Our First Christmas Party!

We hosted our first Christmas party of 2006 on Saturday, December 12th! It was a family Christmas party with 15 of us present! We had a blast. We decided to go Italian in theme...tired of the traditional turkey/ham with the fixins...so we went Italian. We had homemade sausage and red sauce (by Scott) and lasagna. Plus a great salad, terrific garlic bread and wonderful dessert.

The only problem was that around 8pm, our lights went out for about two hours. It was crazy. Scott and I felt that we were prepared for the party, but one can never prepare for a transformer blowing or whatever happened. We never quite figured it out. Our neighbors across the street still had electricity, but our side of the street did not. It was funny. We played the "white elephant" game by candlelight. By 10pm, the lights came on and we all laughed and said we could finally see what we got at our gift exchange.

Grant loves his sandrail and motorcycle that he got from Jeff, Jill, Auntie Diney and Uncle Ted! Thanks again!! The cutest part about the whole night was at the end when Grant went to bed. He went around (without me asking him to) and kissed everyone goodnight. It was so sweet!

Our First Christmas Party!

We hosted our first Christmas party of 2006 on Saturday, December 9th! It was a family Christmas party with 15 of us present! We had a blast. We decided to go Italian in theme...tired of the traditional turkey/ham with the fixins...so we went Italian. We had homemade sausage and red sauce (by Scott) and lasagna. Plus a great salad, terrific garlic bread and wonderful dessert.

The only problem was that around 8pm, our lights went out for about two hours. It was crazy. Scott and I felt that we were prepared for the party, but one can never prepare for a transformer blowing or whatever happened. We never quite figured it out. Our neighbors across the street still had electricity, but our side of the street did not. It was funny. We played the "white elephant" game by candlelight. By 10pm, the lights came on and we all laughed and said we could finally see what we got at our gift exchange.

Grant loves his sandrail and motorcycle that he got from Jeff, Jill, Auntie Diney and Uncle Ted! Thanks again!! The cutest part about the whole night was at the end when Grant went to bed. He went around (without me asking him to) and kissed everyone goodnight. It was so sweet!

Erik and Jennifer are Back...For a Visit

We didn't get spend as much time as we would have liked with Jenn and Erik, but we did spend an afternoon with them. We went to BJ's and had great conversation (mostly about their exciting news of being with child). Congrats!!!!!!!!!!! We miss and love you!

Grant Hanging Ornaments

I am a little behind, so this was on the 9th of December. Grant needed to hang some of his new ornaments. His Gramma made sure that he had a Mater truck ornament and Lightning McQueen car ornament...not to mention about ten others. So, we had to buy some tree tags for them to hang. We were set to hang some ornaments. The only problem is that once Grant got started, he didn't want to stop hanging ornaments. He kept saying, "An anoder one...anoder ornment, Mommy." He loved hanging all the ornaments that I had saved for him. As you can see in the picture he is hanging the Lightning McQueen right next to his buddy Mater! Merry Christmas...Grant has the spirit!

Disneyland with Auntie Gramma

Gramma, Grant, Diney and I went to Disneyland. We had a larger group planned to go, but due to illness and Disney's slowness on renewing a few passes...well, there were 9 and then there were 4!! We had a great time anyway!

We started out by the Christmas tree, the HUGE Christmas tree...remined me of the one in Rockefeller Plaza in NYC! We took our picure and then headed for the best place at Christmas, "It's a Small World" ride. They change all of the interior to represent all the different cultures during Christmastime. Grant continues to call it the "Rainbow Boats." I am thinking the connection (not Kermit and the Rainbow Connection) is with the boats we ride in and there was a huge rainbow sign (I think it said Mele Kalikimaka).

Then, we walked around, ate some popcorn and watched the fireworks! They were spectacular. Oh, then Disney had it snow on us. Yeah, baby!! We SoCal folks don't see that much of the white powdery stuff (well, maybe Lindsey Lohan does...bad joke), but it snowed! Every night during Christmastime, it snows on Main Street in Disneyland!! You should have seen the four of us (and the two million other folks) "playing" in the snow. We were trying to figure out if it was "real" fake snow or bubbles or what. We had our tongues out...some were trying to desparately touch it or catch it (that would be Auntie Gramma)...some taking pictures (that would be me...and the tongue thing)....some clapping (that would be Grant)...some amazed that it "stuck" to our hair (that would be all of us). Smiles were had by all, until we had to herd out like cattle through the five gates (out of twenty) they had open for exiting....did I mention there seemed to be millions on Main Street extiting? We survived and I only ran over a couple of people in the stroller:)

The park closed pretty early, so we all went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Grant was not having it, so we ate pretty quickly and got in the car. The funniest part of the evening was the car ride home. We were sure Grant would go to sleep immediately. Diney, poor Diney, got to hear Grant talk and sing none stop for the 35 minute ride home. Carol would request a song for Grant to sing. The funny part is that before he could sing it, he would need ask (tell) Diney to sing it first. Basically, we started requesting songs just to hear Diney sing...it was so funny!!

We all slept well that night! Merry Christmas Disneyland!!

I Have a New Camera...Be Patient With Me

I have been waiting to blog because I have a new camera. Well, I cannot for the life of me figure out the "easy" software for the uploading of the pictures onto the computer. However, in an effort to get my blogs up and going...because we've been doing so much...well, I am blogging sans pictures for a few blogs...I hope to come back and add-on some photos...

Grant and Santa are Buds!

Well, we went to see Santa with Gramma. We had a great time. Grant first had his picture taken at JCPenney and then (for some more torture) he went to get his picture taken with Santa. When we were in line to get our picture with Santa, Grant decided that he would like to pull on Mommy's hair, cheeks, lips, nose, and poke me in the eye. Well, at one point Gramma recommended that I count to ten because Grant was being very obnoxious. I guess that is what two-year-olds do (or so I've been told...lol).

Well, we waited for the little girl in front of us to get done. It seems like they were having camera trouble, but before I could get Grant to stay standing by us...he was on Santa's lap. He decided he wanted to tell him all about the "canny canes" that were in the basket next to Santa's leg. Santa asked Grant, "Would you like a candy cane? What color?" Well, Grant proceded to have a ten minute conversation with Santa about the four different colored "canny canes" in the basket. Grant says, "Da puurple one, da gween one, da RED one, da lellow one. All pweease. Want one of each, pweease." So, we convince him to take a good picture and then he can have some "canny canes."

Surprisingly, Grant liked Santa. He took a great picture with him and walked away with three candy canes and a coloring page. Not too bad for pre-Christmas fun!! He even told Santa what he wanted for Christmas...a white hot wheels...duh!! haha Oh, Gramma overheard what he wanted and gave it to him when she took him out to play the next day. Thanks, Gramma!!