Cyndy's Wedding

Cyndy had a beautiful wedding. We worked day and night for three solid days, and only a few guests showed up. This was disappointing at first, but the key point was how much Ben clearly adores her. I hope and pray her partnership with Ben sustains her in good times and bad until the end of their lives. I must have taken a million pictures, but only a few came out really well. Still, it's the vows that count!

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

*sigh* Will I EVER get used to it?

Why do kids get older every year? Kai is fourteen now.

She was so unhappy the day before her birthday. We were supposed to go to Rainforest Cafe in New Jersey and then see HP7 at the IMAX theater in Philly. But a huge snowstorm pummelled the NJ/Philly area (and gave us a solid 6 inches) so we had to cancel those plans. Instead, she ended up going to the movies at the Rave and dinner and games at Rascals. Not as cool, but her friends were happy. And in the end, with all sorts of cheesy prizes in hand (giant sunglasses, light up teeth) she seemed pretty darn happy too.

Not to mention she LOVED her present - French Horn custom Keds!

Happy birthday darling. Why do you have to keep growing up so fast?

Christmas Surprises! (and not...)

Grandma and Grandpa came for Christmas, since Cyndy's wedding was shortly after Christmas. Kairi had found this beautiful, but way too grown up dress on our trip to Sight and Sound. I can't believe how big these two are getting.

One of our big questions with Nick this year was "Does he or doesn't he?" Know about. You know. That guy. We're still not sure - he certainly loved his stocking stuff.
I found the perfect gift for mom - a Jim Shore Pelican. Two great things that go great together, as far as she is concerned.

Scott and I did a terrible job surprising each other this year, and a great job surprising the kids.

I knew my big gift was a Cricut since Thanksgiving. Every gift Scott got was on his wishlist. But the kids had no idea what was in store for them.

They got their own laptops! They were excited beyond belief.

Of course, this is all we saw of them for the rest of vacation:
Jon and Laurie were really surprised by the gorgeous quilt Kairi made for them last summer at Grandma's house.Not to mention our surprise when Ben showed up dressed as Scott's evil twin!The girls were surprised by their giant collection of Disney Barbies, too - but no one else was - we had been telling everyone what we got them since Thanksgiving to avoid duplicates.
It was a crazy day, but in the end, everyone got just what they wanted - even if they didn't know what they wanted!

Facebook Nearly Killed The Blog

Everyone finally talked me onto Facebook. In some ways, it's great. I get to connect with people (like my cousins) who I would normally never see. But the more time I spent on Facebook, the less I spent on the blog. It's so much faster, and so many more people actually see what I have to say.

Then I started scrapping again. I hadn't scrapped in months, mostly because I never have the time. But I got a beautiful new Cricut for Christmas, and I've done 40+ pages since then. Unfortunately, I'm nearly 3.5 years behind. So I keep turning to the blog to remind me of what we did and when 3.5 years ago. And I realized, I don't just keep this blog to keep Grandma in the loop, or to show off my pictures online. The blog keeps track of the journalling I don't have time to do when I take pictures. And I'm so behind, I'll never get caught up. So by the time I scrap these memories, they may not be memories unless I blog about them here. So I'm changing this blog's purpose. It's going to be a bit more journally, and more for me. Probably no one will wander over from Facebook, and that's okay. I will have it for when I need it. And that's good enough.

So here I go, post-dating this entry, and then tons of others for December - February. Because some July 4 years from now, I may want to know what I thought and did and *gasp* felt in 2010-11.

Cookie Chaos

Never. Again.

Never again will I make 42 dozen cookies on December 17th, and another 1,000+ right after Christmas.

Then again, what are the chances of my sister getting married and wanting 1,000 cookies again? So I guess that's a promise that will be easy to keep.

At any rate, as of the date on this (postdated) post, I had only made 42 dozen, and the task wasn't seeming that daunting. After all, I finished them all in one day, with only Nick for help most of the morning (Kai and Scott had bells rehearsal). Then Cyndy and Ben came over and I ended up making flower girl headdresses.

Fortunately, Kairi was then able to help decorate the sugar cookies. She's much better at that than I am.

Decorating the Tree

Self explanatory post, really. Here we are, decorating this year's tree. I was a bit cranky, as I was the only one who had actually worked that day. But by the end, we were all giggling on the couch like crazed elves.

Winter Concert - Wow. Really?

The first sign your daughter is now a freshman, not an eighth grader, is when all you can see of her during the winter concert is the edge of her skirt and her feet. The band and chorus put on a heck of a show. But there were a few odd moments.

Wow. Really? is one of Kai's favorite expressions. So, for example, your dad accidentally tells the bells director he can play the night of your first high school concert. Wow. Really?

Then, your dad is called up front to be honored as a volunteer, but he's not there. Wow. Really?

The chorus sings 13 songs to the band's 6. Wow. Really?

The concert lasts two hours. Wow. Really?

And my personal favorite - dancing high school chorus girls sit on Santa's lap during a choreographed version of "Santa Baby". Wow. Really?