I'm starting a new holiday - Christmas-Giving!

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm so excited! We're hosting yet again this year, and we're pretty much all set for the big turkey dinner. But I also have to say that since I started my Christmas shopping early this year (last week actually!) I am also getting all wrapped up in the spirit of the holiday season even though Thanksgiving is still a few days away. I don't know - could it be the Christmas music I heard in the car over the weekend while traveling between stores? Or the stores themselves who take down Halloween decorations on Nov 1st and immediately put up Christmas trees all the while there is a small (trivial really) display somewhere to hold the not-so-important Thanksgiving-themed paper plates, cups and napkins and left over autumn-leaf garland? I don't know, but what I do know is, this past weekend, I was ready to decorate!! So Saturday afternoon, the tree went up and by Sunday afternoon, the entire living room was filled with Christmas stuff. That's when my poor husband asked me to stop. He apparently still wants to celebrate Thanksgiving, while I appear to be ready to blow right past it and celebrate Christmas (a month early, but who cares!) So right now, the living room is decked out for Christmas but the dining room is still decorated for fall/Thanksgiving. I wonder what an interior designer would say about that. Oh well, all I can say is, once Friday comes around, I'll be able to finish the decorating in the dining room and then it'll be Christmastime in our house for sure!

B's Birthday

We had a nice laid-back family birthday party for B last Saturday. I made yet another cute cake (I can't help it, my mom always made her own cakes for my birthday and I want to continue that tradition with B.) This time is was bumble bee (in homage to his favorite stuffed animal given to him by my sister-in-law and her boyfriend.)

Not sure if you can tell, but it is missing something - antennae. That's what happens when you've got a 3 and 4 year old running around the house while you're trying to frost a cake. We watched my niece in the morning before everyone arrived and with those 2 running around I'm surprised I didn't forget anything else. Funny, though, no one even noticed they were missing and I didn't even notice until I downloaded the pictures the day after!!

In not-so-good-news, I'm battling yet another cold. The 2nd cold I've had in 2 weeks. Thankfully I was pretty healthy for the party on Saturday, but by Monday I was feeling yucky again. I've been trying to catch up on my sleep and I really hope I can kick this thing soon. Isn't it supposed to be the KIDS who get sick often when they start school? Since when did that rule change? Cause I'm not in school anymore!

But that news is nothing compared to the news I received earlier last week from one of my former teammates. Right before Halloween, his brother passed away rather suddenly to what the family thinks may have been a heart attack. Losing a relative is the worst thing in world, but it's double-ly worse when it happens near the holidays. JP and IP - if you guys are reading this are thoughts are still with you!

Happy Halloween!

Yeah, ok I know I'm almost a week late with that, but I did want to share some pictures from that frightful night! First off - everyone who knows me knows that I love carving pumpkins. And I love doing the really challenging ones that you find in those pumpkin carving kits that come with all the tools you need to carve neat things. I've done witches, scorpions, haunted castles, spiders, etc. so this year was no exception - a pirate ship.


And of course a picture of my firefighter!

A birthday party, a wedding, a baby shower, another birthday party, oh my!!

And that was just last weekend! Yup, we went out for a night on the town with a bunch of friends to celebrate the birthday of one of my best friend's boyfriend who turned 40 that weekend. Even headed up north (out of state) for some bar hopping, mechanical bull riding, and strip club action. It was a fun evening, especially since we got to drive around in a limo and all, but also ended up being a very late night. Not a good way to start a weekend full of stuff.

So on to last Saturday - wedding day for 2 of our closest friends. Unfortunately it rained so their outdoor ceremony was moved indoors, but it was still a beautiful wedding. Most of hubby's closest work-crew friends were there and we partied until they turned the lights up at 11pm. Then we drove home. So another it ended up being yet another late night.

Sunday was my cousin's baby shower (as well as B's 4th birthday!) I have no idea how my cousin is going to manage to fit all the baby stuff she received into her and her fiance's house, but they did manage to pack it all into his truck. Somehow. The best part of the whole day was seeing 4 of my aunts from Canada that I haven't seen in quite a while and having them all meet B. Then, since my aunt hosted the shower, she felt compelled to also invite us all back to her condo and celebrate B's birthday. Combine 4 faraway aunts, about 10 other people crammed into a small condo, a little boy's birthday and what do you get? 4 of the noisiest, most obnoxious-sounding trucks ever invented. Thanks! Just what I needed! More noisy things that require as much battery power as a small car. He loves them though, especially the firetruck with the ladder that extends about 3 feet from the top of the truck. My personal favorite is the dancing Hummer. It actually does dance to the music by rolling back and forth. But the best part is the "comeback" feature this thing has. Once it drives forward for a bit, it literally will go in reverse and goes back to it's original starting point! A boomerang hummer! Ok, enough about the new toys...

After all that running around and late partying, I ended up coming down with a cold. No surprise to me, this seems to happen every time I get run down. I should have known better. But now I'm in the midst of preparing to host B's birthday party for hubby's side of the family. More on that to come...right now I need to get a good night's sleep so I can get over this cold!