Landon's First Christmas!

We had a great Christmas celebrating, first and foremost, the birth of our Savior! I must say that having a child really puts things in perspective all that Mary went through 2,000+ years ago. I am so grateful on so many levels.

Here are some pics of some of our Christmas festivities - first at home, then up at the lake with Alan's family. I say some because our Christmas celebrating is not over yet - my sister and her family and my mom are coming up this weekend not only to celebrate Christmas, but also for Landon's first birthday party!

A Fine Piece of Real Estate

That is if you are a gingerbread man. At a Christmas party this past weekend, each family in attendance got to decorate their own gingerbread house. There are many exterior updates including: a satellite dish (the cracker on the roof), skylight (the 3 pieces of chocolate on the roof), in-ground swimming pool, and a built-in grill. If you know of any gingerbread people that are looking to move. please have them call 1-888-NEW-HOME.

My Attempt at Mom's World-Famous Truffles

Okay, so they aren't quite world-famous (yet!), but they're getting there. I must say, that until I molded and coated the truffles last night I did not have a full appreciation for the amount of work that goes into making them (at which point I did call mom and express my sincere gratitude for the many, many times she's made thousands upon thousands of truffles - no exaggerating here since she makes them for retreats at camp). They did not coat as well as hers; nor did my attempt to get red squiggles for the holiday season work - hence, the hot pink. However, I do know that they taste good considering she was the one that made the cake filling and I did sneak one. Hopefully, there's only 20 ladies at our Bible study Christmas party tonight....

The Santa Experience

As a disclaimer, I realize that with it being 12 days until Santa's busy day that he is at the North Pole and is utilizing the assistance of various other Santas to hear children's wish lists and bring joy to them.

Today, we took Landon to the downtown Macy's to check out the 8th floor and meet Santa. Landon loved the 8th floor display and was in awe of all the movement and lights, as I figured he would be. With eagerness (more on my part, then his) we got into the 1/2 hour long line to see Santa and was, unfortunately, disappointed. When we got into our room (as a side note: there are two rooms at Macy's so one can get through the line faster), Santa was staring off into space and didn't utter a greeting. I placed Landon on his lap and the pictures were taken. That was basically it. Santa didn't talk to Landon. Santa barely looked at Landon. Due to the lack of interaction with Santa, Landon just gave me a blank look despite my enthusiasm. To anyone who knows Landon, this is not at all characteristic of him. He's very engaging and friendly if people are that way with him. But, that wasn't even the worst of it - this Santa had a fake beard! C'mon, people, we are talking about the downtown Macy's where thousands of children flock after the Holidazzle parade and to check out their holiday display! You're telling me that Macy's can't spring for a Santa with a real beard and one who is proficient at interacting with children?

Next year, I'm just going to Ridgedale.

Stupid Bug, You Ruined my Dinner

By bug I mean the flu and by dinner I mean Alan's company's Christmas dinner at Lord Fletcher's, which has definitely become one of the highlights of our year. We dress up (I even bought a new outfit), we sit in the beautiful Chart Room, we eat (this year, there were pre-appetizers to the appetizers). Unfortunately, our night was cut short due to my illness (which somehow got translated by Alan's co-workers that I was pregnant again. Ummm...no).

I had been feeling fine earlier in the day but was starting to get a little stomachache as we were driving there. This I just attributed to being hungry. When we arrived at the restaurant I was feeling slightly weak as we were standing around having cocktails. When we sat down to dinner I couldn't stop yawning and just attributed it to the fact that I'm not used sitting for so long. I made it through the pre-appetizers before I excused myself to go to the bathroom, where I threw up. "This is what I get for ordering an appletini after more than 2 years of not having any alcohol," I thought to myself. I came back to the table, nibbled on some crackers, ate my chicken wild rice soup, and was feeling slightly better. Then, dinner came. I managed to eat 2 bites of my steak, but was so repulsed by the idea of eating (that should not happen at Lord Fletcher's) that I told Alan we needed to go.

Things progressed worse over the night, that I quickly assessed it was not due to an appletini or food poisoning. My leftovers are still sitting in the fridge, and at this point, I could probably eat them without any problems, but of course they aren't going to be as good as at the restaurant.

Approximately 364 days until Lord Fletcher's next year.