Christmas Fun

Ever since our Christmas break started Brooke had worked on a special Christmas program to present to my parents on Christmas Eve. There was an application process to be part of the program...I'm not kidding...here is the mandatory sign up paper. You had to give a reason why you would be a good manager/announcer.

As you can see she carefully assigned us parts and checked us off. Charlie and Miles were selected as co-managers, I was chosen to be the back up singer (clearly there wasn't a vocal try out) and Zach was selected to be drink guy/camera man.

In the days leading up to the performance there were many rehearsals and even a few dress rehearsals. I was starting to think that this was gonna end up being Disney's next High School Musical type sensation!

So here we are performing one of our five songs, selected by Brooke...

Zach, our camera man, captured my feeling, in the following picture, during my back up performances...a bit woozy and psychedelic...performing in front of a crowd (ok fine, it was just my mom and dad) is not usually my thing.

And here's the rag tag crew of stage performers. As you can see, Miles got all super dressed up...yeah except for the gym shorts. He and Charlie were a regular Laurel and Hardy up there...

I joke about this, but Brooke was very proud of herself for putting this whole thing together. She was completely in charge of everything and she did a great job! Christmas Fun with family!!!

While we visit...

While we are still visiting with my parents and while I try to organize my zillions of Christmas photos I give you this little video...created by Miles for his Photography class. His ranked, by his fellow students, in the top of his class. I'm sure it has nothing to do with my ski lessons included in the movie.

Enjoy...be sure to turn up the volume so you can hear the music and the screen can be maximized too.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas

It's that time of the year...my favorite holiday of them all...and I do love them all....I just love this one best!

Christmas decorations are a plenty and what I'm showing is a small sampling of what is out and an even smaller sampling of what we have. These are the first things that I always have out for the season....

A door wreath...this year Brooke and Zach decorated a plain green wreath with some holiday picks that I had...they did a fine job don't you think?

Our Christmas lights and giant wreath lovingly hung by this guy with his new ladder...that thing has come in handy for sure...

This climbing on the roof stuff makes me nervous...OK everything makes me nervous, but this makes me extra nervous.

Our little crafty tree that sits right by our front door...

My basket o' scented pine cones with lights that I love.. love... love...

My collection of White House Ornaments....I usually have them on a mini tree with very patriotic red, white, and blue ornaments but my sister bought this tree for me a while back and it makes a nice display for my collection. I love these ornaments and look forward to getting them each year.

My Christmas card display area...if you sent me a Christmas card..and I hope you did...this is where it will be. I love this display wire from Pottery Barn..I have two in my house....one hung horizontally and one vertically..they are great for pictures, school work and cards.

My snowball candles...oh how I wish I could walk outside and make a snowball right now...

And finally one of our Christmas trees....now I told you that I was crazy for Christmas and so to tell the truth we have seven trees in our house. We have an upstairs tree which has colored lights and lots of ornaments the kids have made over the years and then the kids all have a smallish tree in their rooms and there's a tree on top of the armoire. If I could afford more I would...I really want another next year...a Texas themed tree...oh this coming year will be spent looking for some major deals on all things Texas to put on a tree for next Christmas. I have plans....BIG plans!

I have so many more decorations but since I'm not really a decorator I'll just say these are some of the things we love about our home at Christmas. I'll be sharing more soon to include our baking festivities set for Tuesday. I cannot wait for that!!

Hope your decorating and shopping is going well and I hope you are taking time too to enjoy the peace of the season!

The Boy Can Bake

Ever since he went to France this past spring, and tasted a freshly baked pain au chocolat, in English "{croissant} bread with chocolate", he has been wanting to make them.

This is not a quick or easy process. In fact, the level of difficulty on the recipe was...difficult. It takes an entire day to make these....or in our case the better parts of two days.

Sunday it began....the ingredients were assembled and the mixing began...

He made the dough, rolled the dough, layered butter in the dough and refrigerated the dough...many times...

Today after school he cut the dough into sections and filled them with chocolate and

as the French say "Voilà".... the most delicious pain au chocolat....

there were many buttery layers and golden outsides and honestly I would have paid good money at a bakery for these...and all on his first try!!!!

I know.... take a look....beautiful!!!

And know that every single one of them is now gone!!! So yummy!!

Zach is surely a talented kid and a wonderful baker!

Thanksgiving Trip

While my in laws were here for Thanksgiving we took a little family trip....

They had just spend two months in France and had only been home a few weeks before making the drive from Virginia to Texas, but since they were up for it, we proceeded. We all packed ourselves up and headed to.....

Stonehenge...

I know exciting right?

Oh and while we were out and about, we decided to stop by Easter Island too...

I know jet setters we are...

or not....this was actually a little place called Stonehenge II in Hunt, TX and it was only a short drive from our house. (You can read more about the local marvel by clicking on the link above). We were really impressed and amused by the sight. My in laws are world travellers and I'm sure they are checking this off of their travel must see list as I write.

It was a fun family adventure which ended in us lunching at Mamacitas in Kerrville, which makes any day a good day.....I ♥ Mamacitas green dip!!

Thoughts of Winter

So they said we were getting snow here in our little part of Texas last Friday. The excitement was in the air!

I should have known.....the forecast started off as 1-3 inches...then it got downgraded to "up to an inch"....then it was well how about "1-3 flakes of snow" and then that's about exactly how much snow I actually I saw...1-3 flakes!

