Christmas Catchup

Wow.  That was fast!  Christmas came and went in a HURRY!  I took off the week BEFORE Christmas because Trenton was out of school and we had him for Christmas this year.  He alternates holidays with his father and I.  Anyway, so we did a ton of fun things.  Some I blogged about, some I didn't.  I can't keep up anymore.  :)
Christmas Eve came and we went to our typical Christmas Eve gathering of my Dad's family.  At Thanksgiving, everyone who wants their kids to get a gift, puts the kids' names into a drawing and they buy for each other.  For example, Carter and Trenton were both in the drawing so I drew 2 other kids names to buy for them.  For adults, we do a "Nasty Christmas" exchange.  Everyone brings something around $25 and we draw numbers and pick gifts in that order.  Except you can steal a gift previously choosen until it's been stolen 3 times.  Then it's frozen.  You've all done it, I'm sure.  Trenton got a DS game and Carter got a HUGE firetruck and ramp that he delightfully played with the rest of the evening.  Scott and I both made out well in the gift department, too.  I was the very last pick so I stole a bottle of Baileys Irish Creme from my husband (lol) which froze it.  He then stole a bottle of Disarono for himself.  :) 

Then we hurried home so we could be in bed sleeping when Santa arrived.  We must have just barely made it because we got home late (it seemed) but Santa still came.  And bless us he did... after he snacked on the cookies we had to make a special 711 trip for on the way home because someone (um, me) forgot!!

 Trenton's stuffs

 A Laptop?!  No way!

 Carter's stuffs

Amazed (excuse his near nudity!)

Oh my gosh!  My own train table?!

 A slew of new pokemon cards?!  Yay!

Trenton loves Pokemon and he loves to draw.  Score!

1 little package with 9 different DS games in it!!  Whoa!

I love how awesome every.single.gift was to Trenton.  Such a sweetie!

Carter's new train table is probably his favorite.

And then there's MY favorite gift, the Kota the Triceratops Santa left Carter.  This is the CUTEST and coolest toy ever.  He's anamotronic greatness.  We love Kota. 

After all THIS crazy, we went to my parents house for dinner, MORE presents, and games.  But I'm tapped out today.  More on that later.  :)

Z... Zero

Countdown (alphabet style) is done!  Yay!

Y... Yuletide Adventures

I can't believe it's Wednesday.  Actually, it's only half an hour until Thursday.  Why don't work weeks fly by this quickly.  :)  I've enjoyed being off since last Friday and spending time with my kiddos.  We've done several little projects and gone on several adventures, mostly Christmas themed (with the exception of Trenton and my date to see Alvin and the Chipmunks Sunday night). 

Today was no exception.  We went out for donuts this morning and each picked a "special" donut.  Special means sprinkles when you're under 10.  :)  Then we made a snoglobe (thanks pintrest!).  We would have made more, but the trinket items the boys selected at the dollar tree yesterday didn't fit into the jar.  Irritating.  Because I brought the jar top to be sure and it seemed like it'd fit.  Stupid, weird Santa bear limbs.  :/

Anyhoo, after Carter's nap (much needed for him AND me, lol), we got dressed and headed out to visit SANTA!  I was thinking it was early afternoon on a weekday.  How bad could the line be?  An hour and 15 minutes bad.  I've heard of worse, but UGH!  Trying to keep a wild child 3 year old from going nuts while standing in a horribly slow (seeming) line surrounded by people was exhausting!  Luckily, the closer we got to Santa, the quieter and more still Carter got.  You can't SEE Santa until you're almost "up" because they form the line behind him.  Carter was VERY excited to see Santa... until he actually saw him.  Then he realized he was going to be in the presence of a stranger in a garish red getup at that. 

Anyway, post Santa visit (no tears, but absolute silence and he refused to LOOK at Santa, despite Santa trying to guide his gaze to him with his hand on his chin), we went home to get Scott and then went out to eat.  After dinner, we went on our annual tradition of looking at Christmas lights in Deerfield in Plano.  We got there every year.  I go back and forth every year about trying some place new.  But they are consistant.  So few neighborhoods get into decorating like they do.  I love it.  Carter was WAY into it this year.  Glued to the window kind of into it.  Yelling and pointing... it was fun.  Both boys went to bed...way past their bedtime, I might add... without a whimper of a fight. 

It was a good day.  A busy, crazy, insane day.  But that can be good sometimes.  :)

X… Xtra Sugga for Mama!

Being off all week before Christmas is awesome. Trenton's home so I'm trying to do something fun with the boys every day. I'm getting plenty of relaxing time though too so don't worry.

Project of the day? Candy Christmas trees. I got this idea on Pinterest and I had to try it with the boys. I seriously love that site. So throwing caution to the wind, I bought all the necessary items to make candy Christmas trees. Brave? Yes. But it's the holidays. Adventure in the air.

