Merry Christmas!

Yes. I was a procrastinator. Yes. I am using today's technology to help me make up for not sending Christmas cards. Sooo, I'm staying up late tonight so that you can wake up and see shiny, happy, little people in your email inbox in the morning! :-)

(Note: I know this is long, but I didn't feel like posting 3 separate blogs.)


Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we took the kids up to Mom and Dad's house for a fantastic prime rib dinner with friends and family. Mom and Dad slaved in the kitchen and Katie helped! (Her green teeth are from the Christmas cookie she just ate.) Good food and fun was had by all. :-)

Then we carried on the 35 year old tradition of the Christmas Tree Story. Narrated by Nathan. Enjoy the video. Should be some nostalgia there for some. :-)

After the story, we all opened our presents. Casey bought the boys Air Hog helicopters. They battled with those all night. Katie got a boombox from Grandma and Grandpa, and Alex got a Handy Manny talking wrench and screwdriver from Uncle Casey. They're inseparable. Alex opens presents with the wrench, pokes his sister with the screwdriver, and sleeps with both of them clutched in his little baby paws at night. (Thank you Uncle Casey!)

We stayed at Dad's pretty late, but needed to head home and finish wrapping. The kids were having so much fun, we couldn't get them in the car. I told them to hurry up because if they didn't, we couldn't turn on our Christmas lights. And if we didn't turn on our Christmas lights, Santa couldn't find our house. And if Santa couldn't find our house, he couldn't bring us any presents. To which they replied, "How many presents will Santa bring us?".

"One," I said. "Haven't you been watching the news? We're in a recession. Santa had to lay off some elves and his workshop has slowed to 15% production capacity."

"Huh? What Mom?"

"Yeah. So get in the car."

Christmas Day

It was nice to wake up and have a Christmas at home this year. I always love traveling to Grandparents' houses and visiting around town, but it was definitely nice to be able to wake up at 6:30AM with the kids and say, "HEY! Go back to sleep!"

We had a fantastic Christmas. After opening presents, we made a big breakfast. Casey came over for a quick bite to eat, but after seeing that I bought the kids Guitar Hero World Tour, he decided to stay and party. We were having so much fun, we invited Steve and Mom to come join us. (Mom, you were a trooper!) Unfortunately, my camera isn't picking up the very loud sound from the TV of the song they were playing, but here's the video nonetheless.

What you don't see is the 2 solid hours of Casey on the drum set with the kids asking, "Uncle Casey, is it my turn yet?!"

"No. One more set. Just one more...."

3rd Times the Charm

Later in the day, we pumped out a Thanksgiving-style meal for Darrick's parents. They came over and brought the kids presents. Uncle Clinton (Darrick's brother) rocked out with the kids on World Tour. They had a blast.

Casey stayed for dinner and we had nice convos with good company. As everyone left, I began to feel how tired I really was, but the kids decided to whip out World Tour again. I had to get this on tape. So, here's a video of them writing their own music on the "Studio" section of the game, where you write and record our own music. I'll translate Nathan's lyrics for you. Keep in mind, he's obsessed with Star Wars.

"Never lose hope. Never let the Republic die. Never give up on the Republic. Cause the Republic la la la, go Republic, la la la la. You have to fight. For the Republic. Never lose hooooope."

I don't have video of this, but after Alex fell asleep, Darrick grabbed the drums, Ethan and Nathan did rhythm and lead guitar and Katie and I produced the sweet and sultry vocals for a few jam sessions. We had a blast.

Thank you all for making it the best Christmas ever! :-)

I'm going to bed now. What a day! Merry Christmas you guys!

Gettin' Down for Christmas

After my sister-in-law posted her cute family video, I thought I would try out the killer flash JibJab has come up with. And may I just say, from experience of how long it takes to change out just one photo in Flash, these Flash videos are killer! :-) And yes, that IS chocolate dripping down the side of Alex's mouth. I thought it very fitting. :-)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

"Even though it has a flannel banket on it..."

It's Christmas time. Time to Deck the Halls. And what better way to Deck the Halls, than to SING "Deck the Halls". Let's commence the original Welsh version of the song, shall we?

Cold is the man who can't love,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
The old mountains of dear Wales,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
To him and his warmest friend,
Ffa la, Ffa la, fa la la,
A cheerful holiday next year,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la.
To the troubled, cold are the bills,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
Which come during the holidays,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
Listening to a sermon in one verse,
Ffa la, Ffa la, fa la la,
Spending more than you earn,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la.
Cold is the snow on Mount Snowdon,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
Even though it has a flannel banket on it,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la,
Cold are the people who don't care,
Ffa la, Ffa la, fa la la,
To meet together on New Year's Eve,
Fa la la la la, fa la la la.

Huh? Such a HAPPY tune!

Well, we Decked our Halls the first weekend in December. Darrick decided his kids were having a real tree this year. Good grief, I was thinking a 6-7 footer would do it, but he picked out a ginormous 10 foot tree that nearly touches the ceiling! Luckily, we came up with just enough decorations to cover this giant Grand Fir. Though I thought it was a bit much, we can't help but stare in awe at this gorgeous reminder of why I shouldn't live in Tucson! Not to mention it's divine pine smell.

