Cookies and Friends.

Saturday was spent baking and visiting with our best friends.

Beth was festively dressed for the occasion....

We made cookies for Santa, and other goodies to enjoy over the next week or so......



The kids played games and ran around outside all day while Beth and I baked and talked and Brian braved the crowds to buy his lovely wife (that's me) some gifts.



The kids enjoying the fruits of our labor.....

Nathaniel (aka "Bubba"), Liv, Lucas and Sydney.

Chocolate on the face and nose and she's still so stinkin' cute.



Beth getting some "Bubba Love".



The boys just waiting for something yummy to drop on the floor.

And, as is typical, when "Uncle Brian" gets home, all of the kids attack him.

It was time for Beth and the kids to leave and, of course, Brian got them all riled up.

And I'm pretty sure the 200 chocolate chip cookies they ate didn't help either.

Help me Aunt Debbie!!!

Heh heh - Sorry kid. You're on your own.

Sydney gettin' in on the action.

Until she suddenly decides to break into dance.

That kid just cracks me up

And look...it's Commando Santa wearing Lucas's pump action shotgun slung on her back and Bubba's pistol in her hands.

She's so Charlie's Angels....and will probably kill me for posting that picture, but I couldn't resist.....

My beautiful Liv.

Hmmm.......

What's in here??? Maybe I can sneak another cookie without anyone seeing.....

Two A-'s, a paper cut and raccoon eyes....

And that pretty much sums up my week.

The A-'s are my grades in both Finance and Economics. Not too happy about them, because I really wanted A's, but whatever. I didn't even care as much as I normally would because I am distracted by the holidays and looking forward to a 6 week break.

The girls have been at each other's throats lately and I have had no patience for them and their jabs at each other and smart ass comments to me. So yesterday morning I lectured them on the true meaning of Christmas and how gifts weren't what it was all about and many kids didn't even GET presents for Christmas, blah, blah, blah. You know, the typical "frustrated mom who is worried her kids are spoiled brats" speech. Then at lunchtime yesterday I panicked because I hadn't finished my Christmas shopping for them and the pile of presents looked a little pathetic so I went to Toys R Us and did my part to boost the economy. So much for that lesson.

I have been slowly wrapping presents. Last night I had a panic attack when I began to count the days to Christmas, and realized that I have something going on every day AND night until the fat man visits us on December 24'th. So I sat down and decided to wrap, wrap, wrap last night. It took me three hours to get through most of the pile (I wrap everything. I'm a little anal like that). Since I decided to do this at about 10:30 last night, you can do the math and see what time I finished up and got to bed. Hence the raccoon eyes today.

And I got a paper cut from Frosty the Snowman wrapping paper which is so cheap that it rips if you look at it the wrong way but apparently is strong enough to slice my finger to the bone. Go figure.

Here Comes Santa Claus!!!!!

I have been studying ALL DAY.....

Brian was good enough to take the girls to see Santa at the local Ruritan Club (free - YAY!) They made crafts and got some snacks and sat on Santa's Lap.

Here they are all lined up to see Santa.

My girls look a little apprehensive, but Serena (in the grey) looks like a kid in a candy store.

Liv went first. I think she is on the cusp of no longer believing in Santa. She's made some comments and is asking questions about him. I'm not lying to her, but am artfully skirting the questions. I just want one more year. I think I'll cry the day she no longer believes. And I know she'll spill it to her sister in a fit of rage one day when Sydney takes a toy from her or annoys her as little sisters do.

So I'm hoping we make it through this season with Santa still coming down the chimney!

She looks a little bored, huh? He apparently asked her to name all of his reindeer.

Her Answer?

"Um, Rudolph and...Nixon? Something like that."

Santa looked stunned.

Nixon? Really, Liv....

And what do you want little girl????

"I want lots of presents - I sent you a list - I want some Polly Pockets..."

"...and a baby doll that poops and pees...." ('cause that's just what we need)

"...and this giant stuffed mechanical dog that moves and barks and stuff." (and costs $200)

Because apparently the two real dogs she has aren't lifelike enough.

Every year, Judi and Ted send the girls trees - decorated and with lights - the girls look forward to getting thier trees, because they get to put them in thier rooms and it means Christmas is getting REALLY close....

