Thomas and Santa. . .

Thomas is 4 1/2 going on 40. He has his own ideas about the way things are and he is so funny sometimes I have to walk out of the room to keep from laughing. Thomas has this deep voice that you do not expect to come out of a 4 yr. old. So the voice along with the things he says is sometimes to much.

Thomas was telling me the other day what Santa was going to bring him. He said, Santa is going to bring me a race track. Well we have about a dozen race tracks already. So I said, Santa may not bring you that race track since he knows you have so many. You know that Santa does not bring you things we don't have room for or things you don't need. Thomas replied with a confident yes he is going to bring it. I asked why he was so sure. He again replied with great confidence, I told him what I wanted and he always brings what I ask for. (Note to parents Santa does not always bring what he asked for) I could only reply with, Oh, ok.

The kids are getting ready for their Christmas program at Church. They have been practicing a lot. One day one of the leaders noticed that the kids were not really giving it their all. So, she told them that if they did not sing and practice the way they were supposed to that Santa would not come see them. Thomas, of course, asked how she knew that. She told him she knew Santa and would call him. She told me all of this when I picked them up. She said that Thomas sang every note and every song with great gusto. I laughed. I always tell my kids to behave and be good to each other because Santa is watching. I also remind them of the story of my brother.

When I was about 7 or 8 and my brother was 18 he started telling me I had not been good and Santa was not going to come and see me. I was scared to death. He said Santa was going to put switches in my stocking. He started this in November, I remember it well. My mother kept telling me Santa was going to come see me and that I had been good. On Christmas morning I was the first one up. It was 5am. I was so excited to see what Santa had brought for me. I ran downstairs and burst into the den. He had come to see me and I had wonderful toys and dolls to play with. Of course I don't remember exactly what I got but, I remember distinctly what my brother got. He got SWITCHES, yes, switches in his stocking. I got the biggest smile on my face and I ran through the house announcing to everyone that Greg got switches in his stocking. I was so happy. Santa did bring him presents but not the good stuff that you get in your stocking. The candy and little items that he did not wrap. I have yet to let my brother forget that one. To this day it is Thanksgiving conversation.

I still believe in Santa. Not the silly man in the red suit but the spirit of the Holiday. The giving to others and helping someone in need. I hope my children always believe too.

Cooking with Wine. . .

I think of myself as a pretty good cook. I enjoy cooking and sell Pampered Chef. The cooking store that comes to your door. I am always trying new recipes and such. I like doing different things to spice up the everyday meals. Marks' sister fixed a roast with merlot the other week and I thought it was really good. It had a good flavor. I like fixing things that are simple. Robbie told me how she fixed it and I said I can do that. Well she gave me just a rough description of what she did and of course I did not write it down. It was simple and I could remember that.

Well, I bought my roast and I even bought a little better grade of meat than she had used. She said she covered the roast in wine and cooked it in the crock pot all day. So, I poured a bottle and a 1/2 over the roast along with a pack of Lipton onion soup mix as she said. I had fixed this so Mark would have something to feed the kids while I was at a Cooking Show. When I got home that evening I asked Mark how the roast was. I figured he would just rave about it. He said, "It burned my throat on the way down." I gasped and could not figure out what he was talking about. I tried it and sure enough it burned like liquor all the way down. Mark said he felt guilty about feeding it to the kids so, he fixed them something else. (He really is a good guy)
Over the next few days I ate the roast for lunch or a snack and there were still pieces that would burn when I ate it. You would think that cooking it, the alcohol would cook off.

At Thanksgiving I told Robbie about my roast. She laughed and said she only used a 1/2 cup of wine in her roast. Well, that explains everything. I will never live this one down.

For Thanksgiving I fixed a White Wine Cake and Beer bread to take to my Moms' house. (No I am not an alcoholic I just seem to be in this mode of cooking lately.) The White Wine Cake is Robbies' recipe. This time she wrote it down for me. This is the best cake. Well I worked on Wednesday to fix the cake so we could take it to Moms' on Thursday. It did not come out of my stone very well which is unusual. I decided since it was only going to Moms' it would be ok if it did not look the best. On Thursday morning Jack got up and came groggily down the stairs and looked into my cake keeper and said, "Made a pound cake?" I said yes. He replied, "Didn't turn out to good did it?" Well, Mark and I just busted out laughing. Out of the mouths of babes or 8 year olds. It did not look very good but it was the best cake I have ever made. And I followed the recipe this time.

Traditions cont. . .

OK, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I love our traditions with our Church. I love the Christmas Eve Lovefeast. In fact, Mark and I used to be dieners (those are the folks that serve the lovefeast). That is a tremendous honor to be chosen for that role in the Church. I was very honored that we were asked. We served for three years and then stepped down. The last year we served Jack was a baby. It was very difficult to do that 10:00 pm Lovefeast with an infant. Our Church is one of the only ones to offer three services on Christmas Eve.

