We Have an Elf On Our Shelf

The Elf on the Shelf has been a Tradition in our family for over 4 years.  My Mom gave us our Elf as a present. I don't 100% remember how she knew this person.  But she knew one of the authors and got us a signed copy, not that it meant anything at the time.  I think at the time the two authors had paid for the first printing and they were selling them at craft shows or something.  My mom would know.  Now they are a New York Times Best Seller at Christmas and have been  for the past several years.  Pretty cool, right?  My kids love this book and they LOVE their elf.  His name is Herman.  He Travels to the North Pole each night to tell Santa how well the kids behaved that day.  Herman comes back each morning and hides in a different spot and the kids get to find him!  We have our own little tradition with the book.  We all give Herman a kiss the first time we set him out to wake him up!  When he gets put away after Christmas we all kiss him to put him back to sleep.  Lilly swore that she felt him kiss her back.  She was soooooooo excited!!  As soon as he woke up and we put him out the kids ran and got their Christmas list to read to Herman, that way he could tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas!

I was telling a lady at church all about our elf the other day.  Apparently they have a simalar tradition with thier own elf (not the Elf on the Shelf).  But then she starts tearing up and crying because thier son turned 10 last year so they felt obligated to tell him that Santa wasn't real.  Needless to say, from what she was telling me, her son did not take it well.  And what he was most upset about was that thier family tradition of the elf wasn't magical anymore.  I could almost see her point.....she said that they decided that if they kept saying Santa was real then he would get confused becuase they also told him Jesus was real.  Apparently his childlike mind wouldn't be able to handle the complexity of the situation. Therefore it was better to destroy all the childhood magic in his life and ground him firmly in reality.......at the age of 10.  I am 32.  I'm still not grounded in reality.  Her mind might have said it was right, but the tears in her eyes (even a year later) obviously tell a different story. 

I am here today to say that Santa IS real!  Think about it.  A concept, an idea, and when we act upon that concept we keep it alive. (Seriously, have a little imagination people!!)  Every year my parent's insisted that Santa was real.  Even when I was a teenager I loved to hear my Mom and Dad tell us that Santa was real.  It became tradition in our family but it also helped teach me what Christmas was really about. And what's that you ask?  It's about family,traditions, being thoughtful to others, having fun, and most important of all, the Savior!

It's a Wrap!

It's that time of year again.  Tree Decorating Time! And Christmas! David asked me the other day why we couldn't just have traditional colored decorations for the tree or at the very least Christmas colored wrapping paper.  Christmas colored wrapping paper!!! That wouldn't match the tree!  Wrapping paper this year will be gold and brown foil.  The brown foil is really pretty because it has gold glitter leafs all over it.  It goes with my "Woodsy" Christmas Theme.   I did  tell him I would be more than happy to decorate the tree with traditional Christmas Colors next year.  I think I thought I saw his eye twitch a little as he quickly said "NO!  What we have is fine.  Just find something from the decorations we already have."  The response might have something to do with bringing in bin after bin (after bin) of Christmas Decorations just to have me look inside and say, "Nope, this is for a different tree.  I don't need this one.  Can you put it back please?"  David wanted to know why I had to look in all of them if I wasn't even going to use what was in them this year.  Well obviously I had to look in all of them!  I might have needed something out of one of them or been inspired to use something that was in one of them.   

David did admit that this year's decorations are his favorite out of all of them.  I think he's really going to like the red, white, and green tree that is already forming in my head for next year!  Then he can have Christmas colored wrapping paper to his heart's content!

My last day in Purgatory

I am finishing up my THIRD week of sick kids.  All three of them are home from school today because I decided they all needed one last day of rest before going back to school.  It's 3:30 and now I am wondering why I did that to myself.  It seemed so logical and sensible at the time.  One last day of rest and recuperation for their little bodies to be fully recovered before going back to a germ infested school.  Now I have three kids running around the house like a tornado because they have too much pent-up energy.  I'm taking a wild guess that perhaps they might have been well enough to go to school today.  Tomorrow can not come soon enough.

*edit*
It is now 3:48.  Earth Shattering, I know.  I have just remembered I have to take dinner to one of the sisters in the ward.  I never really volunteer for these things because, seriously, nobody wants to eat what I can cook.  No false modesty here folks.  I think I did a post, or I was going to do a post on Mother's Day.  The kids bought me all this cooking gear because they thought it would "help".  But, I am one of her Visiting Teachers so exceptions to the rule must be made.  I figure I can go get her some Panera Bread for Dinner.  Who doesn't like a good sandwich and hot soup?  Way better than anything I could ever make.  At least the kids will be getting out of the house for a little bit!

