January Fun Things:

Here are some random super fun things that I'm loving in the new year! In no particular order! I'm back to no bread & no sugar, so these Sugar Free Popsicles are fabulous. I LOVE popsicle and icee stuff, so this works. One a day (or two) 15 calories, no sugar. What's not to love. (And for the record, I've lost 5 pounds and that was just the first week!)

I have a font obsession! Here are my current favorites. I've added a zillion! With the new program (2 actually. one was a scrapbook program and it pretty much stinks) it automatically gave me new ones and then I've found other random favorites free online. Here are some top pics currently!

I'm scrapbooking again, finally. Of course it's because I'm working on the school kids books, not my own. I'm enjoying it though and hope to keep the inspiration and start working on my own again. I'm also looking at online ideas for "Life Story" books for children and I'm excited about doing one of those as well. This magazine is currently my favorite because it has several pull out pages of layouts I can use for ideas and build on. Gotta love that! I typically love Simple Scrapbooks too!!


This is the best $20 I've spent in ages. I'm using it for our birth mom letter, but it's great for anything and everything. I was devastated to start pricing programs that were suggested for working on our letter. From $150-$700, are you kidding? Then I looked at hiring a professional to help me and it was $400 at a minimum. Ugh! So I found this and decided it rocks!! Interested in designing pages for anything, even scrapbooks? This rocks!


Yep, this was the camera I bought in September. It was a combo birthday gift with $$ raised from a huge yard sale. I waited for years and years on this sucker and I'm madly in love with it. Santa brought me the next biggie lens and it's fabulous as well. (55-200mm) I want the 18-200, but I'm thinking that's on the back burner for quite awhile.


Here's the surprise small digi that Andy bought me. It's very small and fits in the zipper ID case from Vera Bradley, perfect camera case. It has a fairly good zoom and it takes movies. It's going to be perfect to keep in a diaper bag someday, I look forward to it!
Grey's Anatomy on DVD, season 3. Technically right now.. any TV on DVD is the greatest thing ever. We are season 8 of "Everybody Loves Raymond" with only one more to. I've been watching "Dawson's Creek" and "Gilmore Girls" on and off again. We have several other sets and both have a handful on our "wish list". "90210" is on my next to buy for sure. I have been watching it again for months now, 2 episodes every late afternoon. Good times, fun memories. I forgot how much I loved that cheesy show!



I am a Crystal Light addict. I don't like water unless I'm REALLY hot and the water is REALLY cold. I figure if I can add some flavor and get more bottles down, life is good. My favorites have always been lemonade and ice tea. Today though, I found a brand new flavor and it's fabulous. It's fruit punch and tastes just like kool aid to me. (I love kool aid) Life is good and I see alot of water in my future!) 5 calories, sugar free. I'm set!


Do you eat the chips with lime? I love these things. Ok, not 100% great for me, but it's not terrible either. Everyone has to have a snack, right? Eat them with salsa and you're doing something pretty good for yourself. Salsa and those tomatoes are great for you, so feel good about a small snack!

guess i've put off being productive enough today, hope you enjoyed--

Bird's Eye:

I have wanted to take the helicopter tour over Disney now for years. We decided that this was the trip, we were going to make it happen. Early in the week we went to check it out, it was just down from where we stayed off property. It wasn't as bad as we thought, but we wanted a pretty clear day. Thankfully, the day we left it was perfect!

They let you purchase a CD of pictures that they take of you. Obviously, I paid $20 for a CD of pictures that has limitations. I can't upload them here, no matter what I try. I will see if I can post them for some of you elsewhere later. ;) Anyhow, they are of me up front with the pilot and Andy in the back. Us in front of the helicopter together and taking off. They took about 25 pictures and it was really neat. I just didn't realize I couldn't do things with them. Hopefully they will print?!

Moving along....

We have flown in two helicopters before, once over Niagra Falls & once in Gatlinburg, TN. Both times were fantastic. We are continually amazed at how smooth and easy flying in a helicopter is compared to a plane. No comparing the two. This was by far the smallest that we've flown in, it felt like there was NOTHING between you and the world. It was unreal!! Amazingly, I don't get motion sick when flying. I later told Andy I would have been afraid to cough, I thought I'd shake the thing right out of the sky. We wore headphones though and our pilot told us all about what we were seeing, where we were, etc.. He was great!

