decorating the little tree

 I thought you might like to see the outside lights- nothing fancy, but Bug likes them and so does his friend M from down the street.  Little M told his mom to get their lights up because of seeing me put our lights up.  I am not sure that Little M's  mom is too happy with me as they have a 2 story house. 

 After playing outside until it got dark, we came inside and set up Bug's tree.  He is very happy to have his tree set up.  Tonight I will set up the big tree and then we will take the rest of week to decorate it. I had to have a little talk with Bug about not playing with the ornaments on the tree as he kept asking me why some of his ornaments were missing things.  I think he finally got it that the ornaments are for looking at, not playing with, though I am not sure the conversation is going to stick with Bug this season.

We found Bug's Santa hat- so again, here is my "Santa Nene"

 tree all decorated and a happy little man.

Clearly out of order, but Bug putting the decorations on- the tree is completely full along the bottom.  I had to step in and start putting ornaments on the top part of the tree. 


In other holiday news, "Mr Silly", our elf on the shelf came to visit tonight.  Unfortunately, he freaked Bug out and will be returning to the North Pole for the duration of the holiday.  Bug is quite concerned that Mr. Silly will steal his ornaments, cause the tree to fall over, or wreak other havoc in our house.  So back to the North Pole he will go tonight with our blessing.  No need to have Bug freaked out. 

That is all for tonight.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Thanksgiving with Hermano- Sunday post 2

Today after church, we headed over to Hermano's house for Thanksgiving dinner with them.  We got there just as all the food got done cooking and we had a great meal- lots of new foods for us and all of the food was yummy. 

After dinner, Hermano, treated us to his favorite song- the Veggie tables theme song.  I wish I had my video camera.

 Bug thoughts about singing and then backed out.  Instead he treated us to some silliness.

 We also got to see the newest animals at the farm- the pigs.  They have 10 pigs right now. 

 Hermano was busy chasing the pigs- he is a great pig herder.  The pigs certainly moved away from Hermano.

 About 2 hours after finishing dinner, the boys decided to have a tea party- complete with carrot cake, turkey, carrot jello salad, cereal and milk.  You would have thought they did not get lunch or breakfast today with the way they were eating.   it was cute to listen to them and sneak in to watch them as they ate at their tea party. 

Tomorrow Bug goes back to school and I go back to work.  But the count down to Christmas vacation starts- only 4 more weeks until Bug is off for 2 weeks and I am off for 1.5 weeks. 

Love and hugs,
Deb

fun with Mam and Pap- Sunday post #1

Saturday we headed out with Mam and Pap to get the free photo with Santa from B.ass Pro Shop.  Bug was excited to see Santa again and once again told Santa he wanted a bike.  Which is now, if anyone is counting, 1 note to Santa, 2 talks with Santa all with same info.  The bike is in the house, so I am good to go.  As that is all on Bug's Christmas list, everything else is gravy- or icing on the cake, using some slang expressions (Susi, these are for you to use on your English teacher, hopefully they give you extra credit).

 Bug and Pap like this store at Christmas because there are lots of games.  Pap is, unfortunately, talking about getting Bug one of these race tracks for the basement.  Only one problem, there is only one open electrical outlet in the basement and I use it for quilting.  Pap thinks he is going to come over and add an outlet (huge sigh from me).  It is not that I don't want more outlets, it is just that I want to do it on my terms and not have to listen to my dad complain about adding the outlet while he is doing it.  There is always a trade off. I am also not sure I want Pap to spend the money on the race track for Bug because Bug has not played with the motorcycle that Pap bought him last year. 

 Bug did some target shooting- and did great.

 And some crossbow shooting. He even managed to shoot the deer target.

 Pap treated us to lunch at Chi.ck-fil-a- YUMMMY and we got to meet the cow.

it was a good day.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Zoo festival of Lights 2010

After temps in the 70s last week, 3.5 inches of rain in the last 2 days, we woke up to snow this morning.  Yep- the weather here is just lovely.  That was sarcasm.  I prefer warmer weather, but what I really want right now is for the weather to decide to be either warm weather or be winter weather- the back and forth is wrecking havoc with Bug's allergies and my sinuses.

 I took Bug to the park today- he wanted to know why there was no one else at the park.  The fact that it was barely above freezing might have a little to do with the fact that we were the only ones in park.  The fact that today is a huge shopping day in the US might also have something to do with it.  Bug lots interest in the park as soon as we discovered the slides were covered with ice.

 A spontaneous decision to head down to the zoo made for a great evening.  We did have to go home and put on more appropriate clothing to be out for 3 hours in the cold.  We both were very toasty while walking around.  we picked up Mam and headed out.

 The owl was very pretty

 The tigers were busy wrestling with each other.

Bug continues to grow.

We saw the 3 new manatees.  The little one is sooooo cute- according to Bug.

We rode the carousel

we saw Mrs. Frosty

Bug talked to Blizzard and Snowflake

We rode the train

And after 3 tries ended up with this picture

 We saw Big Boy

 We waited in line to see.......

 THE BIG MAN himself.  Bug sat there no problem and happily told him that he wants a bike for Christmas. The zoo took professional pictures of Bug and wanted to sell them to us for $25.00 for 2 or $35.00 for 4.  They lost a sale- that is way too much for me to spend on pictures.

 But I like this one that I took even more.

We saw the reindeer.

 We saw Big Boy again

 We had a good time

 Cap off by some rhino riding.

We had a wonderful time.  I realized that since Bug comes home at 3:15 each day, and I usually done working by 4:30 pm, we can get down to the zoo by 5 pm during the holiday season and see the lights a few more times. School schedule is a great thing, because I do not have to drive over to pick him up from Auntie Lulu's house and then figure out if we have time to get anywhere before Bug tells me he is too hungry to do anything.  I can feed Bug a larger snack after school and then have him get ready to go while I finish up work.  LOVE IT!!!1

Love and hugs,

Deb

Thanksgiving 2010

The face of little man, who decided that 6:30 am was a great time to wake up.  This was around 7:45 am as I was making breakfast and he was watching some TV

Breakfast tradition on Thanksgiving- sweet rolls

 The turkey- ready for the oven.  This is a new recipe for me- herb butter and lemon for the cavity and veggies and herbs in the pan.  The turkey was DELICIOUS!!!!

Bug and Pap played some chess this morning. 

 Happy Little Man because he was playing with Pap

 And then he got the Turkey leg- yum, yum. 

 Talking to Uncle T and Aunt L in Florida via Skype.  Technology is a great thing.

 CREAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Lots of cream on the pie

After dinner and nap, we headed out to Uncle Dave's work place.  Uncle Dave had to work because out local team is on TV tonight and it is on a cable channel that most people don't have - at least that is what was announced, turns out the game is on local TV too.  But Dave had to work, so we went to keep him company.

Bug dictated his letter to Santa.  All he wants is the bike (the one that is already hidden in the house!!!!) Of course there will be a few more presents for him under the tree.

 He liked the cool hat he got at Uncle Dave's work.

 Jas and Uncle Darrell went out with us. 

 Bug had some chicken fingers and I had chips. 

 But this is what Bug looked like after I brought him from the car- completely and totally asleep.  He barely moved his eyes when I put his jammies on him.  He is one worn out little man.

Love and hugs,
Deb