Just a crazy thing

I went shopping yesterday...

for 7 hours...

Yes, you read that correctly...SEVEN HOURS...

My sister went with me...

It wasn't like the FUN shopping that you get to do before christmas...it was more like the drag your feet, pull your hair out, scream at the top of your lungs type of shopping that you have to do AFTER christmas when you have umpteen million things that need to be returned because they either didn't fit, didn't work OR in my case, you knew that they went on sale and you can get a better deal...

UGH

UGH UGH UGH

I got a lot accomplished...but in the process, I had a few hours of sadness...

Here's my story...

My wonderful friend in Kenya sent me a pair of beautiful earrings for my birthday back in September.

I LOVE them...

I'm not a fancy girl...I'm not used to dangling things hanging from my ears...they are so pretty...they hang fairly long with a black/brown flat/circular stone at the bottom...Once they are in, I don't even feel them anymore...

and therefore, I'm NOT used to these things being ripped from my ear whilst trying on clothes and not realizing it until 2 store later!

I wear these earrings almost everyday...considering that my wardrobe consists of nothing but white, brown, black or ivory...they go with everything...AND, they make me feel stylish even though I'm pretty much in sweatpants or jeans on most days...(and YES, I know that wearing dangling earrings with sweatpants is probably definitely a fashion faux pas...but, remember, I said I'm not a fancy girl)

Anyway...While in the 50th store of the evening, I realized that I was missing an earring...my sister and I started calling the other stores where I had tried on different clothing items...noone had turned in an earring.

I was so sad...wasn't sure how I was going to break it to my friend in Kenya either..."UMmm, Sara...remember those beautiful earrings that you not only purchased, but then had to pay an arm and leg to have them sent over to the U.S. for me for my birthday ONLY 3 months ago...yeah, I lost them!"

I wasn't looking forward to it to say the least...

After being up late (scribbling a blog/journal about it in the middle of the night laying in bed in the night) I prayed that God would just let me let it go and sleep...

low and behold, the next morning...there was the earring on the floor of the bathroom...must've gotten stuck in something I was wearing and came out when I changed for bed...what I don't know is if I actually slept with it on me all night or if it fell out the night before???

nevertheless, it's back and I'm happy once again...it's like the icing on the cake of all my returns and good deal exchanges!

Just thought I'd share the story because I seem to have misplaced some of my "wit and humor" and I feel badly cuz I haven't blogged all that much recently...so, I'm checking off my list that I blogged, albeit without the sarcastic humor...but, I have my earring back and I'm wearing my yoga pants...life is good!

Numbers 5+

Okay...I've decided that I better make this my last post concerning our December celebrations...it's just getting a bit monotonous...even though it was a blast for the fam!

So...Christmas Eve has always been special for Italian Stallion...it's the 7 course meal that does it I think...the eating all day longgggg...

We start out by making the gingerbread train (see the first post for the anatomically correct gingerbread man) I found the idea in a family fun magazine (not for the gingerbread man...but, the TRAIN!!!)

Nana used to do a house with each little family...but it got to be a bit much...now we just raid her house and make a disastrous mess in a span of about 45 minutes...there is so much sugar consumed that we usually need to take a walk outside in the bitter cold just to calm the kiddos down!!!

Once the train is assembled...and the walk is complete...we get dressed up for the christmas eve service...the girls love to get all dressed up again in their capes and muffs...

And then the eating begins...anti-pasta, wedding soup, lasagna, salad....it just goes on and on and on...

After Daddy rolls us to the car, we read our Advent book and head to bed...in the morning, the girls break through the "wrapped up" family room and the presents begin...

This year instead of having a scavenger hunt for a present...we did a scavenger hunt for the "What God Wants for Christmas boxes"...it was sooo much fun...and we got to end our christmas giving/getting time in a really cool way!

The whole day was spent just playing games, singing, watching christmas movies, making a birthday cake for Jesus, eating leftovers and all the cookies from earlier in the week...we ended that night with putting up the glow in the dark stars that the girls each got in their stockings...they had such fun glowing them on their ceiling as they went to bed that evening...

I think this christmas was one of my most favorites!!!  Thank you God for a great family!!!

p.s. I DID get my hats and scarves done for the girlies...still working on the mittens and headbands...but I was glad to have finished something for them to at least open on christmas day!

Number 4

Are you getting bored yet?

I have a whole BOOK that I printed from shutterfly that documented the TWENTY-FIVE December traditions for our family...It's Advent the Italian way...I LOVE having traditions and things that my children will always remember...

however I do understand that what seems awesome to me, may not be all that thrilling to my many  readers...but, I figured, since I have about a gazillion pictures...what better way to share than to stick them on the blog for all to see?  Well, that and you can check out the entire album on facebook...your choice!

After a trip to the doctor's for my pink eye that I contracted while back home...lovely I know...We had our annual cookie decoration time...

our cousins come over and we go to town with frosting and sprinkles...this year Little Munchkin was able to join in the fun...although I think she decorated a total of TWO cookies...and ATE a total of two cookies before she was so sugared up she couldn't see straight.  We don't necessarily monitor the "amount" of decor that goes on the cookies...I guess to put it mildly, there were mountains of frosting, m'n'm's and red hots all over those SUGAR cookies!  YUMMMMM

Next came our Christmas Eve celebrations...stay tuned...

Number 3

And we're up to number 3 now with the little Italian family December Celebrations....

We went up north early this year..I don't know the last time we went BEFORE Christmas...but after the snow fun, we packed up the ENTIRE house and headed up.

