Christmas Fun

I totally stole this post idea from my BFF (and Nanny) Jennifer. I love all things Christmas so I thought I'd include it:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags
Wrapping paper. I really like to wrap gifts although over the last several years I have found myself using more and more gift bags. Just out of convenience. I will try to wrap them all this year. Opening wrapped gifts is just more fun.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Artificial (again, the convenience thing). Though, growing up we always had a real tree. It was a family tradition to go to a Christmas tree farm and pick out a tree as a family. They always smelled so nice--like Christmas. We were in charge of watering it every day. Lots of great memories. My dad would never hear of anything other than a real tree, though I think he lost the battle a year or so ago when my mom came home from the store with an artifical tree.

3. When do you put up the tree?
We always put it up the day or weekend after Thanksgiving. I can’t put up Christmas decorations soon enough! However, when we had a real tree growing up, putting it up that early sometimes meant that the tree would be dead by Christmas. Too funny.

4. When do you take it down?
Usually after the New Year.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Not really. Not even when it’s spiked :)

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Barbie Dream House or a bike. Santa never wrapped our gifts and Alan (my brother) and I would always sleep in each other’s rooms and get up really really really early in the morning and creep out into the living room and the lights would all be out except the Christmas tree lights and all of our presents would be sitting out under the tree--shining under the lights. Presents just look better with Christmas tree lights shining on them. I distinctly remember seeing my barbie house and thought it was the best thing in the whole world. I also just always remember how shiny a new bike looked under the Christmas tree. I think my Dad did too which is why it seemed like at least one of us got a new bike every year!

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes. My parents have a nativity scene and each of us kids have our own nativity scene as well. Every year, since we were little, our church would give each child a piece to a nativity scene. By the time you were 13 or so you had a completed scene. I still put mine up in my house.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My grandfather. Well, he’s the hardest and the easiest. The hardest because he already has everything and the easiest because he always loves anything you give him.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
This year will be K.P. -- kids are always easier. I could just wrap a magazine or a shoe from the house and he would be happy. Kids are always the most fun to buy for as well because they genuinely love everything.

10. Worst gift you received?
All gifts are good gifts.-- this was Jennifer’s response but I liked it so I stole it :)

11. Mail or email cards?
I prefer mail but I don’t send out cards myself so I am just thankful to receive them. Although, I may try to send them out this year.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Too many -- I love the Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. It always feels like Christmas time when those come on. I really love all Christmas movies though.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I love shopping but I HATE crowds so I try to start early. I love the way malls are decorated for the holidays but I can’t stand to fight the crowds. My grandmother would be so proud of me the last couple of years because I completed most of my shopping before Thanksgiving. You always had to give my grandmother your Christmas list by September or October or she would threaten to not get you anything. Too funny. I try to buy online and early. I have already bought the majority of my gifts for this year.

14. Have you ever recycled a gift?
No

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I love Christmas Day lunch at my grandmothers. The usual yummy Christmas menu: turkey, dressing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli/rice casserole, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc. and then about 6 different kinds of desserts.

16. Clear or colored lights?
I like clear lights and colored decorations (balls, etc.)

17. Favorite holiday song?
I like: O Holy Night; Baby, It’s Cold Outside; Silent Night -- really, all of them. I really really really like Christmas music. I will keep my radio on Christmas music station the entire season.

18. Travel or stay at home at Christmas?
Stayed in Houston area - both grandparents lived in town so visited both but just during the day.

19. Can you name all the reindeer?
Hmmm...let me try: Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen...”but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all....”-- ha ha ha -- I have NO idea if those names are right or spelled right. I just sang the song in my head and that’s what came out. I’ll have to check it after I post this...

20. Angel or star on top of the tree?
Star

21. Open Christmas eve or morning?
We normally open family girfts on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning we open gifts from Santa.

22. What’s the corniest tradition you miss doing?
Not that it's corny but I used to LOVE decorating the Christmas tree. We always did it as a family and would make an evening of it. We would put on Christmas music -- we loved the Captain Kangaroo Christmas album -- and dance around and decorated the tree. We always videoed the evening so we have a lot of really funny home videos of the festivities. After we were finished we would turn off all of the lights and listen to the Nat Kind Cole Christmas album and all sit on the couch and look at the tree. It was always so beautiful. I hope to keep the tradition alive with my own new family.

23. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Crowds!

24. What’s the worst thing you’ve seen related to Christmas?
I try not to think of anything bad - Christmas is such a great time of year but I do hate the idea of children who do not have a special Christmas. That’s why Andrew and I always participate in the adopt a child program for Christmas (through our firms) where we sponsor a family or child and buy them Christmas presents. We have a good time shopping and picking out the gifts. I think it will be neat to have K.P. help us when he is older and he can understand why we are doing it.