It was a 20 minute flight and way, way too short! It's always over so fast, every time. Andy flew to North Georgia from work in a Black Hawk, he had a long flight and was just as amazed from that big ole thing!

Anyhow... I took a TON of photos and Andy took videos. It's pretty neat to watch. Here are some of the highlights though. They aren't the best or the worse, just some of everything. I took a ton over each land mark, park, resort, we saw most everywhere on property. (most of the resorts) We could only get about 3 miles from the Magic Kingdom though, seems they changed some things with their flight space after 911.

It was a dream come true for sure! It was worth every penny of saving money during the week so that we'd be able to pay for this. I recommend that if you don't try it there, sometime in your life.. take a helicopter ride. You'll be glad you did!!

Enjoy--

Typhoon Lagoon

Sea World's new water park, opening in the spring.
Sea World

Pop Century. If it's zoomed and enlarged, you can tell. Funny b/c we'd just left there.

MGM...look close, you recognize it.

Wanta guess? Yep, EPCOT

Directly over Downtown Disney, that's the world of Disney there in the middle.

Discovery Cove

About 3 miles from the Magic Kingdom. It's as close as we were allowed. You can see the castle in the middle, space mountain to the right & then Contemporary.

Making a big turn near All Star Sports.... here we goooooo-----

Snow

So the thing that has been going through my head this week as we've had snow twice, is the song from "White Christmas"...

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

It's not a common thing for us here in Georgia to see pretty snow. Matter of fact, I think it's been two years this time since we've seen it last. We had "the big blizzard of '93" and haven't seen deep pretty snow since. We typically get sleet, ice, mush and a few flakes to turn it white. Wednesday night of this week it started snowing in the late afternoon and we had the biggest snowflakes I'd ever seen in my entire life. They were constant, heavy and huge. Most of them were quarter and half dollar size, but there were tons that were as big as my hand. Craziness. It was gorgeous as it came down and covered. The picture at the right is just off the front porch and towards the neighbors house.

Gizmo can't stand snow, he hates to get his feet wet even in the rain! The big girls really didn't care one way or another since it was late afternoon, early evening. The only one it truly bothered was Kitty Witty who goes outside every night. He wanted desperately to be out there, but didn't want to get in the snow. It was hilarious! He tip toed around the porch looking for a way to get down, without getting his feet in it. He ended up coming back, but refused to come inside. After several minutes, this is how I left him out there. I'm not sure how long he sat under the bench, but when I went back about 15 minutes later he was off and gone. Silly cat!!

Naturally, although we had about an inch on our porch and ground .. it didn't stick and stay on the roads and we didn't get a snow day from it on Thursday. What we did get at preschool were classrooms full of "snow hyper" kids! I've never seen such, they were beside themselves. It was the first time that most of them had ever seen snow, if was amazing to see how excited they were though and I was thrilled for them.

Saturday, it was back. Weather Channel was showing 100% chance of snow for the Atlanta area, we sure don't hear that alot! We had plans for having our picture made with a photographer on the Marietta Square that afternoon, we had to reschedule. It started that morning early with tons of sleet, then eventually it all turned to snow. It snowed for hours, steadily. It wasn't as hard, nor the snowflakes as huge as they were previously this week. It still covered everything and made for a snuggly day inside.

Andy played outside with the girls, I was wimpy and stayed in! Typically I like to get out there and play, aka: find opportunities to take good pictures. Not this year, I was content to stay inside nice and warm and dry! They came up on the deck for me to TRY to take a picture of them. All they wanted was to smooch Andy in the face and I have about 25 pictures of it all, hilarious. No good pictures, but this one will have to do. He's saying "quit, quit, quit, quit, quit".....

We spent the day inside being warm and lazy, it was a great day!

