The kind of month that just wears you down.

I love Christmas, I really do. No, it definitely isn't all about the presents, it is just such a joyful time of year. However, over the holidays everyone wants to see you. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except for when everyone that wants to see you is spread out in a bunch of directions. Our December went something like this:

1st weekend: Isaac's company Christmas Party. It is held at Seven Springs every year, the food is pretty good and it is fun when the slopes are open and you can watch the people outside skiing. Although it does seem weird to be dressed up and then see people walk by in their ski clothes lugging their skis around.

2nd weekend: I think we actually didn't have anything.

3rd weekend: Isaac's friend Scott's bash on Friday night. That is a rather eclectic group of people and that party sometimes gets rowdy. Then get up Saturday morning to drive in to Pittsburgh area (out past the airport) to my sister-in-law's (Bronwyn, Isaac's sister) house. Stay the night and have a big family Christmas with her, her husband, and their son, Isaac's mom, his dad and dad's girlfriend, and then some of Bronwyn's in-laws. Oh and Isaac's aunt and one of his two cousins.

Then even though we saw pretty much everyone at that family Christmas my father-in-law has to have a Christmas Eve thing at his house that he expects everyone to go to (even though there was only one person that was there that wasn't at the event on Sunday.) Then from there we drove up to my mom's that night to celebrate Christmas with my mom, grandparents, and sisters and their families. Then we had two days of nothing really going on. Then on Sunday we had a family Christmas party with all of my dad's brothers and sisters and their broods. (Dad was one of eight kids and I don't get to see any of his siblings very often anymore.)

That same day Isaac's mom's family had a family Christmas party also that we didn't make it too. It was also in the afternoon, but most of the people at that event are local, unlike dad's family.

Tuesday the 30th was the 5 year anniversary of my dad's death. It seems so hard to believe that it has been that long. My dad was always a big John Wayne fan, so I passed the evening by watching some of our favorite John Wayne movies (McLintock! and El Dorado). Isaac of course wouldn't watch them with me though. Dad and I watched those movies together so many times that I have some scenes pretty much memorized and I have the tendency to recite the lines.

For New Year's Eve we stayed in, but we couldn't decide what to do so Isaac decided he would endure the last of the John Wayne movies that I didn't get to on Tuesday (Rio Bravo). He of course picked the one that I knew the least amount of lines from.

Then the weekend after New Year's we had one more Christmas party to go to. This one was with Isaac's paternal grandmother's family. His grandmother was one of three I believe, but her brother had about a dozen kids (I'm not exaggerating, I'm just not sure that is the exact amount) and they're scattered all over the US, and that is one of the two times of year that a lot of them get to come in. This was only the second year I've gotten to go to one of those Christmases, usually they fall on the same weekend as the weekend we are in Franklin visiting my mom.

By the time December is over I'm always exhausted! The trips to my mom's and to Bronwyn's are both over two hour drives. The one after New Year's was another 1hr.+ drive and the trip into his dad's is even a 30 min. drive. It almost feels like the car is our home more than our house at times.

All that being said, it is definitely great to be able to spend some time with family. I love seeing my nephew run around at Bronwyn's, and I'm amazed at seeing my other nephew when I go to my mom's, just because he is already 16 and I was only 11 when he was born. It is always fun to see him interacting with his little sister as well (she's 6 & 1/2 now).

Time sure can fly

Even when nothing major is going on, time seems to pass so quickly. Over a month and a half ago I was asked to update my blog since I hadn't for a while. I was away on vacation at the time, so I've been saying to myself since I got back I need to go and update my blog. So finally, here I am. :-)

Since my last post, I've been to Orlando for ShowEast (theatre convention), California to visit family, and Las Vegas for ShoWest (another theatre convention). I've also had several weekends of traveling to Pittsburgh to see my sister-in-law and her family or up to Franklin to see my family. It seems like lately we've been getting no more than one weekend at home alone in a row.

