Christmas 2009 part 1

Christmas this year included lots of traveling as always, but half of the time i was so busy that i forgot to take pictures! Totally unlike me but it seems to be becoming a habit these days.

Christmas at Grandaddy & Grandma Tee's house was late the night before Christmas Eve when we arrived in town and then again with my brother at 6:45am the next morning... yes you read correctly! He was on night shift & in order to make it work for everyone, it had to be before he went to sleep Christmas Eve morning after getting off work that morning at 6am. So, yes, we are hard core celebrators over here! The kids were ecstatic with what Grandaddy & Grandma Tee got them for Christmas.....
BUZZ!and LEGOS!and then came the real fun.... Aunt Becca & Uncle Todd made all the kids Marshmallow Guns... I had never heard of such a thing, but they were a huge hit.... (literally- pun intended!)

and don't kid yourself- big kids liked them too.... This particular picture was moments after i was pelted with a marshmallow. Who has such good aim other than my beloved???We waited to do Christmas with my brother the next morning because we all drew names among us (the siblings- me, rebecca, & jeff and our spouses). We hadn't done this with each other before and for years had only been buying for the kids. It was kinda nice to buy for Jeff & Malissa this year! My sister had my name & got me the Pioneer Woman cookbook that i had been wanting for awhile now among other fun things like a sisters picture in a frame & some REALLY warm socks! I hope everyone had just as lovely of a Christmas as we all did!

Holiday Baking

This was the first year i actually got the kids involved in some holiday baking. I am so uptight i know, but i have always kept the kids out of the kitchen because i didn't want to clean up more mess than need be. But i learned a valuable lesson.... they LOVE it & it keeps them busy & happy. That alone is well worth a little extra mess! I think i will let them help me more!
First, we mixed the ingredients for buckeyes (peanut butter balls).... we took turns putting the ingredients into the mixer... and then took turns actually moving the lever to mix them. Then we put the mixture in the fridge for a bit while the kids unwrapped & then crushed some peppermints for another treat (truffles... yum!)
When the buckeye mixture was ready, we took it out of the fridge & got to rolling it out! Jackson helped me scoop & roll...
While Eli was in charge of the toothpicks for dipping later....
I didn't let them actually dip them in chocolate for two reasons... one, the chocolate was hot & on the stove & two, it was dinner time by then & chaos had kicked in. Either way though, we all three had a blast & it kept us busy on one of Jackson's days off from school. I wanted to do fun things with him since he was on break. And could it be Christmas without buckeyes? (Or sausage balls for that matter!! And yes, we made them too this year!)

My Favorite Holiday Craft 2009

So this holiday season, i have been in quite a crafty mood. For some reason the scrapbooking has taken a back burner this holiday season & i have focused more on crafts. This includes everything from making snowmen lit jars, hand stamped tile coasters, photo magnets, miniature tile magnets, picture frames, handmade card sets, etc etc. However, my favorite craft i made for gift giving this year were these cute glass ornaments.
I made them with children's names across the front of some.....
And some with just an initial....All of those were in cute colors, but i made an entire batch for all the teachers & assitant teachers of the boys in Christmas colors & they turned out just as cute! Basically this is what you do to make these (if interested)... I cut out (6) 3/4 in vinyl circles on my cricut for the larger dot, then i cut out the same number of 1/2 in. circles to layer over the larger ones. Then i used whichever font i preferred to cut a letter at 1 3/4 in to place in the center. Then i added a ribbon to the top & sprayed a spray glitter over the exterior of the whole thing. I just LOVED them & made them for days! Go get some glass balls on holiday clearance & make a big batch for next year!!

Whirlwind Weekend

The weekend following thanksgiving (as in the 2 days later!) Jackson & I took a trip to Tennessee with Rebecca & her girls, Nanny, Peto, Uncle Ed, Fee Fee (jen) & her kids, Luke & Kirsten. It was baby Sofie's one year birthday party & we were all invited up for the event. Sofie is my cousin, J & his wife, Sarah's, baby girl. We literally drove to TN on Saturday, went to the party that evening, & then drove home on Sunday. After reading that, you can assume that is the exact reason Eli stayed home with Randy! He isn't a very good car rider from here to Wilmington, much less here to Knoxville! Anyway, we had a wonderful time visiting with J & Sarah & this was my first time meeting Sofie. She is absolutely ADORABLE!
This was only the second time Jackson had ever stayed in a hotel, so he was pretty thrilled with the whole thing!
And the adults had a pretty good time too, if i do say so!Thanks for including us in your big day, Sofie! Happy First Birthday!

Merry Christmas.... from the Elf Spy!

See anyone hiding in this tree??

Preparations for Christmas are in full swing over at our house! We got our tree up & all the decorations out the day after thanksgiving & have enjoyed all the lights & various countdown calendars since then!
After a phone call Daddy made to Santa during our thanksgiving travels, Santa sent us one of his elves to keep watch over the boys. Each day when the kids wake up, he is perched in a new spot & at night he reports back to Santa how the day has gone in the Moss house. The boys love this little elf & run down the stairs each morning to see where he is going to be that day! One day, he flittered off in the middle of the day to report to Santa because things weren't going well at all. But for the most part, he's reported all good things. Hopefully this means the boys are still on the "nice" list.

We got this idea from the "Elf on a Shelf" that is sold in stores with a book describing how the elf is Santa's helper & watches everything, reporting back to the North Pole each night. He comes back & sits in a new spot each day. I am way too frugal to buy the real deal, when i personally think the elf in that kit is a little eery looking & i knew we could find a cheaper alternative. So, when we were in TN the weekend past thanksgiving, i found a perfect Elf in the Hobby Lobby for $6.50!! The day he arrived in our house, Jackson immediately wanted to know if he knew how they behaved everywhere or just in the house. That is typical Jackson right there. He wants to know how he can behave where!

