Christmas 2016

2 days till Christmas... I have cried every day for at least the past 2 weeks, knowing that it's going to suck. I just want to DO IT ALREADY and put this check mark on my to-do list of "things to get through for the first time without Dad." I'm hoping that the expectations are worse than the actual experiences; kind of like childbirth. (hahahahahaa. That was a joke because HOLY SHIT, childbirth was kind of like the 7th circle of hell) (But I'd do it again in a heartbeat because the reward is pretty freaking awesome).

2016 has been kind of a collection of AMAZINGLY AWESOME moments mixed in with pain unlike anything I'd ever considered possible. I had some of the best experiences, including a surprise 40th birthday party, a long-awaited dream trip to New Orleans with Patrick, a special 10th birthday trip with Corinne and a surprise trip to L.A. with Justin, and just so much joy, that you would think 2016 would have gone down as The Best. But then LTYM announced it was ending, a dear friend moved away, my child had some serious friend issues, a special little girl was diagnosed with a life changing condition, another special girl nearly died and continues to struggle every day, the Anti-Christ was elected the president of our country, my dad went through 4 months of hell before dying a week before Thanksgiving... it's just been a little too much Bad to balance out the Good.

I'm trying, though. I'm trying to focus on everything I have that makes me happy...

Evan is playing rock music on his electric guitar as I type, and that brings me joy. He's so talented and is really dedicated to it. I love to see him excelling in music. As usual, he continues to revel in his role as the family clown, and his jokes/wit have actually gotten me through some pretty crappy moments this year. One of his "Evanisms" of 2016: "Whoa, you put up a lot of Christmas lights! I guess you could say our house is pretty 'lit.' " (executed with an awesome sense of timing and tone.) I wish I had had enough forethought to record more of them as I have in the past, but life has just been about survival lately. It's enough to remember that his humor has helped me immensely.

Corinne has truly matured this year, in academics and athletics, but also in her kindness and heart. Seeing her grow into such a lovely young lady is both rewarding and heartbreaking. One of her greatest strengths is her generosity and understanding of what others need in a moment of difficulty. She is still our baby and is happiest when the entire family is home, eating dinner together.

This is Justin's last Christmas as a "kid." For years, I thought my focus this year would be on how sad I am over his impending adulthood status, but instead, I am just happy that the five of us are here and healthy and relatively happy. I am so grateful that he has found a niche of people at school and in the gaming community to connect with. Seeing him excel at League of Legends (it's a computer game that is an eSport. Don't ask me to explain it to you) was something akin to watching your child who played an outdoor sport for their whole childhood finally be recognized in public for their skills. I've yet to meet an adult who doesn't say to me "He's a really cool person!" Also, Justin is an AMAZING cook. Like, holy crap, how did we not know this about him? I honestly cannot stress how much pride I take in his culinary skills. I have great hopes for him and for our future family dinners at his house. :)

~~~

Wish us luck this weekend. My intention is to let the sadness in, grieve for him and send him love, and then to enjoy and be present in the moments I have with the people I love. Hug your loved ones this holiday season. Look into their eyes and tell them you love them - let them see you and actually hear you. Take the mental snapshots of the joy, even in the midst of the pain.

I am blessed. Merry Christmas to you all.

Alive and Kicking

I've been so quiet online these past few months... Not for a lack of ideas, just a lack of fully formed paragraphs, fully formed thoughts, and actual energy to complete a sentence.

Do you know how long it took me to write the above?

My pledge to myself is to "just write" again. It's worked before, and I have faith that it will work again. I am committed to filling this blog with literary crap, photo ops, and family fluff.

On that note, look at what I made:

I made a human who can bend into a pretzel, do freaking cartwheels on 4 inches of wood, and throw herself into the air while making it look effortless.

I MADE THIS.

I'm like a magician.

 Corinne is having a fantastic second season in competitive gymnastics, and continues to improve her scores, place high in her age bracket, and do it all with a positive attitude. I honestly don't know how we got so lucky to be her parents.

Speaking of being lucky, this year's visit to the tree farm in Leland, IL was everything I had hoped! All of us drove the 40 minutes to Indian Creek Tree Farm (including the teenager! Who was happy and enjoyed/moderately tolerated the family bonding!) and picked out the most gorgeous tree. People were happy, nobody cried, and it was just like Christmas Vacation, but without frozen hips or eyeballs and we remembered a saw (that the farm provides. But still).

