Friday Five-Rain

In honor of today's crazy freaking weather, I give you a Friday Five devoted to rain...

1. What's the worst thing about really bad rainstorms? 

The rain?? Lol. The wind, usually, is the worst part of bad storms. This year alone we lost two trees to wind and my favorite barn blew down because of the wind.

2. What's the best thing about really bad rainstorms

 Puddle hopping afterward

3. What's your favorite thing to do when the power is out?

Honestly? Sleep. Otherwise I am dealing with two freaked out kids and a going crazy cat.

4. In what ways are you always prepared for a bad storm?

We always have bottled water, candles, and matches.

5. What's your favorite song with the word "rain" in it?

"Covered in Rain" by John Mayer or "November Rain" by Guns and Roses

the guitar work alone is enough to make me listen to "Covered in Rain" over and over again-then add John's voice to it...heavenly!

"November Rain" is a classic rock ballad from the 90's. Probably my favorite G n' R song

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for new beginnings; both in the sense that the new year is coming and in the sense that Gabe is at a new school, we live in a new (old) town, and Geo is starting a new job. 2010 was a roller coaster. While it was filled with good things, it also had more than its' fair share of crappy things. I'm looking forward to a new year with new beginnings and more good things :)

Wordless Wednesday: Our Favorite Elf

Sledding!

For Christmas the kiddos got sleds from their great Aunt Becky and great Uncle Kenny! Luckily for us, there is a park close to the house that sets up a snow fence and bales of straw and all sorts of good stuff so people can have a safe area to sled on. We went yesterday to take the kids for their first sledding EVER. What a blasty blast. They loved it and didn't want to leave. Unfortunately it was cold as all get out and it was getting dark, so we bribed them with the promise of coming back another day to sled and came home to warm up. I am fairly certain Geo and I enjoyed sledding as much as the kiddos did, other than the frozen butts since neither of us have snow pants :P And now...

Christmas Day Wrap Up

*whew*

We had a busy and slightly chaotic Christmas day...how about you?

We got up very early to open up Santa's gifts...okay, it was ME who got up before everyone else. Can you believe I actually had to wake the kids up?? The kiddos were thrilled with the gifts Santa gave them-Santa was very generous this year because Santa had elves to help him (as always, I am stunned by the generosity of strangers) and didn't want to leave to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We went to Geo's dad's house for a delicious lunch, movie and gifts-the gift of the day? Gabriel got a Blackhawks jersey with his favorite players' number on the back-what a happy boy-after that, we all piled into the car and headed to Geo's mom's place for a light dinner, gifts, and catching up. All of us were stuffed to the gills, content, and tired by the time we got home last night.

Overall, Christmas was a rip roaring success-and exhausting. Both kids woke up this morning with bags under their eyes and I ended up napping on the couch for a bit while Daddy watched the Bears game this afternoon.  As fun as Christmas is, it's a lot of build up for one day. It's such an overwhelming experience for everyone. Next year I think we are going to switch it up a bit-I am not sure how, but even adding in our stress relieving movie nights for a few weeks before the big day, it's still too much stress. Something has to give-I'm curious as to how other families do Christmas and keep it low key? Or does everyone have a crazy day and then need a week to recover?

This year as I was baking my mom's gingerbread recipe, I finally began to understand how my parents must have felt around Christmas time-they had three kids to deal with, whereas I only have two, but jeez oh pete. The kids were wound tighter than tops, the house was a constant mess of cookie splatters, tape bits, and stray pieces of wrapping paper. The cat tried to take down the tree more than once (he was content with just chewing the branches and playing with ornaments though lol)  and I am fairly certain I developed carpal tunnel syndrome rolling out the four million cookies I made. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm so thankful the kids had a great day, but I'm also thankful that the holiday is OVER.

The upside, of course, is that right now my two little loves are singing to themselves as they quietly play with the new loot they got. A little while ago, they were sitting at the table together giggling like mad while painting pictures together. Last night Gabe and Geo sat on the floor, heads together reading the instructions for the race track Santa brought and then a half an hour later, they were giggling and cheering each other on as they raced. Bitsy and I had a tea party with Tinkerbell and Silvermyst last night and then built a bakery with blocks. Everyone is happy, everyone is content, even Boni cat, and that made all the chaos worth it.

And now, for what you've all been waiting for...the pictures! (not that I really took a ton, but here's a few)

Friday Five-Holiday Memories

Thought I'd do a little something different for Friday Five today, rather than answer five set questions, I am going to share five favorite Christmas memories/traditions. In no particular order:

On Christmas Eve growing up, we always spent the afternoon with my grandparents-we'd have a big lunch and exchange gifts. One year my grandmother went off on a tangent because she just knew we didn't remember what she had asked for that year for Christmas-she asked for one thing and she knew she wouldn't get it (silly Grandma) As she was rambling, she was opening a gift-the exact gift she had asked for :P Boy was her face red.

