Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home. Christmas traditions are interesting and when you add a new family member you learn to incorporate their traditions too. The tradition in our family has always been that you can wake up the parents as early as 6, we can stare at the tree and open our stocking then we have "breakfast" (cinnamon rolls and OJ/coffee) and Dad hands out all the presents. In Aaron's family the kids are allowed to open their stockings any time after they wake up - and for kids who can't sleep that may mean as soon as they see the lights in the house go out. Then they can go wake up Mom and Dad when they are ready -because they aren't allowed to open the rest of the presents.

So how did this blend? I finally fell asleep around 3:00, after getting stuff wrapped, not long after 3:30, Aaron scares the crap out of me because I had fallen asleep with the lap top and he didn't want me to knock it off on the floor.

So now I'm up and awake with an adrenaline rush. So I'm awake. Now, please remember - Aaron had told us about his family traditions, I just hadn't really realized how this would work. He opened his stocking at 3:30 am, the dividing line is opening presents so he didn't open the presents that were in the stocking. Since I was wide awake, he decided to go get cigarettes and energy drinks and see if Tryn wanted to wake up. We opened presents at 4am. I made cinnamon rolls and once the hide/seek clue to Aaron's new sword was off of the coffee pot, I made coffee.

Everyone was thrilled with their gifts. Bouncing off the walls :)

And after awhile - I went back to bed for a few hours. All in all the traditions blended pretty well.

Pictures are still in the Camera...adding those soon.

Additional Link

If the video screen is too small to watch our slideshow- check this link out:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8719597844020985346

Thoughts on Decorating

Lets face it, I love decorating for Christmas, its one of my favorite times of year. I love everything about Christmas. So why do I always feel like I'm failing in the decorating department? I look at "everyone else's" house and see their amazing lights, and outside decorations. I want to do that but I can't. One day I will, but part of me feels like I should NOW. *sigh* that kind of thinking and not resisting it is what has this country in the economic mess and this time of year is the worst for it. We want to show family and friends how much they mean to us and we really tend to do it by buying things. We would all be better off baking cookies or bread, or maybe helping out with chores or making a special dinner and sending cards for most of our shopping list. We really would.

Our Year 2008

Everyone we have reached the middle of December and I'm managing to get our annual update out before the new year...hooray for small victorys.



We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year!



Rae Ann

Utter Failure

I wanted to have an adult discussion. I attempted to have an adult discussion. My daughter became so defensive and .... um searching for the right word here... well, I guess defensive covers most of the bases, that it became impossible. Because I was trying a different method and had to keep reminding her that I wasn't shouting or yelling at her the talk got no where except for me truly pissed off. Why? Because I think Tryn is capable of being talked to as an adult on this subject and her defensiveness and inability tonight to hold an adult conversation hit about every button that I had. Hate it when that happens - I really do. Was this my failure or hers or both. Maybe in this case I switched speeds too fast? However she always complains that I treat Aaron different than her - I treat Aaron as an adult, a young adult but an adult. Even when we are pissed at each other we can hold a conversation. I think Tryn should be capable of that and it makes me feel like I failed somewhere that at almost 17 we can't do that. Gonna try again tomorrow.

Re-evaluations

It is so hard to let our kids fail. I know the best lessons are sometimes learned this way - but it is still hard.

I could scream - I could shout, I could ground and lecture. Am I going to? No. Do you know why? She is 16 - she will be 17 in 4 months. She has been going to school since the age of 5. In 12 years she knows how to turn in homework, she knows she needs to do assignments. She is failing history and math. We are going to sit down and move to the next phase - educated planning. Demonstrating consequences. Not grounding, nothing like that. January is when you starting applying to colleges and she was wanting to graduate early. We are going to discuss how her plans are going to work with the consequences of her new grades.

New Blog Feature

So I discovered that I can add permanent web links on my blog. The first two I added are Ancestory.com where I spend much of my spare time researching family history and I wanna download. I just found this site but I can tell I really like it. I don't like video/cd piracy but I also don't want to pay full price when I don't get the cd/dvd, box, liner notes and all the cool packaging. Tada - www.iwannadownload.com, has a monthly price for unlimited downloads. Works for me.

Thanksgiving Vacation

For Thanksgiving this year we traveled to Arkansas to visit family. All of my Dads side of the family is in Batesville & Cave City and the surrounding areas. On the way there and back we stopped to visit friends of Aarons that he grew up with and are like family to him. We had fun. We visited family, laughed and talked and fished. We took a time out from the world and it didn't stop turning.

My cousin Mariassa is a new mommy, my cousin Beckys daughter Emily is following in her Mommys footsteps and could ride a horse before she could walk. Greg is doing good, Teresas is thrilled with her first grandaughter. Grandma, Imo, and Brenda are all doing great.

Everyone was friendly with Aaron and hopefully it will all get better.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas...the Holidays are in full swing.