Christmas Pictures, Installment Numero Uno

Tyler and Aunt Sally

Jeff and Aunt Sal

James reading the Christmas story with Chappy...this was one of my favorite parts of Christmas.  Every year, we read the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Grandpa used to read it, then Dad, and when my brother was old enough he did it too. Now that James can read, he got to participate. He read a few verses all by himself!

Tyler checking out his new play mat

James was quite thrilled to get a Wild West play set. It has kept him occupied for hours already.

Community Concerns

The community my Grandma lives in is pretty awesome. It has everything...from doctors, physical therapy, dining hall, art/woodworking/stained glass/upholstery studio, indoor pool, golf course, beauty salon, cemetery and more. They even have their own church and the residents take turns teaching and preaching. One of the things that most humored/depressed me at Penney Farms was the reading of the 'Community Concerns' during Sunday School. The reading of the Community Concerns went something like this: "Please keep Bertha, Gertie, Bob, Cleatus, George, Bunny, Harold, John, and 54 other residents in your prayers, who are suffering from bunions/hip replacement/bursitis/heart palpitations/diabetes/black plague." I guess that is why Grandma always tells me never to get old. Then they go on to read a list of the people who have passed away in the last few weeks. Talk about depressing. The lady must have read off ten names, when she stopped and said 'My, we've had a bunch lately haven't we?' I guess when you get of a certain age, you just start to expect that to happen, but still... Later, we were getting situated for the church service. A lady a few rows ahead of us had a hat perched atop her head that had definitely seen better days.  A couple sat down behind us, and made a joke about sitting behind us to keep us in line. Then the guy leaned forward and whispered to Aunt Adrienne, 'Millie's* hat looks like it got run over by a truck.' I thought that was hysterical, but I had to stifle my giggles for fear of being kicked out. Poor Millie. She needs to hit up the Resale shop for a new hat.

**Name Changed**

Armadillo Hunt

And so it continues, my Florida adventures...the Armadillo Quest. I have always wanted to see an Armadillo. Grandma said that you don't really see them that often. Occasionally as road kill, but mostly just by the signs they leave behind, AKA the annoying little holes in Grandma's yard. I kept my eyes peeled on our excursions, but had no luck. Newsflash! Armadillos are nocturnal. Who knew? So a few nights I looked outside near the front door to see if I could spot one. Grandma suggested that I wasn't finding one because I needed to be calling out 'here, Armadillo, heeeeeere!' I think that was more a sarcastic attempt to get me to make a fool out of myself, but you be the judge. On Saturday night I decided to do a little walking. I happened to be in my pajamas and bare feet, but no matter. It was dark, and after dark in a retirement community equals ghost town. So I wandered about, looking for armadillos. Just on the off chance that one would be wandering around, I wanted to see it! On my walk, I spotted a few tree frogs and a toad. Not exactly what I was going for. I got toward the golf course and away from the lights. I figured that was the best place to look, though I was getting a little creeped out at that point, mainly because I couldn't see a thing. Then, I saw a shadow right behind me. Eek! I turned around quickly, expecting someone to be standing there. Instead, two street lamps were playing tricks on me, casting my shadow at varying angles. After that, I decided to call it a day and go back before I stepped on an alligator and peed my pants. I never did spot my armadillo.

P.S. I did ask Grandma if she would care if I took her golf cart out at midnight to spotlight armadillos, and she said yes, but I decided that sleep was more important than a misguided late night joyride in a golf cart looking for illusive armadillos. Beside, how would I explain that one to the security people?

P.P.S. There are a plethora of geckos down there, which I happen to think are cool but Grandma HATES them. Every time we go in and out, we have to make sure not to let any geckos in. She keeps a designated vacuum in her house for the sole purpose of sucking up any trespassing amphibians. Once the offender is safely stowed away in the vacuum bag, she covers the end of the hose for several days to make sure it doesn't get out before it dies. 