A little history here: I am Moravian and if you do not know the Moravians they love to eat and sing. Any chance to have food and we are there and ready. The Lovefeast is a service where we serve coffee and a Moravian bun and we eat while listening to classic Moravian music. We have several through out the year. They are celebrations of milestones within our Church and the Moravian history. My favorite is the Christmas Eve Lovefeast. We not only serve the traditional coffee and buns but we also have a candle service. The dieners, at the end of the service, pass out hand poured bees wax candles to each person in the congregation. It is one of the most moving services. If you ever have the opportunity to attend I would highly recommend it. Our Church still pours its' own candles. At the end of the service you may take the candle with you to help remind you of what a special event you were a part.

I guess we do have our own traditions and I am getting to caught up in the pesky details. Christmas is my most favorite Holiday and I should just enjoy my children and the Season.

Sorry to blather on this time.

Traditions. . . .

Since I have not posted in a few days I have two together. My husband and I got into an argument about Christmas. Every year we do or follow his families traditions. We go to Christmas Eve Love feast at church and then to his Mothers' for a get together till 10pm or after. Then on Christmas morning the kids open their gifts from us and see what Santa has brought them. Then we rush to his Mothers' again, and open presents with his family. We then rush two hours to see my family.

As a child we always opened presents on Christmas Eve from each other because Santa came on Christmas day. Later on Christmas day we drove to my Grandmothers to visit. Now my question to my husband was; Why cannot we open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve and let the kids play with what we got for them and then that way they could have more time playing with what Santa brings the next day. Before we race around the world to visit everyone. Of course I got a huge NO!!!! His reason was, it would be anti-climactic. Now I ask you how would opening a few things Christmas Eve and then getting big stuff from Santa be Anti-climactic? We have done everything with his family since we have been together and I never minded except now with the kids it is harder. I don't mind going to his mothers' on Christmas eve I don't mind going on Christmas morning. I just feel like we should have some tradition of our own.

I would love to know your response to this question. Please email me or post a comment. I would love to know what your traditions are too.

I want a baby. . . You what?

The other day I was sitting and reading a book, when Thomas came a sat with me. He was making a strange noise. I asked him, "What are you doing?". He replied, "I am holding my breath for a baby." I could not resist. Me: "You're doing what?" Thomas: "I am holding my breath to get a baby." Me: "Oh ok". Thomas: "Mommy if you hold your breath you will get a baby in your tummy." Thomas is only 4 so I am not ready for that baby talk just yet. I have not had that talk with my 8 yr. old either. I simply told Thomas that is not exactly how it works. He obviously does not believe me because I still catch him holding his breath around the house every now and then.

I am assuming that he has asked my husband for a baby brother or sister. I am sure my husbands response would be, "Hold your breath". Poor Thomas, he does not realize his daddy was using sarcasm. Most of Thomas' friends have younger siblings and I guess he thinks this is neat to have someone younger to boss around. I am sure he is tired of being bossed around by his older brother. He has not learned the wonders of being the baby. I am the baby of three. My husband is also the baby of three. I know as far as birth order goes we are tempting fate and should not be married. If you do not follow birth order things. There is a birth order book that says two babies of the family should not marry and two only children should not marry. Well that is another post.
I think I did get away with more than my brother or sister. I know my husband did. He was the golden child. He could do no wrong.

The Best Laid Plans. . .

Well, we made the journey to Dillsboro, NC (Gods' country). The leaves had all turned and were so pretty it looked like the Mountains were on fire.



I am an eternal idealist. This means all of my plans have only one way to go and that is every way but mine.



With that said I can tell you about our trip. We had reservations at a B & B in Dillsboro. Mark of course does not like the idea of staying in someone else home. Especially when I told him that our bathroom would be down the hall from our room and we might be sharing it with someone else. When we arrived the B & B was not opened yet. So we walked around to take in some of the local color. Not a lot going on for a Sunday afternoon. We walked over to the Depot to let Thomas see the tracks and the gift shop. The Depot sits on the edge of the river and Thomas just loved throwing rocks in the water. We stoped in the gift shop and I thought while we were here I would get our tickets so we would not be rushed that evening. When I asked the clerk about our tickets she replied, "Oh, your train is going out at Bryson City. It is about 20 minutes up the road." My heart fell. My ideal plans. We had not checked in yet and had not changed clothes to ride the train. We had to check in at the Depot an hour before our train ride. Needless to say there goes my ideal plans to waste. We did get checked in the B & B, got our clothes changed, and began our ride to Bryson City to meet our train. If you have read the Polar Express you know that everyone wore their Pj's. My ideal trip would not be complete unless we were wearing our Pj's. We got there in plenty of time and you know what evidently nobody had read the book because I was the only adult in Pj's. I told my kids that the other mothers' did not know how to have fun. HA HA!! We boarded our train and it was really cool. I had never been on a train before. We were in a nice dining car type coach. There were some coaches that were all open. Yikes. (it was cold last night)



We rode to the North Pole to pick up Santa. While on our way we got to drink Hot Chocolate and sing Christmas Songs. They also read the story of the Polar Express and the attendants walked through the car showing the pictures in the book. Once we reached the North Pole Santa came on the train and spoke to each child and gave them one of his bells off of his sleigh.

