The Christmas Recap

Well, it came - Christmas - despite not being ready! But it was a very good time.

Monday and Tuesday were really busy trying to do the last minute stuff. Monday was gymnastics, so I wasn't able to get much done. Hannah is being "promoted" to the next level class for gymnastics. We're off for the next week, but start again on January 5th. I'm not sure if she'll like moving on or not since she really liked her teacher. I'm sure it'll be fine once she starts going again. Tuesday, we were just so busy after work, cleaning, wrapping and making Jesus' birthday cake. Hannah liked helping with that!




I had to work Christmas Eve, but was able to leave by 3:00 so I could take Hannah to church. She went up for children's sharing time and once again loudly blurted out that it was Jesus' Birthday when asked what story was the most important Christmas story!


After church, we went over to Dawn's house. It was fun - Hannah loved wearing her dress all evening.




Then Santa came! She was so excited and not scared one bit! She really got into it this year. She had a great time opening presents and got all sorts of great gifts - dress up clothes and shoes, princess memory game and candyland, princess jammies, a kids laptop computer. She had a great time!





Here she is in her Cinderella dress up clothes




And playing memory with Krista.


Then we came home (at 11:00 and she was still going strong!) and put cookies out for Santa. She picked the cookies and wrote him a note:







Her note says "to Santa", but the letters are a little jumbled up. I told her the letters to write, but she sort of put them in a funny order since she was running out of room on the paper!

Then he stopped by late that night while she was sleeping and put (way too many) gifts under the tree!!




She woke up around 8:30 and I asked if she thought Santa had come, and she laughed and said, "No, he'll come over later". I asked her if we should go check the cookies and when we did, she was surprised that he had eaten them!!! So she looked downstairs and saw that there were presents and she was so excited!


My Dad and Julia came over just before 9 and Hannah was so excited that they had brought her a bike! It was a true gift from "Grandpa Tractor" - a yellow John Deere bike!






We all had breakfast and Hannah didn't eat much because she wanted to ride her bike. She rode it around the living room and kitchen, but had a hard time getting going on the carpet. Then we headed downstairs and opened gifts. We realized afterward, there were too many gifts! Tony actually felt guilty that she had so much, but then again, I did wrap things like puzzles and books separately and I also wrapped some new 3T clothes that I had to get her which normally wouldn't be presents. None-the-less, she got a ton of stuff, but had a great time opening it all!


Here's everyone with their loot - except for me of course since I'm always the one with the camera!








So Hannah got a sleeping bag, books, puzzles, new coloring books/crayons/markers, Barbie Diamond Princess Dolls, a trunk of dress up clothes (from Aunt Susan), Cinderella & Barbie Princess DVD, Disney princess dress up dolls, playdough, a teaset and the Barbie Diamond Castle playset!










I also gave her the quilt I made for her. I'm so glad she likes it!!!





Julia got a digital camera, Dad got some new shoes (let me tell you how stressful it is to buy shoes for my dad!!!) and Tony got some CD's, Kiss stuff and I framed his signed OSU Jersey that he got a couple years ago. I got perfume, a new planner, toaster and coffee pot. It was a really blessed Christmas - no evidence of a bad economy at our house!!!









Then we got some of Hannah's things put together and played a while and Hannah rode her bike outside for a little bit. Suprisingly, she did really well!!






She took a nap and we got dinner ready and ate when she woke up. After Dad and Julia left, we went over to Tony's friend Jimmy's house for a little while. It was another late night.


Friday, we hung around at home all morning and played. By 1:00, I had to clean up the mess! Tony was proud of me that it took until 1 before I started cleaning! Then we just hung out at home for a while and then headed up to the mall to go see "Tales of Desperaux". It was cute and Hannah was really sad when the movie was over - it was a combination of being really tired and cranky and hungry! We just had dinner at Johnny Rockets in the mall and then we went to Target to get a few things.


