Decorating for Christmas (The Trees)

Decorating the trees

Decorating is in full swing at my house and has been a full time job week. I started pulling things out the end of last week and I'm still not done! The trees are up and decorated so that's a huge thing done. New wreaths had to be made this year so that was a big chore but I enjoy doing it!

This year I decided to use white lights on the trees which had the house in an uproar. The kids don't like to change traditions much especially at Christmastime. I also decided to not use the Christmas angel this year, instead I used a big bow. This was not revealed to anyone except for Taylor who is the bow maker. When it was complete and up I sent the family a snap chat and surprisingly didn't hear to much negativity. I like to switch thing up and try new decorating ideas especially when I get the inspiration to do it!  I reminded them its just the lights and tree top its not the end of the world!




The big tree in the house is in the main family room (we have a family room on the main floor and a family room on the second floor also) This one has ALL the kids decorations from preschool to date that they have made. It also has my grandma's, moms and ones we have collected over the years! Its a mix match collection. I also use beads that my mom use to use. Its a mix of new and old.

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My other tree is in the foyer and is a Snoopy Tree. It has all the Snoopy ornaments I have collected since I was a kid. It also has various other ones also and of course my moms beads. 

Next is more house decorating that I will share tomorrow! 

Who can you trust?

Liar Liar Pants of Fire!

I wish I could say that I had no experience with mean girls, high school drama, or parents who think their kids are perfect, but unfortunately I do! I thought if I raised my kids to be confident leaders and
nice kids they would be fine!  WRONG!!! What I didn't take into consideration is that not all parents are us and not all kids are ours! Don't get me wrong, I realize all to well that no matter how we raise our kids, they will make wrong decisions and mistakes and thats just life! We are going to be better parents than them! I found out very fast how wrong I was. Jessica being born first was as stubborn and strong willed as us, which was a real challenge! Then Cory came along and blew the NO GUN for boys rule out of the water when he was making guns out of anything and everything. LOL

I thought if kids did wrong that all parents would acknowledge that and punis h accordingly.

WRONG again! See not all parents can see that their little darlings are not the little darlings they think they are. They can lie to their face and through their teeth while batting there beautiful brown eyes and throwing their supposed best friend under the bus during it all! Sickening! I have witnessed this first hand and its crazy! 

I have NEVER believed or claimed my kids are perfect and don't pretend that they are. 

You would not believe parents I have met through raising my kids!!! Parents who will lie for there kids, parents who will lie for your kids and parents who think their kids never do wrong or blame your kid for all bad decisions! I have dealt with all!

I will start with the time a parent lied to me when my child was spending the night at her house!

She was in ninth grade and was going through a testing time. She was going to spend the night at a friends who I knew for some time and also knew her mom but she was the mom who was trying very hard to be good friends with her daughter. We all know the type, and this my friends can get you in BIG trouble as a parent!!! So anyway, she went over there house around 6pm. I always like to talk with the parent to make sure they are aware of my rules and that we are all on the same page. She was not available when I dropped my daughter off so I called her around 8 . She assured me they had just gotten a movie and were in for the night. As we were talking I heard the voices of boys and girls as well. I explained that my daughter wasn't allow to go anywhere other than her house and that I didn't feel comfortable with them walking several blocks to McDonald's as my daughter had hinted. She assured me they were staying in and we hung up. After getting off the phone I had one of those strong motherly instincts that came over me that told me I was being lied to. I told my husband that I was taking a ride past the house to make sure all looked normal. As I drove to her house my instinct got stronger that I was being lied to and pretty much expected something. As I slowly approached the house I saw lots of kids piled into a small car and my daughter was just getting in and had closed the door. Before they pulled away I stepped out of my car as they rolled down the window and I said, "Get out of the car and get your stuff you are going home!". You should have seen the faces when they saw me, it were priceless! I proceeded to the girls house as the car drove away. I followed my daughter in and questioned the mom. Of course she lied and said they were just going to the McDonalds down the road, which she still wasn't suppose to do, but I knew better. There were seven kids piled in a five passenger car dressed to kill and five were BOYS! Come to find out they were headed to a high school party.



Needless to say, my daughter was punished for a LONG time and I learned that I can't always
believe other parents or trust them with my kids. Also that kids will lie to you point blank.