Disney Highlights

Tuesday: We slept in and then headed to EPCOT. We rode a few things and then Amber & Jonathan met us for lunch and a few rides. I am always confused by people who take pictures with terrible backgrounds when there are beautiful ones if you just turn and look around you. Well, here's an example of not taking your own advice. Ugh, why didn't I turn us the other way so spaceship earth was behind us or the fountains. Andy & I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a pretty crowded EPCOT. We returned to International Drive for supper and our last night @ Homewood Suites. (Which we came to seriously LOVE) Then it was time for the big bowl game, Go Dawgs!!!




Wednesday: We moved ourselves "on property" finally to Pop Century! We settled in, unpacked and were off to the Magic Kingdom. It was a super cold day where we wore long johns, 2 or 3 shirts, sweatshirt jackets and then big coats! (hat, scarf, gloves included...this is Orlando, FL) It was still SO VERY crowded! We did an entire walk through, fought our way around the place and left. Andy said "we'd have to get a fast pass for a turkey leg" at this point! Lines were all over an hour & a half long, there were about 25 people in each food line. It was nuts status still!! We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge where we had reservations at Whispering Canyon! Such a fun place with great food, you can't go wrong. Andy ordered "a little" lemonade, funny huh?


Thursday: We spent the first part of our day at the Animal Kingdom, where crowds were still pretty heavy. We still got just about everything in, other than Everest. It was packed with no fast passes left when we arrived. We saw a TON of animals on safari, watched "Lion King" which we hadn't done in years, saw "Nemo", rode Dinosaur and looked at animals galore. We headed back that evening to eat supper @ the Pop Century food court, added another layer of clothes and then it was off to the Magic Kingdom. We watched "SpectroMagic" which is pretty much my #1 favorite activity to do in all of Disney World. Then we rode a few things (where I kicked Andy's rear on Buzz with points) and left just before closing.

Friday: Andy went to play golf and I spent the first part of the day playing online and then reading half of a new book by the pool in the sun. It was much warmer and great to finally put on jeans and a regular shirt without freezing to death! The sun was warm and welcoming! When Andy returned we headed over to MGM. (with the last few days of that name, it has since become Disney's Hollywood Studio) We had dinner reservations at Sci Fi, one of my favorites! We rode a few things, saw Fantasmic (don't you LOVE that?!) and then saw the Osbourne Lights. It was the first time I'd seen them in years and years, we had never seen them "dance" before either. It was amazing! Andy (who is over Christmas the day after usually) really enjoyed them too and said it was nice to have the Christmas season extended down there for a few days!




Saturday: Andy returned for a round of golf while I headed to EPCOT to hang out with some friends and their family. It is always so much fun for me to see my favorite place through the eyes of little ones. Their entire family was there (including kids, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents) and so much fun! Andy arrived late that afternoon and we had dinner reservations at the Garden Grill, which was totally empty the entire time we were there for the most part. The furry critters were in need of something to do and we visited with them several times. At one point Chip & Dale sat down with us to play, it was a hoot! We spent the evening hanging out at EPCOT where Andy got to ride Test Track twice in a row. It's his favorite, so he was thrilled! Good day, good times! It did rain a few sprinkles here & there, which made for two beautiful rainbows. They were double at one point and we weren't in a good place for a photo. This photo will have to do.






Sunday: We decided to spend our last official day at the Magic Kingdom. We hadn't spend an entire day at a park in a long time and it was fun. The crowds were a little lighter than earlier in the week, thankfully! It was still crowded (very), but we were able to get around and ride lots of stuff! I kicked Andys rear (again) on Buzz, we got fast passes to several things and were handed some by a very sweet family. We saw the very last Castle Holiday Show of the season, where the fairy godmother actually "lights" the castle. It was very good and we were glad we went. I recommend it highly, hope it returns next year. The castle is absolutely beautiful lit up like that, they did good work. We had a fantastic day for sure!!




*Coming up in the next post: Our dream helicopter flight over the Happiest Place on Earth, lots of fun!!*

New Years in Orlando

You'll notice that I said New Years in Orlando, not technically in Disney World! Here are some things I've learned over the past few days.

