things heard at our house recently....

"now bring us some piggy pudding, now bring us some piggy pudding...and bring it my dear"

"wow, daddy, look i made a lot of poo-poos" (and in response) "please, just sit down. sit down"

"i bonk my hair"

" 'scuse me, bo-bo"

"mommy, why did you say you really need a beard?" (beer)

hope things are as entertaining at your place.

the most wonderful time of the year....

negligence is easy when there is so much else to do!

we have been feverishly preparing for christmas at the here in the household these past few weeks. we went to the christmas parade in downtown. we went to see santa. we went to look at christmas lights in the car (several times). we mailed the cards....baked the cookies....decorated said cookies...wrapped and wrapped and wrapped gifts. set up the tree, hung the lights....well, you get the idea. exactly what you have been doing the past two weeks too.

needless to say, i am one tired mama. but i would (and will) do it again every year over and over. it is still so fun to hear the boy burst into the living room and announce "miss-miss ree" every morning, (like it would go away overnight?) and then demand "on-on-on-on" until the tree is lit.

or to come in and find that the boy has "rearragned" all the gifts under the tree to the middle of the floor, and is in the process of removing the bows of said gifts. again.

or when little mama uses the calendar to count down the days to christmas.

its so worth it. all the shopping, all the baking, all the decorating.....they are having fun, just like little kids should. so its all worth it.

its also much easier to be optimistic about how worth it everything is when there are only two days left...in case you think i have lost my mind, had you asked me two weeks ago, i probably would have shouted at you about the entire holiday!

merry christmas!

chex mix

chex mix is like crack.

seriously.

at least, it is in our house. and i don't mean the kind from a bag. i mean the good, hommade kind that is terrible for you and really spicy (thanks to extra tobasco thrown it!)

so i always make some for hubby this time of year (oh, i like it too) but i usually go to sams and buy the holiday three pack, with a pack each of corn, rice and wheat chex. and then i always start out following the recipie (at least, the amounts of chex and pretzels and peanuts to add) but then you wind up caught in the chex conspiracy.

i am not kidding. okay, first, like i said, the stuff is addictive. but then, once you have the boxes, you are hooked in. and not because you have no self control. the three bags are packed by weight. ok. but they give you more wheat chex than corn OR rice. really. so when you make two batches of chex mix up following the recipie on the box, you are out of rice and corn chex. but you still have almost half a bag of the wheat chex.

sooo....who eats plain wheat chex? nobody. in fact, if we are truly honest with ourselves, you know that if given a bowl of chex, you eat everything but the wheat if no one is looking.

back to the store. buy the other two kinds. buy more pretzels. then, you have extra of other ingredients.....and the cylcle begins again.

and if it weren't soooo delicious.....

turkey day

so we celebrated a less than traditional thanksgiving this year with my family. (totally traditional at the mcanally house) we decided to take the family (only eight total, including the two kids) out to the gaylord resort in grapevine for brunch and then went to the ice exhibit they have out there each year. it was great.

i know. you are thinking that i am probably crazy, taking a two year old and a three year old (on a holiday) to a VERY upscale hotel for brunch (which really isn't a meal...) and asking them to not only dress-up, sit still, and eat with some semblance of manners....but also to go down for a nap at a later time. yup. crazy is a great description. BUT....(and for the record, i am the first to admit when my children are hellions....) they were wonderful!!! we had a great time. everyone ate and ate and ate and ate. i swear the boy ate a pound of ham all by himself. and little mama ate one of everything she could get her hands on...including one of everything from both the white and dark chocolate fountains. (which were enormously popular with ALL the children...and quite messy!) and the ice exhibit was fun too. it was cold...cold...cold (9 degrees) but fun. and pretty amazing. the slide looked like a good time. i didn't try it, of course, but everyone else did. and the boy somehow managed to not only stop himself, mid-slide, but also to get stuck, and then have to inchworm down the slide at his own (very slow) place. it was funny. not to the guy running that part of the slide....who was close to freaking out...but that's okay.

but. i guess if you expect the worst...sometimes what really happens dosen't seem so bad!

after a nice long nap (for mommy and the kids) and the first half of the cowboys game...we headed to dinner with the hubby's side of the family. it was fun, as it usually is when we all get together. but it was more traditional....and lasted forever. i mean, we streched out all the celebrating to last all night. (heehee) and the kids (the siblings) all decided NOT to exchange gifts this year...just to buy for the kids, and then we will all bring 10 bucks in lotto tickets and play a tripoli tournament...

winner gets the tickets!!! whoo-hooo! that is such a fun idea....(way to go, em!)