Fill in the Blank Friday

Linking up to Lauren's Fill in the Blank Friday.  Where you kind of just fill in the blanks to the prompts she gives you.  Then link back of course.  Well, I'm in!  You should check it out.  Because why not?  And it's fun.  And we're all fun.  Right?  And you know, you can find out some interesting things about people.




1. New Year's is honestly just another day to me.  I believe it is one of my least favorite holidays.


2. Last New Year's Eve I was at this cool old resort with my whole big family, listening to a cover band.  The band invited Kara to sing with them, and my Meg thought it was the coolest thing ever to stay up til midnight.  Until midnight happened and it occurred to her that it was just another moment in time. 




3. My New Year's resolution is for tomorrow's post. :)




4. The best way to spend New Year's Eve is with family and friends in a low-key environment.


5. My prediction for an up-and-coming trend in 2011 is green, green and more green.  I love it.


6. This New Year's Eve I will be staying in with family at home, eating takeout and watching movies.  The host of the party we were supposed to be going to isn't feeling well, so the party was cancelled.  To be perfectly honest, I am really happy to watch the ball drop in my PJ's on the couch.


7. A fresh start is always nice.  Kind of like a Monday.  Feels good to know though, that you can have a fresh start whenever you want, regardless of the day of the year.

mia

So I know I have been MIA this past week or so.  I have been super busy, in and out of town and stuff.  The week around Christmas and New Years is always like this.

I was thinking about pre-writing a bunch of posts and setting them up to post on the days that I am too busy or away and stuff, but then I thought, nah.

I don't want to post a bunch of boring crap just to post.

So if I have any readers out there who are like, wondering what the eff is up, just know that I will be back - large and in charge Monday, writing my regular five days a week.  Hopefully not boring or lame, hopefully fully energized with a ton of new stuff to entertain you with.

I am currently typing this from a haunted resort.  Way cool.  My kids, nieces and nephews are all trying to get the dirt on the ghosts that haunt this place.  They are on the hunt. 

Poor ghosts.

first big snow

So we got a blizzard.

Pretty cool.

 

The kids loved it.

Me too.  From afar.  I loved it from inside the house.  Watching them loving it from the warmth of the kitchen.

If it wasn't so windy they would have lasted a lot longer, I'm sure.  But they were back in as soon as Megan took a faceplant and got snow down her neck.

I had the hot cocoa ready and waiting though.

Christmas Eve wounds. Or are they?

We spend Christmas Eve at my father's house.  We means me, my sisters and their families, and my Dad and stepmother.

I love Christmas Eve at Dad's.   It's so nice to just lounge around, eat, drink and be merry.  The kids love it too.




My sister Jen and BIL John being merry






My Dad and Meg also being merry

 


My sister Ali and BIL Tyrone getting their drink on

 For some strange reason, Kara brought her stage makeup along, and decided to scare the crap out of me by "wounding" all of her siblings.  I was only scared the first time, when she came rushing in and told me that my son was just beat up by some kids out front.  When I went outside, he was laying on the ground and definitely looked beat up.  I swear, his wounds looked so authentic, I got a tear in my eye!  Those Christmas Evil children of mine.

Brooke's fake wounds



Meg's fake black eye and bloody nose

So anyway, all of the pictures that I took of my kids opening gifts at my dad's house involve my kids looking like they were in a car accident.

I think if Kara doesn't have a career as an actress, she will definitely have no trouble as a makeup artist. 

i knew I had a tickle.

So remember last week when I freaking said I must have accidentally touched someone's germy mucous?

Actually, hold on a sec while I gag to myself over that thought.

Back.

So I DID get a germ!  I DID get sick!  I knew it!  I knew I had a tickle!  I have an effing cold two days before Santa comes to town.

Well that sucks!  Because who wants to last minute wrap their face off while coughing into their elbow?  It's really very challenging with a scissor and tape.  Who wants to set up for Christmas  morning when they're feeling lousy and bleh?  Who wants their kids to wake them up at the crack of dawn when bad sleep happened due to hacking the night away??

Ugh.  Shitty, germy mucous spreader. 

Who did it?!

quite the workout

After a marathon Christmas cookie baking frenzy today, I literally feel like I jogged to the next town over.

Who knew that stirring the cookie dough was such a workout?  I may have actually felt a little sweat on my brow!

I guess I should really bake more often... I mean, if I could just bake cookies every day, I wouldn't have to work out or anything! 

Because I workout all of the time, obviously.

And if I substituted baking for working out, I would have a lot of cookies in my house all of the time!

Which would certainly be counterproductive to most.  But not me!  Because I have willpower of steel!  I could smell cookies for hours without wanting one bite!  I could stir that dough til the cows came home and never even test it to make sure it tastes as great as it smells!