#1) Georgia has been in a severe drought since very early in the summer. The ONLY days it rained this summer, were the ones we spent camping at the lake. The day the drought officially ends and we catch up on A L L the rain, the day we leave for Disney World! We had torrential amounts of rain from the time we left Dallas until we went through Valdosta and crossed the state line. Then, it cleared up beautifully! The sun came out and it got up to 81 degrees, then.. the rain started again, the temperature dropped back to 70 and we couldn't see the car in front of us. Then, the rain stopped, the sun came out and the temperature rose ... for 15 miles. The rain returned and well, you get the idea. All the way to Orlando. EVERY TIME it rained like that, a wreck happened and traffic came to a stand still. EVERY TIME, I kid you not. Some wrecks were fender benders that everyone stopped to gaze at while others were serious and very sad. It only took us about 9 & 1/2 hours, which isn't that much longer than our typical 8 hour trips. B U T it was a horrible drive and felt more like 15. Ugh!!

#2) Shades of Green will always make room for you when you are a frequent guest, UNLESS you are desperate for a room. I have called so many times wanting them to be full so we can go somewhere for 40% off, they always find room for us when we say how often we stay there. The calendar online reads FULL, but they have a room for us. We were pitiful and desperate yesterday, there was no room in the inn! There wasn't a single room available on property at Disney, not one.

#3) When you are desperate and have been driving in the rain for hours, you're tired, hungry and frustrated .... the first hotel you come to that has a room isn't always the best choice! We have stayed in some very small and very old places before, we can take it. We're not picky, give us clean and cheap and we'll be ok. After all, we're just sleeping there.... right? WRONG!

*note- it does NOT look like this picture in real life*

Ugh... we got a room, unloaded our stuff and walked across the street to UNO'S Chicago Grille, which was pretty darn good. Then we returned to our room. I wanted to get a shower, where I found we didn't have wash clothes, what's with that? Fine... We are ready for bed..... there are no fitted sheets, there is a top sheet .. on the bottom. There are 5 lights in the room, 2 of those don't work. This morning I discover a hairball I haven't seen before on the wall in the bathroom and as much as I shed, this one isn't mine! (I shoulda let Jo handle this part of the trip too huh?)

We wake up and desperately start looking for somewhere to go. Andy gets Shades on the phone (says "It's an emergency"), who still can't squeeze us in. I get Disney on the phone, who have one room open at Saratoga Springs for $399 a night, holiday rate... fun. (I did talk to a lady I'd talked to before, I remember because her name was "Briar Rose" that one sticks with ya. Cute though!) We can't do that- Then Andy goes off on a marathon spree of looking for places and rooms. More on that later.

#4) Orlando experiences 80 temps in the month of December and rarely see more than a light afternoon shower of rain. When we arrive, we bring it with us... the crappy weather that is. Today it was warm, but rained pretty much all day.

AND... There's more. Today on the news they said the high on Wednesday is 48 or something. It's suppose to freeze that night, big time. It's the COLDEST TEMPS IN FIVE YEARS!!! Yep, we bring all the fun huh??

#5) The three most crowded times of the year at Disney are Christmas Day, February and New Years. I'd experienced the first two times, first hand. Might as well see if they were serious about the third, right?!

They were serious. Today the Magic Kingdom posted a FULL sign on all the road signs, no kidding. I've never seen that before. Of course we're off property so would have to park somewhere else to get over there. Who would want there with so many people though? Nah-

#6) When the Magic Kingdom gets full, the next closest park that people would drive to is EPCOT. We decided we'd give it a try, ewww..... We got through the gate, but would had to have parked on the V E R Y last row of the parking lot. It was about to be FULL as well. Again, who really wants to be there with that many people? What are you gonna be able to do, seriously? Nah- Forget it.....

#7) Winter Summerland is such a dang fun place to play putt putt. Who knew that it had so many little fun things at each hole. I HIGHLY recommend you take time to go if you haven't before. We had a blast!! We are going to go back later this week to play the other side, we played "winter" today and want to play "summer" as well. Oh, and YAY for 50% annual pass discount.

AMBER & JONATHAN: Do you have time this week one night or next weekend to go play? Wanta join us?? It's so much fun!!! It'll be like $11 with your passes total, who can beat that? Oh and we ended up making ressies today for eating too, I know... I know... we said we weren't gonna do that this trip. I'll email you our days, times and places. You two are welcome to join us anytime!!

