Christmas time is coming....

Not sure if I am ready or not and it's coming way to fast! If you must know I am not all that fond of Christmas or any holidays in general. Not sure why, but somewhere in my teenage years I don't know I just lost the happy, happy, joy, joy of it all and it became a burden. I haven't decided if having kids makes it better or worse...

Anyhoo, the kids had a snow day on Wednesday and this was my opportunity to tidy them up and put them in front of the Christmas tree for a few photos. This is my fav of all three of them, yes Carter is trying to get away, but oh well he is smiling. And yes if you are wondering that is the one and only Christmas tree in our house this year. I LOVE IT!!! Not that I don't sorta enjoy the real trees we have had in the past, it's just this year there is a little monster living here and well I wasn't in the mood to be cleaning up dumped over Christmas tree over and over again all through the month of December. This tree is perfect, it gets knocked over we just stand it back up again no harm done! And Linds and I made it, that is we painted and screwed the bottom on. That's gonna be a cute scrap page.

So this morning I got an email and I wanted to post it here, cuz I liked it and again it brought a few happy tears to my eyes. It's a letter to Santa from a mom -


Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.Yours Always,MOM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

November 24-25, 2007 - we went on a mini trip...

Well after all that fun of black Friday I guess I needed to relax a little and would you believe it Jeff had some free time too! We packed up the kids and headed just south to Dubuque, IA. The fact that we were in a different state (even if it was only 50 min away) was a totally cool thing with the kids. We stayed at the Grand Harbor Resort which was next to the Mississippi River Museum, that's where the top two photos are from. The first one's from inside a monster catfish! The museum was pretty cool, we saw lots of catfish and other river creatures, plus learned lots about riverboating. They also had some neat looking stuff outside, but it was a little cold so we may just have to take another trip in the summer.

The hotel had a nice sized water park area (nothing like the dells hotels, but nice), and even though I brought my camera along I didn't take it out to get any wet pictures. I guess sometimes I just need to play too. Took Carter down the waterslides, I think he liked it, Jeff was at the bottom watching and he said Carter was smiling. I also did a little bit of relaxing in the hot tub, that was spectacular!
This last picture is of the fabulous carmel apple treats the hotel was doing Saturday night, fresh apples dipped in warm carmel and then your choice of sweet, salty treats to roll them in. Can it get any better! I just love this picture of Linds, check out the carmel in her teeth, hope the dentist doesn't read this, LOL!!!