tree. I also found some white ribbon with red stars for the topper and the same ribbon with blue stars for the little bows. We also put Tink's collection of stuffed snowmen all over the tree. JP thinks it looks pretty silly, but Tink and I like it.

I sat Tink down to get some pics for our yearly Christmas card. This is what I have to choose from.

This is my favorite.

This is JP's favorite.

She was pretty tired and getting silly at this point.




These are the gingerbread men that we decorated with the Ware's last night. Tink and Miss O ended up eating half the ones they decorated. Mrs. Ware and I ended up decorating while the girls played dress up.

Miss O dressed as a fairy.

Tink and Miss O, singing to Hannah Montana.

What a show!!

I videoed it with my digital camera and didn't realized at the time that the camera was sideways. I can't figure out how to rotate the video.

I hope you enjoy this sideways version of "Best of Both Worlds!"

(They keep singing the same verse over and over. It's the only verse the Hannah doll in Miss O's hands sings.)

It's been a while

Sorry for the delay in posting. Things have been kinda crazy for me since Thanksgiving. I slept in a bit on Black Friday and went shopping at about 9, missing the crazy morning shoppers. Since then I have been keeping busy with Tink and taking her to dance class and play dates with her friends. I have also been trying to get my Christmas shopping done. Almost finished!



Tink's dance class was in the local Christmas parade last Friday. She is in the baby class, so they rode in the back of a truck while the bigger girls marched and danced. I volunteered to chaperon our class. It was COLD! It was only 22 degrees that evening. Tink had on so many layers that she could barely move. I kept her and the other little ones wrapped in blankets and they all stayed fairly warm. I had to keep taking my gloves off to put Santa hats back on the little ones, so my fingers got pretty cold.



I have also been looking for a new job. This one is getting worse by the day. My boss has just cancelled our Christmas party, apparently we are all unappreciative and undeserving of a party. I called him yesterday and he laid the phone down to have another conversation and forgot I was on his cell. I overheard an entire conversation about what all his undeserving employees could do to themselves. Wow. Very enlightening. Jerk! Seriously, I have to get out of here, this place is starting to drain the life right out of me. I sit here everyday wishing the clock to move a little faster so I can get home to Tink and JP.

JP is working out of town again, he won't be home until Wed night. He hasn't been home much lately. He has either been working out of town and only coming home on the weekends or spending time at the farm to hunt. We have all been missing him, but we are managing.

Tonight we are headed over to the Ware's to have dinner and decorate gingerbread cookies with Tink's friend, Miss O. I will post pics later, it should be fun.

Back to this crazy, busy life now.