How to Out-Fox a Special Agent

  "New training tools!  The Commander likes to keep me in top shape to battle any potential hostiles!"

 "Rolling maneuver practice!!  ROLL.  ROLL.  ROLL.  To the left!  ROLL.  ROLL.  ROLL."

 "Hello! What do we have here? Some sort of climbing apparatus.  I must study this further."

"Hey Tara, whatcha doing?"
"The name is Agent 59 Grace, sheesh how many times do I have to tell you that!"
 "I don't know, anyway, whatcha doing?"
"Can't you see that I am determining how to best utilize this climbing apparatus.  I'm just taking a quick look under the hood to see if I am missing anything."
 "Cool, sooooo you wana play Tara?"
"No!, The Commander is counting on me to find at least 5 ways to use this for training drills. Now leave me alone."

 "Awww, come on Tara.  Play with me. Please Please Please Please  puh-lease!!!"
"I'm sorry Grace, Glory and Honor call softly in the distance and I must answer!  I don't have time to play right now."

 "Ok, well how bout I just...get my head....under here.....and then......"

"wiggle my way over here......until finally I......."

"KI YA!  Haha, gotcha!

"Soldier! Those are fighting words.  Prepare for BATTLE."
"Muwahhahahah, Just try and catch me Tara!!!"
 "It's AGENT 59!!!  I'm gonna get you Grace!"

*A mighty battle is fought*

"Hahahah!"
"What are you laughing for, Grace?  I'm kicking your butt Soldier!  You need more training."
"Whew, this is just so much fun.  I glad you finally decided to play."
 *gasp*" I am not playing!! I am a *sniff* soldier.  We are doing *sob* training exercises!!"

"I'M TELLING MOM!!!"

"Hey, where are you going......I thought we were having fun?.......  Sheesh, what a mama's kitty."

My Obsession With Fish

"One of the days we were in Disney World I made sure to take the girls to a brunch where you get to meet all the Disney Princesses.  I had to make reservations weeks in advance and even then the wait to get in was terrible.  Everyone wants to meet a princess I guess.  Lilly was on cloud nine.  Isabelle tried to play it cool but was almost bouncing with excitement when Cinderella started to get close to our table.  Chase could have cared less and refused to take any pictures with the princesses even though they all asked very prettily."

If you can't tell from the pictures Isabelle was super happy to meet Cinderella and Ariel.  Considering she is crossing her eyes in the picture with Snow White and looking away in the picture with Princess Aurora, I don't think those two impressed her much.  Now that I think about it....I'm not even sure she knows who those two really are.  Lilly was in love with all of them.  They spoke in "Princessy" voices and had on pretty pretty dresses.  They had her at "Why, hello there princess!" *curtsy* The kids all got a huge kick out of me talking like a princess to them the rest of the day....even Chase!  

p.s. Just between you and me....I got super excited when Ariel started to get close to our table. ARIEL!!!! When I was a little girl I had that movie memorized; every line, every song.  When our family went on road trips my sister and I would recite and sing the whole thing (over and over and over...and over again).  Now that I think about it....that must have been incredibly annoying.  But hey, it was better than us fighting. Right? When it finally came out on VHS (getting a little choked up here)  that was the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!  Or so it seemed at that particular stage of my life. I LOVE YOU ARIEL! Whew, had to get that off my chest. Promise you won't tell?

I didn't know I had ANOTHER brother!

 This is the story of what inspired me to put my 'Summer Vacation' book together. This part is right in the middle of the book and it is surrounded by all of the Disney World pictures and activities for maximum effect.  I really wanted Bradley to be surprised when he saw it. 