These pictures really don't do it justice. If you haven't been to my house, then you don't realize that I have a nearly 14 foot ceiling and my fireplace is the size of a Pinto. (Well, close.)

And I found this great little "Fast Facts" page about Christmas trees on the History Channel site. Check it out.

Uncle Casey's Hood

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Mom and I took the kids up to Prescott to check out Uncle Casey's hood. On the way up, I got my picture taken by these fun little cameras on the side of the road. It's like Prescott's own Disneyland entrance where they have someone take your picture when you enter and then send the picture to you later. Only the photo is so expensive, you usually don't buy it. I'm sure in this case my "Welcome to Prescott" picture will be something I'm forced to buy. And it will cost around $80 (for going 10 over the speed limit! How does Prescott have speed cams and Tucson doesn't?!)

But that's neither here nor there....

So, as soon as we got into Prescott, Mom took us to Coco's. We walked in and Alex started looking every which-way, yelling, "Unca Taaaaasey! Unca Taaaaaseeeeeey!" After that, those two were pretty much inseparable the rest of our visit.





After seeing Casey's reptilian roommates and brutal heater (seriously Case, post a pic of that thing would ya?), we headed to the lake to feed the ducks and play.

Twas our day up in Prescott

When all through the park

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a shark (yeah, yeah)

The bread was brought by Casey with care

In hopes that the ducks soon would be there

The children were excited, jumped up and sped

down to the lake, they ran way ahead

And me with my expensive Latte, and Casey with his coffee black

Ran down to the children to give them some crack. (I kid. It was bread!)

When across the water, there arose such a clatter

We sprang from the bench to see what was the matter

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But 25 ducks, a goose and a gander!

Flying in a "V" towards the targets on our heads,

I knew in a moment we'd all be dead.

(OK, that's dramatic, but HOLY COW! Freaking ducks on meth!)

More rapid than eagles as coursers they came

I whistled and shouted and called the kids by name,

"Now Alex and Ethan and Nathan and Katie!"

"Back up from the water, this is gettin' shady!"

"To the top of the hill, back to the car!"

"Now run away! Run away! Run away far!"

So back down to the water all of the kids walked,

because no one listens when Mommy talks.

Later I heard Casey exclaim as we finally walked out of sight,

"Dude! Did you get that on camera?! Alriiiight..."

Here's Casey playing with the kids at the park. We had such a blast! We're coming up to see you again Uncle Casey! Only next time, we're spending the night. 8 hours of driving in one day is POOP!

Thanksgiving Cowboy Style

Thanksgiving Day was great. I slaved in the kitchen all day. Though it didn't feel like slaving because there was a nice, cool mist outside; Grandma took the kids to a movie; the baby took a nap; and I rocked out to my COLDPLAY CD. (OK OK. I'll stop saying Coldplay.) COLDPLAY!

On Friday night, we decided to have a little family outing. We took the kids to Trail Dust Town. It's a great little Old West town complete with steakhouse, locomotive, gold panning, shooting range and a live stunt show called "Santa's Little Outlaw". Best part is, everything but the train ride is free. (And that's only a buck!)

Here's Darrick keeping Alex nice and warm. (Katie loves to make sure she pops into all pictures that include baby.)

There's a shoe shine stand near the gazebo in the center of "town". Nate and Alex decided to strike a pose.

The best part is when the kids get to pan for gold. Why? The guy that works that area of town must have been an original part of the Old West. He literally looks like this guy and stands there like a statue in an Old West museum until a kid walks near him. Then, suddenly, he comes to life. Scares the kids everytime. It must be his joy in life. lol

Then he gives each kid a pan and shows them how to swirl it. While they're focused on looking for the gold, he sneaks a piece of fool's gold into the pan and buries it in the sand. The kids get so excited when they find their gold. Of course, Ethan always wants to keep looking...lol

Darrick, me and the kids. Grandma locked us up!

Better Late Than Never

It's been a crazy few weeks, but I thought I would take a minute to catch up on Moochie Town.

So, here's the night before Thanksgiving. Mom came down from California to take care of the kids while we went to the Coldplay concert. (Subliminal shout out to Coldplay, "I love you!")

Anywho, here's the product of one gingerbread man kit, four kids' creativity and one Grandma's patience and perseverance.

Fun was had by all and Grandma is still alive. Must have been a good night! :-)

Coldplay Rocks!

We started off the Thanksgiving Holiday with a rockin' concert in Glendale. Here's a clip. I'm about 30 rows back down in a floor row. (Thank goodness other people had better cameras. I left mine in the car and my cellphone's sound recording is poop.)



At one point, they walked through the crowd, high-fiving everyone down the row, then setup in the middle of the audience at the back of the arena. Killer.




During "Lovers in Japan", they dropped a bazillion paper butterflies from the ceiling. I, of course, sleep holding mine. ALWAYS. :-P



One more for posterity...LOVE THIS BAND!



Thank you to Mom for making it possible for me to go!!!

Time to go find my Coldplay CD and curl up with my paper butterflies while wearing my kicka$$ Coldplay Tour T-shirt!