It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

I hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We did, though not a lot of pictures to share. except for this one of the turkey.....

I meant of course Dom AND the turkey.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our tree. It has been a tradition that Dom's family join us and this year was no different except that Uncle Chuck had to fly back to Colorado and couldn't join us. We missed him!

Anyway, we are lucky enough to have a tree farm only about five mins away and though there was no snow on the ground it was very cold and windy. This year we chose a scotch pine instead of a spruce tree just to change things up a little. The tree we chose was very full and very fat. Decorating the tree only came only after the traditional swearing at the tree as we tried to get it to stand upright in the brand new tree stand that looked really cool on the package but actually sucks. It still appears to have a little list to the right...

After the traditional swearing at the tree, comes the swearing at the lights which of course never work...(we didn't actually swear at the tree with the children present.) Next came the decorations. One thing that I learned about Scotch pines is that they are very prickly, like cactus prickly. Like no one really wanted to decorate the tree prickly after being pricked 5 or 6 times, especially the kids. So this is probably the first and last year of the Scotch pine in this house...But despite all the trouble we really did have a fun time putting up the tree. Honest.

My husband told me I had to include this picture of my mother-in-law with her mouth open cause it was funny.

I had nothing to do with it.

Honest.

Except take the picture and post the picture.

First Snow

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. Not a lot, maybe an inch, but enough that Becca couldn't wait to get outside in it once I picked her up from school. Kenzie was excited to see the snow and wanted to know how many days until Christmas. She had no desire to go out and play in it though.

Purina Diet

I didn't write this but found it hilariously funny and thought I would share here.

Purina Diet

I was in Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Purina for my dog and was in line to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog........ Duh! I was feeling a bit crabby so on impulse I told her no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care unit with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IV's in both arms. Her eyes about bugged out of her head. I went on and on with the bogus diet story and she was totally buying it. I told her that it was an easy,inexpensive diet and that the way it works is to load your pockets or purse with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The package said the food is nu tritionally complete so I was going to try it again. I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy behind her. Horrified, she asked if something in the dog food had poisoned me and was that why I ended up in the hospital. I said no.....I'd been sitting in the street licking my butt when a car hit me. I thought the tall guy was going to have to be carried out the door. Your smile for the day. Think about this the next time you're standing in line at Wal-Mart.

Party Time!

Kenzie's party was on Sunday. We waited so that Uncle Chuck and Auntie Lisa would be able to join us for the fun. The birthday girl was very happy with all the goodies she recieved from everyone. We ate cake and ice cream and hung out while the girls played with all the new toys.

It felt like an early Thanksgiving being surrounded by family(or Christmas with all the gifts!)

We look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in Gloucester with Dom's family this year. And we wish everyone else a Happy Thanksgiving too!!

Mackenzie is 5!

Yesterday was Mackenzie's fifth birthday! It was a good day. Both she and Becca were up extra early with anticipation. By 6:00am she had opened all her presents. Daddy was still home so why make her wait all day?? The only down side was that I gave her aqua dots and then heard about the recall and had to take them away from her an hour later. (I'll rant about that later!)

All in all she was very happy. Becca only had a 1/2 day of school so they got to play together all afternoon. We made puppy cupcakes that came out really cute and were super easy. We'll be having a party on the 18th while Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chuck are visiting for Thanksgiving.

The ears and nose of the puppies are tootsie rolls and the eyes are M&Ms. The pawprints are

a junior mint and M&Ms!

Today there is no school due to teacher conferences. Becca is doing great, she is above average in everything especially reading. There is a small group of kids in her class on the same level and they will soon be reading Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.

Silly Spider Cake

In the past I have enjoyed making cakes just for fun and spoiled Dom's co-workers with cakes at least once a month. I haven't made one in awhile and finally sent one in for halloween. I think it came out pretty cute. Kenzie was my official color consultant and frosting taster. It was a spice cake with a cream cheese filling.

The spider on top is not all frosting it is actually a three inch cake. This helped me get back into the cake groove with Kenzie's birthday coming up soon. Also Uncle Chuck will be visiting soon and we know how much Uncle Chuck loves cake!

Trick or Treat

For the last few years we have gone to Strwberry Banke to Trick or Treat, but this year it was cold and rainy and we decided not to go. We did go to the trick or treat parade downtown to the local businesses. They do it early for the younger kids which is nice. The girls were excited to go and the excitment grew when daddy got home early to join us. The girls were happy with their loot. When we got home the girls and I decorated some halloween cookies and made "mummy pizzas" for dinner while Dom went to pick up the boat from being shrink-wrapped for the season. We ended the night with a viewing of 'It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown'.

Have you ever seen such a cute pink leopard or Hippie Chick????

Mummy Pizza!

Frustration!

I am trying really hard to get our Halloween pics posted unfortunately blogger refuses to cooperate. I'll keep trying and hope to have them up by the end of the day!