Toot Toot All Aboard

I was feeling pretty run down the day after Christmas, and the day after that as well.  Larry saw how exhausted and worn out I was and he and Joey went off on an adventure yesterday.  First they headed out to the California Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.  They toured all the trains, checked out the station, and last but not least played in the Thomas Train children's area.  After doing all that they headed outdoors to take a walk around Old Sacramento.

They grabbed a hotdog or two for lunch and then shared an ice cream from one of the local vendors down town.

Larry determined that it was still to early to return so he stopped off at BounceTown on the way home and he and Joey had a boucning good time of it.  They have a two story slide that Joey just loves going up and then down on, plus all kinds of bounce houses to play in from basic to everything but the kitchen sink.  They stayed and played for quite some time until they'd both worked up a sweat and were worn out.  Once this stage was reached Larry decided it was time to head home and that's what they did.

He did his best to keep Joey awake so that perhaps we could get him back on schedule that night.  He ended up falling asleep at 6:00 only to wake back up at 7:30 pitching little fits.  We tryed to settle him back down, gave him juice and milk so he'd be able to choose for himself, and finally had to give up and just lock him in his room for the night until he crashed out again.  Took about an hour of his crying on and off, but finally he fell back to sleep and slept through the night until 6:00 AM.

Unfortunately he's woken with quite the cold - congestions, cough, and a whole lot of sneezing.  He keeps telling me that his nose hurts, that he hit it, but really it's just bugging him from the congestion.  Poor little guy.  Hopefully he'll get over it quickly and be back to his boisterous self.

Anyway, thank you Larry for giving me that break in time and letting me get some much needed rest.  I'm sure the memories you made with stay with Joey for quite a while.  I love you both.

Ho Ho Ho

Our Christmas celebrations were very nice.  We started them off having a nice meal on Christmas Eve at my sister Crystal's.  It was just she and her husband Jeff, and Jeff's Mom Sharon, plus Larry, Joe, Mom and I.  We just kicked back and had good conversation, then a fabulous dinner prepared by Crystal - Roast Pork with roasted potatoes and carrots, stuffing, and sourdough rolls.  It was all yummy.  Once we'd let our food digest we did a few rounds of Christmas carols, even singing the song my Grandma Hill had written years ago.  It made for a very nice celebration.

One Christmas morning we awoke and opened the presents from Santa and from one another.  This day started at 6:15 when Joey awoke and boy was he ever happy when he came out of his room to find a bicycle (or as he calls it motorcycle) from his Grandma.  He had a ball opening all his presents, and we had a ball watching him.

Then at 9:30 we headed over to Larry's parents for brunch and more gift exchanges.  We did a Dollar Store Christmas exchange which made gift giving quite a challenge for me.  Bonnie had prepared a feast for us.  Sweet Potato and sausage hash, sausage links, bacon, fried eggs, lasagna, bananna nut bread, monkey bread, fudge, candied pecans, hashbrown casserole, and I'm sure I'm missing one or two things.  All of it was delicious and of course we all overate and made ourselves miserable.

Once we'd finished eating Dad read the birth of Jesus from the Bible, and made us all get misty eyes and then he started the gift exchange off with a handmade gift for each of his children and their spouses.  He made us bread boards from the table that they had grown up with and Mom had added a poem explaining all that the table had been through on the back.  It was really beautiful and sentimental.  Larry and I loved it and used it at our Christmas dinner meal.

Then we exchanged our dollar store gifts, getting quite the ecclectic mix of things.  Mary and Eric went with a bath them for the women and cooking for the guys.  Mom and Dad went with cooking and Uncle Brian who cheated got me a 4C meassuring cup which was great cause I'd just broken ours and a candy thermometer which when I went to get mine the other day I realized had been stolen by Larry for some of his brewing experiments so it was the perfect gift.  Kellie and Chuck gave us wands and candy from the dollar store and then they too cheated and gave us personalized gifts - I got a beautiful candle warmer and Larry got a hydrometer for his brewing... at least I think that's what its called.

Joey and Elsa had so much fun opening their gifts, and then stealing the other persons that it was funny to watch.  Since we've come home Joey hasn't stopped playing with all the wonderful things that he received.  Thank you one and all for your thoughtful gifts.

On Christmas night we had Bonnie, Larry and Uncle Brian over for dinner.  Larry and I prepared a beautiful prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, carrots (that were undercooked) and greenbeans with a butter almond sauce.  It was all pretty good if I do say so myself.

Bye the end of the day I was exhausted and looking forward to bed.  Not so Joey.  It took Larry a couple of extra house to get him settled down and into sleep mode.

All in all they were wonderful holiday celebrations.

All things GiddyUp!

Joe loves the game giddy up, whether it's on my knee, Daddy's back or a mechanical horse.  I swear when he grows up he's gonna be a little cowboy.  Yesterday we went to the Dollar Tree and out front they have one of those mechanical horses and as soon as Joey saw it he wanted to ride.  I told him when we were done in the store if he were good and of course he was as good as could be.  So I loaded my purchases in the car and took him back to ride the horse.  He had so much fun I had to let him ride a 2nd time just so I could enjoy his enjoyment.

A Christmas Tree Hunting We Will Go

This year, due to weather, we did not cut down our own tree, but instead headed off to Mikey's Christmas Tree Lot on Sunrise.  This year I was in search of a Noble Pine, and one that wouldn't take up half of our living room.  We met Chuck and Kelly there at 4:00 and off we went in search of the perfect trees.  This was to be the girls year, we had final say, though of course the men had to have their input.

I kept having Larry pull out trees and set them side by side on the center aisle for comparison.  I'd choose a six, seven, even an eight foot tree to compare and Larry would drag out an additional 10, 11, and 12 foot variety.  Each one was supposedly better than the baby ones that I was choosing.  And Kelly and I kept having to tell them that they were not 'holes' in the trees, but intentional gaps since that was the type of tree I was going for.  I think all in all I must have said 100 times, "that's not a big gaping hole, it's an intentional gap, the way the tree is supposed to be structured".  Each time Larry would chuckle and go off in search of an even bigger tree.

Joey had a ball running around the whole time, in his own personal forest, yellin' Momma come, come, or Daddy here.  He was too cute.

After much deliberation and taking in Larry's input I chose my second favorite, a 7-foot beauty.  The first didn't pass the color test with Larry, and so my first choice went to another good home - Kelli and Chuck's.  We hauled our, and there's in the back of our truck and took first their's to their home and then ours back on home.  I have to admit I had a alterior motive for offering to take their tree for them as I wanted to see Kelli's early Christmas present, a darling little siamese mix kitty.  So I got some kitty cuddles, a quick cup of tea and then we were off towards home.  It made for a nice outing.

We put our tree up the next day, only to have it fall over, again, and again, and again.  Crystal came to our rescue with an appropriately sized tree stand and now we have a beautiful if "baby" tree in our living room and a nice white artificial tree set up in the family room.  Joe's had quite the fun time of it driving me crazy taking the balls off and playing toss with them.  Thank goodness their all plastic at his level.  Now if I could only teach him the right way to hang them back up, but I think that skill is going to have to wait for another year.

Larry

I just want to say for the record that I love my hubby.  He's always so supportive of anything I want to do, and in fact encourages me to get out and do things with my friends regardless of how much time it will take me away from the house.

I appreciate your thoughtfullness and all the help you give me with Joey.