Merry Christmas!!!

A big thank you and credit for videoing goes to my brother's brother-in-law, Kevin (yes another Kevin!), who graciously videoed for us at my brother's house while everyone else was elbowing each other in the buffet line!

A Caroling We Will Go

Tonight we went caroling with my brother Kevin and his family and several other families from their church. I hadn't been caroling in years and I don't think the girls had ever been so we were excited. The plan was to visit 3 homes belonging to some of the elderly members of their congregation.

I bundled us all up thinking we'd be singing outside but we showed up at the first house and the husband and wife asked us in. You know the old joke about how many (fill in the blank) can you fit in a --- fill in the blank with a noun like car, or phone booth or on top of a toothpick. It was kind of like that. How many carolers can you fit into a small home?

Apparently quite a few. I think there was about 25 of us and we all fit in this living room. We finished singing and the woman offered us all a piece of fudge. Yum. We hopped back in our cars and off to the next house. On the way something happened to Emma.

She developed Wet Noodlitis.

Either that or she fell asleep. We showed up at the second house and were invited in again. We sang a range of Christmas songs and were offered:

Cookies! This caroling ain't half bad. I decided on the spot that if my children complain of being hungry between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve I'm sending them out on the streets to carol.

Back into the cars again and off to the third house. Emma began to wake up as we sang inside the house. (Who knew caroling was an indoor sport now?) The woman at the third house had invited her children and grandchildren to listen and several times she spoke and she seemed close to tears. When we finished singing she said she remembered them singing for her and her husband the year before and what a wonderful memory it was for her. It was obvious to me that her husband was no longer there.

When we finished singing her children and grandchildren offered us apple cider and sugar cookies.

These cookies just melted in your mouth. They were amazing. While we ate Emma and I sat on the stairs by the front door and the elderly woman came over to talk to us.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I told her.

She smiled softly and I added "I lost my husband almost 3 years ago." I said it as though it was the password to a secret society, a group united by tragedy and loss.

She patted my hand. "I know. I remember from your brother. But your loss is greater than mine. I had 59 1/2 years with my husband and you had so much less."

I wanted to say something but I stayed silent. Which was worse? Living with someone for most of your life and suddenly trying to figure out how to survive without them or living with someone for 10 years, planning a future together and having it all yanked away? And whose to say they are even comparable? Why does one have to be worse than the other?

Our attention turned to Emma, who was beginning to scream for a bottle and the woman moved on to thank others for coming. Soon we left and went back to Kevin and Janne's house for Hot Fudge pudding.

Is this stuff even legal??? When Janne' moved the dish to cut it it jiggled. Yum. It tasted as good as it looked.

Now, lest you think that I'm the only crazy one in my family let me show you this:

My brother Kevin holding Ryan, who was utterly fascinated with the hat on Kevin's head. It must run in the family. Sources have told me that Kevin has some wicked dance moves. Maybe there's a dance off in our future.

Lap of Luxury

I know, I've been pretty quiet for me! There's a million excuses, the same as everyone else's-- Christmas, Christmas, Christmas and all the doings that go with it. I also confess that after the HOURS I spent at the computer reading and responding to all the awesome comments I got last week as well as putting everyone's names into a Word document, I got a bit tired of sitting in front of my trusty friend, my laptop.

My laptop really does need a name. I'm open to suggestions...

Plus, after all the excitement of last week, how could I ever top that???

Today had lots of baking going on and by the time I got done cleaning up after dinner I was more tired than usual. Ross was helping me finish the kitchen and said "Mom, why don't you get a glass of wine and go take a bath. Julia and I will watch the little kids."

"Really?"

"Yeah, go before the babies see you."

So I spent the next hour enjoying my bath, reading my latest book and sipping a glass of my favorite Riesling although towards the end the little ones had figured out where I was and kept taking turns coming in and watching me. They found it quite amusing that I was the one in the tub for once and they were the ones watching. I started to feel like I was a zoo exhibit. All that was left was for one of them to start throwing food at me and announcing it was feeding time for the monkeys, so I decided it was time to get out and went downstairs to watch Jingle All the Way with the girls and Ryan. Julia and Jenna suddenly decided to rub my hands and feet and give me a back scratch. Had I died and gone to heaven? No, my babies were showing me love for once instead of the other way around. I'm one lucky momma! Of course, everyone was aware that today was Daddy's birthday so I think that might have prompted the loving. But it was loving all the same and I loved every bit of it. I wrote about one of Darrell's favorite birthdays on my book blog here if you want to read it.

