Christmas Day: Morning

Christmas Day!!!  We awoke, went downstairs & started handing out the gifts.

Being the youngest, Isabel got the most loot.  She was in heaven.

My nephew got me this awesome Buffy book.
My hubby got me the animal print footie pajamas draped over my legs.

I purchased Adventure Time stockings for my nephew and his girlfriend.

When it was all said and done, David says to me "Where's my present from you?"  

We had agreed to get a gift from  each of us to  each of us.  So, one from me to David, one from Isabel to David and one from Jacob to David.  In our immediate family, we would each get 3 gifts, not counting "Santa" stocking stuffers and Isabel's Santa gifts.

David only had the one from Isabel and Jacob.  He had other gifts from other family members, but he did not get one from me.  I am sitting there racking my brain trying to figure out what the heck David's gift was.

Now you also have to understand that Jacob's birthday is on December 21 and David's is Christmas Day!  Yep.  His birthday is 12/25.  I have A LOT of presents to buy just for the people in my home.  I remember specifically buying David 3 gifts that were wrapped in birthday paper (opened the day before) and 3 Christmas presents.  I swore up and down I had gotten him something.  He kept asking how could I possibly forget what I bought.  Well, gee.  I only do ALL of the Christmas shopping for EVERYONE but myself.  He had to buy 3 gifts for me from himself and the two kids.  *I* on the other hand had to buy gifts to each from each (me, Jacob and Isabel), for my sister, my nephew, his girlfriend, my best friend, my mom, my other sister's daughter, birthday gifts for David and Jacob.   Hmmmm. I wonder why I could not remember.

After about his third time asking me how could I forget, I stood in the kitchen making pancakes (making bacon pancakes.  I did.  I put bacon in the pancakes) and crying because I felt stupid that I could not remember what the third present was.

We eat and I head upstairs to try my footie pajamas.  While in the bathroom, I REMEMBER!  I practically FLY out of my room and downstairs where everyone is.  "IN THE GARAGE!!" I yell, trying to cover myself  with a robe while my sister and nephew's girlfriend yell "Whoa, too much skin showing there, lady!"

I had purchased a Video Game Rocking Chair with speakers and video ports.  It was so big, I had hidden it in the garage, along with a desk we got Jacob that we had also forgotten about!

I felt so much better knowing I had not neglected David.  Psssfffffttttt!  

Christmas Eve

So much fun over Christmas!!

(Update: Why does this post have so many hits?  It's bizarre.)

Christmas Eve day my big sis Brenda, her adult son Jon and his girlfriend Jessica drove up from West Palm Beach to spend 2 days with us.  Yay!

We'd spent the past 2 weeks text messaging each other teasers, random texts and veiled hints as to what we were all getting each other. The excitement was mounting.

They arrived with bags full of gifts, three lasagnas and 24 cans of Coke in tow for Christmas Eve dinner.

We played two games of Apples to Apples.  Once they understand that the trick was to "play to your judge," we were on a roll.  It was fantastic.

Next up, we played "Scene It" on the PS3.   As usual, Jacob kicked our butts.

We attempted to watch something on tv but no one could pretty much agree on what to watch.  David worked until 9 p.m.  Booooo!

I ended up going to bed around midnight.  I know the boys stayed up much later playing video games.  I ended up getting a certain little lass sneaking in our room at 4 a.m.   I made her get in our bed and told her she could not get out until 7:00 a.m.  :)

2012 Buffyfest Ornament Swap: Buffy's Scythe and Buffy B

The next set was sent to me by Allison from Texas.

I have ALWAYS wanted a Scythe.  I'd see other groups in other years' swaps get one and I'd say "woooooow!"

So thanks Allison, for my "Woooooow!"

Tea for Two and Two for Tea

My son and I are tea fans.  I've always enjoyed hot teas like "Sleepy Time" or some fruity in-the-bag teas, but have never just bought tea leaves before. This started about a year ago actually.  Right around last Christmas, Jacob used birthday and/or Christmas $$ to buy some specialty tea at Teavana at the mall.   He also purchased an Adagio IngenuiTEA but off of Think Geek's site with a gift card.

This lead us to the Adagio site directly, where we started looking around and came across some fan-created tea blends.  Adagio lets its customers create their own blends and then sell them.  We came across Cara McGee and her blends and started ordering them.

First selection:  Harry Potter.  Of course.  Second only to my Whedonverse obsession, the world of Harry Potter is a place I wanna be in.  :)  Pumpkin spice, caramel and machala chai make up this blend.  Although I love the pumpkin, I'm not a big fan of chai.  Jake is though, so this one's a hit for him.

Next we purchased "The Government and the Inspector," a silly Mycroft/Lastrade 'ship from the wonderful tv show Sherlock.  Chocolate Chai, hazelnut and Irish breakfast; this tea's stronger than Harry Potter and yes, chai again.

We also received a free sample of passion fruit, which I love.

Then we ordered a second set of teas, continuing with the "Sherlock" theme of Ms. McGee's.   The Woman, honeybush vanilla,  dewy cherry and lapsang souchong is a very smoky, tasty tea that gets too smoky if steeped too long. I usually re-steep the leaves Jake's already used to get it to be not too strong.   I am Sherlocked screams chocolate and smoke and is best with milk and sugar.  Yum.

