it's sharing in the giving

Decisions, decisions....the boys and I went thru their playroom today to find some good things to give away this Christmas. This is about 1/3 of the goodies they have decided they have outgrown and know other children might like to play with this year

And just so you don't start to feel all sorry for them...this is what's left in their *closet*, not including the entire room of toys - yikes!

After the giving, we decided it was time to light the tree...um, I live with three silly boys :-)

Right after we took this picture, all of the white lites died. Good times. Dean salvaged most of them, so now we just have to re-string them. Thankfully, we've been slackers and hadn't planned to do the ornaments until tomorrow anyway.

I'm on the hunt for bubble lite replacements, hoping to save this VERY OLD strand that was a gift from my dear Aunt El! It seems like everyone is out of everything.

Alabama's Christmas Is Love

reindeer games

It was Birthday Party Central this weekend, and what a lot of fun they had! Today, one of their favorite girls celebrated with a whole bunch of friends at a cool gym...and there were games, and everyone got to join in ;-)

They went fast, so most of the pix looked like this

and this

Tho there were about as many boys and girls, I noticed they worked themselves right into the lovely mix, flirty things!

Happy Birthday, LoLo!

And Happy Hanukah!

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Did you know that Santa has a secret agent bird?

The mystery of the mssing bird feeder....this disappeared overnite....who knows who or what took it, but I'm hoping they don't try to eat the base/mold.

Penguin, James Penguin

Old toy trains, little toy tracks,

The train made it's way back into the toy rotation today

The best thing about having your house on the market for a long time?

It's like Christmas when you open the packed-away toys at your new house!

Old Toy Train

I go into my Christmas tree of fire

Their buddy Grayson had a birthday party at the firehouse today, and it was a blast!

There was cheering
There was time for reflection

There were rapt boys

There were funny voices

and there were silly boys

and more silly boys...possibly a little flirting ;-)

Happy Birthday, Grayson!

Tree's On Fire

Mama's in the kitchen - redo reveal

So, here is what we bought, circa August - the kitchen had been redone just a few years before but it was really tight with the refrigerator in the left corner beside the steps, and there was very little storage.
It was pretty open but just didn't work for us - the rest of the house has a lot of 'elbow room,' but this is our main entry way and was really tight (once you add the refrigerator there).
This is the view from the family room. Hello friends, Nicole and Grayson!

Here's how it looked from the stairs in October...

...and here's the same view tonite. Yes, I still have a LOT of Christmas left to put away, but I was tired of the grief for not posting pix, so here's the real deal, including a pile of dishes from Tuesday's awesome brunch :blush: but you'll notice I *am* running water to hand wash them)

October

December
October

December

October

Tonite - see, I'm running water to wash those dishes. I can watch the deer out those windows, which will some day lead out to a new addition....

And one of the coolest features....they call it a double blind or peanut or whatever, I just call it amazing! Every pot we own is in this one cabinet, and here's how it works...

Merry Christmas to us!

Beach Boys' Child Of Winter (Christmas Song)

Underneath the Christmas tree

We picked the boys up from school for a little tree shopping adventure. Harry's class has been studying different traditions and he's completely convinced he wants to be Jewish (notice the menorah on his reindeer hat)...he begs almost daily for us to be Jewish - the lights, the gold coins and the eight days are pretty appealing at this point. He's not sure he's ready to give up the Christmas tree....time will tell!
Goin' on a tree hunt!

Decisions, decisions.....

The family tree - baby, it's cold outside today!

They're practicing their suprervisory skillsThe art of tipping

Harry had learned his lesson well

Jack is SO excited!

All I Want For Christmas Is You

We FOUR Kings

The boys had their Winter Program at school - I got a sweet video of them singing their two songs but can't figure out how to make it small enough to load. Will keep working. I don't *think* they were meant to be hanging out with their buds David and Dylan a few rows up from the group,! At one point Jack went down to check on his 'girlfriend' Erin who was sad that she couldn't see her parents.....he actually wipes his brow after he can't cheer her up. Too sweet! Their first time on the big stage went off without a hitch :-)
We Three Kings

Halelluja, everybody say cheese

I needed a white trash song for the days we've had lately, so Dean's favorite Robert Earl Keen tune seems to work.

Friends were chatting after the bus yesterday, kids were playing when we noticed the boys putting their hands down into the culvert after they were playing in the woods and asked them to stop. They both piped up "We have to wash our hands because we just peed in the woods." Great. Nothing like hygiene in the country, eh?? (Names omitted to protect the innocent)

A little target practice at the hunting store tonite. We are red, arent' we?? Hope your holidays are bright!

Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas From The Family

Hey Santa, can you make my wish come true?

Thank you to the patient elves at Santa's house this year - who knows what happened on the way to the big man's chair, but this is the best we could get this year, despite a LOT of attempts. Grr. Maybe after a long day at school was not the best idea....

And here are the changes....the pix never show how much they enjoy it, at least not since that first year ;-)

Ashanti's Hey Santa