My father makes the most amazing food at Christmas time; I can almost taste his church window cookies if I try hard enough. He also dips multiple things in chocolate and does a lot of work with cheese. It's no wonder everyone in our family gains weight at the holidays.

We started a new tradition last year with the kiddos-Christmas movies at night the weeks before Christmas. We continued it this year and love it. I am fairly certain it's here to stay.

My mother in law makes the most amazing cookies for Christmas-"go to bed mints" I have been told many times I will get the recipe on her deathbed...I hate to have to wait that long BUT as long as she keeps making dozens and dozens each year, I guess that's ok...

In 1999, after going to midnight mass, my darling HH, Geo proposed to me...and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm so happy that all these years later we are making memories and creating traditions in OUR family.

Thankful Thursday-True Colors

It only seems fitting that my first blog post after moving is a thankful Thursday post; in the last few weeks we've really had a lot to be thankful for. Most importantly, I am thankful for the opportunities we've had to see the true colors of the people in our lives.

Our move was chaotic and filled with a lot of uncertainties; we didn't have a place to move to right away because we had stopped looking after we thought we found the house we were moving too. I had done a lot of work to get things ready for the new place-new bus routes, new utility connections, etc etc all to have it blow up in my face. It was a big slap in the face, but we've gotten over it and I'm thankful for the learning experience.

We didn't have a ton of help with our move-but the help we had was awesome. It's hard to move 25 miles with two small children and a small car, but thanks to some family members and some friends who are like family, we got it all taken care of. It was touching to see how much people really DO care about us; sometimes we take each other for granted and a reminder of how great your friends and family are makes a huge difference.

Unfortunately we also learned who we do NOT need in our lives right now; when a kindness is done for others, it should be done without any expectations that it would be repaid OR any other sort of strings attached, however sometimes it would be nice to have someone who we've been kind to time and time again repay the kindness; I just hope that people who've been the recipients of others' kindness will pay it forward to others; I suppose if we are giving our time, money, and effort to someone it should be without the expectation of getting anything in return...but it still stings to realize that you don't mean as much to them as they mean to you. Again, another lesson learned, and I'm thankful for it.

And on another completely different note, I am thankful that Geo and I are going to be the proud auntie and uncle of TWO new nieces or nephews late next summer thanks to a new Witkowski baby coming and a baby Walker on his or her way :) As of August of 2011 we will have TEN nieces and nephews...how cool is that? Congrats Jd, Katie, Faith and Levi :) Here's to healthy,happy pregnancies, and easy peasy deliveries!

Moving Time

Hi everyone! So sorry it's been so quiet around here lately, we've been packing to move and have started the moving process. We're moving back to Saint Charles, a little over two years since we moved FROM Saint Charles. We found a cute apartment and Geo is currently moving our things in as I sit at this warm desk and type about it-don't worry though, I'll be doing my fair share of work once the boxes start being moved in. We'll be off line for a few weeks as we get things settled, but I'll pop in once in a while and update everyone! Have a great holiday with your families...and if you want to read my FAVORITE Christmas story...click here!

Sharing is Fun!!

My sweet little Bitsy girl is SO good at sharing; a bit too good if you ask me...this week she shared the stomach flu with me. It's been a fabulous last few days filled with toast, sleeping, and multiple trips to the "facilities" I am fairly certain the only one in the house who hasn't minded Bits and I being sick is Boni cat; he's been content to lay at the foot of my bed, on the electric blanket, comforting us. By comforting us, of course, I mean nipping our toes and meowing at us when we dare leave the bed for something. As I type this he's sleeping next to me on the chair and just meowed because I dared to pet him *gasp* the horror :P

Thankfully Geo and Gabe have NOT gotten this flu bug and it doesn't look they will either.

We'll be off line for a while as we get ready to move in the next few days. We're hoping to be in the new place Monday evening as long as everything goes as planned (lately nothing has gone as planned, so I am not counting on ANYTHING going right at this point...story of my life ha ha)

Not to worry though, we'll back up and blogging before you know it!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for seeing things through my childrens' eyes.

Last weekend we went to the Christmas parade in the next town over; it was a ton of fun. Family, hot chocolate, bag pipers...and of course, the man-the myth-the legend-Santa Claus!

Gabe is at the age where Santa is a certifiable BIG DEAL. As we watched Santa coming down the road, he turned to me, eyes huge, grin even larger and said "Oh my goodness Mom. It's SANTA! Do you think he sees me? Do you think he got my list? OH MY GOSH! SANTA!!!!!!!"

It was genuine, it was sweet, it was awesome. It's been a long time since I've looked at Santa with that sort of admiration or, heck, belief to be honest.

This year however, I do believe in Santa because of one small blond boy and I'm pretty sure that the people around us who were grinning as Gabe went on and on about Santa are going to believe this year too.

Thank you Gabe, for letting me see Santa through YOUR eyes this year.

Wordless Wednesday: The White Stuff

First snow...talk about excited kiddos-Gabe wanted to make snow balls and Bits wanted to know if Santa was coming tonight :P