A Tennessee Christmas

We had plans for spending Christmas in Texas but our plans changed when my mother fell the Wednesday before Christmas and broke her wrist and foot.  She was scheduled for surgery the following Tuesday. We went to Arkansas for a couple of days before her surgery and came home on Tuesday before the bad weather that was to follow the next day.  Christmas Eve morning,  we made sausage kolaches and pecan filled kolaches. Scot smoked  a  brisket.  That night we read about Baby Jesus and the kids left Santa some milk and kolaches.  We were out of carrots, so we left bread for the reindeer.  Scot and I stayed up and watched our favorite movie,  It's AWonderful Life.
Christmas morning (5:30) we woke up to Barret standing beside the bed whispering,  "Santa left pwesents unda da twee! Come and see dis. Come on.  Hold my hand."  So out of the bed, and into the living room we went.  Emma and Andrew were already there counting how many presents they had each. 

"Are you gonna cry?" I asked "Maybe." he said when he hugged us after opening his PS2.

He was the only one on the Nice list at our house.

Emma is into Moxie Girls.  She got a couple more dolls and a remote control car that she loves but won't play with it.  I will never understand her.

Andrew is an infomercial freak.  He wanted a Glow Station, Bendaroos, and yes, a Snuggie for kids. He got it all and more Lucky Boy.

Barret was so excited when he got his new train set. This makes the third set. 

I guess you can never have too many?

The Elementary PTA hosted a store for the kids to purchase small gifts for family members.  I gave them both $10 Emma came home with a present for everyone except Barret, she was .50 cents short. Not bad.  Andrew came home with a present for the cat and Nathan with 2 dollars left to spend.  I sent him with another $10  and Emma .50 cents. Andrew came home with a present for everyone except dad and Barret.  Wednesday morning he said he's tired of shopping and handed the job over to Emma (such a boy). 

$30 dollars later here's  what we got:
Nathan- rubix cube keychain & a dinasour egg
Barret- a mini car & Yo-Yo
Emma- small memo pad
Dad-  #1 Dad flashlight and  a #1 dad pen
Mom- 2 identical pink #1 mom pens
Andrew- soft baseball
Faith- Cat toys in a plastic stocking. It was the most expensive and she actually played with them the entire time we were opening gifts.

Andrew said "Sorry mom, they were out of Mom Rocks necklaces.

Darn.... Maybe next year

Traditions

 

This year we decided to leave our tree in the box and get a real tree.  We put the tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  One of our holiday traditions is that every year we take the kids shopping and they choose an new ornament that goes on the tree.  When they leave and have a family of their own.   They can take their ornaments with them to have for their tree. They always seem to pick out a mercury glass ornament. Nathan and  Andrew's selection varies from year to year.   Emma always picks a kitty cat, and  Barret, a train.

Another tradition is that I sew the kids matching Christmas pajamas.  This year I ordered fabric and ended up short 1 1/2 yds.  Nathan grew out of the pattern I normally use.  He now wears an adult size.

Emma and Andrew's school was hosted a Polar Express party.  They were permitted to wear their pajamas and bring a pillow.  They watched the movie in the school auditorium and were served cocoa with marshmallows. Each got a "golden ticket".  They had a blast.   Thank goodness I had a deadline, or they would still be unfinished.

Here is Emma in her pj's before school:

All I want for Christmas is.... =)

                 Andrew and Barret

I stayed up late trying to finish Andrew's before the school party.  He found them on his bed the next morning and came running in to give me a hug.  Scot had dressed Barret before he left for work but, he took them off to try on his new pajamas.  

Andrew loves snowmen.  We have an outdoor snowman that we put out at Christmas.  We used to store it in the attic with a sheet pulled over him.  When we were moving, the movers took the sheet off of him and loaded him on the truck.  Andrew cried for an hour about it because he thought his snowman was going to get cold without his sheet.  They finally had to put the sheet over him so he would stop.

Here is an old picture of Andrew and his buddy when we first bought him. He was 2mos shy of two.

