I tried.  I really tried hard this year, but between travel, uncoorperative printers, pictures in general, etc Christmas cards just aren’t going to happen this year.  I gave it my last ditch effort today but when Costco said I couldn’t pick them up until tomorrow at 11am I quit.  I’m leaving on a jet plane (you’ll thank me later for putting that song in your head) at 6am tomorrow morning and if I don’t take them with me they’re likely to turn into Valentines.  So I called my mom and laughed with her about my catastrophic attempts at printing cards when she finally told me I don’t have to send them.  Apparently I needed my mom’s permission to quit (she’s not big on sending Christmas cards anyway).  She assured me that no one’s Christmas would be any less merry because I didn’t send out cards.  So I did it, I’m officially boycotting Christmas cards this year and going with the “it’s the thought that counts” motto.  So here’s to not putting more stress on yourself than is already neccessary this time of year.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Here’s what you would have gotten in the mail  

Apparently they run in the family.

Because our families will literally be spread out from Cleveland to India at Christmas time, we exchanged most of our gifts over Thanksgiving.  So naturally I took picts of everyone opening them.  My mom’s reaction was by far the best I’ve ever seen to a present.  If you know my mom you would never guess in a million years what gift got this much excitement.

No really I’ll bet you a $1000 that you can’t guess. 

No cheating…

A 5 carat diamond? An African Safari? Nope not for my mom.  Really you won’t get it so don’t bother…

 

 

 

 

 

Are you ready for it?

 

 

I’m tempted to stop here and make you put your guesses in the comments…then maybe I’d know who my readers are.  But with my inability to post frequently there’s no telling when you’d get the answer.  Scroll down to see the answer then leave a comment to tell me what you thought she got. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be honest did you guess a 9mm?  I didn’t think so.Apparently just what she’s always wanted.

And yes she knows how to use it so bad guys beware. 

Love you mom

Ok it wasn’t an official visit from Santa Paws, not yet anyway, that will come with the stockings, but Tank and Buckeye have already racked up this Christmas.  Their furcousins Roary and Stella got them some super cute toys, Uncle Dustin and Becky got them some wonderfully ugly Christmas sweaters (it actually says Ulgy Christmas Sweater on the tags) and Grandma Brenda got them these precious personalized bowls.

Checking them outChowing down

 

Everything tastes better when your name is on the bowl.

My boys are food hogs so we feed them in their crates to avoid a brawl.  The bowls are too cute to keep put away all the time so they’ve officially become water bowls so everyone can admire them.  Dave asked if they were sharing their bowls nicely and actually I think they enjoy having 2 to drink from rather than trying to fit 2 heads into one.   I missed my sweet furkids over Thanksgiving and they are glad to be home too especially with all their new toys…at least 2 of their gifts they won’t be fighting over!  

More Thanksgiving coming soon!

We had a ton of neighborhood fun this weekend.  It started with a birthday dinner for my dear friend Megan.  Oh and you’ve probably noticed that I missed posting about mine and Dave’s birthday’s this year.  There are pictures of our fun parties here.  Anyway, Megan turned the ripe old age of 25 last week so we went to a Japanese Restaurant to celebrate; complete with vampire teeth for everyone in honor of Megan’s love for Twilight.

Saturday was crazy.  We decided to tackle 2 parties in one day, the kids were first at 4 for their pre-trick or treat party.  Without any kids of my own and trying to get ready for the adult party later that night I wasn’t much help.  But I did go down the street for a couple hours and took some pictures of the fun.

Jessica went all out with the goodies.  There were mummy dogs, festive cupcakes, orange and green rice crispies, gastly green punches, “bat” wings, meat balls, even yucky gummy feet and hands. 

The kids had a great time with the games. They tossed candy corn into their partners pumpkins and ate doughnuts off a string.

And then they were off for trick or treating and I ran off to finish up my own goodies for that night. 

Dave decorated the outside of our house with spooky tombstones and a giant spider earlier in the day.

All our neighbors sit in the driveway to hand out candy so he set up the projector so he and the dad’s passing by could watch the football games (including UT in their awesome black jerseys!)  He had the fire pit going out from and the strobe light with spooky music so the whole outside had a weird spooky/football feel during trick or treating. 

The parents got all their little goblins to bed, recruited baby sitters and headed over for some grownup fun.  We had all kinds of food.  There was goblin soup, witches brew punch, oogly eye martinis, pumpkin baked brie, monster eyes, pecan cream cheese dip, roast beast sandwiches and the most wonderful chocolate trifle.  Everyone pitched in on food since I had been travelling like crazy before the party so that was a big help.

It was a perfectly not so terrifying night.  Well that is until Mark and B-Payne started dancing.  Then it got a little terrifying   Oh and Megan, I’m still having nightmares about the creepy grim reaper guy in our foyer.

Thanks everyone for the great time! 

Love you!