#8) Homewood Suites by Hilton is my new favorite "non-Disney" place to stay in the world! HOLY MOLY!! Andy found this place and seriously became my hero! It wasn't "that" expensive for a holiday rate and it is fabulous. The smallest are a one bedroom/one living room & kitchen suite. It is adorable. The kitchen has a stove, dishwasher, table, chairs and full size fridge. There is a menu thing that you can ask them to go grocery shopping with and they bring it to you within 3 hours. The living room has a couch that makes a bed, a leather chair, leather ottoman thingy and large TV. It has a window that overlooks the pool area. The bedroom has a king bed with 8 pillows (we had 2 in our whole scary room last night) and the most comfortable bedding in the world. (You can order it for your home) It has a HUGE TV with on demand movies, a chair and a window that looks into the pool area. There's a huge closet and huge bathroom.


*not my picture, but looks just like this... our suite has 2 windows that look at the pool area that's inside the middle of the buildings like this, it's also VERY heated...*


The lobby area offers a FREE hot breakfast buffet in the morning and a "welcome home" thingy each night. From 5-7 you can go eat for FREE. Tonight they had a salad bar, bread, spaghetti, drinks and home made cookies. Are you KIDDING ME? Every night it's different. (hot dogs, chili, fettucini alfredo, oriental chicken, the menu is on the fridge door... I feel like I'm at home)

FREE wireless internet access in your suite, the lobby, where ever. Can't get your wireless to work, no problem... they have a computer person at the desk to help you! (I needed a connector do hickey they let me borrow for some reason)

#9) Celebration is for sure the cutest community on Earth! When we win the lottery (right after we actually start playing) we are moving to Celebration. I'd said for years that we were going to visit and we finally went out there today. HOLY MOLY, it's absolutely the neatest place ever!! I felt like I was in that movie with the "fake" town, what's it called?? The drive out there we didn't pass a single soul, no car, very odd. We get there and it is as cute as Terry & Amber promised. The houses are so gorgeous, big or small. House or apartment, take your pick. They are all awesome. They were decorated for Christmas and I wanted to move right in! They have their own schools, town square with shops and business', post office, parks, playgrounds, sports leagues, random picnic benches or swings by ponds, the whole bit. It is DISNEY HEAVEN!


*nope, not my actual picture... this is celebration though*

#10) I really do love Bahama Breeze! We have one near home and have eaten there once, I loved it then too. We never make it over to the mall though, never. I forget it's out there. We have one in the same parking lot as our hotel, so we ventured out there tonight. (After actually driving around and looking for it BEFORE we realized it was the same parking lot.... felt so dumb...) They have THE BEST BBQ chicken flat bread ever! (Andy got cheese & tomato flat bread) We both got salads and I got a "strawberry sunrise" to go! (Orange sherbert, orange juice and strawberry syrup, no alcohol thank you kindly and it was THE BEST thing ever. I may go back tomorrow night for one too!! NOT KIDDING) It was fantastic and our bill was just @ $30, can you beat that with a dessert drink to go?

#11) Helicopter rides in Orlando aren't as much as I'd feared. I have been screaming for years that I AM RIDING IN A HELICOPTER AROUND DISNEY WORLD. (I even talked to Emmy about it, right chickie, ages ago?!) We checked it out today and the prices were much cheaper than I thought. (Really cheap compared to what we've paid in Niagra Falls and Gatlinburg) We are going to do it this week, hopefully the sun will return for it! I want it to be a sunny clear day!

#12) Golf "outlet" stores in Orlando aren't cheap! We found a golf store and I found about 3 bags that I'm in love with, all too much for me to handle though... Well, I guess if I played more I could see getting one.... but I don't. They were so cute.

#13) We really enjoy Rain Forest Cafe, seriously! We decided to browse around downtown Disney today and eat lunch at Rain Forest. Where, even though it was crazy crowded everywhere, we walked right in! I got a yummy turkey wrap and Andy had crab cheese dip. Both were yummy! There merchandise is VERY cheap right now, on sale!! (go go go) Andy got a rain coat, jacket thing that's black & gray .. very him. Says "Rain Forest" Orlando on the small right side and it was just $21. ALOT of sweatshirts were just $21 and t shirts were 2 for $19. Nice, quality stuff too, not the cheapy junk!! I thought about Christmas shopping for next year!!!

