Decking the Halls

Ok, technically, I’m not decking the halls. I’m not decking them with boughs of holly either, but I did get a few more things done over the weekend.

We have one of those fake electric fireplaces at our house. The heating element went a year or so ago, and we never did have it looked at. However, we’ve always wanted to do something with the mantle. This year, we found some really nice garland that lights up and it fits the mantle perfectly. We also got new stockings for every one and hung them up a little lower than years past. My wife just loves the way it looks.

As you may recall from a blog or two ago, we bought a new kitchen table to eat at. The old one remains in the basement where it has been for some time. When I was going through the Christmas decorations, I found some placemats we had bought when we first got together. I was finally able to put them out and used a little Christmas tree that we used to put up on the mantle as a centerpiece. I may need to throw some decorations on it.

I went to let the puppy outside and it really wasn’t too cold, so I put jackets on the kids and let the pup roam around the yard and I put the lights up on the side porch. It’s very different from last year, as the railings are no longer there. I ran lights up and down the posts and hung the big Christmas bulbs.

Since they tore up our front yard, I figured I would skip the front yard this year, but Sam had other plans. Our porch is small, so getting the lights on it is no issue at all. I have some lighted garland that I will drape over the front door. The newest addition is on the way to the house. She ordered it from Sam’s Club. It’s a huge 8 foot arch!!

I think it will look cool, even though the yard looks bad. When it snows, it will look great! This should be arriving mid-week. It is supposed to be a bit warm, this week, so I hope to be able to get it up and done before it gets too cold.

Now, just what I am going to do with this big thing in the off season, I have no idea!!

Two-riffic Day!

I had the day off yesterday for my son’s birthday. It was such a great day with the family.

He is all about tools and the construction vehicles that have been outside, so that was the “theme” for his birthday.

My dad sent him a tool box earlier this week. It had some cool tools in it and he was loving it! Without seeing one Three Stooges movie, he’s already showing me he’s going to love them.

When I came home Tuesday, I put together his birthday present so he could get it first thing in the morning. It’s a cool Mickey Mouse Tool Bench.

He also got some “power tools” that we got from Sam’s Club. They really look like Bosch tools and they all make noises. The drill actually lets you drive a screw in and reverses to get them out. He figured that out on his own. He is loving this!

Sam’s coworkers told her about a cool place north of us. It’s like a big McDonald’s Play Place. Slides, zip lines, and more. He was in his glory going through the tunnels.

They even had a rock wall for him to climb.

We played long into the afternoon and then made our way home. Sam’s mom picked up Andrew’s birthday cake. We were going to go pick it up and bring it home, but then Sam’s sister said she had a gift for Andrew and she’d meet us at their mom’s. We wound up eating cake and ice cream there before finally calling it a night.

We don’t often get days together as a family, so Andrew’s birthday was extra special. It was a really great day.

In my blog yesterday, I posted on of the photos from his 2nd birthday shoot. Our photographer captured this amazing candid that I cannot wait to hang on the wall. This very well can be one pose that I have them do every year ….

I am thankful that the Lord blessed me with my wonderful children. I am so happy to be their dad.

Did I Lose My Sense of Taste?

Remember in the movie Ratatouille when the food critic tastes the ratatouille and he is immediately taken back to when he was a kid? I have always believed that this is totally possible and have had it happen to me on many occasions. It is true bliss when a food tastes so good that it conjures up a good memory.

On the other hand, there are also times where you look forward to eating something and are completely disappointed. That just happened to me this week.

On a recent trip to Sam’s Club, we loved seeing all of the Halloween decorations that were on display. With Halloween, they usually bring out the “Monster” cereals that I loved as a kid. We happened to see a display where they had packaged 3 of the well known flavors with a new flavor. My wife chuckled and said to buy it.

Count Chocula and Frankenberry were always my favorites. I couldn’t wait to crack open a box and eat it. The kids had tried the Count Chocula, so that was the one I tried first. It was the first disappointment.

