The Christmas that almost wasn't

Occurring in the winter in the northern hemisphere as Christmas always seems to do, there are various ways our merriment is threatened each year.  Either somebody has a bad cold, the flu, a stomach bug, or the roads are in less than stellar condition.  This year we had to monkey with the dates of both extended family Christmases and even wondered if our Christmas at home would be messed up by the ill-timed xmas storm of '09.  Luckily it wasn't as terrible on Christmas Eve as the weather yahoos predicted, and we made it to the popular 4:00 Mass (had to show up at 3:15 to secure our seats).

We opened presents after supper on Christmas Eve.  Nate cheated against our rule of not buying gifts for each other this year by giving me this book 'from the kids.'  There's already a movie in the works.

Santa came and we opened round 2 of presents on Christmas morning.  Later, off to my folks' for supper and more presents.

This is a trellis arbor for their back yard.  I enjoy giving presents to my parents, especially my mom, to make up for all the years she was mostly gypped as I was growing up.  The worst year involved a last minute trip to the hardware store that scored her some generic Fig Newtons and mouse traps.  No joke.  Off to Nate's side of the fam the next day, where we enjoyed the weirdest Christmas in my history of celebrating there.  See what you can make of these:

 

Needless to say, it was a lot of fun!  Not pictured are the 'big daddy' hats and bunny ears all the 'kids' got.  I didn't ask these family members for permission to use these pictures, so there's John Doe, DeWayne, and Shaneequa (props to Michael for that one).

Christmas '09 is in the books.  As usual, we scrambled around in December trying to fit in all the decorating, shopping, wrapping, & baking.  We attempted to buy some stuff we thought our families would enjoy, and were blessed ten-fold in return with great company, great food, and more gifts than we probably deserve.

Merry Christmas!

Et Verbum caro factum est

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father." Jn 1:14

the new look

Here's A in the new shirt she picked out the other day, showing off her painted nails (another rare event).

When we were shopping, it took her aaages to look at every rack and decide which shirt she wanted.  At first I thought she might go for something pink or purple, but nope - zebra stripes.  She was also tempted by lots of garish long sleeve tees with annoying words or phrases on them.  Kids these days.  But what do I know, I'm an old mom-lady.  It's my job to find fashion trends of the younger set perverse and bewildering.  Only what I grew up wearing was sane.

Adrienne's transformation!

This morning Adrienne and I talked about getting her ears pierced.  She was due for a hair cut as well, so we decided to have a girl's afternoon at the mall.  Lately she'd been talking about getting a shorter hair-do and I put it off because I wasn't sure if it was a whim.  She insisted it's what she wanted, so we went with a bob.

 

And here she is with her new little flower stud earrings.  She handled the piercings fine.  What a grown-up kid!

The guys stayed at home and had some testosterone-y good fun watching Transformers. While at the mall we bought Adrienne a new shirt and she can't wait to show off her new look at school tomorrow.  It will take a while to get used to the new 'do, but it'll be fun to play with.  I look forward to more mom + daughter days!  Next, maybe pink hair streaks for both of us.

(blowing) snow day

Old man winter is sure letting loose on the midwest.  A couple local weathermen were wetting themselves over this storm, suggesting it rivals the one that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald in '75.  We didn't get a ton of snow here, but the wind is evil.  Needless to say, the kids are happy to have a day off.  We haven't had a snow day in a while.

Yesterday the van wouldn't start.  We charged the battery and drove to Midas where they said it didn't have enough cold cranking amps or some such gobbledygook, so we replaced the battery.  I don't like our dumb van.  It's always clunking and groaning, which those Midas guys say is a flaw in the rack, whatever that is.   Meanwhile, it's one of the Windstars that's been recalled due to the fact that it could spontaneously combust.  Something to do with the cruise control...the letter from Ford says to park it outside just in case (goody).  The dealership couldn't get us in yesterday, but we plan to get that fixed before we head to our extended family Christmas gatherings.  A fiery van would dampen our holiday celebrating a bit.

Tree Day '09

Got our Christmas tree today.  We've incorporated lunch at McDonald's into the "get-the-tree day" tradition.  Michael surprised us again with his crazy appetite.  You wouldn't know it to look at the kid, but man, he can put food away.  A double cheeseburger with fries wasn't enough.  He polished off a chicken sandwich too.  Michael's one of the shortest and scrawniest kids in 5th grade, but surely one of these days he'll start to sprout up.  Anyway, here are pics - two, because the walls are not really as red as the flash suggests, nor does the sans-flash pic do the tree justice.  Try to visualize something in the middle.  It's kind of a cute little cheap $17 tree.

We decorated it with some glittery silver snowflakes that I haven't used in a few years, and now I remember why.  I don't recall wiping them all over my face, but I may as well have.  How the heck??  But, as Demetri Martin says, "glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."

