Typical Post for This Time Of Year

Yes.  That's right.

The kids in front of the Christmas tree.

See if you can guess who is pinching whose butt here...

I love this one.  Typical behavior and typical reactions for a typical pose for a typical post for this time of year.

(Plzthanks note: The boys are re-wearing their Christmas duds from the year before.  By the time I even thought about it all stores were out of Christmas attire for boys.  Beebs, however,  not only got a new dress, but will be getting a MATCHING dress for her Bitty Baby for Christmas.  This is also typical behavior from me and will most likely continue throughout their entire lives. Thank you.)

I've Turned The Christmas Corner

As I described here I suffer from a yearly holiday phenomenon in which I dread the holidays.  To someone who enjoys exactly 0.00 things on her To Do list on any given day it seems daunting, over-whelming and unappealing.  Now, WHY do I want to have to go shopping?  Tell me again how all this ::waving around at plastic Santa Clauses, flashing Christmas lights and a stack of catalogs that have recently come in the mail:: relates to my life in general and Christ's birth?  Why do I want to drag a bunch of stuff out of the basement only to have to put it all away again in a month?

Yes.  I was that person.

But, alas, as described HERE the other part of this phenomenon is that eventually I do come around.  And I come around hard.  This year is no exception.  I'm almost to the point where I never want it to end.  Everyday I'm thinking of a new goodie to make/bake.  I became giddy as I packaged up presents and dropped them in the mail OR carefully chose them from a website and clicked the "Make Purchase" button (which was 90% of my shopping, btw). 

I also loved decorating the house & seeing my kids get more and more excited as I finished each area.  Here are some pictures of The Holidays Around the Landersons:

(Local peeps: Do any of you know anyone with an embroider machine that can do Beebs' name on that stocking up there?  Yeah, I got these before she was born.  I neeeeeeed to fix this before I forget about it until next year.  Again.)

And some of my FAVORITE Christmas sites around the house?

Finished, addressed and stamped Christmas cards!

Oodles of festive Pretzel Hugs!

  Seeing those oodles of Pretzel Hugs packaged up & ready to deliver to friends & neighbors!

 

My new favorite thing I started doing this year was putting up my Christmas cards around my entry way mirror.  Before I'd just get them, read them, love them & then stick them in a basket by the door.  But NOW??  A friggin' work of art. Srsly.

(Note: several more have been added since I took this photo a few days ago.  It's now filled & I'm having to stick them on the mirror itself.  It brings a tear to my eye.  I'm not kidding.)

I also love putting up the ornaments on the Christmas tree.  So many memories are in these ornaments.  Sentimental value up the yin-yang, people.  Growing up, my mom would give us all an ornament every year.  She labeled it with our name and they year we got it.  When I got married, she gave me all my ornaments from over the years so Gty & I would have some ornaments for the tree.

This one is the oldest one I could find.  It was given to me by my Grandpa Jeppson in 1978.  I love that it's his handwriting on the tag too:

I love this one from 1983.  My mom made it, of course.

And I have many others spanning the years from 1978 to 1996 when I married Gty and "got off the payroll" as my Dad liked to call it.  I love getting them out each year and figuring out how old I was when I got them.

Then there are some more recent ones which melt my heart each time I get them out of the ornament box.  They are, of course, the ones made by the boys in preschool and have their pictures on them.

Wook at dat 4 year old!!  Cutest senior-pictures-chin-rest-pose ever.

And....be still my heart...

A two year old TBone.

I stare this little squirt for at least 10 minutes every Christmas ::staring at this picture of a picture cuz I can't help it::

Beebs is bugged there are not ornaments with her picture on them.  I'll have to fix that this year.

And, since last year, no Christmas will ever be complete again until this bad boy gets put in the tree.

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays. Coming up on my baking/cooking/making list.... Magic Cookie Bars, Anita's Famous Orange Rolls (I had to go to a class to learn how to make those puffs from heaven), wassail, Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, my Best Sugar Cookies, Peppermint Bark (Costco is all out now--booooo) and probably a banana cream pie (just cuz I'm in the mood).

So, if you see a person on the street who looks kinda like me but is a good 20-30 lbs. heavier just wave and act like nothing's changed.  It's just easier.

Must...document...for posterity...

I have a son named Tbone.  Maybe you've heard of him.  Maybe not.  Most likely you have. 

