Christmas and FiRE!

Hey ya'll!  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas day.  We've had a great week (busy!), and have totally been getting in the spirit.  We started with a choir field trip to Shiloh Health and Rehab on Monday:

Even the facility was beautiful!  Aren't the wreaths in those big windows pretty?  Yes, Mary Claire is the one in white.  I'd like to think she did it to stand out..but she had to go check her blood right before the field trip, and forgot to go back to put on her blue choir shirt!

Still sings just as well without it. ; )

The kids were drawn to their big gingerbread house!  I think I'll build one like this next year.  I'll add it to my To-Do List. ; )  (it was made from cardboard and foil, but covered in Nilla Wafers and candy)

Choir is huge this year!  Love these sweet singers.

And then on Monday afternoon, we had the kids' Christmas parties.  For Mary Claire's party, we spent some time thinking of our furry friends!  We made doggie treats, tied edges on fleece blankets for the animals, and crafted little Shrinky Dink bone (collar) ornaments.  It was fun, and great to focus on others-what Christmas is all about!  We had to bake the puppy treats at home Monday night, but then we took them all to donate them on Tuesday..we even had donations from the kids' families for the shelter-BiG bags of dog food, more snacks, toys, and blankets! : )  I wish the entire class could have all gone with us to donate everything.  I hope the kids know they are appreciated. : )


Wednesday we stayed home to clean, do laundry, and got ready for another busy day: Thursday!  We took a family trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Ches' birthday.  We saw the new movie, Tin Tin, at the Imax in 3D!  It was a great movie..millions times better than Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked. ; )  Then we shopped at Babies R Us (still looking for a stroller/car seat!), had dinner...and picked up my new khaki linen swivel glider at Pottery Barn Kids!


I'd had a discount for 20% off anything IN the store..so I called to see if they had a rocker.  Long story..they did, but I couldn't use the discount on it..but it WAS 20% off since it was a floor model. : )  I bought it!  And then couldn't wait to get it. ; )  (and it's perfect!)

We saw Santa on Friday, and the kids each opened a gift early. ; )  Then we had Christmas Eve Mass together-love the church all decorated for Christmas!

Ethan opened a new Angry Birds game!  (Ches' and the kids' newest love!)

Fast forward to yesterday..I made a coconut cream pie, and needed to toast some coconut for the top (to make it prettier!).  I put it in a new cookie sheet, and put it under the broiler.  I got it too dark on the first try, so I kept the lighter brown bits, and trashed the rest.  Then, I tried again.  This time I set the timer for two minutes, and checked it at one minute (still white).  I started to eat some breakfast, and the next thing I knew...my oven was on FIRE!  I opened it up, and flames came out!  I guess the sweetened coconut had ignited?  (Is that possible?)  I started screaming for Ches to get in there (he was asleep!), and grabbed the fire extinguisher.  (I've never actually used one!)  I pulled the pin, aimed, and (wow!) put the fire out.

It was quite dramatic.  And then the smoke alarms went off, the kids were just sure fire trucks were coming, and then Ches came around. ; )  I had him take the burned coconut/pan out to the deck.  (It was so stinky and smokey!)  We opened the doors and windows, turned off the heat, and tried not to breathe in!


Then I had to google how to clean up after a fire in your oven (and how to clean up the fire extinguisher mess most of all!).  Come to find out..you can't use your self-clean oven feature.  You have to have the foam, and hand-scrub it.  I posted on Facebook that I needed oven cleaner..and a friend brought me some!  I know..Awesome! : )  She happened to be at Walgreen's right then (the ONLY place open!), and then brought it by since she lives pretty close.  What a blessing! : )


It totally threw off our plans for an on-time lunch, but we persevered.  After cleaning it up, we made some cinnamon toast (to absorb any odors and make it smell better!) and threw it away.  Then, on to our spiral-cut ham and sweet potato casserole! : )


Just thankful for good food, a working oven, friends (and Facebook?), joyful kids, and for babies.  Especially Jesus, the reason for our special season. 

I've never complained about a boring life.  Never will..ha!  We live quite an adventure here!


Hope your Christmas was especially merry.  Sending hugs and peace for a blessed new year.  : ) 

Decorating for Christmas!

Hey ya'll!  I have been a little sick, but pulling through.  I finally got an antibiotic today (since I was starting to have pain in my sinuses!), so I'm hoping to be all better in a few days.  I've slept a lot (yay!), but still got some stuff done.

I have decorated a little (got at least one room done enough, even though I gave up on ornaments!).  Unboxing and unwrapping each individual ornament got tiring...so I did all the kids' ornaments and easy stuff! : )

Here are some pictures of the hearth room!:

This would be Mama Bear's chair..and Baby Bear's chair!