I think I sounded very convincing.

For reals though, I don't love a cookie as much as I love other goodies.  I mean, if someone plopped a plate of good cookies in front of me, I wouldn't push it away or anything, but cookies are not my best.  Unless you consider Little Debbie's Oatmeal Sandwiches a cookie, because those things are just effing redonkulous.  And when I utter the word redonkulous, I mean redonkulous.  Trust me on this one guys.

My best goodie would definitely have to be... cupcakes.  Yeah.  Definitely moist and doughy cupcakes.  Mmmmm. 

Incidentally, I hate the word moist.  It makes me want to vomit.  I can't believe I just used it in a sentence.

My house smells like I baked all day.  Now I have to go get the kids from school so we can decorate the cookies.

I love Christmas.

Hey Big Guy

Dear Santa,

I know it's a little late, but I've been busy.  Very, very busy.  I'm sure you know.  But here's hoping you won't have any trouble pulling this (little) list together before the big day!

Love,
Jessee

Canon Rebel

Bose Docking Station

DeWalt Nailgun

Knitting Needles and Yarn



This Book



Dyson for upstairs

This Book

This Book



Hotel Towels



Willow Tree Nativity Set



Brown Dansko Clogs



UGG Slippers



White Wool Coat



Burberry purse



Muffin Pan



resolutions already? really?

I try to get the kids to write their goals down each year -- my BIL always does this, and I copied him.  He actually turns his yearly goals into a framed picture, then hangs it in his bathroom so he is forced to look at it every day.

I don't go quite that far, but I do like to get my kids thinking about things they want to accomplish for the year.  Writing them down and seeing them often helps them remember.

Last year, one of my son's goals was to get an armpit hair.

I tried to explain to him that that particular goal wasn't something that he had much control over, but he wrote it down anyway.

One of Brooke's goals last year was to learn how to tie her sneakers, and she kind of has it down!  She gets a little frustrated, but she tries so hard.  Bunny ears.  Aw.

Surprisingly, I pretty much accomplished most of my own goals.  But I will have to re-put some of the things on my list from last year that didn't exactly happen. Like I didn't really get fit at 40 at all.  I really really really need to make that happen this year. 

Maybe if I shorten my list, it will force me to focus.  That's it.  I am going to make only three serious goals for the year 2011.  For reals.  And I am going to make a vow and have progress updates.  It will shame me into accomplishment.

Do you think using shame is a bad method?  I think it is a good method for me.  Because I don't like to publicly fail.  So there you have it.  On Jan 1, I will post my three biggest fattest goals, and I will also make it my mission to post monthly updates on my progress.

That just happened. 

lights and cutting the line

Thankfully, I took my BIL off of my email delivery list, because he doesn't like boring posts, and I am sure I will be hearing about this one eventually.

So, sorry people, you can click away if you don't want to see a few pics about something cool we did this weekend.

So we went to this big park in Albany, where they have this thing called the Holiday of Lights.  Typically, I would never pay $25 bucks to drive around a park and look at Christmas lights, but we got in for free because my husband had some sort of VIP pass or something from a client.  Gotta love the perks!

So pretty much, we rounded the punks up and hopped in the car with cups of hot chocolate, and drove to the park.  You know, for something to do on a Sunday night with the kids.  Now, before I post a couple cool pics of some of the lights, I have to just tell you about the best part of the whole thing.

I have to set the stage though.  The Holiday of Lights is kind of a big thing to do around here - even if it sounds lame.  There are like over 125 light displays and they are pretty cool.  So typically, by the time 5:45 pm rolls around (it begins at 6:00), cars are lined up at the gate and winding all the way through the park.  As you can imagine, a ton of cars rubbernecking at all of the light displays might turn this into a pretty lengthy affair.

So we were sitting in the line, because we weren't exactly sure how it all worked, and this attendant guy comes up to our car, and my husband is like, "I am Alex with blahblahblah, and we are guests of blahblahblah.  Where should we go?"

So the attendant guy says, "Follow me," and we follow him, because like, obviously.  So this guy brings us past all of the other people waiting in line and pulls this barrier away and says, "You can go ahead."

So we essentially got to butt the entire line and drive around the park at our leisure for free.

I was so excited!  I never butt.  I always wait my turn, I swear!  But the VIP-ness of it all was so cool, I couldn't help but be all excited about it.  Mind you, it was just a 25 minute drive through a light display, and cutting a line is hardly worth getting excited over.  In fact, it may be worth getting your car egged over, but it was legit, so I didn't feel guilty.  Well, sorta, but we were allowed to butt.  

So without further implicating myself as a butter, I'll share a few of the favorites:

linking to alphabethursday at Jenny Mattock's.

oh whatever. another cranky little rant.

