Merry Christmas

So this just happened...

When we got home from church, Clocky had left 3 giftd under the tree. The kids opened them and found new pj's to wear tonight. After they put them on, Mara says (in the way only she can)...

"No fair!  All we got was pajamas. We wanted TOYS!"

Merry Christmas-- sure hope Santa delivers the goods tonight!

A White Thanksgiving?

We weren't about to let a "little" snow get in the way of our Thanksgiving celebration in Lewistown!  In fact, my being a complete scaredy cat about travelling in the snow totally paid off this time.  We decided to leave home on Tuesday before Thanksgiving right after we got the kids picked up from school.  They were thrilled to have an extra day to spend at Nana and Pap's!  (So was I!)  It had been quite a long time since we were in Lewistown and parked for a couple of days at a time, so we all welcomed the chance to spend some longer amounts of time with our Lewistown family.

 

As you can imagine, when the kids started seeing the flakes flying in the air on Wednesday morning, they were very anxious to get outside to play in it.  It didn't take long for it to pile up, and after lunch time we bundled them all up and sent them outside to play.  Jason took charge of being the sled pusher and sent them all flying down Nana and Pap's BIG hill in the yard.  Everyone had a great time!  The hardest part for them was definitely hiking back up the hill, but they all did it many, many times.

 

 

We warmed them all up with hot chocolate and some games inside (truth be told...the hot chocolate is probably everyone's favorite part of playing in the snow!) 

 

Thursday morning we got up and headed down to Libby and Zig's house where the cooking was in full swing!  It was their first chance to host Thanksgiving dinner in their new house, and we were all thrilled to be there with them.  It smelled delicious--- I think one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is how awesome the meal smells while it is cooking.  Thank goodness sniffing the wonderful cooking aromas doesn't have calories...because we certianly did enough damage with the eating part!

The kids enjoyed lots and lots of play time together at Libby's house.  They were into everything, but all enjoyed watching some of the floats on the parade and playing with all of the girls' toys.  My bet is that Nana and Pap were perfectly fine to have the mess confined to a different house than their own for at least some of the day.

After we ate and had some visiting time (with a surprise visit from Jeannine-- YAY!) we decided to go up to Valley View with spend some time with Pappy Ray.  It was a hard decision, but he had decided not to come down to eat dinner with us because of how slippery the roads and sidewalks were due to the snow the day before). So if he wasn't comfortable coming to us, we took our show on the road to him, and hopefully brightened his day a bit while we were there.  We took him some leftovers of filling balls and gravy, as well as some pumpkin pie.  He assured us that he would be enjoying them for supper that night.  I think he enjoyed seeing the kids, and I believe they said hello to a lot of the residents there while they were walking around in the hallway.  Pap and Jason had some PSU discussion, always a favorite topic between the two of them, and then we headed back to Mom and Dad's.

It's hard to believe that that was the last time I would see Pap.  I asked him on that visit what Santa Claus could bring him for Christmas, and his response was, "Just ask him if I can have a few more months."  Breaks my heart now, but I know that he is celebrating the most beautiful Christmas in Heaven this year--- with my Gram (and ample raisin filled cookies!) and his parents, and the Lord himself.  Although he didn't get his wish, I have a feeling he isn't wishing to return to this world even for a second.

We headed back to Turbotville on Friday morning to get some Christmas decorating done at our house and prep for the PSU/Michigan State football game on Saturday afternoon.  Little did we know at that point what a disaster that was going to turn into with the closure of the grass lots that I posted about.  Luckily it all worked out and we got tons accomplished on our Friday at home.  All in all it turned out to be a special visit home-- one of our favorites in recent history.  It always feels good to be home...and this trip was certainly no exception.

One more last...

 

Yet another "last" crossed off of the list with Miss Mara as we finally transitioned her from her crib into her toddler bed.  I'll admit that I was dragging my feet a bit on this one-- and for several reasons.  First of all, Mara had finally reached a point where she was sleeping.  All night.  Every night.  Without any problems.  And in case you forget what our sleeping life was like for a very long time with this sweet little thing, read back on the blog a bit to our early days where I considered hooking up to a caffeine drip through an IV just to make it through a day at the office.  It was one of those, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" situations.  I just had visions of Mara up and wandering around the house in the middle of the night, as well as the extreme temper tantrums that would ensue when I had to get her back into her bed.

 

Also, if any of our children DO NOT need freedom at 3 am, it is this one.  Bless her heart, she gets into enough mischief during the normal waking hours of the day, let alone the messes she could create if given the opportunity in the middle of the night.

