One More Thing We've Been Doing

Introducing...Frosty Junior! I wanted to go with something more original like Elvis or Stanley, but the boy wasn't having it. He insisted on Frosty and I added the Junior for a little distinctive touch. I promised we'd build a snowman today, and poor packing snow and blazing sun be darned , a snowman we (mostly I) built! I didn't promise it would be a large, grand snowman, and granted, ours looks more like a snow dwarf, but some quality time outside with my son was the man objective, and we definitely accomplished that. (Notice how thrilled Andrew looks to be holding Frosty Junior's hand-I think maybe he's catching on that some of my picture poses are a little cheesy!) Now let's just hope good old FJ melts before the obnoxious teenagers steal his nose or knock his head off!*
*The aforementioned teenagers have already popped our Santa snow globe and created naughty poses with our lighted lawn reindeer, so excuse me for expecting the worst! Unfortunately, I have no proof that it's these teenagers doing the dirty deeds aside from several sets of snowy footprints leading to their house across the street, so I must insert the discaimer that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty!*

The BUSIEST Time of the Year!

I have been MIA from the blogging world for the past little while because, well..because it's Christmas of course! There are family traditions that must be observed, school service projects to finish, gifts to wrap and deliver, etc. you know, all the same things you've been doing yourself I'm sure. Here's a little glimpse into what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks:

Zoo Lights-You may have heard the radio ads for this one-200 animated displays-over a million lights total! Not very many animals can bear the cold this time of year, but it is fun to walk through and see the lighted displays. The giant tiger and hippopotamus heads are among Bubba's favorites.

Sub for Santa-My 5th grade class combined with a 4th grade class in our school sponsored two needy families in the area for Christmas. I have done this activity with my classes for the last four years and to be quite honest, didn't expect much this year with the state of the economy and all. The kids surprised me to say the least! I had students taking back their own Christmas presents to buy for the children of these families. I don't cry much, but shed a few tears to watch my students touched by the true spirit of giving and the Christmas spirit demonstrated by the students and their parents. It feels good to be able to help give a family a Christmas where it wouldn't have been possible otherwise. I will ALWAYS do this service project.

Marchant Christmas Party-Ah the yearly talent show, nativity scene and gift exchange! Andrew did his fantastic rendition of Rudolph for the second year in a row. Why mess with perfection?The Marchants are good people and I am lucky to be counted among them.

Santa Claus-The boy got right down to business-hopped right on Santa's lap and made sure the old man knew exactly what he was wishing for this year. Then, hopped right back off and went back to playing. No lingering around, no shy smiling and watching Old Saint Nick like so many other little kids do. This is what I want, thank you and goodbye. Just enough time for mom to snap a picture.
Willard Bay Lights (plus cocoa and scones!)-It was our second year to head north and check out the light displays at the Willard Bay campground. A little cheesy, but worth the $9 per car to see the glowing pioneers and handcarts, nativity scene, Cinderella's carriage, Jazz bear, etc. The display is very Utah-centric and fun. Cocoa and scones were a bargain at only $1 each! If you dress for the weather the wagon rides are free!

Tomorrow we head home to Idaho for the holidays. I am excited to see my whole extended family and spend time with my sister and niece.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Happy Birthday Princess Rylee! (a little late)

There were a lot of goings-on over the Thanksgiving Holiday that I have not yet addressed, much to the chagrin of my sister, Hillary. She wants to know how I could possibly neglect blogging about our fantastic Black Friday shopping adventure, where we ended up on the news at 5 am, shopping at Toys R Us. I always knew my amazing shopping abilities would be the source of my eventual fame. My fifteen seconds have come and gone!

Most importantly, the weekend marked the celebration of my darling niece Rylee's fourth birthday. Her actual birthday was on Sunday, but the princess party of the year was Saturday at Hillary's "castle." All the pretty ladies came dressed as their favorite princess, and as for Andrew, the only boy favored with an invitation, he was their knight in shining armor. Hillary bought him this cute little knight costume so he wouldn't feel left out, and more importantly, wouldn't have to some dressed as his favorite princess. Should I be worried that he would have enjoyed dressing as a princess?