It should be noted that, despite my convincing "lumberjack pose," no actual tree was cut by me. It was very muddy and I was wearing my nice jeans. Patrick and Corinne gracefully took one for the team.

Just mere moments before we slaughtered our fir tree. Awwww.... Memories.

Evan was with us, but kept doing a sneaky-secret agent-photo blur thing.

She still likes to put on the tree skirt and dance around...

Corinne in 2009, age 4. How is it going by so quickly?

Just another Friday

Just curled on the couch, dog on my feet, Evan is reading a Percy Jackson book and Corinne is doing math in her footie jammies. The heater has been pumping out warmth all morning long, fighting a valiant battle against the arctic blast of this December freeze. I wish I could travel back to moments like this. I wish I could see my 8 year old in her pink, animal-print jammies, sporting a crazy bed-head ponytail as she hunches over her math book on the floor and concentrates on her multiplication problems. I wish I could reclaim this moment of sweetness in my 11 year old's life as he reads quietly, instead of his usual, pre-teen habit of perpetually pushing my buttons.

Christmas shopping last night went really well. I found over half of the items on my list, meaning that my second trip on Saturday will only be 2-3 hours of speed shopping, freeing up the evening for a family activity. We haven't had a free weekend night in weeks, and won't have another one in many more weeks to come, so it's important that we do SOMEthing. Maybe another family cooking night?

I hope you all have a healthy and happy weekend. Don't spend more than you have or drive when it's not safe.

All in one fell swoop

December 11th and I have a grand total of 1 present purchased so far.

I'm not in a frenzy over this, especially since none of my kids have asked for anything special. In fact, when we visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops (because FREE PICTURES is how I roll. Also, he's s super nice Santa. Also, Patrick likes to look at the camping gear, over and over, and talk about the bags of freeze-dried bacon and eggs, so I occasionally indulge him), she wrote out a little letter (that I CANNOT FIND and am devastated over!) to Santa and said:

Dear Santa,

This year, I would just like to be surprised for Christmas. Anything that you think I might like would be awesome. Merry Christmas,

Corinne

While this is sweet and not selfish and all, it kind of makes it difficult to shop; especially when you don't enjoy window shopping. To top it all off, the other two kids didn't have very many "wants" either! I did manage to pull a few from Justin but Evan, at age 11, has been very non-committal about anything I have suggested this year. He's gone so far as to say that he really doesn't need anything this year... AGAIN, super awesome and sweet and not-selfish: AND IMPOSSIBLE TO SHOP FOR.

I think the real issue is that he is not a little kid and not a teenager and doesn't know what to dream of...

So, today, I will spend a few hours in my bed with my laptop and search the internet, looking for interesting ideas, finding good prices, collaborating my coupons, and plotting my crash course in Christmas shopping that will occur in the next few days. I want to get 90% done in one day (100% is pushing it; I usually need to finish the details on a second, shorter trip). I want to go alone, with cash, and a specific list and know my prices and not meander wistfully through the aisles. I don't trust the time I have left to the delivery services, so there shall be no online shopping for me this year.

I definitely need to remember to stop at the liquor store as my last stop.

Now, wish me luck: I'm going Rogue.

A little late to the game...

 Santa was very happy with the cookies and he totally forgave the fact that they were made with only brown sugar since I am so awesome at this whole "shopping for groceries" thing that I was OUT OF SUGAR on Christmas Eve... He ate about 8 cookies and then hit the Real Egg Nog that was in the fridge in lieu of milk.

All of the cousins were happy and healthy on Christmas Day (though not the day after) which is, in my opinion, all that is needed to qualify this as a Successful Christmas. The fact that they all received  their presents with polite responses and moderate patience levels just sealed the deal. All in All: A good holiday.

Penny's response to not receiving any new toys for Christmas...

I am so glad we are done having babies or else this would concern me.

Note to self: buy the poor dog a toy next year.

"Insert Creative Title Here"

The day after Christmas found me crocheting a second (and then a third!) hat with my favorite Christmas present: yarn.

Oh. My. God. I am getting old.

I am embracing it and moving on. (At least for now.)

Today also found me playing Corinne's new Sims 3 before the kids woke up. I just can't figure out why none of the younger guys liked my Sim! So I hooked her up with her elderly boss. YES. This IS how I spent 2 hours of my life today!

That said, I did do about 38 minutes of "real work" for Listen To Your Mother (have you sent in your piece on Motherhood for the 2013 show yet? WHY NOT?). Melisa and I chatted on the phone while I picked the new Halo Megabloks out of the remnants of the "Gooey Science" and "Make Your Own Gummy Candy" kits that my sister gave my children for Christmas. (Which reminds me: Be sure to give her daughter something horrifically messy/sticky/complicated for her birthday as payback...).