25. Which looks best, theme trees or homey trees?
I think they both look beautiful. I love classic beautiful Christmas trees (not trees that are too trendy). I like the traditional Christmas colors. Growing up we always had a "homey" tree full of handmade ornaments & family ornaments.

26. Gingerbread or sugar cookies?
Sugar cookies (I really don’t like gingerbread at all). We always had a family tradition of making homemade sugar cookies and decorating them for Santa and his reindeer. It was really fun. Of course, sometimes we would put so much decorations on the cookies that they didn’t taste good at all. But it was always fun.

27. Do you like fruitcake?
No...does anybody?

Christian the Lion

Ok, here is the Christian the Lion video I wrote about (below). So neat! My hairdresser actually stopped cutting my hair and we watched this video. I had been telling him about the puppy live stream video that I love watching and he was like, if you are sentimental about animals then "you will love this!"

A fab new hair cut!

Ok, so for those of you who know me, I've pretty much had the same hair style for the last 10 years. Really. Long and straight and boring. Ok, maybe I spiced things up every now and then and had layers cut into it but regardless, it was always pretty much the same. Lately, I got into the habit of wearing it in a ponytail every day. Every single day. I know...not very glamorous. SO, I decided to change things up a bit and get it cut off. My friend Monica recommended an awesome hair dresser named Jim at Azur salon. http://www.azursalon.com/. He was awesome! Not only was he a great stylist but a great conversationalist as well. He had me laughing the entire time. We even took a break to watch a Youtube video. It was about a lion. Christian the lion. You all have to watch it. Go to youtube and search for "Christian the Lion." It will make you tear up.

Anyways, I think I may have found a new best friend in Jim :) He was very excited about the idea of cutting off all of my hair. I think we cut almost 7 inches! Of course, he waited until he made the first big cut and then let me know how beautiful I looked with long hair. I was like, geeez, thanks...a compliment a little too late. He said he didn't want to tell me that at first since I was dead set on cutting it all off. Regardless, he did a great job and I feel fabulous.

I had been a little apprehensive about how Andrew would take me cutting off all of my hair. He is definitely a member of the "I love girls with long hair"club. I felt fab with the new hair cut but I was anxious to see what Andrew thought. Well, the second I walked in the door and he saw me he was like, "Wow, you look awesome!" So sweet. He then proceeded to take pictures of me. He was too funny, directing me to turn my head and smile, etc. Here's a couple of the shots.

He instructed me to not smile and act like a model. This is as good as it gets.... Obviously, I should not quit my day job!

A Great Weekend!

Last weekend I was in a wedding for my great friends Paul and Meredith. Because Andrew and I were going to be busy with wedding festivities all weekend K.P. spent Friday night with Grandma and Grandpa Slania and Saturday night with Nana and Pawpaw Keene. He had a great weekend! He is all over the place these days. He can crawl anywhere and he is getting really close to walking. I bought him a push cart and he LOVES it. He pushes that thing all over the house. He also had fun trying to figure out his first riding toy--Clifford the Big Red Dog. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Riding Clifford!

Pushing my cart around the house!

When I showed up to pick up K.P. from Nana and PawPaw's house, this is how I found him. Riding around in PawPaw's wheelbarrow!

The Cutest Thing EVER (except for K.P. of course)

I was checking out some stuff on the web today and I came across this site where a couple are posting a live stream of a litter of 6 puppies. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. If you are having a rough day (or even if you are not), this is certain to make you SMILE :) I could watch this for hours...

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shiba-inu-puppy-cam

Really? Is this the reality of certain Obama supporters?

I actually laughed out loud and shook my head when I watched this video. Jeez. It just confirmed to me how misguided some voters were in the recent election.
Some people really are as stupid (sorry...maybe I should stick with "misguided") as I think they are as they clearly don't understand much about the issues or the way our government actually works. I guess Obama had them at "change" and they didn't feel the need or have the intellectual depth to undertand exactly what the "change" would entail. It surely will not entail taking away all "worry" about one's mortgage or gas bills. So sad.

How long do you think these people will be sitting around and just "waiting" for this "change" to come and their "worry" to slip away? Some people are in for a huge disappointment.

Great New Blog: Songs to Live By (by Allison)

I love music. All music. I'm not picky at all when it comes to music. I listen to it all. Music has a great way of bringing back memories of different times in one's life. I think it is great that you can hear a song and be instantly transplanted to another place and time. In an instant you can be back in highschool...on a road trip...on vacation...in a car with friends...singing along. You can remember what you were wearing, what the other people looked like and how you felt at that exact moment in time, whether it was sad, happy or both. I don't think there is anything else that can trigger memories the same way as music. It's nostalgic. It's reflective. It's entertaining. It's a pretty neat thing.

