Christmas Traditions

When I was first married my mom gave me a book to read that was a self help happy marriage book. In that book it suggested to fill your home with pictures of you and your spouse, your family etc. Things that depict the good times and the love you have shared over the years. As my family grew the importance of family traditions to help create some of those moments became obvious. So I made a concentrated effort to build family traditions. Family traditions don't have to be huge expensive productions, just something your family does that holds some meaning every year. For us we have a few for the other Holidays. We have always watched fireworks together as a family for the 4th of July, we go to church on Easter and then my mom and/or dad's for an Easter egg hunt for the kids and dinner on Easter, we carve pumpkins and I bake the seeds for Halloween, but Christmas though has the most traditions. Every since Lizard and Bear were small we have decorated and baked cookies together. We all look forward to the fun and the yummy treats. Another tradition is going to go look at Christmas lights as often as possible. Now this has gotten a little more costly thanks to gas prices but still a fave. We load up, turn on Christmas music, sometimes bring along some cocoa and go. We look in some of the neighborhoods known for putting up lights and go to the actual displays as well. Coyote remembered this tradition from last year and when she saw the lights going up around a business center near us before Thanksgiving she squealed with excitement with the anticipation of going to look at lights.   We of course had to explain that it wasn't time yet, that they were just working on it. We have gone on a few spins now and she is just in love with them. She says it looks like candy. Another tradition is that every year we pick a day, usually Christmas eve, and spend all day watching our fave Christmas movies. On Christmas Eve night my husband tells the story of Christs birth and we have cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. Then that night the kids are allowed to open 1 gift. We of course have Santa for the little ones but he only gives small things in their stockings. No bikes from Santa here. Christmas morning my husbands parents come over and we have homemade Blueberry coffee cake ( I rarely make it outside of Christmas morning making it an extra special treat) and open presents. Then off to the races of going to my mom's house and then my dad's. These traditions are small but are something brings us together. They remind us of the joy of being a family that is sometimes is over looked in the day to day of life.This year I am wanting to add creating awesome DIY gifts for my kids to give to their cousins.  Of course I am using Pinterest to inspire this new tradition. Well that is all for now thank you for reading.

A Full Thanksgiving

I had an amazing Thanksgiving Day.  My hubby, kids and I all went to my Sister SM,s house. She lives in a lovely Victorian home in a gorgeous small town which just added tot he the feel of the day. I brought green bean casserole. Which I freaked about having enough with 32 people attending. Yes I come from a large family and it gets bigger on the holidays when we get with the extended family. It turned out well I brought just enough I think. We played an odd game of charades with things like a "road"  and "riding a bike" as things to act out. We all had a very good laugh over it. I am always amazed at how big my niece and nephews have gotten,especially the ones I don't get to see often. Like my my nephew who is a  little than my oldest. He was very tall and dressed like the Marlboro man. To which my family graciously pointed out to him a few times. We are a family of hard times and the more we like you the worse it will get for but it can be bad if we don't like you too. You just never know with us I guess. We took family photos and that was fun. I did miss going to my dad's this year. That seems to have been a misunderstanding that was fixed and won't happen again, I hope. My husband and I have so much to be Thankful for and the day just pointed out so much of it. The day ended with me unexpectedly going with some of my sisters Black Friday shopping. My first time ever and it was a lot of fun. I achieved my mission of securing a little chair for my niece for my sister while at walmart. Scared my sister L who thought I was a nut taking a toy straight out of her arm, I was actually grabbing so she could grab a bigger item and she didn't hear me tell it was me. Then we went to our outlet mall. I was awesome. We froze outside for about 30min. but the convo was well worth it. The outlet mall was lit up so pretty and it had fake snow it all most transported you to another place. Then we grabbed Mickey D's  and laughed & talked  as everyone was dropped off for the night. Then I rested with my very sweet hubby for a little while before we went to bed. A very full day but a lot of fun. I will share the pictures later. Thanks for reading. 

