Christmas Eve at Cindy's

My family gets together on Christmas Eve to celebrate and exchange presents. It has always done this. We go to Cindy and Wally's house and always have a good time. We eat, play bingo, and exchange presents and visit as well.

We had some great food tonight. Cindy got a 6 foot sub (I think) from Subway and had lots of other goodies. I made taco dip and double delicious bars. I ate until I was stuffed and then ate some more. Everything was SO good.

Then we played bingo. Everyone buys several dollar items and we lay them out (this year we wrapped them to add to the suspense and excitement) and then we each get 5 cards. We take turns being the caller and after someone has five of their cards called they get to pick a prize. We continue until everyone has had a chance to win a prize and then we start over.

Next was present exchanging time. We got nice things!! I felt bad that this year we just didn't have the money to buy people things. It is hard on me when it's like that. But we sure were spoiled by everyone. I really do have a great family.

Surprisingly it was Kevin that gave me the hardest time about leaving. I couldn't get him going. I hated nagging on him but I knew I had presents at home to wrap and lots of other last nminute things to do. He was enjoying himself with the guys as they drank a few beers. It stinks that I am always waiting until the last minute to do everything! But I also knew Cindy was in the same boat with the wrapping as I was so I wanted to give her a break and let her get at it at a decent hour.

I know that it will be well past midnight before I get to bed. I had to get on here and blog a few minutes. I still have stockings to stuff and presents to lay out. It is really late too so I had better get to it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I probably won't get on here until the day after Christmas. Remember JESUS is the REASON for the SEASON!!!

Wow am I ever tired!

What a day! I have been on the run I think most of the day. I went to Crystal's and we ran to a church in the neighborhood to pick up some stuff they had there for her. Then I went to my parent's house to pick up a few things. My aunt and uncle were there and then shortly after they left another uncle and a cousin showed up. I was there much longer than I expected. I came home and did a bit of cleaning as well as some Christmas wrapping. Then after fixing supper for the fmaily I ended up going to Wal-Mart. I had to get some groceries and stuff for Christmas Eve. I also wanted to pick up a few things on the list that Kevin wanted--lined leather gloves and wool socks. Wal-Mart was sold out of both. ughh.... Anyway I got in line a 9:50 p.m. and did not get to check out until 10:30 p.m. That was just WAY TOO LONG for me to wait.

My girl's day-out!

Wow hard to believe but true--I got to go to Alpena with my best friend Crystal. We used to do this on occasion and would have a blast but like I said yesterday due to busy motherhood, crazy schedules, sickness, etc.. we haven't done this in forever. Where did we go? We-the big spenders we are-hit the Salvation Army, the library, and Dollar Tree!!! Oh and we did go through and order from the dollar menu at McDonalds. lol We did have a great time though and are determined to do this more often.

I got home just in time to babysit Jeremiah. I unloaded the goodies I bought and books found at the library. Zack's Star Wars book was in much to his delight. He is also happy with the spy book he had on hold. There was and "Animal Ark" book on the free table that I grabbed for Becca. The movies this time were Kevin-oriented. So I have a fairly happy family at the moment.

I guess I need to get off this thing since I still haven't decided on supper yet. Sometimes I miss the old days when we had more money and could order pizza. Man has it been a long time!

ttfn

Oh the fun I had today!

My best friend Crystal came over today. Her kids were home from school on account of the snow--we have lots! She brought the stuff for us to rubberstamp together. We made lots of cards. It was a blast. Becca really gets into it too! So we sat and chatted and made cards and just plain had fun. It was really nice since we hardly ever get to be together anymore.
Our lives are just too busy it seems sometimes. They have experienced some major difficulties this past year and we haven't had the greatest year either so I am always glad when we can just spend the day together doing something we enjoy.
Crystal is also my scrapbook buddy. Without her I just can't seem to get motivated. After she leaves I am generally on a roll and can cruise through a bunch of pages but just don't seem to have the same enthusiasm.

