Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Silhouette

At the beginning of December we went to our favorite toy store (Brilliant Sky for you local people) and had Spencer's silhouette done.  We got copies for us and both sets of grandparents.  We couldn't show the finished product until now because they were Christmas presents for the grandparents.

I like it.  Very antiquey looking.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Holiday Decorations: The 2010 Christmas Tour

Welcome, welcome one and all!  You're not busy today, correct?  Nobody is cooking, cleaning, baking, shopping, decorating or wrapping presents two days before Christmas, correct?  You've got time for a ridiculously long blog post, correct?  I thought so.

I want to mention something really quickly.  I started blogging in mid-December 2008.  When I sat down at the 'ol computer to do this very blog post I got a message from Google saying I had used all of my free space.  If I wanted to continue A Beagle and A Baby I would have to whip out my credit card and.......PAY for additional memory.  I knew this day was coming because everytime you load new pictures it tells you how much space is available.  Mine has been dwindling.  So, I whipped out said credit card and held my breath while I clicked on how much it would cost. I already had an idea of what I would be willing and unwilling to pay.  Then, big sigh of relief- $5 bought me a year with enough space for up to 100,000 pictures.  We're golden!  My little blog will live on!  Then it took 24 hours for my new space to become available.  Typical.

And now, on to the HOLIDAY TOUR!  I didn't include pictures of stuff that was exactly the same from last year (i.e. outside by the front door).  I like to mix up my decorations from year to year, so even though the decorations are the same, the locations are different.

The front door on the inside.  We bought this wreath right before we got married.  This year was the first year that I felt like our stuff is getting old.  Could that be because we'll have been married for 9 years next week?
The mirror in the entry way.  I love these new fangled gel clings compared to the more old fashioned "regular" clings.
A very dark view of the living room.
The coffee table with our basket filled with cards.  Several bloggers and I exchanged cards this year.  It makes me feel like we are REALLY friends now, even though we've never met.



Amy gave this to me.  I have such good friends.


The tree in all its glory.
Spencer's friends from his December 20th pictures.
It was fun to decorate the hutch since it is a "new" piece of furniture.  I decorated it before when we lived in apartments, but that was back when it was brown with closed shelves.  It's nice to have a place to put my Christmas dishes.
The nativity that we bought in the Vatican on our honeymoon.  I found Spencer playing with one of the camels 2 weeks ago.  He was making it gallop and saying "giddyup, giddyup, giddyup!"

The black shelves in the entry way.  You may recognize this scene from our Christmas picture.
The growing snow globe collection.  I did go ahead and buy 2010.  2007 is still missing in action.
Isn't this a great frame?  I got it at Hobby Lobby for $2 about 3 weeks ago.
And what is Christmas without a Santa Pig?
The family room looking into the dining room/living room.
The kitchen.  Do you see Paul's tank?  He finally came out of his castle yesterday.
The kitchen table
The apothecary jar that Megan gave me.  I'm already looking forward, just a little bit, to filling it with pink and red stuff for Valentine's Day.  Oh, and speaking of February 14th- Target has heart decorations out already, just incase you'd like to buy something while you are Christmas shopping.
Spencer only knocked 1 box down 1 time.  Pretty good for a tall stack of boxes in a high traffic area with a 3-year-old.
I bought this big removable/reusable sticker last year, but Spencer had no interest in it.  He has LOVED removing each circle this year and seeing what is underneath.  It's helped in getting him out of bed on school days.
He lines up the removed stickers in the hallway.  #13 has been persistent in falling down.  Perpetuates that notion of 13 being unlucky.
The bathroom


We have door hangers on all the bedroom doors and the hallway bathroom door.  They drive Michael crazy.
At this point I think I like putting them out year after year strictly because they bother Michael so much.  Sounds mean, huh?  I really do love him.

Did you enjoy the tour?  Did you burn your sugar cookies because it took so long?  Sorry.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!

