Christmas in Louisiana

When we got back from San Diego Saturday night, my Air Force brother Mike and my mom met us at our house to do our little Christmas. We had a crawfish etoufee and opened some presents. As tradition goes in our family, someone always has to get pranked in the giving/receiving of gifts. Well this year it was me.

I was in such a rush when we got home that when it was time to exchange gifts, I hadn't even realized that my brother had re-wrapped all of the presents I had under the tree in their wrapping paper. (See, they had picked Fritz up earlier in the day for us from the kennel and had time at our house while we weren't here) So when it came time for me to get the presents from under the tree, I thought all of my presents were gone because I didn't see my wrapping paper! Nor did I notice that he had taken my canisters and used them to wrap our gift cards in! UGH!! Brothers!! Gotta love 'em!

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. The only thing missing under my tree was my Army Brother Jeff, who is currently serving our country overseas in Iraq. We missed having you here Bub!! We love you and are so proud of what you are doing and I am so proud to call you my brother!!!

Christmas in San Diego

Andy and I spent Christmas in San Diego this year. We alternate years in California and Louisiana since our families are so far apart. I know, most of you are thinking...ahhh nice warm weather....NOT! It rained, yes I said rain! I never knew it did such a thing in SoCal (that's southern California for all of you not familiar with the lingo...hey, when in Rome....) Not only did it rain, it was cold. I had so much fun being with kids for Christmas day. Gabe and Sydnee where a hoot! Our first night there...they love them some Uncle Andy!!!

I helped Gabe with his letter to Santa. He was sure to include all of the reindeer in his letter as well.

Gabe with the National Geographic Encyclopedia of Animals book that we got him. It is amazing how much this child knows about animals. Andy said he could take his gig to The Tonight Show!

We got Sydnee a tea set...it was a hit. The cups changed color when you add cold water to them. She held a tea party for us. They are both in their new Christmas PJs...so cute!!

This video cracks me up! Katie wrapped her presents in San Diego. So she hid herself in the bedroom and then when she was finished wrapping the kids would bring them down to the tree....well, I was wandering upstairs and I find Gabe and Sydnee looking under the door to try and get a sneak peek at the presents. Of course, they were quick to move from the door when they heard me coming upstairs, but this was there take on what was going on.

Christmas family pic. After a wonderful meal, we went to the movies later that evening to see Marley and Me....great movie-but still can't figure out why they market this movie to kids... as Andy put it, its the modern version of Ol' Yeller.

On Friday, we went to Sea World. Any of you that truly know me, know that I am an amusement park junkie! I just love them (well, mostly Disney World)! I have now been to all three Sea World's...Orlando, San Antonio and now San Diego!! It did, as I mentioned earlier stop raining on Friday, but man was it cold and windy!!!
Group pic at Sea World.
Dolphin show.

Sea World had all of these great "Kodak moments" set up around the park...I was only allowed to get this one out of Andy...and I had to promise to not ask for any more in order to get this one! My selling point was that this one had "San Diego" on it!

Waiting for Shamu!!!

SHAMU!!!! So cool! (Well, I think it is anyway...they all look alike!)

Petting/touching a starfish!

Sydnee with a bird's eye view of the park!

We left the park and went straight to In-N-Out. Yeah, I didn't know either...apparently its a great fast food burger joint that is a must have while in San Diego. And it lived up to the hype! I enjoyed every bite!

LEAVE us Alone!!!

When we first moved in to our house, this huge sycamore tree was B-E-A-UTIFUL (sorry just watched Bruce Almighty on TBS). It was full of dark green leaves and gave off a great amount of shade. Well it has been raining leaves on us for about two months now and Andy and I finally decided to participate in the battle that the tree was waged on us......

Fours hours and 17 bags of leaves later.....the tree won! We woke up this morning to go to church and felt muscles we didn't know we had! We will have to have a better approach next year...like maybe cut the tree down!?!?!

Busted!

Fritz likes to act out when Andy is away for work. Ya know, pull the toilet paper off the roll and decorate the house, or go into the trash in the kitchen and see what he can find. Well this week, he decided he was going to open some presents that were under the tree. Never has he even remotely been interested in the presents...never!! Our usual routine in the morning starts with me taking a shower and him waiting outside the bathroom door for me...well, Wednesday, I opened the door....and no Fritz. I knew he was up to no good because he is always where I am. So I go looking for him and this is what I find on my way to the kitchen...silly me I assumed he was in the trash....
He must have heard me coming and was running through the kitchen with this present in his mouth and then I caught him in the living room just in time to take this pick...BUSTED!!!
The present that he has in his mouth had to be replaced because it had little teeth marks in it....it was about this time that I was ready to open the front door and set him free!

Christmas Treats

My kitchen skills are limited to say the least...but here are a few Christmas treats I make every year....and yes, I stole the recipes from friends.
Well, the first is chocolate covered pretzels...I think a monkey could do these, so no need for a recipe.
On the right...Tiger Brittle

Tiger Brittle

7 squares of Vanilla Almond Bark

3 squares of Chocolate Almond Bark

½ cup peanut butter Graham Crackers

Take 12 Graham Cracker sheets and lay them down on a pan.

Melt 6 squares of white chocolate and peanut butter together. Stir well. Pour and spread over the graham crackers.

Melt 3 squares of dark chocolate. Spoon it out in small little drops on top and swirl it around with a toothpick.

Then melt the last white chocolate square by itself and do the same thing with the toothpick.

Then stick the pan in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to let the chocolate harden. Take it out and break it into pieces.