..and Oh, Oh, Oh!! I got my new ivory slipcovers on!  But..now the windows need drapes. ; )

Oh.  You can't see any Christmas decorations in the dark of the shelves.  haha, oh well! : )

Well, the bottom is heavily decorated..but the top got to be too much for me!  ..And I got a few presents wrapped tonight! ; )

I also got a new tree on Black Friday!  We had given two away last year (one Ches hated putting together-but it was full and gorgeous, and the other was a 12' prelit, but the upper lights didn't work!).  It was an unbelievable deal (7 foot prelit tree for $39 at JoAnn!), and it was crazy how I got it (they were sold out, but it was returned..so Ta-Da!).  But, we got it home, set it up..And.  I knew why they took it back.  It was a Charlie Brown tree.  The small box should have been a huge clue.  Here it is before:

(sorry for the dark..it was just too much with the lights on!) (umm..I mean too Charlie-Brown-see-through-the-branches-like!)

But after layering tons of berry garlands, feather garlands, and ornaments from the inside to outside..it filled out nicely!  I'll keep it. ; )  Ches really wanted a tree in the front window since we really don't do outside Christmas lights, so this fit the bill.  (This will be the baby room in the future!)

And the last bit of decorating I managed?  A new wreath!  I don't know what I'll do with the old ones-it seems our attic is running out of wreath storage (according to the Facility Manager anyway).  The new thing (well, here anyway) is big wide (almost 2 foot!) ribbon/netting stuff to use as ribbon.  In fact, some wreaths are ALL netted ribbon stuff.  But..I had a new wreath, so I just added to it.  A big sign, some big red jingle bells, balls, red poinsettias, and a red bird finished it off.  Easy peasy.  Here it is now:

I prefer the Happy Holly Days spelling, but I love that it sounds like my name. ; )  I *love* Merry Christmas, but love to hear my name too. : )

Ok, that's as far as I've gotten.  I'll keep working..there are still so many Christmas tubs sitting all around.  I have to finish so we can have our floor space back! ; )

ps-Are you getting ready for Christmas?  Have you shopped?  Don't forget to buy for someone you don't know : )  There are families that need help, and food pantries need to be filled up!  There should be drop off locations at your church, and even at radio or tv stations, grocery stores, and your local schools! ; )

pps-And..don't forget to leave a comment for another chance to win the monogrammed kitchen hand towel giveaway!  I'll announce the winner tomorrow night after 9pm!  : ) I want to give something to YOU! ; ) Hugs!

Contest Continues!

Christmas was wonderful-family, games (we played a great game of Monopoly!), good food, playing with new toys, sewing, heehee.  What a day!  What did you do?

I have to review whenever I finally upload pictures from my camera-I remember what we've been up to!  I forgot to post our finished gingerbread cookies-we only found red squeezy frosting at Wal-Mart, so we used it, plus some white we made with confectioners sugar and milk (2.5 cups sugar to 3 T. milk)-it set up stiff too!

Yes, I see the spotty brown bananas up there too-I was going to make banana bread.. Ok, so we had tons of white frosting, and the kids had lost interest, so I did the last couple of cookies with big smears & zigzags of white frosting, don't look at those.

I have to say, they ate the smears of white frosting first-they were so thick with frosting!

On Christmas Eve, we went to the Children's Mass at church.  There was a year where I was making dinner for everyone, and it got crazy and stressful, and I couldn't figure out how we were going to make it to church plus get dinner on the table for guests (and we were trying to get pregnant I might add-with Ethan-and it didn't go well that month!), and it was the worst Christmas-Ches was MaD we didn't make it to church, and we vowed to never miss church on Christmas again.  We changed our plans up, we make Christmas DAY dinner, or we have pizza on Christmas Eve.  It has realigned our priorities, and I'm glad he put his foot down (he very rarely does this, so I listened!).  I think when your kids are young, you are still figuring out how to make it all work.  By the time they are older, you have a plan, and small things get easier.
We made it to Children's Mass, and the kids chose to not be shepherds and angels this year.  They are getting so big!  It was fine with me, I'm sure they'll join in next year again.
Here they are after Mass, our annual picture:

Mary Claire sat up so nicely, and Clay always wants to be right with Ethan, so it makes her look older!  Something else to work on for next year!  Last year we got a family picture, but we can skip one year. : )

