Christmas Day

Christmas morning was good in our house. We weren’t sure how things would go over with the Wii. We had explained to Cade that Santa was bringing him surprise this year, it would be something he didn’t even know that he wanted yet. What Cade really wanted was an ATTE from Star Wars. I’m still not sure what it is, except it’s a very large toy. He was sure that Santa was going to get it for him. We kept explaining that Santa also talks to grandparents. Cade said his grandparents couldn’t afford the ATTE (he’s started reading the prices out of the Toys R Us catalog) Needless to say we were a little concerned about his reaction on Christmas morning. But it worked out. Here’s the Wii moment….

I'm not sure which one the gun was for....

We spent Christmas Day with the Fowlers this year. I don’t make it home very often and when we do I don’t get to stay for church on Sunday mornings. Because of that, I rarely get to see my Aunt’s, Uncle’s and cousins. It’s worked out to where we could spend Christmas day with my side the last three years and I’ve really enjoyed it. I know Cade does because he gets to play with cousins that he only sees once a year. I think Cade and Glynn hit out in the basement playing Glynn’s Wii most of the day. Jay hooked up our Wii upstairs so the adults could play.

No Jay didn't injure himself. He needed a place to sit and this was the only chair available.

Avery opening up our present to her. It was a Little People Nativity set. Jay and I are going to have to visit Avery so we can play with it. If it hadn't had so many ties on it we probably would've opened it and played with it before we gave it too her. I'll definitely be getting one it we have any more "littles" in our house.

Cade helping Pampa George open his presents.

Justin explaining the art of applying powder to Avery. Aren't those pigtails sweet?

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve we got to do something we’ve only done one other time….stay at our house. The other time we did it was in 2002 and that was because we were snowed in. I’m not sure that counts??? It worked out better for Megan and Terry to be at Jim and Sharon’s the day after Christmas so we had Christmas with the Shepherd’s on the 26th. We invited Jim and Sharon over on Christmas Eve and we had a nice relaxing evening. It was nice to be able to sit around and just enjoy Christmas Eve without all of the frantic running around. We did plenty of it the next three days so I really enjoyed our evening at home. We ate, let Cade open up a few presents (one small toy and his traditional Christmas Jammies), talked and watched Christmas Vacation for the 1,000th time. After Cade opened up his presents Jay let me open up one of mine. He had printed off all of our blog entries and put them in two notebooks. I have Volume I and Volume II. Then I let Jay open up one of his. It was his traditional Crazy Christmas pants from Cade.

A picture of us that night. We moved our tree to a new spot this year. I think this will be it's new yearly "home".

Here Jay and Cade are putting out Reindeer Feed to attract the Reindeer. If you don't know what Reindeer Feed is, it's a wonderful mixture of oatmeal and glitter that elementary kids mix together at school on the last day during their Christmas parties. As you can tell by the fact Jay is dumping out Cade's backpack, it is a tricky thing to transport home. Thankfully Jay had vaccuumed out my car or the reindeer might have landed in it. Eight reindeer in a Pontiac would not have been a fun thing to have cleaned up after. We had stored the backpack in a safe location until this night where we could dump it out but not upset Cade. I've seen him get upset over me throwing away papers. I could imagine how upsetting seeing his Reindeer feed in the trash would've been for him

Cade's traditional jammies.

Playing Joseph

Cade was Joseph on our church Christmas float this year. The night we were working on the float and decided Cade would be Joseph, he became very serious about his appointed role. I was multi-tasking in the basement that evening. I had started out helping with the float but at 7:00 pm I switched over the helping decorate the basement for Christmas. I wasn’t part of the Joseph discussion so Cade came over to let me know. Then he very seriously asked me what baby we were going to use. When I explained to him it would have to be a doll he seemed to be a little disappointed. Then again, very seriously, he asked me how he needed to stand. He demonstrated several stances and facial expressions. Playing Joseph was a serious role around our house the next few days. We discussed it frequently.

Christmas Shopping

Jay and Cade are on their 3rd day of Christmas Break. So far their days have been pretty busy.....Cade's shot off 24,000 rounds of imaginary ammunition and Jay's finished his Christmas shopping. On Monday Jay's truck had to go into the shop (Merry Christmas to us!!!) so Jay borrowed Jim and Sharon's truck and went to Springfield to finish his shopping. I can envision Jay trying to get through the very busy mall, looking for the perfect gifts, with Cade in tow. I should also mention Cade has a pair of Skeecher velcro shoes ( anyone who wants to comment on that is more than welcome to come and teach him how to tie his shoes) that are a little too big for him. I tried to get him to get a smaller size but he said they hurt his feet and wanted the size 3. I gave in to him because his foot had made a sizeable leap this summer and figured it wouldn't take long for the shoes to fit. Instead of his foot growing, I think the shoes are growing. He can't keep them on his feet. Jay had to stop three times in the mall so Cade could adjust his shoes...which is done at a snails pace. I don't know this for a fact, but I'm picturing the adjustment taking place in the middle of the aisle at the mall. Can't you see it?