The kids each got to speak to Santa and have their picture made with him if they wanted to.

The whole trip was about an hour. It was worth all the trouble and the goof on my part with our accommodations. We did have a great time. We got up this morning and had a wonderful breakfast at the B & B and started our journey home. Mark asked the boys what their favorite part was about our trip. Thomas replied, "throwing the rocks in the water oh, and the train ride and Santa." Jack said he loved the train and the hot chocolate. My most ideal trip for the kids and Thomas liked throwing rocks in the water. I could have just taken him to High Rock.

I will post some pictures later of our trip.

Sick on a Friday. . . .

Isn't it funny how your kids only get sick on Fridays or over a long weekend or worse yet 2 days before a big trip just for them. Yes, the dance has begun. We have a very special trip to Dillsboro planned for the kids to ride the Polar Express. Now this has been planned for months. I bought them special footed Pj's' for the trip because you are supposed to wear your Pj's' on the train.
Thomas was up alllllll night last night with a cough and stuffy nose and now this morning a 102 temp. So I will wait until the Doctor is open and call and beg to be seen. My Doctor is pretty good about seeing us since we only call on Fridays and when they are so busy they don't know what to do. Just kidding. They really are good about working us in. Goodness knows I do not want to be near a Prime Care again. (That is another post for another time)

Thomas is my 4 going on 40 year old. Those of you that know Thomas, know that the least little thing that is out of place can send him into a frenzy. He used to pitch a fit when his shoe would get untied at school so I had to send him in shoes with velcro. So you can imagine his reaction when his nose is so stuffy he cannot breath. It all started about 11:00 last night with the coughing and hacking. This also started the parade up and down the steps for the next few hours. He would come down to get help with his nose; crying and fussing and therefore making his nose worse. So I tried some cough syrup to help with the hacking. I laid back down to try to get some sleep. It's amazing how kids can sleep through almost anything even their own hacking. He would start coughing and I would drag upstairs to check on him and of course he was asleep. So back down the stairs to try and go back to sleep. I think it all ended about 1 am.
I don't sleep anyway much anymore so this does not bother me. I am SUPER MOM!! HA! I am the walking dead today. So if you hear children running and screaming zombie, zombie that is probably me dragging through Wal-Mart.

Here is my history. . .

My husband and I have been married for 14 years. We have had our fights and made up and fought again and made up again. You know the drill. My husband does not believe in spending money on anything especially frivolities. Well, I am all about the frivolous. I love to be Pampered. . . When we first started dating in 1991 he told me he did not believe in Valentines Day. Of course I could not believe he said that to me. We had been dating 4 months when Valentines rolled around. Well, I just knew I was not going to get a thing. I told him I better at least get a card. I did not care if he made it himself with construction paper. I wanted a card.

We were supposed to go to dinner that night. We worked together, 3rd shift in a lab, so I had heard all week how he did not celebrate Valentines and such. I went to his apartment so we could go to dinner. When I arrived he was still getting ready so I waited in his living area. There was a balloon in there. I thought ok, this has all been a clever trick to throw me off. He said from the bedroom, "Thank you for the balloon. That was sweet of you to send that to me." I said, "Huh?" I told him I did not send him any balloons. He said read the card. The card turned out to be the first clue on a hunt for goodies. He had set up an elaborate scavenger hunt for my gifts. Each clue had a clever little poem that sent me to different areas of his apartment. The last clue was a long stemed red rose that said, "A single rose for the single special person in my life. I am lonely please unite me with my dozen cousins in the bedroom closet." Well I just about fell out. There in his closet was the most beautiful vase filled with red roses.

It was then that I knew this was the man for me. He was so sneaky in setting all this up. The other things I got that night were a bag of chocolate kisses in the bathroom and my card was in the microwave. He still surprises me today with little things.
For our 14th Wedding Anniversary he gave me a gold watch. I laughed and asked him if this meant I could retire now after my 14 yrs of service. Needless to say that did not go over very well. He laughed and said nope not yet. I still don't get good benefits. You would think after 14 years I could at least take a sick day.
You know with kids there is no time for Mom to be sick.