Picture dump!

Here's some Christmas pictures. Our day has been absolutely wonderful so far. Relaxing, weather is perfect, company is wonderful, kids are happy. I love Christmastime. As I type this Trevor is laying on the couch reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" from his Grandma, Rachael is listening to High School Musical 3 (I think) on her new HK boom box and Ariel is going low tech with the bubble wrap. If it's not felt, or a spatula.. it's bubble wrap. We enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole and mimosas (and later I drank the rest of the Champagne!) for breakfast. Currently we have the turkey smoking for dinner and will eat sausage/cranberry stuffing, glazed carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner. The stuffing is in the oven and smells soooo good. I'm hungry! More pictures of dinner will come later. As well as video of Trevor riding his skateboard and the kitty and random pics on Ray and Pam's camera. MERRY CHRISTMAS!


The tree before the kids came downstairs. All set up for Christmas! Ariel is the far left, Rachael is the middle and Trevor is the right.


We called the photo "Get the heck outta the way Grandpa!" heehee. The kids coming downstairs to check out the tree. Trevor woke up at 4am. OMG. I heard him and Rachael heading downstairs and caught them and said "Um, no. It's too early! Open your stockings and wake us up at 6am to go downstairs!" Thankfully, they were reasonably happy to do that.


Trevor posing on his new skateboard!!!! He was THRILLED. It's a way cool board and he has been out on it a couple times.


Ariel with this insane cat she wanted. It meows and purrs and moves its head and blinks its eyes. It's creepy but cute.


Rachael's new robe. The girls loved their jams and HK robes. Ariel ran upstairs and put her jammies and robe on right away. heehee. Ray and Pam have pics of her in her jams.


Her grandma B gave Rachael is enormous Barbie bus that was also a hottub. It is truly insanely huge! And lots of fun. Inside is a pretty Mariposa (I think) Barbie that her Auntie Kristen sent (I think?!) and also "cooking show" Barbie from Santa.


Trevor building with his Erector set from Santa.


Trevor and Ray building- they are working on the helicopter.


Rachael zonked out on the couch for an hour or so after breakfast and then running around outside.


The rigged thing Ray put over the smoker so the turkey would hold a steady temperature. We smoke our turkey every year. Yum.

Sick Rachael, tired mom

So I will give you some pictures. We put our tree up this weekend. We have a glorious, prelit fake tree. I was always againts having a fake tree until we bought one. It is *so* easy to put up. And prelit is like, omg, THE BEST. We bring out the three big tree segments, click them together, the branches fall open and I kind of spread out the pieces of pine "twigs" so it looks less smushed and more tree like. Then the kids come in and we ooh and ahh over the ornaments. It never fails.. EVERY year I think we have no ornaments and I wonder what we will put on our tree. And every year I realize we have TONS of ornaments, plenty for the tree. Over ten years you would have thought we had collected lots of xmas ornaments, but alas, in our move from CA back to the VA area, our box or ornaments got lost. So we had all these really pretty ornaments that we never saw again. Oh well, now we have more.. plus the wonderful addition of handmade ones from the kids.


I keep forgetting that blogger is posting my pictures backwards. Here's the finished tree. I think Ariel took this picture. I took off that vine thing hanging on it.


Trevor, Rachael and Ariel hanging a few ornaments on the other side of the tree.


The stockings were hung by the worm farm with care....


Trevor can make the weirdest faces for a picture. he's hanging an ornament. Notice Chaos in the background, chillin in his Santa hat.


The kids found their hats from last year. Notice Ariel's favorite pumpkin shirt to go along with her reindeer antlers. I think her expression is kind of priceless, too.


Rachael has been sick today. Some kind of stomach bug. She isn't running a fever, but has been throwing up all day and can't hold down anything. This was how she spent her morning, on our bed with Stripey making sure she was ok.


Strip Stripe has grown a lot since I think I last posted pictures. He still has his kitten teeth, but the kitten crazies are mostly over. He still plays with his tail and does somersaults on our bed in the morning. And he climbs up my leg when he wants attention; but he also spends lots of time sleeping. He plays with Chaos and Shadow, too and LOVES that cat tree.


Chaos looking quite festive and full of Christmas cheer. heh.

Humiliating my cats.

These are bad iphone pics, but I have to post pictures of my poor cats.

Yes, I have three kids. But my cats are also my OTHER three kids. They really are spoiled and very much a part of our family.


Ariel putting a puzzle together. Ariel and I seem to find plenty to occupy us during the day, even with the colder weather.


My cats are HORRIFIED by the cold weather. During the summer they spend their days trying to escape the house and be FREE!!! But during the winter they are so disappointed to run outside and have it be so cold. They usually turn and run right back in. And proceed to spend the day following us from room to room like dogs. Shadow normally crawls into my lap at every opportunity. He's not in my lap in this pic because I have probably not let him crawl into it so I could help Ariel with her puzzle.


And then, we humiliated them. Ariel and I had to stop at Petsmart to get the kitties their food. I ended up buying them some hats because they were on sale. Poor Shadow got the reindeer hat. He hated it and quickly pawed it off.


Chaos, because he is so big and, well, round, got to be Santa. The hat barely fit him. And he totally didn't care it was on. He wandered around for a good 15 minutes with it before it just fell off. I think he looks rather endearing as Santa.

Other than that, nothing much has been happening!