Our Christmas Day

Possibly a little overdue especially since we have been experiencing the whole going stir crazy concept around these neck of the woods. Actually the hubbie and I are calling it testing our love.  Which we commented about in front of the teenager , who firmly reminded us "hey I am home".  No, no forest not that kind of love.  One more week until we are back to work until then we shall finish and find projects to occupy our time and little brains.

For now though let's take a little look at our Christmas celebrations to date (we have one more to go).

There is nothing like coming down the steps to a pile of presents under the tree.  Thank you Santa, guess our stinky kids were good after all.

 And then because anticipation seems to make things so much better we have a super family breakfast prior to finally opening the gifts

Even though we said we were not going to get each other something after the concert we still did because hey it is fun to open something on Christmas morning.

Chuck was sure to supervise everything.

Her fave gift by far was the black boots

His fave gift the ipad mini even with the sad duck face he was sporting.

The pups got their new jolly balls from Santa.  Three different sizes, these things are the bomb.  They are the only toy that stands up to our destructible pups.

 

And the Forest pays attention...we said once that the greatest gift someone gave us ever was toilet paper and paper towels.  He delivered with a trunk full of TP and paper towels.  

Oh yes our next family gift was "Cards against Humanity".  If you have older kids or adults, highly recommend this.  It is terrible, hilarious fun and we promptly played after opening.  I foresee some expansion packs in our future.

Later in the evening we were graced by the littles...so why not open some presents.

Hands down a complete win with the pup patrol characters that I was able to find.

And that folks wraps up our little Christmas story to date...enjoy our morning Merry Christmas selfie

Now time to prep for the new year and figure out how not to go stir crazy over the next week.

Fa la la la laaaa, Ho ho ho

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays 'tis the day before Christmas. After the craziness of prep for this holiday, everyone can finally relax and take a moment to make a moment.  After all, this is what it is about, the moments and memories with your family and friends; whether it be the beautiful glorious moments or ones where George decides to start a fight at the dinner table and launches mashed potatoes at Grandma.

Today I shall bring you a taste of Christmas that has been placed upon our home...my ornaments that represent the memories and love from my family.

 A key to represent our first home : A bear I painted for my son's first Christmas

The first ornament my son made me : An ornament to represent our wedding day

 A nutcracker that I got when I saw the Nutcracker with the steppie : the first village building I painted

First ornament made with the puppies : Ornament my mommie made me this year

Ornament made by my grandmother : Ornament made by my mother last year

Now to help get everyone in the mood, let's add a little Christmas cheer via my kind of Christmas music

There you have a few good songs and laugh or two for Christmas.

May you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and Happy Holidays making many memories

Sparkling like Tinsel

Happy wholly the weekend before Christmas has came and went.  Which basically means that I spent it tying up a few little details. 

Friday evening found me grabbing some last minute gifts for the furry kids at the pet store.  Saturday was consumed with getting our family video off the ground and wrapping gifts.  Now let's talk about wrapping gifts.  If you recall this is one of the tasks that does not rank very high on the joy list.  Have you seen that YouTube video of the wrapping on the diagonal master wrapper crap.  Clearly I am saying this since I tried it and basically said screw it after the first fold.  Here is the video:



That person is pretty crazy amazing. In an attempt to seriously figure this out I looked for another, slower then a herd of turtle video on diagonal present wrapping.  Well I did find some and may give it another shot if additional presents decide to come around.  If you figured this out, kudos to you. 

I can also say though that I discovered a bonus to wrapping gifts while the hubbie was downstairs tinkering in the basement.   Binge watching for the win.  I finally finished Dexter!! And oh my goodness.

Sunday was the standard...house cleaning and shopping, family dinner...fa la la.

 Now feeling fairly set for Christmas every year I go thru the famous what the heck do I wear for Christmas thing.  That whole getting super dressed up really doesn't fit.  And I am seriously a comfort geared creature when it comes to hanging  out with the family.  For those of you in the same boat, I embraced my inner fashion blogger to bring you a few ideas or aka what you will find me chilling in.

Does this sweater just not scream Clark Griswold...big comfy wintery.  Sweaters, scarfs etc can be found at Maurices.

And there you have it...plus I discovered why there really are no northern fashion bloggers.  Winter is cold and you totally freeze your bum off taking the pictures.

 

Until another day, my people and may your presents all be wrapped...