Eli... the sweet little bulldozer

Oh, my little Eli. He is the sweetest thing. He tells me all the time, "I Luh you mama." And it makes my heart so happy. He is a snuggler. He is a hugger. He is a kisser. He is my little cuddle bug. However... he is also a bulldozer. A tank. A full force, go for it kind of rough houser. He loves to wrestle. So when Uncle Todd was all for wrestling & tickling... so was he!

Leah's gettin' in on the action too... she might be a girl... but she can play rough too!But no matter how rough he gets, he can momentarily stop & come get a little sugar from his mama...
Or give some if the moment calls for it....
Here is a little video of Uncle Todd tickling him & everytime he would stop, Eli would say... "Do it again!!"

Pictures

We are lucky.... we don't have to pay someone to take our picture. Grandad is always willing & ready to do it for us & that always comes in handy around Christmas card time! This is our family picture this year... we haven't had one in 2 years! And of course, while we were there in the basement... we went ahead & got some of the boys too!


Here is Randy's side of the family... we do this every thanksgiving night... so that Grandad & Mema can send out a picture in their cards too!
Thanks, Grandad!

New Moon

Soooo.... i am a wee bit addicted to the Twilight book series. And i know i am not the only one reading this blog that can say that. I read the first book (Twilight) in a little over 24 hours. The second book, (New Moon) took me 2 days. Then the third book (my favorite, Eclipse) took me a little less than a week, then the 4th book (Breaking Dawn) i read to & from Disney in the car when we went in the spring. I am talking about 700+ page books here. I did have other things to do those weeks, but for some reason, i couldn't put them down. I was up until wee hours in the morning just reading.... so when the second movie was coming out, i was SUPER stoked! I loved the first movie, so the anticipation was killer for the second. My friend Jaime & myself got tickets as soon as they were available (talkin' months ahead of time here, people) to the midnight showing in our area. We counted down the months, then weeks, then days, then HOURS! We were so excited. In the meantime, i turned 30.... and Jaime got me New Moon shirt that said "Team Edward" on it! Hee Hee... i saved it for the premiere. It was so much fun, i felt like a teenager with all the excitement! All those who went were wearing vampire shirts/ apparel... here's me & Jaime at dinner beforehand....
And my friend Ann (on the left) with her "I'm with the rock hard vampires" shirt! We got so tickled reading everyone's shirts!
About 2 weeks before the big night, i found these twilight sweethearts on the halloween clearance candy... i couldn't resist, so i got us all a box. They were nasty though... but the box was nice to look at!
I was so excited at the house while waiting for time to go, that i was just pacing. So Randy said, "JUST GO!"... so i did! I ended up waiting at the restaurant for 45 minutes waiting on everyone else.... so i took a picture of myself waiting to pass the time....
When we finished dinner.. the waiting began. We waited in the theater for a good 3 hours & it was interesting what people do to pass the time. One woman did cartwheels to entertain us while this guy slept intermittently..... He didn't know it, but he thoroughly entertained us!My friend, Ann, brought fake cigarettes (it's an inside story from a vanity fair photo shoot that Rob Pattinson did (the vamp from the movie)).... so we all posed for silly pics with them too...
Then 12:01 came & went.... and no movie. The reel was messed up & so it didn't start until 45 minutes late! Arghhhh!! (We did get a free ticket out of the deal though!) When it finally did start, i took a picture of the opening shot....
On the way out (at 3:15 am) Jaime & I paused to take a photo one last time....
It was so much fun that i now can't wait for the release of the third movie... but June is a long time off!!!

Puttin' up some Pig!

Back in mid-November, we headed to Grandaddy & Grandma Tee's house to "cook a pig." I was personally very nervous for days before we had to go, because i have the weakest stomach when it comes to messing with raw meat. But the idea was to cook a pig, & store up some bbq for the winter. Yum. The end result was worth the work in the end... although it took several weeks for me to forget the process to actually eat a batch of bbq! While we cooked, the kids played....
Pete, my dad's boxer, just eyed us the entire day through the fence. He could smell that pig & he was lucky i was there... because i talked them into letting me throw him a bone. He was a happy camper.
This was Eli's first look at the pig on the cooker.... can you tell he is a little unnerved, himself? The cookie helped him feel better, i am sure ! :)
And here is Rebecca & Leah checking it out.... about the same reaction here too!

Here I am all proud of myself. Yes, that is me, ME, holding a pig's rib cage. I know! Those of you who know me well know that this was a monumental moment. (I might need therapy later, but i got through it! ha!) You can tell my dad was amused, eh?
And i might add that the entire time we were pulling the pork off the "carcas", Randy was right next to me sampling the meat as we went along. The smacking & mmmm-ing about made me sick!
This was Daddy, Grandaddy, & Hattie Mae checking to see if the pig was done in the first place. Luckily, we ate lunch first (the first helping off the pig) then got to work, pulling. If we had done this in reverse order, i honestly wouldn't have been able to eat it. Just bein' honest here!

While the pig was cooking, Randy took his new gun out for a test shoot in my Dad's back yard. It was so loud! I don't know how anyone can be that close to it & have any hearing left.
Hey cutie..... Here is a random picture from the day of Randy with no hat on. I know it is a new sight for some of you! ha! It is a rarety for me too.... except Sundays!
Anyway... Grandaddy & Hattie Mae came up for the day also & so they pitched in & helped us get it all pulled, chopped, & bagged up. Aren't they cute?
This was all the bags at the end of the day...
And i couldn't resist sitting this little pig on top of the bags to see who would notice first. Kind of a little joke... i think Tee saw it first?? Anyway.... it was a fun day, despite the nasty, hard work!!