#14) Surprisingly, I can come stay in Orlando .. never make it to a park and be 100% content and enjoy myself a ton!! I never thought that was true. I expected to pout if we didn't go to a park for at least part of our day, we have passes for crying out loud. It wouldn't matter if we went for just awhile. But I confessed tonight that I really didn't want to go EVEN THOUGH IT'S NEW YEARS EVE AND WHAT WOULD BE MORE FUN THAT STARTING A NEW YEAR AT MY FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH???? It's so crowded out there and still raining on and off. We really did have a great day without going into a park, we still have SIX days left of this trip and I'm perfectly content with sitting here online rambling to whomever decides to read this on New Years Eve, no kidding! We're going to watch a movie on demand or TV and I'm guessing totally miss all the excitement. Just like at home.... LOL!!!

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Christmas Eve morning Andy & I went to Mike & Faye's house for breakfast. It's tradition and yummy! My sister in law is a fantastic cook! We opened presents and both boys got new golf clubs. Matching Taylor Made Drivers.. I'm sharing a picture of the two boys with their toys. Of course Andy has TWO in his hand because he bought himself one of those. Then Mike & Faye gave him a new super duper putter. They hit golf balls in the backyard, boys will be boys. It was a great morning of food, fellowship and family!

Christmas Eve evening we went to dinner with Mom & Dad. It was definitely different compared to our typical tradition when we use to spend the evening with my Grand parents too. Breaks my heart! We returned back to Mom & Dad's for presents and hanging out.

Christmas morning we woke up to find Santa had visited! We are both big kids and love to see what Santa brings. As tradition has it, I got a letter from Santa. Those are my favorite part of Christmas Day! Here are the goodies he left for Andy. The Tigger in the picture is mine from my class this year. They gave it to me with Disney Dollars for our trip this week!! He got a new Callaway golf bag, 2 head covers, a golf towel, cologne, a book, running clothes, golf balls, golf tees and stocking goodies. The picture of me with my goodies was blurry, but I got lots of neat stuff too! Including the new bigger lense for my big digital camera, a fun icee/slushie/smoothie maker, movies, a very special book and stocking goodies. Some new and some not so new. Silly Santa!! (Andy had already bought a new driver for himself and he bought me a new smaller digital camera)




Oh and never fear Santa left a goodie for Gizmo too! Sadly the girls got left out this year, I don't know what Santa was thinking! I'm sure it was a mishap and they were treated to all sorts of special treats this week! We felt horrible!











I didn't share this earlier, but here is a picture of a special gift that I got this year from a family at school. It looks like a typical version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. It doesn't look that special, does it?! It is though!! It is an autographed copy!!! Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE books, I'm pretty obsessive about it. (Just read some of my previous blogs) I am just as obsessive about children's books, I LOVE them!! So to give me an autographed copy of one of my favorite authors, well.... what could be better?! I was super thankful! This sweet family went to see Eric Carle when he visited the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Come to find out Mr. Carle is 75 this year and going to start seriously limiting his guest appearances and book signings. I feel very special that they thought of doing this for me!!

Pre Christmas
Christmas

A few weeks ago we had Saturday Christmas at my Mom's sister's house. Lots of fun, food and family. It was nice to see some family members that we hadn't seen in quite awhile and to catch up with everyone. My aunt is awesome and I have all these memories of great times with her growing up. She let me do all the fun things that Mom wouldn't let me do, I so hope to be that fun aunt to Layla, Tanner and "Trella" (don't ask)! Strangely enough, I forgot to take a single picture, very unlike me!

Friday night I had my girlfriends over. Unfortunately one of our gang was sick and didn't make it. Misty, we missed you bunches. We ate, laughed our butts off, played a game where we laughed until we cried, ate more, laughed more and had the best time ever! Midnight arrived way too fast.




