Better Watch Out!

Here is a little Christmas chuckle to share.

Though A is 9 and is well aware of the Santa situation, he is very helpful with Santa preparations for the little ones.

Last night when daddy asked him if he had gotten Santa some milk to go with his cookies, A replied "Oh, I forgot."

Daddy - "You better get some. You wouldn't want Santa to choke on his cookies."

A - "No.........................but I would have a whole, big bag of presents!"


Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Much love to those we can't visit with this Christmas.

Venting

So here is my first venting blog! Am I venting about the never-ending pile of laundry, the 5+ glasses of spilled milk last week, the weekly visit to get A's glasses fixed, the poopy underwear that I cleaned up this morning?!? (Okay, maybe a little!:-) ) Yet, the real vent is about my camera troubles. I have had this wonderful, reliable, point-and-shoot EasyShare camera for about 4-5 years, and now I can't take a picture without doctoring it so that it is bright enough to see. Here we are approaching Christmas, and camera-happy me can't take a decent picture. To top it all off, today, my EasyShare software decides it won't let me in to doctor for more than a minute before it shuts down. As I moan and grumble, I sit here in my warm, fully-stocked home, while the freezing wind whistles around my house and my beautiful, picture-perfect (other than a little hat-head!) children giggle over some hot chocolate.. Guess things aren't so bad!

SnowAlien

The boys built an awesome snowalien (He has an extra head behind Ki-Ki and Neil-te and an extra nose and eye.) with my mother's helper on Thursday, and wanted me to post a picture of it. They built it pre-snowstorm, so now he is buried under a foot of snow, but Anni still wants to bark at the "stranger mound" in the yard.

Poison, Dear?

A couple of months ago, we were informed by the health department that some area wells had traces of arsenic. We had our well tested and found that we also have trace amounts of arsenic. We have been using bottled water since we found out - even though our 87 year old neighbor is still drinking her water, shoveling her own driveway, and has no sign of arsenic in her blood! Something about the concept of giving this water to my children is just disturbing. So I have been filling water jugs at our parents', at church, and at friends' houses. I was nearly out of water yesterday, and commented to hubby that we needed more. He responded that it is too much hassle, and we should just drink our own water. He could just say, "Poison, dear? It's very refreshing!" :-)

Early Christmas

Hubby and the boys wrapped some Christmas gifts for their cousins on Saturday while KiKi was napping. They then put the gifts under the Christmas tree. It looked quite festive, and the boys were proud of themselves. Yesterday was very busy, and I am not sure that KiKi even noticed the gifts; but when I went downstairs this morning, it looked just like Christmas morning. There were wrapping paper and gifts strewn across the entire room! KiKi was reprimanded by his brothers, but I didn't even know what to say. Do I punish him when I never told him that they weren't for him and when I left him unsupervised so that I could take a shower?!? I am actually astonished that I ever thought they were safe! Unfortunately, I cleaned up the mess before I thought to take a picture; but here is a chocolate-faced Mr. Innocent!

Happy Birthday, Sister-in-Law

Birthday greetings to my brother's wife! Hope that she is doing something wonderful in sunny Florida on this birthday! We love you! (I realize that Banana is doing a half-blink, but it was my only recent whole-family shot. Hmmmmm.... wonder who could rectify that problem????)

Frogs, anyone?

SS and I had to stay home from our weekly church dinner last night because KiKi was running a fever. I was very enthused when SS said that she would cook; she is an excellent cook. I almost always enjoy her meals. I can't handle some of the spices because they are too hot, but... So last night she was craving frog. We've eaten frog with her before, but when I watched her pulling out the innards and thrusting the frogs in a too-small pot so that their legs stuck straight up in the air, I thought that I might not be able to handle it. However, they were delicious and a wonderful reminder to not look at the food before she cooks it! (I did encourage her to cut off the feet next time though, since I really don't like looking at them on my plate!)

Christmas Meme

I was tagged by life as we know it for a Christmas Meme (whatever meme means?!) so here I go:

Egg nog or hot chocolate? Love them both!

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree?
 He wraps most of them, but leaves just a few out for that initial, gleeful reaction!

