Lots to Blog About

Yay - I finally have a chance to sit and blog for a little bit! The young kids are in bed, the lunches are made, the kitchen's clean, the laundry is folded that was dry with more in the machines so I have a few minutes. (The living room is a mess with Christmas decorations scattered around that need to have something done with them, but let's not talk about that! :))

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night Josh went out with a friend to go to a school basketball game (his school was playing her school AT her school - apparently he had fun sitting on her side and cheering for His school!). So, while he was out we ordered pizza and watched our copy of the Jim Carey Grinch movie. I don't remember the last time I sat and did nothing else while I watched that movie but watch it - caught some things I hadn't before. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

Saturday Josh had his acting class and the rest of us were going to a church Christmas Festival. We went and had a free breakfast of pancakes and sausage and then Ian had fun playing on the outside toys with his friend Reed while Brian, Ellie and I went to check out what I thought was supposed to be a craft bazaar. Turns out it was an indoor yard sale so we were quickly finished and back to pick up Ian. The church did a great job with the festival and I had truly intended to go to everything with Ian but he didn't really seem interested so Brian didn't think we should "force him" to do things with us. Ah, well.

After the festival we went to an indoor "flea market" (permanent type) because I'd heard lots about it and had been wanting to go but hadn't made it. We had fun looking around and Ian didn't really complain too much. The hardest part was we carried Ellie through the whole thing - should have brought the backpack but didn't think of it. After that Brian dropped Ian, Ellie and I off at home so he could go pick up the CRIB!! Yep, after 3 months of waiting, the crib is finally here!! So, he went to get that and try to find a mattress for it.

That evening we had a tasty dinner of a new recipe I tried - I'm trying some lower calorie recipes in the hopes that we'll lose some weight we would like to lose. Anyway, it's made with ground turkey which I typically don't buy but the dish was essentially a mexican lasagna made with spiral macaroni instead of lasagna noodles. Brian and I really liked it but the boys weren't big fans - especially after Josh had a mouthful that had a little bit of jalapeno in it. We watched Unaccompanied Minors and it was an unexpected delight. I wasn't sure how it would be but it was a cute movie and the boys enjoyed it - lots of slapstick comedy that boys seem to enjoy.

Sunday we went to church then out for lunch then went to get our Christmas tree. Looking at the calendar of events coming up we decided it was the best time to do it. We were a little taken aback at the prices (we'd gotten spoiled in Virginia at the VFW because they hadn't raised their prices in 15 years!) but finally settled on a 10 foot douglas fir - we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a place to put a tall tree! So, we did our traditional eggnog, Christmas music and working together to get it decorated. The only problem is, it took Brian a while to get the lights on (although I kept the boys doing other things while we waited) and Josh wanted to go with his friend to see another friend sing in his Christmas program at his church. So, we lost Josh before we put ornaments on and Ian lost interest at some point but Ellie helped! :) Part of the problem was I got the boys their own prelit trees for their rooms and they already had them decorated with their ornaments and all so they figured they were done. I'm glad I'm blogging about this because it just occured to me that I should get a picture of their trees this year, too.

Here's Brian starting to put the lights on.

Cool perspective from the balcony looking down at the tree. (Ian took this picture).

Brian and I with our traditional picture of putting on the first ornament together.

Brian and Ellie putting the angel on the top of the tree.

Ian amused himself for a while by taking pictures - this is a self portrait with the stockings! :)

I don't always like pictures of myself but I've really wanted a good one of me and Ellie and I thought this one turned out pretty cute.