Last night we had our Christmas get together with Andy's oldest brother and his family. There were fifteen of us and Ms. Layla Grace did well entertaining us all! Uncle Andy & I got her a ball pit, filled with balls of course. She had so much fun and knew how to dive in the moment she seen it. It was soooo funny! There was another ball in the room that everyone kept tossing in, but it was purple and I actually bought it for her this summer. She knew it didn't "go" with the ball pit and she'd throw it back out and say no, funny girl. I think she may be a "tiny" bit anal like her Aunt Monica.



Today was an awesome church Christmas celebration. I love the Sunday at church before Christmas, touches my heart big time. I get the warm fuzzies and am reminded of what an awesome God we have!

(Newsflash here: If you didn't know, we actually "came home" last weekend and moved our church membership letter back to First Baptist.)

We also went to lunch with Mom, Dad and Grand Mother today. We ate out and returned to "her place" for opening presents and tons of chatting. (and Laughter galore!) It was a relief to celebrate Christmas with her on a day other than Christmas Eve, I'm not sure how I would have handled that without Grand Daddy there. I am missing him and our Christmas traditions so much! Grand Mother and I were shopping earlier this week and she pointed out that she guessed this would be my first Christmas ever not getting a doll, she's right. I'm not doing well with that either, makes me very sad. A part of my life is gone with Grand Daddy. She will join us for Christmas Day Lunch @ my parents house too. Here's her door that we decorated a few weeks ago!





More to come.....

Merry Christmas from preschool! Don't you love the season?! The first picture is just one of our zillion crafts from December. We made two different quilt pieces and put it together in the hall. The other piece is a gingerbread man they painted. Terry, you'll appreciate the quilt aspect! Not your typical quilt, but it sure was cute.

We have made ornaments out the wazoo. We made popsicle snow flakes, popsicle picture frames with wooden reindeer & pictures of the kids with red noses and headbands on reindeer day, clothes pin reindeer made with a volunteer Mom and bead candy canes! Our tree has been jam packed with all sorts of gifts! Fun, fun, fun!!

We talked about the birth of baby Jesus and made a "Christmas Story" book. It went something like this "Three wise men, followed the star, to the town of Bethlehem, to see the Savior" With appropriate crafts on each page. We got a big laugh because we had three wise SNOWmen. I couldn't find another "man" to use and we dipped a snowman cookie cutter in paint to represent our wise SNOWmen. Fun!



Some of you may remember our Gingerbread Day from last year. Parents come in on a Monday when all of our classrooms on my hall are not full and we used those rooms. We invited our neighbor class to join us this year. (B/C my "old" assistant, AKA: greatest friend ever is now the official teacher in that room) We broke up into very small groups and the kids rotated to fun activities ran by parents. We played gingerbread man bingo, tossed gingerbread bean bags on letters & numbers, made these foam gingerbread ornaments that say "Jesus warms my heart", made a book about how to prevent a gingerbread man from escaping, made gingerbread men magnets, played gingerbread men file folder games and painted wooden gingerbread men that had ribbons for hanging. Our director even got in on the action and ran our painting activity, it was a ton of fun!!

We acted out a new favorite poem. "Five little snowmen, all in a row. Each with a hat and a big red bow. The sun came out and stayed all day, then one little snowman melted away." The kids wore hats & bows when they were snowmen and we had one hold up a sun. The melted as we said the poem, it was a hoot!!!

We did all sorts of other fun things in December. I am very proud of our brand new idea for a parent gift. I was "picture framed out" this year, it's usually what I do. A teacher friend at school came up with a version of this idea and she was kind enough to let me "borrow" it. ((Shout out to Carolyn, thanks)) I LOVE the outcome and will keep this idea forever I think! ((Funny b/c she said the idea came from my niece. So..Trisha, thanks to you too!))




Which all brings me to one of the reasons I blogged tonight. I shared this story with some of you earlier today. I was sitting down today with the children as they wrapped their parent gift. I let them chose red or green bulletin board paper to wrap it with. They helped me cut the paper and they did all the taping. It isn't often that I get to sit down for awhile just to chat with each kiddo individually, we're always so busy with jobs and such. Sitting there wrapping, I took time to just chat. No rush today, no real agenda. We added ribbon, they wrote their name and mom/dad on a star die cut name tag. All the while we chatted, I love those moments!!