If not, here is your first glimpse into what goes on inside his head.  Don't be scared.  This is the funny part of the brain.  Not the....other.

So he has these writing assignments he has to do as homework once a week.  Usually it's something like "Tell something you did over the weekend" or "Write about a member of your family."  I usually sit and help him form coherent sentences and keep his "Ds" and "Bs" going the right directions.  Well, a couple of weeks ago he was over at the table while I was cleaning up the kitchen or something.  He was very focused on his homework (which is highly unusual, btw).  All of a sudden he said he was done with his writing.  I was shocked.  The assignment was "Plan and write a true story about something that has really happened to you." I read it and died laughing.  I decided to let him turn it in as is.  Here is the result:

The pictures at the top are apparently his "plan." Let me type this out for you verbatim:

One Day I was runing home and a girl tript me! Slash! Bang! A BIG hole was on my face! I was crying home!  of cors I was crying.  So I pickt up my Back pakc and ran as fast as I can! I was pounding on the door.  When my mom ansord she was all like "oh my gosh." She said it about 30 times.  she gave me a bandaid.
The next day eeevreeone said "what happened to your facce." and that is abot it and yes it is true.

Claaaaaaasic TBone.

Then today he came home from school with a cute little camo journal his teacher had given him for Christmas.  He made his first entry right away.

Again, allow me:

Pokemon XD

I am playing the Best game ever.  Pokemon XD. Whoo yay cool.  I won a battel!  Bathroom bracke.  Booooooooooooooooo!  I know it stincks.  Litrly. I am on battel 90. He sent out Metagrass and Regirock.  he loves rock pokemon.

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.  Oh my gosh.  I love that kid. 

Litrly.

I asked him to please write something in his journal every day as it would make me the happiest mother on the planet.  He made no promises. 

Getcher GLEE Fix Here

I know you're out there.  Those of you who are already going through withdrawls from Glee even though tonight would really be the first night you'd actually be missing it.

Some of you are so desperate, in fact, that you have subjected yourself and others to watching The Sing Off.  This is NBC's attempt to get in on the Glee frenzy while providing a bit of an American Idol twist.  There are some good groups on this show (including one cute-as-a-button-all-girl group from BYU-- quote "We don't sing anything with swear words or innuendo.").

The problem is this program continues to put one particular group through which I find highly offensive in so many ways.

That's right...Maxx Factor.

To say they are deeeesgusting would be a grievous understatement.

They make me feel all gicky, vomitous and abhorrent inside.  To watch them sing is to watch a horror movie.  And, to top it off, they attempted "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse last night.  Not good.  Not.  Good.  I think there was some pelving and body rolling involved.

But here is the point of this post.  To provide you with a bit of relief from your Glee hiatus blues.  I know it's not Finn or Mr. Shue... but there is an Asian and they ARE super nerdy. The choreography kills.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Plz enjoy.

PS The eye is all cleared up.  It only took about 5 days.  Thanks for worrying (<---for Aunt Visor only).

Early Signs of Dying?

Look at my eye, you gize!!!!  What in the....?  Who in the....?  Why in the...?

Ugh.

Here's a closer look:

I need a diagnosis.

Here are my symptoms:

NONE

Other than the nasty red eye, of course.

I need this diagnosed & cured ASAP because the questions of "What happened to your eye???" and comments of "Ooooooh....your eye!" are becoming more & more frequent.  

I literally was putting on my makeup on Monday and noticed it was a little red.  Then it progressively got more and more red the next couple of days.  Last night when I was washing my face it hurt a bit when I was rubbing my eye (just tender from putting pressure on it).  Then today it hurts if I squeeze my eyes shut hard or look to either side too much.

I'm feeling like I need to hurry and read this month's book club selection before I go blind.  Will I see my children open their presents on Christmas morning?  Should you rethink your Christmas present to me considering it might be my last Christmas?

Some things to think about.

On The Hot Tamale Train!!!

She's a natural.  She can hopscotch & do the hokey pokey like it's going out of style.  Her lines are amazing and she holds her carriage like a professional fox trotter.  Nigel thinks she can work on really getting down into the balls of her feet but Adam loves her energy and commitment to the piece.

 

 

Look for these two on SYTYCD in 2023!

 

Oh how I love holiday dance programs.  I think the Spring Recital might kill me with cuteness.

