Our Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I had an awesome Christmas!

My parents and Big Papa came over to our house on Christmas Eve for gifts and appetizers. The food was yummy and we had a great time together. Big Papa and Papa watched a movie while the rest of us hung out. It was really nice to have everyone over.

It was just the 4 of us on Christmas morning, opening gifts, having sweet rolls later on and napping later on. I swear I have the weirdest kids - they woke up about an hour after I did!

The kids made out like bandits! Nathan had Christmas at his mom's house last weekend and he got a Wii. (Sweet ass Jesus I wish we had a Wii. Tax time is coming though!) Comparatively, it's hard to live up to a Christmas where a kid gets a $300 gaming system, but we tried.

Nathan's big gift for this Christmas was an acoustic guitar. For his birthday we'll buy him stuff so he can learn how to play it, but for now it's really beautiful and sounds amazing. He also got 2 PS3 games, some clothes, books, candy, a new wallet and some board games.

Katherine's big gift for this Christmas was her Fun2Learn Computer Cool School from Gigi and Papa. She really loves it! We also got her all 5 Yo Gabba Gabba plush characters. Those are her favorite things. She got a Life Size Barbie and she loves that one too. She also got regular barbies, clothes, art kit and drawing kit, books, puzzles and candy.

Jonathan told me not to buy him anything, so I didn't, but the stinker went out and bought me a new set of knives! I love them completely. When I opened them up I thought I had a stroke since I couldn't feel my face for a good 2 minutes. It was the best gift and I love them!

Jonathan and I got clothes and body stuff from my parents and a new king size comforter from his parents. Coupled with the fact that we were all able to be together on Christmas, it was a great holiday and we were very lucky.

After Christmas, I was able to have my cousin Steven come over. He's been visiting the last couple days and we've had a blast, especially Nathan. We don't have extended family around here, so when they do come over, it's always fun.

I was also able to go see Sarah and Jackson, which was the first time seeing Jackson. What an adorable boy! Katherine fell in love with him. Sarah took pictures of the two of them playing, so hopefully those will be up on Facebook soon!

Katherine took a picture of me while I was folding clothes last week and I saw how HUGE I am. I'm not happy. I knew I was gaining weight, but this is ridiculous! So Jonathan and I are going on the South Beach diet together starting next Wednesday. This will be something that will help me to feel better about myself and be healthier for me. I'll also look better so that's a plus.

Tonight is New Year's but I don't have any plans except for to get drunk on Crown Royal and Coke and watch movies! Maybe not drunk, but I will drink some. =)

So with my new goals and achievements for the new year, I will start 2009 with high hopes!!!

Posted new pictures on Facebook... here and here. Enjoy! And Happy New Year!!!

Santa RULES!!!

I found the Yellow Robot today at K-mart. WOOHOO!!!!

Holy Christmas, Batman!!

Well, Christmas is less than a week away and I still have gifts to buy. My brother and his lady friend are coming in from California over the New Year, so I have time to buy for them. But as for the other people on my list (Jonathan, My Parents, Bill (found out I'm not done with him)), I still have until this Wednesday. And before my mother tries to say that I don't need to buy her anything, I'm almost 30 - quit bossin'! =P

Well, we had Slimmen Christmas last weekend, and what a weird sensation. I left feeling like Christmas was over. We usually have Slimmen Christmas on Christmas Eve, but couldn't this year. Coupled with the fact that Nathan wasn't able to be with us at Slimmen Christmas for the 4th year in a row, it just wasn't the same at all.

And, considering my brother is in California now, our Christmas schedule is really screwed up (according to me). But the bright side is that my parents will be coming over to spend Christmas Eve with us, hopefully starting a new tradition. I love entertaining, especially my parents, because I love cooking good food for people I love. I'm fat, isn't it obvious? =D

We took Katherine to see Santa at Wal-mart two weeks ago as well, and boy was it bad. They had some 30 year old guy (REALLY YOUNG!!) dressed up as Santa, sitting on a bench handing out leftover Halloween candy. Talk about ambience. So Katherine is asked what she wants for Christmas, and I'm hoping she says doll, car, doll car, game; any one of the items that I've already purchased would be nice. Instead, she says "Yellow robot, please". Yellow robot? Yellow ROBOT?!? What the heck is a yellow robot?!?!?!?