Liv's tree this year was decorated with nutcrackers...

Sydney's has birds and red garland.

They're always different, and always beautiful - and the best part is that they are live trees, so we plant them after Christmas and can watch them grow for years to come.

I finally hung the stockings....

by the chimney...

...with care.

I love Christmas.

O Christmas Tree.....

I'm a little behind on posting here.....

We decorated our tree the Friday after Thanksgiving. I put on the lights and the girls put on all the decorations. We had to wait for Brian to get home from work (he really doesn't care one way or the other but I MAKE him get involved in it. Decorating the tree should be a family affair)

It's amazing how many decorations I have that each of the girls have made over the past several years......and they each have "special" ornaments from each year. One of their biggest joys of decorating the tree is pulling out the "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments that they each have and putting them in a place of honor on the tree. And then arguing over who's is better, prettier, more special, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Once the tree is done, it's time for hot chocolate and the required "Christmas Tree Dance", which consists of them making up lyrics to a song about the tree and dancing around it like maniacs. It's very funny...for the first 2 minutes or so, and then not so much. There's only some many times you can listen to "Christmas Tree you rock - You are so cooo-ooo-oool, you have pretty orn-da-ments - tomorrow I have no schoo-ooo-oool" sung to some random melody.

Let the dancing commence!

The finished product. Yes, I have a few strands of PURPLE lights on the tree. Because, well, I love purple!! And the ornaments are Red, Purple and gold, although that's hard to see in these pictures.

I have lost all knowledge of how to take pictures over the last several years. I used to know all about f-stops and now I just click a button. These auto everything digital cameras are great, but have made me incredibly lazy. I need to take another class.....

Every year Sydney's dance class goes to a local nursing home to perform.

Sydney & Rebecca getting ready for their big dance!

I told Sydney to "break a leg". Her response? "But then I won't be able to dance!" Good point.

You never know what will happen when you get a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds in front of an audience. It was quite amusing as one of the girls was barking out orders to the others about where they were supposed to be standing - and this was in the middle of the dance. I cracked up!

My two gorgeous girls....

Quick update...

Whew!! It's been a rough week!

I turned in my final for Finance. And then we went over it in class. I HATE that. Because then I beat myself up about what I did wrong. So I have been in a corner, in the fetal position, sucking my thumb since Monday. Grades should be posted on Friday. Not looking forward to it.

I have another exam Monday night in Economics. Which would be a FANTASTIC and entirely relevant topic right now....if my professor spoke English. I'm sorry, did he say "firm", "farm" or "form"? And could someone PLEASE tell me the economic definition of a city?

Brandon comes home tomorrow!! YAY!!!

Liv had her choral concert tonight and it was pretty good - very funny! And my girl rocked. And she starts her "Math Enrichment" program Monday - which she was invited to. Because she's so freaking smart - which is great, because someone will need to take care of me when I get old and Sydney will be all about sending me to Shady Pines.....

Finals week....

'Nuff said.

See you soon - if I survive.

P.S. Send me my stuff....

I fully expect to get such an e-mail from Brandon...

I mean, seriously - Look at how happy he is...

He's really going to miss her while he's home.

And him.

They went to see some Balinese dancers. What I wouldn't give to experience this....

This is so cool... **Apparently these girls are like 10 to 12 years old - WOW!

I cracked up when I saw this picture of Angelique...Can't you just hear her thoughts? "What the hell is THAT? I'm concerned...."

Angelique and Noah - I can't WAIT to meet them in person....

Erm....trojan hats I guess???? Noah's really getting into character. "Et tu Brute?"

That kid rocks. We are going to be great buddies, Noah and I.

I keep waiting for Frodo to pop out from behind a tree in this picture - all the gnarled roots - it's so "Lord of the Rings" (except the tourists in the background - ignore them please)

Gratuitous beach picture....

Brandon concentrating REALLY hard because he's driving on the wrong side of the road while sitting on the wrong side of the car. (By the way, that's not your blinker Brandon. It's the windshield wipers. And its not raining. Dork.)

And finally, Brandon's new "office".

This is where he sits everyday and works, and writes (and chats with me on Facebook!). He's gotten to know the owner and gets free meals, meets lots of cool people and gets to look at this while he's working...

And here I thought having a window in my office was cool.