Well, my sister, Allison, REALLY loves music and knows everyting about it, all kinds, all artists, etc. Between she and my brother, they can pretty much tell you the name of every song and artist you could imagine. I would definitely use either of them for a "lifeline" if I ever found myself on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and I had a music question.

Ok, I've said all that to say this. Allison has started this great blog dedicated to music called "songs to live by." Check it out for a few good songs that inspired great stories....or vice versa...

http://songstoliveby.blogspot.com/

Trip to the neighborhood park!

We took K.P. to the neighborhood park yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day and Nanny Jennifer and I thought it would be fun to take him down and let him play on the swings. He LOVED it. He laughed the entire time he was swinging. So cute.

Swinging with mommy...

Swinging with Nanny Jennifer...

Yippeee...

Higher...Higher!

Cutest smile...

I love to swing!

Visit to Jill & Rich's for the UT game

On Saturday night we went to Jill and Rich's house to watch the UT game. Although the game didn't end the way we wanted (Ughhh) we had a great time. K.P. took his first ride on a John Deere tractor. He also stayed up for the entire game (despite Andrew and mine's attempts to put him to sleep).

A Morning Downtown at Discovery Green

On Saturday morning we went (along with Grandma Slania) to Discovery Green in downtown Houston. Discovery Green is a new park area that they have built downtown with lots of green lawns, a pond, several restaurants and it has a great playground area for kids. It is a really neat area and I encourage those who have not been to check it out! http://www.discoverygreen.com/.

It was a beautiful day and we had a great time letting K.P. explore the playground. He loved crawling on the ground (it was made out of this soft rubber stuff) and he even found a little girlfriend that he played with for a while. So cute! Here are some pictures from the day.

Halloween Fun!

This was K.P.'s first Halloween. As you saw from my previous posts, he was a lion. So cute! He was such a good sport about his costume. I had it on him all night and he never complained. We decided to spend the evening with Alan, Jennifer and Georgia at Jennifer's mom's house in Crosby. We had a great time dressing up and scaring the neighborhood kids who came to the house. Alan was the joker and he would jump out and scare the kids as they came up the driveway. He was so scary looking! I know there will be kids who will be having nightmares for years to come after seeing him!




Wayne was dressed up as an adult lion. He and K.P. matched!



K.P. found a new toy that he loved. It was a zebra that he could ride.



We spent a lot of time on the zebra.

Playing with my cousin, Georgia.

Me and mommy. I had a very tired little lion at the end of the night.

Trying teething biscuits and lauging at mommy

I've been really bad about posting videos lately but here are a couple of cute ones I shot this week.

We decided to start giving K.P. some "finger foods" and these "teething biscuits" were recommended to me. I gave K.P. his first yesterday and he LOVED it. He chewed on it for about an hour.

K.P. just chillin' on the couch enjoying his first bite of a teething biscuit.

Still laid back and chillin'

Of course, Dakota noticed the biscuit right away and kept coming over to get it from him. K.P. would let her lick his hands clean and then go back to the biscuit. Nice.

When K.P. gets tired at night he gets a little delirious and laughs at everything. I mean everything. You could smile at him and he would start cracking up. He gets hysterical if Dakota even walks by him. Last night, Andrew and I were talking on the couch and I took a drink of water and let out a sigh afterwards and K.P. thought this was hilarious. So, of course I had to do it over...and over...and over...and over... He has the cutest laugh EVER!

Sunday visit to Old McDonald's Farm

On Sunday, we went to Old McDonald's Farm. We had a big group and it was a great day. Nana and PawPaw were there and Nanny Jennifer was there with Jean and Clayton as well as her sister Lara and her parents Don and Margaret. Our friend Melissa and her husband Philip joined us with their son Hudson. It was such a fun group. The weather was great. We had a picnic lunch and then spent the day feeding the animals, riding ponies, riding the train and picking out pumpkins. As you can see from the pictures, K.P. had a great time. It was fun seeing he and Clayton notice each other and interact with one another (even if it was just K.P. taking his toys). K.P. also really enjoyed seeing all the animals. We had been to the zoo before but this was the first time he was really able to interact with them and he seemed to like it! He also really liked the train. By the end of the day he was wiped out! He feel asleep in Andrews arms before we even made it to the car.

I know I posted a lot of pictures but there were too many good ones!


K.P. picking out his pumpkin...


K.P. petting his first goat!



Chasing the turkeys!



Feeding the lambs!



Checking out the cows.

I like pigs!

Laughing with mommy!

Climbing on Daddy!

Getting ready for our first train ride!

Family portrait!

Another family portrait...

Playing with buddies!

K.P. just took Clayton's toy. Clayton was such a good sharer!

K.P.'s first pony ride!!!

K.P. and PawPaw.

Train ride with Nana and PawPaw!

Sleepy little boy! It was a loooong day!