the jolly fat man in red

The jolly, fat man was good to my kids this year. They are spoiled, that is a fact no one can deny. They received presents from us (obviously), their Aunt Jackie and cousin Jason, from Grandma and Papa, Aunt Peggy and from their Great-Grammy and Grampy.

We were awoken by Anthony hitting Tom and telling him, "It's Christmas!" We told them to run and brush their teeth so we could wake up the sick child we call Alex. We all came downstairs and the boys jumped right into sorting presents and tearing into them. We set up the video camera and recorded the tree, which we hope that the boys were in front of for the majority of the time it was on. I haven't played it back yet, so I'm not sure how much good video we got. I took a picture of the tree this morning, but none of the boys opening their presents. I meant to, but about halfway through the present opening ceremony, Alex laid on me with his DS in hand and new DS game. So, I didn't move for a good 20 minutes or so.

It's been a lazy day, almost doesn't feel like Christmas since there isn't anyone to visit or talk to but who's here. Tom's Great Aunt S wanted us to come over today, but we just wanted to be able to stay in our pajamas all day and let the boys play with their new toys. It's cold and rainy too, I'd much rather stay indoors. We are supposed to go over and see her tomorrow.

It's about that time to start all the side dishes for dinner. I have to make a list later of what the boys got and from whom so we can send Thank You cards since we aren't there to thank anyone. Tom is busy playing CoD4, someone from his mom's house is supposed to get on to play with one of the boys. So we'll see how long he hogs the controller. lol

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

craziness of the season

I can't believe that it's been 9 days since I posted last. Where has the time gone?

Hubby arrived home a few days earlier than planned, although he did get stuck there overnight. The driver that was supposed to arrive to get them wasn't allowed through because of a road closure (or the fact that he didn't have chains on his tires, I can't remember). He did get home on Tuesday though, which made us all really happy. Now, if the people at work would give him the same benefits as the other 2 guys that went with him he might have actually been able to be at both boys holiday events at school. Maybe next time.

Our Christmas shopping is done. Well, with the slight exception of some stocking stuffers. Our gifts for family back in MI have been wrapped, packed and shipped out. Now I just cross my fingers and hope that UPS gets them there sometime before Wednesday. Tonight the hubby and I sat in our room and wrapped gifts for the boys. We are all done with what we bought for them. There is still a stack of things to wrap that my grandma had shipped directly to our house though. Our Christmas cards were mailed out as well.

Nothing at all intriguing has happened though. Just waking up to the same stuff day in and day out. The boys are out of school for the holidays though, I'm hoping to take them to the San Diego Zoo. Our landlords gave us free passes and they expire at the end of the month. I bet when the day comes to go the boys won't want to. lol They didn't want to do anything on our drive out to CA. Wish me luck. lol

I did have a chance to get a couple layouts done. I want to try to get some of the big events of this past year scrapped before I forget the details. I suppose if I don't get a chance I should get a journal and write it all out.

Our trip out to AZ.

Anthony playing in the snow in MI.

Anthony's 5th birthday.

Thanksgiving 2008.

Holiday Fun

I've been on a quest to find a few fun (and inexpensive) things to do with the kids for Christmas. I found some cute food things to make, but how many different kinds of cookies, cupcakes and other sugary goodness does one family need? Though I think we will be trying these cupcakes and maybe these marshmallows.

If I'm brave enough maybe these snowmen cupcakes and chocolate cookies too. They all look sooo good!

I want to make sure that we have things planned to do because normally we go back to MI for the holidays and we have plenty of places to go and things to do. This year, since we just moved and finances are tight we just couldn't swing flying to MI. So we'll be here in SoCal on our own for the first Christmas since Tom and I have been married.

I think Christmas Eve will be our biggest struggle because normally we spend all evening at Tom's uncle's house with his Dad's side of the family. The kids play with their cousin they only see at Christmas, we eat, catch-up with everyone, Santa comes and everyone gets something small from Santa and then more presents from the drawing. It's so much fun and I really wish we could be there for that. I'm not so worried about Christmas day since after presents we'll make some lunch and the kids can play with their new toys. I want to make the few days they have off before Christmas fun and not leave them to be entertained by video games or tv all day.