I melt my stuff in glass measuring cups in the microwave. But you need to be careful (especially with the dark chocolate) because you can burn it. The first one with the peanut butter in it melts real smoothly. I put it in for about a minute and then take it out and stir it and put it back in (for not more than 30 seconds at a time) stirring it each time until its melted well. The dark chocolate doesn't look like it melts, but it does. Try stirring it after about 45 seconds and then put in back in for about 20 seconds each time. Same thing with the last white chocolate square by itself.

On the bottom...Oreo Balls (or as Andy likes to call them Snowman poop)

Oreo Balls

1 bag of Oreo Cookies

1 bar of Philadelphia cream cheese

white almond bark

Crush the bag of Oreo Cookies (I put them in a Ziploc and use a rolling pin to crush them) and put in a food processor with the cream cheese. Then roll them into balls and put them in the freezer so they will harden a little. Then melt the chocolate and dip the balls in them.

Viola - Oreo balls are complete!

Blow Ups Anyone?!?!

So our neighbors down the street from us really get into the Christmas spirit! Before we moved to our new house we use to come to this neighborhood to look at the lights and the "blow-ups". When we moved here everyone asked..."how close are you to the 'blow-up' man?" (the whole town knows about this place...preschools take field trips to see this stuff!). Well, we are just down the street from him. And the pictures below don't even begin to depict what is going on down the street from our house!!!! There are FIVE houses on one side of the street that have their yards all covered with these "blow-ups"....then on the other side of the street there are four more....it is like nothing else I have ever seen!!! He also does this for Halloween, but it's not nearly the event it is for Christmas. Rumor has it that the "blow-up man" pays for the extra electricity costs of his neighbors so that they will participate. The best part of all of this is that the family collects donations for St. Jude from those who stop by to look at the display.


This is the main house that started it all. In his back yard there are even more!! Who knew that there were this many "blow-ups" in the existence?

I thought this one was funny....I think it might even be an ethnic Santa!

Betcha' didn't know Santa had a band!

This is the snowman display....they have all kinds of themes set up. Andy said this one just couldn't stand the madness of it all and had to deflate himself!

And then there is our Christmas display....I mean really?!?!? I can't even compete! (look I even have a section that is not working!!!) They must be thinking..."there goes the neighborhood"

Snow Day Recap....

My morning started at 6:05am with Jamie calling me to say "JULIE GET UP, IT'S SNOWING!" My first thought was- couldn't this wait, I have one more snooze before I have to get up....but I replied with "BULLSH**" She promises she is telling the truth....my next thought "Do I have to go to work?" You know us teachers, always wanting another day off!
So the pics above are the pics I took before I went to get in the shower to get ready for school. Because at this point, "they" hadn't called school off, and if I did have to go to school, I wasn't going to be able to get many pics. ***Side note: Because we missed so much school with the hurricane, we have already had to add 14 minutes to everyday and they took a day away from our Christmas break....so I was sure they were going to make us go to school*** As I was about to start drying my hair, I decided to check the news one more time....this was the radar pic!!! There are colors on there I have never seen before!!! I am still not sure about the purple and blue?!?! Do you see the word "Baton Rouge"...well, just east of the "e" at the parish line...that's where I am....so about this time they do an update of school closures.....NO SCHOOL!!!!! It is now about 6:45am.

I turned my Christmas lights on....it was SO pretty!!!

I made Fritz come outside and play with me. He surprisingly liked the snow very much. He kept trying to eat it and would snap at the snow flakes.
This car was going down the street as I was making my snowman....bet they were mad they had to go to work

And my pitiful little snowman....hey, cut me some slack I've only done this three times in my LIFE!!! I know, he's missing a mouth....just imagine that he is smiling. The windchill at this point was 19!!!! My favorite pic of the day.....looking out my carport down the driveway.

The snow lasted from 4:30am until about 9am...and is still on the ground tonight. It was so beautiful. But I have had my fill...I am good for another 7 years or so. Thank you mother nature...now move along with that cold weather!! ***Saturday's high is suppose to be 69!!***

SNOW DAY!!!!!

We don't get these very often...in fact I can count on one hand the number of times we have had real snow here in southeast Louisiana.....1987, 2001 and today!!!! Here are some pics....I am sure I will have more later....I gotta get out there and play in this stuff!!

The Stockings Were Hung...

My mom made us stockings for our new house this year for Christmas. She finished them up this weekend and I was able to hang them just in time to enjoy them for the Christmas season. These are the same type that she made our family when I was a kid. And now, Andy and I have our own. She spent hours working on these...it's a pattern and you have to cut out all of the felt pieces and then sow on the pieces and then add some sequence. I just love the way they look on our mantel.

Andy's stocking...

My stocking....Mom said she actually say my stocking hanging on Paula Dean's cooking set on her show Saturday!! Thanks mom!

Game Night

This past Saturday, we had our first game night in our new house. Our group gets together pretty regularly to play games on the weekend. We pick someones house to host,organize something to eat, it's a byob and we play games! We have so much fun!! This week we played a new game- Partini that Jamie had purchased, and then we played Imagine If, Taboo and finished the night with Charades. Charades is really good at the end of the night...ya know, after everyone has had a little "liquid courage"! Oh yeah, and there was some football game on TV too that we watched...some team with a mobile home for a mascot and an another team that kept trying to imitate wheat...that or they all had tendinitis of the elbow.

Andy explaining the new game to Eazy...he was probably ready for Charades much earlier in the night...if you know what I mean!

Rachel and Birdie do a "Bouncers" challenge...it's a part of the Partini game- funny!!!

More "bouncers" the game gives you a card with a challenge that involves a number of cups and balls and the team that accomplishes the challenge first wins.

HA! Eazy sculpting something! I think it ended up being a golf tee.