If We Make It Thru December...

I always thought that old country song was, well, out of line with the Christmas season. But after the Decemeber we just survived, I think I can relate to the song writer.

.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a family for their Official Christmas Family Picture. I actually photographed 3 families, but this picture has stuck out as a tradtional styled favorite from the shoot:

.

.

Thanksgiving Dinner went really well, with my inlaws in attendance. Dinner was delicious, we all ate too much, and the day was wonderfully enjoyable!

.

(Now to just convince the inlaws that I want to visit after dinner, and J & I can do dishes after they leave...)

.

Black Friday found me rising early, meeting J when he got off work for the kid transfer, and Saxton & I bargain hunting. I think we did really well!

.

I was home around noon so that J could go help with the MRR Club Toy Train Show at the Mall. It took a little racing around the house on our part to get out the door on time for the area light-up parade, but we were there early, with a clean truck and bundled up kiddos.

.

Xavian rode in his Cub Scout Pack's float

.

.

And I drove Korra, minus her attendants, to represent her portion of the Pleasantville Royalty.

.

.

It was a rain sleet mix, and I had a very cold and shivering pair of children at the parade's end. Thank heavens for cheeseburgers and hot chocolate!

.

.

This is about the time that one of Santa's Elves came to live with us. We named our Elf on the Shelf, Ralph. Ralph was in a new place almost every day, and oh! how much fun the kids had finding him!

.

.

We rose to an unseasonable warm day on Saturday, and were waitting for the tree stand to open at noon, to insure we could pick out the perfect tree. The wonderful thing about these trees, is that they are grown less than 30 miles away, and are cut Thanksgiving Day, so they are fresh, and really last the Christmas season!

.

.

Xavian helped me drag that big ol' thing into the house, and once I bought more lights, I covered it in the glowing bulbs and we set about decorating it Tuesday night.

.

.

.

.

Friday night was our Hill Top Hometown Christmas Bash, and off we went to see Santa and for Korra to perform more raoyal duties.

.

The visits with Santa were quite annimated, and full of smiles!

.

.

The highlight of the evening was Xavian's uplanned invitation to sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas with the performing band. Very unexpected, but so wonderful to see and hear!

.

.

Sadly, this is when our month long Christmas celebration took a sad turn. In the chaos of returning home from seeing Santa, our beloved family dog, Alco, did the unthinkable. Saxton had surgery, and Alco had to be sent to a new home. We miss Alco everyday, and we've coulda-woulda-shoulda'd ourselves over and over.

.

In the end, we've both had to admit that Alco made the choice, and all we could do is find him a home without toddlers.

.

.

Saxton has recovered, but will have scars. And he still loves "woof woofs".

.

.

Korra's Christmas program found mom and dad sitting on hard metal benches, watching their little girl sing. And sing she did!

.

.

.

That evening, our lives took another painful turn. The neighbor's dogs attacked and killed Chessie on our backporch. I will admit, I lost it on the dog owner. Especially since his dogs did this to another cat of our's (front porch), have destoyed property of our's, and have a history of terrorizing Alco and the kids. Not to mention those dogs have cornered me in my garage.

.

We opted for legal action this time. It doesn't look good for the dog owner.

.

Needless to say, I had an emotional breakdown about this point, and really didn't feel like celebrating Christmas anymore. J & I held each other and the kids, and we all cried.

.

Thank God for family and friends who lift you up when you feel so lost and hurt. Their kind words helped us pick ourselves back-up, and restored much of our Christmas spirit.

.

Xavian's school Christmas Program was the following Monday night, and my! he looked handsome!

.

.

.

My BFF Nicki came the following Saturday to cut Saxton's hair. I won't lie, I cried.

.

First came off mommy's lock of hair to keep

.

.

Then 'Aunt' Nicki set to work turning him into a big boy. She did a wonderful job!

.

.

Always the clown, Xavian ventured out into the snow while Nicki was visiting, and turned himself into a human snowman!

.

.

Before we knew it, it was the Tuesday before Christmas, and we celebrated Korra's 6th birthday a few days early (she's a Christmas Eve Miracle)

.

.

And then it was Christmas Eve, and we made cookies and candy. And hot choclate on a stick. YUM!

.

.

Then we hung our stocking by the chimney with care,

.

.

Left Santa some cookies and milk,

.

.

And woke to Christmas morning and gift opening!

.

Saxton decided unwrapping new things is the best thing ever!

.

.

And Xavian was left speechless when he opened his REAL drawing supplies

.

.

Christmas dinner was tasty (as usual), and we lazed around a great deal the rest of Christmas break. With exception of my annual after Christmas shopping trip, of course.

.

Our Christmas turned out much happier and fulfilling than we thought it would be, after the rough patches. But we made it thru December, so we're going to be fine.

.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year, from my family to your's.

.

.

Trick-Or-Treat!

Happy Halloween!

.

We Trick-or-Treated last night, here in town.

J handed out candy & I took the kids around.

Alco guarded the 3rd floor, while Chessie watched from the shadows.

.

Everyone dressed up but me. Someone has do have freedom of movement to choral those kids!

.

Here's my Halloween Scene Bunch, hanging on our spiderweb covered front porch

.

.

J was Shrek

Saxton was a chocolate lab puppy (so cute!)

.

.

Wag that tail puppy dog!

.

.

Korra was Barbie Mariposa

(my right thumb is still numb from doing all that cutting for those wings)

.

.

Xavian was a Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy

Yeeeeee-Haw!