Andrew was so fully into his knight character, that at one point he laid down his sword and proclaimed, "I have lost my knight skills!" He loved being the hero and the party was a great success. Hillary had planned all sorts of cute activities around the princess theme, including pin the kiss on the frog and a castle shaped pinata. That night, Rylee chose Garcia's for her birthday dinner because she wanted to wear the birthday sombrero and be serenaded with Happy Birthday, Mexican style. She was all about it until the staff actually came out and laid the sombrero on her-then she got a little freaked out.
Little Princess Rylee was definitely in her element as the center of attention. I love my niece to death and can't imagine our family without her. She is a very smart, precocious and fun-loving little girl, with a huge heart and love of snuggling. Happy Birthday Rylee, Aunt Tole loves you!

Desi's Tag

I decided to take on Desi's open invitation to all readers of her blog to participate in a tag, firstly because I like tags, and secondly because I can't think of anything else worth blogging about today. So, here it is, the Six Things Tag, modified from Desi's modified version.

Six TV Shows I Watch: (This was a stretch to come up with 6, believe it or not!)
1-Lost (can't wait til January!)

2-Desperate Housewives

3-Grey's Anatomy

4-Top Chef

5-48 Hours (Investigates, Mystery, etc.)

6-Intervention (I know, Intervention??!)

Six Favorite Restaurants:

1-Tepanyaki

2-Texas Roadhouse

3-PF Changs

4-Garcia's

5-Macaroni Grill

6-Red Robin

Six Things That Happened Yesterday: (slow news day in my life)

1-We started our Sub for Santa project in my class at school-the kids seem really into it this year so it will be great!

2-I took back a pair of pants at Kohl's and found a pair of skinny jeans for Ari

3-I cooked fried rice for dinner

4-I went shopping at Wal-Mart for Davis District's Sub for Santa program. I got to buy $100 worth of gifts for a little three year old boy-I am an old pro at little boys so that was no sweat!

5-I went to Petsmart to buy a black light (see #6)

6-Bobby peed on the back of the couch (I don't know what I am going to do about this problem, but I am nearing the end of my rope with my diabetic, bladder-infected cat! I CANNOT STAND a stinky house and can think of nothing more repulsive than cat pee surprises!)

Six Things I Look Forward To:

1-The play I am going to see at Pioneer Theater Company on Saturday night

2-Wrapping Christmas presents

3-Delivering our Sub for Santa gifts to needy families

4-Christmas! Andrew's face on Christmas morning..

5-Winter break-two weeks=NO WORK! (I love my job but we all need a break, right?)

6-Seeing Wicked in April

Six Things On My Wish List:

1-Lose weight (lots of weight)

2-Read books (lots of books)

3-Be independently wealthy (not likely)

4-Travel all over the world

5-More time to spend with my family

6-See my best friend Desi more often

I tag Hillary, Kristie, Mary Jane and Judy. Let's hear what you ladies have to say!

Christmas Cuteness

Well, I did it folks! Sunday night I finally managed to finish getting all my Christmas knick-knacks and what-nots out of their boxes and hang them oh so festively around the house. I just love a Christmas-y house! I am not even going to think about taking anything down until at least the end of the first week in January-it wouldn't be worth all the trouble, unpacking, rearranging etc. if they weren't up for at least a month-don't you agree?

This is my first year EVER to have an artificial tree and I must admit-I LOVE IT! No needles everywhere, no cats eating the tree, no dry brittle, branches, no watering, and the best part of all is the beauty was PRE-LIT, so no fighting with DH over how the lights should go! I always swore I'd never have one-I always said a real tree is tradition, it's nature, you can't have Christmas without the smell of a fresh tree! Let's just say I changed my mind-HOORAY for fake trees!
(PS-The evergreen plug-in from Bath and Body is so convincing, I forget it's not real!)