A Weekend in Review

This past weekend was full of fun and excitement. We have a very dear friend who came over and stayed the weekend with us. His son and my son are good friends , so he came over as well.  It was a good B-day sleep over for bear and my kids cousins Jax and Ruth came over as well for bunny and coyote. Friday was a crazy and full night. There was chatter and giggles until 4 am. Bear and Coyote had a Birthday party this Saturday as well.  We held the party after Bear and Lizard got back from a community out reach they had to got to because their drama group was preforming in it. So it was a later party but it was fun.  My sister S and her hubby, my mom and stepdad, my hubbies parents, our friends EB and Jeffery, the kids friends and some of their cousins all came.  My house is tiny so it was a very full event but lots of smiles and laughter. Bunny got any early present from my mom and stepdad so she was excited too. We had church on Sunday. I was so tired from the previous two days and the hubby was in a lot of pain on top of being tired, but some how we not only got to church but we actually didn't have to rush things like we sometimes we have to. The whole day it was so moving and wonderful. My hubby and I both have been striving for the end goal and for growth in ourselves. Sunday night we just crashed. We watched some of our fave shows and just relaxed. It was nice calm way to end a fun whirl wind of a weekend. This week is bunnies b-day and this weekend is going to be a whirl wind too. I have been making some moves in a side business. I have and I will be teaching a class on using things like twitter and Facebook to help grow your small business. I came up with the class after not only doing for my and other people's business but also after leading a few class type things before on the topic. It really does take a lot of work to come up with the right info ( because Facebook is constantly changing), coming up with the instructions they can take home to help them remember ,etc.  I also have some other new business moves coming up. I am really hopeful that will work out well. Everything so far seems to falling in line. Well  thank you for reading.

Fall fun

 A little late but here are some pics from our fun during Halloween and our fall outing. Unfortunately the pic of their costumes didn't turn out, but we did have some fun.

Carving pumpkins is a tradition.

I like this pic. that my hubby took a picture of me

they were just to cute together Big O and Coyote. They loved riding together

brother bear

Walking back with our friends after a fun little walk

sunny bunny

love this pic of coyote

lizard  around the firepit. We had a really good time around the firepit cooking smores and visiting.

treasure hunting.

most of the group.

 As you see we had a really good time. Well thanks for looking and reading.

Getting ready for Halloween

It's Halloween and my family has some crazy traditions for Halloween.  What ever kids want to go trick or treating would stay home with me and the ones who didn't went camping with their daddy.  Usually ended up being the older kids have gone w/their dad and the others would come with me. Every Year we also get pumpkins to carve and then I bake the seeds. My kids and husband love them. This year I tried some new recipes thanks to Pinterest.

Source: candcmarriagefactory.com via jonibirse on Pinterest

Source: ourbestbites.com via Janae on Pinterest

They were a hit. Thank you Pinterest. I of course burned the first batch but they still ate the ones out of it that were not dark brown. This year we are adding the fun of combining the two choices and going out of town to see some friends who own some acreage.  I am not a big fan of sleeping at other people's home ( I'm shy and it stresses me out) but this should be a lot of fun. The plan is to fish during the day and then get ready to trick or treat in their town ( supposed to be a big deal where they live) then we are going to come back and visit around a bon fire. They have kids around our kids ages so the kids will have a lot of fun too. Well I have already been putting together a Halloween post with pictures and I will post it after we get back with more pictures from our fun out there. It does add a little stress with having to pack clothes and costumes, making sure we have the gas etc etc.  Also the stress that I have work done and taken care of before I leave. Well Thanks for reading. Hope you have a safe and fun Halloween.