So I'm stressed to say the least. I know in the end it will all work out.

dirty dishes talk to me

Damned short term memory problem...I had a blip earlier in the day where I nearly had this whole post written out (in my messed up mind it was all written up), and now....nothing. A big.fat.nothing. Except that I know I had my sudden bout of fabulous blog entry dream seconds after I glanced around my ever-so-dirty kitchen and saw the mounting pile of dirty dishes. They were mocking me. They were talking under their breaths to each other when they saw the sweat beading on my forehead with the thought of getting them all cleaned. They thought they were so smart, the clean cookie sheets jumping into the sink to hang out with the dirty pizza pan. The quesadilla maker resting nonchalantly next to the sink after it had just dumped all of my clean forks into the saucepan with remnants of Prego mushroom pasta sauce in the bottom.

It's all I could do to control myself and not take a sledgehammer to the whole mess. Then that would have meant a bigger mess, and not to mention an explanation to the hubby and the landlord. So that destructive thought slowly drifted out of my head and the wonderful blog entry about it entered. Unfortunately the above mentioned nonsense was not the fabulous post I had envisioned.

I don't know what we're yelling about....

Anchorman....funny.

Hearing the line from the movie that hubby has as his ringtone...funnier.

Watching everyone look up and look around for hubby when we hear it....priceless.

lol

I finished and ordered our Christmas cards from VistaPrint earlier this week. This is what our card will look like...

The basic design is one of the free cards Michelle Coleman had available from Memory Makers. All I did was change it to fit in VistaPrint's 4x8 template. So, one more holiday preparation I can check off of my rather lengthy to-do list.

Thankfully my list of presents that I still need to buy is slowly getting shorter. For the boxes to our families I just need to get some pictures printed for the cd calendars that I am refilling for my grandparents & a gift card for my brother. Maybe too a 5x7 and 8x10 picture for my grandma & mom, maybe I'll have my grandma pick up a couple of frames so that I don't have to risk having photo frames in a box and getting broken. What a nice Christmas morning, huh? Tag with warning of possible broken glass.

Ah, well it's almost bedtime for the kiddos. I have cookies in the oven that smell wonderful. Too bad I didn't actually mix up the batter myself lol. The Wii Fit is calling my name once the big boys are settled down in bed for the night. Need to keep up with excersizing for a change.

$100 Target Gift Card Giveaway

I know alot of us could put a $100 gift card to good use. You can find out more information at Give Away Today on how to enter. If you are so inclined - please add me as your referring friend (Kelly Bommarito). Thanks!

photo contest

So, while not doing anything productive (while the overflowing dishes are calling my name, as well as all the folded laundry chillin' on my bed) this evening I ran across a post on Mommy Always Wins about a photo contest. So, I went on to read how to enter. I'm In Culture Shock says to post a portrait shot that I took, a fairly recent one - hope October is recent enough to be qualified. I'm sure many other way more talented peeps will enter, but I figured what the hell, let's do it!

So, here it is...

So, yeah...that's all for today...

That figures....and Thanksgiving re-cap

DH is going "out-of-town" for 2 and a half weeks. He's been at work for two weeks today. He was also slotted to go to some Master Gunner school in the beginning of the year. Now they are screwing with him about switching his company. The end of the work week last week someone told him not to worry about switching companies and that he'll stay where he is for a while - not according to someone else today. So, we'll see what happens when he gets back - both the companies that he might go to are deploying at some point next year, so hopefully we'll find out what is going on soon so that we can start to prepare.

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The Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone as quickly as it snuck up on me. Kathy and her family came down to hang out for the long weekend. They arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday morning. It was so neat to have us all in the same place. The kids got along like they've known each other forever. We ate a lot of good food, played some games and attempted to take some pictures.

How about some pictures...

The Thanksgiving Day spread.

Another one of the food.

Some yummy sweet potatoes.

The delicious turkey that Kathy slaved over.

All 9 of us.

The best picture of the 4 of them.

Jacob.

Ashely.

Alex had to get in on the action too.

Awww, aren't they cute?!

The only good shot of my boys out of 80.