Adventures In Florida

Well, the party is over and I am back home. I had a ton of fun with Grandma, but I was happy to get back and hug my peeps. Grandma and I stayed pretty busy, and mostly out of trouble. Here are a few of our adventures:

• Shopping at Resale! Resale is a thrift shop type place that is run by the people in my Grandma's retirement community. It is open two days a week, and there is usually a line at the door when it opens. Everything is very cheap. And since I know the right people (wink, wink!) I got in for my own personal shopping experience. I scored a number of things, including a very nice leather purse, a rather large yellow polkadot sundress that I will cut apart to make a dress for Katie, some vintage flower buttons, a cut-work hand embroidered table runner, a pair of like-new Liz Claiborne dress shoes...all for a whopping $12! I later scored a really cute dress for $3, pictures to come. 
• Playing Wii with Grandma. There is a community room at Penney Farms that has a Wii, ping pong, air hockey, and puzzles. (Side Note: We did a 1000 piece puzzle, and I remembered how much I love to do puzzles!) The directions on the Wii state that if you still can't figure it out, call your grandchild. Well, wrong grandchild! I know not how to run the Wii. So we roped some stray teenager into giving us a little tutorial on how to play. Grandma pretty much shamed me at Bowling. Then I creamed her in Tennis. After exhausting the possibilities of the Wii (translation: we couldn't figure out how to get the boxing game to work) we went on to air hockey. Things were going well. By my incredible skills and magic luck I was way ahead. The game was pretty hilarious, as is. I mean, whose Grandma is cool enough to play a lively game of air hockey with them? Mine! And then it all took a turn for the...well, you decide. Grandma shouted 'Look! Look out the window! A giraffe!' Of course, when someone tells you to look, you look. In the second or two it took me to figure out that she had said giraffe, and that she was pulling my leg, Grandma made a very well placed score straight in the goal! Cheaters never prosper, Grandma! :) After that, we couldn't stop laughing at the whole thing. Here we are, scoring only by shear luck, when she fakes me out and makes a well placed goal straight in the slot. That one couldn't be replicated again if we tried. So while I was still laughing, Grandma scored TWO more goals! And she beat me! She took away every last shred of my dignity. I tried to regain it by beating her at Scrabble, but one stupid move cost me the game. I do have proof, somewhere, that I did beat her at Scrabble last year. She is a force to be reckoned with! She and my Aunt Lynn are Scrabble masters. Actually, we did decide we are evenly matched at those word games (we played Bananas too). We kept pretty close in score throughout each game.
• And since this post is becoming a whole lot of rambling, I shall sign off for now and continue rambling tomorrow, when I will fill you in on my valiant quest to spot an armadillo.....

First Day of School/Air and Space Museum

Well, today is the first day of first grade...and if you get that Veggie Tales song stuck in your head, I apologize. It is still stuck in mine. James was barely nervous at all, just excited and ready to be back at school. May it continue! I still don't feel ready for the whole 'full day' thing...seems like a loooong time. I packed his lunch (homemade tomato soup at his request), made sure he had all his supplies and off he went. Off to big, fun first grade.

And in other news (or is this so delayed it counts as past history?), here are our pictures from the Air and Space Museum in Virginia. If you ever get a chance, you should GO! Admission is free, parking is $15 which is quite a deal for a carload of peeps. 

Really cool Blackhawk (I think?)

Space Shuttle

I think this was the first manned space capsule...don't quote me on that. From the 50's

Tail end of the space shuttle

This one was beautiful, wood and cloth

Hello, huge plane! (too big to fit in one single picture)

One of my favorites: Air-phibian (it can fly, then the wheels detach and it drives)

Spirit of Texas helicopter

The Real Space Shuttle: This one was amazing to see in person, and it is made up of small squares of material...it looks like a quilt up close.

Fun Times! (Finally...I'm Blogging!)