Besides shopping for his gift list and making sure he made it home with his child, Jay also had another task to accomplish that day. He had to return a gift that I had bought for him, but decided not to give him. Yes, he is a good husband. Let me explain....On Thanksgiving day I had Jay look through the Sears flier for Christmas ideas. There was a large set of tools that he wanted and then there were some smaller things that he also liked. When mom and I got to Sears that morning I found the large set and contemplated getting it. Now, that was the day that my stone/cyst thing was kicking into high gear. It was 5:30 in the morning, I had an awful pain in my right side and I was looking at a box that was as long as I was tall and seemed to weigh 500 pounds. There was no way I was in any condition to manhandle that box on Friday. I felt that if I lifted it, whatever was hurting in my right side would probably explode. Even if I had been in perfect health I don't think I would've wanted to deal with it though the holidays - getting it in the house, wrapping it, putting it under the tree. Also, the fact that I was in my car (Pontiac G6) kept me from buying it. I don't think it would've fit anywhere except on top. Who wants to drive around the day after Thanksgiving with a box on the hood of their car? I made a decision - I love my husband, but the gift was not worth a hernia so I moved on to the smaller things on the list.

So now that you have the background story here's why Jay had to return his gift . I bought a smaller jack that he wanted, it still seemed to weigh 100 pounds, but I lugged it out to the car. On Saturday Sharon called because she was going shopping and wanted to know what I bought. She decided to get something similar so I needed to return the jack and get him something else. That was fine, I didn't mind at all, except I kept forgetting to return the stupid thing. It had been riding around in the trunk of my car since the day after Thanksgiving...I either would forget it or not have the receipt, etc. One day last week I realized Jay saw what was in the trunk. He's supposed to stay out of my car trunk during this time of the year, but he needed to load something for me. Once I realized it I said "well I guess you know what you're getting this year". He informed me he'd already seen it a dozen times. So Monday when he said he was going to the mall I half jokingly asked him if he wanted to return the jack. He said he might as well....I dug out the receipt and realized there were some other gifts on it. I gave it to him with explicit instructions not to look at it. Just hand it to the cashier and DO NOT LOOK AT THE RECEIPT. I don't know if he looked or not, but Jay had to return a gift that wasn't really a gift before Christmas while Cade was shooting every imaginary war plane in sight. Can you visualize it?

Merry Christmas

Here is a link to pictures on the Kansas City Star website. It proves that any person playing Santa must have nerves of steel. Enjoy!

In the lap of the jolly old elf

Laugh for the Day...or at least it makes me laugh....

This morning I came to work and did my normal routine. I got on MSNBC and browsed the main headlines for the day. In the entertainment section there were a lot of pictures and stories about Tom Cruise's new movie. I'm not a big fan of Tom, his acting has never impressed me and I'm sure that I'll never see this movie. Honestly I'm not even sure what the movie is about. I know he's a German during WWII, but that's about it. Even if I was a fan and planned on seeing Valkyrie I don't think I could watch it without laughing because of the movie Valiant. Have you ever seen Valiant? Cade has it and he went through a stage a couple of years ago where he watched it over and over and over. It was a Disney movie about Pigeon's during WWII. It was a decent movie. I don't think it was one of Disney's big money makers like The Little Mermaid or Cars, but it was an all right movie. The only problem is that it might make people who have seen Valiant have a hard time taking Tom's new movie seriously. Really who could look at this.....

and not compare it to this from Valiant

It's the first thing that comes to mind everytime I hear or see anything related to Valkyrie. That is the Fowler sense of humor coming out in me.

Happy Anniversary

Today Jay and I have been married for 9 years. It is so hard to believe. I don't feel like it's been that long, but when I think back over specific things I realize we have been together a long time.

We started dating December 1998. Since I was getting ready to start my last semester in college and would be joining the adult world in May I wanted Fiesta dishes for Christmas that year. I didn't think I would be getting married anytime soon so I wanted nice dishes then instead of having to wait an indefinite amount of time. Thankfully Jay didn't have an issue with my Fiesta dishes. Over the next year I was able to get most of the dishes I wanted before we even started registering for our wedding. I originally picked out 6 colors (pink, yellow, turquoise, seafoam green, blue, persimmon) and we added a 7th color in 2008. Jay bought me a set of peacock for my birthday. As I was unloading the dishes last night I was thinking about how after 10 years I've never gotten tired of my dishes. I still get a little bit of a thrill when I open up my cabinets and see all of those colors in there. I think I'll be happy with the dishes for many many years to come.

Then that made me start thinking about our anniversary and how the Fiesta dishes are like our marriage. After 9 years there's still a thrill when I get home and open up the laundry room door (ok, there's a little more of a thrill when I open up the door and see Jay standing at the stove cooking dinner), but even if he's not and I have to track him down in the house I'm still glad to be there. Every day I wake up thankful that I woke up next to my husband and I pray that God will let us repeat it the next morning and for many, many more years. I'm pretty sure I'm not ever going to grow tired of it. Not only did I make a good decision when I picked out my Fiesta dishes 10 years ago, I also did a good job picking out my date to the Block and Bridle Formal. They're both still hanging around and still looking good. Happy Anniversary - I love you!

Here are some pictures of us through the years. Like I said, I don't feel like we've been married that long, but when I look back at pictures I realize it has been a few years.

College Graduation May 1999

Our Wedding December 18, 1999

Seeing the Rockettes in Branson November 2003Halloween 2005

Billy Graham Library in Charlotte December 2008