We usually go through 4 pounds of butter during the Christmas season.  We make several different cookies, pecan tassies,  fruit and sausage and cheese kolaches.

I always envisioned creating sugar cookies with my children to look something like this:



Instead the gingerbread  men look like homicide victims.  My cookie cutters were Scot's mothers that included all the holidays.  So our Christmas cookies include the Easter Bunny, the Thanksgiving Turkey, a Halloween Pumpkin and an American Flag.

 It's the memories you're making, right?  Sure.

They're getting good at making cookies though.  I am pretty impressed.  Here's little Miss Martha making her favorite White Chocolate and Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies:

We were a dozen short because she couldn't stop snacking on the dough. I'm surprised she didn't get a stomachache!

 

Andrew making Peanut Butter Chip Cookies.

Barret took the job of transferring the cooled cookies to the cookie jar.

Where's Nathan you say?  Wrestling Practice-  Monday through Saturday, school or no school.  =(

 

No More Diapers!

I never thought the day would come to pass when our house was diaper free.  I have been changing diapers since 2002 and 3 yrs before that with Nathan.  10 yrs. Sheesh!  Nathan was hard to potty train,  Emma, a breeze.  Nothing could prepare me for the trauma Andrew put me through.  He could care less about it and the furniture and clothes he went on either.  He was 4 years and 4 months when he finally seceded.  I swore that I would not potty train Barret until he was ready. I didn't care how old he was.  He knew the concept though,  he always went in the potty before bath time since he was 18 mos.  If Andrew was "watering the lawn" he had to do it too.   Barret was now in a size 6 diaper.  His diaper just wasn't holding what he was producing and Scot and I where playing rock, paper, scissors who would change the muddy ones. It was the last straw when Barret would announce what he about to do in his diaper and then take it off .  We told him that we weren't buying him diapers anymore and that he would have to potty like the rest of us.  He gave us a little resistance but agreed.  He was potty trained on day 1!  I never had to ask him if he needed to go. He took himself.  At night he went to the bathroom on his own.  I couldn't believe how easy it was.  He was a little hesitant about going #2 but when we told him if he didn't his belly would explode,  it was an easy decision after that =)

Free at Last!

SNOW!!!

If it was anything I wanted for my kids to have this winter, was for my kids to experience snow.  We figured moving almost 900 miles away from our home to the mountains would increase our chances significantly.  Then the inevitable happens.  Houston gets snow...inches of snow! Ack!! I didn't tell the kids.  Thankfully the same front moved in on us early Saturday morning and dusted a little on us.  The kids came running in our room screaming, "It's snowing! It's snowing! Nathan is on the roof making snowballs!" I looked out the front door to see Nathan sitting on the sill of the dormer in his room making a stockpile of snowballs. Nathan comes down and says "I have bad news.  The snow is starting to melt!"   Immediately everyone is scurrying to get dressed to go outside.

Nathan took the trucks off of his skateboard to make a snowboard. 

This Aggie wanted to give it a try:

Woops!  Not as easy as it looks, Huh? 

Let's try this again:

 Yes, those are socks on Barret's hand. Nathan and Andrew were wearing them also.

 

"I'm not going to throw it!  I just want you to take a picture of it."

.....and then he threw it at me.

We were all soaked to the bone and had frozen fingers, but it was a fun morning.

Our Thankgiving

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday.  It is a wonderful time to be with family and friends.  No gifts, just food.

I love to cook, especially for the holidays.  This Thanksgiving was low key.  Scot's dad and brother came to visit us and to have dinner.  They brought us smoked sausage links  so that I can make our favorite:  Kolaches.  We tried to convince his dad to move here so that he could be near us.  I don't think we succeeded especially after the Saturday drive on the winding roads.  We're getting used to the terrain.  Still not ready to live on the mountain though.

We had a traditional meal along with a Cajun Fried Turkey.  Dessert consisted of: Banana Pudding w/ meringue, Lemon meringue, Apple, Pecan, and  Pumpkin pie, All assembled and baked by Yours Truly ;)
All desserts were devoured in just a few days. 

