NEW HOUSE

Justin and I have been looking to move for awhile now and we have finally found the perfect house. We have kept it a secret from everyone because it was under construction. Below are the pictures of the construction process. Unfortunately the builders were pretty shoddy and we are not going to be able to move in any time soon. We took pictures as the construction process took place. SIGH, we won't be moving. :(

GOTCHA!

Wonder

Christmas Wonder

Band Concert

Madison had her first 7th grade band concert on Thursday evening. All of the kiddos looked so great dressed up and ready to impress. The kids did a great job! Months ago they were learning how to assemble their instruments and all we heard were squawks and squeaks. They have all come a long way.

Broken Rules

So after my last post I received more comments than ever. Maybe I need to vent more often, ya think? Anyway, I have already broke two of my rules of things I wasn't going to do, the Christmas letter and Christmas cards. I like receiving the cards and I figure someone out there does to, so it is MY JOB to ensure that they get more Christmas cards. I see it as spreading good cheer. As for the Christmas letter goes, it was short and simple and I am only putting in those cards for family and friends that I haven't seen or talked to very often.

While writing out cards we watched to classic Christmas movies. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Madison thought is was really cool because they are reading the play in school and she is the ghost of Christmas Present.

After that we watched another classic, A Christmas Story. I LOVE RALPHY. I don't think we actually watched the movie, I think we just recited it. We enjoyed some ice cream from Rusty's Frozen Custard. By the way, ice cream in December is just not a good idea = freezing!

All in all we had a good family night and enjoyed our time together.

I'm Over It

I have had this post circling around in my head for quite some time now. So hear goes. Christmas for many of us is a romantized holiday. We all think that this is the best holiday ever and we have wonderful family time and traditions. We remember Christmas as it was for us as a kid, happy, mysterious, full of surprises and lots of memories. Unfortunately, I believe that most of us as adults feel (but won't admit) it is excessive and don't enjoy Christmas as much as we think we do. For example:

1. Christmas items on shelves the day after Halloween (I HATE THIS)
2. "Holly Jolly Christmas" being played over the load speaker of your favorite super-center, mall or department store before Thanksgiving.
3. Black Friday - which has now really turned into Black Week. Deals galore the days before Thanksgiving, the frenzie that follows on Friday and the insanity of it all.
4. Attending your Christmas party, your spouse's Christmas party, kids Christmas parties.
5. Playing Silly Santa, Dirty Santa, Secret Santa or any other kind of Santa other than the one that arrives on Christmas day.
6. Bringing a dish for the office pot-luck.
7. Getting the Christmas photo taken.
8. Getting photo cards taken.
9. Writing out the annual Christmas letter.
10. Stuffing an envelope full of photos, letters, cards and then yes - LICKING the ENVELOPE. Seriously haven't done that in years. The thought of the Seinfeld episode still lingers in my head.
11. Baking cookies and breads for every single person under the sun. I love to bake, love to bake, love to bake. But I'm OCD, I want everything perfect, which means no helpers in the kitchen.
12. Buying teacher gifts, office mate gifts, and day care teacher gifts.
13. Eating way too much. Think about the enormous amount of food that is constantly around from Thanksgiving through Christmas partially due to #11. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat it all, thus, the problem.
14. Spending, spending, spending. Does anyone make a budget anymore and does anyone really know how much they spend (see posts above on all the little things). Small gifts add up quickly when you have buy for 10+ people. Baking ingredients are expensive when you bake for a small army. Photos, letterhead and OMG the cost of Christmas cards.
15. Christmas lights. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the lights. I am taking about the one neighbor (or more) that everyone has that is related to Clark Griswald. Enough said?

SO NOW WHAT?

If you have read this far and if you were in the holiday spirit, you are probably not now. NEGATIVE right? Not so much. Maybe you do some of these things. Maybe you do all of these things. Maybe you are able to go through this month with all of the excess and never get stressed out. Well, for me I am making POSITIVE changes. So, now what?

This year we are going to:

1. We are NOT going to do most of the things listed above.
2. Make cut out sugar cookies with the kids. They cut out whatever they like, decorate them however they like and eat them while they are still warm.
3. Buy gifts for our family and family only.
4. Curl up on the couch and watch the great Christmas movies together.
5. Drive around and look at the Christmas lights, even all of the Griswald families out there.
6. Make hand-made ornaments.
7. Wrap gifts together and however the kiddos want (even with an excessive amount of tape)
8. Sit with my family on Christmas Eve and listen to Christmas music.
9. Assisting families that are need of help, we all know lots of them are out there.
10. ENJOY Christmas for what it is.