Best Christmas Present EVER!

I work with the best people in the world. Seriously. When I went to work there 10 years ago (in the middle of the school year) everyone welcomed me with open arms.

Our school secretary is the nicest, most kind hearted person you will ever meet.

She spoils my kids rotten! Even Meagan, who no longer goes to my school.

Before Garrett started kindergarten he knew he could always count on Ms. M. for a treat and a carton of chocolate milk.

Ms. M. bought the Garrett this gift for Christmas. It a full of little sticks and marbles that are magnetized.

Even though it was Garrett's gift, both kids have played with it non-stop since he opened it.

Garrett makes letters with the sticks, reins for his Webkinz reindeer, a racetrack for his car to follow - you name it and he's made it.

He practices patterning, his colors, counting, and he doesn't even know it!

Thank you so much Ms. M! We love you!

(She bought Meagan a really cute purse but I can't find the picture I took of it right now. Oops!)

Garrett the (Assistant) Builder

Garrett received some Legos for his birthday. Here he is putting them together with the help of Jimmy. Garrett did really well looking at the instructions and putting the Legos together. He received a Batman set that came with Batman and Robin.

Cheesy smile for the camera "Hurry up and take the picture Mom, I'm busy here," he seems to be saying.

Trying out an up close shot with my new camera.

"Stop it already Mom!"

Here is he is laughing at something Jimmy said.

Christmas Day pictures

Christmas Eve Pictures

I already wrote about our Christmas Eve but I wanted to show ya'll the pictures we took.

I finally went to my mom's house and burned the pictures to a CD. (Remember how I dropped my camera? Because of the screen on my camera being broken, all of these pictures were taken on her new camera. But don't worry, I also got a new camera. More about it later!)

My pictures of Meagan's baptism came out too dark so I am waiting for Jimmy's sister to send me the pictures she took.

The funny look on Garrett's face is partly his smile and partly his face being swollen. Thankfully, the swelling went down on Christmas day. He's feeling better now but still has lots of congestion. Darn those fronts!

Here are my parents with the kids.

Garrett shows off one of his gifts. It is a 60 piece puzzle of a farm scene. He was able to put it together all by himself today. Someone (not me bacause jigsaw puzzles drive me nuts!) has taught him the proper way to put a puzzle together.

Grandpa helps Garrett open a breakable gift. It is a figuine of a fireman.I have lots of other pictures but they are turned the wrong way right now. I'll post them as soon as I figure out how to get them turned the right way!

Watch out Chef Duff

Mom came over last week with one of those pre-made gingerbread kits. Even the icing was easy to make - all you had to do was add water.

We started at the top of the house where Garrett insisted on making a pattern with the gum drops.

Grandma Silly

(my mom)

A pastry chef in the making??
Meagan has a try with the icing. She realized that it isn't as easy as it looks!

Brotherly and Sisterly Love

Please ignore all of the junk on the desk behind the kids!

Our finished gingerbread house
We copied this wreath from the picture on the box - not exactly the same - but close enough!
Thanks Grandma Silly!

We had lots of fun!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was also really good at our house.

Meagan woke us up at 6:59. "Mom, it's seven! Can we please get up now??" (She was under strict orders to wake us up before she went into the living room to see what Santa left her. A few years ago she woke up, took all of her stuff to her room, and was getting toys out of their boxes before we woke up!)

Garrett was still asleep so we left him alone and went with Meagan into the living room.

She was thrilled with her gift from Santa. (I would be too for that matter!) She received an iPod Nano and an iTunes gift card. Her stocking was also full of goodies. She got a High School Musical 3 game for her DS, some bangle bracelets, socks, some candy, and lots of other little things.

In his stocking Jimmy got a new equipment bag for kickball, some duplicate line-up sheets for kickball, Reece's Peanut Butter cups, and other odds and ends.

In my stocking I got new socks, the new David Cook CD (which is awesome!), some new pens, an iTunes gift card, some candy, and various items.

