But here goes.
Last Saturday was Christmas Eve and we celebrated Christmas at my parent's house that afternoon. Every year, my kids and my nieces and nephews get together and come up with a Christmas program to put on for the family. In the past, we've heard trumpets, flutes, pianos, and singing. This year was a little more thrown together since my niece, Jennifer, (who is usually in charge of writing scripts and printing out programs for everyone) had just gotten in from college in Oklahoma and has probably had semester exams on her mind instead of who was going to play the part of Grandma in the skit when she gets ran over by a reindeer (even though everyone in the family knows this honor goes to Brandon). This year the kids sang some songs for us, and I must say, any program that includes 'I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas' is a hit in my book.
This is where I would normally insert tons of pictures of the kids doing their thing, but I actually used a REAL camera instead of just my phone and my non-technological self can't get the pictures to transfer over to my blog. I did manage to get one with my phone, and this is it:
I have GOT to figure out how to get my pictures on here.
Maybe next year.
Which I guess technically would be next week.
Maybe I could make this one of my resolutions for 2012.
Just after I get skinny.
Anyway, we opened gifts and had dinner after the program was over. And I got some really good pictures of everyone there, but it was with my real camera, and well....
That night after we got back home the boys were ready to decorate cookies for Santa. I know that some people actually make homemade cookie dough and buy all kinds of things to decorate with. And maybe next year I will put a little more thought into that, but for this year my kids had store bought cookie dough that they got to flatten and sprinkle to death.
And they couldn't have been happier about it.
Christmas morning when I got out of bed and walked into the living room, this is what I saw...
Oh my heart.
I don't know how many times Robbie slept in that chair with Aaron asleep on his chest as a baby, but this is something that hasn't happened in a very long time. It was so precious and it was my very favorite thing that happened that day.
After I wiped the tears out of my eyes, I was on to the task of making cinnamon rolls. And because I am not and have never claimed to be Betty Crocker, I broke open the can, put them on a cookie sheet, and put them in the oven. And I guess the smell of them cooking woke everyone up because my guys were salivating by the time the oven beeped.
After breakfast we opened gifts. Santa had left a note on our Christmas tree that said that his gifts could all be found outside, so we chose to open the gifts in the house before we ventured out to see what Santa had been up to.
(Again, normally I would put pictures on here of all of the paper flying and happy little faces, but again, I used my real camera...)
When we went outside, Santa had left the boys two things: a basketball goal and an air hockey table. Aaron was super excited about the basketball goal, Austin was super excited about the hockey table, and Santa was super excited about them both being on sale at Academy, so I'd say everyone did alright this year.
And now Christmas 2011 is past.
And now Christmas 2011 is past.
Yes, I meant to say that twice because I've been waiting to say that since I saw the first Christmas candy hit the shelves at WalMart just after the last of the Halloween candy was clearanced out. Not that I didn't enjoy Christmas this year, but my mind has been on the new house and buying things for it that I was just ready to focus all of my efforts (and money) into one thing again.
Which could be why some of Aaron's gifts included a shower curtain, towels, and wall hangings.
But give me a break. They were from Cabela's. For what I had to pay for that stuff every single towel should've been wrapped up individually.
Now that we've had a few days to really focus on the house, we are seeing lots of progress. Robbie is doing the electrical himself, with the help of his dad and his friend Randy. He is spending every waking moment he has at home to get light fixtures, plugs, and switches put in. I can now assemble ceiling fan blades and hand you the parts of the fan in the order it is needed. I really enjoy helping Robbie and I know the boys do too. All of us have pulled wire in this house and we've all helped out any way that we could to make this process go FASTER. The guys that work in the lighting department at Lowe's knows when Delisa is in the house because I always end up having to press the button that tells the entire store:
"SPECIAL ASSISTANCE NEEDED IN THE LIGHTING AREA
SPECIAL ASSISTANCE NEEDED IN THE LIGHTING AREA
(series of beeps)...LIGHTING AREA"
And this will repeat until the lighting man comes over and turns the voice off and thinks in his head after he sees me "oh, it's HER again".
It's as if I'm hearing that voice in my sleep these days. But that's what happens when your husband is an electrician and sends you to Lowe's with only a vague idea of what you're looking for.
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| This is Aaron pulling wire for the garage door. |
Anyway, we had our friend Jerry pour a sidewalk for us that goes from the house to the shop and the boys decided they wanted to put their names and handprints in the wet concrete. I handed Austin a stick and told him that he needed to write small and try to keep his name within about 8 inches as to not take up the entire sidewalk.
Which, now that I can reflect on that, all that sweet 6 year old heard was "get this stick and write your name" and nothing past that. When he started, he wrote a perfect 'A' and I was thinking this was going to turn out better than I thought. But by the time he got to the "i", I wasn't even sure what he was spelling anymore. This is what our sidewalk looks like now.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
As far as house progress...y'all, we are close. The painters will be completely finished tomorrow, as will the upstairs floor. The master bath will be completely tiled and grouted by this weekend. And by next Friday, all of the floors will be complete. The next week the applainces will be delivered and all of the other finishing work will be done within the next week or two after that.
We are so close.
I can see the finish line. I'm just hoping to not trip and fall flat on my face right before I get to it.
I will try to get pictures of the house this weekend to put up on here.
And I will also try and remember to use my phone so I can actually post them because I am not an over-achiever who wishes to fulfill a resolution for 2012 before 2011 is even over....
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