"I've always wanted that! and lets stay here lots of minutes.

The kids and I made it safely to my parents' house. They got to have a second Christmas. Kendall got another snow globe and her response was, "I've always wanted that!" Clayton got lots of cars. I think they are having a good time. I know Clayton is because he told me he wants to "stay here for lots of minutes." They got to drive their little red jeep around the yard yesterday even though it was very cold.

Tomorrow, I am going to a Razorback basketball game with my dad. I can't wait for that! Go Hogs!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone. I wish peace for everyone this time of year.

Kendall's and Clayton's cousins from NYC are here for a couple of days. It is pandemonium. The kids and I are heading to North Arkansas tomorrow to see the grandparents (my parents). I hope to post some good pics soon.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying Christmas.

Shortest Day of the year

Hooray! It's the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year! No, you're not hallucinating. I am so glad that starting tomorrow the days get longer! After today, we are on our way to spring, and then, SUMMER! So, come on Christmas, New Year's, my birthday, Pete's birthday. I'm ready for shorts, sandals, and T-shirts again! :)

I am still not ready for Christmas when I look around at the house and feel paralyzed by my procrastinating. Help.

My Favorite Things

I love this song. It really gets me into the holiday spirit.

Catching up from a busy weekend

Our weekend started last Friday night with Kendall having a friend spend the night. I don't think kindergartners are ready for this. By bedtime, (10 pm), they were on each other's nerves. Kendall crying, Sydney egging her on. They woke up at 6 am, and I heard Kendall say, "I'm still sleepy." Poor child. I knew how she felt.

After the kids were up and ready we headed out to our Wegman's grocery store to have breakfast with Santa. Originally, it was to be a family affair with my husband coming along. Pete dropped the bomb on me two days prior by informing me that he was going duck and goose hunting. Great. So, I stupidly offered to take Sydney with us to the breakfast (since we had pre-paid). It was a buffet breakfast which meant I was going back and forth to the table to get food that would just sit there. The kids hardly ate anything. What's new? I stuffed my face to make up for what they wasted. Finally, our number was up to go see Santa. It is pretty magical.

Kendall wants a snow globe. And Clayton wants "wots of fast cars".

After the breakfast, Sydney's mom picked her up and the kids and I went home. Kendall took a nap as soon as she got home. At 3 pm, Kendall went to a birthday party. After that, both kids went to another birthday party. It was quite a busy day.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then we went out that afternoon to get our Christmas tree. You can see some pictures here. We started decorating and immediately, the ornaments started breaking. Kendall dropped one, I dropped the lights, etc.

Needless to say, I was very glad when it was time to go to sleep on Sunday night. I think I am still tired.

Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne

Dan Fogelberg died today. What can I say? I'm a sentimental person. This song always brings a tear to my eyes.

10 days to go...

Never trust a kid with styrofoam and scissors...

This is his head. You should have seen my living room floor!

I made Mexican Wedding Cookies yesterday for the first time.

The Netherlands (part 2)

The first two days were spent in Amsterdam. The next two days were in Leiden and then the remainder of the trip was back in Amsterdam. For the last two days in Amsterdam, we had a PhD student showing us around. His name was Willem. He was born and raised in Amsterdam and he was a great guide.

The first place Willem took us was the Van Gogh museum. This was the high point of the trip, as far as I was concerned. It was amazing. Kendall even recognized some paintings which made me get a little lump in my throat. While gazing at the Sunflowers, Kendall said, "When we get back to Pencil vania (Pennsylvania), I want to draw." Now, this is nothing new, but at that moment, she felt inspired. That, my friend, is why you visit museums. Kendall even recognized Van Gogh's bedroom. The museum was quiet that day, and we could get really close to all the paintings.

We went to the Artis Zoo the next day. It was a cold day, so the zoo wasn't as fun as it would have been otherwise. Oh well, we made the best of it, and the kids really enjoyed seeing the animals.

I did end up getting some nice boots while I was over there. I imagine they will be my Christmas present for a few years to come.

Rooftops in Amsterdam.
Cannabis seeds for sale. (now that's something you don't see everyday!)
We flew back to State College, via Detroit. I called my mom once we were back on U.S. soil and she told me the news that the Razorbacks had beaten #1 LSU that weekend. I was back home.

Potty-training disasters...

My son is old enough to be potty-trained, however, he is still having some accidents. But, for the most part, the going #1 is successful so I don't even monitor him in the bathroom. Evidently, he uses a lot of toilet paper. Today, he flushed and started yelling for me to come to the bathroom. I entered the bathroom to discover that the water had overflowed and a bunch of TP was swirling around in the bowl. Oh crap! I quickly turned the water off and started sopping up the water with some old towels that we keep down stairs. Of course, I grabbed the TP and put it in the trash and used the old, handy, dandy plunger. Relief, (no pun intended), and the water went down. While I was doing all of this, I asked Clayton if he would run upstairs and get some more towels. I asked for two towels. He obliged and hurried on upstairs. A minute or two later he returned with the two towels. In each hand he had a strip of toilet paper consisting of a couple of squares each.

Santaland Diaries

I don't know what is wrong with me, but every Christmas, I have to listen to David Sedaris' "Crumpet the Elf" on NPR. The first time I heard it was many years ago, and I honestly think it was the funniest thing ever. It still makes me laugh and cringe at the same time.

And in other topics, has everyone sent out their Christmas/Holiday/Whatever cards? One year, our Hindu friend gave us a card and I thought is summed up what goes through every body's heads this time of year. I thought it was so perfect so I've kept it all these years.

In case you can't read the small print, it says under the paper clothes 'Christmas', 'Hanukkah', and 'New Year'. I personally like to send cards out that say 'Merry Christmas', but my husband likes the ones that say 'Happy Holidays' so we don't offend anyone. So, I'll apologize to those that might be offended ahead of time for saying Merry Christmas when we get closer to the date...

Elf Yourself

Go here for a laugh. Seriously, I am not ready for Christmas! I have got to get my act together. I think we are getting our tree tomorrow, so that will hopefully inspire me! I can't believe it is almost here...

It's beginning to look (and feel) a lot like Christmas...

Candy! I successfully made some peanut butter fudge this morning! Last year, I made one good batch and then the others just didn't set up properly. I am determined to make fudge the right way more than once this Christmas season.

It has turned really cold here in central PA. My car thermometer read 6 degrees F this morning while I drove my daughter to school. It's sad when 30 degrees F would feel "warm". There truly is a time for everything...

Next on the list for candy is black walnut divinity and peanut brittle. Yummy.

Sports' news

I saw this last week where Houston Nutt resigned as the head football coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks. He is going to Ole' Miss for around $1.8 million a year. That's a nice chunk of change. And just this week it was revealed that Coach Paterno makes around $500,000 a year. Not bad considering he is as old as dirt and the team hasn't been that great lately. Penn State didn't want to let us tax payers know citing that it would hurt morale. Really. I'm sure all those profs are very supportive since they are rolling in the dough themselves. (yeah, right).

And look out. The weather is looking nasty this weekend. I'm not ready for the snow but I guess it is a necessary evil. Oh well, just 20 more days and the days start getting longer...but I'm not wishing my life away--I promise!