 

But she finally won Daddy over with the bed thing.  And this happened just like so many of the other "lasts" that have happened with her.  Had I known that the night before we made the switch would be the last night that I would lean over the crib to lay a sleeping girl into it, I might have savored it a bit more.  I will say that she is still requesting that we rock to sleep, which I'm not wishing away at this point.  I know the time is coming oh so quickly that she won't need that special snuggle time with me in order to fall asleep.  So, for now, I'll enjoy what is left of that.

 

Have I mentioned how much I adore this little girl?  Yes, she makes me crazy about 10 times a day with her stubborn strong will, her sassy attitude and her picky opinions about EVERY.SINGLE.THING!  But her hugs are the sweetest.  Her giggle will melt your heart.  She is a clown and a jokester, and I can just tell that she will go to the ends of the earth to make you happy.  And now she is an official big girl.  With a big girl bed.

 

Look out, world.

Penn Staters

I have always been a proud Penn Stater-- since I can remember our fall Saturdays have been scheduled around kickoff times. There have always been get togethers with other PSU fans, pounding on walls of a certain double house on Edgewood Place, trumpet fanfares from my Pap with every score and countless other Penn State memories. Attending college there only solidified what I already knew-- I am a Penn Stater. 

The past few years have been tough on those who love Penn State.  The changes in the football program have been difficult to watch, especially this year as the effect of the NCAA sanctions hit the hardest.  Everyone knew that this would be a tough year, and that it has been.  But it hasn't stopped us from loving it- from taking clients and friends and family to cheer on our beloved Nittany Lions right along side of us.  To support all of the kids who made a tough choice to stick with the University they loved when they had an option to walk away. 

 

We had planned to attend this past Saturday's game and ended up having a ticket to be able to take Joshua along with us.  He is becoming quite the PSU fan, and has attended two other games with us this season.  We knew it was going to be cold, but we hadn't exactly planned for the snow that would impact our plans.  On Friday afternoon, as Jason had spent the majority of the day getting our tailgating supplies packed, cleaned and organized, and as I had been in the kitchen preparing food for the tailgate, we got a message from my cousin, Stephanie, who told us that there had been major impact to the parking for the game.  All the grass lots around the stadium were closed-- so that meant BAD news for us (and about 100,000 other people who were planning to park there).  The alternate plan was that you could park in one of 6 other lots around greater State College and catch a shuttle to the stadium and back.  I detest waiting in lines, so I was pretty sure that I wasn't interested in waiting with heaven only knows how many other people, in the cold, for a shuttle before the game, and especially not after it!  So our initial reaction was the scrap the whole thing and watch the game in our comfy sweats from the warmth of our own living room.

 

Until...

 

The idea hit us that perhaps my Dad's cousin, Dan, might have a parking pass available.  We knew that he had great parking, on macadam, which was like holding a winning lottery ticket for this particular game.  After making a phone call to him, he told us that we were welcome to it.  Mom picked it up for us and brought it to our house the next morning since she was coming to hang out with the girls while we were at the game.  Jason re-packed everything for the tailgate into the Suburban, which was a feat unto itself.  Believe me when I tell you that we could not have fit even so much as one more glove into the back of the Suburban.  Most of our passengers fit into the car with us on Saturday, and Libby and Zig rode over with Steph and met us there.  By a stroke of amazing luck, she also had a pass in the same parking lot.

We had a great time tailgating with friends, and enjoying the company of family.  We were all feeling a bit like stuffed sausages based on the number of layers we were all wearing.  I lost count at 5 on my top of three on my bottom, along with fur lined socks and sub-zero appropriate boots.  We had gloves and hand warmers and hats and everything else you could possibly imagine to brave the cold.

 

We had some very fun neighbors at our tailgate who had quite the set up (including a three pot crock pot that had me drooling for sure...such a cooking nerd).  We had to borrow ketchup and mustard from them for our hot dogs because someone (...me) forgot to pack ours when I packed the cooler.  But they also had something called the "Gin Bucket" that they shared with us...it was a mixture of gin and Sprite that they were drinking from with turkey basters (Saturday after Thanksgiving, so this seemed appropriate...HA!)  We all thought it was pretty funny, and there are rumors that it might make an appearance at the family Christmas party at Stacie and Noah's house. 

When it was game time, we bundled up in a few more layers and headed to our seats.  We all had blankets and definitely needed to use them to stay warm.  Although the game totally stunk...from play #1 when Michigan State returned our kickoff for a touchdown...it was still a great day, and one I will remember for a long time. 

We got home and got unpacked, and it didn't take long for our little Nittany Lion fan to find his spot on the couch, in his warm PSU flannel pants and robe.  And this was what we found only minutes later.

Until next season, PSU!