Counting Down to Christmas Day!

Well, it's almost here and Christian is bouncing off the walls with anticipation. We've been counting the days off on the advent calendar since Dec. 1st but as it gets closer you can feel the excitement building. Grandma GoGo's gifts have all arrived and are under the tree. Their arrival took the excitement level up a notch or two. He only has a half day of school tomorrow. His school is having a holiday puppet show and then Shane and I are picking him up at noon.

All week long he has been doing all kinds of seasonal projects at school. They are all so cute and will be put away in the memory box.



After we pick him up tomorrow we'll be heading home to do our Christmas baking. Christian is very excited to help me decorate the gingerbread men and the sugar cookies. In addition to those cookies I'll also be baking snickerdoodles, thumbprint shortbreads with raspberry jam, Reese cup tarts, peanut blossoms with hershey kisses, rice krispy treats, coconut macaroons, chocolate fudge and maybe peppermint patties if I'm feeling adventurous. I love to bake for the holidays. It always gets me into the spirit of the season.

All my shopping is done -- only the wrapping left to do. Our spare bedroom looks a bit like Santa's workshop filled with shopping bags, boxes, rolls of gift wrap, bags of bows....

I'll blog more later about the baking and preparation over the weekend. Hope your holiday spirit is in full swing!!!

Kudos to Gordon

I think it's high time to pay some respect to our cat Gordon, especially after what he did last night. But, first, let me start by telling you that Gordon came to live with me about 12 years ago when I was single and living alone. I've described him as being the world's best house cat. Aside from the occasional hairball, he has never caused any harm. He has never clawed up a single piece of furniture -- the only thing he ever scratches is his scratching post -- and he barely sheds. He has the most docile temperment, even after we brought home that "little human creature" almost five years ago and threw a real wrench into his existence. He has adjusted and even grown quite fond of the little rugrat.

Well, this morning was much the same as always. I woke up around 6ish and groggily walked down the hallway toward the kitchen for my morning cup of coffee. It was still pretty dark at that time but I could clearly see Gordon laying at the end of the hallway stretched out on the floor and what looked like a small hairball laying close by. I walked past him, not really looking down, and went straight to the kitchen and grabbed the roll of paper towel and headed back to clean up the mess. I turned on the dining room light, turned around and imagine my surprise to find not a hairball but a small, dead mouse!!! Eeeeeeeek!!!! I immediately hollered for Shane because, although I don't flinch at cleaning up a hairball, there was no way on God's green earth I was touching that thing! Christian freaked out a bit at first, but only because he thought it was still alive. Shane had it "cleaned up" quickly. I have to tell you that Gordon was very proud of himself. As Shane put it, "even after 12 years of domesticated bliss, he still has that feline killer instinct!" He protected his family. Way to go Gordon. I'd much rather have a dead mouse to clean up than a live one living in my house somewhere. Give that kitty some catnip!

Lights on the Bay

On Saturday we went to visit Grandma and Grandad.

They live on Kent Island, not too far from Annanpolis right on the Chesapeake Bay. Every year they have a holiday light display at Sandy Point Park that you can drive through so we decided to check it out. As soon as it got dark we piled in the car and headed out. What an awesome surprise to pull up to the entrance and be greeted by none other than Santa Claus himself! Christian was thrilled.



He came right up to Christian's window and gave him a candy cane and reminded him to be a good boy and stay on Santa's "good list"!

It was hard to get really great pictures out of the car window and because there were lots folks driving through and we had to keep things moving along pretty quickly.

It was fun though so if you find yourselves near Annapolis, MD before the holidays I highly recommend it. Just the thing to help get you into that holiday spirit!

Real vs. Artificial - Which Do You Choose?

I don't know about you, but I have very fond childhood memories of picking out our Christmas tree every year. We NEVER had an artificial tree. We would make our annual trip to the local tree lot or on a couple of occasions we even went to a local tree farm and chopped one down! It was great fun with all us kids (I'm one of six) running around saying, "how about this one Mom?" or "this one looks good", or "Oh, look at this one!" Eventually we would all come to a general consensus and decide on one special tree to call our own. How lovely it will look in our living room.

But then came the trick of tying in onto the roof of the car! The first Christmas miracle was managing to secure it without scratching the #%&* out the roof of your car. Remember how happy Dad was about that? And by now we were all complaining about how freaking cold we were. Let me tell you, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan can be a pretty bone chilling place this time of year. Don't believe me, just go check out the weather channel and see what the temperature is in good ol' Sault Ste Siberia today! Probably hovering somewhere around 15 degrees farenheit I bet! And that doesn't take into consideration the wind chill!


But, we'd eventually get it home safe and sound and we'd all be warmer and happier and looking forward to decorating it. We would be so excited to unpack all the familiar ornaments we hadn't seen in a year. So many of them had special meaning and stories surrounding them. Many of them were even handmade by us throughout the years and of course Mom loved those ones the most -- still does I'm sure. We'd have the Christmas music playing (Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Rose Mary Clooney, Burl Ives) while we were unpacking everything and hanging up our Santa faces (we didn't have stockings -- long story). Just imagine the energy in the room!