As soon as I poured it into the bowl, I noticed that it smelled as good as I remembered. When I took a bite, though, it was a major let down. I felt like there was no taste whatsoever. I remember it tasting chocolatey – like a good bowl of Cocoa Puffs – but that was not the case. It was disgusting. I felt like the box would have tasted better.

I decided that maybe something with a bit more flavor might be better, so I tried the Frankenberry the next day. Again, the smell was as good as I remember, but there was barely a hint of “berry” to it. It was so bland.

What happened, General Mills?! I know that if the cereal tasted like this when I was a kid, I would not have been so excited to have a bowl as an adult. What a let down. I suppose from now on, I will look at the characters on the box and smile while I remember that it USED to be good.

Pre-Holiday Weekend Wrap Up

It is hard to believe that we are just 4 days away from Christmas. Someone observed that time moves a whole lot faster in December if you are an adult. This is so true! As a kid, it seemed to crawl by as we waited for Christmas.

SNOW!

This weekend kept us pretty busy. We got about an inch of snow on Saturday night and when Ella woke up she saw the ground was covered. So after breakfast, the kids and I suited up in snow gear and went out to play in the yard.

It was fun to see Andrew all bundled up. He looked so funny trying to walk in his boots and snow pants. The snow wasn’t “snowman” ready, so we really couldn’t build one. But we did get to run around and throw snow at each other. He really had fun once he got over the “awe” of it. Ella? Well, she just loves to run and jump in the snow.

Cookie Time!

Our Elf on the Shelf, Twinkles, had the idea to decorate cookies this weekend.

She is obviously a Sam’s Club member!

The kids had a blast decorating them.

Ella had her “Bucket O Princesses” with her as she decorated hers. Andrew was eating them as fast as he decorated his …

Picnic

Yesterday, Ella wanted to have a picnic. So we put a blanket down in the living room, I whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches, and they had a picnic.

Note the “Bucket O Princesses” are with her at lunch, too! LOL!

I probably should have thought about giving them applesauce pouches. That blanket needed a good wash after the picnic was over.

Say “Ahhhh”

This morning, when Sam got home, we had to take the kids to the dentist. Ella did ok, but there are things that she won’t let them do. Sam went back with her and I guess she started to freak out about getting an X-Ray. We will probably need to see a pediatric dentist who may be able to get her calm enough to get them. Andrew had no issues at all, He was a champ.

After our visit to the dentist, it was time for a visit to Santa. Ella was so excited to go see him. More on that in my next blog!

One Final Story

Last year my dad got us an Amazon Echo. You have to link it to an Amazon account, so I linked it to mine.

Sam and I decided that we were not getting each other anything for Christmas this year. I decided to get her something from the kids. So I took $20 I won on an instant lottery ticket and put it in the account I used for my DJ business (so she wouldn’t know) and ordered her something on Amazon.

She was standing by the fireplace yesterday where the Echo is yesterday. She see’s something that pops up on the screen.

She asks me, “What did you order from Amazon?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“According to the Alexa, you have something arriving Thursday that YOU ordered,” she says.

“Don’t worry about it!” I told her, hoping she would drop the subject.

She didn’t drop it and says, “We don’t have the money to spend. Did you put this on your credit card?”

“No. It’s not anything big. It’s something from the kids to you.” and I explained that it was from the lottery ticket money.

She finally drops the subject, until today.

“By the way, I know what you have coming from Amazon,” she slyly says.

I look at her flustered. “Every time I try to get you something as a surprise, something spoils it!”

She then says, “What made you think to get that?”

I don’t say anything. I told her to just act surprised when she unwraps in.

Then she laughs and says, “Yeah, I don’t know what it is. But I was hoping you would tell me by telling you I knew what it was!”

“Wife Trickery” at its finest!! Man, I almost told her what it was! Somehow I think she knows what it is anyway, but we’ll see.

A Perfect Weekend to Celebrate

Saturday I got to spend some time with my wife and celebrate her birthday. I arranged for Nana and Papa to watch the kids so we could have some time together. I am so grateful for them.