After all of that work, I decided I had done enough for the day and am eyeing my nearly finished, super fuzzy hat. I think it needs a rim. Or a flower. OOHHH!!! I could learn how to crochet FLOWERS!!!!

And on that note? Peace out.

New Traditions...

 Evan had grand plans for last night including, but not limited to:

Family Dinner followed by a Christmas movie and then egg nog and snacks in front of the Christmas tree where we would sleep under the lights.

I am so happy that we were able to match all of his plans. We even added about an hour of cards into the mix and wrapped it all up with a Christmas book read-a-thon before Mommy passed out first.

I sure do hope this becomes a new tradition for us because it was crazy sweet and fun...

 Where to put the cards and pennies for the anty when your dog gets involved in the cuddling?

 Answer: ON the dog. Who is named "Penny". Oh, the jokes that were made...

 That little girl kicked my ass so many times. "I have a Full House, Mommy."

 And the very next game, guess who had ANOTHER Full house??? (I swear to you that we don't stack the deck).*

My back is sore from sleeping on the floor, there are blankets and pillows all over my living room and I think someone's egg nog glass spilled in the middle of the night...

And I wouldn't change a damn thing.

*Right around that time, Patrick switched to Blackjack. I asked if we were "bad parents" for teaching our kids Blackjack and Poker and how to gamble. Pat replied that we were providing them with valuable life skills. And Math! Don't forget the math.

Ho Ho Ho, Yo.

 You know it's Christmas time when your cat and dog are stealing bits of candy off of a gingerbread house on your kitchen table...

 It's less obvious when you go to a tree farm and sweat during the walk through the fields because the thermostat says 65 degrees.

 And the trees we wanted were at the back! It's usually a long, cold walk, but it was GORGEOUS on Sunday and we enjoyed every minute of the day.

Even though we were sans the teenager because, well, he's THIRTEEN and tree hunting just wasn't as cool for him this year. I was mildly upset until I realized how much fun we were having withOUT him and his teenaged angst over searching for a Christmas tree. And then I felt guilty, but, well... C'est la vie.

The tree is UP and the kitten hasn't climbed it YET and the dog has only chewed on three of the branches and we still need two more strands of lights before we can put the ornaments on... But it's UP. So it's officially CHRISTMAS in our house.

And I haven't gotten a single present. Not one. Damn. Thing.

Hold me.

Christmas memories....

How do YOU pay for Christmas?

Anybody else breathing a huge sigh of relief? I mean, I adore Christmas. I do. But it's also quite delicious to know that I have a full year to wait before we go through that kind of overload on our senses again.

There's nothing quite like the Day AFTER Christmas, either, is there? Sitting amongst the shreds of paper that never got thrown away, my children have enjoyed the many presents that were showered upon them all. So have Patrick and I, for that matter. In fact, I got to watch him practically skip out the door in his handsome new sports coat and pants. He loves new clothes. :) I suspect that today will find us all in relatively the same locations; playing new games, reading new books, drawing with new media, wearing new clothing... We spent our Christmas budget well this year!

I will say that while I am still committed to using cash for a majority of my purchases, I diligently used the American Express card that I was given. I found presents for our loved ones at different stores and used the AmEx card to purchase them. I was never turned away from a register or told that my card wasn't good somewhere. And it was much easier to carry one card than a wad of cash, but with my wad of cash, I always know how much I have left. And this tight-fisted mom likes to be in control of that spending!

However, the temptation of a purse or wallet of money is a double-edged sword. It can be wonderful to KNOW how much money you have. But it is difficult to not whittle away at that money on $5 and $10 purchases that weren't in your initial budget.

I know that this poses a problem for some people (aka, my husband). When he has a big ole pile of greens in his wallet, he has a bit of a block on how far it will actually stretch. If you tend to have a block like that, then the American Express gift card would be a truly wise choice for you.

Next Christmas, try to take your budget and invest it into the card. You will still only be able to spend what you have budgeted but there won't have a pile of presidents' faces encouraging you to pick up a pizza or extra pack of gum at the gas station. What you WILL have is a card that is usable just about everywhere and the security of knowing that if it's lost, you can report it, just like a regular credit card! Check out their site for information regarding the rules on American Express Gift Cards. Start thinking about picking them up throughout 2012 for next Christmas. You'll be so happy you started early when the stress of next Christmas doesn't involve setting aside extra money.