We saw some friends after church (with grown kids), and the mom told me that I hadn't changed a bit since she met me (she just needs new glasses, I'm sure), and then her husband told me that you wouldn't even know I'd had three kids, and then she said, "4" to him, and I corrected and said, "3", and she said four again.  I can't decide what to make of that.  She got our Christmas picture card (with three kids), but Ches thinks maybe she means he's the fourth kid.  Of course to me it's cryptic, and means one of my babies in Heaven.  I could've added them all up and corrected again, but I didn't.  Some times you have to shut up and let go.  (Life Lesson 18)

One of our "make life easier on Christmas Eve" resolutions this year was to make dinner reservations-out.  We all went to PF Chang's for dinner (it was crowded! so I think other people have our idea? or we just caught on to theirs?), and it was wonderful!  Ethan was kinda walking/climbing around our booth-he was so hyper and excited for Christmas!  We couldn't get super mad-it was Christmas Eve!
Then we came back, and had ice cream cake for Ches' birthday.  Since we'd spent the day out alone on his actual birthday, we hadn't celebrated with the kids yet.  We like to do both for them.  Even on their birthday, we let them pick somewhere to eat, and that's usually separate from their parties.
Here's our birthday man:

Ethan couldn't take time to take off his coat-there was a cake on the counter!

Speaking of birthdays, Ethan's is on Monday!  He got his first card in the mail from his great-great aunt and uncle-they NeVeR forget my kids' birthdays, and we take pictures of them opening their cards and mail them pictures and thank you notes!  We love them soo much! : )

Big Four-Year-Old! (on Monday!)

And then, they stayed up late watching A Christmas Story (we knew they wouldn't sleep in their beds early anyway-they'd just play that rubber ball game of getting up fifteen times, so we let them stay up till almost ten!)


And Christmas!  They woke up around 2am, Ches sent them back to bed, then they got up around 6:30-good enough for me.  We got Ches up, and he video'd, and I took a couple pictures.  It's so much more fun to put down the camera, open, untie, add batteries, unscrew, add batteries, put together, add batteries, cut tape, pull things from stiff plastic, and add batteries!  Seriously, I went to Sam's on Thursday just to buy batteries-a big package of AA, and a mixed set of all sizes (including AA).  Guess what we don't have enough of?  Yep, AA.  We have to get more to make sure everyone's things work at once!  We were "sharing" to let everyone get a turn with their toys!

Ethan playing with Criss-Cross-Crash, his M&M's and opening his gum!

Did a pink bomb explode?  That little heart tin is my gift card from Brighton! : )  Can you see my new pans over to the right?

Thanks for taking a minute to smile!

And then yesterday morning, I remembered that my sister-in-law had asked for some towels..and I hadn't made them yet!  I got out my embroidery machine and hauled it up to my desk.  In transit, I accidentally hit the USB jump drive, bent it, and the little USB part (pretty integral to it communicating the designs with my sewing machine), broke off!  I was sad.  All those designs, fonts, etc. were gone.  I couldn't access the drive with the plug-thing broken off!  So, I sat and did two new designs for her: a lower case T (from my new baby alphabet!) in a double-frame, and the Love design (redone, so not exactly the same).  Then I started sewing in between making dressing, taking pictures, and getting ready!  The little T kept giving me trouble-the stitches were so tight and close together, the bobbin thread kept stressing out and breaking-good thing I didn't. : )  They are fine, and done! : )  She didn't look at them on Christmas, but I hope she likes them anyway-they took me almost four hours!  Maybe I need more practice.

Oh, I forgot-Ches and Mary Claire got their eyes checked on Friday (Mary Claire has to get her eyes dilated every year to have the blood vessels checked), and Ches needs driving glasses, I think he's farsighted?  He reads fine, but has trouble seeing far away.  I told him to wait so I could pick out his glasses! : )  I want cute rectangle ones-he'll be adorable in them!

Speaking of her yucky diabetes, she's been high!  I know, I know, it's the food.  But, I changed her site this morning, and she's still high.  It's so hard to get it right-especially on holidays!  She got lots of non-candy in her stocking: gum packs, chocolate-covered pretzels, juice, fruit snacks, Ken clothes, a movie, Build-a-Bear panties and purse, chapstick, new toothbrush head (she has a special toothbrush for her braces!), and yes, one "candy": an M&M tube.  I really think it's all the desserts and extras.  I'm praying we'll pull it together in the next day-she's high and irritable! (and it's contagious!)