While we were going through boxes, it was always Dad's job to put the lights on the tree first. Like I said, imagine the energy in the room, of six excited, loud, rambunctous children ranging in age from 4 to 12 and one thirty-something man trying to string lights around a tree without falling off the ladder, stepping into a box of ornaments or stepping onto a kid for that matter. It almost makes me belly laugh now just thinking about it!

Eventually the lights would be finished and Dad would high tail it outa there and head to the sanctuary of his garage/workshop for some peace and quiet and a well-deserved beer or two and leave Mother in charge of the rest. We'd hang up so many ornaments there was not a single bare space left. Then, as was tradition in our family, we would put so much silver tinsel on the tree you could barely see any of the ornaments. And then, the moment of truth, we'd turn off all the lights and and oooh and aaah over how beautiful it looked. And from that day until the morning of December 25th the excitement in the air was palpable. We'd trudge through the next few weeks like time was standing still and the actual day would never get here. But eventually, it always did.

As you can see from the pictures, the Bailey family decorated their tree on Sunday night. No trip to the tree lot or tree farm, no scratches on the hood of the car, and no freezing our butts off. We just opened the box and put that thing together and it was still a blast going through all the boxes of ornaments, hanging up the stockings and listening to Christmas carols. The excitement is still there with Christian asking "how many more days until Christmas Mommy?"

There may come a time when he asks if we can get a "real" tree and if he does I'm sure I'll say "of course" but for now this beauty in a box works just fine and Santa comes to our house without fail. And, putting up the tree no matter what kind will always take me back to our house on Superior Street with all my brothers and sisters and my Mom and Dad and make me feel like a little kid again. I hope your tree trimming takes you back too.

Too Busy to Blog!

Whew! Tis the season to be really busy at work and home. I've got pics from Thanksgiving and our trip to the mall to see Santa but I've just not had enough time to pull it all together. Next week looks a bit quieter so I'll be back in business soon. Have a great weekend!

Christian Swimming

Look at him go!!!

I Got Tagged!

So, here are my 7 random things...

1. My favorite candy of all time are tootsie rolls. If given the opportunity, I'll eat them until I get a belly ache. I have no self-control.

2. I broke my leg while sledding when I was 10 years old. It happened on Dec. 26th and it was a brand new sled I got for Christmas. The incident upset my dad so much that he cut that plastic sled to pieces and threw it in the trash.

3. I can sing the McDonald's "Big Mac" song backwards. When I was a kid they had a promotion that if you came into the restaurant and sang it backwards word for word you'd win a free one so I practiced until I got it down and I've never forgotten it.

4. I'm a card-carrying member of the tribe of Chippewa Indians.

5. I wear a size 6.5, D width shoe so my feet are almost as wide as they are long. Kind of stinks since Fred Flintstone feet don't look so hot in strappy sandals.

6. I once worked for a White House Chief of Staff for a very brief time -- long story!

7. When I was a kid my dad nicknamed me "Radar" after the character Radar O'Reilly from the show Mash because I wore silver wire framed glasses. My dad gave everyone nicknames!

Chef Christian

Nothing says lovin like a batch of rice krispy treats, or in this case cocoa krispy treats! My little helper and I whipped up a batch on Saturday after we got home from swimming lessons. Christian had his very first swimming lesson on his own (not a mommy & me class) on Saturday and I wasn't quite sure how he'd handle it but he had a fantastic time. I've actually got some great video snippets of him swimming but unfortunately I kept getting error messages when I tried to upload them. If I can figure out the problem I'll post them at a later date.

He was a great helper counting out the cups of krispies and the marshmallows but I think eating the marshmallows was his very favorite part!!! The melted marshmallows looked, in his own words, "disgusting". I guess they are gooey and slimey looking but the end products was delicious. We sent half the batch on the road with Shane and his dad for their trip to Ocean City to close down the beach house for the season.

Now what should I do?

Kiss the cook!

Can we eat them now?

Ruffy!

Some pictures from this morning of Christian with his new friend "Ruffy". Shane won him out of a vending machine game yesterday and brought him home for Christian last night just as I was tucking him in bed. He slept with him in a headlock all night last night, ate breakfast with him, had to have him sitting on the sink while he brushed his teeth... I've never seen a child get so excited about a stuffed toy.

No New Pics!

I forgot my camera at my in-laws on Sunday so I have no new pictures to share. I thought I'd just post a few of my favorites from this past summer. I should be getting my camera back this evening.

With cousins Connor & Josh at the beach

With baby cousin Connor in Michigan

Climbing the tire tunnel at the playground on our trip to Michigan

Crazy Hair Day at school!

In the ocean with Daddy

Happy Halloween!!!

Is is time to go yet?

