Our little Piece of Happiness

Saturday, December 31, 2011

A very merry EARLY moring :)

THE VOW:
Kyle and I seem to have our times a little confused. I told him that no matter what, I intend to be the one the always wakes up early on Christmas morning. Whether it's just the two of us, we have children or we have to sneak out of the lockdown block in the Nursing Home in our old age, Christmas morning should start no later than 6 in the a.m. (at the latest!).

THE TRADITION:
When we were growing up as kids, we would all hunker down in the same bedroom and try to sleep on Christmas Eve. Of course at that time sleep was almost IMPOSSIBLE to come by, but some how I would always drift off and wake up with even more excitement and anticipation than I had when I went to bed. The same ritual of running in to see the tree and the stockings preceded someone being chosen to go wake up mom and dad. Of course we had no shame or reserve and would talk in overly loud voices, jump on their bed and even make annoying sounds to insure that they were sufficiently awake enough for us to return to the tree.

THE DILEMMA:
THIS year, as I said, we had our times mixed up. We were here in St. George with Kyles family this year and we had a wonderful time! We stayed up and played games and ate food. Then Kyle and I came home and played more games and ate more food. We followed this pattern until 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. At that point I decided that it was finally time to go to sleep. When I suggested this to Kyle, he looked at me with this confused and perplexed look and said, "But aren't we going to open presents?"

THE PERFECT MORNING :D
I was flabbergasted! It seems completely unnatural to even consider opening presents on Christmas morning without even having gone to sleep yet! I expressed as much to him and insisted that we had to go to sleep first and wake up and THEN open presents. He looked me square in the eye and said, "But Caitlin, I am awake now" He flashed his beautiful blue eyes at me and I melted. So on Christmas Morning of 2011 at 3:00 a.m., Kyle and I celebrated our second Christmas together and it was wonderful :)

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

There is one Christmas tradition that I vowed my husband and I would keep as long and there is strength in our backs and breath in our lungs; cutting down a real tree. Sure, sometimes they are a little scarce on one side and too full on another. Sometimes no matter what you do it won't sit any other way than lopsided. And yes, on occasion it a little uncomfortable to find little patches of lint covered sap all over your arms. However, some of my sweetest and fondest memories growing up were when we would go as a family and cut down our own special tree. Just let the good times roll.

The victorious man and his dog! They don't mess around...

See? :) He just man-handled that tree and picked it right up!

The finished masterpiece! You can't really see that well, but the tree skirt is something that my Grandma Bankhead started doing for all of my sisters and I. However, she passed away before she could finish and get the pieces got sewn together. So last year, my mom gave this to us, finished, for Christmas. It really is beautiful and wonderful!

Merry LATE Christmas!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Gingerbread :D

Once there was a gingerbread man,
Baking in a gingerbread pan.
Raisin eyes and a cherry nose,
Trimmed right down to his fingers and toes.
A gingerbread man in a gingerbread pan!
Here's the old woman who made him so sweet,
A treat for her and her husband to eat,
She made him with flour and sugar and eggs,
She gave him a face and two arms and two legs.
A gingerbread man in a gingerbread pan!

Now open the oven to see if he's done,
This gingerbread man, he know how to run.
Out of the oven and onto the floor,
Now run away out the kitchen door.
The gingerbread man, he's out of the pan!

Now chase him old woman, now chase him old man
Chase him, yes chase him as fast as you can!
Through the garden and out the gate,
Catch him right now, before it's too late.
The gingerbread man, he's out of the pan!

Along came a cow who wanted a treat
And the gingerbread man, he looked good to eat
Run, run, as fast as you can
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man
I'm the gingerbread man and I'm out of the pan!

Along came a horse who wanted a snack
But the gingerbread man, he never looked back
Run, run, as fast as you can
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man
I'm the gingerbread man and I'm out of the pan!
Along came a farmer who wanted a treat
And the gingerbread man, he looked good to eat
Run, run, as fast as you can
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man
I'm the gingerbread man and I'm out of the pan!
Along came a dog who wanted a snack
But the gingerbread man, he never looked back
Run, run, as fast as you can
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man
I'm the gingerbread man and I'm out of the pan!
Along came a hog who wanted a treat
And the gingerbread man, he looked good to eat
Run, run, as fast as you can
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man
I'm the gingerbread man and I'm out of the pan!
Along came a fox who wanted a treat,
And this gingerbread man, he looked good to eat.
Jump on my back, my gingerbread pet,
And we'll cross the river, so you won't get wet
Mr. Gingerbread man, who's out of the pan!

There was no place to go, there was no place to run
And a ride on the river could be lots of fun!
So off with the fox did Gingerbread go
And what happened next, you already know
To the gingerbread man, who's out of the pan

That sly old fox had a de-lic-ious treat
And the old man and woman had nothing to eat
Not a bite was left for the cow or the dog,
The horse or the farmer or hungry old hog
There's no gingerbread man in or out of the pan!

So let us go home and get out the pan
And we'll make ourselves a new gingerbread man!
And when he is eaten, we'll make us some more
But this time we'll be certain to lock the back door!
A new gingerbread man, in a gingerbread pan!

This is our niece Jaelie :) she helped us decorated our house!

And this is Jace our nephew :)

Hmmm...sideways photo of the gingerbread in pre-house condition. Courtesy of Pam and Jessica, fantastic work!

Taking a break and just chillin...

Such concentration! You should have seen Kyles face!

The finished piece! Voila'!!!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

"Big" Change

Another "Big" thing in our life is our puppy Gus-what I mean to say, is that he is getting huge!!! He has loads of energy and loves to play hard. He is super intelligent and seems to know exactly what we always want him to do. To everyone in my immediate family: Gus is a BIG fan of "ham rolled up in cheese." Go figure.

Updates!!

Its amazing how much can happen in such a short amount of time. When I finally take just a minute to breath and relax and consider all of the things, both good and bad, that are happening it has a sort of 'shock and awe' effect on me. All at once our nieces and nephews aren't babies anymore and there are new ones to love and enjoy. All at once, another year of school is over and I wonder where it went and how I will ever be able to get ready in time for the next one. All at once, Kyle and I have been married for a year and are falling deeper in love with each passing day. Life is not easy, no sir, it's not. It's not always fun, and it's certainly not always pleasant. But it is ALWAYS wonderful. We are so blessed to be in the time and place that we are in and I hope that even though life is just starting to really fly, time wise, that we can always remember the good things. There are so many of them around us! We just have to look.

A couple of months ago, I started noticing that my beloved Scentsy warmer had some sort of a short. It got to the point where I had to pin the cord down with a heavy object in just the perfect and precise position to get the light to stay on. Well, here I am fiddling with it one day (like you used to have to do with the old t.v. antennas and tin foil) when Kyle walks up to me with a puzzled look on his face. He questioned me about what in the world I was doing and I explained to him the problem. Well, Kyle being the amazing husband that he is, took the scentsy from me and told me he would fix it. This is what he found...