Christmas 2013 {Ugly Sweaters & All)

Well, what a merry Christmas it was!

This post has a million pictures, which took me a million years to upload,

so I have not the energy nor the wherewithal to caption each one.  

Nor do you probably want me to.

So, let's just pretend that you know who everyone is and what's happening.

Christmas Eve.

My parents' house.

Ugly sweater contest:

K-Man could not have been one ounce less enthused about the ugly sweater thing.

But I do know he was very attracted to me in mine.

Goodness, who the heck wouldn't be?!

And the big boys, they were enthused too.

Christmas Morning & Day:

Our house.

K-Man's family.

Sibs playing games!

Lori being Lori!

Brenden.

Brenden's abs.

But, that was before we ate. ;)

K-Man and his brothers.

Brothers and their mama.

But we deeply missed our patriarch today.

Christmas will never be quite the same without him. 

So glad we had everyone here to celebrate our Savior's birth

and spend time together enjoying each other.

I hope you all had a joyful day as well!

Christmas Eve Morning {hooray!}

Well, it's Christmas Eve morning!

My to-do list is exactly one mile long, and growing.

But excitement fills the air!

I have to go to Walmart, so that's going to be *FUN*.

I do love a good challenge during the Holidays.

I hope you all have a stress-free Christmas and a VERY merry one, too!

(Source)

Maybe I'll see you at Walmart and we can finish up our shopping together!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, my merry friends!!

Toasted Tamari Pumpkin Seeds {Christmas Program Pics!}

I bought some pumpkin seeds from Isaiah's 1st grade teacher,

and she gave me this recipe:

(She's so generous that way!)

Toasted Tamari Pumpkin Seeds!

Oh my goodness.  They're so tasty!

Here's what you do:

Ingredients:

1 cup organic pumpkin seeds

1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 tablespoons tamari sayce (or soy sauce)

Pinch of kosher salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder (or to taste)

Heat pan to medium heat.

Add olive oil.

Add one cup pumpkin seeds.

Stir and toast until seeds start to brown and pop!

Add tamari, salt, and garlic powder.

Stir well.

Let cool and drain on a paper towel.

THAT'S IT!

I dare you not to eat the entire batch in one sitting!

They're just so yummy and snacky.

And so quick and EASY!

ENJOY!!

****

BONUS:

Speaking of Isaiah, and soy sauce.
(Huh?)

Here's a few pics from last night's Christmas program at Lucy and Isaiah's
homeschool enrichment center.

 As you can see, Isaiah chose to wear his very Christmasy jean jacket.
He's very trendy that way.


And Lucy, being her adorable self!
Poised and ladylike.

And here, my friends, is the infamous "girlfriend".
Isaiah talks about her endlessly.
And how she tells him all the time that they will someday get married.
Really, in my opinion, he needs to just go with this opportunity.
Aren't they the cutest?

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

My Friday and Saturday

So, as part of Lucy and Isaiah's blasted December birthdays,

I decided to treat them to a very special day!

Including, Bass Pro Shop (which they think is pretty much a tropical cruise vacation)

and a movie.  

Their first time EVER to a movie at the theater, in fact!

We saw the movie, Frozen, which left me feeling FROZEN the entire evening.

It was an *okay* movie.

But the kids LOVED IT!!!!

However, as for this mom, who has self-diagnosed adult-onset ADHD, 

I nearly crawled out of my grimy movie seat with boredom.

But, anyway.

Here are a few pics of part of our adventure!

My mom joined us for the Bass Pro part.

But...she's where I get my ADHD from.

So she opted out of the soul-grating movie.

(She loves a good flick, but could totally foresee the problems sitting still for this one.)

(She's very advanced that way.)

This hugging pose baffles me.

They're anything but lovey-dovey.

Sorry this is sideways.

I have not the energy, nor the smarts, to turn it around.

Nor do I care.

All I know is, Lucy refused to pose with the stuffed Grizzly.

But Isaiah got all kinds of accolades for being so brave.

God bless him.

Such valor will take him far in life, I'm pretty sure.

Skip forward to Saturday morning!

K-Man's employer had a fabulous Santa-and-pancakes-and-what-not breakfast,

 to celebrate Christmas.

Or something like that!

Isaiah was all-in on every part of it.

Lucy was on stand-by, if you will.

And there was face-painting.

And Lucy NEVER misses out on a good face painting.

No, not ever.

It's a snow-flake, if you can't tell.

(We clearly didn't get in the line of the seasoned face-painter.)

(Now we know.)

Still, it was fun.

And then,

Isaiah.

AKA, Asian Santa.

Alrighty!

And just like that, Friday and Saturday are done.

Hooray!

I hope you had an adventurous F & S also!