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.