Christmas recap

I was a little sick last week. It was actually just your basic cold. I tried to ignore it & "do it all" and I eventually crashed & burned. I finally just got the Christmas letter & picture finished & mailed YESTERDAY! Note to self: you are not the young spring chicken that you used to be!

Plenty of good Christmas memories were still made. I managed to get the traditional picture of the kids under the tree. This was an especially amazing feat as I got the cat (Bella) & dog (Martina) in the picture too. It took SEVERAL tries and a lot of patience, but it happened.


Another favorite memory made was getting the Luna sister picture taken. I always try & get this taken when all of us Luna girls are in the same place at the same time. We haven't had one taken since May 2009. I know that doesn't sound like too long ago. We are all together once every year or two. I still like to capture that moment and the family that GOD chose us to be. Unlike our friends, spouses, in laws, etc. we literally have no choice over who is birthed into our families. I personally don't like to argue with God & his master plan. So even though I may have a different personality than my sisters & we don't see things eye to eye & I at times wonder how we are possibly related & honestly they at times drive me completely crazy...I LOVE them because they are my sisters!!


My last great memory of this year (there are many more, I just picked a few highlights) was getting this Barbie doll. Let me go back & fill in some of the details. For the first time in I don't know how many years Jim wanted us to buy each other Christmas presents. We had gotten into the habit of just making it about that kids that we stopped buying each other gifts. This was hard for me cause gifts is one of my main love languages (more of me giving, but I have no problem receiving either), but I managed. I gave Jim a list of gift ideas for me. That list did not include any Barbie dolls. He got my a very nice soft plush bathrobe, a new pot less coffee maker & other things. But he also got me this Barbie doll. When I first opened it I was confused. Since it was a bride barbie I wasn't sure if it was to somehow symbolize our wedding from this year or what. I just sat there confused and like "okkkaayyy????". So Jim explained. The week earlier when we had our Luna family Christmas I had told my niece that I had NEVER received a Barbie doll while growing up. I have no idea why I brought that memory up, something spurred the conversation and I mentioned it out TO MY NIECE, not Jim. To clarify, we were not really poor while growing up, but we didn't have much either. My oldest sister once got a Barbie, I think for her birthday. In the big 80's boom of barbie dolls when every little girl seemingly had one or several it was something that we never really had in our home. Just the one and it was my sisters. I remember being very aware of my friends having them & wanting one too. I obviously grew up & turned out to be a fine woman of society despite that lack of plastic doll influence in my life, but I tease that I never had such an iconic item in my life. Jim, over heard all of this and then went out & bought me my first Barbie to be received as a gift. He told me "you said you never got a Barbie & I wanted to be the person to make that childhood dream come true." At this point I'm choking back the tears. Wow! This gift meant more than anything cause it truly came from the heart and I love it!!!!

Christmas greetings to you & yours....

I've been sick and still trying to function amidst this holiday hustle & bustle. The Christmas letter & pictures are still sitting on the dining room table, gifts are still unfinished for friends & extended family members, so much blogging has been left undone!!!! I've turned on survival mode, which meant a lot of sleeping took place and barely anything got done. I am physically feeling much better (but not nearly close to being 100%) and I'm just going to let everything else wait to be dealt with in a few days. It will still be there, right, and you all won't mind some extra holiday cheer after the actual holiday. Afterall, we all know that is not what the holiday is all about anyway. Time to check out of all the hustle & bustle & spend time with the family & focus on the real reason for the season, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christmas Program

I have some video of the Christmas Program put on by our church. It's pretty typical & some classic memories were made. I wanted to post to share to help make your Christmas holiday special.

Andrew is in this video. He is wearing the green & blue stripped shirt on the left hand side. It's a little hard to hear, they are singing Away in a Manger.


Brianna is in this video. She is in the middle, next to the girl with a very sparkly shirt. They sing Silent Night and then the youth pastor gets up & gives a short message to them. I only meant to get them singing, but kept the camera rolling. I'm glad I did because there were some comical, unplanned & true kid moments are included.