It still amazes me how much STUFF we can accumulate and take for only a couple nights away...whether it's one night or a week, it's the same amount of stuff...we had pillows, blankies, more pillows, stuffed animals, American Girl dolls, webkins...these were all the NECESSITIES of course...not to mention things like underwear, toothbrushes, shoes...

We had a couple of meltdowns over which pillow we were going to take when Daddy finally put a limit on what the girls were "packing"...At one point Sweetpea said, "This is just the hardest thing I've ever had to do." (this about choosing between her doggie pillow and her doggie stuffed animal pillow)...Honey, if this is the hardest thing you've ever had to do...you are beyond blessed, pick it and let's go!!!

At this point, I am sad to say that I embarked on a lesson of those less fortunate than us which spurned me onto a pedestal speech which brought my daughters to tears...ahhh that Christmas "mercy" spirit that flows from me in those frustrating times...Praise God for Italian Stallion who came to their rescue and put their mother in her place quickly and quietly before I was able to put together a slide show and music to make my point!!!

She made a choice, we got packed and we were off...

We had a great visit with my dad...the twins had some first steps...we saw my dad's new establishment which is quite nice...Jackalopes...we ate more than we should have and then headed back to my mom's house...It had been awhile since my brother and I had been sleeping under our old roof at the same time...although, now it's our children that are in the same room keeping each other awake at night.

We woke up the next morning and had celebrations...and then my girls cried half way home because they missed Grandma and Auntie...

This particular trip got our Little Munchkin all mixed up with the Christmas Story though...Every time we mention Joseph now, she always includes "and Jason"...oh well..

Number 2

Well...following that beautiful Nutcracker evening...the snow decided to stick around and we had some fun with it!  We were supposed to be leaving that Saturday morning for my parents, but I couldn't just ignore the snow and we WERE NOT going to pack all the snow paraphernalia for the trip north...

So, we headed out to the snow for our traditional snowman making fest!

I must admit, that it really is one of the most fun things that I like to do with the girls...which is weird because I don't like being cold nor wet...and I wouldn't necessarily call myself an outdoorswoman...but, THIS, my friends is FUN!

The snow was perfect for packing and we were able to make enough snow people for our whole family...We only could find ONE snowman kit though, so we had to be creative in making the other 4 people of our family...

we stole rocks from our neighbors for the eyes..

we raided daddy's wood pile for old sticks for the arms and a smile or two...

and last but not least, we went kicking around in our GARDEN...

yep...the garden...that thing that wouldn't stop growing even in November...

we dug up the rest of the carrots that we had left out there...they were perfect noses for our cute little snow creations!

I'm not going to be modest here...I was pretty proud of myself...they turned out cute and I thought we were pretty innovative if I do say so myself...(and the point is I AM saying so myself...)

I hope we get a bit more snow in the future though...we have our annual igloo to make next...I've got to make it big enough for THREE little girls this year...and all their hot cocoa...that post may be sometime in February...

December Celebrations...#1

I'm so sorry that I've been gone for a bit...We've been cramming a lot in this month and it's just been so much fun!  Although, I have missed catching up on my blog reading and facebooking...

So without further ado...thought I'd share just a bit of what's been going on in our life over the past few days.  I will try to spread it out over a couple of days so as to not bore you with a lengthy blog read...I hope it will still be entertaining though...

After school parties concluded and school programs had ended...the Christmas break truly began...

#1:  The Nutcracker

We kicked off the celebration with a trip downtown to the BalletMet to see the Nutcracker Ballet...it's a tradition in our household.  When the girls reach the age of 4, they get the opportunity to stay up late and get dressed up to go see the production.

Nana has always made them black velvet capes to wear over top their Christmas outfits...and we got them white muffs to keep their hands warm.  They make quite an impression whenever you see all 4 girls heading down the walkway...I guess it's like a flashback in time for most people...who really wears muffs these days?  But, my girls love them and it's the highlight of the December celebrations...

This year we sat in the balcony...I was able to get one picture before getting reprimanded to put my camera away because they aren't allowed in the theater...perhaps the flashes will eventually take out of the color of the plush red velvet seats?  Not sure why, but I graciously put it away anyway...

It's probably a good thing though...last year, we sat on the floor right UP CLOSE to the dancers...and let me just say that we got quite the show when the Sugar plum fairy and her partner came out...and by show I mean that we may have seen a little MUCH of her partner to my little girls' liking...not wanting to be taking pictures of THAT for sure...(perhaps that how my girlies decided to make their anatomically correct gingerbread man this year? hmmmm?)

Anyhoo...the ballet was wonderful as usual and as we headed back out, we saw our first snow falling...it was beautiful and we couldn't resist just a few more pictures as we got soaked with the wet precipitation and slipped along the sidewalk...

Rock Your Momma!

My husband was working on Google Earth dot com with my 2 older girls...they googled the statue of liberty, golden gate bridge and then the Capitol...

Once there, my dear Italian Stallion asked Sweetpea, "Do you know who the President is right now?"  To which she quickly replied, "Barack Obama"...at which time, my little Peanut started laughing hysterically...when asked what was so funny, she replied, "I thought she said Rock Your Momma"...

My good friend Marla had this link posted on facebook today...something about a Mondegreen...which is evidently when someone says something, but other people HEAR something entirely different and therefore you get a really messed up version of whatever was meaning to be stated...whew, that was a lengthy definition...

anyhoo...I thought I'd post the same link here because I just laughed so hard and thought you might enjoy it as well...

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