So you might be wondering, why are there pictures of Bradley-going-on-his-mission in the middle of your Disney trip? Excellent Question!!  I can totally answer that for you.  First of all....those are the only pictures of Bradley that I have, so naturally those are the picture that I would use.  The second reason is much cooler.  So, after a long day at Animal Kingdom we rushed across Pleasure Island to get to our restaurant where we had dinner reservations. And when I say rush across Pleasure Island, even rushing it still took 20 minutes.  That place is huge.  When we got there, there was a very nice young man at the front desk.  I told him we had 8:30 dinner reservations but that we were the first ones there.  We were still waiting for David and then all the other employees attending the conference, as well as their families.  The very nice young man told me he couldn't seat me until at least a majority of the party arrived.  I went and called David and asked him where everyone was, when they would get there, blah blah blah.  So I went back to the desk to give the young man the update.  So I'm looking at the guy and then it hits me.  Weird! He looks SO MUCH like Bradley.  So I tell him, "this might sound kinda strange, but you look just like my brother.  I swear I'm not trying some weird come-on."  He was like, "huh, ok."  So, I say "no really!" So I pulled out my phone, which still had all the pictures I took of Bradley going-on-his-mission, and I showed it to him.  All of his co-workers crowded around to take a look.  They were all like, "whoa, you really do look kinda like her brother!"  "You know they always say you have a twin out there somewhere!"  So then the guy laughed.  And he laughed like Bradley!  I asked him if I could take his picture so I could show my mom and he said that I could.  I left him alone after that...I didn't want to freak him out or anything.  I went and stood by the door to wait for everyone to arrive.  I have to admit I got a little teary eyed while waiting.  It really made me miss Bradley.  With him being the youngest and me being one of the oldest we hadn't really been close.  But before he left on his mission we really started to build a relationship and bond! I am horrible about sending email and writing letters.  That is why I have put this book together.  I wanted to share my summer with Bradley.  It's like getting a whole summer's worth of mail at once and he can take it everywhere he goes!

 I LOVE YOU Elder Williams, keep up the great work!! This book was made for you!

                             Tada! It's Bradley and his Twin!

Pretty cool, right?  The experience really made the whole trip special because it was an inspiring moment.  It really made me think of Bradley and how I wanted to share the experiance with him.  I knew he would think it was as cool as did. And becuase I thought it was so cool I really wanted to share it with him in a really fun way.  I didn't want to just write a letter to him with some pictures, sure letters are fun but where is the WOW factor!!  Plus there was so much about our Disney Trip and our summer that I wanted to share with him. (Did I mention the book was 101 pages?  I could have kept going but Shutterfly caps you at 101 pages. Bummer.)  Writing and putting the book together has been an awesome experiance.  After sending the book I have done a better job at sending letters from me and the kids. And if you think about it, it's really all thanks to Random Disney Guy (who happens to look like my brother).

What can I say? Summer Happens.

I know, I know, it's been forever and a half since I last posted. This summer was probably the busiest summer our family has ever had!  And then I was totally an awesome mom and made a book about it!  I made a book for two reasons.  The first reason was because I wanted to have our summer memorialized so the kids could look back and remember all the awesome stuff we did.  The second reason was so I could send a copy of the book to my brother Bradley.  He is currently serving a mission for our church and I wanted him to have something special from our family.  I can't send all of you guys a copy of my summer vacation so I have decided to post sections of it instead.  Most of the book is about our trip to Disney World so here we go!:

For some reason Maelstrom is a "popular" ride.  I use the term popular pretty loosely because once you get into the back of Epcot, past all the cool stuff, and into all of the "Countries"  there are only a handful of rides.  Maelstrom is one of them.  I guess it's "popular" because you get a mini thrill before riding through a bunch of animatronics telling you all about Vikings and how they lived.  Thrilling!  Maelstrom is a boat ride that starts by taking you up a mini incline.  I guess we should have known we were in for a little more than just Vikings when the ride stopped half-way up the incline.  No worries though.  After a few minutes we were on our way up the incline again, oh wait, no we weren't.  The ride stopped again.  We chilled out on our inclined seating until the ride started up again.  Finally, we were up and over the incline to.. BEHOLD!! Vikings in all their ancient glory!  Hammering with.....hammers!!  Sawing with....saws!!!  Boating with (wait for it)  BOATS!!!!  This ride was truly wondrous to behold.  And this was only after rounding the first corner in our little boat! What other wonders could be waiting for us? Alas, we would not find out (at least not then, we went back and rode it the next day....still lame) because our boat stopped!  Oh yes, the ride stopped .....again.  I figured we would get started again in another minute or two, but when another minute or two turned into ten I started to question how long we would be stuck in our boat staring at animatronic Vikings with hammers.  When all the lights on the ride turned on suddenly and "Maelstrom is now closed until further notice.  Please exit the line" came on over the intercom system I figured we might be there for awhile.  About every five minutes someone would get on the system and say "Keep all hands, arms, and legs in the boat.  Do NOT stand up.  We thank you for your patience."  I wondered if they were required to say that every five minutes or if some boat in front of us was having more fun than we were.  Finally after about 25-30 minutes of staring at Victor the Viking and his Vicious Boat they announced "Please stay seated.  We are coming to assist you out of the boats."  Out of the boats!!  Out of the boats and onto the actual ride!!  Right next to good  ole Victor!  They helped us out of the boats and onto the attraction then walked us out of the ride.  It was the coolest thing EVER!! Every time I go on one of those I have always wondered what it would be like to get up there and walk around.  I GOT TO GET UP THERE AND WALK AROUND!!!!!  Best. Ride. Ever.



