Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas Staycation: Day 4

What I did today:

Slept in Slept off a mild hangover.

Made scrambled eggs for the McHusband and me.

Watched Chuck.

Walked the dogs on a too-beautiful-to-believe late December day.

Made another cheeseball except I left it unformed so it’s a dip this time around.

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De-Christmased the inside of the house.  The candy cane wallpaper is stored away until next year.

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Showered and painted my nails a shade of blue-green that should be reserved for Twihards.

What I have left to do:

Go to a New Year’s Eve part hosted by Ryan and Sandra.

Kiss my wonderfully fabulous, too-good-to-be-true McHusband at midnight.

Happy New Year!!!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Staycation: Day 3

What I did today:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Made the frosting for my cake.

Made a cheeseball.

Worked out at the Y.

Ate lunch – leftover chicken and a yogurt.

Showered.

Took the cats to the vet.

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What I have left to do:

Go to Chelle and Jeremy’s for some New Year’s Eve Eve hangin’ out.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Christmas 2011: Christmas Eve at Bri’s

Once we made a quick pitstop at Grammie’s to drop off luggage, gifts, and dogs, we headed to Bri’s for Christmas Eve / Christmas / the McHusband’s birthday.

With all the toys at Bri’s house, Olivia was most interested in emptying a box.  Being the first kid, I was spoiled with lots of toys but my mom says my favorite thing to do was drop clothespins into a gallon milkjug.  So Olivia comes by her box obsession honestly.

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Meanwhile, Owen and Lyla, with a little help from Aunt Steph, were decorating cookies for Santa.

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They obviously have the most important step in baking down pat.

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Time for sprinkles!

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Taste-testing for Santa.

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Bri made a peanut butter-chocolate molten cake for the McHusband’s birthday.  I helped with separating the eggs.

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In the oven, getting all molten-ized.

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Later, we sang Happy Birthday.

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And had platefuls of gooey deliciousness.

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In between the sweets, we played outside and opened gifts.

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Testing the limits of the swingset.

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Did someone say presents?!

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Believe me when I say this was the calm before the storm.

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I don’t remember what was going on for Lyla to make this face but it would seem she was very concerned.

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Blowing up Lyla’s whoopee cushion.  That thing was a hit!

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The kids helped Maxie open her gift.  As you can see, she was quite happy with what she got.

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Olivia was a big fan of packaging as well.

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My mom made these paper wreaths for Bri and me.  They are made out of book pages.  How cool are they?!

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Guess what else my mom made?  These “horses” for Owen and Lyla.  Owen’s a little unsure of what’s going on, but look at Lyla’s face; she zeroes in on that pink fluffy horse.

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Off to the races!

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The aftermath of Hurricane Christmas.

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Christmas with three-year-olds is fun, exhausting, exciting, a test of your patience, and over much more quickly than in the past couple of years since they tear through their own gifts – and any others they can get their hands on – in no time.

Hope you aren’t tired of kids and gifts yet – we still have Christmas at Grammie’s to recap.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas Staycation: Day 2

What I’ve done today:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched some HGTV.

Blogged.

Watched The Company Men.

Ate lunch.

Spent a gift card.

Worked out at the Y: 20 minutes of cardio plus an hour-long muscle conditioning class.

Hit up Wally World for some groceries.

Ate scrambled eggs.

Made a Root Beer Chocolate Cake.

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So a slightly more productive day than yesterday, but I still have Christmas decorations to take down and put away and there’s always general cleaning to do.

But that’s what tomorrows are for, right?

Christmas 2011: Over the river, through the woods…

To Grammie’s house we headed!

We had to pack smartly as space was at a premium between luggage, gifts, and the dogs. We put the gifts in boxes according to which family they were for so that it was easy to unload the gifts either at the McMom’s or at Bri’s.

I wrapped the gifts and left the McHusband in charge of packing them up.

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Of course, the McHusband had an apprentice.

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The next day: all crammed in packed up and ready to go!

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Morgan and Tucker aren’t cuddlers normally, but they seem to know that they don’t have much choice when they’re in the car.

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We had to make a stop on our way to Charlotte. The McHusband got a call last week about an accident and we were literally driving right past the site so we stopped to see the scene and take some photos.

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So that’s how our Christmas break started – with work. And guess what? It sorta ended that way, too. As we were driving back to Raleigh on Tuesday, we saw the McHusband’s coworker at the site so we found ourselves once again pulled off on the side of Hwy. 49.

Coming up: Christmas at Bri’s!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Staycation: Day 1

What I’ve done:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched What Not to Wear.

Blogged.

Currently three episodes into a The Walking Dead marathon.

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What I haven’t done:

Changed out of my pajamas.

Brushed my teeth.

Unpacked my suitcase.

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I’ve been saying that I want my days off to be a good mix of productivity, chill time, fun, and exercise.  I’d say I’ve got a healthy hold on one of those categories already.

Holiday Wishes

Did you all have a good Christmas?  We spent Saturday through Tuesday in Charlotte, and it was wonderful to see our families and especially to spend time with the kids. 

Chase, Lyla, and Owen  have each developed such fun personalities, and they change so much in between visits that I can’t get enough of them when we’re together.  And the baby girls?  Leah, Maxie, and Olivia, who are 15 months, 7 months, and 10 months respectively, are just adorable.

I’ll bombard you with picture-laden posts about our Christmas in Charlotte soon enough.  For now, I have a question and one answer, but I want to know YOUR answers.

What do you do with all the holiday cards you get this time of year?  This time around, I taped them to our laundry room door where we could appreciate them several times over and not just when we first got them.

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I had the idea that the cards would actually go on the green ribbon, but apparently we have too many friends for just one ribbon.

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We have cards from Reed and Krista and from Vickie and Sara (and all their boys):

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Shannon sent one with a cute family picture.

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We got a card from my Papa and Grandma Grace.  Papa painted the picture on the front.  Can you read the writing?  It says, “This one!” 

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Rick and Sabrina (and Tinny and Jim, of course) sent some Christmas cheer from Beantown.

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We had cards from Aunt Judy, Aunt Becky, Aunt Charlotte, and Aunt Diane.

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So I taped my cards to a door; I know the McMom keeps her cards in a wooden sleigh by the TV.  What do you do with your merry missives?  Collect them in a basket or display them on a vertical surface?  I need some ideas for next year.