Garrett finally woke up around 8:00 or so. Santa left him a silver Nintendo DS and a Mario game. In his stocking he got an M&M racing game for the DS, a cover for the DS, a small lego kit, and lots of other goodies.

I made homemade biscuits and bacon and eggs for breakfast. After we ate Jimmy broke out the Batman Lego game for the Wii that the kids got the night before and I spent a while on the computer figuring out how to download music into the iPods Meagan and I received. Meagan bought Taylor Swift and Jonas Brothers songs with her iTunes gift cards.

We went to Grandma and Pawpaw Blair's for Christmas lunch and enjoyed visiting with family. We also opened our stockings that Santa and Grandma Blair fill for us there.

Elaine came by and visited with us before she went back to Houston last night. (She is very busy with preparations for her show which opens on January 9th.

I also talked to Crystal who is in town for the holiday. We made plans to get together today.

All in all, Christmas was great!

I'll post pictures once I have a chance to download them from my mom's camera.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day here at our house.

On Christmas Eve, we went to church for the evening service. Meagan was baptised along with another member of the church. It was a beautiful service and, of course, I cried. My mom and dad attended along with Jimmy's mom and two of his sisters and their families.

After church we went back to our house and opened gifts with Grandma Silly and Grandpa. Garrett received lots of Batman goodies and Meagan was thrilled the money that Grandma and Grandpa gave her. The money is for her to go shopping for clothes.

Mom and Dad gave me my very own mixer! (I guess Mom is tired of me always borrowing hers!) What I am very impressed about with the mixer is that Mom and Dad went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday to buy it. If you know my dad, you know how amazing that is!

Jimmy gave me a beautiful Willow Tree angel "Mother and Daughter." He said he felt it fit the theme of the evening.

After a dinner of assorted snacks/finger foods went went to Grandma and Pawpaw Blair's house. We opened gifts there (I got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble :) Can't wait to go buy some new books!) Meagan and Garrett got lots of toys and Jimmy got an Astros t-shirt and Miami Dolphins salt and pepper shakers.

All of Jimmy's sisters and their husbands and Jimmy and I do a gift exchange. We call it White Elephant. Everyone draws a number and then you open gifts according to the number you drew. You can also "steal" other gifts that have been opened before yours. I came home with $20 in lottery tickets and Jimmy came home with a serving platter that can be kept warm. Of course, Jimmy and I agreed to trade gifts when we got home :) He won $14 off of the lottery tickets.

We got home really late and tucked our kiddos into bed. Garrett was feeling really miserable. He had sneezed and blown his nose ALL DAY and his eyes were almost swollen shut. Whatever blew in with the latest front REALLY bothered his allergies. Wait until you see the pictures - he looked terrible. He even took a nap during the day on Christmas Eve. When he fell asleep I knew he was feeling bad!

It's starting to smell like Christmas around here

Last weekend the kids and I made some cookies to take to their teachers at school. We made gingerbread men, chocolate pixies, and forgotten cookies.

I made the dough for the gingerbread men and rolled and cut them out. Once I put them on the pan Garrett placed the eyes and buttons on them.


We gave away (or ate) all of the gingerbread men so I plan on making some more in the next couple of days. Next time I will try to get an "after" picture when they come out of the oven.

The chocolate pixies went so fast I didn't even get a single picture of them! They are these wonderful brownie like cookies that you roll in powdered sugar before you bake them. When you bite into them, powdered sugar falls everywhere. I also made the dough for these cookies and then Meagan rolled the dough into balls and then rolled the balls in the powdered sugar. I did the actual baking.

The forgotten cookies are super easy. They are meringue cookies with chocolate chips folded in. I don't like them but several people at work do so I made them. They are SUPER easy to make (especially if you borrow a big fancy mixer from your mom like I did) and take next to nothing to make. To make 45 cookies you only need 2 egg whites, a 2/3 cup of sugar and one cup of chocolate chips. This year I used the mini morsels since the cookies themselves are pretty small.

