Thursday, December 31, 2009

Gingerbread house

When I was little, my Grandma Foreman received Good Housekeeping and I can remember the December issues, where they showcased gingerbread houses. I so loved those gingerbread houses.

Fast forward to 2009 where I decide to attempt my first gingerbread house. Now I fully know and understand my limitations, so I opted for the store bought kit. This is theirs...



This is ours....




The experience was quite frustrating but at the same time Mac and I had a great time trying to figure it out and Charlie enjoyed eating the frosting.



I resolve to try again. At least I have 11 months to figure out the game plan.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Darkness

Sunday night the power went out and for a moment there was silence. The sun was setting on our day, on our snow covered lawn and for a brief moment there was a sense of peace, well being and pure golden silence. I have to admit I really don't like when all is quiet. I always have to have some kind of background noise, whether it be music, the TV or the noise of my children, there is always noise. I think sometimes I'm afraid of the silence, it lets my mind wander most likely often to places I don't want to go or are afraid to go. But on Sunday it was perfect, exactly what I needed. It only lasted for about 2 minutes, the silence that is. Within minutes I hear childre freaking, WHAT WILL WE DO with no lights...it's getting dark the power is out.

Even though it was short lived, it was beautiful...

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Recap Christmas 2009

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone for another year. I will admit that I don't do a good job of capturing photos on Christmas. I like to enjoy the day and the people I am with and seriously, how many pictures do you need of people opening gifts. However, for posterity's sake I do want to capture some of the moments.

Christmas Eve my parents came over and we had a few appetizers and dessert. Nothing fancy, however I did make my first attempt at bread pudding and by all accounts I believe it was a success. About a year ago, Jay and I had one of our rare date nights where we ventured to Raglan Road at the Power and Light district, in which I had the best dessert I have ever had...bread pudding. All i can say is
oh my goodness. Smooth, creamy, warmed baked bread with caramel and whip cream...oh my

Anyways I digress, back to Christmas...

We had a White Christmas...it started sleeting Christmas Eve which turned into snow by evening that continued till about noon on Christmas. So lovely...

At 4 am, Charlie came into our room proclaiming that Santa was here. He could hear him eating our cookies as well as the reindeer bells. Love that! We got Charlie back to sleep but we were all up about 6:30 ish, and both boys could hardly wait.

After present opening, viewing and inspecting we made and ate monkey bread.

Spent most of the day in PJs, being lazy, enjoying the new gifts and enjoying each other

Headed to my parents where we concluded the festivities with a dinner and a few more gifts.

Christmas 2009 was pretty darn close to my Norman Rockwell vision.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas in Indy

Christmas in Indy is always special. We made it Independence a little behind schedule, but other than that, the weekend was perfect. Last year we started a new tradition to have the family Christmas the weekend before Christmas. While it still feels like we're settling into the new tradition, the weekend was a blast, full of great food (although there were some missing regulars :)), wonderful conversation and the peace you get when you're surrounded by family. I'm so lucky that I married into a family that I love as much as my own.

Although painful, Jay's family has a wonderful tradition of taking family pictures of each of the families after dinner but before talent/presents. I am missing some shots of Debbie's family so I will have to remedy that by getting shots from Stevenie or Nicole.

Jay's Grandma Pete and Grandpa Bud
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Grandma and Grandpa with the cousins (including Anderson)
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Jay's Immediate family
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The O'Rourke Gang (Charlie pretending that's his family)
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we missed you Alicia and Giacomo but can't wait to see you next year.

Talent (the story of Jesus' birth) 1 great narrator
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and 2 awesome angels
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Chocolate birthday cake and Happy Birthday for Jesus
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Friday, December 18, 2009

Procrastinating

Yes, that's what I'm doing. We're planning on getting up early and heading to Independence by 8 am and what am i doing? Lets just say I'm not exactly packing, but rather creating my 2009 movie (year in review, like a scrapbook on video)and surfing the web, you know important things.

In selecting my pictures for our year in review, i found that i have a strange fetish with taking pictures of my feet. You need proof?
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I really don't like feet, but looks like I like to take pictures of them. I'm not a writer, not good with words, so I'm sure this will sound corny, but as i look at these random pictures of my feet, it makes me think of a bigger picture, of where these feet have taken me in the last 36 years. They took me to 6 different states as a child (the number of times we moved growing up), to airplane rides with my Grandpa, Blackberry picking in the hot humid Missouri summer, to a month in Germany as an exchange student, climbing the KU hills to get to class, to meet my groom on my wedding day. They carried the burden of an extreme weight gain with baby Mac, heck I couldn't see my ankles at month 5, they carried me through 2 half marathons this year.

I wonder will these feet will take me next.

On a completely random note, totally listening to "Two is Better Than One" by Boys like Girls with Taylor Swift. Yeah loving that song.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Pay it Forward

This morning I had a meeting with the Boss, and being that it was finally Friday (yes, it's been a long week) and it was pay day, I decided to treat myself to a little Starbucks. So I'm in line, and instead of taking my entire purse into Starbucks, I only took a credit card. I place my order, go to pay and realize that I don't have my debit card, in fact I had grabbed my corporate card. So I say, I'm so sorry, let me run to my car to get my debit card. The gentleman says no big deal, we'll get your drink going. I run to my car, run back in and get in line to pay for my drink. It's my turn to pay when he says, "You're covered, don't worry about it." Remember, I say, I needed to pay for my drink. Nope, the lady who had been standing behind me, paid for my drink.

I can't begin to tell you how happy that simple gesture made me. It made me so happy the kindness of a stranger, that I wanted to cry. Yes, I know it was only a cup of coffee, but it's the big picture.

Pay it forward people, pay it forward...Even if its simple, pay it forward.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Free computer anyone

Ok, a good friend shares, right? Just thought I'd let ya know that there is the opportunity to win a free computer if you go here.

No School?

Last night we were dusted with snow and while these pictures were taken this afternoon, this is basically what it looked like this morning.

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Pardon my dirty railings.
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Really...no school, school was cancelled for this dusting. Now I will admit it's very very chilly (like 13 below zero with windchill) but no school. Wow!

Monday, December 7, 2009

HO HO HO

Saturday we went to visit Santa. Charlie didn't go last year, he was just fine viewing Santa from a distance but this year, he could hardly wait.

As we were waiting in line the following conversation took place:

Charlie: What does Ho Ho Ho mean?

Jay: It means Hello in North Polian

Charlie is next, he was so excited he just could not stand it

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Charlie and Santa
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Of course after our visit several questions were raised as to the location of Santa's reindeer. I deferred to Jay and his response was not quite as clever as the meaning of 'HO HO HO.' I think it was something like the reindeer were hiding since they don't see people often, we might scare them...Charlie seemed to agree.

I love the magic of this season.

For the record Mac opted out of having his picture taken with Santa.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving recap

Warning: An assortment of pictures to follow.
If there is such a thing as perfection, this weekend would have defined it. Perfect food, perfect weather, rest, reflection, time spent enjoying each other and the simple things life has to offer.

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Now, I just need to get back on the wagon.