Here we go again

This is the view of our Winter Wonderland. FROZEN!
Here I am pre-shoveled and after shoveling. As you can see by the time I got my short but wide driveway done it needed to be cleaned up again. I though it would start off slow but at 10am we were in full sling and I decided like a fool to hit the grocery store so tomorrow I can hang out in my cupcake PJ's with no worries. Well I am not the only person with that one their mind so I sat in bumper to bumper traffic as if we were headed to Disney instead of Stop and Shop. On the good side is I got to make all the yummies in my previous post so it was all worth it.
Now I am planted at work with call after call from the people that decided to head out of the roads when they should have stayed home and now are in trouble.
My boss best describes this as Job Security.

What to do on a snow day...

In my house COOK!!

We first attempted to make a cake in O's Easy bake oven yesterday and all we got was a crumbled puck. Nasty. So today we went all out with a box cake designed to make 12 cupcakes. It produces 8 mini cakes which we frosted and the kids enjoyed terribly. About 1/2 way thru the 8 11 minute baking cycles I realize the last thing I need to be doing is baking and frosting things when I am trying to sugar detox so I start assembling a delicious homemade pea soup. I have never made it before and only eaten it from a can maybe once or twice. I start simmering my peas and ham bone and drag my butt outside and start shoveling-anything not to be licking my fingers of this frosting.

I am now eating it for dinner and it is excellent( if I do say so myself). Photo above does not do it justice you need to smell it.

All in all it was a good day where the kids either stayed in their pajamas or in Ava's case mostly naked all day.

Sugar Free Day 1

Mostly this is a post to warn all the important people in my life.

I am Sugar-Free now so do not even approach me with a candy on your breath or I may be sucking your face!

I have been fighting this demon for a while and basically beating a dead horse by talking about it until you are sick of hearing it. This may very well be attempt #1 but we will see.

I am feeling hungry right now although calorie wise I should be OK so I am not sure that this is not the demon breathing down my neck.

I am going downstairs to make a protein shake-Click with extra cocoa!!!

Stolen quote from a friend

If you cannot solve it, it is not a problem - it is reality.

So get over it.

The reality of a real tree

Ikea Road Trip

http://www.ikea.com/

After my husband officially broke his bureau into a pile o'sticks we decided to spend a little money we had left on a new bureau. We needed cheap but wanted something better than Walmart.

We settled on Ikea. I like this place. It is funky and cheap. The down side is it is UNASSEMBLED.

Please remember to take boxes 1 and 2 of your purchase. How hard can it be???? Well the parts were in a gallon sized bag and just thrown in a mishmash. No part 1 in a tiny bag, part 2 in a tiny bag....Just Good Luck printed in 12 languages and a 32 page book of directions with no words just drawings and arrows.

It boiled down to " Hey idiot put this in here and tighten the screw." So with the help of a 2 and 5 year old it was quit an adventure. When I finally left for work we had 6 drawers and the shell of the bureau was finally coming together.

I would do it again but I am not sure the Mr would. I will do almost anything to save a buck.

We hit Pizzeria Uno on the way home and I had a great new pizza-Brought it for dinner too as I could only eat about 1/3 of it. It has pesto sauce on a thin crust then topped with grilled chicken and a salad with calamata olives and a balsamic vinaigrette. Delish!!

CHICKEN MILANESE FLATBREAD
Serving Size(g)
198g
Servings
3
Calories
380
Calories from Fat
190

Coco Key Indoor Water park

http://www.cocokeywaterresort.com/


One of our greatest gifts this Christmas were tickets for our family to go to Coco Key Water park in Danvers. It was awesome. There were water slides that started inside but the tubes went outside and ended back inside in the pool. The giant toy in the first photos with ramps, stairs and slides that get dumped on by the giant bucket every 2 minutes so we had to be aware.

There was a kiddie pool with smaller slides and a pool that was 2 ft at the deepest. It was 84 degrees and felt strange to be walking around in my bathing suit again.

The drive was long but it was all worth it in the end.

Sorry no photos of the bathing suit- I finally got to see what I look like in a bathing suit so I WILL be buying a new one this Summer. Where O'where have the girls gone??

December 25,2008

It is over and we have survived. The house is full of happy and very tired kids in bed and a Mom that is posting just before she goes off to bed herself. These are my new pajamas and I plan on living in them.

I also got these super hot shoes which I wore as my Christmas outfit-forget the outfit who cares- I had the shoes.

The best part of the whole day started a couple of days ago. My oldest daughter wanted to write a letter telling Santa she wanted a picture of his reindeer. My younger sister and I started out in the middle of the night trying to get a photo at a local Christmas display with no real good results. So the next day she got on the computer with her boss and they printed some of the best reindeer pictures in America. She then wrapped them in a ribbon and left them next to the empty cookie plate. It was beautiful!!

Auntie helped her write the note to say Thanks and make her request.

She was so excited and brought them to every house we went to to show them off. "I can't believe he had these pictures." she says. It was perfect. I tried to photograph the letter and photos check it out......

This was the best Santa experience I have ever had.

I hope he was good to you. I wish the best of luck for the New Year. It will get better for us all!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

This link will help everyone follow Santa's progression across our planet. Show it to the kids to let them know IT'S BEDTIME!!
I hope all of you have a fabulous holiday season. I am packed full of fudge and cookies thanks to my friends at work. In 1 more week we can all start fresh-LOL.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A little late but here is our snow update

This is our frosty house.

Follow the frosty path to our house..

This is our guardian angel I think.

Monday after this we had Fedex slip us an envelope under our door that is going to allow us to build snowmen in this yard for many more years to come. I might just have a housewarming party to celebrate us NOT moving...What do you think?

