Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful and white Christmas this year. It started the Friday before Christmas when I took a half-day from work and Claudia and Ethan put together a gingerbread house while I took pictures. It looked quite delicious but it was purchased right after Christmas last year so I wasn't going to eat any of it. The icing was particularly difficult to work with due to aging. Check it out below.

On Christmas Eve day, the children played outside in the snow with their Uncle Daniel. Although Daniel is older and bigger, he still managed to get the most snow on himself via snowballs and falling down (check out Ethan nailing him with a snowball in the third pic).

Later that evening, it was time to go to Claudia's family Christmas at her uncle's house. Luckily he only lives about four and half miles away because the roads had frozen over after the sun went down and we had to drive pretty slow. As you can see below, there were plenty of presents to go around.

On Christmas morning, Santa had brought the kids many gifts. They enjoyed opening and playing with the toys and Ethan played his new video games alot. Unfortunately, we left our camera at Claudia's uncle's house the night before so we took pictures with my cell phone. My phone usually takes decent pictures but most of these turned out blurry. I have posted the best shots below.

I hope that everyone else had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I know ours was really great.

Late Santa Claus Post

I have been trying to do a post about our trip to visit Santa since we went on Dec 12 but I haven't been able to find the time. Busy at Christmas time, who'd have thought.

Anyways, we went to the Gaylord Texan on Dec 12 to check out the decorations and other activities they had going on. We thought that we might try to see the ICE but after seeing the line and the cost, we changed our minds. We did get to see Santa Claus with not too long a wait and the kids liked it. It was right when Christian should have been napping so he was pretty quiet and motionless but at least he didn't freakout and have a meltdown like some of our other friend's kids have. He actually didn't want to get off of Santa's lap. he was pretty cumfy there and just kept staring at his beard.

We had a great time. Some photos are below. Enjoy!

Our Digital Christmas Card

Check out our digital Christmas card below. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Christmas Decorations

We put up our Christmas decorations this week (and by we I mean mostly Claudia).

It started on Sunday when I got all of the boxes and storage bins from the attic and set up the Christmas tree. Then the kids and I put ornaments on it while Claudia unpacked them and handed them to us. I had to keep trying to balance out the top and bottom since the kids can only decorate the bottom four feet or so due to height. Claudia also did dome shifting of ornaments until it looked perfect. See for yourself below.

Claudia spent the next three days (between other chores) adding lighted garland to our stairway, setting up a second smaller tree in our front living room window, and decorating the mantle. I think that they all look beautiful. Now it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, at least in our house. Check out the finished products.

(You may notice that there are only three stockings in the picture above. That is because the small one is Ethan's old baby stocking and Christian used a Grinch stocking last year that is not present in the picture. We have since ordered both boys new stockings that should arrive before Christmas so they will be represented on our mantle for Santa.)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Brothers

Yesterday, Claudia left me alone with the boys in the evening so she could go visit her Uncle and Aunt in the hospital to meet her new baby cousin born that morning. She prepared dinner for us before she left so all I had to do was feed the kids and myself and put them to bed.

After eating, I was clearing the table and doing the dishes when I heard laughter behind me in the living room. At first I just listened as I was doing the dishes but I decided to turn and see what they were doing. I saw my two boys wrestling and playing together. This may not seem like a big deal to most but it is to me. I am not home with them as much as I would like to be and when I am home it seems like we are always doing something like eating or bathing or homework or the two of them are fighting. It was nice to see them play together and laughing and not hear screaming or crying (usually from Ethan because Christian hits him or takes one of his toys).

As I let them play and finished the dishes I also came to realize that Christian is finally old enough and big enough to play with his brother. Up until recently, he was too small or young to actively play with Ethan. They are 4 1/2 years apart so that is a pretty large gap to fill when playing together. They went into the play room as I was finishing the dishes. While I sat on the couch watching a little television before bath time, they continued to play in the play room without any crying and screaming. It was nice to hear the silence with a few laughs interjected.

I was reminded of when my brother and I used to play together as kids. He was three years older than me but we still had fun together at a young age. I obviously don't remember things from when I was Christian's age but I do remember times from when I was Ethan's age and my brother was in grade school.

Unfortunately my brother and I grew apart as we got older and I regret not maintaining a closer relationship with him before he died. I sincerely hope that Ethan and Christian can remain close throughout their entire lives.

Black Friday Shopping

I had never been Black Friday shopping before this year. In previous years, Claudia would get up early and go shopping either by herself or with friends while I stayed home with the kid(s). Last year I did get up early to attempt to purchase an item online at 4:00 AM but the website crashed in mid-purchase due to high volume so it didn't happen.

Since we were in Louisiana this year with friends, we were both able to go while our friends stayed home with the kids (the Alguires are not into Black Friday as much as us). This year was much different than previous years for most retailers because they changed their operating hours or the times the sales started.

My mission was to go to Walmart to wait in line for a 32" LCD TV for our bedroom (the same item I attempted to buy online last year). I went to the local store at about 11:45 PM on Thanksgiving night (since they remained open 24 hours this year) to see if I could get a numbered ticket and then leave and come back at 5:00 AM when the sales started (how naive, huh?). I found out that they were giving out tickets starting at midnight but you had to stay there and remain in line to get the TV. They would give you 30 minute bathroom breaks but you had to give up your ticket for a pass in order to do that and you got your ticket back upon return. So I waited.

