That Boy Can Run!

This time every year the kids ears seem to work miraculously better than ever before. They can hear the sirens from miles away, and they get crazy waiting for the fire truck to come down our street. As the sirens get louder so do the children. They know that Santa is on that fire truck and they just can't wait to see him, even my older two who know he's not real still get just as excited! Little Christian isn't used to this yet, his memory is just starting to get better. But Courtney and Ryan got him plenty crazy reassuring him that Santa will be on that fire truck. His eyes lit up, the magic of it all is so alluring for a 2 year old. He stood at the curb jumping up and down, yelling "Santa, Santa!" for like 15 minutes till they finally came to our street.

He was mesmerized by Santa and I was mesmerized by his enthusiasm. It's such a beautiful sight, seeing a small child who believes and delights with every ounce of his being. The look on his face was truly priceless. As Santa slowly drove by Christian is waving and yelling "Hi Santa, I want a fire truck!" and "Bye Santa, I love you!". After he passed, Christians awestruck face turned to me and said "Mama, I wanna see Santa again!" Immediately falling in love with that look on his face I told him we could go down the street to see him again, not really sure if we'd be able to catch up to him though. Boy, did I underestimate the excitement that was running through his veins, because the second I said yes he took off down the street after him. I ran behind Christian, barley able to keep up with him, his little feet moving a mile a minute. I've never seen such tiny legs move so damn fast! Santa's fire truck stopped down the street so that the kids could come sit on his lap, and Christian kept pushing the other kids out of his way. When it was finally Christians turn he sat up on Santa's lap with a goofy grin on his face and didn't say a word. It was adorable!

Santa was talking to him, and the first question he asked was "What's your name?" Worst idea ever Santa. Later that night after all the excitement, when we were putting Christian to bed he was talking about his experience with Santa. Then suddenly he got an incredibly distraught look on his face, so I asked him what was wrong. His reply... "Santa didn't know my name... I'm Christian Michael MacDonald!" Stupid Santa. But he did eventually forget about that, and he's super excited to go get his picture taken with Santa tonight. I can't wait til Christmas morning!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving of 2008 has come and gone, so I now get to brag that I survived it. It may sound like my mindset on thanksgiving is completely opposite of what it's all supposed to be about, but you'd understand if you knew the circumstances, which I will not get into right now. Also, I don't like the holiday as a whole for 2 reasons; it's based on a complete fabrication in every sense; and even the moral of the fictional story is a bit ridiculous, we shouldn't have to feel forced to be grateful for/want to spend time with our loved ones just one day out of the entire year. If that's the case, creating a holiday for it won't suddenly make everyone open their eyes and be grateful. Please don't get me wrong, I know that I've got a pretty good life in every sense of the word, and I most certainly am grateful, I definitely don't take it for granted, or at least i try not to (we all have our moments). But picking one day out of the year and giving it a name doesn't change those who are ungrateful. Anyway, that's the cliff notes version of my thoughts on thanksgiving. I'll stop now, you get the point, (and if you don't lets pick a day and call it "We're All Geniuses Day"). haha.



Christain loved playing inside the ottoman!



Christian does NOT like fake poop!

The kids with Scott's parents.

Cousins



Love

He insisted upon making the potatoes... then refused to eat them.

So in actuality this blog is only being written because I have some cute pictures of the kids that I wanted to post. Being as that a blog is about writing, I felt it necessary to write a little something in addition to my pictures. So there ya go... and Happy Thanksgiving.

My Computer Is Back Up!

Most of you probably aren't aware of this because I really haven't complained about it, but my computer crapped out on us last week right before our refrigerator did. What a week for us and our stress level. But we got a new refrigerator and HP finally sent us a new hard drive. So we are now back up and running. Lets begin, shall we?