Finally, after trying to figure it out, I go to the internet. Nope, no yellow robot comes up. Darn it! So I'm talking about this with my parents and Ed says "is it on a cartoon she watches?" It hits me! Yo Gabba Gabba's Plex the Yellow Robot!!! She has Toodee, the blue plush, but she doesn't have Plex. So I go to the store where I've seen Plex. None! None at Wal-mart, Meijer or K-mart. I'm in a panic still because it's 4 days to Christmas and the only place I can find them is online and it won't be here before Christmas even if I had ordered it a week ago. ARGH!!

Believe me, I'm still trying to find them. And I WILL find them.

Snow Days! We've had 4 so far this year, and Katherine hates them because they mean no school and no friends. She loves school! We're so lucky. We had parent-teacher conferences last week and they said that Katherine is very well behaved, although a bit impatient when it comes to waiting her turn. She can write her name so nicely and she can do the ABC song, but can't identify all of the letters. Those she can identify, she can tell you the sound and name a word that goes with the letter. So I'm working with her on identifying and writing. And she loves to read!

(will write more later!)

Thanksgiving, then Black Friday, then Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Happy Holidays everyone!

Last week was Thanksgiving. And it was wonderful! I got up early and made some desserts - Pumpkin Pie Bars and Pumpkin Pie. (They were both delicious!) Then I started on the big item - our turkey!

I brushed it with butter and olive oil, put in a bag and put it in the roaster (unstuffed) for almost 3 hours. It was so moist and so delicious! This was followed up by the preparation of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed yams, whole cranberry sauce and biscuits. Yummy!!!

It went so well, I was able to take a nap at 3 pm until 5 pm. It was a wonderful day.

And I stayed up that night until 1:30 am. Then I woke up 2 and a half hours later to go shopping on Black Friday. Now I've never done this before - either we've been completely broke or I've been working. This year we're only semi-broke and neither of us are working. So away we went to shop for some deals.

Black Friday was a complete nightmare at Wal-mart. People were animals! They were running and pushing and just plain rude. I got nailed in the head with a Barbie car, I had my fingers pinched in between my cart and some ladies' ass and I got told by several people to give them some product that was "blocking" them from getting on their own. Aceholes.

But I did end up getting some deals there. Waited for an hour in line to check out, but finally made it out of there. We moseyed on over to Meijer afterward, and it was soo much nicer. The line was not even an issue, there were plenty of items and it was just a gentle let down from the insanity that was Wal-mart.

After both stores, we went and grabbed some breakfast, then headed on home. Katherine slept for 5 hours. I wrapped presents and then took a nap. I was intending to set up the Christmas tree that day before Nathan had to go to his mom's, but she called and rearranged the trade time, leaving us with no time to decorate. So I waited until yesterday to put up the tree and start decorating. Saturday I just cleaned out Katherine's toys and made room for the tree. Here is the before photo:

Yes, those are the gifts that I bought on Friday and weeks previous. I haven't purchased all of the gifts yet, but I'm working on it. Next week I should be able to find the rest of my gifts and be done with it!

So anyway, yesterday, while Jonathan went to get Nathan, Katherine and I put up the Christmas tree. We decorated, lit and had the angel up by the time the guys got home. And it's pretty good looking, even though we have yet to put the bows and the garland on it yet. Here's what it looks like:Yes, Katherine's wearing a dress. This is the only picture I can publish, since the rest of them, and the video, she kept flashing her underwear... that's my girl.

So Christmas is coming up. In addition to buying for my immediate family, I also buy for my parents, my in-laws, my siblings who keep in touch and for the names we drew for the Slimmen Christmas. So far, I've got nothing done except for Katherine, Bill, Steven and Grandpa Slimmen. While I only have one gift left to purchase for the rest of them, I'm nervous that I won't have enough money to drive them their gifts! =) No bother, it will work out.

So I"m off to look at my pretty Christmas light and hang out with the boys, watching CSI reruns. Fun stuff!