Adam Sandler original Chanukah (Hanukkah) Song

The Mom Song

There may be hope out there

I just got a news update about new programs offered for people with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

We happen to be a Freddie Mac backed loan.

I just think there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel for hard working people that are drowning.

http://www.freddiemac.com/news/archives/servicing/2008/20081218_streamlined.html?eSRVcing

Mommy......Potty!!!

This is all I hear before the clothes come flying off. This is a good thing I guess but it is always followed by brushing her teeth too.

I don't know what the relationship is but 2 good habits that her sister doesn't have. She is currently pumping hand soap on her toothbrush so I guess I have to run.

Get your Sleds out people!!

This from the National Weather Service-

Friday: Snow, mainly after noon. High near 35. Northeast wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 13 and 16 mph. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

I have heard anything from 8-15 inches. I will believe it when it finally stops falling and I am out there measuring it. This clearly means we will be having a grey dirty snow Christmas because by Thursday it will be full on dirt and plowed up onto everyones sidewalks.

Tree finally got decorated

We had it in the house for 3 days until we finally had time to decorate it. We also decided to put on the big lights which we haven't done in years. It is a small tree but it looks old fashion to me with them on. The kids decorated most of it with me putting the few delicate ornaments at the top for safe keeping. It is a shame it is already losing tons of needles but I am a sucker for a real tree.

Also SUPER Thanks to my friend Joe for the Snow family. My girls love them and they find it hard not to always touch the baby snowman.

Again Thanks so much as they are now part of our family decorations.

We are no longer burning in our wood stove as it is clearly not safe in our miniature living room with all of these decorations and boy do I miss it. It also breaks my heart to know the oil we are burning. We usually take our fire hazard of a tree down the day after Christmas so we will be in shorts and burning wood again shortly.

Hope your Holiday Season is going well.

Falmouth Christmas Parade 2008

It finally went on after last weeks rain. We did not walk with Falmouth Dance Academy as she wussed out. It was just as well as we do enjoy watching it.

The weather wasn't too cold and it was perfectly sunny.

We were home in no time to thaw our frozen butts.

More photos to follow.

Want some???

This is how the mess started.

Oatmeal -

Dozens and Dozens And Dozens

Delivery is set for tomorrow thru out the day.

I am Baker Smurf today

I want to bake for my family and friends for the holidays and I guess this is the day. I am thinking this is the only day to get all the cookies done in one day so I can pass them out before they either get stale or we eat them all-LOL!
I made about 100 peanut butter balls the other night so I plan on throwing a few in with each cookie box.
I am thinking chocolate chip, Snickerdoodles and peanut butter- 7 layer bars would be the ultimate but I don't think I have everything.
Want some?? Post a request with directions for delivery.

Post Tree Lighting Ice Cream

Lucas, Olivia, Ava, Chelsea, Lily and of course....Gangsta Nana!!

We stopped and had an ice cream after the tree lighting and I just HAD to share this photo with the whole wide world.

Love you Mom!

1/2 day of school and a Christmas Tree

Today was one of those 1/2 days that the teachers are supposed to be doing something school important but I think they may just be having a liquid lunch after dealing with all these kids all day. Anyway when Olive got off the bus we picked her up in Dad's truck-which we don't get to use to often and they think we stole. Ava thinks it is hysterical and keeps saying- We stole daddy's truck.

We went over to Mahoney's and searched for the perfect cheap tree. The $20 section was pretty rough but we made it work. Our tree will be in a corner so a bad side is OK with us.

The kids celebrated with a Christmas tree cookie for the ride home. ( Oh and don't tell Dad, we aren't supposed to eat in his truck either!)
I have Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday OFF which is basically a miracle except that I did last week too. I had plans that fell threw so now my plan is to finish my de-clutter of the basement and get the tree decorated. I am also baking my Christmas cookies to give out to friends and family. We have cut our list so small now at least we can all get a little fat together on some cookies and peanut butter balls.

Possible Gift Idea

Although the stomach is way larger than mine I like the fact that the heart is so HUGE with all the love of candy!! Actually now that I look it appears broken-Maybe that is what it is really like as my stomach can no longer eat all of those things-LOL!
Perfect Gift!!

Cleaning House

If it isn't nailed down it is going this week.

I am madly posting on Freecycle and have gotten rid of a few things already. I am going thru the kids toys while the oldest one is in school. "Oh that is my favorite toy." is all I heard the last time I tried this and everything I pulled out got taken right back in.

I am also posting some things of value on craigs list and ebay. I figure I might as well make a buck if I can. I am currently trying to sweet talk someone into a 45 gallon fish tank- Anybody want it??

I figure Christmas will just add to the pile o'crap anyway.

Back to the grind.

Christmas Festivities

Today we got on the road early and hit breakfast at the Morse Pond School. It is always fun. They serve breakfast, have a terrific raffle and do face painting. This year even Wally from the Red Sox was there.

Next we went to the Congregational Church on the village green for their annual Holiday Bazaar and I was able to get a few Christmas presents and the kids made their own Christmas cards.

We went home and made some lunch and took a nap because we had big plans for the evening.

At 7pm the Village Green gets lit and we stand in the dark with tons of other people from town and count it down until a switch is flipped and it all comes to life. It is one of my favorite traditions. The only complaint I have is this year they allowed some folks to walk around selling lights and crappy circus swords. All the fun for me is the anticipation in the dark of when it will come on but this year there were kids all over the place with light up butterflies and swords. It kind of cheaped it out for me. My kids were not too happy when I proceeded to tell them that we were NOT buying that crap.

The rain let up just before we got there and it was warm enough to take off our gloves. Unfortunately a potty trip shortened our time there but we always go back on a quiet night and take pictures of the kids in front of the fake carollers and angels.