The White Christmas

We never go out of town for christmas. We decided many many years ago that when we had kids we would stay home for every christmas. It was a great plan but this year things outside our control happened and we needed to go out of town for christmas. ugh. His Royal Highness' mom offered to come down to visit and take all our gifts back to her house early so that we would have room in the van for our luggage. It sounded like a good idea at the time.... that is until we realized that there was a massive winter storm headed toward the DFW area and she had all our gifts held hostage in that area! She's a smart one..... she also got me a Chi (real, not fake...) for christmas so she's also a giving one. But for the sake of this story, we'll just say that she's a smart one... very cunning and wise. If you want to make sure that your grandchildren come to see you, take all their gifts hostage.

So we headed off from 60 degree Houston on Christmas Eve in hopes of arriving at his parent's house by dinner time that evening and with plenty of time left in the evening for telling the christmas story and making cookies. We had no idea then that we would talk about the christmas story at Jack-in-the-Box while sharing fries instead of cookies.

A winter storm had descended upon the DFW area and our trip quickly turned into a slow steady crawl on texas ice skating rinks, known to some as roads. The only place we could find open to eat was that Jack-in-the-box hours after we should already arrived at his parents and it made a great lesson to teach the girls about how Mary and Joseph searched for a place to stay the night before Jesus was born. Eight hours later and after three hours of driving no more than 25 mph, we finally pulled into his parent's driveway and decided that we would not drive again on the ice, even if it meant we were stuck there long than expected. I was frazzled and seriously almost threw up a few times while driving. If I was by myself it wouldn't have been so bad but my heart was in the back of the van and their lives mean everything to me. I swore up and down at that point that I would never travel for christmas again..... until....

I woke up to this....

My first white christmas.... ever....I'm approaching a higher number birthday wise than I care to talk about and I've never had a white christmas. I honestly don't remember ever playing in snow as deep as we played in that day. It was magical.

The rest of the day was wonderful. The older princesses loved christmas morning even though Princess Newbie had to be woken up to join up and was grouchy. Here are a few pictures of our morning for all of you to enjoy.

Don't worry about Princess Newbie though.... she got the best gift of all. A grandmother to hold her and fuss over her for hours and hours that day. Now that's one blessed baby....

A Handmade Christmas

I'm back. I know I've been missing in action the past few days. My goal for this christmas was to do as many handmade gifts as possible. It was a great goal! I should have just started crafting in september but I chose to start around december tenth. That must be why there was three wise men in the christmas story, because women procrastinate. Jesus would have been filling out college applications before they arrived.

I actually still haven't finished. My niece and nephew in east Texas will be receiving their gifts sometime in the spring. haha.

But I will show you a few things that I did finish and have been given already....

bows. I made over 40 hair bows... all different colors, styles, materials, etc...

a monogrammed shirt with my new embroidery machine

peg dolls. 24 handpainted peg dolls. I loved these, so fun to do.

A special wooden tile necklace. Not the cookbook, just the necklace

A crayon / car wallet. look inside....

cars on the left, crayons on the right....

race track on the back.

I'm not 100% sure but I think everyone enjoyed their gifts.

So much more happened over the christmas holidays that I'll be showing you in the next few days. But for now, I need sleep... lots and lots of sleep.

I'm going to get it!!!

seriously. I know you're pumped (add pumped to that list of things I'm now too old to say)

Try to calm down and breathe.

I know you have no idea what I'm talking.

I'll be going here.....

sorry but that's the only picture I could find.

to pick up my christmas gift from my hunka hunka burning piece of love, otherwise known as His Royal Highness. I can barely contain my excitement.

I'll reveal the big gift later. I'm so excited! Santa I know him!!!!

Sometimes you have bad days in life. Sometimes you have bad months. Sometimes you might even have a bad year. Today was just one of those days that you want to file in the return to sender file. haha. Can you do that?

Just a sampling of my day:
1. Princess Goofy got her hand shut inside our sliding van door. Our van has sensors that won't let you close the door if hands or body parts are in the way. Apparently my rear end is too large for the sensors though because it has closed on that before. Don't worry, the door was not dented. Back to the story. She got her hand wedged in the one area of the door that there is no sensor. When I looked in the window from the outside of the van all I could see was her in a complete panick. She was screaming, crying, and jumping up and down all while her hand was still shut in the door. I opened it and Princess Girly Girl said in a perfectly happy sing song voice, "her hand was stuck in the door."  Sympathy, it's a gift that not all four year olds have required yet.  Thankfully her hand is not hurt in any way. She can't even remember which hand it was. We were blessed in that.

2. Princess Girly Girl threw a stompin, jacket throwin' fit in Target. The joy of a mother's heart... fits in public.

3. Gasoline poured out all over my jeans when I picked up the gas pump to fill up the van today. And I thought baby spit up was the new look for winter....

4. Princess Girly Girl slid coming down the stairs this afternoon and rammed her cheek straight into the downstairs toy box. She split her lip open and has a nice bruise on her cheek. Princess Newbie started crying when she heard her sister crying so I asked Princess Goofy to please cheer up Princess Newbie who was laying on the floor on her mat. Princess Goofy was her normal self and went stumbling backwards, falling directly on Princess Newbie. I had three crying Princesses all at the same time.

5. I got the bill for our home birth. Which was about $2,000 more that we expected, thanks to our wonderful health insurance.

6. His Royal Highness beat me at Ice Skating on the Wii. I'm the girl! I'm supposed to win the ice skating!

Hopefully now I can ignore the presents that are on the table, not in the mail as they should be, and just relax for the night. If you are expecting a christmas present via mail from me, please look for it in May.

It might have been a rough day but we are still blessed. I would pay $10,000,000,000. just to have Princess Newbie around and I would put up with a million more tears just to make sure that the older princesses are safe.

Hare Today, Goon Tomorrow

You're beautiful, that's for sure.

I got the bill for Princess Newbie's birth today. Then I had no choice but forward the email containing to amount owed to His Royal Highness. As I expected, the phone rang within seconds of pressing the send button.

That's when I heard the words. "I was going to get you a mac laptop for christmas, but instead I'm getting you a birth."  ACKAASLDUJASFOIAJSERLADFN ILASJF A>KDFNIOHJWERLKN.

In the words of my favorite children's book, Little Bunny Foo Foo.... .. "Hare today, Goon tomorrow".

Good bye macbook pro... I loved you while it lasted.

Somewhat related but not really is the fact that I dated a guy in college that proclaimed a song by Nelly Furtado to be our song. The words are as follows:

you're beautiful..... thats for sure. you're never,... ever fake.

you're lovely, but this is not for sure.... i won't ever change.
and though my love is real.... and though my love is true.....
i am like a bird, i only fly away. i dont know where my soul is.... , i dont know where my home is.
all i need for to is.... you're faith in me... brings me to tears
(((even after all these years)))))
and it pains me so much to tell.... that you dont know me that well...
and though my love is real, and though my love is true.....
i am like a bird, i only fly i dont know where my soul is, i dont know where my home is.
its not that i want to say goodbye, its just that everytime you try to tell me that you love me... each and every single day, i know im going to have to eventually give you away.
and though my love is real, and though my love is true....
im just scared...... that we may fall through.
i am like a bird, i dont know where my soul is... i dont know where my home is.


Do you think he realized that the song is about someone who can't commit? Do you think I should have read through the lines? hmmmm... and now it's funny that I am like a bird..

but I didn't find my home until I became a bird.