Disclaimer: I received 2 gift cards in exchange for a series of posts on my views about the American Express gift card and rewards program. While I did receive compensation, all views remain strictly my own.

Ho Ho Ho TO ME!

Guess what I am doing?

Right now as I am typing this?

I'm writing on my new, fancy-schmancy, super-speedy laptop.

I am SOOOO out of the last century!!

Zip! Super fast!

I'm sitting on my comfy couch, not stuck in the computer corner, waiting for the dang PC to load up and drag itself through the tons of crap my kids have downloaded. I am watching the kids play their new Jenga game while Patrick makes crepes and sausage and Justin loads his new Halo map codes onto the Xbox. I might just take a picture of myself with the freaking webcam that's INSTALLED into the fancy skype-thingy-bob (I am still very technologically minded with my wordage, eh?).

This means that I can actually PARTICIPATE in social media AT the social media activities!!

I feel like a grown-up.

Heheheheh. My husband ROCKS.

Oh yeah. The kids and Pat had a good morning, too.

:)

But really? It's all about ME right now.

And peace and goodwill. That's kinda important, too.

Seriously, though; I hope you're all surrounded by people who love you as much as you love them. I hope you're smelling something delicious to eat, listening to the sounds of laughter and music, and feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all of the blessings you have.

If you're feeling less than joyful or happy; if you're missing the ones you love or have lost; if you are hurting right now? Please know that I'm sending you love, however far away you may be.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. Thank you for reading my blog and sharing in my life...

The Sounds

I've been privileged to listen to some fantastic sounds this year:

Finches chirping on the bird feeder outside of my kitchen window on a warm, summer morning...

My nephew's genuine belly-laugh as I raspberried his belly...

"Morning, Mommy. I love you," from the mouth of my stumbling, sleepy-eyed children, just before they begin to whine about not having ample breakfast choices...

The absolute absence of human noises in the "silence" of some of my favorite Illinois parks...

That delicious "pop" of the cork from a freshly opened bottle of good, cheap wine...


However, I believe that the most underrated but beautiful sound of this year was the metallic ring of our doorbell when my final online purchase Christmas present was delivered. Merry Christmas to ME as I am done shopping and wrapping and fully intend to just sit back and ENJOY this season!!

My heart is overwhelmed

Evan is amazing. He has found his "niche". HIS activity. His space outside of the family where he feels happy and confident and welcomed. When he won a free month of martial arts this summer, he wasn't so sure he wanted to even go ONCE, let alone attend on a regular basis.

And now? Now he attends karate lessons twice a week with joy. He practices his moves and is the most respectful, confident kid on the mat (no bias). When we watched him receive his first level above white belt yesterday, his face was beaming with pride and light.
His instructor is confident that he will rank up very quickly, due to his dedication and interest. I'm just happy that he has found an activity that he adores so much. I fully believe that this child has the ability to get his black belt, someday. Without a doubt.
In other news, our first Christmas party was a success! As the grandchildren get older and bigger, the volume in my parents' house gets louder and wilder, but it's always fun when we all get together; Especially when my dad has plenty of Franzia available.
Going through my photos from yesterday has reminded me to Take More Photos! Sometimes, I take pictures for a bit, and then put the camera away to enjoy the day more fully. And then I am left feeling a bit deflated because of the lack of ample shots to browse through. I vow to be a shutterbug this Christmas. Maybe not for every holiday hereafter, but this Christmas will be amply documented!Evan's going to make a great Daddy someday... He adores babies and little kids; and they adore him!
I also vow to make sure I am IN more of these pictures! (No gray hair! Thank you Nice n Easy.)

RAN.dum.

Dang. Has it been a full week again since my last post? Seriously? Well, shoot. Here's some stuff we did since last Thursday, in no particular order other than it is popping into my verrry tired brain:

~ Visited Bass Pro Shops to visit Santa and found out that the ONLY thing that my 6 year old asked him for was a "make up kit" which is the ONLY thing that Santa didn't know she wanted. Naturally. (FYI, Bass Pro Shops has a FABULOUS winter wonderland set up. Free pictures, free kids' meals, free games and crafts...)

