Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and happy New Year's Eve celebration!

I had to work today and, of course, just as I was getting ready to leave around noon I get hit with an escalation!  It never fails.  I don't think I've ever really been able to take advantage of early release over the past few years.  When I finally left around 1:30pm, I realized I had actually forgotten my driver's license in the jacket I went running in last night...  OOPS!  On top of that, because I could give a Graduate level course in procrastination, it expired today so I had plans to go to the nearest DMV near my workplace and just get it done.  Well, since I had left my license at home, I had to drive all the way back home - 40 minutes - to get it.  Since my day was going awesome when I got home... yep... you guessed it... my license was in my wallet the whole time!

So now it is almost 2:45pm.  After quickly checking to make sure {thankfully!} the DMV was open until 5:30pm today, I ran out to try and get at least one thing accomplished today.  The DMV is only 15 minutes away so I can do this!

BTW... Marshall did not have school today and Freddy currently isn't working.  They were BOTH still in their pajamas when I got home!  At least the dishes were done!  LOL!

At the DMV, the receptionist asks me for my 6 points of ID to check in and get my number.  WHAT???  Being the first time that I've renewed my license in New Jersey, I thought you only had to do that when you got a new license.  Nope!  Every time!  Luckily I had my military ID in my wallet so the combination of that and my current license satisfied the 6 points of ID {whew!}

They were only on number 68.  While waiting, I heard the security guard say that if they don't get to your number by 5:30pm, then you have to come back another day.  That would NOT be cool.  So I sat.  Played a couple games of Soda Crush.  Played a couple games of Cookie Jam.  Checked Facebook.  Played some more Soda Crush.  Finally, after almost an hour, they called my number!  I found out that I received the last number to guarantee service before they closed up for the day.  And, apparently, everyone now gets a new picture when they renew licenses, so after I went to the first counter where all she did was check my IDs again, I had to wait in another line to get my picture taken.  Another 30 minutes later and I walked out the door with a brand new license in hand.  I vowed, like I do every time, not to wait to the last minute next time.  But pretty sure I will!

Now to start my New Year's Eve celebration!!  Or, as we like to call it, relaxing in the living room doing nothing!  Yep, we're pretty low key so for the past couple of years we have just stayed in and had our own little celebration to welcome in the New Year.

I'm working on some plans for 2015.  We had a pretty crappy 2014 and we have both vowed to make 2015 better and make it our year.  But more on that later.

For now, we wish you health and happiness in 2015!

~AKO

Mommy Fail Alert

So I was getting Marshall ready for bed tonight and he lays on the bed and says "I can't wear those pajamas."  I had pulled out his batman pajamas... one of his favorites.  "Why not?"  I asked.  "Jason says that we need to wear our Christmas pajamas."  Jason is his teacher's helper at school.  He goes on to describe what constitutes "Christmas pajamas"...  ones with Santa Clause or snowflakes or snowmen or presents etc.


Every year that Marshall has been on this planet, I have spent the money on 1 or 2 pairs of Christmas pajamas like all good mommies do. 


Except for this year. 


This year I never got around to buying any Christmas pajamas... they went the way of my Christmas cards that never got sent out.


Christmas cards and buying Christmas pajamas never got added to my daily task list so they never got done!  It seems I need a task to update my task list!


So wish me luck as I leave work early on Christmas Eve to hope against hope that Target or K-Mart might still have Christmas pajamas left!


BTW... Freddy told me that I should buy him oreos.  I told him that if I find Christmas pajamas he will get oreos :)


~AKO

A Christmas Tree Lighting

Our town does an annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony every year.  They light up the large tree in front of the town hall in addition to have a petting zoo, performers, cookies and hot chocolate, and a visit from Santa Clause.  It was supposed to be December 5, but for the 3rd year in a row inclement weather forced the town to push it back.  The rescheduled date was this past Friday, December 12.  It was a little chilly out but not unbearable.

A nice perk that our town does is for the month of December they turn off all the meters to allow people to enjoy their holiday shopping and activities without being required to worry about feeding the meter.  A lot of the neighboring towns do the same.

We, of course, went right for the petting zoo upon arrival.  Marshall loved feeding and petting the animals.  There was also some goats and a llama.  My favorite was the little donkey.  All he wanted was for people to scratch between his ears.

Marshall's reaction when they announced that Santa had arrived and was in route...  he was jumping up and down.

And this is what I got when I asked them to smile... 

Around 5:40pm, with a countdown lead by the mayor, they lit the tree.  The holiday ensemble from the high school also play holiday music.

Once the tree was lit, you could hear the sirens.  Santa arrives every year in a fire truck with a police escort.

2 years ago, Marshall wouldn't go near him, but this year he couldn't wait to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas:  a semi truck with an airplane.  I was surprised that he went right up to Santa Clause and just started talking.  I couldn't get Marshall to smile because he was too busy telling Santa what he wanted, but I was happy to get any kind of picture this year.

Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to catch you up on my December Daily project, which I'm a tad bit behind on.