**Don't forget to leave a comment to win our contest for a monogrammed acrylic tumbler to be given away on December 31st!  I have found a site that will randomize a winner based on an uploaded list.  It generates a drawing (or winner) for me, so it's fair!  All you have to do is leave a comment with your name, the color cup you want and what it should say (name, letter, quote, etc.).  How easy is that? : )

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Friends!  It is Christmas Day, but I wanted to take a minute to wish you a wonderful giving season, AND give you something!  I'm in a giving mood, got new Gingher scissors for appliqueing (thanks, Ches!), and I'll do a random drawing for a new acrylic monogrammed tumbler.  Just leave your comment/name below with what color/words you'd like, and I'll announce the winner on December 31st (I can't exactly monogram it today!) heehee

In the meantime, you can enjoy another goofy post with us! : )

This is the man who came to see us today!  He left great joy in our house : )

Ethan helping sift confectioners sugar for frosting.

Loves turning that crank!

We let them open one more gift on Christmas Eve-pajamas!

He got Woody (he's wearing out Buzz!)

I didn't know if he'd be too old, but he ran upstairs to put on the shirt I made him.  Think the design is a little small?  We all have a learning curve. : )

And then he wanted to look in the mirror, and get his double-barrel shotgun (I told him Woody has a small gun!)

Daddy got her Justice jammy pants, and I added a peace sign and her name. : )

Among other things I did yesterday..I made Sissy a bow to match her dress!  I started with these.

Made a star-she says she needs her bows to be smaller. : (

And..it's finished!  She did take it off once in church, but then put it back on.  My little girl is getting big.

I'll add a couple more of the kids at church last night later.  I must get my groove on and get ready to go to my mom's house!  Love you, Merry Christmas!

Infertility and Immaculate Conception

Do you remember that surgery I had back in September?  Well, we paid for it, then they billed my insurance (is it coming back to you?), and then I was supposed to get a credit.  Well, I got $859 of it, and somehow over $1200 has evaporated into thin air.  They can't tell me where it went, they just say it's gone.  AND they told my insurance company I'm "infertile" which means my insurance will pay NO MORE to this doctor.  Yeah, not good.  I don't think I'll go back there.  My last visit in September was $240.  Yes, they took that out of my refund too.  Ahh.."infertility" is so much fun.

So..today was a mess.  A mess of decorating (not-so-bad), and you could say I have really under-decorated.  I have over 20 tubs, and some I just closed back up.  I am not putting up another tree, so there's all that stuff (and I have tubs of red and tubs of ivory, depending on my mood!), and then all the ornaments from Pottery Barn that I usually add on to my garland around the house/table tops/mantles, etc.  I didn't put up all those glittery-cone-trees on my dining room table (are they out of style now?), and I'm really happy with the Less.  It's kinda like Clean Christmas. : )  (and there's the knowing that there's less to clean up in January!)


Today was a Holy Day for us: the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary).  She was also conceived without sin, and that's how she had a sinless Jesus.  Anyway, we had church this morning (I took Ethan), and tonight (Ches took the older kids), so it's been busy!  I also had signed up to take dinner to the three priests, so there's the teensy bit of pressure that it'll be good, and that there will be enough! : )  If I make dinner for someone else, I always try to make our favorites, the ones that always turn out well.  Makes it less stressful, and I'm very familiar with the recipes (and ingredients at the store!).  I made them Potato Corn Chowder with chicken, bread, and some pumpkin bread pudding.  We had the same thing, and it was good : )  I remember one time I made beef stew for some old neighbors, and I didn't taste it till we sat down to dinner, and I'd forgotten to add salt and pepper-it was awful!  I called them, and they were all nicey-nice, but it was gross!  I felt so bad.  I try to taste things before they go out, but sometimes I forget! : )

(It's so funny-a few years ago my mom and I went to see Late Night Catechism at the Walton Arts Center, and the teacher/Sister called on me to answer.  She asked me who the Immaculate Conception was honoring, and I said Jesus-Wrong!  She got all "mad", and embarrassed me.  Funny fodder now, but not-so-much then.  I must have forgiven her, because Ches and I went back a couple years later with a group from church to see the second one!)


I'm so exhausted.  I'm not sure if it's just the day-to-day stuff, or the added Christmas stuff, or if I'm worn down.  I sure don't want to get sick!  I try to take at least one day a week to go to bed early or sleep in (Ha!), but sometimes the best laid plans go awry!  Ethan has to go to the dentist in the morning at 8:50, so I have to be up and around before the kids!  That'll be a miracle.  It's so easy in the beginning of the school year, or even the end when the sun gets up early, but lately, I can't get out of bed!  Is it normal?


PS-the present-shaking has begun.  I labeled the kids' gifts with letters, but they are trying to figure it out.  (they may be on to me.)  It drives me nuts.  Don't they like surprises?