Gift Giving

Michael and I decided that this was the year to teach Spencer about gift giving.  Specifically gift giving to his parents.  I took him shopping to pick something out for Michael and Michael took him shopping to pick something out for me.  Maybe next year we'll introduce the concept of saving money and paying for things.  Of course that means we would have to give him money, and then you're moving into the realm of being real parents to a real kid and I definitely don't want to go there quite yet.  

Anyway.  This is daddy's present.  Spencer helped wrap it and decorate it too.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Bass Pro Shop

Last night we met up with Megan, Scott and Hadley at Bass Pro Shop for pictures with Santa.  When we got there at 6:00 pm there were no passes left for the night.  We were headed for the door when a very nice man gave us his pass after claiming his kids didn't want to wait.  Thank you very nice man.  You saved the day. 

I'll be glad when Spencer outgrows this cheesy grin thing he is doing.

Bass Pro Shop gives you a free 4 x 6 print, but the ones that Scott took were just as good as the "professional" shot.  Plus we all know how lazy I am when it comes to scanning.
This year's Santa was quite jolly and authentic looking, but he still had nothing on last year's Santa.  That guy was the real deal.
I'm not complaining though, because we all remember this debacle from last week.  I'll take slightly less rosy cheeks over nicotine beard any day.
Hadley, being 16 months and all, would have nothing to do with Santa.  Next year, baby, next year.
We took another family picture, because that is what we did last year.  I think most of the decisions in our lives (all of us, not just our little family) are based on what we did last year and the year before or what we did yesterday and last week and last month.  We just like sameness and habit.


Spencer is way happier in 2010.  My hair looked better in 2009.  You win some and you lose some.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

And so it continues...


December 20

2007
2008 2009
2010


Panic Attack

I went public with my OCD/Type- A list making tendencies (obesession) several weeks ago.  I experienced a huge list making fail this afternoon.  I keep word documents (shocking!) with all of the gifts we receive.  I have one for my bridal shower gifts, one for wedding gifts and one for baby shower gifts.  Then I have separate ones for Spencer's birthdays and Christmas gifts.  I like to think that one day my grandchild will ask where something came from and I will be able to tell them who, what, when, where and why- immediately and accurately.

Spencer has already received several Christmas presents this year.  I decided it was time to start the 2010 Christmas Gift List so I could get started on thank you notes.  I pulled up the folder on the ol' desktop.  I saw 2007 and 2008.  I saw all his birthdays.  I did not, however, see Christmas 2009.  No problem.  I checked the other files.  Nothing.  OK.  I went to get the binder where I keep printed copies of the lists in case of computer armageddon.  I thought worst case scenario I would just re-type the list from the printed copy.  NO LIST.  What the hell. 
Now at this point I'm feeling a little short of breath and light headed.  There's no digital list and no printed list.  I start thinking that maybe I can email people and call people to ask what they gave Spencer last year.  Can you imagine that call? Then I could look at pictures and somehow come up with a new list.  I'm thinking that there is no way that I neglected to type the list, so I must have somehow deleted the list.  But that seems impossible too.  So, on a whim, I pull out this "organizer" that we have by the computer.  You know the thing that you just dump stuff into until you can deal with it.  It looks like this.
And wouldn't ya know it.  There's the 2009 list.  Untyped.
So, here I am on December 21, 2010 typing the 2009 Christmas list.  What a loser.

What could have happened in January that I never got around to doing this? 

Friday, December 17, 2010

Santa Baby

Santa came to visit the kids at Spencer's school.  I prepaid for Spencer to have his picture taken with him while I was at work.  This was risky for a number of reasons, most importantly being that I didn't get to preapprove what this particular Santa looked like.  Had I known the good people of the North Pole were going to send a coked-up-lives-in-a-van-down-by-the-river-Santa, I might not have prepaid.

Oh well, at least Spencer looks cute.
Not as cute as he looked when he was 3 months old,
but definitely cuter than when he was 15 months old.
He also looks more comfortable than when he was 2-years, 3 months, although this is far and away the most authentic-I'm-not-addicted-to-illegal-drugs-Santa.

P.S. Jess did indeed find me in the picture in the previous post.  Give me your address, Jess, and a certificate is on the way.