We were quite busy over the end of last week and the weekend. On Thursday, I took the kids to the Grange Fair and we had a lot of fun. They ate their first cotton candy, with mixed results. Katie didn't like it, and the boys ate it but I don't think it will be a favorite. The best moment came when Jeff got home from work, and Tyler excitedly ran up to him and proclaimed "Mommy bought us rotten candy!" While I was still giggling about that, Jeff replied that cotton candy was gross, because it is 'like eating a sweater.' And that pretty much made my day. The fair was lovely, as usual. I showed excellent restraint by only taking about 15 photos of the antique tractors. Katie is turning out to be a chip off the old block. She saw one she liked, and declared it 'go-geous!' Tyler wanted to drive them all. James really wanted to see the pig races, and he got his wish. Our pig never won, but it was entertaining regardless. I fell in love with a pretty milk cow and have now added that to my farm wish list. The farmer was so nice and let us sit in the straw with her and pet her for quite a while. He even held her tail so she wouldn't swat us!

Huge! And beautiful horse...one of a pair of percherons (I think...)

Ain't it purdy?

Katie not so thrilled with the cotton candy...'it has too much sugar in it' Yep. That pretty much sums it up.

Tyler ate cotton candy like it was his job.

Pig Races

My super-d-duper fan I got...I don't know why, but this fan cracks me up every time I see it.

On Friday, we dropped the two younger gremlins off at Grammy and Chappy's and headed off to Virginia with James. Tyler couldn't wait to go to G and C's and in fact, climbed up on the play kitchen and yelled at the clock to 'hurry up and move your hand so we can go to "ginia" because he couldn't wait to have a 'feep over'. The car ride down was...glorious....what can I say? No fighting, nobody said they had to pee, only a smiling gap-toothed boy who occasionally complained not being able to run in the car. In other words, it was the perfect car ride, if there is such a thing. We arrived at Rachel and Phil's abode and hung out playing Connect (probably spelling that totally wrong). I would like to say that I showed off my video game prowess but the truth is, James kicked my butt. And Jeff's. Funny thing is, I think he has played video games a grand total of once in his life. Saturday morning, Jeff and Phil ran together and then Rachel and I went on a run. It was so much fun! Afterward, we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which was totally, completely amazing! We got to see and stand under the actual Discovery Space Shuttle, as well as see a ton of other planes. It was so cool. I will post pictures of it as soon as I can get them off Jeff's fancy new smart phone. Until then, here is a picture of James and Uncle Phil chilling with Henry. :)

Bacon Roses, Etc.

I think we've all settled back in nicely after the craziness that was VBS and having company. However it seems I keep forgetting I have a blog, thus the lack of updates. Here are a few random bits from the last few weeks:

Shelly had seen bacon roses somewhere and wanted to try them. Why not, I say! So we hit the grocery store for bacon and the dollar store for fake roses. They were remarkably simple to make, and pretty hilarious. Shelly wants to make her prom date a bacon corsage, so we decided that her qualifications for finding a prom date now include the willingness to find prom attire at the thrift store to avoid ruining a suit with bacon grease.

So...these pictures...it all started when we finished the wolf shirt (post here). I was taking a few pictures of Shelly in her flashy new shirt, and it all went south from there. He, he! Johnathan took the pictures and we just goofed off for the camera. Shelly scored the sombrero at Amish Walmart for only $3. Everyone needs a sombrero, right? The funny thing about these pictures is that the whole time, Shelly kept saying 'you have to post these on facebook! They're so awesome!' and I kept saying 'I'm too old for this! I can't post ridiculous pictures of myself on the internet like this!' In the end, I did post a few (she has the photo shoot in its entirety on her page...) and it totally made her day. :)

While the kids were here we took them to Five Mile Woods, which is a pretty nature preserve near us. I decided not to tell Johnathan that salamanders lived there, because I knew he would stop and turn over every.single.log in the place. That kid is a critter magnet. Although I do aspire to actually see a salamander in this area someday. I have only heard they exist...

