It is over already?

It was one busy weekend, so busy that I started hating the holidays.
Saturday, we had a play date scheduled at my friend's house, she is still on maternity leave with her second daughter and I miss her terribly at work. 3 more weeks before she comes back.
D and A played well, except when they fought over the doll house. D was a gentleman and kept sneaking in to play when A would abandon it for a few seconds.
When my friend asked if I would rather bake cookies or dip pretzels in chocolate I didn't hesitate to answer.
D and A lost interest quickly. It was a perfect activity where the shapes of the output don't matter as much as our fiasco with cookies.
Daddy helped himself to the pretzels and we'll be adding this to his birthday treat list.
The kids got lollipops as a treat and posed, somewhat, in front of the tree.
They wouldn't stand too close to each other.
After chasing A down for a hug, Daniel was tired. He passed out in the car on our way to the Dr. He had some blood work done to see if his cough was caused by an infection. It wasn't. His red, white cell blood count was perfect. His chest xray also did not show anything.
This only leaves us with thinking his persistent cough is allergies. We have an appointment scheduled to see what he is allergic to.
By the time we got home I couldn't keep my eyes open, D on the other hand had plenty of energy.
At night we went to Ry's aunt's house. D was the youngest but behaved himself. He scored on gifts and we all had a good time. We left with a pajamad, belly filled with milk baby who couldn't wait to get home. I passed out quickly myself, as I was rocking D.
Sunday, started with church, ended with a 3 hour nap for D and mommy exhausted from X-Mas shopping.
This morning D gave the teachers at school their gifts. He was too cute handing out the little bags.
Only 5 days left!!

Not enough time

Why does it feel like I need a 35 hour day to get things accomplished?!
I have so many errands to run and some gifts to get and my energy level in this cold is pretty low, especially after work.
The biggest thing now that is making me crazy is giving Ry my X-Mas gift list/idea.
This year we decided to have a budget and get each other gifts.
Now that I think about it, we tell each other pretty much what we want and the other person gets it. Why not just get it yourself?
My family was never big into X-Mas gifts. The kids (niece and nephew) got one or two gifts and that was it.
Forget about my stories in Poland as a kid, because you were lucky to get candy that was tied on to the tree. There were no gifts, when you had to stand in line for 2 hours for toilet paper parents could not spend money on toys. We enjoyed putting up the tree on X-Mas Eve and running around with cousins.
We're trying to teach D the meaning of X-Mas but slowly losing the battle since he is the only grandchild on one side and the baby on the other. Telling everyone less is more is not working.
My side usually gets 2 big gifts and that it is. We have a budget for the kids and stick to it.
The Marron side should invest in Toys R Us stock because they pretty have purchased the entire store for D. He will be one overwhelmed child on X-Mas morning so hopefully opening presents from my family on X-Mas Eve will help things. He does need some new toys and maybe we can put things away and take them out so it will be X-Mas until his birthday. :) He will be one happy boy!

Is it weird that I'm thinking of Daniel's 3rd birthday already?
He got screwed last year when we were moving around (although we did celebrate) so this year I'm hopeful we can do something special.

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning we went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the North Pole. Wouldn't you know that the North Pole is at our church?!
It was so well organized that I think the mall Santa will be history.
The food was delicious. D had 2 pancakes, 2 sausages and 4 donut holes. Yikes! Poor Mrs. Claus had to lift that hefty elf.
We enjoyed some company with my friend and her two cute kiddos.
Here is Josh giving D hints and telling him "You have to tell Santa you want 1000 cars". It was too cute. Daniel was given a lollipop to keep him calm. He only gets it at church and this was close enough.
Everyone asked me where D got that cute shirt. It was from Grandma M and she got it at Gymboree.
We had a good time.

Daniel's Holiday Show 2010

Daniel's Holiday show was Friday and let's just say he performed just as mommy predicted.

The shaking of the camera at the end is Daniel running off the stage towards mommy after daddy tried to get closer to him to no avail. The Marron Clan is a bunch of criers I tell you.

Notice, the beginning he stormed in like a trooper (last kid) and it was down hill after that. Mommy makes it all better. :) He smiled and did all the hand motions AFTER but refused to move his buns off my lap.
I did hear from his teacher the words "Mama's Boy". Music to my ears.
He did great with Santa yesterday morning (video coming)! 1 out of 2 isn't bad.
Enjoy!

Countdown

We have 15 days left till Christmas and we've been getting ready.

A fresh haircut with 2 weeks left to have it look just right.

Two versions of an Advent Calendar to count down the days till X-Mas.

What would I do if I had a stainless steel fridge with all this "art" that's on there now? I'd have an updated kitchen that's what.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Full update coming!

Check

Our X-Mas Card is done and mailed. I can't wait to frame it and display all of our X-Mas cards from each year. Yeah, I still need frames..

2010

2009

2008

It's been a great 3 years, full of new magic, that lost its way along the years.
Welcome back Magical Holiday Season!

Betty Crocker can bite me

Saturday we went to my mom's to celebrate her 58th birthday. You may remember I mentioned this last week, the only difference is that I thought she was turning 60! I don't know what I was thinking since I know she was born in 1952, where did my math skills go?
I'll tell you where they went, right after I bought a Happy 60th Birthday Balloon for D to give to Bunia, I asked Ryan, "if she was born in 52 and it's 2010 she isn't 60 is she?". NOPE! As Daniel held to the other two balloons, the one with the wrong birthday "popped". Well, Ry took a pen and happened to stab it a few times. It's still on my car floor. No damage done. I can't imagine her reaction to a black balloon with the number 60 on it. Only me!
Once the crisis was neutralized we enjoyed some pizza. D said "happy birthday, eat pizza" the moment he walked in the door. No shame.
My mom always wants a picture with the grand kids.
We got her a new camera since the woman was walking around with FILM in her camera and the camera was the size of her head. 20 minutes of teaching her to use it and she took a few pics. Now to teach her the other 500 functions.
We moved into the dining room for some cheesecake and ice cream.
Daniel always moves into my parents' bedroom to play with their clock. Everyone follows him like ducklings and before you know it everyone is sitting on the bed making him say things.
It was a great time.
Happy Birthday Bunia!!!!
Sunday we attempted to build a snowman but the snow was not sticking. We have 3 carrots, 3 sets of eyes waiting for it. We'll wait for the next snow fall. It was so darn cold and with D's cough still lingering our attempt wasn't that great.
Instead we hit the mall to buy D the rest of his presents for X-Mas. 3 of which daddy opened for him! Yeah! Next year, mall by myself.
D enjoying 2 of his gifts.
Later after enjoying our lit homes
I decided to make some sugar cookies with D. I didn't have a recipe so I bought one.
we pressed the dough into my new X-Mas tin
and watched as they grew and eventually deflated in the oven.
What happened next can only be described as one big nightmare.
I tried to use the icing I bought and sprinkles but nothing was holding. The shape of the cookies came out all weird and my abilities to maneuver the icing bag was just a joke.
D didn't seem to mind
as he devoured 2 cookies and wanted a third!
He confirmed that Grandma makes better cookies.
Yes, but can she make killer spaghetti with meatballs that my boys fight over?! Jury is out.
4 cookies were consumed and 8 were recycled.
You can see how the cookies in the tin have collapsed.
I'll stick to the other 10000 things I know how to do better than bake.
For sale: 1 tin with X-Mas cookie shapes...$.50
Betty Crocker sprinkles: 3 different kind because I had to have the perfect tree, wreath and stocking cookies...$.25
1 bag of cream cheese icing, slightly used....$.15