~ Visited The Museum of Science and Industry along with about 40 bajillion other kids and their school field trips resulting in waaaaay too many children with waaaaaaay too little supervision and waaaaaay too much noise for my eldest's sensitivities. Especially since he was hungry. Never a good combination. Needless to say, it wasn't our best trip to MSI. Still, we played with our homeschooling co-op friends and the youngest 2 seemed to have a blast. Not a total bust, I guess... Exhausting? Yes.~ Fixed the damn lights on the damn tree. Again. And yet? There is still a strand that is out. It's in the back of the tree, though, so I'm pretty positive that this tree decorator is hanging up her gloves...

~ pinched my neck in a, ah, private moment with my husband. This resulted in having to move verrrry slowly for an entire day and then deal with a splitting headache this morning as a result of not moving all freaking night. Seriously, this "aging gracefully" shit is for the birds. Or it's at least for people who know how to be intimate without getting into awkward positions.*


~ Was featured in Mommypage.com. Well, that didn't really require any work, persay, I wrote that info page a long time ago. But still. I was FEATURED. It should count on lists of things accomplished. I liked to read it, mainly because I am super tan in the bio pic I sent them. Sigh... I miss sunshine.

~ Drove to Legoland! Notice I said "Drove to" Legoland and not "visited" Legoland. This is what happens when you don't visit the website and check the hours. You'll end up walking up to the doors as the doors are LOCKING. And you'll have some superbly devastated children who can only be persuaded to be Happy Little Elves once again by visiting the nearby Rainforest Cafe. Legoland is open for YOU, though! CHECK THEIR HOURS. They are all decked out for the holidays. (Or so I hear....)

~ Did my all day shopping extravaganza. It was everything I'd dreamed it would be and MORE. 6 hours of uninterrupted, child-free, shopping bliss. I say "uninterrupted" because I don't have a cell phone and couldn't be contacted every 45 minutes to see how long I'd be gone. I don't have a cell phone because I am way too cool for that.**

~ Lived it up with various other over-30 folks at a White Elephant party. Went there with some very cheesy romance novels and an unopened Security light and returned home with an extremely cool, avocado green party dish set. You'll have to see it to understand why I liked it so much that I made Patrick steal it.

~ Did the usual runs to and from karate twice, gymnastics and dance classes. Managed to not catch the cold that seems to be residing in every 9 and under's mucus membranes.

~ Answered a FEW emails, but truly, I am perpetually struggling to get on the internet thankyouverymuchJustin.

~ Was continued to be amazed at the brilliance of my children. My 6 year old who is reading Stuart Little. My 9 year old who is just ABSORBING the American Sign Language studies he's jumped right into. My 12 year old who informed me that he spent 2 hours on the computer, getting rid of some virus or something by looking for the directions on the internet. They're all freaking geniuses, and I absolutely AM bragging!

~ Smiled whenever I found a hidden message left by my daughter. I love that she uses hearts in her alphabet. It's such a sweet reminder that we're doing SOMEthing right in our raising of them...

*Don't tell the kids, though: I told them I must have hurt my neck when I was Christmas shopping for them.


**Actually, it's because I'm too lazy to pay a bill and too cheap to pay it when I REMEMBER, so my Pay As You Go phone just kind of gathers dust on my counter top...

All I've got for titles are Christmas song lyrics....

Still here! I'm definitely feeling the joy of Christmas but also feeling the pressure of lots of irons in the oven, too. That is how the saying goes, right? "Irons in the oven?" I wonder how old that one is. I mean, obviously, it's from the smithy days, but really, didn't they ALWAYS have more than one iron in the oven? It seems like a bit of a waste of valuable fuel to heat a fire up to hot enough to make metal soft to just heat ONE iron at a time...

I digress.

What with all this ironing and such, I haven't felt the call of the blog very much these past few weeks. Well, that's a lie. I've FELT the call, but I've always been pretty occupied with trying to keep the upstairs hallway clear of laundry (and failing) and stressing over the idea of doing a One Day Christmas Shopping Marathon for the first time in my LIFE. It's starting to freak me out a bit. We'll see if I spend more or less in the long run. Pat's betting on less, but I'm wondering if it will mean I may make last-minute changes to "The Plan" simply because I want to make sure that everyone we love gets properly represented (yo) on Christmas. This is where shopping with cash/debit is valuable. I can't spend what I don't have, right?

