Christmas Eve!

As always, Christmas and presents are a HUGE affair around my family. 

We started Christmas Eve day with Zoe's and Hayden's first presents... new beds from Grandma and Grandpa. My mom, sister-in-law, and I took Hayden and Zoe out for lunch while the guys waited to have the mattresses delivered then had to put the beds together. We weren't quite gone the whole time, so when we got home we had to bring the kids in with their eyes closed and put on a movie in the den while the beds got done.

Zoe being surprised with her new bed... not sure that's the look I was going for...



Now that's a good look...



Finished!  A few changes have been made since... no swag, picture hung, few wall stickers added.



Completed!  Twins to fulls.



Christmas Eve included mine and Jonathan's family, plus 4 other friends and their families... totalling about 23 adults and 13 kids. Wow! Want to experience the chaos? Check out the pictures.... We litereally piled presents in front of each kid and said "On your mark, get set.... GO!"  It was awesome.

And here's some better pictures....

Mom and Leslie



Great Grandmas!



Cheryl and yours truly



Aunt Carrol and Mom



Hmm... and what's happening here?  (Grandpa John, Tom, and Grandpa Jim)

Josh, Zoe, Brody



Our only family pic this year... hmmm....



Ha!  We tried to get all the grandkids and great grandkids (present) with Great Grandma... not too bad...





Zoe with Hannah and Josh



Hayden next to Josh (Zoe and Hannah in front, Morgan in the back)





The last to pictures are before the chaos started.... and I've sorely missed some pictures with other people.  Hard to enjoy myself AND take pictures.  Plus, holding a glass of wine makes it rather difficult too.  :)

After the kiddos we played our gift exchange, White Elephant type, game afterward with the adults.  THAT is the best part of the evening... can't wait till next year. 

  

Neener neener....

From my husband (who, by the way, completely blew me away with his choices this year), I got this for Christmas:

       

and this...



So, if you don't hear from me for a while, well.... you'll know what I'm doing.... 

Zoe's first field trip

As always, I'm a little behind in my blogs.  I almost forgot about these pictures until I went to look at our Christmas pictures... which are actually still on the cameras.  Later blog to come.... much later knowing me.

So, Zoe's first field trip was to the Broadway Palm Theater in Mesa.  I only had Zoe and another little girl in my "group", so it sounded fairly easy.   Until we had to take a group shot and Zoe decided she didn't want to be in pictures, acknowledge I was her mom, or that I was actually a teacher amongst the other parents whose daughter was not listening.  Needless to say we had a short talk in the bathroom, and it went rather smoothly after that.  Have I mentioned how head strong and stubborn my child is?  Wow.

We saw Aladdin Jr., which isn't really about a junior Aladdin as the title might suggest, but actually just a shortened version of the Disney version... smooshed from 1.5 hours to 1 hour, and no Abu.  Very cute actually and loved the singing.  The Genie closely resembled my hair stylist and I keep meaning to ask him if he moonlights as a short blue man....

Here are some pics:

Just one more day....

... till Christmas Eve!  I think I'm more excited than the kids!  Just finished Christmas Eve service with Leslie and her family, my parents, my family and my brother (oops... forgot to call him!).  AND then had the WORST dinner service at NYPD.  You sadden me NYPD... but I got to see Taylor Lautner's lookalike so it was still ok.

What the Eve entails...

• 21 relatives
• 12 friends
• included are 13 kids
• beef brisket!
• homemade pinto beans... plus TONS of other delicious dishes
• wine
• cookies... yum!
• kids decorating cookies for Santa
• gift exchange game... fun and hilarious!
• kids opening gifts
• coffee with bailey's
• ... and good fun....  What could be better!

Presents are wrapped.... stocking stuffers are (almost) wrapped... (Do you wrap them?  Always thought it was fun to unwrap more gifts.).... Santa prezzies are ready....and as I type, my husband is out shopping for me (it's 9:25pm)... at least it's not Christmas Eve yet.

Have a Merry Christmas.  Can't wait to post pictures!

Sledding...

This is how we kick it in "winter".

I forgot....

.... to visit Zoe's preschool singing performance and craft time, even though I was completely free.  Instead I did lesson plans.

.... to send in a book for the book exchange, so she came home with a book meant for those forgetful and lame parents.

.... to send in treats for the movie day in Zoe's class.

.... that Zoe's teacher was going to be gone on Friday, which is the day we sent in her gift.


Umm... Mom of the Year... again!

Christmas Traditions

I decided it was probably time for another blog... since I'm so faithful at it... just.kidding.

Ok, so I'm stealing this blog form Karen since it was a fabulous idea, but I'm also answering her question at the same time of what MY traditions are... and what's more, it IS Christmas, so how can you not go into traditions!?

Ok...

