Light-Up Night

Picture this:

In the town square, a brass band plays Christmas carols. The mayor of a small community makes a speech. Crowds gather, hot chocolate and cookies in hand, singing along, exchanging conversations with neighbors. At the push of a button by a tiny girl in ringlets, a 20' tree comes brilliantly to life with oversized twinkle lights. A fire truck with wailing siren brings the man of the hour - Santa. Children run and squeal, bells ring.

Sound like something out of a holiday book? Nope. Just Light-Up Night in Hellertown. Gotta love this town. The band, a group from the high school, was fabulous. The horns echoed and resounded in the crisp air. The weather? Perfect. Like a postcard. Starry sky, enough cool to feel winter, but not cold enough to make anyone shiver. Nicky took turns on my shoulders and Daddy's, conducting the band with sweeping gestures (that they didn't see - we were behind them...) and singing along at the top of his lungs. His face and body language just exuded pure joy. Kai chatted with the steady procession of friends who appeared out of nowhere, as they do at every community event. Her band teacher (the real conductor) saw her as he was leaving and said "We needed a French Horn! She could have done it, too - really! She's good enough!" This extravagant praise naturally left her beaming for the rest of the night.

We waited in line to see Santa for the all important picture and present request. It's funny that the line winds through the police station. Can you imagine letting kids line up to see Santa in a city police station? So we don't hold up the line, we always tell the kids to ask for ONE thing, so they requested their top gifts, smiled for the camera (thankfully, we paid for a pro shot that will be mailed, cause my pictures were ghastly), and got a present from Santa. They were thrilled to discover they got markers, paper, crayons, and candy. How cool is that?

I've said it before, and I know I'll say it again. This town ROCKS.

Shop 'til You Drop

Yes, we're THOSE people. The ones that leave home when even the car clock is bleary eyed. We drive off and join the hundreds queueing outside Toys R Us, then Walmart, then Target...

We make a list. We check it twice. And with a little luck, and some good planning, we get LOTS of GREAT deals. And then we go out for breakfast. Which sort of negates the saving money thing. But not really. *shrug*

I can't list the deals we made this morning, since many of them are Christmas surprises, but we made out pretty well. Better yet, a few slick strategies had us avoiding most of the lines. We were joking around in the line for TRU, saying "Okay, so when we get inside, we head right for Dumbo, because it's too cold for Splash Mountain this morning." (Which is what we'd say if we were waiting for Disney to open - we tour the parks with a plan, too.) But it felt like Disney's Fastpass when we would scoot past everyone waiting (just like we do at Disney) wondering why no one else was doing what we were doing. For example, at Toys R Us, our list let us grab the items we wanted and get in line while everyone else was still looking. (And help a nice lady who couldn't buy both TMX Elmos she wanted for her grandkids by buying one for her and letting her pay us back. The store had just said one per person as she got to the register.) Then at Walmart, while lines snaked around the block for the registers, we checked out at Jewelry and were gone in a flash. Then, the second door at Target was deserted as hundreds of people went in the door on the left. It was really, really, weird. Everyone was so focused on getting their items they really overlooked the obvious a bit. We had three major stores done before the sun even rose.

Still, after wearing the WRONG shoes and walking around parking lots for hours, I was pretty exhausted and bumming a bit when we finally got to Hackman's to pick up the new Sunday School curriculum. But the employee at the door handed us a 30% off coupon and it finally occured to me what I REALLY wanted for Christmas. So I begged Scotty for an early present and he agreed. Which is how the nativity scene from my favorite Willow Tree collection has finally made it into my house. At least, the part that matters! I'll have to add some wise men and other assorted figures later, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE what I do have and it totally re-energized my Christmas spirit. (Thanks, Scotty!!)

Giving Thanks

I am so very grateful for so many things in our lives this year. It's been rough and crazy a lot, but it's been happy and full of good fortune, too. God has truly blessed us.

So, in celebration yesterday, we had a wonderful, bountiful Thanksgiving meal, the great company of Grammy and Pop-Pop, and excited happy kids. What more could we ask for?

Well, except maybe for the turkey to stay on the drumsticks....

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving....