Other than that, we've been keeping busy sitting in front of the air conditioner, visiting the library about every other day, or more, picking stuff out of the garden, and finishing TWO chapter books! (By The Banks of Plum Creek and Old Yeller...if you must know)

**P.S. I think I am up to almost 70 pounds from the garden so far. I am nearing the point where I will be hauling stuff in by the bucket every day. And I've said it before, but eating fresh garden tomatoes every day, all day, is one of my favorite luxuries!

Really Old Squirrels

On the day that I set up for VBS, Jeff bravely took Johnathan, James, Shelly and Tyler to the Franklin Institute in Philly. I kept Katie with me. While at the museum our nephew Johnathan wandered over to a lady who was giving a lecture. He listened intently for more than 15 minutes. When he came home, he told me all about it. He said there was this lady, and that she was talking about some really old squirrels. He listened and listened as she talked about the really old squirrels. Then she started talking about how they had writing on them, and he began to get confused. Writing? On a squirrel? She asked what they thought the squirrels were made of, and he answered that they were made of hide. She told him that while there were a few made of hide, most of them were made of parchment. It was at this point in the conversation that I realized he wasn't listening to a speech about really old squirrels, but really old.....scrolls. Dead Sea Scrolls! Needless to say we all had a good laugh about that one. Dead Sea Squirrels! :)

The Saga of the Cheese Steak

Note: We spotted one of the few remaining pay phones in the US. An overly helpful homeless chap informed us rather loudly, not once, but three times! that that pay phone didn't work.

Yesterday we put our niece and nephew back on the plane for Colorado. I have mixed feelings about all that. Shelly and I had a blast together, and I miss her already. When the other kids were in VBS, we went off on a few adventures. One day, we dropped the kids off at 9am and drove straight to South Street in Philly. South Street is this eclectic, funky, edgy place...not really sure how else to describe it. It is home to the famous Jim's Steaks. If you are in Philly, the first thing you think of when you hear 'steak' is not a steak in the traditional sense...as in T-Bone, rather it is thinly sliced steak fried on a ginormous griddle and thrown in a hoagie roll along side some 'whiz, as in cheese whiz. The thing you must know is that you can't just meander into the place, spend an hour gazing at the menu, and then mosey up to the counter to order a 'cheese steak with cheese whiz, and...oh, mushrooms sound good. And peppers! Yes, that would make a mighty fine sandwich.' Jim's is usually incredibly busy and manned by some pretty intimidating grill sergeants. Ha, ha! I just made that up. Anyway, the first time we were there Jeff took too long to order and got yelled at. I was so afraid of the wrath of the steak man that I ordered exactly what I heard the person in front of me order. Usually the line at Jim's is out the door and it takes a while to get to the counter. Guess what?! There are precious few people brave enough to eat a steak at 10:30 in the morning. With only one group in front of us, I was feeling pretty fine. Then, one of the GINORMOUS grill sergeants looked at me and said 'Ma'am, with summer school in session we aren't allowed to accommodate school age children until noon.' Now I was taken aback and thought for sure he must be kidding. I asked him as much and he looked at me and said 'Do I look like I'm smiling? I'm serious.' Well, he sure wasn't smiling and he sure looked intimidating, but still! I asked him one more time if he was serious and he said yes. I asked him if I could buy the sandwich and leave the store with it. He gave me this 'I'll let you just this once look' and said yes. I was mentally shaking my head, but also didn't want to tick off GINORMOUS grill sergeant so I just stood there. After a minute or so, he looked at me and told me he was just messing with me. Oh, funny, funny! So I ordered our steak 'wit wiz' because that's the way a Philly steak is meant to be I'm told. My GINORMOUS grill sergeant buddy then harassed me about not ordering a beverage. He kept heckling me about it, but all I could think about was that I was approximately an hour and a half away from a bathroom that wasn't infested with herpes, and didn't want to push my luck.  But how does one explain that to your new-found but intimidating buddy? You don't. After a little back and forth, he went to the fridge to get Shelly's water, and grabbed another one for me. It's 'on me' he said, just in case you get thirsty. Thanks, GINORMOUS grill sergeant buddy, thanks!

