Pretty sure at this point Christmas is never going to end! On Thursday night we went to Ryan's mom, Judy's house for dinner and more gifts. She set up a "Wise man" hunt for the kids to do after dinner. To do this she turned off all the lights and gave each kid a flashlight to search for their Wiseman to bring them their gifts. Afterwards Jack made icecream milkshakes out of vanilla icecream and peppermint oreo's.
Last night we went to Holly and Charlies for burritos, margaritas and yes, more gifts! Dinner was yummy, Ryan started a fire and after gifts we played some games, including the never ending 10,000. Of course Holly won and the rest of us whinned like babies. The babies had fun terrorizing the poor dogs, but Molly took it.
Tonight Maddy and Christian are gone to see the "Glory of Christmas" with Ryans mom. So with two down, we're thinking about going on a hot date. Dinner with only two kids is a date when there's usually four. Especially since the remaining two can't repeat the things we spell!
Tomorrow we're venturing to the snow in the local mountains. My sister called and said she has snow at home, pretty sure our snow here is nothing like her snow there! Stacey said they had a big storm blow into Seattle, jealous we don't have that kind of weather here. We'll see what we can find tomorrow.
Lets start with photos of Friday nights Christmas dinner and gifts...with Ryan's dad, Enoch, Debra and sister, Amanda...Can't remember if I mentioned last last how Ethan Bug tried to sit in a box, but the box was too little, so he squeezed himself in it!
Next is the pictures from the cookie exchange on Sunday, as mentioned in earlier posts...
Next came Christmas Eve. We lounged around the house until 4 and then we got dressed up and went to Christmas Eve Service at Church for 30 minutes of Christmas carols and a quick message from the pastor.
It was my favorite one, the meaning of the candy cane. Then onto my parents house for dinner, music and gifts. My family is pretty obnoxious when it comes to jokes and opening the gifts, so it's always an amusing and interesting night.... The high light for me was my much desired Margarita machine!
The kids were so cute opening there goodies. We had alot of fun and I enjoyed having both of my siblings there!
Santa came bright and early to suburbia....bringing exactly what each kid asked for. The babies chased each other around the house on their atc's, while Maddy played restaurant and Christian played his new Wii games. My sister, mom and I made a huge southern breakfast and we ate and ate and ate... (anything to spoil Denice's diet!)
Then Christmas night, back over to Mom and Dads for round too.....The classic parts of the evening involved Dad....Number one being mom's new leash for Dad....photos tell best...
Second being when Dad opened the Espresso cups he apparently asked for. All of us kids were stunned...espresso cups? Dads hands are huge and expresso cups are so small, so needless to say we got great enjoyment out of teasing him for the remaining of the night about his masculinity...
Last, here's some of my favorites from the rest of Christmas night...like when Makenna opened a new outfit and decided she needed to strip down and change into it at that exact moment in time!
Oh, one more. My nephews are here from Northern California, Michael is 17 and Taylor is 14 and if I here the following words one more time I'm gonna scream........................................................AUNT HIPPO LEGS!
It's not so bad when they say it to me, but last night my brother said it and somehow just because it came from hs mouth it wasn't funny. Amazing how a brother can be so purely irritating even after 30 years!
Last night I made taco's. Not hard, but oh so yummy...
Makenna Jean was getting a little feisty over the chips and salsa, (unfortunately I had no margarita for her to dip in) and I told her she had to ask nicely for if she wanted any more.
So, from her seat at the bar she arched her back, scrunched up her face, raised her eyebrows, gritted her teeth and said, "N I C E L Y".....
We all laughed and of course she got more!
'Tis the season! It's been a few days because we've been so busy! To back up three days and answer my last post..... Our house is expecting again. Must be in the water!......... But, NO it's NOT me! It's Lady Julia, apparently she and the neighbors dog "JoJo" had a secret date and now we have one swollen Basset hound. Looks like she's do in February, just glad its her and not me this time!
Friday my office had our annual Christmas Lunch and gifts, which was really yummy. I had Cuca's cater, you know me and Mexican food. Then Friday night Ryan's dad, stepmom and sister Amanda came over and we did Chili and gifts. Again the food was fantastic as was the company and the gifts! After presents we played a mad game of Scene It Jr and as usualt the girls won! Pictures to follow later.