Next time I have an even better story of a parent whose kid does NO wrong ever!!! Wow, she must be the perfect parent! LOL

My favorite Christmas Present As a child

As December is now upon us I can't help but remember Christmas as a kid and how magical it always was. My parents did their very best to make it special for us four kids!

As a child growing up in the 70's, we had some pretty cool toys. Big wheels, six million dollar men stuff, stretch Arm strong, snoopy toothbrushes, baby dolls that peed, Evel Knievel stunt motorcycles, electric racetracks, etc.

My friend Shane and I always got similar gifts. I think Santa either knew we were good friends or our moms shopped together. One year I got Baby Tender Loves little brother and she got Baby Joey, both anatomically correct dolls! The same year I got Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Linus finger puppets, she got Woodstock, Lucy and Sally!

I don't have one present I remember as being my favorite but here is my top five.

Baby Alive This doll was a little girls dream. It was a mechanical doll that actually came with food that it ate while its mouth made real eating motions. It proceeded to poop as well. It also drank and peed and if I remember correctly cried also.




Barbie dream townhouse  I have to be honest I spotted this two weeks before Christmas in one of my nighttime spying adventures. I pretended to take the dog out and with a flashlight looked in the back of my parents station wagon after they got home from and shopping trip. (I was horrible and noisy even then!) It was awesome seeing the huge box it came in and knowing it was mine! The hardest part is not understanding when on Christmas morning it said it was from Santa! Shane got the same doll that year as well.




Snoopy phone  What preteen wouldn't have wanted their own telephone in their room in the late 70's! It was awesome and having a Snoopy one was even better!



Milton This was the first electronic talking game that could be played with one or two people playing against eachother. It was so cool and I thought I was hot stuff being the first of my friends to have a talking game like that. The creepy part about the game was the creepy voice it had and it always said when you turned it on, " Hello, you turn me on!"



Fisher Price Mcdonalds Playset   This really sounds like no big deal, but it was so cool to a 6 year old kid.Where else than a Mcdonalds playset can you purchase a happy meal several times a day. It even came with a mini playground and square little people which I had never seen. I played with this one for hours upon hours, what an imagination I must have had!




WOW, to be a kid again at Christmas. There is nothing like the magic of it all. Our kids didn't get many toys through the year, but when Christmas came, I tried to make the same wonderful magic and memories that I had.

Like I always say to my husband...Your only a kid once, especially at Christmas!!!

What was your favorite gift as a kid, I would love to hear?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

 HAPPY DECEMBER 1st

So my Christmas shopping has officially begun. I'm running very behind this year, Usually by now I am almost done my shopping. I think with Mitchell being sick, watching Jaxson and having Thanksgiving here I fell behind. Nevertheless it's begun! 

I did do something this year I thought I would never do. I ended up going out Thanksgiving night and started my shopping.  It honestly wasn't that crazy. I also went a little bit on black Friday and got some super great deals. That was crazy but worth it! I ended up getting $60 sheets for only $8 between the deals and my coupons! 



Yesterday, I got up at 4:30 to take advantage of the cyber Monday sales. Between soccer.com. Dicks Sporting goods, and Toys "R" Us I managed to finish Mitchell who is the easiest one to buy for! The other girls like Vineyard Vines so I  managed to get Jessica done and the other girls a couple things. Kohl's was the next stop on the Cyber Bus.  I got some great deals there and then moved on to eBay which is my favorite place to compare prices. I ended up getting a $66 Lego set for Mitchell for $20 new!!! I have no idea how it was that cheap but I was thrilled and so was Jim. 

Ifi you take the time to fight the crowds Black Friday and get up early on Cyber Monday, you can get some great deals.

 Today is December 1st and I am well on my way to finishing my Christmas shopping. Now to decorate the house, get the tree, decorate the tree, bake cookies, finish shopping, wrap gifts, etc.

OK, I can do this!  

Happy Shopping Everyone!!!

Post Thanksgiving Thankfulness

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already. This Thanksgiving was the first one we have ever had for the family. For 30 years we have gone to New Jersey to spend it with Jim's family. Unfortunately Jim's dad passed away in June so we thought it would be nice to host it here as all the memories there could prove to be to much this year. Hence,  I think we may have started a new tradition!

We ended up having 18 people for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a unseasonably warm day with the temps in the upper 50's, which almost never happens in Pa. I personally think its way to warm for Thanksgiving, but the kids enjoyed it as they played outside most of the day.