P.S. All our adventures were part of our YOLOcoaster campaign. I am not really up on ye old young people's vernacular, but apparently YOLO is the new slang for 'You Only Live Once,' which can surely be used as an excuse to indulge in all manner of sketchy and destructive behavior. We, however, used it as the motto for all our fun adventures, and bonus points for actually being able to remember it all later and with no time spent in the slammer. Woo!

Cousins

Being the super Uncle that he is, Jeff decided to dress in his Sunday best to pick up our niece and nephew from the airport.

I don't think they were too surprised, coming from Jeff. Apparently he ended up getting chatty with a Chinese guy, convincing him that this was the trendy thing to wear. The Chinese guy told him that he didn't look right. Somewhere in the conversation Jeff also got to get the guy to neigh like a horse. I really wish I could have witnessed that whole conversation. Poor guy probably went back to China wondering at the state of Americans these days. We have been having a lot of fun with the kids and I am happy to report that the VBS decorations are set up with only minor mishaps. I'll post pictures another day.

Chappy, Garlic, Etc.

A few pictures of Katie and her Chappy

The kids love their Chappy

And I must say, he IS pretty awesome!

James' Class Picnic

My little farmer helping me harvest the garlic

I've never grown garlic and didn't know what to expect, but boy, was I ever surprised when I dug it up! 27 huge heads of garlic weighing in at about 12 pounds total, all from 1 pound of seed. 

The garlic weighed an average of 7 ounces per head, with a few weighing in at a half a pound! I am going to give the credit for this phenomena to the lovely composted chicken manure I added when I planted them. 

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

After spending the last few weeks basking in the glow of Christmas cheer, I am forced to admit that the party is over. Grandma went home yesterday. James started back to school today. Jeff is back to work. We really enjoyed having family around and checking fun things off our Christmas to-do list. We even made Jesus a birthday cake, albeit a few days after the traditional day. It was quite amusing...Katie helped me with the cake, and she did the frosting and sprinkles. When we were admiring her work, James came in and asked if he could have a piece. I told him yes. Katie looked up at me and said 'But I thought we made it for God?!' James fired back with some comment to the affect that God wasn't going to actually eat the cake, and that he didn't like cake anyway, he liked fish. :) Other fun highlights of our Christmas festivities include:

• Playing tiddlywinks with Grandma (that game is way harder than it looks!)
• The whole family reuniting in a little Rhythm Band awesomeness (a tradition from our childhood...Grandma and Grandpa made instruments for all the grandkids and we would play Jesus Loves Me and others with our home-made instruments)
• Finally having someone to play Bananagrams with! Oh, how I love Bananagrams. Jeff, however, does not. 
• The girls (Mom, Grandma, Nikia and I) going galavanting through the countryside to New Hope and a few other places. It was awesome!
• Baking, baking, baking! And eating, eating, eating!
• Did I mention eating? And Dad made omelets. Omelets! That pretty much means I was in butter-dripping bliss. 

In other random news, Jeff just might be able to double up this semester and take two classes, which would hopefully mean he would graduate!!!! We are praying that everything will fall into place for this, because it would be so nice for him to be done. (Remind me I said that in a couple weeks when he has classes two nights a week and homework all the other days, OK? Thanks!) 

And The Winner Is....

