Christmas Rewind......

What a wonderful one it was! On Christmas Eve, Mike worked and the boys and I headed over to my aunt's house for a few hours to hang out with some of the extended family. The four of us celebrated and opened gifts after our feast of frozen pizza. Not that I don't love (and thoroughly enjoy) a houseful of family for the holidays, there is just something special about taking it all in with just my boys.
Christmas morning I was awakened at 7:30 by an anxious 6 1/2 year old telling me to "hurry up and get out here. Come see all of this stuff that Santa brought!"

We then headed to my dad's house for breakfast.

Around 1:30 we headed up to The Bay for the long weekend. The drive us uneventful until about 20 minutes before we reached our destination. Right before we got to the Gooseberry bridge, we hit black ice. The back of the truck started to fishtail and I immediately had the death grip on the door. First we hit the shoulder then bounced to the median (thank God that was there). We were inches from hitting a sign before we bounced back to the snowbank on the shoulder. The last bounce straightened us right out and we started heading north again. Somebody was truly watching out for us! All we could think of after was how lucky we were that we didn't end up down the ditch heading towards Lake Superior!

We had a great time at my mom's. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and eating as many cookies as they could get their sweaty little hands on.

We hit the slopes (well really the golf course) to get some sliding in. Colton tried out his new snowboard and was a natural!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family!

Wishing you all the best for 2009!

Dear Santa....

Dear Santa,
I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.
Here are my Christmas wishes:
I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.
If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.
If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.
Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.
Yours Always, MOM

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa for many years to come.

courtesy from the world of chain emails

Tagged.....

Sheena tagged me. The task is to take the sixth folder from your pictures file on your computer and pull up the sixth pic and post/describe it. Then, tag four other friends to do the same.

So here it is. My boys up at Grandma's house this past summer enjoying the pool! The ironic thing is, Sheena's house is in this picture!

I tag - Marilyn, Libby, Jaci and Tammy (now that I know you are back!).

My Boys.....

I really don't have any pictures of my boys and me. So, I bribed them with Tic Tacs and used the self timer.....

Saturday Night Lights......

While Mike stayed home dealing with the chills, body aches and visits to the bathroom, the boys and I bundled up and hopped on the school bus for a cruise around the cities to check out the Christmas lights. Mike's aunt drove the bus of about 30 of us. What a great time we had! There was lots of snack, conversation and beverages to go around. I do have to say, it just seems wrong to be enjoying a glass of sangria on a school bus. I did however get over that pretty quickly! Now, let me just tell you that many of these pictures are blurry. This has nothing to do with my consumption of wine (I kept that to a minimum) but as my friend Jenny told me when I requested some camera setting tips, "shooting Christmas lights is tough."

I was AMAZED how these people had their yards, houses, driveways, etc. decorated! There were bus tours, limos and families all cruising up and down the streets. Amazing I tell you!

We had a visitor hop on our bus at one point. None other than the Jolly Man himself!

This doesn't do justice, but this was the craziest house we saw on our escape. The man did tell us that his electric bill for the month of December is about $400!

I'm a classic gal at heart and love love love white lights. This house looked beautiful (in person).

Me and the boys stopping for a quick photo shoot.

A Good Weekend......

Thankfully my computer is back to functioning! YEAH!
Saturday was spent running errands and then we headed to the Swanson's to celebrate Bree's 1st Birthday. Poor Bree, she's the only girl in our group of friends. I have 2 boys, Jaci has 2 boys, the Smith's have 1 boy (with a GIRL on the way), Jill has 1 boy and Bree has 1 brother. We'll just say that she'll never be short a prom date!
Then I left my boys and headed to Kristen's for our annual White Elephant party. We've been doing this for at least 6 years. We always have great food, plenty of wine and some hilarious gifts. The standing rule is that you can't buy anything. Your gift(s) have to be something you have, you found, or was given to you. There are a few items that make their way around every year.....a Fiber Optic Bunny Rabbit, an Angel clock and some others that shall remain nameless.

Eating, eating and doing more eating at Kristen's. This festivity is so much fun that Jenny flew in from Texas for it!

Here's the crew (minus Mandy who had to sneak out early). Erica, Jayme, Amanda, Carissa, Robin, me, Jenny, Cathy and the hostess with the mostest, Kristen - seriously, she puts Martha Stewart to shame!

Annoyed.....

Back at the end of October we got ourselves a nice, new computer. She's a beauty. Until Wednesday that is. Something happened and I have no idea what, but I cannot get on the Internet. I get a message that says "Internet Explorer has stopped working." What?! Where can I get me a message like that so I can stamp it across my forehead when I want to "stop working"???
Thankfully my neighbor is an IS guy and is willing to check things out for me tomorrow. So in the meantime, I'm on our old computer (and I do mean old, pretty sure this is one of Dell's first creations) which is slower than slow, but at least it hasn't decided to "stop working. "
I hate computer problems....probably worse than I hate car problems.
Where is that bottle of wine. Kidding. Well, kind of.

Tis The Season.....

I really don't get stressed. I figure it is what it is and find a way to deal with it. There is one tiny little thing that comes about each year that does cause my stress meter to rise just a tinge....The Christmas Card Photo.
I'm not all about trying to get the "perfect" family photo. But I'd like it to look somewhat decent right?
I've already got the Christmas gifts purchased, wrapped and under the tree, but I've only just begun to think about what to do for the Christmas Card Photo. Do I just look through all of my pictures from earlier this year and pick one of those? Do I just include the kids? Do I include all of us? Where should we take the picture? What should we wear?
What do you all do?