Here we are at Epcot having fun!

See's no Evil, Eat no Evil

Due to our family tradition I brought back a whole bunch of See's Candy from Seattle.  What is See's Candy you ask?  Why See's Candy happens to be the most delicious chocolate ever made on this earth and it's only sold out west.  It is tradition that when you visit out west you bring back a box for the rest of the family.  I was explaining to my family in Seattle all the unspoken rules that go along with this family tradition (should I break tradition and *gasp* speak the unspoken out loud....writing them down in the finality of all internetdom?  Hey, why not...it'll be fun!)

Rule #1.  If you visit out West you must buy See's Candy for all Relatives in your vicinity.  Relatives being defined as - one box per household within a one-two hour driving distance.  That means I brought back Three boxes of chocolates one for my family, one for my mom and dad, and one for my brother and his wife.  OK, I also bought lollipops and some other chocolate for my family but that's besides the point.

Rule #2.  Under no circumstance can you reveal that you have bought See's Candy and that you are bring it home with you as a gift.  It MUST be a surprise. 

Rule #3.  You must NEVER ask to be brought home See's Candy.  You must ALWAYS wait with breathless anticipation as to whether or not you will receive any See's Candy (even though you know you totally will.....it's tradition....which leads me to rule # 4)

Rule #4.  You must always wait with breathless anticipation until you finally have that gleaming box in your hand.  When you get that gleaming box in your hand you must act happy, excited, and surprised....not in a "I had No Idea you were going to do this!" kinda way, but surprised in a "Wow!! You did get me a box of See's Candy!!  I was hoping you would!!" kinda way.  Even though in the back your head you knew you were going to get that box of chocolate because....*tada*  it's Tradition!

My New Mantle

 

For all of those who didn’t think I was serious and for all of those who know me well and already knew I was serious:  BEHOLD!  My new Mantle.

Here is the before shot:

Here is the after:

David is pushing back from the gate as we speak to fly home!  The rest of the house is now safe.  Mini trip = mini project.  Mini project = mini budget.  Mini budget = happy husband!!  Happy husband = happy me!   I took some pictures of the rest of the living room which I redecorated on one of his bigger trips.  I personally adore the shade of blue the walls are now painted.  David had to get used to it…….he says that when we move I can pick any color for the living room……except blue and except any color he does not approve of.  Bummer.  Total decorating buzz kill right there. 

I designed the room around this piece and got my color inspiration from it.  It belonged to David’s Mother.  Her son from another marriage sent it to her while stationed in Japan in the 70’s.  She treasured it and we treasure it also. 

I have quite a few natural geodes and stones around the house.  I am very sentimental about them because my Grandmother used to take us to Natural History Museums when we were little.  She is a huge champion of education.  To this day I still have a geode that she bought for me when I was a little girl.

That’s it for now!  Here’s to many more trips in the future.  May my creativity never failith!  What else is there to do……cook? heh…..

