Saturday, January 8, 2011

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, it started bright and early when the CATS woke me up by running over my bed, the kids were up and trying to be quiet in their rooms, I did find it funny that it was the cats not them who were so anxious to get me up.  We did Christmas socks first thing, Jeremy has never had a Christmas sock and Daniel and Richard only started getting them when they became part of the family.  Once we had socks done and were somewhat awake we moved to the living room for gifts.
A long time ago Sienna played with my Raggedy Ann and wore her out so this year Stevie and her family bought me a new one.

It did not take long at all for my living room to be full of paper and boxes, but everyone had a good time and that is part of the joys of Christmas, I have learned to not get so stressed about the mess.
 I received lovely gifts as always.  Mom sent me some books, a gorgeous poinsettia table runner that went perfect on my table to Christmas dinner, she also sent me two more pictures for my "ancestor" wall, this year one that is a copy of a painting my Great Grandpa did of his Dad, and also a picture of MeMaw (my Great Grandma Andelin) when she was about 2 or 3.  My brother Ty had my name this year and send a wonderful set of wind chimes and some lovely scented candles (just what I asked for), Richard and the kids also got me some wind chimes, I love them, though as long as we are in Kansas I keep them inside right by a window so I can hear them in the spring when I can open windows but they do not get blown away and ruined in the awful Kansas wind storms, I also got a robe, slippers, bath stuff and perfume from them.   Richard had intended to buy me a rocking chair I had also wanted but I asked him to wait since we had agreed to spend less on Christmas this year and use the saved money to take the kids to Disney land this Spring.
Stevie and her family always get me a 50 gift card from JC Penny so I can shop the after Christmas sales.  The girls and I went shopping one day and so far I got a sweater 52.00 on sale for 7.97, a bracelet 260.00 on sale for 11.97, I love JC Penny clearance.
Later that afternoon we had some friends over for dinner, one of the Lieutenants who used to work with Richard was moved to a new Battalion and deployed, his wife is such a dear and we have stayed friends, we invited her and her daughter, she is pregnant and unable to travel home to see her own family so we were thrilled they came to spend the day with us.  Also the lady who does the FRG with me, her husband and daughter came as well, they usually go home to Texas but were unable to go this year so it was fun to have them here as well.  We had a great dinner, Sarah is from Utah so she knows how to make funeral potatoes and brought them, and some wine from the last batch they made.   Maureen made green bean casserole, rolls, desserts, and drinks.  We made a ham and a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, so there was plenty of food, great company, and and all around feeling a peace and cheer as Christmas should be.  Hope all of you Christmas's were wonderful as well.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Christmas 'Eve

Christmas Eve was nice this year, all my kids were at the house all night, since that is what I wanted most for Christmas Iwas thrilled.  We of course had to make cookies to leave out for Santa, Sienna decided on ones with Christmas trees since she thought he would like them the most.

I made dinner, we usually have pizza on Christmas Eve but this year we had homemade beef stew with hard rolls, it was really good.  Daniels brother Jeremy was with us this year as well, I think it was a nice for Daniel to have someone from his family here, he has so little family left and he and his brother are very close.  We enjoyed having Jeremy with us, and he fit right in with all the other kids, of course I have known him since he was about 10 so Iguess he really is just like one of the kids.

Mom has started sending the kids gifts she wants them to open on Christmas Eve, usually partof it is books for them to read that night, this year along with the books they got new pajama's ( so they did not get to open the Christmas Eve jammies I got them LOL) I also let them open the gifts their Dad sends them.
We spent the rest of the evening reading the kids new books and watching the new Jim Carey a Christmas Carol, that is my favorite Christmas story and this version turned out nice, the older kids and I enjoyed the story and the younget ones stayed entertained since it was in cartoon type form.

At the end of the night we set up Christmas socks in the family room even though the tree and gifts were in the living room, it turned out easier to do the "Santa" stuff in where we had a bit more room.  Yet again one more reason I am happy to have a formal living room and a family room.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New House

I have been working so much lately that I am very behind on here.  Right before Christmas we moved to our new house.  We got pretty luckily we were moved to a brand new house, it was finished about a week before we moved in.  We were moved to a new neighborhood because our old house was being remodeled (it really needed it) we are now in senior NCO housing so out neighbors are all closer to the same rank as Richard, I don't care about rank, I have meet lots of wonderful people at all different ranks, but it was frustrating to know that all our neighbors were several levels below him, we all had the same house, housing takes all our BAQ so we were paying about 300 more a month for the same house.  With this housing we got some nice upgrades, the floor plans are the same but we have nicer tile, paint, molding, faucets, light fixtures, so it is a nice bonus especially for him after serving so many years.
The new house is only about 200 square feet larger but the floor plan makes it feel a lot bigger. 
I think my favorite part is that I have a formal living room and a family room, I like having one room that is not really used in the front of the house so it is always ready for unexpected visitors no matter what is going on in the rest of the house.
I am also pretty happy with having bigger bathrooms, especially in our room, our last one was so small when we were trying to get ready for work at the same time it was impossible, the garden tub and the laundry room being on the second floor where our laundry actually is ends up being a pretty nice bonus as well