Saturday, we just hung around for a while and I did a little more stuff around the house. It was 65 degrees today - weird for Cleveland - so Tony took Hannah out to ride her bike for a while. She fell off and into mud, which was the worst part!!! I ran to the grocery store and then came home and started getting things ready for my Mom, Randy and Grandma to come over. They came around 5 and we ate dinner and then opened gifts.


Again, more than was necessary, but nice gifts! Hannah was so excited to open gifts again! They got her Barbie Diamond Castle horse & carriage, the DVD, and dress up clothes and another Barbie DVD (Christmas Carol) and she even got her own set of REAL golf clubs - another appropriate gift from her "Grandpa Golf"!! She also got a princess dress and umbrella from Aunt Nadine & Uncle Dick which she loved! Great Grandma got her a really neat pop up book.









My Grandma liked the quilt I made her and mom & Randy both got gift certificates they can definitely use. They stayed for a little while, but then had to go before it got too late.









Hannah has had a great weekend and it was such a joy to watch her have so much fun! Tony and I are so blessed and grateful for all that we have. I know sometimes it's tough to remember to be grateful, but times like this easily put things back in check and I can say that I'm so fortunate and am so very grateful for all that I have - a great family! Thank you so, so much to all of you! I love you all very much!

PS - I added a slideshow to the top of the blog with all Christmas photos! Feel free to look through them. Double click on the picture to open them up in another window. Susan, this is sort of for you since you weren't here!

10 days and counting....

I can't believe how close we are to Christmas already! Where DOES this time go??? If you ask my husband, we're stuck in Groundhog Day with our daily routine, so why then does the calendar keep flying by?

Anyway, I'm not really any more ready than I was a week ago. Well, I guess maybe I am, but I don't feel 10 days away ready.

Last week, I was in Columbus Monday through Wednesday, so that made the week fly by. I did a little shopping while I was there so I was able to check 2 more things off my list. I got some not so good news about work while I was there. My company has made the decision to not give annual merit increases to all Salaried employees....really stinks for me because I was sort of counting on it! I spoke to my boss when I got back and asked if there any indication that I should be worried about my position and job security and he put those fears at ease the best he could. I guess nothing is guaranteed, but he said I shouldn't worry and that I could still expect a market adjustment to be processed this year as he had promised me....I guess I'll believe it when it happens. I am thankful to still have a job in this totally crappy economy, but I sort of feel like my compay jumped on the bandwagon because they could - and I guess good for them, but ouch, this one hurt!

So anyway, Thursday when I got back, I didn't accomplish much at work. It was our holiday party that day, so my morning was shot doing all sorts of stuff and then the afternoon we closed the office to have the party. I did get my Christmas cards done Thursday night, so that's one more "check" off the list. Friday I tried like heck to do some catching up, but I wasn't that successful. I'm so behind - maybe I'll catch up this week???

Saturday, I worked on a sewing project for Christmas and did some laundry. I got Hannah down for a nap and took a shower. I woke her up and got her ready to go to her first movie at the theater! It was our neighbor girl, McKenna's, 4th birthday party and they invited Hannah to go see "Bolt" at the movies. She was so excited and I was SO aggravated that I drove around the mall parking lot for over 20 minutes looking for a parking space. I wasn't even trying to find one close - just the first one I could pull into. We finally found a spot at the end of an aisle near Dillards, so that meant we had to run through the parking lot and through the mall to get to the middle where the Cinemark is at. We were late, but only about 5 minutes late. Hannah freaked out as we were walking into the theater because it was dark and loud. I had to calm her down and told her to stop crying. She did and we found our seats and she got settled and was very good through the whole movie. She had to go potty about half way through, which I was fully expecting, but she sat still and enjoyed the movie. Here are the girls after the movie was over:

Then we headed back to Laura & Aaron's for pizza and cake & ice cream. Here are the kids enjoying the party:

I felt a bit of a cold coming on, so I headed home around 8:30 and called it a night fairly early.

