SLEEPOVER!!!!

Alright, the phone rang and I pick up to hear Leslie ask me if we can have a sleepover at my place, since her place is messy. I hesitate for a moment and ask Paul who looks at me like Im crazy and say YES! So, within the hour, we had 2 nephews, 3 neices, and my Sis in law camped out in our living room. It was hectic, crazy but mostly fun. The kids played on the wii and later we watched Narnia: Prince Caspian (up late) and then the next morning we made breakfast, played more games and had more fun! Here are some the highlights of our adventure this weekend!

This was a site, Paul playing wii with the kids (I think Mario Kart)

Amanda hanging with Solomon & Paul, waiting for breakfast

Don't they look obsessed? Paul playing rockband with the kids!

Yikes, this was one night worth of bedding and clothes for 6!!!

Picking the Christmas Tree

I love the smell of a fresh real Christmas Tree and this is why it's also a tradition for us to go to Stein's a get a tree for the holidays. Usually it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving but I was visiting family. Now it's 2 weeks before Christmas and we finally get the tree. I think we found a good tree this year. It looks crooked but we'll fix it before we put the lights on and decorate it! With the snow that came down the past week .. a lot of the trees were in bad shape, except the expensive ones but we found a row that was in decent shape for the cheaper prices and here it is! Enjoy.
Tree with Paul

Tree with Esther

How we got it home .. heh heh

In our place, because it was outside for who knows how long, Paul requires that we not touch the tree until 24 hours after its been settled. Yes, it's crooked! I'll post the final picture tomorrow!

More Vegas Trip

Vegas was a good trip for me! I never realize how much I miss being around family until I am around them. Vegas was no exception to that statement! My sister and I always are a bunch of crazies when we are near each other and my husband can attest to that .. prime example .. in the 1 1/2 week we were together we saw Twilight the move 5 times together. Anyway, here are some pics from the trip, starting with the video I took of Brooke! Enjoy!



OK As promised.. So, I'm sure my sister is going to kill me for this but here is a video of her singing and playing the guitar. She has a great voice and is self taught in the guitar department....

One of my beautiful nieces Alyssa .. She is so independent and loves to be a girly girl .. make up, nail polish, pink!!!! She is the greatest when she wants to get along!


Mom, Demetri, and Ethan .. after planet hollywood buffet - yummy!


My other beautiful neice Kayla .. she's wearing her Christmas Present from us .. she loved it!

Happy Birthday Bob! While I visited .. it was Bob's birhtday .. 30 years! WOW .. I feel old! Bob, Alyssa & Ethan!

Baby Ethan! 18 months ... really mature for his age!

Ethan and Brooke getting a nap in before a big day of eating!

Thanksgiving Dinner with family and friends!

The Kids getting some game time during Thanksgiving.

St Nick's

What can I say about this HOliday? Not much except, every year since Paul and I have been married, it has been a tradition, carried from his family to ours to celebrate St Nick's by filling our stockings with gifts. Usually candy and such. This year however, I think we've gone above and beyond the fitting in stocking tradition.

Fist a little history on St Nick's, the tradition of St. Nicholas is not synonomous with the role of Santa Claus in the U.S.. As practiced in many European countries, the celebration of St. Nicholas is separate from the Christmas holidays, and occurs during the 2 weeks prior to December 6th, which is St. Nicholas's day. Sometimes St. Nicholas Day is the main holiday for gift giving, and not Christmas.

In Germany, St. Nicholas is also known as Klaasbuur, Sunnercla, Burklaas, Bullerklaas, and Rauklas, and in eastern Germany, he is also known as Shaggy Goat, Ash Man and Rider and is more reflective of earlier pagan influences (Norse) that were blended in with the figure of St. Nicholas, when Christianity came to Germany. After the reformation, St. Nicholas's attire began to change, maybe as a reflection of the change from the Roman church, and he started to wear a red suit with fur. His dark-skinned helper is most often known as Knecht Ruprecht. Although he still visits many homes on Dec 5th/6th and leaves candy and gifts in the children's shoes, more recently St. Nicholas has begun showing up on Christmas Eve in Germany and is called Father Christmas.

In the Netherlands, families celebrate St Nicholas's birthday the night before his feast day (December 6th). At one point during the evening, a loud knock will herald the arrival of Sinterklaas and at the same time candy may be thrown from upstairs; when the door is opened, a bag of gifts will be on the doorstep.

For families with older children and adults, different twists are added to the gift giving and may include gag gifts or the drawing of gift ideas or names, and most times are accompanied by poems with a "personal touch" that poke fun at the recipient in a gentle way (or not, depending on the families ;) ). Wrapping the presents up in odd packages and planting a trail of clues is also part of the general fun, and can sometimes be pretty tricky to get to, depending on the squeamishness of the recipients.

So .. now that you've had the history lesson. This year for St Nick's I got Paul or St Nick's got Paul a Wii game (Are you smarter than a 5th grader), some golf balls and candy!!! He loved it! The game is actually fun. Paul on the other hand, was awaiting a gift card to get my gift, which originally was to be the wii music game but I talked him into getting "Rockband" (Thanks Bob & Jen)I discovered Rockband while visiting my Sister, Brother, and his family is Las Vegas and it was pretty fun. Paul wasn't sure .. but once the box was open and instruments unwrapped .. away we went and played for 2 hours long. Here are a few pictures of the gift!!!!

Update

Alright, So I haven't had a chance to update my trip while I was away or anything that has been going on lately but it's ok. I can't believe that it's the 8th of December already and I'm so behind on everything ... my shopping list, for cookies and gifts, my christmas cards, which by the way will be late this year and so much more! So, I ask that you be a bit patient with me. Also, I have been having this obsession with Jason Mraz music lately, and I had to get a post of it soon, hence - the widget of his music though my latest song obsession is his song "lucky" which is a duet with Colbie Caillat ... another musician obsession of mine. Until later, enjoy!