Orlando was a lot of fun. We got to see I think 9 movies (including Earth, Soloist, Bolt and Soul Men). Met with some vendors and saw some new products coming out too. That's always interesting. After the convention was over we switched from the Marriott where the convention was to Port Orleans French Quarter (a Disney hotel). We went to Epcot one day and met up with one of my husband's co-workers and his family who were also on vacation. We were there during the International Food and Wine Festival. That was rather interesting we got to try out some new food, but probably not quite as many as we would have liked. The portion size was rather small and the price was $2 and up for each item. So we didn't do a whole lot of that. Although I did try some ginger ice cream (I think that's what it was) and that was really good. We had been to all four Disney parks in 2007 but we had a two day parkhopper pass and went to two parks each day. Epcot was the last one we went to, so we were really tired by that time and we didn't even really get to the world showcase.

The next day we went to MGM - which by that point was renamed Hollywood Studios. The only things I really remember us doing there this year were going to the Lights, Camera, Action stunt show and the Sci-fi Drive-in theatre restaurant. The Sci-fi restaurant was really interesting, it had cars with tables in them and a big movie screen which showed previews for cheesy sci-fi movies, and of course my husband recognized a few of them.

The next day we had a relaxing morning at the hotel, lounging around the pool. Then at two we went to Walt Disney World for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party. We had so much fun there. You got goody bags and got to go trick or treating all around the park. There were a lot more characters out and about for photo ops during the party including more of the villains you don't usually get to see. We had started a Disney photopass card at Epcot so we got all kinds of pictures taken. When we tried to get our picture taken with Donald Duck in Frontierland he pretty much pushed Isaac away and was just hugging me and kissing my hand things like that. At first I couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered that when we packed for the trip we had assumed we would get t-shirts at the convention. We didn't get any though so we had to buy some while we were there. So in Epcot Isaac picked up at least one and so did I. Mine was a Three Caballeros shirt. The Three Caballeros shirt with Donald and pals on it is the one I was wearing when we went to Frontierland. We had a lot of fun at the Halloween party and I'm hoping we can go to the Christmas party sometime.

After that we had to come home.

I believe November was really uneventful, so in my next post (because I'm at work, and this one is already kind of long) I will start up with December. I'll also try to post some pictures from Disney. Blogger is acting weird today and I can't add pictures.

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

So I discovered a blog recently that mentioned Cookie Carnival.  I thought to myself "what is this?  It sounds interesting so I went and found out about it.  Basically it is a blog challenge of a cookie recipe a month.  At the beginning of the month the creator/owner of the list sends out what the cookie for the month will be and then you make it and blog about!  Easy-peasy.

This month's challenge was Mini-pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  It is a Martha recipe and is pretty simple to make.  You can't really tell by looking at the picture, but I screwed up at the beginning and made some 'normal' cookie sized.  Oops.  I think they turned out ok though.  I didn't care for the filling.  It was too cream cheesey for me.  I think if I make these again, I will make something closer to a buttercream frosting for 

the filling.  On the good side though, my husband isn't a huge fan of pumpkin but these have a light enough pumpkin taste that he didn't mind.  Also, I didn't read the recipe to see that it called for parchment paper lining the cookie sheets, and that isn't something I use, so I didn't have any.  I ended up just spraying the cookie sheets with the Pam with flour.  They came off of the tray really easily.  Also, I actually got more than 20 out of the recipe.  I actually made about 25 (including the four really big ones).

A month

It is hard to believe I haven't posted anything in almost a month.  Not much has really happened.  We went to Hershey Park around our anniversary.  It was a rainy day when we went but it was a lot of fun.  Isaac rode their new coaster Fahrenheit, I looked at it and just laughed and said no way.  As I mentioned before I hate roller coasters but there was no possible way that I would ever even think about getting on that one.  No thanks.  

After Hershey we just stayed home and took some days of rest.  We did celebrate our 2nd anniversary during our vacation but we didn't do anything special.  We are hoping to go back to Mexico (to the resort where we honeymooned) next year for our 3rd anniversary.  We'll see.