Saturday I baked my 6.5 dozen peanut butter cookies all day. Which was exhausting. While I was baking Ryan went to move Hol and Charlie into their new home. In the evening I took Hol a birthday cake, since she's a Christmas baby and we visited at there house along with some other friends from the past. There was another baby there, a 7 month old little girl and Ethan wasn't havin' that. He just stared at her like, "Um, excuse me I'm the baby around here."
Today we got up, enjoyed coffee and the newspaper together, made some toast and fried eggs and then I headed over to my mothers for a Christmas cookie exchange. It was so nice to be with just the girls and have a relaxing lunch and conversation. There was thirteen of us in all, My mom, Denice, Roxanne and I planned it together. We each invited 3 people and each person had to bring 6.5 dozen cookies to share. (It started out 12 dozen, but we did enough complaining and mom cut it in half) So needless to say at the end of the day I got to bring home 6 dozen cookies, all 6 dozen being different kinds. So at this point I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by cookies.......Ryan, Christian and Maddy just left to take a plate to the local fire house. Tonight my family's coming over for our usual Sunday night dinner. I'm doing tacos to make it easy!
Have news.....but would rather make you all wait and WONDER!
So last Friday I talked about taking the day off to bake. My mom and I spent the day in the kitchen. Here's some pic's.
Nope, this is not about Madyson or Makenna.... It's about me. I'm on my lunch hour and I just reviewed a phone call that made me proud, so I jumped on-line to congratulate my dad!
Today my dad landed a HUGE contract with Orange County!!!!! We're talking big bucks for a 5 year term! Dad I'm so proud that's such humongous news! To think your local independently owned store contracted with the State of California for another 5 years!!! Good job dad from your baby!
Ugh, what a exhausting day!! This industry really sucks right now, with all its guidelines and red tape that seems to change on a daily basis now. I'm swamped and get bad news on files constantly. At the end of a really long day, my boss (whom I've been calling scrooge) decided to close the office for Christmas Eve after all. Hallelujah!!! I'm so excited! I was ok with working that day since we do have Tuesday off, but, I was jealous that Ryan and kids would be home together getting ready for the evenings festivities... So, now onto the baking subject.
As if Fridays candy baking wasn't enough, now I have to make 6.5 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange I'm going to on Sunday, yikes!!! I was just standing on a chair rummaging though the cabinet above my fridge looking for Grandma's peanut butter cookie recipe. Unfortunately, I didn't find it. Why? Because that cabinet contains loose index cards with recipes on them, store bought cookbooks, newspaper clippings from the recipe section and even a few napkins with ingredients inscribed on them. (I'm going to try and email a cousin back east and see if she has it.) I wish I had had more time with her in my adult life to have absorbed her cooking skills, not to mention other things. I think about all those many times I spent endless days by her side trying to learn how to make something of hers, but the day always included stuff like, "a little of this, a little of that, a dash of this, a pinch of that" or my favorite, "yep, that looks just about right".
One positive thought, my girlfriend Holly is attending this same cookie exchange......Interesting.....Since she can't cook, well, anything except for fried potatoes that is.....so I have to admit I am amused at the though of her baking 6.5 dozed cookies :)
(Love you Hol)
Last night my son broke my heart. We had some friends over and were playing a mad game of "Mexican Train" and telling jokes, when my friend says, "It's so neat how you guys are always telling jokes and kidding around with the kids. You both are so good about interacting with them. I like how you guys try and involve the kids in as much as possible." It was a great compliment! Then he asked from across the table, "Is hell a bad word in your house?" I said, "No not necessarily." He then proceeded to tell a joke to us, Christian and Maddy. It was,
"What do you get if you mix a rino and a elephant?" Our response, "What?" He answered, "hell-if-I-know!" Christian immediately said, "Really where do those live? I've never seen one?" We all started laughing.... Then I said I'm dreading the day that one of my boys tells a "Your Mama joke...The guys in my office do all the time and it drives me crazy!!" Christian then jumped up from the table and said, "Ooh, Ooh I know one, I know one!" I was stunned! Tears came to my eyes, as everyone else laughed. This is what came next:
"Your Mama's so fat she saw a school bus driving down the street and yelled, ooh twinkie!"
At that moment, my heart broke! I now realize that I am old. My boys will talk bad about me and all of their friends mothers, with continous "Your Mama" jokes. How depressing!
