Christmas

Whew, life has been busy lately. Too busy, really. But that's what the holidays are all about, I guess!

I got a very nice present for Christmas this year- plane tickets! I knew it would be hectic, with our trip to Disneyland earlier this month, but I really wanted to go to Ohio for Christmas. We haven't gone there since the kids were born, but this was a good year to go. They were old enough to be manageable, Kaitlyn was young enough to not need a plane ticket, and they were both oblivious to presents and Santa, so we didn't have to take half the universe across the country with us each way.

The first thing we had to do when we got there was inspect "The Village". My parents collected a lot of Snow Village houses over the years, and I don't think they could fit one more house or person or tree onto their platform beneath the Christmas tree. It even has a train that goes around! My kids loved it.

Then Kaitlyn had to show off her coloring skills. Because that is currently her favorite pastime.

Next up was sugar cookies. Always a good toddler activity, even if the cookies never look very good afterward.

On Christmas Eve, my family does Gingerbread houses. I wasn't sure what my kids would think of this activity, but it was a lot of fun!

Tyler teamed up with Daddy, and they basically let Tyler push everything in once Daddy put the icing down. Very neat and orderly.

But Kaitlyn quickly discovered that she could use the icing bag herself, thank you. So I made the house, and gave her free reign of one corner with the icing and some candies.

Nice and orderly . . .

With some munching on the side (Kaitlyn decided she didn't care for peeps at all) . . .

And then the happy little mess on the other side of the table.

When she got bored of the corner I gave her (she very carefully put a mint on each marshmallow), she expanded to the bowls. And then she told us that it was time to give "quack quack hat".

Ta da! The finished works of art.

Christmas morning was still nice and relaxed. My mother thought it was very impressive that my kids wanted to play with each gift as they opened it, and had to be dragged away to open the next.

Kaitlyn knew just what to do with Tyler's steamroller.

When Tyler unwrapped this truck, he said "look! A tase-a-mur!" We still don't know what that means. But he liked it very much.

Well, that's all for part one- hopefully part two will come soon!

Disneyland!

I don't know why I have been procrastinating blogging lately. I still need to finish the cruise pictures, and I never did mention Thanksgiving or anything else that has happened lately.

Before I forget, thanks for all the votes for giraffe, my pick. When I told Christopher he was losing, he claimed that "I was just pulling your leg anyway, I think it looks like a giraffe too." I told him he was only saying that because he was LOSING!

First of all, Thanksgiving was great. We went over to Christopher's Grandmother's house and had a big dinner there with about 30 people and food for about 70. Every year I make the same two dishes that I grew up with that they do differently, and I think I brought home about 3/4 of each of them. Which was fine by me, beacuse the next Monday I cooked our very own turkey and homemade rolls, and we pretty much had our own Thanksgiving dinner! I was rather proud. I have done the rolls before, but the turkey was a first for me.

Then, this last weekend, we went out to Disneyland with Digicert. (Looking at my blog sometimes, I realize that if it wasn't for this company, I would be sitting in my house every day twiddling my thumbs.) It was a blast! I don't think my kids are the optimal age for it yet, but they still had fun.

Before we went, I had one more craft project to finish. After having made T-shirts for my kids out of an old Digi-shirt, they asked me if I would make something for the newborn babies in the company. Rather than fight sizes for clothing, I opted for bibs. I think they turned out rather well!

Then we were off!

Christopher had to work the day we went, so I was on my own with the kids for that day. I was worried about flying with them by myself, but they were great. The first thing we did was the Carousel. Mostly I think they were just overwhelmed by the people and lights and sounds and colors and everything!

We saw Goofy, but this was as close as Kaitlyn would come. Tyler stayed in the stroller.


The problem was that our hotel room wasn't ready, even though it was nap time and the kids were dragged out of bed at 5am for the flight. So I kept them busy in Disneyland, until this happened. Poor souls.

After nap time, we headed to Bug's Life. I love that area- perfect for toddlers!

Then we found this ship to explore. I think it was meant for summer use with water guns to shoot and the like, but my kids were just excited to find buttons to push and things to climb on without having to wait in a line.

The next day we had Daddy with us, thankfully! We spent a lot of time exploring the island by the New Orleans area. Kaitlyn particularly liked pumping this spigot up and down- she cried when I pulled her away!

And they both love the ducks and birds all over the park.

We weren't planning on handing the kids paddles for the canoe ride- I assumed they would just chuck them in the water to watch them float away. But they dutifully attempted to paddle with the rest of us!

Then we had to head over to get my traditional clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch. I love watching Daddy play with the kids while I was in line for the food!

That night we had the dinner for the company, and it was wonderful. I wish I had pictures, but I was just keeping the kids in line the whole time! They even gave the kids these cute hats, and Tyler didn't want to take his off for bed that night.

The next morning we had breakfast with the Princesses in Ariel's Grotto. I don't know that my kids were all that impressed, but I thought it was fun! I brought Kaitlyn's Haloween costume to wear that day, because it was too cute to wear just once.

One of the random things our company did to entertain us on the trip was a photo scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun, and we did a lot of things we might not have otherwise- like the canoe trip! But it also got us pictures like this, for "riding the carousel backwards".

Can you feel their excitement for meeting Lightening McQueen and Mater?

Meanwhile, Christopher and I had a lot of fun taking turns on the "bigger" rides. He especially likes going with Kyle on the water ride here- and goofing off.