Katherine's Birthday - Part 2

Katherine Anne finished off her birthday festivities yesterday. And I am super happy to do so. =)

Thursday, I got an e-mail from Katherine's teacher saying that Katherine was complaining that she didn't feel well. Since that never happens, I was very concerned. She came home and seemed fine, but Friday she woke up with a fever, coughing, sneezing, etc. Needless to say, she didn't go to school. I also canceled her friends' party - the last thing anyone needed was to send their child to a sick child's party. Not fun!

Friday I spent running around and making cupcakes and cakes. And, like their predecessors, they were pretty darn good. Although, I'm glad I'm done with cupcakes for a while. They're great, but I need a break to appreciate them.

Saturday - I made homemade macaroni and cheese and baked macaroni for the party, along with easy cheesy salsa dip. The pictures from the party are here. My family came and Jon's parents came to help celebrate Katherine's birthday. Lots of conversations and playing around. It was great!

This week is Thanksgiving - Thursday we'll be watching the parade in the morning and then having dinner in the early afternoon. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, yams, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie - yummy! We'll also be watching the Lions game. Go Lions!

Then Friday we will be decorating for Christmas!!! Christmas tree, lights, stockings and putting out the presents we already have. Katherine and I had the privilege of seeing several Christmas light displays while driving this evening. She squealed with delight everytime we saw one. A Christmas tree, a bush decorated. They all look beautiful! We are both huge fans of Christmas, so we will be having a fantastic time this Friday and the rest of the Christmas season. The music will be allowed too! =)

Katherine's Birthday - Part 1

Katherine, my little angel, turned 5 years old last Saturday. We had an amazing day. It started out kinda slow. We stayed up past midnight to make cupcakes and Katherine was so excited. Heck, I was excited. It was her birthday!!!

For the record, I stayed up until 3 am making Raspberry Jell-o cupcakes, but I forgot to take a picture. So, here is a picture of the ones I made for her class the day before.

And yes, they were as yummy as you can imagine. They were delicioso!

So anyway, back to Katherine's birthday. This year Katherine's birthday is very confusing. There was the "party" at the school, where I sent treat bags with invitations to her home party, some candy, sunglasses, treasures, a notebook and crayons, along with her cupcakes. Everything seems to be a hit.

Then there was her actual birthday, where we had a visit from Gigi bearing a funny card. Then we were going to go out for pizza, games and bowling at The Gate. Oh, before hand, Daddy took Katherine to the store and let her pick out 2 toys, one of which Gigi had purchased, which is cool. (We paid $17.99 at Meijer on Saturday - Gigi paid $7.29 at Wal-mart the day before. Not cool Meijer, not cool.)

Well, we got through the Gigi visit and Katherine was only a little disappointed that she wasn't going to Gigi's house, but only because I was always convincing her that we were going to the games. So we get to the Gate (3 pm in the afternoon on a Saturday) and it's dark, cigarette smoky and crowded with adults. So we're can't bowl. We run through the alley part to the kids section (why is that at the back and not the front?) and almost all of the games were broken. Talk about crap. Plus, Katherine plowed through 5 bucks in 5 minutes. Not right!

So Jonathan had a brilliant idea - let's go to Chuck E. Cheese's! So we did - we went down to Alpine Ave. We got in there and had to wait in line a bit, but it was so worth it. We ate pizza and took turns running around with Katherine. She loved the crane game, but I didn't get a picture of her on it. But I did get pictures of her on pretty much everything else. =) And guess what? It took her 3 hours to plow through 5 bucks of tokens. That's awesome!

Afterwards, we went to the theatre next door and saw Madagascar 2, which was so funny. The theatre was virtually empty (there were 11 people in the whole place) and so Katherine walked up and down the rows picking out her new seat, all the while through the movie. She was quiet, though, and really enjoyed the movie.

After a long day, we headed back to Big Rapids, but stopped in Cedar Springs for a movie and something to eat. It was a long long day, but the best time. Katherine was so excited to go home, when we pulled into the exit, she screamed "HOME!". It was very cute.

Well, this weekend is the Family and Friends party, and then Katherine's birthday will officially be over. We've only gotten an RSVP from one of Katherine's school friends, so I don't know how fun that hour will be, but once her friends go home we will have family over for games and food. I'm scatter brained as to what I have to do yet, but I'll get there.

Keith Olbermann speaks to us