Mist of Pandaria Review

I got the new World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria for my birthday as well as a time card so I am paid up to Feb. Which of course is rockin in my humble opinion. With this expansion Blizzard introduced what is their version of Kung Fu Pandas. They are pretty cool. I of course had to make myself a panda to check it out. Pandaria is really pretty and set on the back of a turtle. You can chose to be a monk along with other character options with the new Panda race. You can set your fur color, hair and more just like before giving you a small ability to personalize your character. The Pandas are World of Warcrafts first neutral character. As you progress through your quest in Pandaria you are given quest by both Horde and Alliance. I have not made it off of Pandaria yet as I have been distracted with craft fair things this past month and with just regular playing with my 80+ hunter night elf. She is my fave toon. I learned with her that Blizzard revamped the abilities, mounts and more. Which in some areas is great and others just kind of sucked.Also with the new expansion you can now battle your vanity pets think Pokemon on crack. I have just begun delve into that part of it, but it seems like fun. I got a new collector's mount and pet which are both pretty cool and I received a book on some of the artwork. I like looking at the artwork it really shows how much thought, effort and work goes into the new expansions. We as WOW addicts complain about the glitches, bugs, lag and more but really the fact the there is even an MMORPG like World of Warcraft is fairly awesome. You can play with people all across the country and beyond and everyone is seeing the same thing at the same time. For instance when you are in a dungeon slaying a dragon you the Shaman ( let's say you live in California) can be healing a Paladin (in New York) all while a hunter ( in Texas) and Druid ( in Montana) and now also a monk (in Florida) are assisting in damage. You will also share in what is often times fun banter with you guild friends who can be from anywhere as well. I personally have some guildies in Arizona, Illinois, Texas,Oklahoma and California. Yes we geeks are everywhere. Some soon we will be taking over the world. Guilds are a great source for information and help as well. Especially if you're a 25 and stuck on a road where a 55 wants to keep killing you. A quick call to your guild and more than likely help is on the way. If have not played you can try it for free. Yes Blizzard is just like any drug dealer they give a free sampling to get you hooked,Haha. Just kidding, but seriously you can go here to try it for free and if you do and get on Darrowmere realm let me know on my twitter and I will be help you if you get stuck or need help leveling. After your free trial it does cost to play but really all in all it's not that much after the initial bump. Think of this if you are online playing you're not out spending money in other areas like on gas. So I hope you enjoyed this mini review and make the jump to the expansion if you already play and if you are new to it all well then I that you might come and join in on the fun.

Here are some fun things WoW related

Temptation's game

Been on a journey of self growth lately. You know what I have learned? Temptation is a B*TCH. Yep I said it. She wraps herself up like it's no big deal just one little time, you need to just to know for sure and then bang your smacked by the consequence of playing her game while she runs  off and laughs at you.  I see others play with her and her pals envy,greed and gossip and wonder do they ever get hit by the consequences like I do. Which is another on of the games temptation plays look they did it and nothing happened to them.  Sure they do. They pay for it just like anyone else but maybe not like I do or you would.  Payment for playing the game is as individual as the bill you get from your credit card company.  Just like that it always sucks when it's time to settle up. Digging your way back up out the mess you have buried yourself in is as much work and fun a trying to climb out from underneath a mountain of Bull Poo. It stinks, you can't wait to get out and away from it,  you get frustrated and sweaty and you wonder why in the heck you even got underneath the crap in the first place. So yep temptation sucks and so does playing her game because you usually end up playing with her big brother sin  and he's a jerk too. He likes to take you a lot further than temptation said it would go, keep you there a lot longer than you want to stay and make the payment a whole lot nastier than ever thought it would be. Funny things is the bible pretty much wrote that out in black in white. So back to the book for more lessons and more prayers for forgiveness, strength, his patience, distraction etc. Yeah I pray for distraction. My mind wonders a hundred miles an hour all the time. I will be doing one thing and thinking about 4 or 5 other things and yet hold on to a topic like a rabid dog going after it's prey, it can be very frustrating. This can lead into falling into temptation for me if I am not distracted by another thought.  Also I have learned that you have to look at yourself and admit hey I'm not perfect. I mess up. I have played with temptation and fallen into her brothers waiting arms and I am getting burned by it. That takes a lot of looking at your self. One more great little thing temptation  and sin do is keep calling after you as you try to walk away from them. With each step making their offer just a little more appealing until you finally are far enough away that you can barely hear their shouts to you. Of course they will travel up the road and later present you with a new offer so your war with them is not over forever but you can win the battle.  I have also been learning that sometimes you have to switch gears because the road you thought you were going down was not the right direction for you. This is usually hard work and frustrating. I have been looking into some new directions for somethings in my life and some of them look very promising. Hard work but promising. Well thanks for reading. Next time I promise to post something fun and light hearted.