Of course, no day in a Tinkerbell costume would be complete without a trip to meet Tinkerbell herself. Kaitlyn liked the Pixie Hollow they set up for her to live in, and climbed right up on a flower.

Tink was great. She told Kaitlyn they needed to go flying together. :)

I would have pictures of our last day there, but it rained, and the last thing I wanted to do was drag my nice camera around. Unfortunatly it was a bit too wet to really enjoy, but we did get a few of the rides that usually have a long line crossed off the list. And as our last stop, we said hi to the Santa in our hotel right as we checked out. Bye Bye Disneyland!

Giraffe or Cow?

Today you get to help settle a great debate in our house. For the sake of fairness, I won't tell you which spouse is on which side of the debate.

Giraffe or Cow?

I bought Kaitlyn a backpack the other day (since she loves Tyler's so much), and it has a little pouch in the front for this little friend to hang in. In fact, the backpack is the same spotted fabric as the animal.

But what kind of animal is it?

For your reference, here are some pictures.

Giraffe. They have spots and the horn . . . things, but also a long neck and a nose, instead of a muzzle.

Cow. Spots again, and a muzzle. They do have horns sometimes, though they are curved.

So, take the poll! I think it is obvious, but so does Christopher . . .

The most wonderful time of the year!

Yup, it's that time of year again!


Egg nog time!


I have had a bit of an obsession with the stuff ever since I was a kid. I remember we weren't allowed to have very much of it, but we were always begging to get more. And now that I am an adult, I end up buying my very own little carton. In the worst manners possible (sorry mom) I just take one sip every time I open the fridge and let it run down slowly to my tummy.


Yummmm.


And, last year I discovered Gingerbread Egg Nog, which has a recipie on the side for pancakes. I was so excited to make those again this morning! The kids inhaled them, even after the bananas they ate while I was woking on them. (Gotta have some nutrition in there somewhere, right?)


And now, random pictures of Kaitlyn.

We don't know how, but she went to sleep in her jammies, and when we pulled her out of her crib the next morning they were on backwards. She even ZIPPED THEM UP!

I'm working on the hair, I swear. But she pulls out the ties a lot, and I don't want to loose the length . . .

It's all gone.

Well, I finally caved. I knew when I met my husband that he was loosing his hair. He had a good attitude about it- said that he hated the idea of doing comb-overs or Rogaine. "Just let it go, man," he said. I figured I could deal with that. After all, my four older brothers all had the same thing happen to them. But then, one by one, my brothers coped with it by buzzing it all off. Which was fine, for them.

And then they tried to get my husband to do the same thing.

And he loved the idea.

And I freaked out and cried.

So, bless him, he didn't do it, no matter how much my brothers tried to sneak it behind my back or something. I knew that it would be over someday, and that I couldn't stop it without going back in time and marrying a different guy. But I just wanted to cling onto the dream a little bit longer!

Then, for his 30th birthday a couple of weeks ago, I told him that he could shave his head. I had a few people seem up in arms that he had to wait for "permission" from me, as though this was some control issue, but let me assure you that this goes both ways. I used to enjoy dying my hair red in high school, but my husband doesn't personally like red hair on girls. So I don't do it, because I want to be attractive to him. Likewise, he was kind enough to wait until I gave him the go ahead to shave his head off.

The effect was even stranger given that he had his beard from Halloween still. So, without further ado, the before and after.




I had to work hard to find a picture of him without a ball cap on, but there you go. Christopher with hair. This was at the Vatican, in case you were wondering.

And Christopher without hair, this last weekend at our cabin. Hopefully the pictures are big enough you can tell what is going on.

I'm getting used to it, slowly but surely. He loves it even more than he thought he would. His family didn't really like it either, especially his mom. But his co-workers were so excited that he actually shaved it while he was at work.

Naples- Cruise part 3

The second stop on our cruise was Naples. Jon, the one in our group who served his mission in Italy, told us that Naples is considered the dirty and crime-ridden city of the country, so we didn't plan to spend much time there. The first thing we did was catch a train down to Pompeii.

I went to Pompeii on my last trip to Italy in High School, and I loved it both times! It is just an amazing thing to see. Everywhere else you go to see ancient sites, you have to learn how each government changed the building as they conquered the last group. But with Pompeii, you get to actually see how it looked in 79AD.

I took a million pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them. This is our tour guide, and I highly recommend hiring a guide if you ever do go there. I was glad we didn't purchase the Excursion from the ship, because buying the train ticket and hiring the guide when we got there worked out perfectly. But if you don't get a guide, you have no idea what you are looking at.

This is the part that is the most creepy to me. Basically, when they were doing the excavations they noticed air pockets with bones inside, so they would fill in the spaces with concrete before digging them out. What they found were the last moments of people's lives. Most of them died from the poisonous gas before the ash covered them up, so they most often have their hands over their mouths. Just amazing.

After Pompeii, we caught the train back to Naples. It was just in time, too. Pompeii wasn't crowded when we got there as they opened, but by the time we left at noon it was getting jammed. Since Naples is the birthplace of pizza, we figured we had to try some here.

And boy, did we. We each ordered one, since we all wanted different kinds, but they were huge!

Notice that mine, in the lower right, has an egg on it. Runny yolk and all! I figured if you are going to try something, you might as well go for it. And my verdict is to never put an egg on my pizza again. I have to admit that I preferred American pizza, as well. The thin crust had a lot of burned edges from the cool ovens they have, and the sauces were a bit greasy for my taste. But still worth the experience.

After lunch, we mostly just wandered around shopping until we got back on the boat. But it was a great day!