Emma's Cool Book Tag

I accepted Emma's book tag challenge, and since I was sitting at home in the office/ironing room where we don't keep books, I searched around a little and found a book my friend MJ had given to me on my last birthday on a shelf above the computer. It is called, Better Than You Think You Are by Ardeth Kapp, and MJ so kindly gave it to me because she knows I have serious inadequacy issues and is always trying to get me to like myself. Thanks MJ! Keep trying! Anyway, I generally don't read "churchy" books (sorry but they tend to strike me as a bit cheesy), but this one had something really great on p.56, sentences 5-7:

"We came with enough, and if we do our very best the Lord will make up the difference. With his help, we will measure up; we will be enough to fulfill our foreordained missions as sons and daughter of God. We each do have a mission, a reason for being."

Well said, Ardeth. And not even a little bit cheesy. I think I just added another book to my "must read" list!

Now everyone go to Emma's blog, follow the insturctions and play-it's fun!

Declarations

1) It is December 6th and my tree is up but not yet decorated and half my darling decorations sit rotting in their boxes. Utterly shameful! If only the days were a few hours longer!


2) I just finished "brucing" my entire kitchen floor with my handy dandy Bruce-O-Matic (check it out if you have no idea what I'm talking about it's fantastic! I can't live without the BRUCE). My back hurts but my sparkly, pretty floor is well worth my discomfort.


3) I am experiencing agonizing buyer's remorse over the extravagant amount of pictures and picture cards I purchased at Kiddie Kandids today. (see #4) Please don't ask how much, it's too painful to say.


4) My son is the cutest thing this side of the Mississippi! (This year's Christmas card photo below as proof!) Come on, admit it!
5) Giving my cat two shots for diabetes and two doses of liquid antibiotic a day is a little exhausting, not to mention my hurt feelings since the cat now starts running every time he sees me coming. Poor Bobby!

6) I am thisclose (attention: DESI) to being done with my Christmas shopping. Obviously the shopping comes before the decorating in my book. A little backwards, but it works for me. Unfortunately, despite the icky state of the economy I have spent WAY too much money, yet again. I had resolve to be so frugal this year! I have no idea where I went wrong...

7) There are ten school days remaining before my glorious two week vacation. I want to get a lot of little projects done around the house but will probably just lie around eating bon-bons and reading all the books on my "must-read" list. Do you have any I should add?

8) I need to start some more Christmas traditions with/for my son. What do you all do on Christmas Eve/Day that I can copy? A few we have are that we always wrap up Christmas books and unwrap and read them on all the nights in December, we make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, open Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. Please share what you do-I would love to hear!

9) I liked Twilight, the movie. Maybe I'm silly but I even saw it three times. Yeah, the special effects were a little cheesy, but the LOVE STORY was intact and that's the most important part. So sue me.

10) I can't get enough of the Christmas music on the radio this year. They can't play, "Last Christmas," by Wham too many times for me. The video is classic and brings back so many 80's memories, like George Michael with big feathery hair pretending to like girls. Indulge yourself-you know you want to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZhoF9Isf0o

Age Old Question

Is it wrong to use the upcoming visit of a right jolly old elf to illicit good behavior from one's child? The last week or two, all I have to do is start humming, "Here Comes Santa Claus," and whatever whining, fit-throwing, potential tantrum that might be in the works ceases immediately. My son sometimes even apologizes and promises to be good! "Will Santa still bring me my Hummer?" Andrew will ask worriedly, after realizing that his behavior might have Saint Nick considering moving his name to the "naughty" list. Now, generally speaking, Andrew is a very good boy, and tends to mind most of the time. But still, I can't resist using the powers of Santa to exercise a little mind control. Cruel, I know, but it works every time! Besides, my parents did it and I turned out okay...right?