A Christmas Quiz, To Get Me Blogging...Again!

Time to jump on the blogging bandwagon again. My friend Abby had this cute Christmas quiz on her blog and so I borrowed it from her. Enjoy...and you should totally post it on your blog too!!

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? I love me a good hot chocolate. Not too sweet and not too rich. I like it creamy with marshmallows.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was younger and Santa came to my house he only wrapped a few things and we would find them on the couch. Now that I have a family of my own, Santa wraps everything and puts it on the couch with our stocking.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I love white lights. In my house and on my house. There is just something peaceful and calming about their glow.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. My parents used to have a mistletoe decoration that they would hang up, but no mistletoe in this house.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Thanksgiving night. I always feel like a little kid setting up the tree!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Only one?! Let's see...I love a good ham and potato dinner. I know that's not one dish, but whatever.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Sleeping in sleeping bags with my siblings in one of our rooms. We would stay up all night talking about what we thought Santa was going to bring us.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was in 5th grade. Too old you think? My friends started telling me there was no Santa and so I remember asking my mom and told her to tell me the truth. Sad day...I still sort of believe though. I love that magical feeling!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We did when I was younger and still do now. We get to open Christmas jammies and sometimes a movie or game to watch or play that night.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights, red and gold ornaments with a handful of others. We buy an ornament every year and we have started buying our boys one too.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I love it! I don't like being cold or driving in it, but I still love it!

12. Can you ice skate? Yep. Haven't been in forever but I can.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My favorite was from Santa one year. It was my first porcelain doll and her name was Amanda. Still have it and cherish it to this day.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Definitely eating good food with no guilt and spending time with friends and family.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I love a warm piece of apple pie with lots of cool whip on top.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Buying the boys a new Christmas book each year. Having Christmas Eve dinner, just the 4 of us. Going out to Justin's grandparents house in Eureka on Christmas Day. His grandpa is the funniest guy I know and we always have a great time with them.

17. What tops your tree? The past 5 years it has been a gold star. But it crapped out this year so while we were out Black Friday shopping we picked up a red and gold Santa that lights up.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving- It is so fun to figure out what to buy for everyone, then to wait for their reaction when they open it. I have a hard time keeping it a secret though. Like I said, I turn into a little kid this time of year! It has also been neat this year to explain to Jaxon about giving to those less fortunate.

19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? I like them in almost all flavors.

20. Favorite Christmas show? The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Elf, A Christmas Story, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. I remember watching most of these growing up. I do love the classics too. Rudolph, Frosty, Santa is Coming to Town, etc.

21. Saddest Christmas song? Is there one? Strange...

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Again, only one?! I will admit that I love Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. I also like listening to Kenny G (don't judge me). I listened to those growing up. I have recently come to love Michael Buble and Josh Groban. I like the Trans Siberian Orchestra too. (I don't know if I even spelled that right, and sorry, but I am too lazy to look it up.)
Leave me a comment if you post it to your blog so I can check it out!

Finally...

I finally got blogger figured out...thank goodness! I was getting a tad frustrated. Anyway, I am back and that's all that matters. We have had a busy summer playing at the pool, going to a Bees baseball game, eating lots of yummy summer food, and playing in the sun! I have so much I need to blog about, all in good time I guess. This weekend is the 24th of July, always a good time! We are lighting fireworks on Sunday, and going to the parade on Monday. Should be a fun weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend as well!

What Is Going On?

Ok I am having some serious blogger issues! I want to change around the colors and fonts but when I go to the template designer it says that an error occured. Not sure if I am doing something wrong or if I need to report this to blogger. Any ideas?

Day 14 of 30

Day 14: Someone who fascinates you and why

This is Sandra Lee. She is an author and host of a Food Network show, Semi Homemade. It is one of my favorites on the Food network. She fascinates me because of what she has been through and what she has become because of it. Here is the condensed version of her story. She is the oldest of I think 4 siblings. Her mom raised them alone and also suffered from depression. This made it hard for her to function as a 'normal' mom, taking care of her kids and house and keeping a job. There were a lot of days that she would just lay on the couch and watch tv. So Sandra had to step up to take care of herself and siblings, as well as pay the bills, do laundry, prepare meals, etc. She was only about 7 or 8 when this all started. In her book she said there were times when she didn't know where her next meal would come from. So, fast forward to her college years and she developed the idea of cooking the semi homemade way. "70% store bought ingredients and 30% fresh ingredients give you easy, fast, delicious meals that you can make in minutes." There were a lot of publishers that told her this idea of cookbook would never sell...they were wrong! She now has many, many cookbooks, a memoir that she wrote, and her tv show that has been on air for about 6 years.
I just think she is amazing because there were many times in her life that she could have just thrown her hands in the air and said "forget it!" Instead she chose to persevere and look at what her hard work and dedication has made of her! She is such an inspiration to me!

Day 13 of 30

Day 13: Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and you find attractive

Brad Paisley

Tony Stewart

Gordon Ramsay

Trace Atkins

Blake Shelton





Quite the list right? We have 3 country music artists, a world famous chef, and a Nascar champion driver. Apparently I like guys with accents, deep voices, and kind of have a cocky, 'bad ass' (pardon the language) attitude.

It's kind of funny, cause even though my hubby can't sing (at least professionally), he is very similar to these guys. He wants to be a Nascar driver when he grows up and he definitely has the cocky attitude. Interesting...

I'm Bored, Already

So here we are, the first day of summer vacation, and I am pretty sure Jaxon has told me "I'm bored" about a thousand times today. If this is the way the next 3 months are going to be...oh man!! Never mind the fact that he has a playroom full of toys, or a closet full of movies, or his own personal library full of books. Nope, none of that is any fun cause he is bored. So to fix this problem we decided to plan out our summer with 5 different themed days for the week. Here is what we came up with:*Movie Monday
*Crafty Tuesday
*Where can we go Wednesday
*Treat time Thursday
*Fun Fact Friday
So every Monday we will watch a movie together. Every Tuesday we will make a craft. I have every Wednesday off so we will go on some type of adventure. Every Thursday we will make some type of treat, and every Friday we will learn about something. We are also going to work on learning to read and know our sight words, continue practicing our writing, and do some worksheet pages out of his workbook each day. Our library does a summer reading program and we are going to be participating in that as well. We also have 9 days of swimming lessons at the beginning of June too. I think after reading this list of activities this kid isn't going to be saying "I'm bored". I am going to try my best to blog about our fun filled summer. What do you all have planned for the summer?

Day 12 of 30

Day 12: Your highs and lows of the past year

The highs:
*Giving birth to a perfect, healthy little boy
*Paid off quite a bit of debt
*Pretty healthy family for the most part (more on that later)

The lows:
*My kids getting bigger and bigger every day (it's a good thing but makes this mama sad!)
*I really can't think of much else, I can honestly say that this last year has been one of our best yet!