a package deal: Christmas & New Years

i have one word for Christmas this year: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

cause it was so much more than just plain super! it always starts at my aunt's house for christmas eve dinner and the singing of christmas carols. after that we drive down candy cane lane to see the houses with all the lights. {the kids' favorite is the one that you get to tune into the radio station and the music and lights coordinate...it's my favorite, too.} but this year, by the time we got home, Alec was out like a {christmas} light and would not wake up for anything. not even to open his christmas eve jammies. so we staged him for the photo...he couldn't be completely absent, that would just be wrong. angel and i still had a few gifts to wrap so i put the christmas music on and we wrapped like crazy. luckily the kids got up christmas morning at a decent time for me...7:30am {thank-you kids} they opened their stockings, ate a bunch of candy, and then we headed over to my mom's house with the rest of the fam. bubba was ecstatic to receive the huge Bakugan pack, grace fell immediately in love with her "just like me" American Girl doll {which, by the way, she named "Natalie" because it means 'christmas'?} and alec received his long awaited Ben 10 Alien Creator. life was good.

then we told all the kids we had one more christmas present for them and had them sit on the couch together. we put the DVD on and watched their faces as they one-by-one realized that WE were going on the Disney Cruise! they were super excited especially when we told them we were leaving in 12 days! woo-hoo!

and the 12 days seemed to fly by. the next day, my brother and his wife kathrine, and their kids riley and emma flew in and we exchanged gifts with them. the four little boy cousins got a 4-pack of transformer walkie-talkies which were a HUGE hit and they spent the rest of the day in different rooms communicating via bumblebee, megatron, optimus prime, and ratchet. grace got a beautiful china dress that matched cousin emma's.

before we knew it was new years eve and we were back at mom's for our mexican fiesta. we made homemade tamales, played a few rounds of Tripoly, and ate our hearts out till midnight.

{grace is the only one who lasted to ring in the new year...she felt like a big girl}

then we came back the next day cause we didn't stuff ourselves enough the night before. we had the best smorgasboard of all our favorite football-watching foods....sweet & sour chicken wings, blackbean/avacado/corn salsa, 7-layer bean dip, crab dip, meatballs, fruit salad, and so much more. pure bliss.

.....next post: the DISNEY CRUISE!

Mystery Madness

So i promise to get to christmas and the cruise...but a good mystery trumps a family vacation any day, wouldn't you say?

Cause there has been a mystery in our house for sometime now. Get ready for it. . . . . . . .are you ready?

Here it is: the spoons are missing

This was my silverware drawer last month....missing said spoons. So i look in the dishwasher, AND the sink. How many spoons do i find, you ask? only 3!

3 spoons!!! when there should be at least 12...so what do you do when the spoon supply is dangerously low? you take your confuzled mind to IKEA and buy 8 more spoons to replenish the supply. but somehow there are still not enough spoons to go around. somehow, the spoon shortage continues. the spoons are M.I.A.

this is what the silverware drawer looked like this morning when i went to give alec a bowl of cereal:

So i look in the sink...and the dishwasher. I find 4 spoons----TOTAL! and i think to myself..."self, didn't you just buy 8 spoons at IKEA to add to the 3 we had, for a total of 11 spoons? why are there only 4 to be found?"

i had no answer. i was confounded.

so i washed one of the 4 spoons and gave alec his bowl of cereal. 10 minutes later i hear him put his bowl in the sink and i go over to wash off the spoon he used so there will be at least ONE clean spoon in the drawer.

but there is no spoon in his bowl.

and there is no spoon in the sink.

so i ask the child: "Child, where is the spoon you used?"

he answers: "it's there!"

and being the good detective that i am , i say: "no--it's not, come show me!"

so he comes over and opens the door under the sink.....where we keep the garbage

and he says: "see--right there!"

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he is right.

it IS there.

in the garbage.

he has been throwing away our spoons just like he does when we're having ice cream at Cold Stone or Dairy Queen.

but really, if you know this child of mine, does this remotely surprise you?

me neither.

i will not relay the conversation that followed this discovery...it's classified.

i will just say: MYSTERY SOLVED

For the "outdoor-deprived-stuck-inside-all-day-ers... "

This post is dedicated to all my California friends who are need a little cheese with their whine about "all the rain". All I have to say about that is: try living in the Pacific Northwest!

Moving on to better and brighter things, I'm happy to be blogging again! A very sad thing happened to our hard drive....it died, gave up the ghost, and took with it all my precious photos, music, you name it, it's gone. {so i guess that's not better and brighter} but the good news is that we had it replaced with a bigger and better one and i'm happy to have a working computer again. So now i have to catch up on our fun family happenings, but first, this post. Like i said, dedicated to anyone who needs something new and exciting to do with their kids that doesn't involve a lot of effort {my kind of activity :-}

If you read the blog "This Week For Dinner" you'll recognize it....

Have you ever made playdough and had to keep a hawk's eye on your kids when they try to sneak it in their mouth? {hmm...maybe that's just my kids}

Well, no worries with this playdough! It's easy to make and fun to eat when the creativity is done!

Here it is:

-1 cup peanut butter

-1/2 cup honey

-2 cups powdered sugar

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and you're done! Store in an airtight container or plastic baggie with air sucked out of the bag. {quick tip: spray your 1/2 cup with oil before measuring your honey and the honey will pour much easier.}

ENJOY!