Holiday Meme

I saw this over at Life's Little Adventures and just had to participate!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate with cinnamon and whipped cream

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? He wraps them.

3. Colored or white lights on tree/house? White lights on the tree up until last year when T1 insisted on colored lights. No lights on the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, I don't have any.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Generally a week or so after Thanksgiving. I'm running a bit late this year but the tree IS going up today.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Christmas dinner. Sometimes it's turkey and dressing, sometimes it's ham. No matter what it is I love it!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Waking up on Christmas morning and seeing what Santa left in my stocking!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth about Santa? Is he sick or something?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Family gifts on Christmas Eve, Santa gifts Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Colored lights with red and gold balls and a collection of ornaments that the kids and I have added each year.

11. Snow - love it or dread it? I love it if I don't have to try to get out in it. Hate driving any distance in it.

12. Can you ice skate? Never tried.

13. Favorite holiday movie? Santa Clause 1 and 2. Can't wait to see Santa Clause 3. My favorite holiday TV special? Charlie Brown Christmas

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family and Friends.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I love all the holiday treats. Chocolate dipped pretzels, white chocolate and peppermint pieces, chocolate chip cookies....YUM!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going to Grandma and Grandpa's and spending the night Christmas Eve. It's just not Christmas unless it's at Grandma and Grandpa's!

17. What tops your tree? A lighted angel.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I love seeing someone open a gift I know they'll love so definately giving!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Silent Night, The Holiday Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire).

20. Candy Canes, yes or no? Yes, peppermint all the way.

I tag anyone who reads this!

It's a Miracle!

Well, sortof.

Although I have already updated the one person that actually reads AND comments on my blog, for those of you that lurk (and I know who you are) we ended up getting 10 inches of snow overnight. School AND work were cancelled and I spent most of the day fielding phone calls and trying to dig us out.

My back, legs, and arms hurt from shoveling and I'm still not done. I should go out tonight before my muscles really rebel, but I'm going to wait until morning to at least do the rest of the driveway. This is one of those times I wish my kids were older so they could help, hubby was able (he has a back injury that prevents him from shoveling unless he wants to be bedridden for a week while he heals) or that we had a snowblower.

Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow, but if all goes well I will be home before noon. If it doesn't I will likely be home around 12:30 with about 2 hours of 'extra pay' this week to tide me over. Since I won't actually have WORKED more than 40 hours the 2 hours is paid at straight pay. That is if my boss will let me take vacation time for today. According to her I was expected to limp into work and risk going in the ditch so our members could do the same just to get their money? Unbelievable.

A few pictures from today:


T1 in the snow. Look at the snow on the picnic table!


T2 with a piece of snow off T1's boot.


Nevermind me mom. I'm just going to grind this into the carpet, k?

Here Comes The Snow

It's coming. Later tonight, while we sleep. The biggest snowstorm of the season (so far).

It's supposed to start around midnight and continue until around noon tomorrow. Total snowfall predicted: 8 to 12 inches.

I hate snow. No, actually, I like snow. That is, as long as I don't have to GO anywhere in it. Unfortunately, because we live in the Midwest, it takes a monster snowstorm to cancel work and school so I can actually enjoy it. I would love to stay home with the kids and drink hot chocolate, make snow angels and a snowman and then snuggle together on the couch.

Instead I will probably be taking BOTH kids to daycare (because school will be cancelled but work will not) and slipping and sliding my way to work at 6:15 tomorrow morning to cash everyone's payroll checks. Yay joy.

STUFF!

Alright, I'll admit it. I have too much STUFF!

My tiny 2-bedroom house doesn't have enough room in it for all my stuff. Every corner has something in it, most generally consisting of things in bags. I just don't know what to do with it all. I don't want to get rid of it because it's MY stuff. But I really need to. Most of it I haven't seen in YEARS, not just months.

Just for the record, my mother is the one to blame for my having all this stuff in the first place. She diligently taught me never to throw anything away. Now I have a whole housefull of things I still can't throw away, and right now it's really bugging me.

Too bad it's 1:30 in the morning and I don't have the energy to do anything about it.

Not For the Weak of Stomach

We have officially been bit by the 'bug'.

Two days ago I picked T2 up from daycare just like I always do and drove to the school to pick up T1. When I got home, R was in the kitchen trying to find something to snack on before supper. I asked him if he wanted to make chili and he said that sounded fine if we had everything on hand to make it properly. After consulting our 3 different storage places for the canned goods (only one of which is a cabinet), we determined that we did indeed have enough on hand to make chili.

The boys were playing on the living room floor and suddenly T1 exclaimed 'T2 puked!' I went into the living room to investigate and found 2 small spots on the carpet that looked like he had bent over and his stomach couldn't take it. Definately not 'puke' in my book, just spit-up. I cleaned it up and dismissed it. Bad move. About 10 minutes T2 came over to me and I stooped down to his level and gave him a hug. He started gagging and puked just a little bit, but I could tell he wasn't done. I scooped him up and ran for the bathroom and he finished getting sick in the toilet. Poor little guy. He didn't know what was going on. He got sick about 3 more times and I called grandma to come in the next morning and I went to work.

I got a phone call from R around 7:30 the next morning and he scared me by telling me that T2 couldn't keep anything down, so I called the doctor and quickly made an appointment for the earliest time I could, which was 10:30. I notified my boss I would be leaving early, cashed out my drawer and came home to a report that he had held down some water but nothing else.

The doctor's visit was pretty uneventful, T2 was starting to feel better so we went home and waited for it to run it's course. Grandma came up today and took care of T2 again, T1 went to school and I went to work. All was good.

That is until about 4:45 this afternoon, at which time T1 says 'I'm hot and my stomach hurts'. Here we go, I thought. T1 started throwing up around 7:00 and was in and out of the bathroom at least 8 times, finally ending with dry heaves. When I told R that T1 was now sick he told me he didn't feel the greatest either. About an hour later grandma called and said she had the sick too.

So I'm staying home from work tomorrow, and I'll be next, I can just feel it.

Halloween Recap

What a hectic week! I meant to have these up earlier, but life got in the way.

The skeleton says 'Hi'!



The dragon looking cute for the camera:




And a Halloween kiss for everyone:



Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! I know we did!

Definately Worth $9.00

I did end up taking R something for lunch on Saturday. Which. he. didn't. even. eat. Until Sunday. I guess I tried.

I did, however, use the trip as an excuse to treat myself and the kids to McDona*d's drivethru. I got a happy meal for T1, a cheeseburger meal for me (since I wasn't really SUPPOSED to eat anything but SOFT foods) and chicken nuggets for T2, figuring he would just share my french fries.

I should have gotten him his own fries. He ate nearly ALL of mine. He loved them so much that he tried to eat the ones that had fallen on the floor and had been thrown in the trash. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of him. He seriously had one in his mouth and one in each hand all at the same time.

It was priceless.