Facebook killed the Blo-o-g star

Bloggers seem pretty quiet these days.  Everyone and their uncle and pet monkey are on Facebook.  It appeals to me, but I haven't joined thus far because I honestly don't know if I can resist the temptation to spend even more time on the computer.  The 'net is already much more fun than laundry or cooking or scooping kitty litter without the snooping good fun of Facebook.  Even email is becoming passé.  Sorry to any of you who have to go out of your way to email me 'cuz you can't reach me on FB.  I'm a crayziee nonconformist, at least for now.

How do you cook a turkey?

Each Kindergartner in Nicky's class was asked this age-old question.  He came home with a booklet of their answers.  I assume it's kosher for me to share some of them here so long as I don't identify the kids (except my own kid, Nicky):

"You buy it at Walmart.  Cut it or something.  Maybe put it in a pan.  Cook it for a short time."

"First you need to shoot the turkey.  Bring it home and make it hot.  You put some vegetables all over it, and that's how you make the turkey."

"You put it in the oven and then you let it cook.  Like 3 minutes.  You get it out and let it cool off and then you eat it with, like, some fruit."

"Like, if there was someone that died and get the skin from them and put that on the turkey.  Cook it.  Serve it with mashed potatoes."

"You get one at the grocery store.  Cook it.  Put it in the microwave.  I don't know how long.  You eat it.  But I don't eat chips except on a special day.  But Thanksgiving is a special day."  - Nicky a.k.a. Dominic

"Make a chicken wing instead.  Buy 7 chicken wings.  Cook them in the oven for 9 minutes.  Serve apple cider.  Maybe a little pumpkin pie."

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

creature takeover

free cookies & a flat tire

I thought a little random act of kindness we experienced this weekend was blogable. On Saturday we took the kids to the bakery and had them pick out cookies (mom & dad did too, of course). A couple that was at the register had the clerk put our treats on their tab because "every kid should have a cookie." Five 'turkey' sugar cookies and an M&M cookie for free, woo hoo! Thanks cookie angels.

Then we ran a few errands. Nate took Michael into Great Clips while I stayed in the van with the kids 'cuz Zach was sleeping. After Michael's haircut, Nate noticed we had a completely flat front tire. Luckily there was a Goodyear on the other side of the parking lot so we got it taken care of pretty quickly. We weren't expecting to drop $125 for a tire this weekend, but it happened in a convenient spot (unless Goodyear employees throw razors into adjacent parking lots) and the free cookies balanced it all out.

gift idea

I didn't know what a gold mine of blog ideas these Catholic Online emails would be. Just got another gem today, titled 'What's So Great About A Goat?' with this pic inside:
After a brief 'What the Heck?!' moment I realized it's a charity idea, because a goat = a practical gift to a family in a developing country. But it's still kind of funny. Here's the site it links to, with other ideas as well. Now we have an excuse to give someone a pig for Christmas, just by clicking on 'Add to Cart.'

Didn't know Luke & Han and I had so much in common.

Angels aren't wimpy

Somehow I got on the Catholic Online email list. They recently sent a message hocking a book called The Angels and their Mission. I found some of their graphics funny.

Just say no to wimpy angels.Instead, angels are mighty warriors! So they proffer this 17th century image of St. Michael by some artist dude named Guido Reni as a more sensible depiction of heaven's messengers:Which is cool and all. We have this St. Michael statue in Michael & Nicky's room which seems to be modeled on Reni's portrait:
The trouble is, angels are spiritual beings, so it's not really more accurate to portray them in frou-frou body armor with swords than in a cutesy Precious Moments way. Which has me wondering...aren't there any modern artists making cutting-edge angel art? I don't think I've seen any representations that don't involve white robes, effeminate hair, and feathery wings. If we want to accurately promote relevant tough guy angels, they should wear camo and wield assault rifles and grenades. If I was better at Photoshop and the like, I'd try it out, but you probably get my drift.

Boo!

Nicky got some black fangs from one of his K-garten buddies at their 'harvest party' on Friday. Not sure why a vamp would have black teeth - maybe a really old decrepit one? We had a fun halloween. Nana and Papa were here to help us celebrate. We carved those massive pumpkins and Nana made chocolate chip cookies with the kids.Here's our crew with 3 recycled costumes and one rock star made up of some of Adrienne's dress-up clothes. At first, Zach wasn't sure what to think about this knocking on people's doors business, but he got into it when he figured out the objective. He was awfully cute toddling around in his bee costume.

It's the Great Pumpkin(s)

Copious innards await us when we carve these next week.
Pumpkin seeds, anyone?

A bonfire and a kidless weekend

We had some friends over on Friday for our first bonfire and backyard movie night. The event wasn't nearly as blurry as this picture suggests. Our friend Nick the eagle scout kept the anemic wet-wood fire going until my parents came over with some dry wood that ignited a welcome blaze on such a chilly & drizzly night. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens on Nate's homemade screen while my parents went back home with all 4 of our monkeys. We had been planning a kid-free weekend for quite some time, and it was niiice.