We got up Sunday and I got a grocery list together and headed out shopping by 11:30. I was back by around 1:00 and started my baking...trying to check off another holiday "to-do". I'm only making 6 kinds of cookies this year and of course this turned into a full-out "event" for the entire rest of my day. Hannah came to help when she got up for her nap. She was so excited to be making cookies for Santa!

I baked until my back hurt too much to stand any longer, which was by about 8:00. I got the kitchen cleaned up and was actually VERY happy that nothing good was on TV because I was in bed by 9:30!!!

Today was work, a fairly typical Monday. After work, I took Hannah to gymnastics. She absolutely loves going and does so well! She had a case of the bad attitudes today at daycare, so I should have punished her by not letting her go to gymnastics, but I can't do it! Instead, we decided to make her "lovey" the punishment. Our new deal is that when she has a bad report for the day there, she will come home and have to throw a lovey in the garbage. I know that will be a VERY bad day here, but maybe she'll remember to be good! It's sort of hard to punish her because she is generally such a good girl, but when she's nasty, she really can be a BRAT! She now is rolling her eyes (wonder where that comes from?) and sassing back at daycare, which just isn't allowed, so now she's going to have to have a punishment for behaving that way. Maybe it will only take one lovey in the garbage for it to sink in!!! We'll see - I'll be sure to share how that goes over!

So all that's left on the holiday to-do list is about 3 or 4 more gifts to buy, mail my sister's stuff so it might get there in time (note to self to HURRY up with this one!), finish baking, finish wrapping and finish my sewing project. Then I'll have to get groceries for Christmas day stuff......I'm sure I'm going to run out of time!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Wow, there went the first week of December! Only 3 weeks until Christmas and I'm getting ready! This past week was just the normal busy, busy. Nothing good, nothing bad.

We found out last Monday at Hannah's gymnastics class that her teacher is going to move her up to the next level class starting in January. It's pretty much the same thing as she's doing now, just no parent involvement (which we've started backing off a lot anyway) and it's a 15 minute longer class. That's exciting except that Hannah REALLY likes her teacher, so hopefully moving on won't be traumatic for her! We're not sure yet which of her other classmates are moving on with her, so we'll see how that goes.

That's about all the noteworthy material from the week that I can remember at this point. Friday night, we went to the mall after work. Boy, those teenagers are taking over!!! Oh, and we're really bummed that the mall doesn't offer free strollers anymore...good thing we had ours in the car! I did a little more shopping and then called it a night. Saturday, I cleaned the house and then went out to do more shopping. I'm almost done with my buying, only a few more things left to do. We had the girl from down the street come over to babysit and Tony and I went to play cards. Neither one of us won any money, which was a bummer because it was a big dollar tournament for our league. Oh, well, it was a nice time out as usual anyway. I wrapped gifts until about 1:30 in the morning. I wanted to get an inventory of everything I actually had as well as get it wrapped, so that task is almost ready to be checked off the list!

Sunday morning, Hannah and I made breakfast and then I had her write out the birthday card for Julia (Grandma Doggies) Happy Birthday by the way! OK, I feel sort of like I'm bragging about my almost 3 year old, but mom's are allowed to do that, right? Especially on my own blog!!! Anyway, I'm so amazed that for a couple of months now she's been able to spell her name. She's been writing it for about that long too and does it without any help. I think that's so cool considering she doesn't even turn 3 for almost 2 more months (January 30). I finally got it on video (please excuse the talking as Roman was banging on the door to come in and Hannah's hair kept getting in the way of the camera!)

Then she amazed me once more. I put the card in the envelope and asked her to write Grandma's name on it. I told her to write a "G" and she did. I told her to write an "r", but she needed help with that. Then I said "A" and she did. "N" and she did, "D" and she did, "M" and she did and one more "A" and she did....here's the envelope and I swear all I helped her with was the R

Here's her signed card too...