First I would like to write about how unfair life is in the sense that children are only children for such a short period of time, after which they move on and have to be responsible adults for what seems like forever. Confused on where this is headed? Well I guess I'm a bit unappreciative of the fact that my baby boy is officially no longer a baby, there's no denying it now, for he has moved out of his crib and into a big boy bed (a fire truck toddler bed to be exact). I know you might be thinking that he should have been out of that crib a while ago, but I think I was in denial. As happy as I am for Christian and how excited he is about his new bed, I really don't appreciate the short life cycle mother nature as imposed upon baby-hood. Has anyone happened to come across the fountain of youth yet so that I could keep my children young and in need of me forever?

Secondly, but still connected to my previous train of thought, my niece, Autumn, turned one on the 17th. Happy 1st Birthday Goober-pants! My how the time has flown by. She's such a cute little goober, and although I know that she is still a baby, that too will come to and end all too soon. It seems like just yesterday her mother was in labor, pacing through the halls of the maternity ward and about to beat the crap out of a slow moving janitor. haha. Her birthday party was at Chuck-E-Cheese, and she had a blast! She looked so freakin' cute, as usual. Courtney and Ryan were very well behaved, they had tons of fun and won a LOT of tickets. Poor Christian was sick and had a fever, but even through all that he was really well behaved! (He even tried his best to have fun.) He's such a trooper, he reminds me a lot of Ryan when he was that age. Here I go again, reminiscing and getting all sentimental. I'll just stop myself now or this could end up being a very long blog. Lets move on.

I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW! Sheri and Johnny's beautiful, healthy baby boy was born on November 16th at 7:09 pm. His name is Jaxen, he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long. He has the exact same ears as my brother and he's so adorable. Congratulations to Johnny and Sheri! I'm so happy for them, my brother's been wanting to be a Daddy for so long! Holding him, so tiny and innocent, makes me want to have another baby. Once again, I suppose this is also connected to my first train of though, so once again, I'll stop before I get started.

So this is all the latest news around here. Change is now, and will forever be, on the horizon. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I used to think I was a fan of change, but now that I have children everything has, well... changed.

The Election

I just wanted to write a quick something about this weeks presidential election. To everyone who voted in this historic election, I am proud of you. No matter who you voted for or your reasons behind it, you made your voice heard in this momentous election. To everyone who didn't, shame on you! I may be disowning you, I haven't decided yet. haha. I voted for Barack Obama, as I'm sure you all guessed, and I am so excited about his win. I really hope his lives up to our expectations as a country, and I think he will. In my opinion, this country desperately needs a change, and we got it. We are in a hole and need someone to help us find our way out. Onward we go, with a new president and hopefully a new era.

Halloween

I love Halloween, it's possibly my favorite holiday. Some day I will have the house that is so scary it sends children screaming and crying. I always loved those extra scary houses. So of course I get excited on Halloween, every year. This year Halloween was extra special. As an added bonus the Phillies finally won the world series again, after 28 years of waiting, two days before Halloween. The Phillies parade was on Halloween, so we had a quite an exciting day. It was the first time I have ever allowed my children to skip school, and with the exception of another world series win by the Phillies, it will also be the last.

Scott was originally going to take the Courtney and Ryan to the parade and I was gonna stay home w/ Christian. However, after dealing w/ the massive and rowdy crowd at the train station, as train after train continued to pass right by because they were packed full from the very first stop and working off only 2 hours of sleep, he decided to come home and have me give it a go. So the kids and I drove into the northeast and hopped the El down to city hall. I had no delays or problems (until the journey home). Let me just warn you that these words will not do it justice, but the city was INSANE! Every sidewalk, street and corner were packed full of crazy Phillies fans. I wouldn't let go of my kids hands for fear of loosing them in the crowd. We tried our best to get w/in sight range of the parade, to no avail. It was an impossibility, this coming from one who believes that nearly nothing is impossible. We were packed in there like sardines in a can. The only time the kids were able to see any of the players was when the random lady next to us offered up her rather large husband to lift the kids up. It was nice to finally see some kindness from strangers in Philly. That day the kindness was not exactly as prevalent in the city as the fans were. I think that that many Philly fans, so excited and drinking so early didn't really bode well for their reputation. Regardless of that, or the fact we didn't get to see much of the parade, it was awesome to have the kids be part of it. Who knows the next time this will happen, and they can say they were there.