 

Walking in a Winterwonderland

When one lives in Wisconsin you only really have a few choices, like sit inside and wait for the cold to pass or figure out a way get outside and enjoy.  Since I really do not do well with sitting still and the "official" start of winter is right around the corner let's take a little peek at five of my favorite winter time things...that occur outside.

1.  Snowshoeing

 

My little bro got me snowshoes last Christmas and I love them.  Like cross country skiing except you can get more places.

 

2.  Running

Sorry folks running isn't just for summer, spring and fall.  Running in the winter is so much more interesting...plus it is hard to overheat.

 

3.   Tubing/Sledding 

 

Sledding is fun since it is free and close to home.  Tubing is awesome too though especially since there is no walking up the huge hill you just flew down. 

 

4. Cross Country Skiing 

The quiet that you get in the middle of the woods in Winter is seriously amazing.

 

5. Winter Nighthike with a bonfire  

Every year our Horicon marsh visitor center puts on this event. Intriguing to walk around during the stillness of a winter night and then be treated to a bonfire.



And I can say that all of this is a legit excuse to consume large quantities of hot chocolate and chili.

Now let's bring on winter (officially that is)

 

Fluffy...Fluffy

As I was sitting here spending my time, more like struggling as to what to put into this little space of mine today, it hit me.  Clearly, I know. Hard to believe you didn't see it coming since there is a post you are reading right about now.  You see I am trying to get things back in order and gear up for the week ahead.  Plus I am anxiously awaiting my new planner, which will hopefully help with all my scatteredness.

Now since everything that seems to be on the forefront is with Christmas and I was no way prepared for this Christmas type talk today....I had the glorious epiphany that hey maybe I should give everyone a catch up of where the heck my running has been at or not.   

This is the first week in all of December that I have ran twice during the week.  Normally I run 3x's per week and cross train on 2.  Plus the general work outs have been a mass amount of suckage.   At least this week I am back on track, which truly is perfect timing since I will "resting" over the holidays to prep myself for next years training.

Basically the conclusion or announcement of this post is that I have officially declared December the Fluffing month

via

 

Look at that cute fluffy bunnie.  Fluffy equals adorable. 

Well for now, plus when I tell myself next year that I am going to hit this weight goal and those I shoved every single cookie, chocolate covered cherry and cocktail in my mouth I could think of pounds melt away I will surely feel like a totally hard body rockstar.  Making that whole shit I want to do this year stuff feel like it is going so much better.

 

So cheers to fluffing it up this month

 

 

Chaotic Christmas Cramming

Not sure about everyone else but I feel like I am going thru a week of finals in colleges related to Christmas. Trying to cram in everything that needs to get done and in order before the final hooray. With that being said you should then have an idea how the weekend was spent.

Saturday morning though was all about my littles.   We even broke the "rules" and played with some crayons, markers and water with a paint brush.

 

Then it was time for them to go see Santa.  Our city's theme this year was Whoville..and whoever did the little girls hair did an absolutely amazing job

 

 

After Santa we had some milk and cookies too of course.

Clearly they got a puppy in their stocking from Santa.

 

The afternoon was spent shopping with the hubbie.  A little field trip to Menards to get a new light, which then turned into a new thermostat and door knob.  And getting stalked by this penguin...

 

You see L had this penguin in random places all along her daily journey on Friday.  Well she did a great job keeping track of it until Saturday when she must have forgotten about him because all of sudden there he was sitting by my hubbie.  After we were able to ditch the penguin, we took some time out of our day for a stop for a quick appetizer and cocktail.   Then it was home to work on the projects....as of today, we have a new light, lock, and thermostat installed and working.

 

Later in the evening we checked out an Italian restaurant that I have been wanting to try one town over.

 

Oh my goodness I absolutely loved the food and can say we will be visiting again.

 

After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, it was time to head home for a little rest...ok more like we sat up and binge watched "The Following" while wrapping Christmas presents.  Clearly the puppies just wanted to rest.

 

Sunday was basically dedicated to baking...like all afternoon baking. 

 

Cashew brittle, Kiss cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, Cherry cookies, oreo balls, peppermint/chocolate bark, cake batter fudge...oh my.  We were busy.  The hubbie did help of course we have very different kitchen tactics.  He cleans as he goes...and I destroy like a natural disaster and rebuild later.  

This is the cake batter fudge experiment...now after additional reviews, I may just share the recipe with you guys.  Now that I have your tummie a rumbling, best that I go.

 

Later days,