Christmas Card Greetings from Our House!

I had this great idea for our Christmas card this year. Well, actually Shelby (who takes the BEST pictures) had found some SUPER cute templates ---one of which was a circle, double sided, BEAUTIFUL card. Only problem was that they were a wee bit expensive. "Okay, I will order a few doublesided beauties for family, and then the rest I will go the Costco route and just cut the circles by hand"---great idea, right????

Ummm, NIGHTMARE!!!!

But after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, my VERY nice hubby offers to cut the circles for me if I will just 'hurry up with the addressing and stamping and get them sent out already!'

He did, and I think he did a much better job on his 100 than I did on my measly 25---I ruined 3 in the process.

Thank you Court, and please remind me next year how FUN this was so I don't make the same mistake TWICE!!!! Ü

A Whole Lot o Huggin' Going On

Sunday December 19th was one JAMMED pack evening o fun! We started off with homemade chicken noodle soup---a Mama Maurio specialty. After dinner came the grandkid gift exchange. We were all just gathering around on the couches to watch the kiddies begin their exchange when we hear a ruckus coming from behind the couch, and then a child start to sob uncontrollably. The child??? You guessed it---Miss Naughty Pants. Someone had opened up the window to let some cold air in and Wavee was pushing against the screen with enough force that it popped out and she went through the window head first to the cement below.

Daddy picked her up and just held her on the couch, but the sobbing would not stop, and then suddenly she was OUT!

I have NEVER had this child fall asleep on me ANYWHERE outside of her own bed. Slightly frightening. Luckily Court's brother Dr. Fischbeck was in the house to take a quick look at her and he said she was fine, no concussion---WHEW!

Picture doesn't do it justice--the swelling was the overwhelming part. And the poor thing was sick for the next three days following, she just could not catch a break, poor thing! But she was especially pleasant when she woke up an hour later as we were beginning to assemble our candy trains.

While Wavee took her nap, we went ahead with the gift exchange without her. Laetner had Chandler, Delainee had Kennidi, Chandler had Delainee, and Kennidi had Laetner. It was all VERY confusing. But of course we got the obligatory HUGS! (Wavee missed out on her chances for hugging Pace and Kayla)



This was the only shot we could manage with Kennidi, she was very papparazzi wary!

Luckily we were just about finished with our candy trains when Waverly DID awaken from her not so peaceful slumber, cuz she was NOT interested in hanging around any longer.

Christmas Lights Traditions

There are a few standards that our little family does EVERY year when it comes to Christmas, and the McCormick Ranch Railroad Park is one of them.


Now this place can be a MADHOUSE! And here is a word to the wise---the Big Train just ain't worth it. But what not everyone knows or realizes I guess, is that at the eastern edge of the park is the Little Train. You don't have to wait in a seperate line to get you ticket for the Little Train. And if you are unwise with your evening planning and show up too late, then yes the Little Train line can get long, but it moves. The Little Train is also technically 'free' but that just isn't nice, so of course we always pay in the donations accepted bin. The Little Train ALSO gives every kid a candy cane when they are done---which happens to be one of the few words that Waverly can say, so it's reception was especially cute.

But along with the Big Train and the Little Train, you can also visit Santa (which we chose not to do this year) or take pictures with the fun cut outs and various characters wandering around the park (like elmo, scooby doo, clifford etc)

and it is a park after all, so after waiting in any line the kids were happy to just roam free on the playground...

by the time it was time to go, the kiddies were exhausted--hooray!

But of course they had to pose one last time for me when we found these cool bikes.

Teacher Gifts

Most years I try to come up with what I THINK are pretty creative ideas for teacher and neighbor gifts.

This year, the inspiration just wasn't coming!

What to do, what to do?

Someone dropped us a plate of goodies, one of which was a very yummy chocolate dipped oreo. Hmmm... I should be able to reproduce that, right? It was a group effort, Delainee and Laetner each had their own bowl of little candy melts---a very UNNATURAL looking green, and we busted out quite a few little teacher gifts.


Waverly was especially helpful once the older kids had gone to bed and it was time to package everything up!


Hey at least it was semi-homemade!

3rd Grade Musical

No theme, no strory. Just different Christmas songs from around the world. Delainee really liked "Children Go Where I Send Thee" and she knew where I was, so she WORKED that camera all night.



For the closing number, Delainee (along with her cello teacher April Thomas, and April's son Mason) played Silent Night while the kids and then the congregation joined in.


She was AWESOME--not to mention VERY serious!

Of course she had some avid fans!!!

Elf on the Shelf---DRAMA!

Have you heard about "The Elf on the Shelf" ???? I started hearing about it last year at Christmas and knew that I wanted to start the tradition. We found the book at Barnes and Noble and on the Monday after Thanksgiving we read the BOOK.

In a nutshell, your elf (who you must name) has very magical powers. He watches you during the day, and then every night he flies to the north pole to report to Santa what you have been up to. When he comes back to your house he finds a new place to hang out and watch you for the day---so there is also the added fun of finding his new spot every morning. If you hit your baby sister, then the elf will report it to Santa. If you help mommy with the dishes, he reports it to the big guy, etc.

RULES:

No touching the elf.

The elf can't talk to you.

This provided a bit of a dilemma to myself the first night since you cannot touch the elf or he will lose his magical powers. I wasn't sure how to get him out of his packaging without 'touching' him so he hid with his box the first couple of night. Luckily a 'friend' informed me that once you register his name online, then your elf gains the ability to sneak out of his box as well... WHEW!