They were so fun to make. The boys really enjoyed it, I think. They certainly made a big enough mass. Imagine it… Sprinkles, food coloring, sugar, all kinds of goodies all over the counter. It was a literal candy land.

But you know what, those trees are delicious! And pretty dang cute if I do say so myself.

W... Wild nights are calling

My Bunco group, which meets once a month, had a surplus in our $$ pool.  So we decided to use that money to do some sort of group bonding activity.  Thanks to Groupon, we scored $5 tickets to Movie Studio Grill.  Yay!  Last Friday we all meet after work for drinks and dinner at Blue Goose then headed over for our movie.  I'll get back to that second part in a second.

I arrived first with Jenn showing up with her girls shortly after.  Her husband was coming to pick them up from the restaurant later.  I love her little girls!  Mia is SO funny and Lila is absolutely adorable.  I jokingly convinced Mia to ask her daddy to take her to get lobster when he picked her up.  If you'd seen the amount of chip and queso and tortillas this child put away, you'd understand that I assumed this kid could not, in ANY WAY, eat anymore.  I was wrong, lol.  Jenn and I got a text after Dave came and got them.  It was a picture of Mia and her dinner plate.  A giant lobster, lol.  You're welcome. 

Anyway, there were margaritas and shots and funny dinner conversation until it was time to go. 

At that point we left to see our movie.  I want to preface this with the statement that there were almost ZERO appealing options.  I arranged a vote.  I bought tickets to the movie that was voted by everyone. 

Jack and Jill.

:/ 

Yes, this Adam Sandler gem...

I hope think the idea (because I didn't vote for this, lol) was that it'd be so dumb and terrible, it'd be funny.  I wasn't convinced.  I ordered MORE drinks.  It was 8 o'clock.  I'd been drinking for a long time at this point and I still thought I'd need more. 

But... I would be lying if I said I didn't laugh.  Against my better judgement, be it the alcohol or whatever, I laughed.  A couple of times.  It was predictable and stupid.  Duh.  But there was several off the wall dumb things that made me chuckle.  Random surprise, Al Pachino is in that movie.  Um... yeah.

Afterward, Krista and Sarah twisted my arm and convinced me to go back to Blue Goose for a night cap.  There were MORE drinks.  The night included odd conversations with strangers and singing, full out singing and snapping, and at one point Sarah was hasseling the male bartender to the point we thought he might cry, lol. 

Fun Friday... YES!  :)

V... Very Interesting Fish Tank Decorations

I got myself a 55 gallon fish tank.  Kind of random purchase, but I love fish tanks and this one was a steal of a deal so I did it.  I got some cute decorations and gravel and set up my tank for some new fishy friends.  However, I had to let the tank cycle through the filter and let the bacteria supplement set itself, so I had to wait about 24 hours before I could add fish. 

This morning, Scott said he thought he saw some stuff floating around in it.  Dirt or whatever.  I blew it off.  We watched tv in the living room and Carter disappeared into the playroom for awhile.  I should mention this is where the tank is.  Carter playing/watching tv in the playroom is not uncommon.  It's typical, in fact.  So we didn't think twice about it. 

A bit later I went to check out the tank and what Scott might have been talking about with the stuff he claimed was floating around.  Well, whatever he saw escaped me.  But I certainly saw something in the tank.  Correction... some THINGS. 

Apparently, my wallet was within reach and Carter had access to the desk and several miscellaneous items. 

 Cash, change, spoon, mastercard, gift card, replacements for Christmas tree lights...

More cash, bowl, change...

remote...

tape dispenser, old ticket to Joel McCale, sock, ubs connection for my wireless keyboard, tank scrubber.

These don't even include what floated.  Things like his shoes, my Kroger rewards card, my insurance card 3 packages of baby wipes, a stuffed pokemon toy, etc.

It was an interesting morning.



U... Usually I wait...

...but not this year.  I couldn't wait to put up my Christmas decorations.  I generally have a hard "day after Thanksgiving" rule, but ya know, I'm a grown woman.  If I want to enjoy my sparkly Christmas stuff an extra week, I will.  I put this stuff up and I take it down.  So I'll do so when I please.  Thus, the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving the Durbin halls were decked with all the joys of Christmas (manifested in glitter and lights).

Not a huge deal, right?  Except we had our family Thanksgiving at my house.  My parents, my brother and his partner Richard came over to have Thanksgiving lunch.  Thanksgiving feast... with my big Christmas center piece in the middle of the table, lol.  Luckily, I discovered they had ALL already decorated, too, and weren't offended by my inability to wait. 

I did everything early this year.  My shopping is 95% done and has been for weeks.  I just have a few small things left and I can just relax and enjoy the seasonal smells {Christmas scentsy and candles... YAY!}, the classic movies, and twinkly lights.