The kids are officially out of school now. That means I should....SHOULD have more time for some blogging. I do have all of my shopping done, only a few things left to wrap. Time to sit back & relax for the holidays!!

Princess Tea Party

Yesterday was baby Carmen's birthday. She is now 3. Yes, I realize that qualifies her as no longer being a baby. But I'm sure she'll forever be called that. My dad still calls me baby, not to be confused with baby Carmen, just baby. I'm 34. I never get tired of it. Anyway, this is about Carmen.....3 year old Carmen.

We had a princess tea party for 11 of her friends. Yes, I know, I am crazy. They all braved the 2" inches of snow that fell the previous night to enjoy some girl/princess time. They all dressed in their nice clothes & we enjoyed some yummy royal food. Like hot dogs. YES, if you say royal hot dogs it makes them sound fancy!!

Here they are about to enjoy their lunch.
We also played a game and of course enjoyed cake & opening presents. It was a crazy whirl wind time. Maybe not for them, but my head was spinning the whole time. I gathered them for my mandatory/traditional group picture. How I got them all sitting in this one picture (I did have help from some other mom's, but still) is a surprise to me, but hooray, I got it!

I know I have more pictures to post, a video too. But this is all I have time for. I don't want guilt about not blogging about this special event so I wanted to at least get this on. Happy Birthday to my precious princess baby Carmen.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

As per usual we put our Christmas tree up Thanksgiving weekend. We have a "new to us" tree as Jim's aunt & uncle gave us their old one. It is so much bigger, fuller and not cheap looking like our previous ones. Not that the quality of a fake tree really matter. We all know it's more about what goes on the tree. You bet that ours is covered with nothing but love & memories. So really, it's always a fabulous looking tree : )

Jim & I set it up & let the kids do the decorating. I very rarely buy ornaments to put on it. Everything has been given to us. Some of them have been handed down as they were the ornaments that I hung on the tree when I was a kid. Those are some of my favorites. We also have many that we have received through out the years as gifts & through ornament exchanges. Some are homemade ones that the kids brought some from school or church through out the years. It's all just a hodge podge of anything & everything.


The kids do a great job & spreading everything out. Although I'm realizing that our tree is also new looking every few days as things are often moved around by a certain toddler in our house.


I remember my mom making that candy cane & solider ornament when I was about Carmen's age.








Afterwards we gathered around for our usual family picture. I won't mention names, but a suddenly turned grumpy teenager didn't want to participate in the picture. (Don't worry I'll get her another time).


Ok, wait.....yep....this seems more like it : D


Often we find this extra addition to our Christmas decor.


In the evening you often find this peaceful glow in our house. Lucky for you you can't HEAR what's going on while I took this picture. Things may look peaceful, but the zoo rarely ever sounds peaceful.


A little added PC picture to finish off my post for today.

Excuses...excuses

I haven't been meaning to ignore you all. Although, let's be honest....y'all are not sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for an update from me. First off, that is what facebook is really good for and second, you are likely not a maniac like me who checks peoples blogs more than once a day when they don't give their usual daily update. Anyway, I do feel bad for not getting on here & getting things posted. We have had A LOT going on which means I have a lot to post. But I have plenty of reasons...or, uh, excuses for this.

The first of which is beyond my control. We were without internet for 2 whole days last week. This was a bit of a blessing as I used this unplanned internet fast to get some projects done around the house. 1 or 2 of them were actually computer projects that had very much ignored lately. I also had plenty of cleaning to tackle. PLENTY! Aside from my regular cleaning which very much demands a lot of my time. I mostly got busy down in the basement. Here are some pictures of how "bad" it was.



This is actually only one of the rooms in the basement. I keep the laundry room pretty clean since I use it quite often. The other 3 rooms though tend to be come a catch all of all the stuff that needs to be organized and/or stored. It gets bad a few times a year. In case you can't tell from the picture you can't walk through this room in a normal fashion. It's like a land mine and you never know what you are going to step on. There is also the side room where things are stored and the game/sewing room that is not pictured. I got the game/sewing room cleaned before I came up with the idea to take pictures of my mess. It's nice to have that room back to "normal" & in functioning mode again. I have a sewing project or two to tackle. Which, by the way, while cleaning it I found some quilting projects from 3 years ago that I never finished. Oops!!! Some I had completely forgotten about!!

