Pages

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I'm Dreaming of a Whiiiiiiite Christmas.....

Alright, Bing. I know you're from the area, but there was nothing white about Christmas this year. Sorry, ya ol' crooner.

I don't know what Christmas is like for the rest of you, but around here, it's a bit crazy. Christmas Eve is when most of Jeremy's immediate family get together for dinner and a gift exchange. I say most because there are a couple brothers who just don't believe in family anymore, and a couple more siblings who live on the other side of the state near their mother. Anyway. Despite a few siblings missing, Christmas eve still involves about 25 people. Christmas day involves extended family. Most of the immediate family members don't attend this due to various reasons. This year, Christmas day was only about 37 people. Not quite like two years ago when the number was closer to 60.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't really want to talk about the Christmas Eve and Day happenings yet, because I haven't loaded those pics from Jeremy's phone yet. I also have to pester some siblings for pics.

So, the week before Christmas then, shall we? :)

One week before Christmas, and before my PixyChick was excused from school for winter break, her class performed a little Christmas concert. She's so cute. She's also the shortest in class, and her teacher stuck her in the back row! I couldn't see her when the teacher was talking until the teacher heard me whisper and pointed her out. It's a fairly small classroom. lol

See her? All the way at the end.
Photobucket
Photobucket

Bear seemed to enjoy the performance.
Photobucket

So did Miss Potato. She sang along, and munched crackers I brought along to appease her.
Photobucket

This is probably the best video I took. I'm a shaker.


There were also lots of nummy snacks, and some super funky punch afterwards. I still can't decide if I liked the punch or not. It was funky, and it had ice cream in it. I think French Vanilla. Maybe that's what made the funk?
Photobucket
Uh, that MtnDew is mine, not the kids. ;)

We drove cross state to pick up Bug on Saturday. The pass was blessedly easy. It's kind of ridiculous how easy it was. This December is so much different than last year.
Photobucket

Seriously, what the farck? There were however some very cool ice formations thanks to the freezing temperatures.
Photobucket

We decorated the tree.
Photobucket

It sparkles.


My baby also has taken to the fascination of baby dolls. Which means, she changes her baby dolls. Such a sweetie!
Photobucket

Oh, and just for our winter wonderland comparison....
December 18, 2008
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

December 29, 2009
Photobucket

Just look at all that bloomin' foliage! Ok, it's not blooming, but it's still pretty dang green.

I'm going to end this post with the closest thing I got to a White Christmas... a very cool card from my Great Aunt Sylvia and Great Uncle Bob. Pretty cool people, if you ask me.
Photobucket

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Such Little Effort for So Much Meaning

Photobucket
This holiday season, we have alot of service members overseas away from their families. Some will be missing a first Christmas for their little one. Some will be missing a last Christmas for an elderly or ailing loved one. For some this will be their first Christmas away. For others, this may be their 9th Christmas away from home.

Almost everybody has some sort of connection to somebody in the military. You may be a dependent of a military member. You may be a coworker of a dependent. You may be a friend of a friend of a cousin. But the connection is there.

So, if you can, and would like to show a little Christmas spirit with some patriotic appreciation, consider sending a Christmas/Chanukah/Holiday/Seasons Greetings card to the following address.

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20307

If you want to take it a step further, there are ways of finding out how you can ship cards and care packages to military personnel currently deployed overseas. Try contacting your local base, post, or fort. Also, local papers generally have this information or a way to get it. With so many friends in the military, I know they really do appreciate receiving these kind of gestures when they are so far from home.

Ok, back to your day, folks. Thanks for reading!! :D

It's Beginning to Feel a Bit like Christmas....