At this time next month we'll be somewhere in Orlando.  We haven't decided where we'll be on Saturday.  Monday through Thursday we have the theatre convention.  We'll get to see some new movies and try some new candies and see other new stuff.  (I'm really hoping this one company is there....they had some of the best chocolate, I haven't been able to find anywhere to buy it because the company is from Iceland!  Think Chocolate covered Kix. yum.)  Friday we are going to Epcot.  We went last year, but by the time we got back to where all the countries are we were so tired since that was our fourth park in two days. Sunday we are going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  I can't wait for that.  It looks like so much fun.

Other than that we haven't been up to a whole lot.  Work has been really slow for me.  September and October stink in  Movie land.  At home we started planting some creeping myrtle out front on the sloped part of our yard, because it is to steep to try and mow all the time.

Our dishwasher still isn't working, but we had a repairman out last week and we actually had two problems and he ordered the part for one.  Now we just have to wait until it comes in.

The Staredown

The Staredown
Originally uploaded by Bowlergirl81

We went to visit Isaac's sister and her family this weekend. My husband and nephew had a little staredown in the yard. I just think this picture is so cute. (And no, my husband didn't actually use the hose on him at that range! He might not be a big kid person, but he isn't mean.)

Vacations

So Isaac and I have been wanting to take a vacation for a few months, but we just couldn't think of anywhere we wanted to go and kept not picking a time to go.  Now all of a sudden we kind of have three planned.  We are taking a mini vacation to HersheyPark next week.  I can't wait, I haven't been there in years! (I think I was 8 or younger last I was there.  It was in the 80s.)  Then we get two away from work but still kind of work trips.  We get to go to King of Prussia for a mini trade show type thing next month.  The month after that we get to go to Showeast in Orlando!  Last year we got to see 9 movies there, including some our theatre didn't end up playing.  At the same time though, we got to meet with vendors and see new products.  It should be a fun couple of months.  I'll probably continue my Christmas shopping when we get to King of Prussia (The hotel we are staying at is right beside the big mall there.  Then I get to drag my husband and his dad over there for some shopping.

Uneventful

The last few weeks have been rather uneventful.  The picture on the left is from when Isaac and I took our Sebastian to the vet for his yearly checkup and boosters (he is healthy and lost some weight from last year when they said he was slightly overweight).  Sebastian likes helping Isaac drive.  We used to let him roam free in the car, but he liked to squeeze through by Isaac's seat and would then end up under his legs which is not a good thing!

I had a week and a half of no boss in the office again.  He went out to visit his son(Ryan), daughter-in-law(Carol) and grandson(Alexander) for his grandson's 2nd birthday.  I sent out a couple little presents with him to give them.  One was a cute little outfit for the nuggette (Carol is pregnant and due next month and she calls the baby the nuggette.) that my other sister-in-law and I bought for her.  The other we gave to Ryan.  We really shouldn't have.  I know my dear husband and I are going to be screwed if we ever have kids since we've done all these kinds of gifts to everyone....  At the end of March Carol had posted a picture of Alexander looking at a windowful of Hello Kitty toys with the caption of "Daddy's worst nightmare, hello kitty."  So of course after reading that, my husband (who really likes to play claw games) saw a Hello Kitty toy in a claw game and decided to go after it.  Well, he got it.  That was the second gift that we sent out with Ed.  Now in our defense, we did send it to Ryan and not Alexander.   Apparently Alexander kept carrying it around and Carol kept saying "That's Daddy's kitty" which he of course repeated and made Ryan grumble.  When Alexander went to bed he'd still be holding the kitty and he would throw it out of the bed saying "Daddy's Kitty."  Too cute.

My other nephew Apollo was getting dropped off at his other grandma's house for the weekend this past Friday.  Her stairs were completely open (by that I just mean there was no gate at the bottom of the stairs, but it was the normal stairwell with railing, etc).  He walked over to them and pointed at them and she told him no.  So he walked away for a little while, then went back 

and put a foot on the stairs.  Again she told him no.  As in don't put your foot on the stairs.  So he played and then went back over and sat on the bottom step with his elbow sitting on the second step.  Repeat the no, play, then he goes back sits on the bottom stair but kind of lays his body up the stairs so his hand is resting on the third one.