Fun for Your Feet

or perhaps not, if you do more than the recommended 15 minutes they say to start out with (as I did last night...ow!..my right foot hurts today). I saw this ad in a magazine before Christmas and got very excited to order some for Chuck and his mom. Every once in awhile in life you have an opportunity to truly surprise people with something they could not ever imagine and this was my year for that. Both Chuck and his mom stand on their feet all day, so I thought this would be something that could help them. I am often buying Chuck things like the Pedi-egg and foot creams to help him out. I have told him for years to go to the podiatrist and he finally did last spring and got some orthodics. He also found out that the tendons in both of his big toes are shortened and this is part of what is causing him pain. Surgery down the road can fix it, but he is not in any hurry to do that at this time. SO, there is your foot update. I am still trying to upload Christmas pictures. I need to get pictures from my dad and Jack as we took more video (as usual) than pictures. We had a week of Christmas starting at Mel & Jack's house on Saturday the 20th and then onto my mom and dad's house (where we enjoyed staying at the Four Seasons Las Colinas...roughing it, you know) and then we were home on Christmas eve and had Santa Christmas day. Chuck had to work Christmas day but was off the five days before. They served 700 people for Christmas day brunch, if you can imagine. I am surprised that many people go out for Christmas. Then Chuck came home and cooked a wonderful dinner of lamb, roasted rosemary new potatoes, carrots and asparagus. It was a fabulous week!

People Not Like Me?

Nicholas' favorite saying as of the last few months has been either in a questioning voice..."Baby, like me? (such as babies at the soft play area at the mall) or in an angry voice "Patrick not like me! Hmf!" Well, I am wondering this year if I have lost all of my friends as I have received 11 cards. I sent out 61 on Wednesday. I guess that answers the question that I am not on people's original list. I am a polite return card recipient. I guess there are worse things...

Gingerbread House

Every year, I have painfully put together the gingerbread house kit with Patrick. It has always been something I dread, because the icing is a mess and gets too hard while we are decorating the house. The house is hard to keep together even with the framed out base. So this year, I told Chuck that it was time he participated in all of the fun. Well, wouldn't you know that Costco got in a new kit this year by Wonka that has pre-mixed icing in a bag that is really easy to use? His house turned out great and he and the boys had fun putting it together. Nicholas was quite fond of licking the candy before placing it on the house. My neighbor is making homeade gingerbread houses with the kids this weekend. I could never attempt that as rolling out the gingerbread dough for gingerbread men is hard enough!

Disco Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Card Rejects

This year we made several attempts to take pictures of the boys. There was the festival of lights (back in November), in front of our tree (twice), on the trail behind our house and at the pond in our neighborhood. After 135 pictures, I ended up using a candid shot with the forbidden binky (or ga-gu, as he calls it) in Nicholas' mouth. After sending the order in, I realized that not only is the binky in his mouth, but Patrick is doing rabbit ears to him as well. To top it off, I forgot to add our names to the card, and I sent sent it to a Target 35 minutes away. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? I am a big fan of Christmas cards and I usually get mine out before now. I also get a little wrapped up in the idea that our popularity among others is based on how many Christmas cards we get. Well this year, as of December 13th, we have received 4. Four! I know some people do not send out Christmas cards (like my own mother-can you imagine?), but this is kind of sad. I am hoping that the address cards I sent out in March simply got misplaced and people did not update their address books right away like I would upon receiving a new address. Perhaps they are just waiting for our card to come, so they can promptly return a card to us. Then there is the thought that the Christmas cards we receive after ours have been mailed out are only polite 'return' cards and that we were not on people's original card list. Oh the agony! Chuck says I get too wrapped up in the whole idea, but I have always been kind of a nut about it all. Well, anyways here are some Christmas card rejects...

Oh, and I forgot to mention below who the woman that I think Nicholas looks like is..Chuck's grandmother from Germany. She died when Chuck was 11 or 12, I think.

Well, since the old pics are out...I think this one looks like Patrick

Who Nicholas Looks Like...

OK, so maybe no one sees this but MIL and I, but I think it is true...

Christmas is Coming!

So here are some Christmas jammies that used to be Patrick's at this age. The arms are already too short. Nicholas is tall for his age at 39" and 35 lbs.

This was at a local Christmas lighting festival complete with the opening of the ice rink, a snow hill, Santa and fireworks.


Still wondering who Nicholas looks like...

Here comes Santa on the boat...

I ended up with a lot of blurry pictures..by the time I got the setting right, he was leaving

Mel and Jack were down last weekend...Nicholas was so sweet

Creepy picture of Baby Kitty....he has always slept under the tree.

Nicholas wouldn't ever be still!

Very excited about the star...

Daddy always puts the star on top...

I always give Chuck a hard time about not helping me with the ornaments, but he informed Patrick that the reason he doesn't help with the ornaments is because I rearrange every one he hangs. There is a science to it. You must hang the ornaments so that they don't bend the branches and they must not rest on the branch below them. I think this is just pure ornament hanging common sense, right?

I know this much is true....

A title of one of my favorite books...I will steal its title. We do have so much to be thankful for. Chuck was working this year and his days off were just the weekend, so there was not enough time to spend with family. We missed going to his mom's, his aunt June's house and my mom's house. We (the boys and I) graciously accepted an invitation to our neighbors and spent the day with their family. I will admit it was hard for me...I think spending time with other people's family made me miss my own so much more. My parents did come through Wed. night on their way to a cruise for their 45th wedding anniversary on 11/29. Mel and Jack came to see us on Sat./Sun. after they had just celebrated their 2 year anniversary on 11/28. We have our health, our wonderful supportive families and each other. I am just a sucker for the holidays and can feel a twinge of sadness at a moment's notice. What can I say...that is how God made me.