Merry Christmas!!

Well about a week ago I wrote a post, and some how I ended up with what I thought were two copies. It seemed I had posted twice. So, I deleted one of them, and low and behold it was the one that actually had some content, the other was blank. Shoot. I deleted my entire post. I don't think it said much! So don't worry you didn't miss out.

A late Merry Christmas to my readers! (However many (few) of you there may be.) What a strange time this has been. I can't say there was much of any tradition this year, but oh well? Maybe we are trending towards new tradition? We celebrated Christmas Eve a day early with my mom and her husband. He works Christmas Eve with an unpredictable end time so we thought we better not risk us all waiting until who knows when on Christmas Eve for him to get home to start our celebration. Instead we just moved it up a day and spent most of the whole day together and it was really, really nice. 

The kids slept over at my mom's the night before and Dan and I were able to get our last minute shopping done along with our wrapping. Since my mom has lived nearby it has become a tradition for Dan and I to have one evening/night alone to wrap presents and kind of have a little "date night" with the kids gone at my mom's. I was not sure this year it was going to happen but last minute it kind of pulled together. 

In the morning we went to my mom's. I cooked eggs and bacon ahead of time and when we got to my mom's I put together this breakfast wreath I found on pinterest. It was really yummy and well just typing about it makes me want to have some right now. Well maybe that is the wine I have been drinking that is making me feel snacky. Is snacky a word? My computer keeps underlining it like I spelled it wrong so probably not a word. 

If you want to follow me on pinterest you can here: http://pinterest.com/pearlhaven/ 

Well anyways, we had a nice breakfast and then we opened gifts. I got my mom a Nook Tablet and she was so happy she was brought to tears. That is the best thing about Christmas, finding those things that make your loved ones inexplicably happy in ways that just make you feel so awesome. Dan was also able to get my mom's husband a gift that made him equally as giddy and well, honestly it was the best part of the whole season for me. My mom and her husband live in this area because of us. They are here to be close to us. There just isn't much else at all here for them, and it means a lot to us. I am so thankful they are here and their support touches us daily. It was really awesome to be able to tangibly show them some how, how much they mean to us. And it's not that it's about "things", because I know "things" don't matter, but still it just all felt really good. 

This year was an electronic year for our family, for our kids really. Two kids got an ipod touch, one got a nook tablet, and another got a Nintendo DS. We are very conservative about these sorts of things with our kids.......until this year. This year we took the leap. We are still going to be very "on top" of things, lots of restrictions  lots of oversight, but we have branched out. It's been interesting to see the kids get what they "thought" they wanted, and then be faced with the reality of the true functionality of such items. Right now the DS seems to be the best choice as it has instant functionality with all the games she got, no downloading or extra cost needed. The IPODs are limited to itunes functionality which I am finding tricky as I can't get it to download on my computer. They each have been able to get a few apps, but haven't wanted to buy anything yet and I can't get any of our cds to itunes so they have no music as of yet. The nook is cool as I can put music right on it, but almost all apps at Barnes and Noble are at least $1+ and there does not seem to be as many games. It's all making me glad for our android tablet as it seems wide open in terms of options and ease of use. I am glad we got it and didn't go with an apple product or the barnes n noble, or amazon products when we got our tablet. 

My little man did not get any electronics. He is only 4. Instead he got ninja turtles and spiderman and angry birds things. Here he is with a hot wheels car from his big brother. 

He was pretty happy!

The insulation job on the house is nearly done and it's made a big difference. We still can't use our wood stove and the company we bought it from is non responsive at this point. It looks like we need an attorney. What a pain in the ass. Excuse my language, but the whole situation is just so frustrating. G keeps talking about if we have a fire and when the fire department comes, and tonight he got nervous when the pasta was boiling because he thought the steam was smoke. Poor little guy is nervous and worried about a fire and the fire department coming back. Even though he handled it awesomely when that did happen, it's apparent that the whole thing has him worried and it is on his mind. That makes me freaking mad at those people who put the stove in, jerks should have done it right. My little guy is worrying about things he shouldn't have to worry about and it's not right. 

Well I should wrap up, don't want to go on and on and on and lose you! :) Happy New Year!! Bring it on 2013!!!!