For the last few Christmases, we've taken the kids to the dollar store to pick out gifts for the family. They each choose a gift for their aunts and uncles, Grammy and Chappy, Grandma and Aunt Sally. They really pick some hilarious gifts. Last year's highlight was a magnetic mirror, which whistles at the reflection upon opening the little plastic door. Katie picked that out for Chappy. This year, James took the win for creative gift giving. He picked out three gifts that may tie for first place as far as odd gifts go. First, he bought Dad a roll of trick toilet paper. You can never unroll it. As soon as he saw it hanging there in the store, he proclaimed 'I'm getting this for Chappy!!' and put it in the cart. He couldn't stop there, though, and also picked out a pair of slinky-like eyeball glasses also for Chappy. When he saw a package of three pairs of redneck teeth, he picked them up for Grandma. I thought it was funny at the time but I had no idea there was logic behind the purchase. When Grandma opened them, he told her he got them for her because she had lost a tooth. That kid has got our sense of humor for sure! I can only imagine what Tyler will pick out next year when he is old enough. No doubt it will be awesome!

PS. James was so proud of himself for picking out a pen for Jeff at the school store. He got it so Jeff could use it at work. When Jeff opened it, we realized it was inscribed with 'Mom.' :)

And A Good Time Was Had By All...

Phew!

The Christmas festivities are winding down and we are left with a pile of wrapping paper and a lot of good memories. The older I get (ha, ha! cracks me up to say that...) the more I think I appreciate Christmas. I love celebrating the birth of Christ, spending time with family, and watching the kids experience the special times. This year I think the kids are understanding more about the meaning of the season, and of course they get excited about all the festivities that go along with it. We have had a lot of fun this month, and I am happy to say that we have checked all but two things off our Christmas fun list. Tomorrow we are going to make a birthday cake for Jesus, which will leave only one item left on the list. More pictures to come!

Christmas Ornaments

My bird ornament collection: I had to get creative and hang them from a branch on the ceiling this year to keep them away from the Tylerist.

 I know a lot of people have a tradition of buying an ornament of significance every year. We do too, although my Mom may have taken it to a whole new level. We usually end up with several new ornaments each year, each with a memory attached. It is so fun to take each ornament out and remember the story. Some of the more unusual ornaments we have were ones my Mom made for us. I believe my brother has a small wagon with a few of his teeth glued in it. My sister has one with a piece of the body cast she was in as a baby. (She also has hip dysplasia, like Katie.) I have one that was made from the horrendous contraption I had to have in my mouth because I couldn't stop sucking my thumb. I like the way she made it look so cutesie. Don't be fooled! That thing was awful.

But now, it makes for an awesome and very unique ornament!  (It is missing a piece on the side now)

I seem to have carried on the tradition, because I have already made my kids some strange ornaments. I stuffed fake pine boughs and pine cones into James' baby shoe, and glued a bow on it to signify the year he learned to walk. I had the doctor cut a small piece of Katie's second cast to be made into an ornament. He was kind enough to let me pick where I wanted to cut, and I chose the ankle, where she had worn through the cast dragging herself around. Can't forget that!

 

I made an ornament from James' NICU bottle, and inside are the cables they had him hooked up to to monitor his breathing. This one always makes me so grateful that he is here and healthy!!

This cupcake ornament has the best story of all our ornaments. I got the idea to post it from my friend Linda, who posted her favorite Christmas decoration today.  When my Dad and his siblings were young, Aunt Sally have them this ornament. Never mind that there were three of them. Somehow this ornament became kind of a fun joke, and it was decided that whoever married first would get the ornament. For my parents wedding, my great grandma wrote and read a poem about the soldier. When Jeff and I got married, someone added verses to the poem and my Aunt Lynn read the poem at our reception, where we were presented with the cupcake. Now it sits high on our tree so the kids can't reach it.

 

And my favorite Christmas decorations of all, the stockings my Grandma cross-stitched for us!! They are not pre-printed. Every single thing is made up of teeny-tiny stitches. They are so beautiful.

  

And now I'm off to finish this dress! I don't think I want to wear it with the pins, but Jeff's Christmas party is coming up and I had the brilliant idea of making my own dress. Well, it would have been brilliant if I did it like a month ago. Now I have way too many projects to finish before Christmas. Oi!