Girls Weekend

I just got home from the most awesomest weekend ever!  I went to Time Out for Women, which was great, but most of all I loved who I spend my weekend with!  My sister and I call them kindred spirits for all you Anne of Green Gable readers out there.  Some women you meet and you feel instantly comfortable.   I was tired when I got home but David took the kids to school the next morning so I could sleep in.  And the messy, messy house is sparkly clean now that the housekeeper has come and gone.  I guess I should go think of something extra to do.....like go organize a closet or something.....  Now that I think about it all the closets are already pretty organized from the last time David went out of town for a long business trip.  There is something about David going out of town for longer than 3 days that sends me into a frenzy of activity.  If I know he will be away for at least a week then we are allllll in trouble!!  Whole rooms get redecorated. The house gets repainted.  Things get moved into storage.  The kids come home from school to a house full of boxes.  "Whaaaa? Mom......are we....moving?"  "No!! The house feels cluttered, all this stuff is going to storage!  ISN'T IT GREAT!!!!"  David is always too busy with meeting after meeting to check up on me to see what the damage is.  He usually comes home, walks in the door, looks around, and looks to see if there are any changes.  Well, that and he's monitoring the bank account the whole time he's gone.  When it hits a certain *ahem* price point meetings or no meetings, calls are made....unfortunately.........if I'm in the middle of redecorating my creativity can't be stifled!!!  Anywho......so David left out of town yesterday.......................................................................


Luckily it's exactly 3 days!  We will not pass into the danger zone, heh...  Are the pillows on the sofa getting old?  Perhaps they need refreshing...   I have been meaning to redo my MANTLE!!!!!  I can see it now.... Two tall slender vase with sticks on either side of the mirror and a row of candles in between. Later!

It's official, White Moms are soooo lame.

In case you hadn't heard the big news Obama is now officially black (at least on paper anyway.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36157764/ns/politics-white_house/

It's been on my mind for a few weeks now and honestly his decision bothers me a little bit.  Apparently he has decided that his mother, all of her relatives, and all of the ancestors that came before her don't officially exist (at least on paper anyway.)  I'm sure it's for purely political reasons why he decided to disregard half of his racial heritage on the census form.  Honestly you could skew the political implications many ways and that's not really why I'm writing about this.  I suppose I am writing about this because it strikes a chord with me.  My husband is black, and I am a white mother with three bi-racial children.  And it makes me wonder....will I too be written out of my family's racial existence some day?

In our house we are just "us".  Color is never an issue and so far it hasn't been one at school either.  However, that doesn't mean the kids are unaware of the difference between all of us.  I like to think that we are raising them to know that it's what on the inside that counts not the outside.  As far as heritage, we want them to understand where they come from on both sides of the family because they have some pretty cool stuff on both sides.  But! suppose they marry someone who is black?  Apparently that means they are now completely black. Well that's fine for David but where does that leave me?  Will I become a ancestral blip that everyone will conveniently forget about?  What is the precedent that Obama is setting as the first bi-racial President (not the first Black President as everyone likes to say)? What is he saying to all the children out there of bi-racial relationships.....that you must choose one heritage over the other?  That you must become one over the other?  Why can't a person just be themselves, a person who celebrates the best of where they came from and where they are going in life?

I found this article today that goes over both arguments about racial identity.  The first being that if you are part black, you are always going to be viewed as black.  The second being that race is basically a state of mind, a choice, a wholeness of yourself...therefore you recognize all aspects of your racial identity..or you can chose to only recognize the racial identity to which you believe best identifies yourself even if you aren't even that race .   Obviously,  I agree with the second view (except for the last statement, I think you need to see all of yourself with a clear view not a cloudy one).

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/black-or-biracial-census-473104.html

As always, race is a sensitive issue.  But is our household we try to tackle it a little more head on as I am trying very hard to give my children a healthy respect for both sides of their racial heritage.  I want them to be proud to say "I am black and white.".......welllllll with some South American Indian and the other side of the family tree from India......but we'll get to that later! 

Dinner with The Fam

I never really put up pictures of David and I so, viola!  Anywho..we took the kids out to dinner last night and had a great time.  It's kind of our version of sitting down for family dinner.  You know, since I don't really cook.  That and we are never home all that much in the evenings because if all the activities that we are involved in.  It seems like we are always eating on the road.  Whenever we get the chance we like to sit down and have a nice family meal.....ahem....at one of our many favorite restaurants.   The kids were hilarious last night.  I suppose I should have been all, like, "That is not appropriate dinner behavior" but I found last night's situation hilarious.  So Isabelle says to Lilly, "Hey Lilly, spell 'I cup' ".  Frankly I was curious how this was all going to go down so I sat back to watch and enjoy the show.  Lilly looks back at her really confused and says " I cut? hmmmm I. K.U.T?....no no no I.C.U.T!"  Isabelle is all like, "no no spell I cup, I CUP!"  "OH, ok....I.C.U.P......I...C...UUU..PPPP....? I don't get it what's the point?"  Meanwhile Chase and Isabelle are cracking up.  Ok, I admit it..so am I at this point. And then Lilly starts giggling "OOOHHH I GET IT!!  I see you PEE!!! Ahahahahaha.  Hey!   Isabelle, I see you pee!  Hey!  Chase, I see you pee!  Hey!  Daddy, I see you pee!  Hey! Mommy, I see you pee!"  Ok, I admit it, definitely not dinner talk! But, how could I take away Lilly's opportunity to figure out for herself the classic I.C.U.P.   And I wanted to be able to see for myself the moment when she figured it out.  The look on her face was classic when she figured it out all by herself what the big joke was.  She was so proud of herself and she thought it was hilarious!!  It's a moment that I did not want to miss.  It kept us all rolling all the way out the door.  I love family dinner!  One of these days we are going to actually have to have one at home! HA! 