With some of his trick or treat buddies!

Sorting through and inspecting the bounty!

Having a healthy breakfast the next morning to counter all the candy goodness from the night before!

We had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood and Christian loved hanging out with all the other kids.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night when we got home Christian's friend Michelle met us when we were pulling into our driveway wanting to know if he could play for awhile before it got dark. Since we had plans to carve our pumpkin we invited her to join us. They had a blast digging out the "gunk" from inside.

When Michelle's dad and little sister Jasmine arrived to let Michelle know it was time to come home we were just finishing up. Here is a picture of the finished project.

Christian (aka Mr. GooleyGong) also got a little surprise in the mail yesterday -- a Halloween card from Aunt Mikki, Uncle Gary, Jack and Olivia. He loves getting mail!!!!

We're looking forward to trick or treating tonight. Our weather is supposed to be perfect. We'll fill you in and share our pictures in our next post.

Flat Stanley -- California or Bust!

Christian and I finally read Flat Stanley. In the story, Flat Stanley gets mailed to California to visit relatives. Christian knows that we also have relatives in California because we've talked often about going to visit them some day. So, when I suggested we make our own Flat Stanley to mail to our relatives in California his response was, "that's a great idea Mommy!" So, last night we set about creating our very own little traveler.

Red shirt, blue pants, black shoes...

Our finished fellow and our inspiration...

Getting a good nights sleep before his big trip...

Almost packed and ready to go...

Our friendly neighborhood postman.

Very soon Flat Stanley will arrive in Hollywood. He'll be visiting his cousins Jennifer, Peter and Autry. We're sure he'll have a great time and we'll be sure to let you all know how his trip turns out!

Happy Birthday Madeline/Visiting the Hughes Family/Welcome Baby Paul!

Today was Christian's friend Madeline's Birthday party and they had a great time!

Christian and Madeline outside the moonbounce

Playing Party Games

Taking a whack at the "indestructable" pinata!

Two wild and crazy guys!

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After the birthday party, Christian and I headed over to Ed, Kristin, Grace and Eddie's to drop off Eddie's way over due birthday present and visit for a while. When we arrived we found them all in their back yard painting Halloween costumes and carving pumpkins. It wasn't long before Christian joined in on the action and helped Grace clean out one of the pumpkins.

After the pumpkin fun we all walked over to the neighborhood playground. The kids had a great time playing and especially enjoyed climbing onto the roof of one of the play houses.

We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the park and ran into our friends Rich, his daughter CC and their dog Larry. Rich's wife is my good friend Elizabeth and they live in the same neighborhood.

CC, Rich and Larry

Rich and Elizabeth were just blessed with a new addition to their family two weeks ago when they adopted their son Paul. Baby Paul was just getting ready to eat when they were heading out to the park so he stayed home with Mom. After we left the playground and got back to Ed and Kristin's I found I had a message on my cell phone. It was a message from Elizabeth inviting us over to meet the baby so we said our good byes and headed over for a quick visit. Baby Paul is beautiful and Christian loved him.

What a busy day we had. We left our house at 10:45 a.m. and didn't get home until after 5:00 p.m. Christian was conked out in the car 5 minutes after we left Rich and Elizabeth's house. It's a good thing that Sunday's are days of rest!!!!!!

Reading is Fun!

Christian's new Scholastic book order arrived at school yesterday and he was very excited about it. Especially the Scooby Doo Halloween one. We read it three times before bed last night!!! I'm most excited about Flat Stanley. It's actually a pretty long story so after reading Scooby three times we didn't have time to read it last night but it's definitely on tonight's reading list. The other five books are beginning readers that he is reading to us. Last night he read The Pet and Hop In! to me while I fixed dinner.



He also brought a book home from school to read to us. These are the phonics books he learns from at school and once he can read it all by himself, his teacher sends it home for him to read to us. I always get very excited when I pick him up and see his special book bag hanging on the hook for us to take home.

He also brought home this picture he worked on with his teacher Miss Amy. It's of a castle complete with a moat and a slide that goes over the moat. I think this combination of things is from his trip to Cox's farm with all the great slides and the Halloween party and his Aunt and Uncles's house.

I took this picture this morning before he left for school so his Grandma Bailey could see how nice he looks in the new rain coat she bought him. It fits perfectly and he loves that the hood has a little hidden compartment snapped up around the collar.

Shane is working late tonight so I told Christian that we could stop and get a Happy Meal on the way home and put on our pjs when we get home and then spend the evening playing board games, which he loves. Our weather is so rainy it's a perfect night for it. I also plan on surprising him with a new pair of Spiderman pjs complete with the web/wings under the arms. They are exactly like his old pair that he has outgrown and actually wore for the last time a few nights ago. When we were taking them off in the morning, I explained to him that they were just getting too short and tight and were too uncomfortable. It made him very sad but when I told him that we'd be sending them to his cousin Connor in Michigan that made him feel a bit better.