And in my house, that means pie. We always bake the Thanksgiving pies the night before to leave the oven free for the turkey the next day. So the whole house smells like cinnamon and apples right now, which is fabulous.

It didn't really matter that today was a stressful day at work. My kids had their Nutrition Exhibition and did a GREAT job on their invented food products, but it still takes a lot of work to run a big team activity. It didn't really matter that I was tired and contemplated just going to bed and pulling the covers over my head. The pies needed to be made. So I made them. And I'm glad.

The quiet, simple labor was just what I needed to destress and get in a holiday spirit. I played Christmas carols on the stereo in my pretty kitchen, and sliced, diced, kneaded and mixed my way to serenity. Scott made the pumpkin pie filling, by long standing family tradition. I made the crusts, and tackled the basketful of Granny Smiths that needed peeled, sliced, sugared and spiced. Honey, our lab, was constantly underfoot, hoping I'd drop the pie, or at least an apple slice. The kids hung out and watched their latest Netflix movie in the living room. As I say every year, I think these are my best pies ever. The new oven passed its first real test with flying colors.

We also mixed up the dill dip for the rye boat and veggie platter, watched Top Chef and laughed at the inept professionals whose food didn't look as good as ours (in our decidedly biased opinion), and unfortunately broke a vintage Pyrex bowl I LOVE. (Technically, that was HE, not WE, but I'm trying to not hold a grudge, since as you can see from his ramblings earlier today, Scott's already bumming.)

Now all that remains is to go to bed and await the procession of tasks that come with constructing tomorrow's feast. I am VERY thankful tonight for all of my blessings. May you all have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

A Man Will Rise, A Man Will Fall

Terrell Owens had left the team. Injuries had healed. New players were acquired. It was looking to be a good year for the Philadelphia Eagles. I got to see them practice during training camp on my birthday, and I was excited.

But things don't always work out the way we hope. The Eagles played sloppy; they dropped passes, missed tackles, blocked badly, and committed stupid penalties. The team was 4 - 4 before their bye week. But the next week was an exciting game. Everything seemed to go smoothly as the Eagles thoroughly trounced the Redskins 27 - 3. There were no dropped passes, no bad tackles, etc. It looked as though the team was back on track.

This past Sunday, they Eagles faced the Titans, and the game started as all of the other Eagle losses had started. The opposing team took an early lead, and the Eagles drive was stopped before points were put on the board. Passes were dropped, balls were thrown in the dirt, tackles were missed. It appeared that the team couldn't remember who they were and the talent they had from one week to the next. It was only a matter of time before disaster struck.

On a third and long yardage situation, Donovan McNabb had to roll out of the pocket to throw the ball without being sacked. Donovan eventually had to throw the ball away with no open receivers, and he got knocked out of bounds. But then he didn't get up. Our starting quarterback had injured his knee. Head Coach Andy Reid announced McNabb would be out for the rest of the season. It was only a matter of time, really.



So now the questions mount. Can the team come back from this injury? If they played as well as they did against the Redskins, I believe this team could make it to the playoffs even without McNabb. Our backups (Jeff Garcia and A. J. Feeley) are both very competent and former starters for other teams, so I have no worries there. It's the rest of the team I am worried about.

And what about McNabb? This is the third time in five years me will be missing more than six games in a season. While 30 is not old by regular people standpoint, he is starting to get up there in "football years". There are rumors that McNabb may not be back in time for the start of the next season. Is this the end for the McNabb Dynasty in Philly? Donovan is a friendly guy and works hard. It would be a shame if injuries forced him to leave the game before winning a Super Bowl.

Any way you look at it, it's a tough time to be a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles.

And, we're BAAACK!

Well, after an AGONIZING two weeks without internet access in our new house, we're back. And I've uploaded a million things to the blog. I tried to do it in reverse order so you can just scroll down and get caught up. But to start, here's the welcoming front door of our new home.

Enjoy!

The Kitchen Is the Heart of the Home

I love this kitchen. I really, really love this kitchen. The rest of the house, I still feel slightly awkward living in. Like it's not really my house. But this kitchen is MINE MINE MINE. *ahem*

Anyway, lots of pictures of little things here. A few turkeys for holiday fun (all the fun decorations end up in the kitchen where they're not clashing with any color scheme, lol), lots of apples because that's my "theme", and just gorgeous kitchen everywhere you look.