I was bummed because I was so hoping my kids would get a snow day off from school (we never had one of those in Alaska). I had plans to finish decorating the house, make hot cocoa, take our family Christmas card picture and then veg out and watch movies with the family.

Until it really does snow, I'll keep these pictures and memories of winter...real winter....

with snow....

LOTS of snow!!!

Big Brothers

I have no idea why Brooke says she wants a sister.

Look at my three children being cooperative, on this day when I was trying to get a Christmas card photo of them....

Oh right....

This might be the reason why she asks for a sister....

Yeah...that's probably the reason.

If you give a mouse a cookie....

You've read those books right? Where one little thing leads to another and then there's a snowball effect and you are right back where you started? MMMhmmm...

Well, we had left our ladder in Virginia with intentions of buying a new ladder right away. Many months and many projects passed and we've seen super safe stuff like this happening...

so since we are about 1/2 a second away from painting our super high walls in our entry we decide to look for ladders. The first time we go to look for ladders we end up finding no good ladders but we do find some new lighting fixtures.... which are definitely gonna require a ladder (or some scaffolding).

So if you buy a new lighting fixture...you may need to look for a ladder...

while you are out, you may need to stop by Costco for some croissants....

while you are at Costco your husband may see this.....

and fall in love...yes a grown man in love with a 26 foot ladder...you may have to order it and wait to have it delivered (cause evidently they are out of stock, since every other man who saw it also fell in love with it)...which means you may be forced to check the FedEx tracking on it EVERY DAY so you can update your husband on where "his ladder" is....

When he gets his ladder delivered he may be so excited to use it that he doesn't even fully read the instructions before he does this....

Which means you may be on your way to Walmart to get light bulbs...and Depends (because seeing your husband at the top of a 26 foot ladder tends to make you want to tinkle on yourself)

Yeah...scary....and crazy....and great new lighting in my entryway....and still no paint!

PS Please don't ask me to explain the beard....it's not my choice, I'm not a facial hair person...at all....at all...at all....the "on leave beard" can only be outdone by this, "the retirement beard"...please let my husband come to his senses and shave his face soon....PLEASE, I want my handsome clean shaven husband back...I know he's in there somewhere!!!

Before and After

If you've ever come to my house, anytime in the last 10 years or so, you will likely have seen this piece of furniture. It never goes unnoticed, and I usually get asked at least once if I would be willing to give it or sell it to my visitors. It is big and heavy and it is put together with wooden pegs...no screws... and clearly, it is beautiful. I have said "no" to every person who has ever asked for it. It was a gift from my mother in law. She had it shipped from France. It was the armoire that was in her bedroom as a child and she painted it herself when she was 11 years old.

About 7 or 8 years ago I had the fantastic idea of stripping it. We got the top piece stripped and after a lot of hard work we decided we liked it just fine painted white with bright blue and neon yellow accents. We have moved it from house to house to house...small houses, big houses, teeny tiny houses....we have always found a place for it. When we bought our house in Virginia (aka the promised land) our upstairs was big and open and we painted the walls a perfect yellow and I bought furniture to match this armoire...it was cute and cottagey. I loved it with all the blue and yellow...very Monet at Giverny...well kinda. Anyway, when we moved to Texas and we bought our house here we found the perfect spot for it in the entry of the house.

I mentioned painting it...people said "sure"...I forgot about it or got busy...so it remained the same. Then I talked to the paint guy who got me all nervous about the possibility of it being lead paint and encouraged me to have it professionally stripped or paint over it (since dust can pick up the lead from the old paint). Then three weeks ago, in the midst of a decorating bug, I mentioned again about painting it. I took Miles with me to pick out paint. I came home, mentioned I got the paint and still nobody cared. About 3 hours later I decided to do a test patch. I had finished about 1/3 of one of the doors and all of a sudden the whole world stopped. My husband and kids, one by one, stopped by to really give it to me. They could not believe I was painting THE armoire. I think this proves my theory about selective listening in my household....if I mention ice cream everyone hears me....if I mention painting...crickets. I had 4 family members very upset with me and dare I say freaking out over this project.

Now here's the thing. My in laws were due to come the following weekend for a Thanksgiving visit and now I was completely freaked out about what my mother-in-law's reaction would be. It's too big to hide and we've already established I'm too lazy for stripping this monster, so I made some final touch ups and gave strict orders to everyone that no one point out the armoire to their grandmother and to just let her see it for herself.

They arrived the night before my birthday...I felt confident that because it was the night before my birthday that she would do me no physical harm. They arrived in the driveway around 4:30pm and the daylight was still bright. We said our hellos...I shot looks at my children and husband reminding them to act casual as we entered the house. They hung back and she followed me through the front door. She took two steps in and then I heard the gasp....silence...."Mais, this looks fantastic!!!" she says...."Really?" I say "Yes", she says...."the color is wonderful!!!" And I do believe her...she took pictures of it...she Skyped with her sister in France and showed it to her and honestly I loved it even more every time I look at it. And once the wall behind it is painted it will look even better!

I realize now that I think my family does love the new painted version, but because we have moved so much and because we are constantly changing, having this armoire stay the same through every move was important to each of us. The armoire, with its blue and yellow paint, was a constant and no matter what the floor plan or the address...this armoire was a part of our home that never changed. I hope our family realizes that the vagabond days are over and that this armoire whether cream, or blue and yellow, is a part of our family forever.

And no...you can't have it, so don't bother asking!