Holly Jolly Hodge Podge Happenings

Well it is time for the Hodge Podge and I am glad to be actually participating this time.  The last two I have saved and started and then never finished or published.  Life is busy but I enjoy this so I made sure to get done today :)  Thanks Joyce for taking the time and effort to put this together - it is greatly appreciated!!

If you have not already joined in after reading my answers head over to Joyce's great blog, 

From This Side of the Pond and join in.  She is a much more reliable blogger as well :)

1.  Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking. 

Hmm... we don't really have big traditions about our Stocking... we open them when we first wake up and that is about it.  I am interested to hear all of yours.

2.  How many hours of sleep do you average at night?  Is it enough?

Well I don't do sleep great.  I have a hard time shutting off my mind and I am a night person so that works against me.  I get anywhere from 4 to 7 hours.  I have kids that still get up at night sometimes so if I go to bed late and then they are up I am really struggling the next morning.   No it is not enough and I have been working on improving that because it is so important.

3.  If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be?

Cleaning the bathrooms?  No that is just what I want to give up...lol.  I think I would give up tv.

4.  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals? 

Well I have always been interested but especially living in England you follow it.  I am very excited for them and I hope that she feels better soon and they are given space to enjoy this experience.

5.  For me,  the sound of childhood is__________________.

Jets flying.

6.  Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?

Boo.  Fruit pizza is probably my favorite dessert made with fruit.


7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?

I would like to get my Christmas cards out this year as compared to last year.  Lofty goal I know.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I hope that the magic of the Season gets everyone excited and that Christmas can be enjoyed with peace and joy for each of you.   That you don't get stuck in the hustle and bustle and chaos that it can contain.
Oh and if you have an extra 30 seconds my last post has two humorous pictures brought to you by my wacky kids.

Mom vs Dinosaur

Has it really been over a months since I posted?  Wow.... I wish I had a great story or excuse as to why that it.  I don't.  We have been busy & life has been quiet in a sense.  Much going on yet not a lot to talk about.  I am working on that - we need to liven things up around here :)

Some things we have been up to:

We had Halloween and I think I took zero pictures... way to go mom.  We had a Halloween Bash with a few friends over to eat a rushed dinner & then we went out to the chaos of trick or treating.  It was freezing so we made record time.... I was sorely disappointed in the lack of chocolate items in G's Halloween bag.  Sadly for him he cannot eat chocolate so I am usually extremely blessed with his spare treats.  Not this year.  We gave out over 500 pieces of candy.
For dinner I made a new chili recipe that had sweet potatoes... it was unusual but good.  I made a second pot of vegan chili... it was suppose to be the same minus the meat... for some reason it was not... it was terrible.  Apologies again Kelly and family.  Luckily they had brought something they could eat since I failed.
We also had great friends over who stayed here and handed out candy so we could go out as a family to trick or treat.  Thank you to Becky and Eric (not their real names but the names Mr. B likes to call them)

November is a blur.  We had Thanksgiving.  I ended up cooking a tiny 8lb turkey because it was all that would fit in our oven... there was barely enough meat to feed us 5.  Sorely disappointed and made my long for a giant American oven.  Maybe next year we will invest in a fryer.  Luckily for us the base had several other Thanksgiving potlucks, etc so we were able to have about three turkey meals prior to our sad one.

In other news my son drew this picture:

Here is the conversation that followed that:  (between my 6yr old who drew it and my three year old)

B:  Is that mom?
D: No it is a dinosaur...
B:  Well it sure looks like mom

My husband could barely contain himself long enough to get out of the room before he collapsed in laughter. Punks every single last one of them.


We put up our tree and then remembered we had accidentally stored 90% of our ornaments prior to moving. So we have two gallon bags full of bulbs that we put up, a set of 6 star wars ornaments and 6 mickey mouse ones... no topper.  It is a little sad but okay.  I have big plans as soon as all the stuff goes on sale.  Also the kids keep rearranging the ornaments although they are not allowed so we end up with this:

We frequent the library here a lot.  We kids always find the best books that I am so proud to check out.  Like this:

Yes those are buttons on the right so you can have sound effects as well as the amazing text.

Dying in testosterone land here so I often check out story books about Princess's and make the boys read those also.  Yep.

Just in case it is another month before I blog I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may you find joy and peace in the season... not chaos and crazy :)