December projects

Although my blog indicates we've been quiet and had nothing to do; the reality is quite opposite. It is life with chaos, as usual. We've been trying to occupy our time so we don't get enough idle time to sit and stew about the fact that we're ending 2009 without our sweet Claire. No twiddling thumbs here; we put them to use.

First we made placemats for the table. We spread out the paper and art supplies and designed our own placemats to use during the Christmas season. We liked them so much I think we'll keep the project for each holiday.


Then we made several batches of sugar cookies. We sent some off for dear friends and kept others around to fill our bellies. The buttons on my jeans say we kept around a few too many.


Then, the weekend before Christmas we made a gingerbread house, well, I should say we followed directions from a well designed, $9 gingerbread kit. It was blissful. All the gingerbread was baked for me, frosting was mixed and candy was separated into neat little baggies. What a bargain for an mom who loves organization!


Hopefully there will be more pictures to come of Christmas but honestly, I promise nothing. I'm hoping to fill my next few days and weeks with packing lots of clothes and goodies while purchasing airplane tickets and making hotel reservations in China. Yes, 2010 is going to start off BIG; like 44 lbs of sweet little girl with beautiful black hair and gorgeous brown eyes, BIG. You can follow along here.

it's beginning

The house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Do you know what happens around age 6-8? Children learn how to keep secrets and they cannot be coaxed, bribed or even tricked into spilling the beans. J took Emily and Matthew shopping for my present last week and I have not been able to get a hint out of either of them- not even a slip up of the store it was purchased at! These kids are good!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Chinese Christmas

Matthew, Emily and I took a trip to Target a couple of nights ago and among our purchases was a new star for the top of the Christmas tree. The kids have heard us complaining about all the problems with China's imports lately and our sarcastic comments that they secretly want to poison us. As we are heading for the checkout, Emmy reads the box of the star loudly "Made in CHINA?! Mom, we can't get this, it is made in China! But Mom, you said we aren't buying anything from China anymore." I then tried to explain to her that I made the comment in jest and completely banning Chinese products would be nearly impossible and also asked her to check the other items in the cart, knowing she would find more items made in China. "Made in Tee aa wan." "Oh- Taiwan, OK" (Command Strips) "And, Made in Cam bo lu di ooh whatever" "Cambodia" (jammies for a gift) Well shoot, my theory failed. Then Emily said "Well, China just makes the Christmas stuff." I think I will have to agree with her and then I start thinking about it more.

China must love Christmas. Their factories run full speed every year to stock our shelves with toys and decorations so we can flock to the stores and fill up our baskets with the light strands that don't work from last year. For real, can they make lights that last for more than one year? The most irritating thing is having half a strand of lights that work and the other half doesn't, you know what I'm talking about. How many years did you shove the non-working half in the back of the tree or inside a bush outside because you had already strung the first half before you plugged it in? Uh huh, I'm not alone. I'm done with that now; from now on any Made in China light strands that don't work the following year go in the trash....so I can go to the store and buy more Made in China lights.

Enjoy your China made Christmas and as Emily said loudly in Target the other night "Make sure little kids don't put China toys in their mouths!" Man, kids are great.

Disclaimer: I run on equal opportunity import/export ticket. This is not an attack on a particular country or their race, only an attack of poor workmanship.

Around town

Once again my children have stunned me with their pattern of growth over the summer. Earlier this spring I updated their cold weather clothes and purposely bought them just a smidge too big so I could get a 'two for one special' on the longevity scale. Unfortunate thing, Georgia seems to put HGH in the water supply and they all grew an inch or more since we moved here. Or, maybe I just figured out why the milk is so much expensive down here. Whatever the cause, we had crop pants and three-quarter length sleeve shirts going on in the boys' bedroom one morning before school and I knew I couldn't subject them to the "your mom didn't check your clothing size this morning, huh? Poor dear." looks at school. So I headed off the clothing store of choice for growing boys- Old Navy. Cheap clearance racks and they last just as long as the kids fit in them. Made in China works great for how quick these kids grow, just don't eat the buttons.
While there I hear a nice beat bopping along on the loud speaker and then I actually said out loud "NO, it can't be." In GA, early in November I hear "White Christmas." That is about 8 degrees of messed up.

Today we asked the kids if they would like to draw names and buy gifts for each other. We told them to try and keep it a surprise to make it more fun. The first round ended quickly when Emily decided abruptly that she did not want "That Person" and refused to participate. She broke down and everyone told the surprise of who they had drawn. I explained to the kids that it would be more fun if they kept the surprise but they had "Let the cat out of the bag" and Jacob piped up and responded with "Well, can we put the cats back in the bag?" We all had a good laugh and repeated the name drawing process another two times and I think they may have actually kept it to themselves this time.
We took them to every parents dream location, Toys R Us, to make a list of the things they would like their Secret Santa to consider. While driving I saw a sign at a car wash- "48 HR Rain Guarantee" Let me quickly explain to you the situation here in the area- we are in a severe drought. It has rained 1.9" in the last 42 days and the previous months before that were well below average as well. The lake has dropped 6 feet in elevation since we moved here 6 months ago, Atlanta and many other towns are facing a water shortage and the grass has shriveled up to reveal desert looking sand below. I chuckled when I saw their 48 hr. rain guarantee, it is like buying into a perfectly stable stock market!