Then we were off to see Santa and meet up with Grandpa Tractor and Grandma Doggies for her birthday. The visit with Santa went remarkably well!!! She wasn't even shy. She confirmed the Barbie Diamond Castle was still on it's way and she posed very nicely for pictures. Here's the one I got, she's not looking at the camera, but she did great!

Found the one from last year too....what a difference a year makes!

This is a picture of Hannah with one of the Reindeer at the garden center. Thought it was cute!

We had lunch with my Dad and Julia and then they came over for cake and ice cream and a visit.

I ran to the grocery store after they left to pick up a few things and then we decorated the tree. Hannah had a great time helping and decorating the tree....it's a different look to the tree when a 3 foot person puts the ornaments on (it's a little bottom heavy!)

I leave for Columbus for a few days tomorrow, so Tony and Hannah get to have a party without me! All this is fine and well other than Hannah will have ragga-muffin hair each morning!!

Thanksgiving Week

So it came and went already!!! We had a good week and weekend, but it always goes so fast.

Anyway, we went to my mom's for dinner on Thursday. It was nice, the food was very good and I'd love to share a picture, but my camera died once and for all! It's been on it's last leg for a while now, and I wasn't able to even take a picture at the dinner table - I did try. Oh, well. Hannah tried some turkey, will not go near mashed potatoes and at a like a bird overall. We went over to Dawn's after that and stayed there until almost 10! Hannah did great, she has a blast going over there and playing with everyone and the dogs!

Friday, I had to wait for my washing machine repair guy to come. He fixed the machine without having to replace any parts (thank goodness!) and I got away with a $127 bill....I guess that's better than buying a new machine, but still really sucks since it is only 2 years old! Oh, well!

We went out shopping after that. I had to get a new camera and couldn't wait until Christmas, so we went to Best Buy and I took three years to decide on one. I bought it and then we headed to Target. They were advertising the (almost) same camera for $70 less than what I just paid at Best Buy for it, but of course, they were out. We headed out toward Great Northern and I checked their Target - out, but the lady told me they get trucks overnight and maybe they'd have some Saturday morning. We went to the mall and then home. Nothing too exciting and we didn't really buy anything.

I woke up at 7 on Saturday morning to be the first one at Target to get the camera. I was the second one to walk in the store, but unfortunately, my Target didn't get any on their over night truck....that was really crappy! So I drove to Steelyard Commons and I GOT ONE!!!! Had pretty much no clue where I was going, but I was on a mission and I got one! I compared the specs to the one I got at Best Buy and they're the exact same. I love my new camera!!!!

So Tony decided to put up the lights on the house since I mentioned that it was going to be a half way decent day out. I think that ended up being a mistake because it ruined his day as it does every year! Oh, well....they're up and Hannah is so very happy, so it's worth it. It looked very nice last night. Hannah loved playing in the snow while we were outside. I was actually surprised she liked it that much. She was building snow castles!

And here's the house in lights...

After that, Hannah and I headed out to go return all sorts of stuff I had. We went to 6 stores and to Cici's for dinner and she was so good for me. It's sort of a pain taking her in and out of the car, but for some reason, it was no big deal last night...we were just buddies together! She was silly when she got her jammies on and put her pants on her head....what a card!

This morning, we made banana pancakes and then went to church. She wore her dress, which really made her happy and then during children's sharing time, she made me so proud! There were only 3 kids up there today and I was worried that she wouldn't say anything because she'd be too shy. Well, Pastor Kathy showed an advent calendar and asked if anyone knew what all the planning was for and Hannah yelled "For Jesus"! She was right! And I was so proud of her!!! It was really cool! She was so good in church and everyone always makes comments to me afterwards about how good she is and what a delight she is!! (Of course, I knew that!!)

So here she is today: she is now 2 months away from turning 3! I can't believe it! She's so excited about Christmas and loves the snow. She talks a storm and is just the sweetest thing I know!