Why did I make so many dang cookies??? Now I am going to have to eat them!

I'm glad to hear that everyone had such a great Christmas!

My Mom, Dad, and Grandma came out from California for two weeks, and my Aunt Jan and Uncle Roger came up from Tennessee for Christmas eve and Christmas. We didn't get snow (ummm...jealous!!!) but we still had a lot of fun.

Are you ready for picture overload???? Just be glad I removed half of them after I realised that nobody is that interested in my life!

I made devils food cupcakes with peppermint meringue buttercream and a snowman cheese ball (isn't he cute? Thanks Martha!)

We went to the sight and sound theater in Lancaster, it was amazing! Anything that has my squirmy little boy crying at intermission because he thought it was over is nothing short of a miracle(his eyes were glued to the stage the entire time!)

They have live animals as part of the production, and at one time a horse drawn sleigh full of carolers rides down the aisle, and later Mary rides the donkey down the aisle as well.

The only drawback is that it was all I could do to keep the tears in my eyeballs (Lot's of ceiling staring for me!) and not look like a complete idiot for crying during a happy Christmas show! What can I say? I'm putty in the hands of beautiful music and a powerful message. (One of the scenes featured the Christmas truce, when British troops and their German enemies took a break from the fighting and sang silent night together on Christmas Eve (true story)...how are you supposed to hold it together during that?) I highly, highly recommend the Sight and sound theater if you are ever in Lancaster. It blew our expectations out of the water. We are going back this spring to see "In the beginning" which is the creation story and has humongous 40ft. sets, and tons of animals (even camels!)

I don't have words to describe how much I love Rocky Acre Guest Farm. We had so much fun here! I can't believe that they offer even more in the Summer. They have pony rides, tractor rides, cow milking, calf feeding, egg gathering, bonfires for hot dog roasting, a golf cart for guests, a play house, canoeing, swimming,"train" rides, hay rides, ATV rides, rooms with lofts or bunk beds, and the most gigantic breakfast I have ever seen (with magic tricks to go along with it)! To top it all off the most expensive room is only $145 a night! We can not wait to go back this summer so that we can do some of the things it was just too dang cold to do in the winter!

The "Train" ride around the Farm, that's my mom in train with all of the kids!

Z and J had fun gathering eggs and we all had some bonding moments with the baby calves...sooo cute! One of them was not wanting to take the bottle, so the lady had me go into the pen with her and pet and talk to her until she drank it...ahhh!

Z and J also loved riding Muffin the pony and playing in what J called the Tiny house. Have I mentioned that I love Lancaster???

This is me doing my best to ignore my family and finish the last book in the Twilight saga (which I swiped from my Mom)...probably traded in a few holiday moments for that, but it was worth it, and I finished! Yay!

This is actually me talking to Amy while we were cutting down our tree! Hi Amy! The other picture is of my mom playing dress up with the kids! Nice outfit huh??? I'm sure she will be soooo grateful I posted that for every ones viewing pleasure!

Z got Ice skates from Santa, so of course we had to go try them out at the Academy Ice rink! Bill said that both kids took the ice exceptionally well! (apparently neither shares my fear of falling and breaking) My mom and I are both natural born talents on the ice and are looking forward to our Olympic training! (just as soon as they open up the non-disabled, just horribly awful and awkward division of the special Olympics! We'll just consider ourselves alternates until than!) Z starts lessons in January, she can't wait!

This is the Chapel here at the Academy, we got to go for a Candlelight service on Christmas Eve. It was beautiful! I wish I could have gotten a picture of the way it looked that night, but it just seemed wrong to be taking pictures during church!

This is the real reindeer at Hershey park. Hershey was a lot of fun and another thing I would recommend if ever you were in the Lancaster area. It did not smell like Chocolate to me, but the temperature was also only in the single digits, so maybe my smell receptors were frozen shut!

So there you go, way more than you wanted to see or hear about what we did for Christmas!

So this is a weird, poorly laid out post, but I have had like 3 Peppermint Mocha's this morning, and the sugar to caffeine ratio is just a tad high at the moment!

We had a lot of fun last weekend. Z was in a Christmas parade with the Girl scouts. She was so excited to get to ride in the float and princess wave her little heart out!

I suggested that J maybe sleep with just one dinosaur, you can see his response!

Don't mess with his Dinosaurs!

We got to go to Holiday Madness at Z's school last night. There were horse drawn carriage rides, carolers, a magic show, book fair, face painting, and of course the big guy!

