2008 Christmas Program

Our church had their annual children's program a couple of weeks ago and I thought you'd like to see a couple of pictures of the angels and Joseph & Mary.

Ice Storm 2008

I realized I never posted a follow up to my ice storm preparations. Hopefully I wasn't holding any of you in suspense (I'm sure y'all sat around wondering and wondering...does she have power or does she not). Anyway, we did have a whopper of a storm. We were very blessed and maintain power throughout the whole weekend. I must say that I think it is a miracle considering the state of the weather conditions outside. My new ice storm motto is....always be prepared. Even if you don't lose power it's fun to light candles and lanterns for a Christmas party.

The biggest difference between this ice storm and others I've watched from the warm indoors is that our ice isn't going away with this one. They think it may melt on Friday. They are predicting it to reach 40 degrees. I'm somewhat skeptical because it has been arctic cold here and now we have a bunch of new snow on top of the ice not to mention a small layer of ice and snow under our 1/2" of ice. We'll see if it's gone by March. Thought you might enjoy some pictures of our glassy wonderland. It has made some of us feel as though we are living in Narnia.

Yep, that's part of our tree in the road. They had to cut a big limb off so the snowplow could get through the street.

A Merry Open House

Last night we held our annual Christmas Open House. We started this when we were in Iowa with our neighborhood. We've expanded since we've moved here and now invite the neighbors, church attenders, and pretty much anyone else we know. We think we had around 80 people come through the house last night. We may need to go to two nights next year....especially considering that yesterday was perhaps one of the nastiest weather days we've had in all of 2008. People had to bear -20 wind chill, slick roads and blowing ice chips to get here. Taking pictures crossed my mine several times, but as you can see there are none. So you will just have to use your imagination. On the menu last night was Joe's fried turkey, BBQ cocktail wienies, chips, salsa & cheese, mini pecan pie muffins, brownie bites and mini chocolate chip cookies and a vast supply of coke products. I think Sara summed it up well "Mom, this party is AWESOME!" It was awesome fun and if you didn't make it this year then hopefully you can come next year!

my exurberant peparations

Well, I'm getting ready to eat my lunch and am wondering if I am completely prepared for the impending ice storm. The last ice storm I experienced was about 2 1/2 years ago (actually now that I think about it, I think it was only 1 1/2 years ago). In any case, it was when we lived in the wonderful great plains state of Iowa. We were in a job search process and anticipating that we were going to have to sell our house, so we were in preparation mode for that. The day that it iced we were painting 2 rooms--Nathan's room and our upstairs bathroom (a gorgeous red color!). As you can probably discern, I was not ready for the power to go out. My house was a big mess. Once it got dark it was somewhat of a problem because I couldn't find anything and I kept tripping over stuff. Then we packed a bag to go over to our dear friends' house (we miss you Gehmans!!!) and that was an even bigger challenge due to the big mess. So this time I am determined to be prepared. I have:

• done about 5 loads of laundry--it's not folded, but you can do that in the dark, right? It won't have to be done in the dark because I'm going to fold it this afternoon before it gets dark--hopefully!.
• completely cleaned my boys' room--wow! that was a mess, but very necessary! It does not feel good to accidentally step on a toy combine.
• cleaned the basement
• cleaned the girls' rooms
• cleaned the bathrooms. Have you ever tried using the bathroom in the dark and it not be cleaned? It can be painful to find the sink when you accidentally lay your hand on a hairbrush or, worse yet, your husband's razor! ouch!
• got out all the lanterns
• brought in extra firewood so we don't have to chip away at the ice on it outside
• got lots and lots of books from the library although we will probably spend most of the time reading The Tale of Despereaux--great book! We got it for the kids as an early Christmas present. Joe's been reading it to us all each evening and then we are all going to see the movie. (I kind of got impatient and read ahead--only a few pages--I started feeling guilty so I stopped....shhhhh....don't tell anyone in my family!)
• I know exactly where the lighters are and where the batteries are and I got the right size batteries this time!
• ironed my hubby's shirts
• have meals planned out that we can use for our gas stove

So now that I'm prepared it probably won't happen. Which would be AWESOME--no ice and a clean house! I'd rather have snow, but they keep insisting that it isn't going to be snow--it's going to be ice. The schools have already started dismissing and the sun is still shining. My last step to preparation--a nice, long nap!