Traditions... in no particular order...and not including the ones I can't think of, which I will add when I can...

• Decorating the tree... and house (which honestly consists of a few random snowmen and the stockings above the fireplace)... the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.  I know... very early, but it has to be because the day after is taken by shopping!... which, side note, I did not blog about this year because, well.... I'm lazy!  I really should though....
• Making frosted sugar cookies with my mom and Zoe.
• Christmas Eve at my house.. .which now has the new tradition of the gift exchange game... VERY fun and entertaining, and so much easier than drawing names and trying to figure out what to get.
• New pajamas Christmas Eve, to be worn when opening presents Christmas morning... just starting this one this year... and thanks to Grandma for already buying the pajamas.  Zoe and Hayden have matching pj's with their new cousins Taegon and Devon.
• Christmas morning breakfast... LOVE this one.  We actually started this years ago when we would visit some family friends every Christmas morning.  It consists of biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes, fruit... and maybe bacon.  Delish!
• Gift exchanges with Jonathan's family... which is chaotic and never the same, so I'm counting it a tradition that every year it's something different... Last year we drew names, this year we were told who we got.. .and who got us.  Weird....
• Ornament exchange with my 3 besties.... Kim, Leslie, and Tiffany.  We have been doing this for at least 5 years and we always go to Oreganos. 
• Zoo lights!  Although we haven't made plans to go this year, I'm just assuming we will...

Ones I want to add...

• Nutcracker
• Teddy Bear Tea at the Ritz Carlton (although I could add it this year it's $35/person which somewhat saddens me.. .because for Zoe and me to go, I could just as well buy a new pair of shoes!)

My New Favorite Salad...

.... is Couscous Salad.  Wow.. just yum!  Thanks to my friend Jessicca.

Not a Couscous fan?  Try this ...

1 box couscous, cooked as directed
1 cucumber, sliced and seeded
1 read bell pepper, chopped
1 small can sliced olives
1 can chick peas
1/4 or 1/2 red onion chopped (depending on how much you like onions...)
1 container crumbled feta cheese
olive oil and basalmic vinegar
salt to taste

I love to make this and then eat a little every day at lunch.... AND even Jonathan likes it.

#33 Disneyland... AGAIN

My mom surprised Zoe and I with an all expenses paid trip to Disneyland in October this year!  Woo hoo!  We went over Fall Break... just my mom, Zoe, and me.  It was fabulous!

Top 10:

10. Being with just Mom and Zoe.
9.  The Fall decorations... seriously amazing!
8.  Listening to Zoe ask how much longer ever 10 min... no joke... on the drive there. 
7.  Meeting George... the biggest sheep I've ever seen.  PS... Did you know Disneyland had a petting zoo?
6.  The vanilla iced coffees.
5.  Trying to figure out with Zoe where her name was on Jack's list... at the Haunted Mansion... all 6 times we rode it.
4.  Listening to Zoe giggle on all the fast rides.
3.  Pizza and salad at Pizza Port... every day.
2.  It's Disneyland.  Nuff said.  AND 5 days of it.
1.  Having my child spit on another child, then having the parents harrass me and threaten to spit on Zoe.  And hearing my mom call him a jerk. Just awesome.



One of Zoe's favorites... Matterhorn!





This is George.





At the parade (getting wet) at CA...
no idea why she wanted her blanket that way...





Another favorite... Thunder Mountain Railroad



Diva



And, yes, another favorite... Splash Mountain. 
Do you see a theme?  Sorta matches her personality.





Pobably getting ready to spit....



I mean, seriously, is this kid cute, or what??



#94... Run in a 5K... Nope, make it a 10K

In an earlier post, I noted how my dad somehow conned me into running with him... running in a half marathon no less.  So, we thought to get ready for it we could run in the Phoenix 10K... along with my friends Leslie, Bre, Rhonda, Sarah, and Kristen.  Two weeks before the run, my dad pulled a muscle and couldn't run... how sad!  He still isn't able to, but we are hoping he'll make it for the half in January.

The day started with my clock being set on day light savings time so I was 40 min. behind... luckily the girls came back for me.  :)  We made it on time... with time to spare to hit the porta potties... thank goodness.  As I mentioned before, I am a SLOW runner... and I proved it by being the last of our group to cross the finish line.  But, I did run the whole way so I figured I did pretty well.  However, that last mile was somewhat challenging, which makes me wonder how in the WORLD I'm supposed to run over twice that much in 2 months.

Anyway, we celebrated with a HUGE breakfast at Saddle Ranch, complete with mimosas and bloody mary's... Yum!

101 in 1001

Jonathan and Zoe were at the finish line waiting for me... sadly we missed each other at first... but here are some pictures from their adventure...

Jonathan's perspective....

Zoe's perspective via the bike trailer....and the back seat of the truck....