Here's the Chef and Main Course

Andrew and Emma raided  the cheese ball Scot made (his mother's recipe) It's a holiday tradition.

Chattanooga Train Ride

We have learned not to tell the kids when we are planning to do something fun.  This eliminates the thousands of questions and headaches that follow.

We planned on taking a Fall Foliage train ride that takes you through Georgia, but it was canceled due to September flooding.  The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has a train ride that runs on the weekend.  It's a 6 mile trip that lasts an hour long.

When we arrived at the Museum,   Barret was hooting with excitement.  He loves trains.  His room shows it.
We made it right at boarding time, which made it a little difficult to get a party of six seated.  All 4 passenger cars were nearly full. It took some rearranging (thanks to the nice passengers) to get us all seated together.  The train takes use through a Civil War horseshoe shaped tunnel that is 948 feet long (and dark I might add). We got a live tour guide that told us civil war stories. One was the Great Locomotive Chase that went from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The kids were fascinated (I was too).  The train takes us to a train yard.  There we watch a  live demonstration of the train turntable using our train engine.  We toured the restoration shop and then boarded the train to head back to the station.  The boys didn't want to leave.  They left kicking and screaming (literally).

Waiting for their tickets to be punched

Going over the bridge

Our tour guide looked a little familiar to Barret.  He waved and said "Hi Santa." in a casual way.  He saw Santa last year when we took a train ride on "The Polar Express".  I think he thinks Santa works for the Railroad when he's not delivering presents.

Here is our engine on the turntable.  I found a video of the train ride we took, in case you don't come out to visit us.

Fall Foliage

The Fall Foliage reached it's peak the last week of Halloween.  It was really wonderful seeing all the beautiful colors.  Nathan said it looked like a painting.  We took a Saturday drive through the valley.  Nathan said it looked like a painting.   My pictures didn't come out well  because I was taking them in the car. 

Here are some I took in the neighborhood.

This is the ridge behind our neighborhood

 

Taken from our front door

The yellow trees were bright as the sun.

Andrew said he made a big leaf pile at recess and took turns jumping in it.  I reminded me of the fun we had when we were kids.  It sounded like so much fun.  I wanted to do it too :)

Happy Fall!

No Tricks, Lots of Treats

 "Faith"

We started off Halloween morning cleaning and carving our pumpkins that the kids got from our dairy farm trip.  We used templates for the kids but Nathan carved his out free handed.   We were invited to a Halloween party that evening and then we were to trick or treat in their neighborhood as a group.  Since we wouldn't be home that evening, we had a little party at lunch. The kids made pumpkin pizzas. We just cut pepperonis into triangles.  Easy peasy.  Jones soda  had candy corn flavored soda. I found them at Target. It was a hit with the kids.  

We made candy corn cookies from this blog site I steal many ideas from.   After the sugar rush.  They dressed in their costumes recession style.

Andrew wanted to be a robot.  We googled ideas and made one.  He immediately went into character when he tried it on for the first time.  We laughed so hard, tears were streaming down our face.  It was worth the headache.

Emma went as a ballerina.  It's her costume from her ballet recital.  I tried to talk her into making her a little scary. I suggested a head wound or a bloody leg.  She wouldn't have it.  She said Halloween costumes don't have to be scary.

Barret was wearing Andrews hand me down skeleton costume.

Nathan was low key.  He carried his bow and went as a hunter.

Here are some pics and their pumpkins before the party.

I like them illuminating in this picture

Spooky!

When we got everyone in bed.  Scot and I "inspected"  their candy and confiscated items that looked like they could be possibly tainted and potentially harmful.  We siezed all the dark chocolate, almond joys, a couple of reeses pieces and a few peanut m&ms.  We took our life in our hands and consumed these items quickly.  Thankfully, there were no harmful additives.  Mission Complete.

