Friday Five: The haves and have nots

Here are five things that will not be happening this Christmas:
Gifts and cards that should have been mailed will not be on time
I will not unwrap a Lexus
Geo will not get a 700 inch tv or microchip sized blu ray player that plays movies on his glasses
Gabe and Bits will not have four million gifts under the tree
and finally
the dishes will never be caught up

*sigh* such is life...hehe

Here are at LEAST Five things that WILL happen this Christmas:
I will call home and every single one of my family members will greet me with "It's Christmas you idiot" and I will reply "It's Christmas you idiot" and then we'll laugh and wish each other a happy day

I will make far too much food and everyone will stuff themselves silly and barely be able to move

At least one person will cry over their gift, probably me, but hey, whatever

The kids will get too many gifts from everyone and will play blissfully on the floor for hours with them
and finally,

We will be surrounded by family and friends and will love the togetherness of it. Maybe we can even get Grandma Alice to swear again (it HAS been seven years since that fateful Christmas when Grandpa Harvey spilled a giant bottle of water on the kitchen floor and Alice ran in swearing...just sayin' haha)

And here are five things we have this year that make ME happy:

I have cookies from my grandmother's recipe that are sitting in a cookie jar that belonged to my great grandmother that MY mother made (lots of momma history in one little jar, huh?)

Listening to Bitsy sing her favorite Christmas song (which is "jingle bells batman smells, robin laid an egg, the batmobile lost its' wheel and the joker got away HEY") and then the resulting giggles from her "naughty" song

Watching Gabe and Bits under the tree, looking at gifts, whispering conspiratorially to one another about what might be in the packages.

I have an amazing husband; seriously amazing. I adore this man and am so happy to spending another Christmas with him

and I'm happy that being together with everyone will make everyone happy. The fact that being together makes everyone happy makes ME happy and Christmas is about being happy, right?

I hope you'll all have a wonderful holiday wherever you are and whomever you're with :)

Wordless Wednesday: Sleepover!

Ah yes...

It's that time of year again; crunch time. Christmas is one week away and let the frazzled craziness begin...or not. You may recall that in years past we've started keeping Christmas really low key and as a result have enjoyed it much more than we had in the past. This year has been no exception. Geo's been working a lot but the kiddos and I have been watching Christmas movies, doing leisurely shopping, and talking about winter break plans. So far so good, none of us are too stressed out about anything yet-in fact, all of the Christmas gifts save a few are completely wrapped. I have to pick up a few last minute gifts but we're done. Done done done! I'm so looking forward to a calm peaceful Christmas in our new home this year. For the first time since moving down here, we're not going ANYWHERE on Christmas day; everyone is coming to us. It'll be nice to not have to get out of my pjs and put on make up until everyone comes over for dinner in the afternoon. Gabe and Bits will get to play with and enjoy their gifts without having to rush around getting ready to leave.

In other news, today my grandmother would have been 80. It's really hard to think of her at that age. It's hard to think of her as the great grandmother to 8 great grandkids. Christmas was her holiday; she loved Christmas. She had a rough upbringing; her mother died giving birth and by the age of three she was in foster care. She was a proud member of the United States Marine Corp and was a widow a mere 26 years into her marriage; she raised three boys and enjoyed being with her grandkids. She was feisty as all get out, a little firecracker if you will, and she is so sorely missed.  More than just missing her, it makes me incredibly sad that my kids never got to meet her. SarahAnne (whose middle name is my grandma's maiden name-Velia) is so much like my grandma, it's kind of spooky. The first night she was born, I looked into her eyes and my grandmother was staring back at me; my mother has often remarked that she thinks Bits is Ethel reincarnated, which both amuses and creeps her out haha. I'm incredibly thankful that at the very least little bits of her are carried on in her great grandchildren.

And on that note, it's off to get some puttering around the house done...hope you're all enjoying your Christmas season and not *too* stressed out!

Thankful Thursday: Grandma Caren

Today a very special lady's birthday, someone we're VERY thankful for...Grandma Caren. She's kind and thoughtful and quite possibly one of the nicest people I've ever met. I don't think I've ever heard her say an unkind word about anyone, I've never seen her mad, and she's just a genuinely nice person. She's adored by her entire family, especially the grandson of hers who is almost as tall as her now (hehe). We're all so lucky to have her in our lives, she truly makes it better by just being here. Happy birthday Caren, we love you!!

Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmouse

And Now A Gabe Post!

Yesterday was a Bitsy post, today is a Gabe post :)

Gabe is inching closer and closer to eight, every day, it's kind of hard to believe that my itty bitty is almost eight. *sigh* It goes quickly.

This morning he and I went out to do some shopping on our own, I gave the kids each $10 to get each other a Christmas gift (hooray budgeting haha) and Gabe decided he'd get hers while we were out today. We were looking at gifts and he says "Oh I just can't decide" and started to wander up and down the aisles looking at things and doing math in his head (which is semi audible) He finally decided that rather than ONE gift, he was going to get her as much as he could for his ten bucks. He's a smart shopper and ended up getting her THREE gifts (hooray for sales :P) and carried the bag out to the car himself. He said to me "Oh man, I can't WAIT for Bits to open these presents, she is going to LOVE them and I bet she'll even give me a kiss!' He was in a great mood (and still is actually) because he was so happy about getting her the gifts.

I can't get over how sweet he is; I mean, yes he has his moments where he drives me absolutely bonkers, but more often than not, he's just so so sweet. He's caring and thoughtful and wants other people to be happy, which are excellent traits for a person. We're all so lucky to have him in our lives.

Hello There!

Been while since I updated; between moving and inefficient customer service by our internet provider (cough) we just FINALLY got back on line.

I will have a "real" update later but for now I just wanted to share some silly things Bits has said lately.

Yesterday she was laying on the couch and very seriously asked me "hey momma, do frogs have noses?" (I said I assumed they did and she seemed satisfied)

Last night for the first time since Thanksgiving weekend, Geo has had a night off, so he went to bed at the same time the rest of us did. Bits was getting a little loud in her bedroom so I hollered "hey you, be quiet" SHE yelled back "No Mom, YOU be quiet, Daddy needs to sleep" I started laughing and couldn't stop. It was so funny. She's such a goofy girl. She is constantly doing funny things. Yesterday morning when the kids woke up there was snow on the ground for the first time this year, she picked up Bam (who was a summer born kitty) and smooshed his face up against the door and said "oh look Bam, it's the first snow" and then had a ten minute conversation with him about how fun snow was and if he was a kid what he could do out in the snow. Bam looked less than impressed, but she was happy so, whatever, right?!

She's so silly and that's just one of the reasons we adore her :)