Finally, with some birthday money (thanks Kelli-Kelli) I ordered some more teas.

Loki, from The Avengers, is minty goodness.  How I love this one.  Gunpowder (not real gunpowder. This.), spearmint and rooibos jasmine are an odd combination but the jasmine smell with the mint is out of this world.  My favorite so far (but I have a few in the kitchen still yet to be tried.)

North, again by Cara McGee,  is like...visiting Santa.  Chocolate Chai, Christmas tea and Candy Cane Tea combined.  Wow!  It's Chai and I LIKE it.

The others we received, but have not tried yet are Thor (yep, Loki's brother,) piña colada (free from the site) and Chocolate, another freebie.  I can't wait to try these too!

2012 Buffyfest Ornament Swap: The Orb of Thesulah

Group 6 member Erica sent me this terrific Orb of Thesulah.

 

And now to summon Angel's soul.  Mua ha ha.

Thanks Erica!

Downtown Disney Dinner

We had a very fun time at a company-sponsored dinner this past Saturday night at Downtown Disney's Fulton's Crab House.




This Disney employee jumped in our shot.

2012 Buffyfest Ornament Swap: Anya-Bunny

This Ornament was received last week.  (Things have been a little screwy in the world and I did not feel like posting.)

Thank you to Kaitlyn for my Anya in a Bunny Suit ornament.  :)

Disney in Early December

We STILL had 4 one-day passes left from when Jacob sang at last year's Epcot Candlelight Processional that we had not used.  They expire this December so we decided to go in early December  BEFORE the crazed holiday masses arrived.

We chose Magic Kingdom because the kids wanted to see the new additions to the not-yet-finished Fantasyland.




We did not ride the new ride, because the line was 50 minutes.  Also, we could not see ALL of the new Fantasyland area because it was blocked off.  There were tv cameras and I think Whoopie Goldberg was there (at lest that's what a cast member said.)  No idea why, but we did not get to see the area due to something they were filming.  Thanks.  :(







What we COULD see was nice.  We can't wait until it's all done, circa 2014!

The rest of the park was empty.  It was AWESOME.  Waits were in the 10 minute range.  Fantastic time to be here.  It was overcast but not raining.  Just a fun day.

2012 Buffyfest Ornament Swap: The Grr. Argh Monster

I got my first Buffyfest Ornament to post!




The Mutant Enemy logo!  It's the Grr Argh Monster and it talks too!

Thanks to Tara of Buffyfest for my first ornament!

Soccer Saturday

We spent last Saturday with one of David's first cousins, his wife and their 5 kids, who were down in central Florida for a soccer tournament for their twin daughters who play in a college team at a Christian University.  It was fun to see them after like 6 years or so.

That's one of the girls in the white

Both girls in the picture, wearing headbands.  One in the
 back left, one in the foreground.  They won this game!

Isabel and her cousins.  Aren't they beautiful?

Isabel and her cousins.  Twin girls, one boy, twin boys; all siblings

After the game, we headed to the resort for some pool time.  When I say we, I mean the kids.  :)

Yep. The pool in December

Then we ate a quick meal and headed to Downtown Disney, a place they had not been to and which we love.

The carousel spinning

Buffyfest Ornament Swap 2012

It's that time again! Time for the Buffyfest Ornament Swap.  This is its 5th year and my 4th time participating.

My first time, I carved Whedon-based stamps and made them into ornaments.

My second year, I played with shrinky dinks, which was actually a lot of fun. I need to do that again.

Year 3 for me had my eyes all cross-eyed.

I also received some fantastic ornaments in return.  The posts are in most recent order, so go all the way to the bottom to see from oldest up to newest.


For 2012, I had no idea really what I wanted to do. I thought about carving stamps again but that is time consuming and I am running out of carving material and did not want to use up my last complete slab and half slab of PZ Cut.  (Yes, fellow letterboxers, I still have an unused slab of white B Pz cut and a half slab.  No, I am not selling. Hee hee.)

While perusing Ebay (I sell random things I don't need on Ebay) I decided to buy a deck of 90 Buffy cards, The Women of Sunnydale set and see what I could do with those.  When they arrived, I did the old Goooooglay searching for something to do with these cards and stumbled upon this tutorial from a site called Tally's Treasury.   Beyond excited.  I sat down at my computer desk and had a go at my first one.

Here are my 3 cards lined up.  This one is a Buffy-themed ornament

It's detailed but not hard to do at all.

I had to make ornaments for 4 people.  I decided on two ornaments per person, so 8 total.  I hauled my loot downstairs where the family was watching watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and tried hard to not drool all over the cards (Aragorn!)

I tried to "theme" them.  This first set is Willow and Tara.

The next set is a mixed bag; Faith, plus some baddies: Darla, Drusilla and Harmony.  I went with an evil theme for this set.

This set has one Buffy and one Dawn ornament.  A sister set.

The last set has one Cordelia and one Anya ornament.  They're both such funny characters; blunt, honest and  unapologetic.  I think combining them was neato.

I attached beads, buttons and whatnots to them.  It was pretty much stuff I had in the house in craft bags and boxes.  I really like how they turned out, so I made myself an ornament for our tree too.  I'll post a picture of it later.

I grabbed a card form the deck for each person and wrote a little note on each.  These were mailed off last Tuesday, so they should be at their destinations by now.

I am VERY excited to see what I get from my group.