To be quite honest, I just haven't been really feeling geared up for Christmas. Actually, it seems most the people I know aren't really feeling it this year. Maybe it's the economy and tough times for all. Maybe it's the weather. Gray skies bringing mostly rain or falling slush isn't exactly a winter wonderland spectacular. I know for me, part of the problem is where I live. This apartment is so tiny and so much of my life is still packed in boxes. There isn't really room to decorate like I love to. Amazingly though, after a serious reorganization of inventory into more uniformly sized boxes, I have freed up an entire wall that was just boxes upon boxes of stuff!
As a reward, and motivation, my faux tree loving boyfriend bought me a REAL tree!! I'm so bloody happy about this. Fake trees bum me out. I miss the pine smell that fills my home. I'd rather sweep and vacuum needles than spend a couple hours fluffing plastic. We are waiting to decorate it until Bug is over here for the holiday season. This means Saturday night! Woohoo! But I will share a pic of my naked tree, cause I'm just so dang nabbed excited to have it.
Photobucket

This last weekend, Bug, Pix, and Bear spent their weekend at large family Christmas/December birthday bash. Bear's hair was getting a little long, which means plenty of curls. It seems every time his hair reaches this stage, my ex-husband and his folks decide Bear needs his hair cut. Out come the clippers, no more curl, and no more of the length on top I keep trying to get! My Bear loves to have his hair slicked back and gelled. So before his dad picked him, I pulled out the clippers. He's so good holding still... mostly. Curls are such a hassle to cut, but better me than them!! I also gelled his hair, which I think they hate. lol
Photobucket

Now they are talking about giving my Pixy a pixie cut!! They want to see if it'll make that baby hair grow in thicker. IT WON'T!! She has my hair. I kept my hair short when I was younger, and it never grew in thicker until after I had Bug. If they cut her hair to a pixie close cut, it's going to take freaking forever. I told my ex if she comes back with close cut, somebody is in some seriously deep mess. I'll even have the custody papers written up preventing any future mishaps, if I have to. Extreme? Maybe. But so is a pixie cut on a girl who loves to play with different hair styles.
Ok, sorry, had to get that rant out.

When Ex dropped off the kids, I tried to get a pic of all 4 of them for me to have printed and shipped out with the holiday cards. This was the best one. Boys! Argh.
Photobucket

Of course, there's always the silly faces pose.
Photobucket

It was kind of snowing when I was taking pics of the kids. It had been wavering in and out all of Sunday. It finally picked up some steam, and started sticking after the Ex and Bug left for home.
Photobucket

Unfortunately, the snow didn't stick around for us, and the rain shooed it away by morning. Growing up on the other side of the state, I have to laugh when this side of the state shuts down at an inch of snow. But yesterday there was only 1/2 an inch, so it was two hour delays for nearly all the school districts, except two. My daughter is in one that ran on time. Whoohoo!! Can you believe Seattle's new plan to deal with a major snow storm still leaves parts of the city essentially shut down and snowed in? How insane is that?

It's supposed to rain the next 10 days. Merry Gloomy Christmas. Where's my SNOW??? Oh, right, it's in the mountains.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Sweet Passion Spice Giveaway

I know this isn't particularly vintage, or part of my current daily life, but it just seemed to useful not to share!

Over at TicTacDough there is a giveaway featuring Passion Spice. Passion Spice is a sweet little company that offers maternity lingerie styled in a more alluring fashion than what you may find elsewhere. They have lingerie perfect for accenting the full swell of your glowing figure. The nursing bras are so pretty, and functionable, how could you not feel better just wearing one. Well, much more so than most those plain, frilless, solid colored bras most places offer. *nose crinkle*

Now, I know some of you gals are done having kids. But maybe you know somebody who isn't, or hasn't even started yet. What a great, and affordable, product this would be to point them towards! I have definetly saved the site to my favorites. Never know if that last seat in the minivan may get filled someday. I'm such a lingerie fanatic.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Follicle Frolicking

Today, I discovered my Potato now has hair long enough for side piggy tails!!
Photobucket
I have no idea what this look is about, but it cracks me up every time. She is hilarious.
Photobucket

About a week ago, I was feeling like I needed a short hair day. I'm not ready to cut my hair short. But, thankfully, I have a wig I purchased a few years ago. My boyfriend doesn't like it. "Well, ya can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself."
Photobucket
Photobucket

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Fantasy Lights

This past weekend, Jeremy and I decided to take the kids to the Fantasy Lights display in Spanaway Park. We missed it last year thanks to ridiculous scheduling issues. But this year, all the timing for this last weekend was right on cue.

Sorry my pictures suck so hard. Hopefully next year I will remember to use the Fireworks setting instead.