We had a blast with Dave and Amy! Z never let go of A's hand, they were adorable!
This is us at the National tree watching one of the shows. The tree was so much more than we expected, they had a huge yule log fire, Santa's workshop (with free pictures), a stage with carolers and dancers, and to top it all off it snowed the entire time! Could it have been more perfect? Here are some pictures of us all hangin' in Presidential Park, just south of the white house. (not the best pictures in the land, but it's hard to look cute with those funny hat's on to keep your melon warm!)

This is J watchin' sister in the

parade, not sure how it wound up down here!

So anyway, I guess that is kinda' our week in pictures!

How is everyone doing on the Christmas front? Are you ready?

We are (of course) way behind, but I am sure we will get caught up in time (really not any other choice right?) My family will be here next week, and we are very excited to have Christmas with them and show them around the town. We get to stay at a working farm in Lancaster and wake up early to milk cows, gather eggs, and feed the chickens! (I'm sure to some of you that sounds like the last thing you would want to do on vacation, but we are weird, so there you go!) We are also going to Hershey Pa. and I can't wait to find out if it really smells like chocolate! (Holy cow! How much trouble am I in if it does? I'm going to need a whole new wardrobe by the time Christmas is done between Tara's orange cookies, Amy's Oreo balls and an entire town of Chocolate!!!) So I am asking in advance so I can steal all of your yummy ideas, but what is everyone baking/cooking this Christmas? Are you doing Ham? Turkey? Duck? Prime Rib? Squirrel? I have recently discovered Chick Fil-A, and I am thinking maybe some chicken strips with the Chick Fil-A sauce and a Peppermint chip milkshake may not be too shabby! Anyone for some waffle frys? Anyone? Hmmm...maybe chicken strips and ham! That's festive!

Oh and Z has a loose tooth! This is her first one and she is over the moon excited about it!

What is the going rate for a first tooth these days?

Thank Goodness for Sudafed!

Sorry I didn't really post last week! I finished the book New Moon in just over a day, but then I got all bogged down in a horrible head cold. My couch and I spent some quality time together and now I am feeling much better.

I am super excited that Amy and crew are coming this weekend. We are going to see Santa fly in on a helicopter, visit the National tree in DC and go to the Polar Express 4D at the National Aquarium. I think we might even get a chance to ditch the husbands with the kiddo's and go to the Cheesecake factory!

I am finally getting started on some Christmas stuff. We make almost all of the gifts we give, but we are keeping it pretty simple this year so I should be in good shape. My family usually goes to a cabin in the Mountains over Christmas. We each bring a present for a Yankee gift exchange (where you pick a number and steal gifts) instead of buying for each person, and then spend the week playing in the snow, shopping and eating. One year we got to eat breakfast at a lodge and then take a horse drawn sleigh ride through the snow, complete with bonfire in the Forest and hot cider, what's more Christmasy than that? For you Oregon folk, Leavenworth Wa. is soooo worth the drive at Christmas time. The place looks like a movie set of the North Pole! This year we couldn't do the cabin (mostly because of us) so my awesome family is flying out to see us! Because the airplanes have such steep luggage fees we are just keeping it to stocking stuffers for the adults this year. Thanks to all of those crafty blogs I have a couple of cute ideas for the stockings but I can't post them yet because I think sometimes my family might actually read this!

We try to keep gifts to a minimum for our kids. We would rather use the money to do things together as a family, like cutting down a tree, outdoor Ice Skating, and the Santa train. I am making J a tool belt and we will fill it with tools, he also wants shark toys and dinosaurs. Z wants Ice skates and lessons, and I am making her some hair bows, an art apron, a crayon roll, and a fancy tutu. I already got them a couple of movies, and of course we will have to get some Webkinz!

We have a ton of Christmas traditions, but I think my favorite is the 12 days of Christmas. Starting 12 days before Christmas we doorbell ditch little gifts on a family's doorstep. Each of the gifts has a tag that goes along with the song i.e. "On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 golden rings...well sorry but golds a bit steep these days so how about 5 golden things" the gift we give with that one is 5 golden wrapped chocolate bars (some people do pineapple rings). All of the gifts are inexpensive and silly, and we always include an inspirational story or crossword, or Christmas trivia with each one. It is a blast to try and be sneaky and to plan our delivery each night. If you google 12 days of Christmas there is about a bajillion different versions. Some people deliver a different piece of the nativity for 12 days so that at the end the family has a complete set, which I think is pretty dang cool! We have even shipped all 12 gifts and stories in a box to relatives for a Christmas gift, it was a pretty big hit!
Another tradition of mine is hand making Christmas cards, and then never getting around to filling them out or mailing them!
I can't wait to read everyone's traditions and ideas!