Sorry to perhaps confuse you with the new blog layout...but they had some great Christmas ones and I couldn't resist...

Cure for the common (or maybe uncommon) December blues...

I have had the worst time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I had seemingly tried everything--put up the Christmas tree, play Christmas music, buy a few Christmas presents, watch Christmas movies, I even had a friend who bought me the cutest snowmen earrings, but, alas, nothing was seeming to work. However, this weekend, I found the solution and I thought I would share it with you in case you were suffering the December blues:

• Get a babysitter and surprise your husband with an overnight trip (okay, I didn't surprise my husband, but it would have been really cool if I would have)
• Priceline a hotel room--make sure it is a good one
• Have the hotel put you in the best room in the place (I know you may not have any control over this, but that's what they did for us and it was great!)
• Fish tacos at TGI Fridays--yummy!
• wandering Borders & going out of business sale at Linens & Things without a quartet following us around
• In bed asleep by 9:30pm--wonderful!
• Christmas shopping with my hubby all morning
• All topped off with wings at Buffalo Wild Wings--how awesome--my new favorite restaurant! Did you know they screens all around the restaurant with different football and basketball games--how cool! I made Joe switch me seats so that I could see the Purdue game.

And so, that is the official prescription for the December blues. Tonight I'm wrapping all those presents and watching White Christmas...

Random Wednesday

Okay so here are some random thoughts for the day:

• I lost my brush for 3 days. I just found it five minutes ago--in the medicine closet. Good thing I have short hair and am not picky about my hair brushes.
• I got a new pair of shoes today. Yeah...due to my, um, frugalness Joe told me last month that I am required to budget for a new pair of shoes a month. Evidently he looked at my shoe rack and took great pity on me.
• My son John informed me today that he does not know who or what the Muppets are...so sad.
• Nathan's favorite store is Sam's Club.
• Do you know that there are only 15 more shopping days until Christmas?! Yikes!!
• When my unnamed daugher does not put on fresh socks everyday her shoes, socks and feet really, really, really, begin to stink. This is now a required question for me every morning "Are those clean socks?!"
• Ashley wants to start her own blog.
• I'm having a big Christmas Open House in a week and a half. You are all invited. It is going to be AWESOME!
• I am listening to The Living Room Sessions-Christmas by Chris Rice right now.
• I think I'm going to have to get a new cell phone. Mine keeps telling me that my battery is invalid---whatever that means. Like I'm trying to trick my phone with a new battery or something...
• The other day in the car I kept telling Sara to take her hat off because it was going mess her hair up. She kept saying "but I'm cold." What kind of mother am I????
• Nathan is playing with about 200 pennies right now. Wonder how long it will take before they all come crashing off the counter and we get to play penny pick up?
• The Illinois government has evidently decided that they won't be putting much salt on the roads this winter. They've decided to let the winter sun melt it off. And they've developed a new motto for all of us "ice and snow...take it slow". They think the "green" approach is better then salt. Hmmmm, wonder what we do when it snows and or we have ice at night...
• It is time for my nap--yea!

two words I never thought I'd use in a sentence together...

Karen: "Joe, I think your bologna is burning".

As a side note...don't you think there should be a "y" at the end of the word "bologna"--phonetically where does that "e" sound come from?

the winter fruit

The winter of fruit at our house is.....grapefruit! Surprised? That is the one fruit that all my kids like and ask for (well, they all like apples, but they don't exactly crave them). And I can honestly say that I don't even put much sugar on them--just enough to cut the tartness. Here's some pics of them enjoying their afternoon snack.A big thumbs up from Nathan

Good to the last drop!

The must sees of the day

The girls wanted to be sure I took pictures of them today. Here are the things that they thought you must see:

Ashley is celebrating the fact that her hair is long enough to put into pig tails (barely! but they amazingly stayed put all day)

Sara pulled her own tooth at school today so it will be a little bit more difficult for her to eat all those wonderful Christmas cookies although I'm sure she'll manage.