We ate RIGHT ON TIME which also almost never happens!  It helped that for the first time I used a roaster oven that freed up the oven so I could cook all the sides at the same time. I have to say the turkey was delicious. I will be using the roaster oven again for the christmas turkey!

I also prepared all the sides the day before that way, what needed to be cooked I just had to stick in the oven. I used the crockpot this year for the mashed potatoes and WOW how easy it was and they were delicious to boot!

So our menu changed so many times but the final menu was...
Turkey
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
scalloped potatoes
sweet potato casserole
cranberry sauce
cranberry fluff
stuffing
corn
applesauce
asparagus

We had the adults sit in the dining room and the kids at another table in the hallway that is connected to the dining room. Taylor and Savanna made place cards that way there was NO fighting over seats or who is sitting at which table which has happened on more than one occasion.

We also had quite the dessert spread!Pies, breads, cakes and rolls, YUM!

It was a great Thanksgiving celebrating with family and some friends. Everyone left by Saturday evening and we cleaned up. It's amazing how dirty a house can get with 16 people staying under one roof!!!! 

Since everyone was gone I began taking all the fall decorations down on Sunday. It's quite a task being that I have probably as many fall decorations as most people have Christmas! When that was done I made a new huge Christmas wreath for over my fireplace. Again, I saw one that I loved in a magazine and decided to make it as the old one I had was to small for the space. Here's the end result! 

I have no idea exactly how many ornaments I used, I lost count around 100. I love how it turned out and can't wait to put it up in a week or so.

So that's what I did over this holiday weekend, what did you do? 

Preparing

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Yesterday was the beginning the three days of baking, preparing and cooking for Thanksgiving. I wish I could say that I love cooking but I really don't although I enjoy entertaining I just wish I was a bit less of a perfectionist!

Things were crazy to say the least. I watched Jaxson all day and he spent the night. He is at the age where he is into every cabinet, drawer, bin, closet, etc. Our house is open so there is NO place to put a gate to contain him in any room so he runs around exploring all day!

Somehow I did manage during naps to make two loaves of pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, pumpkin roll and a apple pie. YUM!  Now today is another story! Actually, my husband is off all day so he will help watch him. The kids are all home from school which makes it more difficult to get things made and done. They DO have their to do lists now lets see how many aliments they can come up with to get out of them!!!

On the agenda today is to make:

Stuffing casserole

cranberry sauce

cranberry fluff

scalloped potato casserole 

Sweet potato casserole 

Put leaf in table and set it for Thanksgiving dinner. 

Clean 

Wash sheets for guests 

Let the fun begin! 

What are your Thanksgiving Eve preps?  I would LOVE to hear!

Long car rides and Birthdays

The beginning of new beginnings!

My first grandchild, Jaxson, was born one year ago today. I was there when he came into the world at 10am, weighing 7lbs 11oz 19 inches long. It was such a euphoric experience that I honestly wasn't prepared for!

 We were not particularly thrilled with this pregnancy being that our daughter was 23 and not married to the father although they are together, its not the best relationship in the world. Nevertheless, Jaxson had arrived and it was the beginning of a new beginning for Jim and I as Grandparents!

For his first birthday they decided to have it in his parents town, some 2 hours from our house. It was okay with us because we always have things here and its only fair we share. Unfortunately, we have a LOT of car sick riders in our family so the 2 hour ride was NOT a pleasant one, but we made it there and back with NO vomiting which is always a plus!

His family is awesome and will think of every last detail when it comes to a party. They rented a beautiful clubhouse in their area and boy did they go all out to think of everything to make his first Birthday special!

My daughter Savanna made this so all the kids could get their picture taken as Curious George. Everyone loved it!

Party set up

Candy bar

Jaxson and I

dessert and cake table

Jaxson's mom and dad

Kaylee and Jaxson what a great pic

Boy that cake was good!

After the party we headed back to Pa to celebrate a good friends 40th Birthday where we took our turns riding a mechanical Bull. Wow, what an experience! Today to celebrate Kaylee's 24th Birthday and Jaxson's again.

What a great way to spend the weekend celebrating three wonderful peoples birthdays and their lives!

Happy Birthday Jaxson, Kaylee 

and

Michelle!