Every year my kids have some sort of Christmas jammies. I try to get them matching ones. This years took the cake though. They were the best ones ever. Davis in his footie jammies, passed out on Christmas Eve. Emma in her long nightgown, also passed out on Christmas Eve. So sweet.......

Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad... Whatever you celebrate or celebrated, I hope it was great!

Mark's family gathered yesterday to make tamales. In case I have not mentioned it, Mark is Costa Rican . This year they decided to make the traditional Costa Rican Christmas food, tamales. Luckily, my mother in law works at a place that has a huge commercial kitchen that we were able to use for our tamale making festival. It was a lot of fun and even the kids got to help some. Tonight we will feast on the tamales. Here are some pictures from yesterday. This is my cousin. He is a giant. (He is Mark's cousin actually.) Notice he is the same height as I am, ON HIS KNEES. The Kinch /Castro family. Emmaline adding olives to the tamales. Emma wrapping the tamale in the banana leaves. The tamales laid out and ready for wrapping then steaming in the big pot. The finished product. It was a lot of fun. I am so thankful my kids get to know this part of who they are. It was a wonderful memory we all made together. Thank you all for sharing in the day and helping make it so very special ...

Yes this post counts as my post for Saturday. The time is after midnight, so it is December 23. Today is a day full of crazy. I will be up and out early doing last minute prep for Christmas food. I also still have some food to make myself and a few (this means ALL of the kids gifts) gifts to wrap. And for anyone who is wondering....no I did not find Cars Christmas paper. I do have red paper and Cars stickers ready to go though. It will have to do. I have a few short hours to rest and then I will hit the ground running. P.S.~ Judy if you are reading, I am a flake. In town? Have time? Send me an e-mail or something and let me know. Christmas crept up on me and now it is biting me in the butt. But what else is new.....something is usually biting me in the butt anyhow.

After making about twelve dozen sugar cookies over the last week, my mom sent me this cookie recipe. I think I will try it next. My favorite Christmas cookie recipe In case you need to make Christmas Cookies: * 1 cup of water * 1 tsp baking soda * 1 cup of sugar * 1 tsp salt * 1 cup of brown sugar * 1/4 cup lemon juice * 4 large eggs * 1 cup nuts * 2 cups of dried fruit * 1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup. Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscr...

So, only one week left before Santa descends upon houses across the globe. How many of you are ready? And how many of you still have a few things left on your list like me? Nothing screams Christmas like running around on the few remaining days before Christmas like a chicken with your head cut off, scrambling to get those last few things on your almighty list. Ahh, everyone sing with me now.... Joy to the world.......

Today I ventured out with the masses again. We are having nice weather here and I was on a mission. One that I do not think I will complete. I get myself all worked up. Once my kids get into something I become obsessed with it. Right now with Emma is it Littlest Pet Shops. Or Hello Kitty. Nothing too hard to find and this year I did a good job finding a bunch of it. Even the Target only tin with all the different pets, including the beloved ferret that she has been asking for for two years. Davis is very into Cars right now. And seeing as to how I am super obsessed with these things and totally give into the marketing, I have been searching and finding various Cars related things for him for Christmas. The cool thing is he is getting a fleece blanket and a little suitcase both of which he can actually use. My issue has been finding Cars wrapping paper. I think I will not find it. Which is okay. I have plain red paper and I got some stickers. So I can make my own paper. Y...

I love to bake. It began in high school. I can cook but I do not enjoy it like I do baking. I discovered a little over a year ago that Mark loved the sugar cookies you buy at the store. The ones that are super think and have just as much icing as there is cookie? Those ones. The funny part was Mark usually does not like sweet things. And these are not only sweet but store bought? Around Halloween of last year I decided to take on trying to make sugar cookies. I also love to ice things. With those pastry bags and the star tips and you make little stars all over the cake? Yea, I am sick. So icing the cookies was not my concern. It was rolling the dough, cutting them and baking them just right. My first attempt was not bad. I continued to hone my skill, so to say. And before long, I had family asking me to bring my cookies to almost any event. Mark had people at work asking for them. It was fun, sort of. Every year we do a girl's Christmas Party. At this party we do a cookie exchange....

If you click on the box in the side bar or the one below, it will take you to Popular Front. There you can make a snowflake and the more snowflakes made the more they will donate to the Savation Army. Go make a flake!

Davis has managed to knock over the Christmas tree four times in the last week. He was trying, and succeeded, to take the Santa tree topper off the top of the tree. He is relentless. My mom suggested I get a different tree topper but my gut tells me he will try to remove anything form on top of the tree. My mom did not have any boys. Here are a couple pictures of the kids decorating the tree last week. It is hard work decorating the tree. You have to find just the right spot.

The Holidays are officially here. I decorated the house for Christmas today. Only the inside. I need Mark to help me rig up the lights for outside. The kids helped decorate the tree. It looks a little whoopy , but they had fun doing it themselves so I let them go at it. I hung all my lights around my windows in the living room too. I even threw out an entire box of old decorations and things that were broken. I did really well this year. Emma's tree is up and the lights are going on it in her room. My little tree is up and going in the dining room. Davis's poor tree needs new lights. I will get them soon for his tree. Christmas photos have been taken and ordered. Most of the shopping is complete. Not too much longer and it will be Christmas.

Yes, I am one of those people who gets up the day after Thanksgiving and goes shopping. It has become a ritual with Mark and I and I think we just like the time together. Or maybe that is only me. I am also one who would marry Target if I could. I LOVE me some Target. Not only the store itself but I love their community outreach work. They have the Target House for kids at St. Jude's. They are partnering with Salvation Army to give $1 million this year. You can go to their Community Page to read more about what they do. Now, they have the one and only David Blaine working for them. Check this out. Go read the story behind it y'all. And then go shop at Target. **And before anyone asks, Target gave me the HTML code to paste into my blog, I myself did not know how to do it.**

Let me begin this by saying I detest Halloween. Seriously. If I could skip it, I would. I will admit that I am seriously afraid of the dark. That is the first part. Second, when I was younger I was scared out of my gourd by a lady answering her door for Trick or Treaters dressed as a witch saying she was cooking little kids in a big pot down in her basement. I told Emmaline this year why I did not like Halloween and she was......not sympathetic. She told me I was PATHETIC. "Um, well if that happened to me mom, I would have known she was just joking around. I mean, it is Halloween and she was just dressing up and having fun." And yes, I was actually OLDER than Emmaline when this happened. Every since I was tiny I was not a fan of dressing up and Trick or Treating. Mark said it was because my parents always had candy and it was not a big deal. I am not sure what he meant by that. My parents did often have candy and such in my house and we were allowed it. It was not some sort o...

It is getting to that time of the year. While I love Christmas time, it in other ways breaks my heart. For most, Christmas is a magical time of the year. The time where you see beautiful lights and decorate a tree. The time where you get to spend time with your family and eat great food. For most, it is a time of the year where your cares seem far away and you look forward to a new year. Because you have something to look forward to. Me, being the overly sensitive person I am, has moments during this time of the year where I just cry. Why? Because there are little ones out there who do not have this experience. For whatever reason Christmas is not a time of joy and love for them. It is not magical. And it hurts me inside. So consider this my plea. If you are looking for a way to do something. Or if you have a few extra dollars you can spare. I have some suggestions. Be forewarned, some are religious. Only in that the organizations for which these projects are through are religious. If ...