We also discussed our Christmas get-together. We always get our families together to exchange presents and have a bunch of yummy food. Last Christmas things were crazy and they only got worse after the first of the year. We chuckled today remembering that it was a week before Easter that we finally all had time to make a day of it and "Do Christmas". We were able to enjoy nibbling on a chocolate Easter bunny while opening presents!

Zack was happy to be woke up early when Bob (my friends ds) arrived. Since he had gone with Kevin to work he was supposed to sleep awhile after getting home. BOY do I ever wish he had gotten more sleep. What a cranky child he is! Fortunately Crystal left a Christmas movie here for us to watch and that is what we are going to do now.

I made some very yummy pork chops for supper along with fettucini alfredo and corn. Zack is not a pasta eater and Becca is a pasta lover! So it seems as though I am always trying to find something they both like--that is AFFORDABLE that is! lol

The snow outside is frightful....

We have a ton of new snow today.
Zack went with Kevin today to do his route. Kevin has a rural newspaper route and delivers to over 200 customers. Today the paper was giving out samples of Splenda. I recently read an article to him about Splenda and the dangers of it. http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
Kevin joked that this week he was poisoning his customers. What will it be next--arsenic?

Wow the stuff you can get done if you really try.

I didn't have to babysit for Jeremiah today so I decided it was time to get rolling on some of the things I put off too long. I scrubbed my floors on my hands and knees until they were finally clean. At least I know they are clean. My kitchen floor needs some new covering as we have some tears in linoleum here and there. I also got a couple loads of laundry done and dusted some shelves.

Both of the kids got to help make some more Christmas goodies. Becca made peanut butter cookies and Zack made chocolate chip cookies. They did nearly everything themselves. I just assisted when needed. Now the trick will be keeping them out of the cookies until Christmas.

I like to give platters of goodies to family and friends. MY family is big but so is Kevin's. He is the eighth of nine kids. We live very near many of them as well. TOO near actually but that too is another story.

Kevin and Roy(his bil) have come home with one load of wood and have left to get another. We are getting quite a pile of wood. My brother Terry helped us get a bunch of wood off of his property. What a blessing that was! He even hauled it with his tractor. I made him a loaf of bread but that doesn't even scratch the surface of thanking him!

I have an interesting son.

ZACK

He is very interesting. More on this later.

Well I told my sister about this blog so now I HAVE to do it!

My family is very ummm.... SPECIAL. I am the baby so that stinks. But only because I would like to have the wisdom the older ones have. I have three brothers-Randy, Terry, and Roger(he died when I was almost 11). I also have three sisters--Cindy, Angel, and Connie. There are lots of kids born to them as well and I LOVE being an aunt.

I am fortunate to be able to live near most of my family. We get together a lot at my parents house to have meals and play games. I of course ALWAYS win! Not really--I never do!!!!

I hope that my kids will be blessed enough when they are grown to be able to have that kind of relationship with us and each other.

I'll be including lots of "stuff" on here.

I will have reading lists, recipes, movie recommendations, fun family games, good music, and pretty much anything else floating around in my head. I will be learning along with every step so I hope to be able to add some interesting things in time.

Well I think I am ready for this new adventure!

I am excited to be doing this and hope my inexperience doesn't show too much. I am writing this while the kids play in their rooms and Kevin(my dh) is gone getting firewood.

We try extremely hard to live as cheaply as we can as we never seem to have enough money. We have a wood stove that provides all of our heat. Despite it being -6 outside the house is fairly toasty. Poor Kevin, however, I am sure is a bit frosty!

I am hoing to get a chance to do a little Christmas shopping today. The kids were given money by a cousin and want to hit the Dollar Tree to use it up. I think they hope to use it to by presents for others which I find very sweet.

Working on getting this set up. Remember patience is a virtue(or so they say!)

How do you spend your free time?

I don't know for sure what free time is but I like to spend it surfing the net and reading other blogs. I hope that you all will enjoy reading mine--even if it seems a bit boring at times. That's just my life--boring yet hectic!

I am still learning....

I am really hoping to get this to work so bear with me. I will tell you who "me" is just as soon as I get a good grasp of what I'm doing here!