I hope everyone is getting ready for Christmas and I hope you get lots of loving too! Isn't that what Christmas is all about?

Sixth Day of Christmas WINNER

The Sixth Day of Christmas winner:



Congratulations Katie! Get ready to have your own little world!

Again, I want to thank everyone for participating in all the giveaways this week. Now I know what Santa feels like! I have had so much fun reading all your comments and seeing that you were having just as much fun with my silliness as I was! I've also gotten to know a little more about many of you that are new or have been lurking. I really appreciate all of you!

Remember to keep clicking on those ads. All the money I make from my ads I turn around and use to finance my giveaways.

Merry Christmas!

The Sixth Day of Christmas

So today is the Sixth and last day of our Christmas giveaway.

A Pink 4GB Zune mp3 player and case.

I didn't realize this but Zune's come with an FM receiver. If I had this I could actually listen to NPR without complaint from children. I could walk around my house blocking out the noise pollution boisterous noise that fills my house. I could dance and sing around with my own private karaoke apparatus to songs by Maroon 5 or Paramour or Relient K. I could live in my own private world. But instead, I want to give it to YOU!

So what do you have to do to win this informative, noise blocking, fool making, private world creator?

-- Leave me a comment for one entry

-- Follow me and frolic in the land of nearly perpetual optimism called There's Always Room For One More to get another.

I will take comments from 12:01 am Friday until 11:00 pm CST. I know I usually stop the comments at 9:00 but I was actually invited to a party tomorrow night! I will have the winner posted by Saturday morning.

Good luck!

This day is now closed.

The Fifth Day of Christmas WINNER

On the Fifth Day of Christmas I decided to video because we had a special drawer (is that a word?)-- Ross! Ross is hardly ever in my videos so I decided to take full advantage of his agreeable presence and capture it on video.



Congratulations Teresa! Perseverance does pay off!

Teresa has entered every contest I've ever had and never won much to her dismay so tonight was particularly exciting!

The Fifth Day of Christmas

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, Denise gave to me:

A Digital Picture Frame!

A 7" Insignia digital picture frame. I confess, I don't know a lot about these things but the sales person told me it was a good one. Look it even has a remote control. Isn't it cute? That thing would last about 5 minutes in my house so you're on your own with that little guy.

As I said in the Preview post, I almost didn't get this because it reeks of "Mommy" to me but my SIL Janne' assured me that it was an EXCELLENT gift. So here it is!

But what can you put in this picture frame? Apparently it gives you a slide show so let me suggest a few photos to place on display.

How about this one of Emma at lunch at Applebee's today? She was mad because she wanted to take her child's cup with a lid and a straw, take the straw out and drink it through the hole. Fun times. Don't you wish you were there?

Or how about this one of Ryan? This is his reaction to Emma's fit. That's Trace's elbow behind him. And yes, I do carry my camera everywhere I go.

Or best of all, how about this one of me blowing a little love your way? Guaranteed to keep your home rodent free.

By now you all know the drill but there might be some people new to our fun. How can you win this digital picture frame? You have two ways to enter.

-- Leave me a comment
-- Follow me to the ends of the earth, or just Follow me by clicking on that button under the BlogHer ad and blogroll that says "Follow this blog."

I don't really plan on going to the ends of the earth; I've already done that with my 2 trips to China and one lengthy stay in Vietnam. But there is some talk of a There's Room For More Road Trip, and tattoos might be involved. It could be a really fun trip! We even have an official photographer!

The comments will be open from 12:01 am Thursday until 9:00 pm CST. Some of you weren't sure if you were in time or not tonight so let me give you a heads up: At 9:00 I go in and turn the comment feature off so if you can leave a comment then you're good!

Good luck!

This day is now closed.