A Party for Dad

We were just getting into the routine of things, when it was brought to my attention by the school calendar that the children would be out of school for a week for "Fall Break".  This break happened to fall on the week of Scot's Birthday. I could already hear my kids saying,  "I'm bored!" "We never do anything fun!"  I tried to fill the week with dr's appts, but it only filled up Monday.  Before the migraine set in, I came up with a great idea. This year I decided to leave Scot's birthday party plans in the hands of 4 minors.  Cheers with "Yes!" and "Sweet!" along with dancing confirmed that I came up  with the greatest plan ever.  They sat down with Emma as the scribe and drew up plan. It was proposed,   with a list in hand.  There were a few conflicts on certain items for instance,  there was an argument as to which pinata to purchase.  It was between Spongebob and Spiderman.  After a heated exchange, The First Lady had the final say and opted for neither. We bought a jack 'o lantern instead (it was the cheapest).  Barret managed to make it all the way to the checkout line with an air horn. He threw it on the conveyor and the cashier scanned it.  I told the lady out of the corner of my mouth to take it off.  That it was not intended for 3 year olds and I wanted to keep my hearing.  She obliged.

Party day was Wednesday. Here is the birthday boy =)

Plus a few  pics of the party:

 

 

Here's me letting out a little frustration :)

I thought this was funny when Scot went to hit the pinata, Barret ran inside while the others took cover.

My camera died before I could get Scot hitting the pinata.

 It broke off the rope.  I ended up pitching it to Scot and he busted it wide open.

I made a hummingbird cake.  It was so yummy.

Down on the Farm Part 1

In Texas, Blue Bell ice cream is "the best ice cream in the country."   Here in the Tennessee Valley,  the local brand of ice cream  is called Mayfield.  They claim it to be the best.  This raised our suspicions, and felt we needed to investigate. We packed a picnic lunch on a cloudy Saturday morning and headed North to Athens, TN to the Mayfield Dairy.  We got there just in time for the next tour.  They ushered us into a theater, watched a short film and then bright red shower caps were passed out to humiliate us, before entering the plant.   Barret resisted at first but, complied when we told him he would have to stay behind alone :). 
The tour was of the milk production.  They only make ice cream during the week... Bummer.  The tour conveniently exits in the gift shop/ ice cream parlor.  There were no free samples but, the ice cream prices were inexpensive.  A single cone was 1.25 novelty bars were .50 cents.  We all voted for a cone. Here's some pics.

 

The verdict:  Were partial to the Texas brand.  Thank goodness they sell Blue Bell in Tennessee.

Down on the Farm Part 2

(Lots of pics...a little long)

  Maw, Paw, and Junior

Haas, Ellie Mae, and Little Joe

After the trip to the Dairy, we decided to head over to the dairy farm for some Tennessee style festivities. Every Fall the Mayfield Dairy farm is open to the public.  There is a farmers market that is open most of the year. They offer hayrides to the pumpkin patch a giant corn maze, a menagerie of farm animals to feed and/or pet and games such as the corn cob cannon, chunkin pumpkin, along with a myriad of unusual activities for all ages.

During our visit, A celebrity exhibition was underway, so went went right over.  Upon our arrival, we found out it was the Hillbilly Pig Races.  Celebrities in the event included famous country singer Lee Ann Pork Rinds and actor Kevin Bacon just to name a few.  More amusing than the names were the kids participating in the event.  Their mission was to run alongside the track to encourage the pigs to run the full lap.  Nathan opted out of the excitement.

Here are the boy's "hamming it up"

We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch.  Everyone picked out a pumpkin to take home.

                                                                This one is just my size

Andrew rolled his to the wagon

Emma had her eye on the prize.  She's so competitive.

The kids wanted to try the corn cob cannon and the chunkin pumpkin games. Out of all the kids, it was Emma that was persistent about doing it.

 

Nathan chunkin pumpkin (squash actually)

I think the corn box was one of Andrew's favorite activities. When we got home Barret had a handful of corn rehydrated in his diaper :)

 

Have you ever made a corn angel?

I think the petting area was Emma's least favorite.  A bunny mistakenly thought her fingers were slender parsnips.

No blood was drawn, but was overjoyed when her lower front tooth fell out while opening her water bottle with her teeth (I know... strange).

Overall, it was a fun day... A little muddy.... but fun.