We did a little Christmas shopping on Saturday afternoon and then went to the Ordway in St. Paul to see Little House on the Prairie: The Musical which was not as good as I hoped it would be. I'm not a big fan of musicals, what with the whole bursting into song every 25 seconds. I think this one might have worked better as a play imbued with Pa's fiddle music. Picture taking was forbidden inside the theater, so Nate snapped this one in a waiting area with the twinkly tree lights behind us. I know...I've spent an inordinate amount of time lately writing of Little House related things, but it just so happens the musical was in town again and we didn't go last year and I wished we had.

Sunday we attended the feast for the senses that is Latin High Mass at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul. More Christmas shopping for the kids in the afternoon, and then we went to see Bright Star, a movie about the poet John Keats and his relationship with a certain Fanny Brawne. Most people would see this as a chick flick, so I was a bit surprised that the only other people in the theater were two separate guys who wandered in after us.

The house is still in order as the kids have today off of school and won't return home till later this afternoon. My batteries are recharged and ready to tackle this week's laundry and homework and hopefully we can avoid the H1N1 bug that's wandering through the area.

In search of fall color, sort of

We made our annual 45 minute trek east to Red Wing on Saturday, a tradition we established about 5 years ago to see the colorful autumn bluffs and do a little shopping. The previous weekend was cold and rainy, and this one was chilly too, but we decided to bundle up and brave the elements.Mother nature has been an uncooperative wench lately. The trees seem late to change color this year, so we took in a lot of green and a bit of yellow. There was some sort of art fair going on downtown, so we parked and checked out some of the vendors' goodies. Traipsing around in the cold gives you an appetite, so we bought some cookies for the kids, and this concoction - an "ultimate caramel apple" for Nate & me.
Here I am, everything right with the world when I'm ready to sink my teeth into a caramel apple dipped in pecans and slathered in milk chocolate. This bad boy deserves a close-up.
We poked around in some shops during the afternoon, then headed to our usual dinner destination, Godfather's Pizza. Nicky whined and moaned and didn't want to sit still for a picture, then came up with some bizarre googly eyes for this shot. Now, the Red Wing Godfather's is unique. They've secured our business every year by piling on the crumbly topping of their dessert pizza so amazingly thick that it sticks to your teef and the roof of your mouf like peanub bubber. Mmmm. This photo doesn't do it justice. And there you have it. We pigged out and went home.

Speaking of mother nature again, we woke up to this very early snowfall today:

Crazy. Crayziee, even. It seems especially wrong given that we haven't even reached peak fall color yet. The weather dude said our average first 1 inch snowfall is Nov. 18, so we beat that by over a month.
And just for fun, I'm throwing in this pic of the kids that Nate took last week. They don't generally worship the t.v. at such close range, but something must have piqued their interest in this mii's eyeball selection.

Pro Sports and Women's Health

I watched some of the Vikes/Packers game yesterday and saw their pink (or magenta as it looked on our tv) wrist bands, shoes, hats etc. in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Any kind of cancer awareness campaign is good, but it bugs me a little that breast cancer seems to get the lion's share of attention. This article says that heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. Heart health awareness seems to have picked up recently, though, and they have their month, too - February. Lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer; smoking being the obvious cause of most cases. So, we don't see sports guys run around wearing a certain obnoxious color of wristband that supports lung cancer awareness, because most people know the risks of smoking. Which brings me back to breast cancer - we aren't frequently made aware of all the risk factors. Breast cancer awareness usually focuses on promotion of screenings/early detection and such, while the fact that the birth control pill is listed as a carcinogen according to the World Health Organization and can increase a woman's risk of contracting breast cancer is largely ignored by the popular media.

Now to the most disturbing pro sports trend. The long goofy Milli Vanilli hair on some of those dudes. I don't approve. What's next, will they wire up their dreads Pippi Longstocking style?

And this whole thing with Favre - it's still so odd seeing him in purple (especially purple + hot pink).

And I never thought I'd type the word 'breast' this often in a post.

'Cuz I needed an excuse to eat more s'mores

Our new backyard fixture

September shenanigans

After dealing with our insurance company and two different contractors this past spring & summer, we finally got a new roof last week. We switched from black to grayish/brownish shingles. Supposedly they can sustain 110 mph winds, but I'll believe that when a mild tornado blows by and leaves them intact.It's just now starting to feel like fall. The kids were up to some new tricks this September. We always knew they had some monkey DNA in them (not from my side, of course) and they confirmed it by climbing our maple tree repeatedly.

Nicky learned how to bike sans training wheels, but the stinker always forgets to wear his helmet.

The minigolfer.

Michael, the phantom of the 5th grade. We had to make this plaster mask at home for him to take to school and paint in art class. Pretty creepy, no? Adrienne saw it and asked, "Mom, can I skip 5th grade?".