Shoot, I'm just happy that the Christmas tree lights have stayed lit for an entire day seeing as how I've had to fix them not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. It's like a festive lottery when I walk into the living room: will the tree be bright and cheerful or a darkened shadow of Christmas Yet To Come? Much swearing, a few tears and several threats of having a "lightless Christmas" were thrown about, but, thanks to my sweat and blood, we currently own a LIT and freshly cut Christmas tree (from the best tree farm in Chicagoland. Trust me. I've shopped around a LOT). The ornaments may be all jumbled from the jabbing of my arms into the branches to untangle unlit lights and the beads may be completely skewed from the shoving and pulling of said tree from the corner to the middle of the room and back again and again and again, but damnit!!! It's our tree. And the kids said it's beautiful. And we can AFFORD a tree and are privileged enough to have a family to celebrate Christmas around it with.

And that's all I could ever ask for.

Well, what do you know? I wrote a post. Heh. Completely unintentional, especially since I'm supposed to be starting my "online browsing" portion of the shopping program...

Still digesting...

Still digesting all that turkey, but we're into the full swing of Christmas over here including Lists to Be Made and checked (twice), halls to be decked (when not doing school or karate or gymnastics or dance classes...) and a marathon cookie-baking day that has filled my fridge up with about 6,835 calories.

Throw in about 300 daily emails (seriously! I am not this popular, folks...) and several inquiries for LTYM to be followed up on, and I'm feeling a bit bloated.

I need to surf the web but I have 23 minutes left to wash a crapload of dishes (yes. A CRAPload), brush my hair and get the kids off to karate. I think I need to play a game of Words with Friends first, though. Priorities, people. Priorities.

Things I don't want to forget.... And excessive Christmas photos.

The pair of "underwear"* with a pink fuzzy tail from my stocking that I unwrapped while our children looked on. I never want to forget the looks on their faces or the sharp gasp of my voice when I realized exactly what I had just unveiled before their innocent eyes.

Unwrapping box after box of wine and booze for the new wine rack that Patrick bought me. I was thoroughly thrilled until Corinne exclaimed, "Mommy really likes alcohol, doesn't she Daddy?!?" FABulous. Awesome.(Holding the undies and booze... I wonder what he had in mind for Christmas night? That is, before we had to deal with puking children and our own aching, sickness-filled bodies...)

The screams of fear and joy as the new Air Hog helicopters buzzed around our living room, narrowly missing eyes and picture frames. No blades are broken. Yet.

(He looks healthy, right? This was mere moments before the next picture was taken. I SWEAR.)

The fact that I ignored Evan's declaration of nausea and need to throw up at my parents' house. In fact, I repeatedly told him to "suck it up" and "stop whining for attention." After he puked that very night on OUR couch, I have read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" several times since. Trust me, I feel very little guilt for not responding to his legitimate stomach issues. That boy can whine better than an alcoholic at AA.(A better mom might have believed that he really felt nauseous, right? Yeah. Not so much with me...)

Watching Justin and his Daddy spend an hour creating their characters for the new Dungeons and Dragons game we got him. Oh, the things we do for our kids... (FYI, Pat is a Warlock. Justin is a Wizard Tiefling** and I am an Elf. We plan on taking over the land and kicking some serious mythological ass.)
Lying in misery in my bed in the days following Christmas and marveling over the fact that my children are old enough to exist without my immediate aid. It is AWESOME. They were slightly dirty and unkempt and I can't guarantee that they ate any actual vegetables or fruit for 48 hours, but they ATE and SLEPT and didn't get kidnapped. They grow up so fast!

Justin proclaiming (over and over) that this was the BEST Christmas EVER.***(1 out of 5 boxes of Megabloks Halo stuff that Justin was lusting after this Christmas. That boy has been building for about 72 hours straight...)This is the very last picture taken with my old camera!! See Patrick holding my new Nikon Coolpix L110?!? Santa totally listened to my cries of frustration over my old camera. Though my former camera was a great starter for digital pictures, it had taken quite a beating over the years. It barely survived the 5 year old who was also a 4, 3, and 2 year old photographer that tended to drop it on the floor. It also survived a husband who had it in his pocket when he jumped into the Canadian lake to save Evan and countless other unnameable misfortunes which led to the need to smack it on the table to turn it on, or shake it repeatedly to get the batteries to kick in properly. My new camera just TURNS ON when I push the button! No shaking required!! I am truly spoiled.
Corinne finally got her own big girl scooter! She is currently riding it around the house with jingly bells attached. It is quite loud and very... jingly.
Don't they look all innocent and sweet on Christmas morning? I love the magic of photography...
Take notice that my eldest is almost as tall as I am. Sigh... It won't be long, folks...


*I use that term loosely. Oooohhh, so loosely.

** Yeah, I don't know what it is, either.

***I have to agree...