Bye Bye 2013

Our Elf on the Shelf shows up on December 1st.  I used to kind-of like Kringle,  although I will admit, his face gives me the creeps.  Kringle used to just sit around and occasionally move from one high perch to another to keep him safe from tiny curious hands.  But with the invention of Pinterest, he has become somewhat of a pest.  Last year especially.  I don't know if he had more time on his hands because he was geographically closer to the North Pole and therefore his travel time was considerably less or what, but I was extremely glad to note his crazy antics this year were not as extreme, thus he spent more time at eye level where his creepiest factor is the highest, undisturbed.  At least we had some "down" days. 

Since we were going to be traveling this Christmas I wanted to get the tree up early.  I mean it is a lot of work to get all that stuff up and we were going to be gone for at least a week during the holiday.  So earlier is always better.  We found a nice cheap tree at Lowe's and proceeded to get with the program.  As we were straightening it in the stand we heard a CCCRRRAACCCKKK! That can not be good.  

It wasn't.  Look at that crack!  But by this time we were committed.  Should we take it back?  Will this affect the tree's ability to soak up water?  Will it fall over? In the end, we decided to roll the dice.  I mean, the tree is always on borrowed time right?  Proceed to decorating!  
 

Oscar loves this time of year when his humans bring a tree inside for his lounging pleasure.

Some causalities. Sigh. Oh no! Not the pickle!!

The very next week was FIELD DAY Week.  Field Day in December?  Ah yeah.  I can't imagine trying to do this in the spring when it is over 90 degrees and HUMID.  Apparently in years past (always in years past), it has been chilly for Field Day.  Not so this year - 85!  The action started at 9 am and went until 1pm with a lunch break in between.  

Anyway, Kindergarten was on Monday. Ben was so super excited to participate.  His favorite was the "Tug of World" as he called it.  His class won, but came in second overall.  

Tuesday was 2nd Grade Field Day.  Same weather, slightly different events.  Same outcome. 

Wednesday, same thing.  Have you seen the movie "Groundhog's Day"?  That was me for three days straight.  UGH!  3rd grade had some harder events like the 3 legged race and some water balloon relays, but essentially it was the same day all over again.  

  
Unfortunately, not the same result.  Her class came in Fourth!  Oh well.  Smiles all the way around and at least they got a pretty ribbon. 

I had been not so secretly coveting the reindeer antler and Rudolph nose you see on cars for quite a while.  Looked everywhere for them.  Thought I had gotten pretty close to finding them in the past only to be stymied when they had sold out before I could get to the store.  FINALLY this year I got them!!  Jim was less then pleased.  He made me promise we would take them down before we headed out on our trip.  They are NOT approved for highway driving.  Really and truly they are barely approved for in-town driving.  Either that or I drive WAY too fast.  You can hear them beating on the car as we are driving down the road.  Hee Hee, don't care!!

Next up in this jam-packed month is Lucy's Winter Choral Extravaganza.  I am not really sure what the Chorus Director is calling it, but we have been preparing for it since OCTOBER!!  The last couple of weeks Lucy has been going to school at 7:30 four times a week to practice.  She said she did NOT want to do Chorus in the spring.  All these early mornings are killing her she says.  Like it is picnic for anyone.  
Well the actual event is fabulous!  Lucy is in the front row so we can actually see her!  We of course sat on the wrong side of the room, but it was still a good seat for seeing her and hearing her, just not the greatest for photos or video.  Oh well, can't win them all.   

With all the hot weather (it is STILL 80+ here), I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit.  We got our tree up, we have no fireplace so I had to get creative about the stockings (hung them on the staircase) AND we aren't even going to be here Christmas morning.  So again, not really feeling it people.  Apparently Oscar shares my opinion.
 

I felt like I had to get our Christmas cards out super early this year, since we moved.  I usually like to do a New Years Card.  Mainly because I can't seem to get my act together enough to do it before Christmas.  Also, it gives me time to make sure I send a card to everyone that sends me a card.  I got them in the mail by the 10th, but I wish I had waited so I could have used some of these pictures.  Oh well.  Hopefully they will make the yearly calendar.
 

We got invited to a function at Dave and Buster's the weekend before Christmas.  Included were cards preloaded with an insane amount of free games.  This is a recipe for disaster.  Dave and Buster's is like Vegas for the under 12.  You could see their eyes glaze over and they took off like a shot to the ones that give out tickets.  Lilly and Lucy were big time winners.  Ben, not so much.  Oh well Ben, at least your sister's shared their winnings.
 

Every year, Jim likes to make nuts and bolts to pass out to friends and co-workers.  This year I just assumed since we have met so few people here and we don't really know our neighbors that we were going to make a small batch and I had about 10 or so containers left over from previous years that I was good.  Then Jim comes home with his list of people... So it is off to the dollar store!  I don't even know where a dollar store is here people!  Lucky me, I find one fairly close by and they have containers!  Not the ones we usually use, but hey beggars can't be choosers at this point.  