Colored lights on tree or white?
 Used to do white, but brought some color back in when we had kids. Now we do both!

When do you put your decorations up?
 I restrain myself until after Thanksgiving!

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
 Who in their right mind excludes dessert?????

Ham with Grandma's Rum Raisin sauce!

Favorite holiday memory as a child: Listening to Amy Grant while we all decorated the Christmas tree! My Brother is probably rolling his eyes while he reads this! :-) 


When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Can't remember - must not have been too traumatic!

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
 We have a Christmas Eve party with some of my family...so yes. We also give the kids their jammies every Christmas eve.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
 This year the boys set up the tree and Daddy helped them with the lights. Then the boys and I put up the decorations while KiKi and Daddy watched football on "mute" so that we could listen to our Christmas music!

Snow! Love it or dread it?
 Love it for a while, and especially for Christmas....come mid-January take it away, please!

Can you ice skate?
 Barely

Do you remember your favorite gift?
 My red velvet dress from my Grandma who had 6 boys and always bought me pretty things! Oh, how I understand now!

What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Appreciating ...God, family, friends...

What is your favorite holiday dessert?
 Oma's cookies!

What is your favorite tradition?
 making Christmas cookies!

Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving

What is your favorite Christmas Song?
 "Carol of the Bells"

Candy canes! Yuck or yum?
 Who doesn't like candy canes?!?!

Ever recycled a Christmas present?
 No!!!!

Have a merry, merry, holly, jolly Christmas!

Science Experiments

I was never much of a science fan when I was in school, but I don't remember doing very many fun experiments when I was younger. Of course, I remember the biology labs and the chemistry experiments, but the fun elementary experiments were few and far between. So, it is a new experience for me to have a houseful of children who just love science and eagerly await their experiment days - every fourth day. Here is a picture of one of their experiments from yesterday where they tested their lung capacity. Needless to say, the water didn't stay in the bowl! It sure would be nice to live somewhere warm sometimes.

Christmas Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Indiana Jones and the Journey for the Jade Jaguar

So here's some publicity for A's future movie. He is very interested in Indiana Jones and decided to make his own addition to the series. He has written a movie script already and made this poster in art class. All he is waiting for is a little money. Any donations? ;-) He also wants to know if anyone is interested in starring in it - and don't feel bad if you're over 60- you could still be one of the main characters!

Birthday Suits

This morning -
Coco: "Mommy, what's a birthday suit?"
Mommy: "Well, that's the suit that God sent you in when you were born."
Coco: "Really? Do you still have mine?"

Need to Increase Your Brain Power?

Neil-te was sick with a fever last night. He barreled through the whole day as if he was in perfect health, only to beg to go to bed before he had even eaten. It was then that I realized he had a fever. This morning, he awoke to inform me that he felt, "just wonderful" and that he was sure his brain was smarter today because he'd had a fever!

Like Mother, Like Son?

So I admit, I have a major sweet tooth - especially for chocolate! I am even one of those people who sneaks into the cupboard to grab some chocolate chips. Apparently, I have passed this wonderful trait on to my dear, littlest boy. KiKi has begun stealing candy and cookies at every possible opportunity. I have found him hiding under beds with candy stuffed in his mouth, stealing candy from his brothers when they are not looking, and even scaling my pantry to reach the top shelf where the Girl Scout cookies are stored. This is a picture of this morning's climb. Please notice the chocolate surrounding his mouth! How can you not laugh?

Thank you, H!

So what do you think of my awesome, new, blog format? My cousin, H, went in last night and fixed it up for me and found a great new title. I love it!

Christmas Already!?

So we started decorating for Christmas on Saturday. What a difference in preparations this year! A and C handled building the tree by themselves, and needed only a little help from daddy when they put on the lights. All of the boys, but Z had fun putting on the ornaments and setting up the nativity sets. For some reason, Z did not want to put any decorations up. So he cuddled with daddy on the couch while the rest of us decorated. Even the boys get nostalgic when putting up ornaments, remembering that they were only 3 when they made or received something. Some of my favorite ornaments to put up are the ones that my aunt makes every year for our white elephant gift exchange. The ones in the picture that are letters are ones that D and I fight to get! :-) The other ones were gifts from her.