I called Claudia to tell her the situation so she could come up there and get all of the other things we wanted that you didn't have to wait in line for and bring them to me in line so I could checkout at 5:00 upon receipt of my TV. Well it turned out that most of the sale items were on shrink-wrapped pallets up and down the aisles and they had signs on them not to open until 5:00 AM. That lasted for about and hour until more and more people arrived in the store and just started tearing into the pallets to make sure they got what they wanted even though they couldn't pay for any of it until 5:00.

Claudia was able to gather most of the things we wanted and I was able to leave the line a few times in order to get the rest of the items. The only thing we didn't get was some kids coats that we just couldn't find anywhere in the store. I figured that this store must not have gotten its shipment.

So while I waited out the rest of my time, Claudia left at about 3:45 to go to Kohls (which opened at 4:00) to get a few things there and then went directly across the street to Target (which opened at 5:00) to get a few more things. I think we were able to get about 85% of everything we were after.

The only place that we wanted to go and shop that we were unable to was Toys-R-Us. They opened at midnight so Claudia and Elaine left at the same time as me to go there. Since the Toys-R-Us in Lafayette is the only one in the city and even the region, everyone for miles around comes to this location. Not realizing this, Claudia and Elaine got there to find a line outside that was about a half-mile long. Plus they were only letting people in in small groups to prevent pandemonium in the store so that made it even worse, so they left. That is when Claudia dropped off Elaine back at home and came to join me at Walmart. (Claudia and Elaine returned to Toys-R-Us later that morning to get a few things but the big sale items were already gone.)

I have to say that the craziness of Black Friday shopping was a bit more extreme than I expected but I had fun, talked to a few Cajuns in line and got some great deals. I don't know if I will do it again in the future but it was worth it this year.

Thanksgiving 2009

The family and I drove to Lafayette, LA for Thanksgiving to see our friends, the Alguires, who moved there this past summer. We had not seen them since they moved (with the exception of Elaine coming back for one day in August for her baby shower) and we were really excited to hangout with our friends and meet baby Katie who turned eight weeks old while we were there. The boys, theirs and ours, were also pretty excited to see each other. The playing and kid craziness pretty much started the moment we arrived.

So here is the basic rundown of our stay.

We left Ethan's school (late) at about 2:30 on Tuesday and arrived at the Alguires at about 9:45. The boys immediately started playing but we soon got them into bed and Tim and I went to a local bar for a drink while the girls stayed back to chat.

Wednesday, Tim still had to work so I drove him to work so I could learn the route since I was going to go back to have lunch with him later. We stopped at the local butcher on the way and picked up the fresh 14 pound turkey for the big day. I brought it back home and then got cleaned up and ready for the day. I went back and ate lunch with Tim and then went to the grocery store for even more Thanksgiving dinner supplies (Elaine had already been shopping the previous weekend). The rest of the day was spent hanging out while the girls baked pies and prepared a few casseroles. Tim and I did run out to Raisin' Canes to get some chicken fingers for dinner. They were yummy.

Thanksgiving day started early for Tim because he was cooking most of the meal and he had to get the turkey in the oven and prepare many other side dishes. He made an awesome meal which we thoroughly enjoyed. Elaine and I took a little walk around their neighborhood with a few of the kids to help burn just a few of the many calories we ate. There are some pictures below of food prep and the table before and after the meal along with Claudia feeling pretty full. Table before: Table after:

Friday was mostly spent Black Friday shopping. It was pretty crazy and started at midnight. This is a post for another day but I will tell you that I only slept for about and hour and a half that day. Got a lot of good deals though. Tim and I took the older boys to a movie that afternoon while the younger ones slept and then it was back to being lazy at the house (which consists of TV watching, talking and playing Rockband on the Wii). Here is a shot of all of the kids on the couch that evening.

Saturday we decided to all get out of the house because the kids had barely left the house since we got there and we wanted to see more of their fair city so we all went to the only mall they have, The Mall of Acadiana. It was a nice mall with many of the usual stores but we only stayed for a few hours due to kid craziness and the need for lunch. The Alguires took us to a local pizza place for lunch that makes awesome pizzas. I got a meatlovers that was called the T-Rex and I don't think I have seen so much meat on a pizza ever. I couldn't even see the cheese under the meat. The food was good and we took home leftovers for later. We went home so the little ones could nap and Tim and I went to a local shooting range to fire his pistols. That was pretty fun and LOUD. On the way home, we went back to the butcher and bought a 2.4 pound cut of sirloin for dinner that night. After the kids went to bed, the four adults stayed up playing board games and having a great time before we had to leave the next day.

Sunday we planned on going to church and then brunch and then leaving but we couldn't make church due to packing and getting ready to leave. The Alguires went ahead and went to mass while we finished getting ready and then they came back to get us so we could go to brunch. We enjoyed a nice meal and a few mimosas before we went back to their house, loaded the car and hit the road. We got back home at about 9:00 Sunday night just in time to put the kids to bed for school the next morning.

We had an awesome time while we were in Louisiana and really enjoyed hanging out with our friends. The kids played and had fun too. We were sad to leave but we know we will see them again soon (hopefully Christmas in Arlington, hint-hint Alguires).