Oscar helping me wrap presents - still not feeling it.

Ok, we have been waiting all year for our Christmas vacation with Jim's family at Bree's family farm in SC (Longlands), and we are only one week from driving up so let's check our my to do list shall we?

1. Buy and wrap ALL the presents.  Well technically that isn't the complete truth.  Jim did buy a few presents and stocking stuffers.  And so Ok, I pulled Jim out of his Netflix stupor long enough for him to help me wrap a handful of gifts.  Jim said I should also mention that he has a job.  And to be fair it does require him to be gone A LOT. I will say I did 80% and Jim did 20%. - CHECK
2. Pack for me and kids over 3 different temperature zones. - CHECK
3. Hide "Santa" in the garage. - CHECK
4. Christmas cards - CHECK

So finally we are ready to pack up the car and drive up for our long-awaited trip to SC!  Oscar was staying in Florida to be well taken care of by my friend Christine and NOT in the kennel as originally planned.  Everyone is happy about that!  

On our drive north, we tried to stop at a Cracker Barrel for dinner, somehow or another we got turned around from our preplanned route and ended up having dinner at where else - WAFFLE HOUSE!!  Since it was not technically Christmas, we did not have our Christmas Dinner at a Waffle House, but it was a close as we would get this year, so we are saying it counts!

Longlands is a paradise (especially for hunters).  I am not a hunter, or really even a gatherer, but I am a reader and that is what I did - plowed through three books while we all had a wonderful visit with the family.  It was really nice.  Jim kept asking me to go out hunting, but I had to pass.  Too much "Bambi" growing up I guess.  I napped and read...and ate rum cake.  YUMMY!

The kids and Jim on the other hand did lots and lots and LOTS of hunting.  When I say hunting, what I mean is they left the house and were gone for hours at a time, but very little and in most cases nothing was shot or even spotted on several occasions.  So much for them contributing to the "shaping" of the deer population of South Carolina (Jim's ecological justification for the hunting part).

What the kids did do, frequently, is torment the chickens in the chicken coop.  They were out there so many times during the day to see if any eggs had been laid, that I am not convinced those poor hens will lay another egg - EVER!  Poor chickens.  The rooster had his revenge though, he started crowing every morning at 5:00am.  So I am not sure who was winning, but I was definitely getting the short end of the stick.  Hence all the napping.

 Santa, of course found us even though we were nowhere near home.  We had left a note with Kringle, so we were hoping that he would have no trouble locating us.  Santa even left us a note saying he left a few presents for us back at our house in Pembroke Pines.  We also left all of the gifts we had gotten for one another AND the ones my family had sent.  Looks like we will be having a second Christmas upon our arrival home.  
Look at the giant pile of presents!!  That is what happens when you have 11 cousins all celebrating Christmas at the same house!  It was a really amazing Christmas and we are so grateful to Jane and Billy and the Longlands crew for making it possible.  

Another amazing family Christmas!

Another missed New Years Card photo.  See why I like to wait?!

Day after Christmas we all piled back into the car to head south.  Our friends the Chamberlains were staying in Jupiter, Florida about 1.5 hours from home, so we decided to meet up with them and extend our trip by a day or so.  Didn't take but about 3 seconds for kids to fall right back into sync.  Ahh, it was magical!!  All the kids were happy to see the boys, but Ben said it best after a few minutes "Where have you guys BEEN?" 

Wow! Suddenly it is New Years Eve!  How did that happen?  Last year we rang in the New Years with the Monclovas and we are doing it again this year!!!  Lucky lucky us!!!  Actually we are crashing a neighborhood New Years Party.  Jim was assigned fireworks.  By now you should know that my husband can NOT do anything halfway.  So he finds a firework store about thirty minutes away and decides that is where we need to go.  I was thinking we were going to get a few bottle rockets, sparklers, you know, some pretty tame stuff.  Boy was I wrong.  The first indication of just how wrong I was came when we pulled into the driveway and there were 3 people directing traffic and handling parking.  We walked into the door and immediately had to get in line to have a background check!  Only after they had scanned our ID's were we allowed into the warehouse.  I was expecting the side of the road over the South Carolina border trailer "warehouse".  This was more like a well fortified bunker!  Floor to ceiling fireworks.  Like professional grade, where towns and municipalities come to get their 4th of July fireworks.  Jim was in heaven.  I was quite scared.

A small "selection" of what we purchased

We made it through the ball dropping (2 years in a row!)!  The party was great! Made some new friends and didn't die on the green machine!  All in all - success! 

 Here's to a fantastic 2014!!!