The lines were pretty stacked, bumper to bumper.
Photobucket

Before we'd even made it to the pay booth, Miss Potato was clapping and Hooraying excitedly.
Photobucket

Another 15min and 13 dollars later, we were in line to route through the park. Pish. Just a few years ago it was only 11 dollars AND you got mini candy canes for everybody in the car. No more candy canes. *sighs* So, we dialed into one of several stations littering the airwaves with purely Christmas music, Jeremy moved Potato to his lap, and I told Bug, Pix, and Bear they could unbuckle if they liked. Which, of course, they did.
Photobucket
Photobucket

There were trains full of goodies, and giant creepy bears with disproportioned ears. Every year we debate if it's a bear or cat.
Photobucket
Photobucket

There's also the multi-tone blue and white tunnel of arches that rhythm spasmodically.
Photobucket

There's Santa driving a sleigh of reindeer, Santa commanding a pirate ship, and flying his very own plane.
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

Little school houses, Candy Cane Lane, and the disturbingly questionable snowman riding a bike.
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

The new display this year was put together by Bates Technical College. The land of dinosaurs! Don't ask me how it ties into Christmas. Maybe the T-rex pushing the stroller is babysitting a little baby Jesus hidden within. Perhaps the Triceratops is rocking out a soothing melody to lull him to sleep. You don't get pics of these two, but maybe some video later.
Potato had her nose to the glass for this strange display.
Photobucket
Photobucket

I really loved the snowflake arch. I want one of these.
Photobucket

I'd also love to totally deck my trees out like this huge one they did up.
Photobucket

And who wouldn't love some mischeivous penguins sliding down the igloo in their own front yard?
Photobucket

When we got home, it was even trying to snow a blip. That effort lasted about 10 minutes before even the snow seemed to deem the temperature a little ridiculous.
Photobucket

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Would You Like Music While You Wait?

Yes, I am just finally getting around to posting about Thanksgiving. Things have been crazy dealing with the He Said, She Said balderdash that seems rather popular this season. I keep getting in trouble for people making ASSumptions, and not bothering to find out the truth, or just plain not caring when they do hear the truth and prefer to believe the lie. WTF-ever. They can burn for all I care.

Okay, I'm done with that rant. I promise. For now.

Last Thursday Jeremy, the Potato Princess, and I made our way down to Olympia to visit his sister, Brenda, and her son, Bubbs. No, that's not his real name. Our turkey had sat in the brine overnight. The pie made from a sugar pie pumpkin and a cornmeal crust was done. We planned to cook the turkey at her place so it wouldn't be cold by the time we got there, though she lives only 40min away. Of course, when we got there we realized we forgot the roasting pan. Frack. So Jeremy and Bubbs made a quick run to the store for a foil pan, and some much needed soda.

While they were away, Miss Potato chased the poor cat around and scared us by slamming a snowglobe onto the glass top coffee table. Thankfully, nothing broke, and Auntie Brenda is totally chill about these things.

Eventually, the men folk returned. The turkey was panned, foiled, and put in the oven. Then it came. The music. The absolutely required.... RockBand.
Photobucket

The turkey took longer than originally thought it would. Those last few degrees creeped with agony, as Jeremy and Brenda looked on.
Photobucket

While playing RockBand, the guys began bickering a little about which of them MUST have been randomly hitting the pause button in midplay. Potato had them both fooled...
Photobucket

Miss Potato felt she needed to get her fair time of intrument play, too. But she had a hard time choosing which instrument.
Photobucket

She finally decided on guitar first. She was totally rockin it.
Photobucket

Then she moved onto singing. She does this, alot.
Photobucket
Photobucket

She finally got a chance at the drums after cousin Bubbs got up.
Photobucket

I did get dressed up for the day. Curled my hair, put on a skirt and blouse... of course, there's no pics to prove that. My boyfriend's fingers are broke when it comes to picking up a camera, I guess. I tried to get a couple pics of us together, but they turned out crummy and were deleted.

I feel so ashamed. The food was all so good. The turkey juicy and flavorful. The sweet potatoes scrumptious! Alas, I didn't get Any photos of the turkey, the side dishes, or even a prepared platter. *sighs* So, I shall instead, leave you with a photo of this bird, which I think is perfect to mark the end of a Thanksgiving evening.
Photobucket