I am CRANKY.  

I don't necessarily think it is my fault though.

Like, I asked a nameless man who lives in this house to please go into the (finished) basement to carry up my vacuum for me.  Because I have a bad back, and it's heavy.  So, no prob, the nameless man totally did it, which was great.  But then I went to close the basement door, and saw that the pile of clothes that I had left on the stairs to go down to the bins the next time I went down there (I keep all of the outgrown clothes in bins in the basement), was still in the same spot - completely obstructing the way down the stairs.  

So one might assume that if you literally, and I mean literally, have to jump over the pile and down at least two stairs to get past the stuff obstructing your way to the basement, you may think that in your empty arms, you could carry them down along with you!  No extra trip, no special hardship.  Right???!

Would you ever just leap over a pile of things that are in your way, that you  know full well doesn't belong there??!

I swear to both Cod and Baby Jesus that there was a discarded goldfish cracker noticeably on the kitchen floor of my house for over a week, which nobody in this entire place had the inclination to pick up and throw away.  I was doing a little test, and everybody failed!!!

OMG.  Is it just me?  Is it just that (some) people can be incredibly dumb oblivious? 

Am I the only one who feels like you need to make every trip count??  If I go from downstairs to upstairs, you can bet your ass that I am carrying something.  I mean, obviously.  It's that much less that I have to do eventually.

If I am straightening my house (as I do on a daily basis), I put all of the stuff that needs to go upstairs on the stairs.  That way I believe, in my infinite wisdom, when someone is going upstairs and they see their doll or book or dirty socks, they can just bend down and grab the thing and carry it up to where it ultimately belongs.  I think that makes a lot of sense.

I seriously must be the only one who thinks this makes a lot of sense.

So anyway, the nameless man dilly-dallied under the mistletoe for a long time before he left for work today.  Let's just say that he did not get a lengthy mistletoe-worthy kiss.  I was too busy feeling cranky.  And I'll karate chop anyone that suggests it has anything to do with me "getting ready to go on vacation" this week.

what's the skinny on the food bloggers?

So how come all of these chef/foodie bloggers, or bloggers who write about great dessert recipes and stuff ALL seem to be on the skinny side??  I mean, if I am missing a chunky food blogger out there, please point me in their general direction, because I won't believe it til I see it.

I just don’t get how you could be baking cupcakes and frosting and desserts and man, not just eat and test and taste everything! 


I just want to BAKE stuff.   Buttery, creamy, yummy sweet and ridiculously fattening stuff – but I have no will power and embarrassingly poor self control. 


Maybe these bloggers have freakish self control. Or maybe they are exerciseaholics. MAYBE they have great metabolisms.  Maybe they burn a lot of calories while baking!  And sweat a lot too, in the kitchen. 


Well, I just wanted to point out that skinny food bloggers have it made.  So I'm done now.

oh Christmas tree

When Kara was home for Thanksgiving break we headed up to the tree farm to choose our Christmas tree.  We tagged it for cutting later.  Each year, it seems to get harder and harder to get everyone together at the same time, so I really like to keep that tradition going and pick it out when she is with us.

I always have these high hopes for Christmas tree picking.  I imagine all of us walking through the farm, snow gently falling, while we look with wonder at all of the different trees, happily chattering while bundled up in our warm winter clothes.  Maybe Alex whistling a merry Christmas tune...

Typically, the kids all end up stamping off in different directions, positive that the tree they settled on is the one.  The reality of it is someone is cold, someone is mad, someone thinks that tree is too short, fat, scraggly, someone tripped over a stump.   I wonder if we are the only family who argues over Christmas trees.  Doesn't exactly scream Christmas cheer, does it?

This year though, it went great.  No merry whistling or snow falling, but everyone seemed really happy.  Nobody tripped over a stump, and everyone liked the final choice.  Little Alex tried to cut it himself for the first time, but gave it about a half of a minute before he handed the saw over to his dad.  He was happy enough to be the only one who gets to shout "timber!"  He insists that nobody else say it but him.  He's weird like that.

So we got the tree set up that night.  It's actually the skinniest tree we have ever had.  Isn't it funny how different the trees always seem to look outside?

Of course the decorating of the tree was fun.  We have so many ornaments that I never think they will all fit.  I can't get rid of any of the ornaments that my kids make for me... those are my absolute favorite and definitely take up the most space.

Alex had to ceremoniously place Kara's second worst ever school picture ornament front and center to drive her crazy.  Since she had to go back to college before we decorated, he makes sure I take a picture of him putting it on.  He loves to tease her about it.

The tree has been up now since the beginning of December. 

I really do love looking at it every day.  It makes me think of my family.