We headed on over to elfontheshelf.com and officially adopted Elfis as a member of the Fischbeck family. And would you believe it??? Sure enough that night Elfis snuck out of his box. He shows up in all sorts of fun places around the house! Yesterday Daddy was wrestling with Laetner when Laetner informed him that "Elfis just saw him hurt him and we would go tell Santa!"

Well this morning, Elfis showed up in a bit of a precarious spot in our kitchen.

He wasn't aware of the seriousness of his situation until we started making dinner. But when we would open up the spice cupboard, it knocked Elfis down.

This wouldn't have been the complete end of the world, as we have already discussed that in rare instances, MOMMY can pick up Elfis as long as she is wearing a glove and doesn't actually touch him. But apparently Daddy did NOT get the memo, cuz as he was preparing chicken parmigianna for dinner, he simply picked up Elfis when he dropped next to the stove and tossed him to the island behind him. You should have heard the gasps of HORROR that escaped from both Delainee and Laetner as they witnessed what their father had just done.

What to do, what to do?

We decided that a letter was our best course of action. Laetner dictated it and Delainee penned it and my job was to scan it in and email it Santa....


Technically:

Dear Santa
Our Daddy touched Elfis because Elfis was about to fall in a pot of boiling tomato sauce. Please give Elfis new magic if you can.
Love Fischbecks

ps please don't put Daddy on the naughty list
WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

The last line Delainee added all on her own. Trying to butter up Old St. Nick! We will just have to hope and pray that Elfis can get his magic back!!!!

10 K

The last time I actually ran an entire 10k was a 'few' years ago when my SIL Shelby and I ran London's Run down in Queen Creek.

We have been talking about working up to do the Turkey Trot this year, and asked ourselves why drive and pay the money? But we really wanted to train and have our own 'Turkey Trot-ish' on Thanksgiving morning. No t-shirt, no everybody and their dog AND their stroller, no guy dressed up in a Turkey costume. Just 6.2 miles mapped out. We even put out feelers to see if anybody wanted to come run it with us, we got a few 'maybes' but no one seemed interested.

Still that did not deter us, and we have continued to train. I am ''slightly' scared of the sunshine, and so my running partner is VERY accommodating (she allows me to set the pace for what I can handle) and we run at nights---9:00-10:30 ish. And let me tell you, it is COLD at 10:00 at night!!!!! Ü

We were starting to feel like I just wasn't gonna get my endurance up by Thanksgiving morning, and then last night out of nowhere---we did it!!!! No big thang-- ran the entire 10k (and then some on the stretch home) We might need to drag a hubby to our finish line to get us an actual finish time, but considering we met at the corner at 9:00 and I was walking in my door at 10:15, I am thinking it was somewhere in the 1:05-1:15 range . Shelby?

Now I know this is nothing compared to all the marathon and half marathon times that are being posted up and down facebook these day, but for me---this is impressive! Just the fact that we ran the whole time---I am TOTALLY tooting my own horn!

Now I just got to do it again on Thanksgiving morning! Ü

She's Back!

(yet another installment of the Semi-Monthly Misadventures of Miss Naughty Pants)

Just cuz I haven't been posting doesn't mean she isn't up to trouble. Just means I have been busy working. So wouldn't you know it, that on the day I am actually catching up on the blog, that she manages to find SOME sort of trouble???

So today Daddy went outside to change the water for the chickens. He left the hose on for a bit and things got a bit muddy. That wasn't his mistake. His mistake was coming back inside and not realizing that Waverly had stayed outside...

I couldn't get her to look up and admit her guilt..


But I will say that just last week, Court had taken all the screens off the house and done a little 'Spring Cleaning' on all the windows.

Might have to do this window over....

And it wasn't until washing her off that I even REALIZED that her feet were a match set to her hands---thank you Waverly, my now muddy lap truly appreciates it.

Thanksgiving Week

I absolute LOVE Thanksgiving. That is the one holiday meal, start to finish, that I can do---and I do it well. I can't take all the credit. It took the Iron Hand of my Mother in Law who insists that EVERYTHING be made from scratch, and a 'few' years of being married to my hubby, but from the picture perfect turkey to the homemade pies, I got it covered.

Anyhoo, we figured we should start off this festive week with our standard Sunday dessert showdown, and what better way to do that then TURKEY style.

We had chocolate fudge frosting, and milk chocolate frosting, and candy corns galore. And they all turned out pretty cute, although when it came time for this picture there were quite a few 'beaks' that were mysteriously absent.....


WA-VER-LY!!!!!

Halloween

I have to say that this year (with the old Halloween on Sunday thing) that things felt really low key---and that definitely wasn't a bad thing!!!

Here was our cast of characters for this year...

A cupcake...

(complete with side view)

GI Joe...


And of course you have already met Little Miss Ladybug...


..who was ever so dainty and every so BOSSY! She couldn't be bothered to walk a few steps from house to house, she would come back and climb into her 'chariot' and be pushed to the next house.

Here they are in action...



We went out for a short walk down our block and up the street behind us and called it DONE!!!


What a nice night!!! of course the rest of that week was HELL as Miss Waverly wreaked HAVOC on everyone's candy buckets everyday. One lick of anything and then it made it's way to the floor---NICE!!!