My little internet outage helped throw me back on track to getting things done around the house. Not just the basic cleaning or bare necessities, but the real stuff that I too easily put aside & ignore. I'm working on it.

I hope to get the blog up to date soon. One thing at a time though....I have some cleaning to go do : )

Rites of Passage

We are frequent users of our public library and the great services they provide. I'm sure I'm fairly ignorant in the grand scope of libraries, but I'd say ours is pretty awesome. The librarians are wonderful on every level.

When you are 5 years old they allow you to have your own library card. Since Andrew just turned 5 we took him in for this special rite of passage. In his little 5 year old mind it was like I just gave him his drivers license. To help make the occasion even more special the librarians let Andrew come behind the counter and taught him how to check out his books.

Scanning the card:


Scanning books:


Stamping it with the date:

Kuk Sool Won karate tournament

Mandy & Brianna participated in the KSW karate tournament a few weeks ago. Jim was used as a judge instead of competing. Both girls did very well in their events of sparring & Korean wrestling.

Brianna is in the red helmet. That girl can kick very high!


Mandy is in the red helmet this time.


Mandy is being declared winner of this match. Brianna won some too, I just don't have a picture of such a moment.


Here they are with their awards:


Here is Brianna competing in sparring:


Here is Mandy competing in Korean wrestling.

Fakesgiving

I saw another person post about their Fakesgiving. That is where you are celebrating Thanksgiving with family & friends, but it's not held on the actual holiday. This happens almost every year for us with one side of the family or another. Traditionally I get together with my family early for both Thanksgiving & Christmas.

We had our Fakesgiving two weeks early in Muscatine with the Martin & Luna clan. Sometimes this is the only time I get to see some of my family. Being the family person that I am I try to never miss get togethers like these.

Growing up we always went to Grandma's house for Thankgiving. Here she is with my kids.


There was plenty of time for cousins to play.


And plenty of time to eat & just hang out, enjoying each others company.


Gotta watch some football.


There is never any shortage of kids running around. I hope my kids will grow up & remember the many holidays they spent with family. Doesn't matter if it's on the real holiday or not.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year has been absolutely wonderful. Of course, I think it always is. I didn't take the time to blog leading up to the holiday. Which, now puts me behind, but what else is new : ) I immersed myself in some heavy duty cleaning & preparations. Once it was all done on Wednesday night we kicked off the cooking. I have plenty of helpers in this area.


Angel made this cherry pie from scratch.

Gotta lick all the good stuff off the bottom!


We spent hours & hours of cooking. I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. It was worth it to have such a clean house, yummy treats lining the counter top and a house filled with scrumptious aromas.



The next day we had fun putting the final touches on everything & waiting for our guests to arrive.

Our first set of guests for the big turkey dinner was the Fairlie family.


The turkey turned out perfectly!!!! Jim gave me high praise & compliments on how well it turned out. Cooked enough where it just fell off the bone, yet not dry at all.

There was plenty of yummy food for everyone to enjoy.

Later we played games:
Mandy & Ronda split the wishbone:

Mandy won!
Later that day my parents & two nieces came over for supper. We had a more laid back supper of soup & sandwiches.

It is a Martin tradition to sit around playing marbles.



We can sit around for hours playing game after game.
On Friday Jim had to work, but the kids & I spent the day lounging around and just relaxing. I am so not a shopper and didn't even think about setting foot outside the house for any kind of retail activity. I did have to do a bit of cleaning up from the day before, but considering I did all the big cleaning earlier in the week it took very little time. It's nice to have days to lay in bed watching movies or playing games with the kids with no thought to time.

On Friday night we had another family of friends join us for more food & time of playing games. It was so nice to have plenty of family & friends pass through our home. I didn't have much prep to do, I dug out all the leftovers and we went to town having a feast. The kids had a good time entertaining themselves while the adults played a nice game of Scrabble.