.

.

Xavian showed off his cattleman skills by herding and laso'ing a runaway Saxton

.

.

J had a blast passing out candy and joking with the grown-ups. I heard more than one kid say they saw Shrek, lol!

.

This kids were very well behaved and had fun going door-to-door. Saxton never did say Trick-or_trick, but he did say NomNom a LOT. It worked.

.

I got the biggest laugh, when we got home and discovered that, under the cover of darkness, Saxton had been pilfing his candy and eating it. He was shocked that we caught him!

.

.

I hope everyone else is enjoying themselves and having a Spooktacular good time!

.

.

.

Pumpkin Guts & Monster Faces

We always put off pumpkin carving until just a few days before trick-or-treating, because I fear the pumpkin smashing morons of the world & rotting pumpkins.

.

We buy our pumpkins from a local pumpkin farm who charges 25c a pound. We always get big fat ones to carve, warty ones for interest, and white ones because they are cool. This year, it was pouring down rain when we got to the pumkin stand, so the kids stayed in the car, and my MIL & I got drenched picking out the best of the best. The kids then spent the next 20 days rolling them, carrying them, sitting on them, and dreaming up what to carve.

.

Just a few benefits of buying same day picked local!

.

The pumpkin stash, minus the 5 pie pumpkins that were gutted and tortured in the kitchen

.

.

The kids decided who's was whose, and then I whipped out my trusty butcher knife

(Please ignore my concentrating face)

.

.

The removing of the pumpkin guts took about an hour!

.

.

.

.

The actual carving process was fairly quick.

.

Korra had me draw the design on her's, while Xavian manned the marker himself.

.

I carved mine & Saxton's

.

J carved his and Korra's

.

Xavian's took a joint effort and a lot of hand cramping.

.

Finally, we lit our 2009 Jack-o-Lanterns!

.

Can anyone guess which one belongs to each of us?

.

.

It's beginning to feel a lot more like Halloween!

.
.
.

Does a 6 Year Anniversary Make You Old?

I hope not!

.

We had a lovely anniversary weekend. Almost perfect.

.

Saturday, my FIL & MIL came and picked up Xavian and Korra for the night, and took them to the Zoo Boo.

.

Sans Thing 1 and Thing 2, J, Saxton & I went out for a late lunch and shopping for J a new pair of jeans. Then, our wonderful neighbors took Saxton for the evening, and J & I dressed up as a Midevil Lord & Lady and went to a really awsome Halloween party! Sorry, no pic of J & I. I thing everyone else got pictures of us on their cameras, but neither of us thought to make sure we were on ours.

:::blush:::

.

The party was a blast! It was costume required, with wait-staff, and an open bar. A very open bar if you catch my drift! "Oh, was that a Jack & Coke? Let me splash some Coke into that for you."

.

My FIL returned the kids around noon today, and seeing how the weather was sunny and warm-ish, we took the kids to a local corn maze.

.

Someone should have warned us about the mud!

.

.

Xavian did most of the navigating, with Korra chiming in

.

.

And J was a good Daddy and husband by braving the muddiest of mud to punch our maps at a few of the checkpoints

.

.

Saxton ran the haybale maze a couple times (yay! for toddler friendly activities too!)

.

.

Xavian and Korra each took a try at milking the "cow" in the barn

.

.

.

I *thought* I would get some really cute pictures of the kids with this monster of a pumpkin, but Saxton wanted NOTHING to do it! And so, we now have a picture of a very angry Saxton. Who seemed to just really dislike that particular pumpkin, because I tried to go back and try for a good picture about 15 minutes later, and he screamed the instant he was taken near it.

.

I hope the pumpkin didn't take it personal.

.

To finish out our weekend, we drove to the bridge where J asked me to marry him, and poked around.

.

.

It's so nice that Xavian is old enough to hand a camera!
.

I told J this morning, "If I knew everything we would go thru, the very worst of it, I'd still marry you. The good stuff makes it 100% worth it."

.

He said, "Me too."

.

.

Love you, J! Happy anniversary, honey!

.

.

.

If You've Ever Wondered How Cider is Made:

It's so much fun to take these:

.

.

And turn them into this:

.

.

And fill up a bunch of these:

.

.

.

.

How do we do it you ask? Well...

.

First the apples must go through Quality Control:

.

.

Then they are washed and any with bad spots are sorted out

.

.

The antique cider pressing mill is fired up and the washed apples are dumped in to be crushed:

.

.

It's realized that the newly added motor's belt keeps comming off because of the leg of the mill, so adjustments are made:

.

.

Success!

We are up and running!

Our hosts, and good friends, Ryan & Lacy:

.

.

Let the pressing begin!

.

J & the bigger boys crank down on the apples to press out the precious juices:

.

.

But boys aren't allowed to have all the fun. It takes a girl to make sure it's done right!

.

.

Once all the juice, now cider, is out, the excess pulp is dumped to feed to farm animals:

.

.

The collected cider is then passed on the the goddesses of the kitchen, otherwise known as wives & mothers. We strain the cider into old milk & vinegar jugs:

.

.
Once all our jugs are filled, it's time to eat our yummy desserts, and...

.

Bob for Apples!

.

.

Xavian had the fasted time with 16 seconds

.

.

Eben was a close second

.

.

.

.

There's already talk about pressing pears as well as apples next year, which brought up pear-berry cider allowed to turn into hard cider. And also talks of making maple syrup. I just need to talk my FIL out of his maple syrup supplies...

.

.

.