Christmas music was playing on the radio and they were all in centers busy working/playing. Some were using clip boards and writing words in our room, one was at the writing table writing a "naughty/nice" list for Santa from our friend's names. Two friends were listening to "The Gingerbread Man" on tape with microphones. (I can't get them to use the word HEAD phones) Some of my guys were building a city in blocks, a few girls were "baking Christmas cookies" with play doh and two girls were going crazy with Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas stamps and cards in the art center. It was a busy place, a little loud YES, but busy. There was laughter and conversations galore.

I had to pause (over and over honestly) during the morning to stop and say thank you to God for each and every one! I smiled (and almost cried) as I reminded myself of just HOW MUCH I LOVE MY JOB!! I can't imagine anything more important than loving, educating, nurturing and sharing God's love with these little people. They are amazing and I am lucky their parents share them with me each day!!

Tomorrow is our Christmas program, all 120 four year olds on stage together. It is something to behold. I'm sure the angels in Heaven are all singing along as we sing Silent Night, J E S U S (think "bingo"), We're Following a Star and a few others. One is called "Happy Birthday Jesus" and is not your typical version, it's absolutely heart stopping and makes me practically weepy when those little voices belt it out!!!

We are all animals as we arrive on stage, my class is first and we are mice. We will wear gray shirts, wear mice ear headbands and have pink noses & whiskers. We arrive to say "Who is coming to our house? Someone, someone said the mouse". It goes on as all the animals know someone special is coming to their house, but they just aren't sure who. Then everyone realizes we are welcoming baby Jesus! It's very sweet!!

We'll return to our class for a small party where we'll make jingle bell and bead bracelets, oreo snowmen snacks and open presents! We do a "book gift exchange" and I gift them a box of wrapped books too! We're also playing pin the nose on Rudolph. You just can't beat a fun Christmas party!

Don't you wish YOU were still in preschool?

I love my job, I am blessed. Remember the reason for the season and enjoy these quotes from my munchkins!

What makes reindeer fly?
The little necklaces around their neck.
Christmas dust
Reindeer food
I think Santa gives them sprinkles or sparkles
Magic, Santa magic

How does Santa get into your house?
He just says .. Hey fly up there! and I can go down the chimney and put presents under the tree.
He has to open the door, he rings the doorbell
Through the chimney
In the chimney, if the fire was on he would burn his bottom

What does Christmas mean?
Getting everything out like Christmas trees
Celebrating Jesus' birthday
I went to Nanny's and she passed out presents
That Santa brings presents & food
Because it's just so exciting

Santa Arrives at my Door!

So some of you know this story already. You may wanta skip this one. For the rest of you.... here goes.

I have an awesome group of friends who do a secret Santa each year. We exchange names and on a regular old day, like today, Santa arrives at your door step. There I was cleaning my house when Santa delivered a box to my house! My box JINGLED! It was fantastic!!!

Now, it's not Christmas yet. (As Andy lovingly reminded me) Some people might have put the package under the tree to wait until Christmas. I .... am NOT one of those people! I tore into that sucker!

Here is a picture of my "loot"!!

















I LOVE & adore Pooh, for those of you who don't know. (Is there any such person?) I have a collection of Christmas Pooh's that sit on my steps in my house. This new guy is awesome. He is much softer than the others, I love how Disney is making their plushies much softer these days. I'm a sucker for a stuffed animal of any kind. There are about 6 who have permanent residence on our bed!

The purse there, is a custom made one, thankyouverymuch! She knows I'm slightly obsessed with Vera Bradley and she made my very own "T.K." brand! It's awesome blue & yellow fabric, it's quilted (she rocks) and the inside has three yellow fabric pockets.

It was also a stuffed purse! It has a Pooh Pen, very fun! There was Burt's chapstick, gum and all sorts of fun candy! Ghiradelli (sp?), Mickey Chocolate Bar and a Mickey Head peppermint bar thingy....holy moly!!

It is SO MUCH fun to buy things for a friend in secret and SO MUCH fun when your door bell rings with a surprise gift at Christmas time!! Loving it!!

Terry, thanks again. (for the zillionth time) And.... YOU ROCK!

Merry Christmas from the Tanners!