I survived the first day of Winter Break!... Not really

Ahhh what a day it has been! I remember being so ready for winter break when I was a kid. Lazy days of sleeping till noon staying in jams all day & watching movies all night. Then staying up as late as I could, even faking asleep when my dad came in to check on me. I always had a house full of friends, for some reason mine was the house to go to, yet the smallest of everyone I knew. I went to an upper class school but I was very messed up middle class, my mom was a medical assistant and dad was and RN in the Army. They lived together from the time i was 9 till 16 yet had divorced when I was 2. My father remarried when I was 7. It went down hill when he came back from overseas.But I am pretty close to him. My mother who wasn't really a "mom" she just made up for it by buying me everything I wanted. She was also previously married and in the divorce her ex got custody of my sister.... (not sure why). So I faked it enough to make it through school then moved out. In 2000 my mother had gastric bypass surgery and after not finding the man of her dreams she became a wino. Lost her job, her licence and I took over her car. She went rehab and fried all her brain cells. One of the many reasons I moved 125 miles away from her.

Fast forward 10 or so years. I was really looking forward to winter break mostly the sleeping in part, bc heck I stay in jams all day anyway. Well for some stupid reason the whole state got out of school last Friday, but not us. This year may kids where expected to go to school today but, uhh we didn't. After cleaning up one kids room we where all exhausted. So as always I woke up on the couch at 2 am then moved to the bed and overslept. Well for some crazy reason today started out okay until the kids dad/the man I married(ineedanameforhim) went to work. Then all hell broke loose, the baby who was happily playing in his walker started crying, the phone rang, I was stuck in a laundry pile so I couldn't find the phone. Kids started fighting over the tv. I gave up. So me and baby boy went to play in his room. Then my mother called she made a little sense until she started repeating herself. So that ended in a hang up call. After the dust settled with that I went to feed baby boy in the kitchen. Next thing I knew yelling started back within 5 minutes baby food went everywhere and I stepped on glass and had to take a shower, all 5 of us were crying. So currently my house looks like MTVs spring break. I have a cut on my foot, ears are ringing, head hurts,cans are everywhere,panties in the bathroom floor, clothes & hangers on den the floor, dishes all over the house I don't know if I will sleep tonight and if so whose bed/couch it will be on. This is only day 1 with 14 more to go! All alone no MIL, gma or ex to send them off to. Save me!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I just noticed I do not have an obligatory tree post. Not sure why not seeing how we have 3 large trees inside. Thanks to a 3 year old who kept yelling "More DEC-R-ATIONS!" Until I ended up with 3 trees and more garland than Martha could shake a stick at. So here is our family tree with the kiddos first Christmas ornaments and our handmade ones from over the years.

  Note the cute little one in the pic, not the mess under the tree which are stickers his sister decided to stick on everything. Our other two trees are a white tree with colorful lights and glittery things and a vintage aluminum tree with a color wheel and blue bulbs. They are both just as nice, I am just way to lazy to find pictures of them. But for more Christmas Tree fun check out

Someone Please press pause

    Gosh this month will not slow down. I remember this time last year I was begging it to pass, I was so not feeling Christmas while on bed rest. But now it seems like there are not enough days in the month to get everything I want done. Between the kids going to school and hubsy working we can never seem to get time to spend together. So this weekend I tried to work on that and finish up my shopping, which is done. (Yay!) Saturday we made ornaments and a gingerbread house and Sunday our goal was to watch as many Christmas movies as we could. Except with one sick kid I didn't too get much of that done. But I figured I would share some ideas on how have fun this holiday season without going broke.

1. Have a popcorn and Pjs day! Dig out all your old holiday movies keep your jams on and be lazy!

2. Bake cookies with the record player(or ipod) turned up! Memories of moms or dads yummy Christmas cookies will never fade.

3. Email Santa. You can print out his response as a keepsake then spend hours on the site finding more fun things to do.

4. Make a gingerbread house. (I know you can make ginger bread on your own but the pre-made kits save a little time. They are around 9 bucks at Michaels and every week they have a new coupon for 40 to 50% off one item.)

5. Take a car ride! Take the whole family for a ride around your neighborhood and look at all the pretty homes at night.

6. Have an arts and crafts day; make popsicle stick reindeer ornaments, felt mice or just cut a few trees from construction paper and let everyone decorate their own tree with glitter and sequins or crayons and stickers for the less messy version.

7. Have a cleaning party! Yes we all have heard our kids cry and say they hate our parties but encourage everyone to look through their toy boxes and closets for things they have grown out of. Then call your local church or shelter and give them to a family in need of them. (Those boxes on the side of the road never make it anywhere without rain or being picked over.) Plus Santa can't bring toys if you have nowhere to put them.

8.Check out your local parade or school/church event. I have missed most of those this year but husby has taken the kids they always have so much fun.





That is as much as I can think of for now but please feel free to add your ideas in the comments!

                     

                            

Moms letter to Santa

         

Dear Santa ,
                     
                            Happy Christmas! I hope you have gotten plenty of rest this year. My name is Mom & I am too old to remember how old I really am. You probably don't remember me, as not many people do. I know this has been a hard year on everyone so  I wont ask for much but when I was 5 I asked for an awesome purple bike when i ran down stairs there it was. When I was 10 I just wanted my dad safe and back from Panama, he was home by spring. Many years later I asked for a baby or a bunny, by next Christmas I was expecting. So I guess I still believe in something.
                  
                                  This year I want a few odd items that cannot be made in your workshop but maybe someone is out there listening. I would really love a day alone just to sleep past 7, take a shower with out 8 interruptions and dry my hair one day out of the year. I guess I would also add to that a night alone to go to a movie and dinner with my husband would be great. We never see each other if we do we are usually complaining about what someone else did that day. I am also not sure when the last time I had a hot meal with out cleaning up a spilled milk or getting up for another clean fork. I would also love a necklace like this for myself I never ask for gift for myself and if I do it always end up being a kitchen appliance or a dish of some sort. I would also love this awesome phone I saw on Southern plate's facebook page.  I also dig her cook book. For the rest of the crew;

                       Lyssa wants a pair of Uggs
                         Pacey needs a new bed,
                      Lily wants everything she sees,
                        Jude is very easy to please--
                           so give it your best guess.
 


 I hope that's not to much to ask for have a safe trip.


            PS: Hope you don't get sick from the brownies this year. (I will bake them this time)