A Beautiful December Day

The boys and I had a fantastic time at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham today. We really lucked out with a 70 degree day in December, and even though it was cloudy and windy, the weather was pretty much perfect for our visit. We spent 3 of our 4 hour visit outside enjoying the train, lemurs, wolves, and the Catch the Wind exhibit. It was a great day for the remote sailboats! Inside, we were just enchanted with the Holiday Springs and Sprockets exhibit. Joey was so inspired that he came home and started drawing his own 'machines'. The exhibit runs through 1/5/09, so you still have time to go see it. We reupped our membership today, so here's to lots more memories and pictures at the museum in the upcoming year.

All my pics from today are here.

Sometimes life is not fair!

Nobody ever said life is fair, right? Today, I took the boys to the museum in Durham. We were there for over 4 hours having a blast. When we got home, I was tired and I put in frozen pizza. I thought I'd squeeze in a few chores waiting on it. I grabbed a bottle of spiedie marinade out of the pantry to pour on some meat. I brute force twisted the plastic safety seal off the top and went to shake the bottle. Spiedie marinade for those of you that don't know is mostly olive oil and Italian seasoning. What I didn't realize is that the cap had come loose with the safety seal. I shook, and the marinade went EVERYWHERE. Darn near made a grown woman cry. It was all over the inside of my pantry, on my kitchen floor, on my shirt, in my hair...just a COMPLETE MESS. I didn't get to eat, but at least the boys did while I cleaned up my very icky and untimely accident. If you stop by in the next few days, the house is still likely to smell like spiedie sauce:-( Go easy on me...

A Merry (and Uneventful) Christmas

Well, the fantastic news is that no one needed to go to the hospital on Christmas Eve like they did on Thanksgiving 'eve'.

Dad was able to make it up. The boys were very excited that Poppop was coming to visit not to mention that Santa was on his way.

We had tons of fun with Poppop making Christmas-shaped sugar cookies for Santa. Mom made a nice bottom round roast on Christmas Eve and a Dinner Bell ham on Christmas Day determined not to spend too much time in the kitchen.

While we were waiting for the roast to cook on Christmas Eve, we took a drive with Poppop looking at Christmas lights.

Santas helpers did what they need to do;-)

Joey was very excited with a Nintendo DS. Mario and Sonic are soon to rule at our house I'm afraid.

Johnny loved his scooter (like Joey's only blue) and the Star Wars ships and action figures.

Mom and Dad and Poppop got some neat big girl and big boy gifts too:-)

With kids in the house, the magic of the season was definitely felt at our house:-)

Kids' Christmas Party

We held our annual Christmas party for Joey and Johnny and their friends Saturday. Everyone seemed to have a good time:-) The kids did 4 crafts: wooden ornaments with markers, stained glass plastic ornaments, filling glass bulbs with garland and sparkles and beads, and making a Santa mobile face. We ate nuggets and chips and cupcakes and fruit and sugar cookies that we made. Carols were playing in the background. Little boys were having fun chugging their trains and zooming their race cars around the house. Joey and Eli even made it snow in the garage with cotton balls:-) It was really nice to spend part of the busy holiday season having fun with friends.

The rest of the pics are here.

Move over Santa!

Here's the Chick-fil-A cow!!!

The boys and I were out running errands after work. I figured we'd go through the Chick-fil-A drive thru and then drive around and look at Christmas lights. But, the boys and I could see the CFA cow through the restaurant windows. We love the CFA cow! Tonight wasn't an ordinary night, the cow was dressed up as Santa Cow, and he was taking pictures with all the kids. So, the boys asked to go inside. I said OK, and the girl at the drive thru sent our food to a tray, we parked, and headed in.

I got a couple of nice pictures. The boys and I enjoyed our food including sharing a cookies and cream milkshake. The picture below of Johnny crying...well, let's just say I had to tell him the milkshake was ALL GONE. I have that same feeling every time my Leapin' Lizards coffee drink is all gone too!!!

The rest of the pics are here.

The Joy of the Season

May you experience

the magic and wonder

of the season

through a child's eyes.

I read that in an e-mail that was sent to me today and thought to myself how true that is even if a toy company did send it! I certainly am seeing a lot of magic and wonder combined with joy and delight in Joey and Johnny's eyes this year.

Last night while we were crafting, the boys and I were singing Christmas carols. I am so pleased that Johnny is participating...even spontaneously starting to sing the carols on his own sometimes.

Johnny asks every morning now if Santa has come? Yesterday he all but insisted that we stop what we were doing and make Santa Christmas cookies. So sweet...

Joey keeps wrapping gifts for people (and our dogs). He finds an item in the house that he thinks will be enjoyed and sets about using paper and tape to wrap it up. He even decorated the wrapping paper for Blaze's gift with a drawing of Tigger and other animals. He keeps saying it's all about giving not receiving repeating what I'm sure he's heard at preschool and in videos. Too cute...

I love the hustle and bustle of the holiday season more than most, but even I am taking time to enjoy all the season has to offer... They're only little once, so step back and soak it all in.

Our best holiday 2008 pics are here.

A trip to the mall...

The whole family went to Southpoint Mall today. The main goal was Build a Bear and possibly a visit with Santa.

Build a Bear was a success. I had a bunch of coupons:-) Joey got the reindeer with the glowing light antlers and called it Moosie. Johnny got a doggie he insisted was a reindeer and called it Rudolph.

The line for Santa was too long for 'all' of us to wait through...about 90 minutes. I thought I remembered this mall using pagers. If they did last year, not this year. Oh well.

Mom loves the red ornament trees at JCPenney's. The boys love all the statues in the mall.

We had good time including a trip to Auntie Anne's pretzels:-)

The rest of today's pics are here.