Playing Catch Up!

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I wrote last!

We've been busy and been having lots of fun this Christmas break! So... where to begin...

We went to see The Tale of Despereaux on Christmas Eve and both the boys loved it! We'd read the book, which is fantastic, and I knew the movie would be different so I was a bit concerned how Josh would take it.

The movie was different -- but the message in the movie and the book are the same. And it wasn't too different. I thought it was a great movie. Of course, I liked the book better, but both the boys really enjoyed the movie and that's what matters.

Christmas day was fun too. We managed to hold the kids off until about 6:30 or so. Then came downstairs and opened a few presents. We were a bit unfortunate... Sam's only present he asked Santa for was the Playmobil Knights and Castles set. I found one about 2 weeks before Christmas on Amazon and ordered it in plenty of time for a Christmas delivery. We got the notice that it would be delivered on 12/19... and it still hadn't come by Christmas Eve! I wrote Amazon and they told me to "wait until 12/26." Yeah. I don't think so.

I had to go out and buy something else for Sam (I got the Playmobil Skatepark for him). Santa left a note saying the elves ran out of the item he asked for, He was a bit disappointed Santa didn't get him the set he asked for, but still loves the Skatepark anyway.

The boys got a Wii and some games for it from the Grandparents (both sets chipped in for the unit plus a few games, extra controller, etc...). So that has been the main source of entertainment for the past week.

We've been having all sorts of fun "Family Challenges" on the Wii Sport.

We took the kids on a Nature Scavenger hunt one day, and to the Tennessee Aquarium one day. Both were lots of fun and there are pictures up on my Flickr page.

We also had a bit of bad news about our car. On Christmas Eve when I was driving all over trying to get Sam's gift, I noticed the speedometer had stopped working. So we brought it to the dealer shortly after Christmas and discovered it needed (among other things) a new transmission.

We hummed and hawed over getting the repairs or buying a new car and when I mentioned to the dealer we may be interested in a new car, he told me he couldn't help me out there. No wonder they need a bail out!

When that happened, we decided to cut our losses and bring it to an independant garage for a 2nd opinion. He was so nice! He looked at our car and spent a lot of time diagnosing it. He called us frequently and let us know what was going on. Bottom line tough -- yes it did need a new tranny.

We were prepared for this, so we'd been looking at some new car options and decided, for now, the best thing is to keep our car and do the repairs. I love my car and am just not ready to give up on it, downsize or settle for something I don't really want. Hopefully we'll get the car back later in the week.

The boys start back at school on Tuesday. Sam told me the other day he missed his friends and wanted to go back to school. Josh is ready to go back too!

So that's pretty much up to date -- the abridged version anyway!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Here's to new beginnings, and a prosperous 2009!

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the New Year twice!

On Dec. 30th, we had some friends over for dinner. Because they were coming early so their boys and our boys could play, we just had some pizza from Costco. It was easiest and appeases the picky eaters in the bunch.

I usually go to Costco on a weekday by myself and it's fun but I do go often. Rich doesn't get to go much so when he does we always take longer, look at things we don't need and sometimes we talk ourselves into something. Rich likes to look at the electronics. Just to see what's there. While we did discuss new luggage at length and even tested out some that we liked, we did not make any unplanned purchases -- or we only made one minor unplanned purchase.

Like I said, we were having friends over for dinner. It was New Year's Eve's Eve so we had to celebrate. The boys saw a "party pack" that had hats, plates, invitations, balloons, and all sorts of fun stuff -- 240+ pieces of "Happy New Year's Eve" stuff! Originally we said no. Then Rich changed his mind because he really wanted it! We got home and decorated the house and Josh wrote out the invitations.

You can see the kids were excited.




Sam liked blowing the horn. He put the hat on all by himself too.



Then for New Year's Eve, our friends invited us over to their place for dinner and a New Year's Celebration. Although since we both have young children, we decided celebrating "Greenwich Mean Time" New Years would be best.

After dinner we went out and lit sparklers.





And there were fireworks -- although those pictures didn't show up very well.



And since Sam's sleep schedule lately is more of a 3 month old rather than a 3 year old, he was exahusted, so we went home after the fireworks were done. Both boys were in bed and asleep quite quickly!

Rich and I actually managed to stay up until midnight. It was quite by accident, but it was fun to ring in the New Year. And fortunately, Sam and Josh must have been absolutely worn out from all the fun we've had this Christmas Break because they actually slept the whole night through and didn't wake up until 6:30! Woo Hoo! Then they played in Josh's room together until 7:00!

Way to ring in the New Year all fresh and rested!

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2008!