I'm Trying to Force It

Every year it's the same thing for me.  I DREAD putting up all the Christmas crap.  Some people get so excited they have it up right after Halloween but not me.  I generally think of myself as an optimist, but in this case as I'm putting it up, all I'm thinking about is how I'm going to have to eventually take it all down. 

Last year I talked about the Christmas decorating frenzy taking over about half way through emptying my Christmas bins....  let's just say the "Christmas Cullens" have moved in and I'm still waiting for the fever to set in.  I may even cut my hair and get a tattoo.  I have been getting mad at everyone easily lately... hmmm......

Here is what my living room looks like right now:

That was taken not 5 minutes ago.

Normally this would bother me.  Normally, the sight of the stacked bins, bare tree, ladder and semi-empty bags would disturb me every time I walked down the stairs.  But this year?  Nothing.  I look at it and go "Eh, I'll do it later.  No biggie." 

Is this the first signs of clinical depression?  Or is it because I'm in the middle of The Time Traveler's Wife and all I wanna do all day is read?  Am I mellowing out with age?  Do I need to drink more diet beverages? 

I'm at a loss.

Hopefully I'll pull out of it but if not we may be coming to one of your houses for Christmas. That seems like a lot less work on my part.

SHAZAAM!!!

So, there we are.

The SF7 (as we so named ourselves).

The above picture was taken on Thursday night/Friday eve as we awaited the premiere of New Moon.  You can see the crazed look in a few of our eyes (::directing you to Memzy in particular::).  After a full day of travel, reuniting and eating we were ready for what we went to SanFran for... and I think I speak for all of us when I say it did not disappoint.  As for me and my house, it far exceeded the expectations.  I adored the movie.  Literally fell in love with Ja.. I mean, it.  So so so so fun.

What I can't figure out now is, did I really adore the movie or the hilarious girls I saw it with??  And now that I can't separate the two we will never know.  Thank goodness.

Here is Eeka taking pics of the group.  I put this pic up to show her authentic Forks sweatshirt she bought on our last trip to Seattle/Forks, WA.  Yes, we are those people. 

And here we are at the second time we went to New Moon not 16 hours later.  It...uh...was raining...and....yeah...the rain made us do it. ::whispering:: Rain scene.

What else did we do in SanFran?  We rode the BART like professionals.  Some with friends....

Some alone.

We took what we thought were "teenage FB profile pics" self portraits of ourselves.  I particularly enjoy HotPants in this one.

And tried to re-create our sister's FB profile pic.  Dang me and my normal-sized head!  I couldn't quite capture it.

We rode the trolley just to be cliche. Until it broke down.

 

Then we were forced to ride a yucky bus.

We rode on an intensely informative double decker bus in which we learned which houses our "tour guide" found nice looking.

 

 It was cold?

And we met Willie who is the most famous musician we would meet down there (according to him).  He only charges $1.37 for his autograph which is sweet.  I'm assuming you need to bring your own pen though, cuz he's homeless and stuff.  Why take a pic of him and Katie together?  Oh, right, cuz after we met him the FIRST time he had a lovely dream about her.  He tried to give her the details of the dream after we met him the SECOND time but I didn't hear much.  It's difficult to hear things when your hands are over your ears and you're screaming. 

I found this pic online of the band "Graham Central Station" of which he claimed to be a member of back in the day.  I'm trying to figure out which one is him.... the guy in the back, second from the right?  It's hard to know what homelessness does to a person's face.  Homelessness and toothlessness, that is. 

I'm not surprised by his dream though after sorting through my pictures.  Look at how Katie is looking at him!!  He couldn't resist, obviously.

Here are all the girlies who brightened up my life this weekend.  I had so much fun reenacting scenes from the movie, figuring out where the songs are in the movie,  playing games, dying laughing, eating "free" junk food, walking in the rain, tasting macaroons, admiring intricate details, screaming "Jacob!" randomly, giggling at parts in the movie that weren't supposed to be funny,  singing Morissey every time someone said double decker bus, texting from room to room in the hotel, laughing so you'd think you were missing out on something, staring at Willie's one tooth together, mocking your hand sanitizer, pretending to love stories about your kids and singing in the car, bus, etc.    I can't wait to wear my cape Stands made me next time!!!!!

PS Feel free to add to the list above in the comments.  I'm compiling a complete history of November 19-22nd.  It's for my genealogy project.