Motivation Smotivation - Who needs it anyways

  Do you ever find yourself shooting rubber-bands across the floor because the cats love to chase them? And what you're really supposed to be doing is getting dressed for the day?.....also it just terrible for loosing all the rubber-bands for your hair.  Do you ever find yourself surfing the internet when you should be cleaning your kitchen? Or posting on your blog when you should be starting the laundry. Obviously these are issues that I do not have!!  I am the master of productive output.  I can name numerous things that I have accomplished today.  Please see me tomorrow and I will inform you as to what....exactly..those..things.....are. Oooo Look, my Cat!  I think it has one of my rubber-bands in it's mouth....I should probably go get that back...eh, I can do it later.  Anywayssss! (David hates it when I say anyways. "It's not anyways, it's anyway!!  Total pet peeve of his.  That's a shout out to you Uncle Larry!)  What was I saying?  Oh, right!  MOTIVATION!  I am a highly motivated individual (especially today!)  I think I'm going to go stare at my kitchen.  Sometimes I just stare at it and think nice clean thoughts.  Funny how that never works.  Maybe I should glare at it instead? Shame it into being clean.  Somehow I don't think that will work either. Because really it all comes down to one thing.  What was that word again?  Oh yeah, Motivation.

Easter Decorating Fun

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So I decided to take a leaf out of my sister’s book and decorate for Easter.  Normally Christmas is the only holiday I decorate for.  But, I liked the idea of trying to be a little more “domestic” around the house.   *hee*  The idea of me being “domestic” around the house made me giggle.   There, it made me do it again.  Isabelle has started going to Popi’s house on Tuesday’s to learn how to cook (cause she sure ain’t learn’n it from me).  This week was her first week there and when I asked her how it went she stated: “Wow,  I had no idea it took so long to cook real food.”  My mother looked at me and asked, what did you feed them for dinner yesterday?  “Pot roast, apple sauce, and fresh vegetables,” I said.   “Well, that must have taken awhile to cook…..?”  “Erm……No,no,not really only about 5 minutes like the package said it would.” Sometimes I don’t think my mother knows what to do with me.
 
When the kids and I were at Rebecca’s house a few weeks ago their family had to step out of the house one of the nights and she wasn’t able to fix dinner.  My kids where so crushed when they came downstairs and I was the only one there.  “Mom, where’s Aunt Rebecca?,” they asked with obvious panic.   “She’s not here,” I stated with irritation, “ They all had to be somewhere.”   “Whaaaaaat?!?  But, who’s going to fix dinner?!?!,” they all screamed with apparent terror in their voices as if they already knew what the answer would be.  “I AM………I’m ordering pizza.”    “No, NOT PIZZA!!! Please MOM, anything but that.  Do we have to have pizza….AGAIN!!!”   They begged, they pleaded but they couldn’t persuaded me to change my mind (what? they didn’t expect me to actually cook did they?)  Meanwhile, in Cousinville Rebecca was telling her kids “You had better behave because Aunt Sylvia *duDA* ordered pizza and you won’t get any if you don’t.”
So, anyways…the kids love the decorations. Chase says the decorations are better than last year’s.  I pointed out that I didn’t decorate last year to which he replied “Yeah, that’s why they’re better than last year’s.”  Isabelle feels like we should have bought more! We need more decorations!  And Lilly was a little disappointed we didn’t get the Hello Kitty basket for the kitchen table.  But the fact that the cats use the basket we did get as their new bed more than makes up for it because it’s so super cute!

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