Merry Christmas...

We had a wonderful Christmas this year in our new home. For the first time ever my whole family spent Christmas at my house. It was also the first time I have spent Christmas day with both my Mom and Dad at the same time. How cool is that?! They have always gotten along and everything, but for some reason we have never done a big family Christmas. Thanks to my sister-in-law Dora and my Mom for helping me out with all of the cooking. :) We had a great morning just the 4 of use opening presents and stockings. Then in the afternoon my family came over for more presents and food. My Mom and Step-Dad Larry came, and then my Dad, Step-Mom Sam and her Mom showed up, after that came my Uncle John, Brother Kenny, his wife Dora and son Anthony. We were also blessed to have our good friends Sean and Jennifer and their kids Ethan and Benny come over to celebrate with us. It was the best Christmas ever! We had ham, turkey, hashbrown casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, broccoli, salad, fruit salad, artichoke dip, artichoke and crap dip and rolls. Way too much food! I was so stuffed, but it was all oh so good!

Matt helped me get my scrapbook room all organized and I was finally able to complete my first 2 scrapbook pages in 8 months. Here they are:

Monica had a friend come over for the first time to our new house and Riley helped out with my cooking and baking over the week-end as well. Here are some photos from that:

Finally here are some pictures from Christmas day. I hope you all had a merry Christmas. I know that I sure did.

Music from the year I turned 18...

I should be cleaning. Yeah. Instead I decided to do this music meme that Mimi posted the other day. The rules are as follows:Go to popculturemadness.com, click on the "Pop Music" box and select the year you turned 18. Paste the list of the top 75 songs. Bold the ones you liked; put in red the ones you disliked; and italicize the ones you know but don’t exactly like or dislike. The ones you don’t know will stay plain text.

1993 Greatest Hits
1. What Is Love - Haddaway
2. Come Baby Come - K7
3. Hero - Mariah Carey
4. In The Still Of The Night (I'll Remember) - Boyz II men
5. Have I Told You Lately - Rod Stewart
6. Can't Help Falling In Love - UB40
7. Dreamlover - Mariah Carey
8. Supermodel (You Better Work) - RuPaul
9. Nuthin' But A "G" Thang - Dr. Dre
10. Cryin' - Aerosmith
11. Murder She Wrote - Chaka Demus and Pliers
12. Shoop - Salt N Pepa
13. A Whole New World - Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle
14. Show Me Love - Robin S
15. I'm So Into You - SWV
16. Hip Hop Hooray - Naughty By Nature
17. Rhythm Is A Dancer - Snap!
18. All that She Wants - Ace Of Base
19. Hey Mr. D.J. - Zhane
20. Just Kickin' It - Xscape
21. That's The Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson
22. When I Fall In Love - Celine Dion & Clive Griffin
23. Please Forgive Me - Bryan Adams
24. No Ordinary Love - Sade ( I still love this one)
25. I Get Around - 2 Pac
26. Weak - SWV
27. Bad Boys - Inner Circle
28. Whoot, There It Is - 95 South
29. More and More - Captain Hollywood Project
30. Will You Be There - Michael Jackson
31. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do that) - Meatloaf
32. T-R-O-U-B-L-E - Travis Tritt
33. I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) - the Proclaimers
34. Knockin Da Boots - H-Town
35.Connected - Stereo MCs
36. Passionate Kisses - Mary Chapin-Carpenter
37. Boom! Shake The Room - Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince
38. Baby I'm Yours - Shai
39. Love U More - Sunscreem
40. I'm Every Woman - Whitney Houston
41. Sweat (A La La La La Song) - Inner Circle
42. Freak Me - Silk
43. Reason To Believe - Rod Stewart & Ronnie Wood
44. Deeper and Deeper - Madonna
45. Another Sad Love Song - Toni Braxton
46. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
47. Can't Get Enough Of Your Love - Taylor Dayne
48. Ooh Child - Dino
49. Whoomp! There It Is - Tag Team
50. Two Princes - Spin Doctors
51. Informer - Snow
52. Slam - Onyx
53. Bed of Roses - Bon Jovi
54. Man On The Moon - REM
55. Cat's In The Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe
56. Creep - Radiohead
57. Insane In The Brain - Cypress Hill
58. I See Your Smile - Gloria Estefan
59. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
60. Into Your Arms - The Lemonheads
61. I Got A Man - Postive K
62. Candy Everybody Wants - 10,000 Maniacs
63. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
64. Give It Up - The Goodmen
65. Dazzy Dukes - Duice
66. Jimmy Olson's Blues - Spin Doctors
67. What's Up - 4 non-Blondes
68. Kiss Of Life - Sade
69. River Of Dreams - Billy Joel
70. Rubberband Girl - Kate Bush
71. No Rain - Blind Melon
72. Feed The Tree - Belly
73. Sex Me - R Kelly
74. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Bon Jovi
75. Mr. Wendal - Arrested Developement

I am really embarrassed to say that I actually liked some of those songs.

Whatcha Reading?

Sue tagged me with this fun meme. The rules are as follows:
Grab the book closest to you
Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence
Post the text of the next three sentences on your blog
Name of the book and the author
Tag three people of your own.

After all, no one thought he had a chance with the hospital administrator who virtually decapitated the bookkeeper who had apparently figured out he'd been embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. ("The means and mere gruesomeness of the death suggested premeditation," Stephen told us the judge had remarked to him one evening when the trial was finished.) Everyone in the state knew a particular motel owner in Shelburne would be convicted of trafficking drugs, and the woman who left her infant twins to freese atop Camel's Hump would be found guilty of first degree murder.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

I have never actually read this book. My friend Jennifer loaned it to me a few years ago and it has been sitting near my desk since then. Maybe I should get around to reading it?

Gingerbread houses, Christmas trees and cookies...

Riley's gingerbread house

We have had one busy week around here. Last Saturday, December 2nd, we went to Safeway who was having a gingerbread house workshop to make gingerbread houses. We had a ton of fun and the kids each made great houses. Here are some pictures of their houses:

Riley's house

Monica's house
Monica's house

After we made the houses we went to a Christmas tree farm where you can cut your own Christmas tree. We have a tradition of doing this every year because it is so much more fun than going to a regular lot where they are already cut for you. After a lot of searching we finally found an 8 foot Norwegian Fir.

Tonight, the kids and I had a ton of fun making Christmas cookies. I bought a kit which made things a lot easier. I may be good at cooking, but baking is not something I enjoy very much. All you had to do was add water to the mix, roll out the dough and cut the cookies. It also came with frosting and sprinkles so we made a huge mess, but it was well worth it.

Last, but not least, Monica has become quite the photographer. She took these 3 pictures of Riley and I at the Christmas tree farm and they look great. I think I know what I am getting her for Christmas. :)