I plan to make more cookies today. I LOVE biscotti and have wanted to try to make it for years, but I have just never gotten around to it. I am going to make plain almond biscotti. I love to dunk it in my hot chocolate. Of course, it is going to be 80 degrees here on Christmas so I don't know if I'll be drinking any hot chocolate. Why can't the weather get the message that I want it cold on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, not two days prior??

I'll post later with a baking update!

Holiday Crafts

Mom bought Garrett and Meagan these cute craft kits for Christmas. Garrett's kit contained magnets for the refrigerator. He had a santa, a snowman, and a penguin. He really had a lot of fun gluing them together. He was able to do most it all by himself.

Meagan made ornaments for the tree. She had a snowflake and a wreath. She got to use glitter so she of course had a lot of fun!

Thanks Grandma Silly!

Guess what we did tonight . . .

A Real Cut Up

Quick! Hide your stacks of paper. My son is on a cutting and gluing (is that a word?) kick and no piece of paper is safe. He is also obsessed with having me draw him Christmas trees so he can color them in and add ornaments. (And then cut them out and glue them to another sheet of paper. Layers are obviously in for him.)

He refuses to color in coloring books most of the time. He would rather use of stacks of paper for the printer. I told Jimmy that I think he would probably be thrilled if we bought him a ream of white paper, a pad of construction paper, a new pair of scissors, and some glue sticks for Christmas!

On a Christmas note, I am DONE! shopping for my kids. Family and friends are up next.

Well, I do have to shop for my kids for my parents. My mom has NEVER been a fan of shopping so most years my parents give Jimmy and I money and we shop for them for Meagan and Garrett. I also wrap the gifts - another holiday chore my mom is not big on. But, she makes AWESOME cookies and pecan tassies - things I DO NOT like to do - so it all works out. Plus, I get to pick what my kids get. No complaining here!

Garrett has also learned how to whistle. I think it's cute but also annoying. I hate stray noises that I can't find the cause of.

He is also singing this really cute Thanksgiving song.

"Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Mr. Turkey says. Please eat pizza not me."

There's more to the song but I can't remember it all right now.

Meagan is using up boxes of Kleenex with her latest cold/allergy attack/whatever. So, of course the nasal congestion has brought on the cough that will not end. It is a dry, annoying cough (and if it is annoying to me I can only imagine how she feels about it) that probably will not quit until I give in and call the doctor for a round of oral steroids. I treat it with albuterol/Xopenex for a couple of days and it that doesn't work, then I call the nurse line and she talks to me and then to the doctor and then they call in the prescription for me. Thank goodness I don't have to drag them to Corpus every time.

Garrett is also congested and blowing his nose frequently but he is not coughing as much. They both have a check up with the pulmonologist on December 2nd, so hopefully we can take of things here at home until then.

My Thanksgiving cleaning plan (also known as Oh crap! People are coming over and I'd better do something to make the house presentable!) is not going as well as I would like it. Who woulda thunk? I guess for the plan to work a person actually has to detach themselves from the computer and do the cleaning tasks on the list. Even if the list is just in the person's head.

Yesterday I cleaned out most of the shelves in the frig - just the bottom drawer and bottom of the fridge to go - and cleaned out a kitchen cabinet. I sanitized all the shelves and walls and organized my millions of throw away containers that I use for taking my lunch/storing leftovers. If something did not have a mate, it got thrown away. Which guarantees I will find the mate tomorrow. Ah, such is life.

On tap for today: finish the fridge, clean out the oven, do laundry, grade papers, and finish the dining room. The kids did a great job in the dining room yesterday. Garrett cleaned up the aftermath of his latest cutting spree and Meagan took all of the junk that didn't belong in the room to the appropriate room. She also did a great job on her room.

I do have laundry going already this morning but that is about it. I'd better get moving!

I'm also going to take the kids and my niece and nephew to see Madagascar 2.