~AKO

Marshall's First School Winter Show

Yesterday was Marshall's winter show at his school.  I was a little concerned with how he would do since we've been having some behavior issues (more on that later) and he is sometimes difficult and won't follow instructions or do what he is supposed to do.

The show was during the day, so I didn't know how much of a turn out there would be, but I was very happy to see so many parents were able to make the show.  It was a full house.  Freddy and I ended up standing in the back because I couldn't see anything sitting in the back rows.  Short people do not do well sitting in the back :)

I should take a step back and explain that Marshall's school has 3 classes:  The 2 1/2 year olds, the 3 - 4 year olds, and the 5 year olds.  Marshall is in with the 3 - 4 year olds.  I was curious on how they were going to organize 40 toddlers to perform anything but they did it!

Marshall's class was first and they performed the story Tacky the Penguin.  Everyone had lines from the book and most of them remembered what they were supposed to say with little to no prompting.  Marshall was one of the hunters who come out to hunt the penguins.

When they first came out, he was doing his shy thing where he covers his face and turns his back to people.  But he took a minute and scanned the room.  I'm so glad we were standing up in the back because he was able to see us.  As soon as he saw us, the shyness went away and he actively participated in the story.  At that moment, I made a mental promise to him that I would attend as many of his activities as I can.  Just the look on his face when he saw us was priceless.

After the shows, they had holiday treats for everyone.  And each class made a gift for their parents.  Marshall's class made little snowmen with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows.

We may be cracking into that hot chocolate tonight if it stays chilly!

~AKO

Historic Trolley Rides

Anyone else freaked out because December is half over???  This past week has flown right by and it seems like we didn't do much.  Where does the time go??

Last Friday was supposed to be our town's annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the town hall.  Because of the rainy weather, for the 3rd year in a row, it was postponed to tonight.  But they still had the Saturday activities go on as scheduled even though it rained all day.  A lot of stuff cost money, but one of the activities that was completely free was the trolley rides that went through the downtown area.

We've lived in our town for 2 years now and have never done this so I thought it would be something fun for us to do.  And did I mention it was free :)

There was a pretty steady rain all day, but quite a few people showed up for the trolley anyway.  Marshall was super excited to ride the trolley.

It was hard to take pictures of the view because the windows kept fogging up, but the town historian gave us a historic tour of the downtown area of our town.  Turns out, there is a gated community where quite a few famous families lived during the turn of the 20th century.  Thomas Edison had a huge influence on our town and his home is located in this little community.  We're hoping to take a tour of the house in the spring or summer when it is much warmer to do an outside walking tour.

As Marshall gets older and more aware of things, I've been trying to find stuff for us to do as a family.    I came to the realization a few months ago that we really weren't doing much as a family because we were getting to involved in our day to day activities.  Our town and its neighboring towns always have fun family activities so we've been trying to take advantage of what our area has to offer... especially the free stuff!

BTW... My hair looks wet because it is!  They had canopies set up for us to stand under while waiting for the trolley to show up.  But if anyone bumped the legs, all of the water that had been pooling on the top would spill off the sides.  And, yep, I was standing by the edge and got a nice shower on my head and down my back.

~AKO

December Daily... First pages

Can you believe it is December already???  Crazy how fast this year has gone by... but we say that every year don't we!

Today I have, for your viewing pleasure, my 1st few pages of my December Daily album.  I'm still kind of playing things by ear so I'm hoping not to have to redo too many things.

First of all, I apologize for the poor quality photos... the lighting in my living room is not too good at night with my phone.

I haven't decorated the cover of my album.  I'm not sure if I want to since it will be sitting on a shelf with other albums but we'll see if inspiration strikes me later on.  I'm using the off while 6x8 album from Ali Edwards.

This is my current cover page.  Everything is from the Ali Edwards December Daily kit, with the exception of the "December" acrylic, the doily, and the red ink used by the stars stamp.  They are all from the Take Ten Days of December kit.  The "December" acrylic came in plain white and I just embossed the gold on it.  My first time embossing anything :)

I'm thinking I may put a family picture on the right side so hopefully we get a good one over the next few weeks.

The back of my cover page is just a calendar of the month of December.  The word "celebrate" and the star on the 25th are both from the Ali Edwards December Daily kit.

Next, I added a filler page so that December 1 would start on the left side of the book.  The cards and embellishments are from Ali Edwards December Daily kit.  The "Be Merry" and "Season Greetings!" cutouts are both from the Take Ten Days of December kit.  I plan to fill in the "All I want for Christmas" card with items from Marshall's wish list over the next few weeks.  He seems to want everything that is advertised in commercials these days.

And onto my December 1st page.  I was really worried that I would have anything to tell on the weekdays since our evenings are pretty quick... but tonight we played a game of Kerplunk while waiting for dinner to be done.

The holly card and start cutouts are both from the Take Ten Days of December kit.  The gold 1 and the journal card are both from the Ali Edwards December Daily kit.

Stay warm!

~AKO