I worked Friday night, and when I came home, I went right to bed, so I could catch a few winks before our date day. The time I was asleep was rough for Sam as the kids were a bit crankier than normal. We almost called the whole day off.

Thankfully, all fell into place. We dropped the kids off and went to our favorite steakhouse for lunch. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we asked to eat on the patio. When the greeter walked us out there, I was surprised to see no one else there. We had the whole patio to ourselves for most of the meal!

What a wonderful afternoon! We sat in the sun enjoying conversation and each other. It was so nice to just be together.

Because we got a later start than we had planned (and because showtimes didn’t really line up with our plans), we decided to skip the movies. There were a few things we wanted to do, so we just spent the rest of the time doing them.

We had recently bought a two camera baby monitor from Target. It was a nice one and expensive. We set up the cameras and for whatever reason, one of the two cameras would have trouble connecting. We could see one, then it would go out and we could see the other. It never seemed to be able to show both cameras at the same time. This bothered us because we were on wifi, and no matter where we were, it should connect. There was an app you could download on your phone and you were supposed to be able to check from anywhere. I never really did get that to work. We decided it was best to take it back.

So we walked through Target just looking around and talking. We ended up buying a few things for the kids while we were there. Then we wanted to walk through the Christmas Tree Store. They always have a lot of holiday type stuff. The Red, White and Blue wreath we put on the door for Memorial Day and the 4th of July was looking pretty ragged and faded. We hoped to find something there for the door. We did.

It was getting close to the time we told Sam’s folks we’d be back for the kids, so we jumped back in the car and drove to get them. I held Sam’s hand on the way there and was just so glad to have had a day with her.

When we got the kids loaded up, we started to head home. It was getting close to Andrew’s bedtime. He started to cry a lot in the backseat. Sam crawled over the center console and squeezed between the two car seats and made him a bottle to drink on the way home. She had to be extremely uncomfortable! Once we were home, she had to climb back over the center console to get back in her seat to exit the car. I joked with her that I should have taken video to get her back for posting a video of me trying to hop the fence in our backyard! It was a humorous way to end the night.

Sunday night, Sam had to work. I took the kids out to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things we needed at home. Ella found some beautiful flowers and wanted to get them for mommy. Sam’s loves sunflowers and roses, so it was almost as though she knew exactly which ones to get.

We hoped to get a cake while we were there, but they didn’t have any. On the way home we stopped at the little grocery store around the corner from us. There were three cakes there and Ella picked the one with a sun on it. When I asked the girl at the counter if she could write on it, she asked what it should say, and Ella just spouted off, “It has to say ‘Happy Birthday, Mommy’ on it!” The woman asked Ella what color she wanted it in and she told her it had to be pink.

When we got home, we decided to make mommy a birthday card. I wrote on it and she “colored” in it. I helped both her and Andrew “sign” their names. She was so excited to give it to her this morning.

When Sam got home this morning, we went out to breakfast. This would mark the first time that either one of our children has been in a restaurant to eat! Hard to believe, but it is true. Sam and I prepared for the worst. We expected Ella to be running all over the place and Andrew to just cry through the whole thing. We were surprised at just how well behaved they both were! It was a very nice breakfast.

The restaurant wasn’t too busy when we got there. It was mostly retirees and older couples eating. It was a tad busier when we left. Ella said that she had to say goodbye before we could go. So she stopped in the middle of the aisle and yelled, “Goodbye, friends!” It was priceless. We were getting the kids in the car and the waitress came out to stop me. I thought maybe I paid the wrong bill or something. Nope, she just wanted to give each of the kids a plastic duckie.

Sam needed to head to bed when we got home. She had to work tonight, too. Before she did, she only had one request – a photo with the kids.

This was like the fourth or fifth picture. It’s hard to get Ella to sit still long enough for one now! The first three Andrew was smiling like crazy, but he obviously only had three takes before the smile went away!

What a wonderful weekend to celebrate, Sam! One thing is for sure, I’m gonna be diligent to keep scheduling monthly date days/nights!!

Happy birthday, Sam. I love you now and forever!