Did I mention I love my kitchen?

Dining Room

I think my favorite thing in my new dining room is the chandelier. Or the watercolors by Scott's great great aunt, once removed (or whatever she is). Or the way all my angels are arranged in the hutch. Or how nice little autumn touches look in there (when the flash isn't washing them out....). Ah, heck. I just really like this room. Please ignore our homework crate in the hutch though. Necessary evil.

Living Room

So, other than investing in an armoire for our TV one of these days, and maybe a coffee table, we're pretty happy with the living room. The couch and chair were a housewarming gift from Scott's parents. Right now, it's decorated a bit for Thanksgiving. It's very comfy. The lighting is warm and cozy - unfortunately, flash leaves it washed out (the walls are more cappuccino than cream in real life). But, as with the picture of the window (which is a lovely bay window in full view), lack of flash turns everything yellow. Ah well. Take my word it's prettier in real life! (For one thing, the couch is more of an autumn red than the red-violet it appears in these shots!) I included the close up of the one end table so Mom could see where I put the pretty anniversary sculpture she gave to us.

Kairi's Bedroom

Kai's bedroom is close to finished, but needs more decorating touches. A headboard and some white paint on her dresser will help, too, but Mommy and Daddy are just out of steam right now! As you can see, her current LOVE is for all things frog....

Nicky's Bedroom

Nicky's bedroom is a work in progress. He wants a fish theme, and we have a few things going, but found it impossible to redecorate the entire house at once on a shoestring budget. But it'll work out eventually. Of course, Rainbow (his betta) has a spot of honor near the bed, and Grandma's beautiful fish quilt graces the wall. Fun primary colors have us started on the right track - but a big boy bed is an obvious priority before any more decorating!

Master Bedroom

This is the room that needs the MOST decorating work. We will probably get around to buying a bedroom set one of these days. Anyway, very basic. The rack full of paper is the only scrapbook supply that isn't stuffed in the bottom of my bedroom closet. *sigh* I don't want to clutter up the nice house with it, but I'm not USING it in there....

House Odds and Ends

I'm going to post pictures of the house at the voiceferous demand (um I mean polite request! Yeah, that's it...) of family and friends. I'm going to kind of post backward so that reading down the page, you start with my favorite rooms and work down to the random bits. So we'll start (end?) with bathrooms and halls and laundry walls, oh my!

Here's the view into the "master" bathroom. Sort of tiny and puny - there's just a shower and toilet around the corner, but it gets the job done. Still need to do some decorating, but I'm trying to tone down the YELLOW with some dark blues. Basically, this room got cleaned and the toilet, medicine chest and sconces were replaced during the remodel.

Here's the kids' bathroom. The whole floor had to be repaired, replaced with linoleum, the vanity, toilet, medicine cabinet and sconces replaced. The silly shower curtain is a concession to the kids. Obviously, this room still needs some decorating, but again, it works. Plus, we REALLY love the vanity, which Grandpa BUILT.

Here's the stairs and hallway. Some very nasty carpet was ripped up from the stairs, the banister was replaced, and as with ALL of the house, it was painted. The quilt on the wall is my mom's gorgeous tribute to Monet. Love that quilt.

I already shared my new laundry room, but we added this place for the kids' bookbags on the wall opposite the dryer and washer. I thought it was kinda cute, so what the heck, here's a picture. (You'll find I took lots of random house pictures....)

Various Halloween Fun

Hey, all, we're back! :-) Lots of updates, but I'll start with some pictures of Halloween fun we snuck in around our move.

We took the afternoon off the Sunday before we moved to see the Hellertown Halloween parade. We love this parade, and had lots of fun. Oh, and got LOTS of candy!

During the move, the kids enjoyed raking up (and jumping in!) the leaves in our new front yard.

Finally, the day after we officially moved was trick or treat night. Here's their traditional photos in front of the house - even when it was Uncle Bob's house, we took photos here every year!