Christamas Memories and Old Friends

I LOVE this blog! Of all of the things it has done for me personally one of the best things has been being able to connect with people. I have met new people and I have reconnected with others. One of the people I am most happy to have reconnected with is Toni. I am using her real name here, because I just can't think of her as anything else. Toni is an old family friend who used to babysit my brother and I when we were little. Then I babysat for her kids and a few weeks ago her daughter came to babysit for my kids. There is something so wonderful about that! But, even though I call her a babysitter I can honestly say she was so much more than that. Nothing reminds of that more than the holidays. When I was little, Toni used to take Shawn and I over to her house every year to decorate Christmas cookies. It is one of my most vivid Christmas memories, baking cookies, listening to Twisted Christmas, and watching Santa Claus (with Dudley Moore). I e-mailed her this year to get her buckeye recipe, because I have yet to taste a buckeye in my adult life that was as good as Toni's. A few weeks ago I made them with the kids and they were every bit as good as I remembered!

The other reason Toni is such a big part of my childhood Christmas memories, is because every Christmas Eve she would come over to our house. I remember being so irritated at my parents because they said they were going out for drinks with friends. In reality they were really going to their friends house to pick up our present stash. What a task that must have been staying behind and trying to get two overly excited to go to bed on Christmas Eve. Looking back I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. I thank God for bringing Toni back into my life. Especially during the holidays. Toni, I am so glad you are here!

This song always makes me think of you!

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Well we certainly got that ice storm and boy was it a doozie! My power has been sporadic for the past few days and the temperature yesterday was -6 degrees. Not to mention that with the windchill it feels even colder! The ice was so beautiful but also very destructive. Remember the tree that got hit by lightning? Well, it isn't a very lucky tree because it lost three more big branches to the ice. I think when spring rolls around, we will probably have to cut it down. I pretty much holed up inside the house on Friday and Saturday only venturing out to take pictures.

On Sunday we were supposed to have our Holiday Game Exchange, but we ended up moving it to a friends house because of the unreliable electricity. It was a blast, even though I couldn't find my camera and don't have any pics to show for it. We came home with Scrabble and a fun game called True Colors. I really hope this becomes a yearly tradition and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did!

Today I spent most of the day organizing the basement playroom. For those of you who don't know, that's all our basement is, a big playroom. It can get pretty messy, pretty fast. So, I wanted to clean up and "organize" before all of the Christmas toys come flooding in. By organize I mean throw away the broken toys or ones with missing pieces and designate some toys to give away. My younger brother J.C. came over to help me and we knocked it all out in about three hours.

Okay, I crack myself up. I promise you I had no pun intended when I said we knocked it out. But, it just so happens that J.C. did kinda knock Reagan out in another sense of the word. He was putting something away in the unfinished part of the basement for me, when he accidentally hit Reagan with the door. He was trying to shut it behind him without realizing she was trying to follow him in there. She must just be the exact right height because the doorknob hit her smack in the eye. It is all black and blue, and I imagine by Christmas Eve it is going to look pretty bad.

Doesn't she just look miserable. The poor thing! I am just dreading all of those Christmas photos with her black and blue eye. Oh, and you gotta love the fact that she wearing a bathing suit when it is FREEZING outside! I've heard of Christmas in July, but July @ Christmas? I don't know about that one!

It's begining to feel a lot like Christmas!

I must apologize for not posting anything too significant in awhile. There are a few reasons for this. One, is that I am completely wrapped up in the Twilight series. A good friend let me borrow the second and third books and I am almost finished with them. I cannot stress to you how addictive they are, if you have not read them please I beg you jump on this bandwagon! You won't regret it! Another thing I have been busy doing is Christmas shopping. I have been trying to do a little bit each day and I am finally almost finished, two maybe three more gifts to buy and I am done! My other reason for staying away from the blog is that my husband says I spend too much time doing it. He is probably right, but rest assured I am still faithfully reading what all of you write, I just haven't been as generous with the comment love.

Now that I have explained myself, I wanted to share a little bit of what has been going on @ our house. It is the Holiday season and we have been busy! On top of my parents move, we have had four Christmas parties, a school program (video below), and I did a cookie exchange with my MOPS group! I feel like I have a few days to breathe right now and then we are hosting a holiday game night/game exchange @ our house on Sunday night. If you live close by or are going to be in the area please feel free to come and bring a game to exchange, the more the merrier!

Wednesday was Reagan's last day of school before Christmas break and she came home with a gift from her teachers that she just couldn't wait to open. It was a snowman book and this little snowman in a box. Too cute right?

We have had a ton of snow this week and the girls just couldn't wait to build a little snowman. But, Jack was napping, so I couldn't exactly bundle everyone up and go outside. I did however throw my coat on and scoop up some snow with a big mixing bowl and bring it back inside. We then made this cute little snowman together.

The girls were so enthralled with him, as you can see...

But, they were worried because he was melting very fast. So, we stuck him back outside in the snow.

As cold as it is I imagine he will probably be there for a few days. I would love it if the snow stuck around for Christmas. Nothing excites me more than a white Christmas! I hope the weather they are calling for doesn't spoil it though. We are supposed to be getting an ice storm overnight, and I am worried. The last really bad ice storm we had was before Reagan was born and our power was out for two weeks! We had to move in with my in-laws to keep from freezing. So, the thought of being trapped in my house with no power and three kids scares me. Let's just pray that it doesn't get as bad as they say it will! Anyway, on a lighter note, here is a video I shot on Monday night at the girls Christmas program. Dee Dee is on the far left in the front row, in the pink fur coat. Her teacher insisted that they wear their coats so that it looked like they were caroling. She must have been so hot under those lights! Reagan is in the middle row, the fifth in from the left. She just cracked me up, and this video is just from the rehearsal! I tired to tape the program but I was too far back and my zoom just made it all fuzzy. I hope you enjoy! And I promise I will be back again soon, barring a major power outage!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com