Then of course our Halloween festivities. The kids looked awesome, as usual. Courtney was a devil, and she was a beautiful one. Ryan finally settled on Jason Vorhees, he loves the scary stuff (especially scaring the pants off his sister). Christian was a dalmatian, and he was adorable. He carried that costume with him everywhere for the entire week. We did all the normal stuff, stopped by Aunt Junes and Uncle Craig's a few days prior, stopped over Great-Grandmom's, then came home and went trick-or-treating. All the kids enjoyed themselves and were surprisingly well behaved considering all the excitement. Aunt Chelsea came over with Autumn (or Baby Ow as Christian calls her), so that she could be with her cousins on her first Halloween. Lil Miss Autumn was a skunk (how appropriate), she was so cute I just wanted to squeeze her til her head popped off. haha. She was loving all the attention! After we were done begging the neighbors for junk food we came home to give out candy and play out front. Sandra, although she did come over my house, didn't celebrate with us, instead she fell fast asleep in my bed. She must have been pooped from working the parade all day to have missed out on Halloween (she's also a Halloween lover). Then after a few other visitors, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sheri, and Mom-mom Karen, I got my little puppy into bed. Sounds like a long day for my older 2, but it didn't end there. At that point Scott took them over to Uncle Boo-boos house for a bit so that he could try to scare the crap out of them. They finally got to bed after hanging out there for a little bit. Those 2 were beat! In short... it was an awesome day!

England - Day Number 6

So folk, my trip has just about come to an end. Just one last trip... to London Heathrow Airport. This week really flew by, you all know the saying. So my past 2 days, here's what went on.

Yesterday, we kinda slept in and took our time getting ready. We had quiche for breakfast that Maggy made (yum!). Then while Maggy got some reading done Andy was kind enough to drive me to Guildford so that I could go get a Harley Davidson t-shirt for my father. The drive was beautiful, but when we got there they were completely out of the shirts that had the town on it. Sorry Daddy! No need to fear, they should be getting them back in soon and Mags will send it our way. Then we had dinner at Andy's Nanas and Granddads. We had what she calls "bits and pieces", which just means MANY different smaller items. I filled up quite a bit, although his Nana kept yelling at me that I hadn't eaten at all. haha. Then the best part of the day, Maggy and I forced Andy and his friend to carve pumpkins with us. Halloween isn't anywhere near the same in England as is it for us Americans (sad, I know), no trick-or-treating, scary lawns, or pumpkin carving. So this was their first time ever carving a pumpkin and they were quite hesitant at first. But they ended up really getting into it and doing a great job! Yay Halloween!

First Timers!

We love mutilating vegetables!

BOO!

Today was one of the best days here. When we woke up this morning Maggy made what's known as a full English breakfast (aka a LOT of breakfast food), which was delish! Then we went to see Stonehenge. It was a bit of a ride out there, but so worth it (and it was so awesome of Andy to drive us out there for something he's seen before). The drive again was magnificent, beautiful English countryside, and it was incredible to be right there looking at Stonehenge. Then we went into Windsor. We walked The Long Walk down to Windsor Castle... you have to see the pics to fully understand the beauty. After which we had proper tea at The Crooked Tea House of Windsor. It's a tea house that is so old that it is actually crooked and doesn't even have bathrooms. Really good and different. Lastly, we did a bit of shopping before heading home to watch A Nightmare Before Christmas. Again, Yay Halloween!

Stonehenge

Me in front of Stonehenge

Maggy, Andy and me

The Long Walk (you can see Windsor Castle at the end)

Windsor Castle

The Crooked Tea House

Proper Tea

So now I have just finished packing, and I'm ready to go home to my family, who I miss incredibly! I am so lucky and very grateful to have been able to have come to England, and beyond appreciative of Maggy and Andy for... to keep it short... revolving their lives around me all week. I am also beyond appreciative of Scott for being so awesome about staying home with the kids all week by yourself while I was out gallivanting around the globe. Thank yous, a million times over, for everything. I had a blast! Home, here I come!

Sunset over the ocean on my way home.