Dinner Out and White Elephant

Last Saturday we got together with our friends and had an evening with NO kids! This is very rare for our group. We started with dinner at Kitaro which is a Japanese steakhouse. With the exception of some stains on a shirt from flying, hot food we had a great time. We then headed to our house for a white elephant exchange. I received the world's largest nativity set that has camels that are almost life size. Some other treasured gifts were the Book of Mormon, crocheted Chief's coasters, nutcrackers, Beverly Hillbillies movie, and oh, so many more forgettable things! We then played a rousing game of Catch Phrase where the guys cheated like they always do but I do believe the girls were victorious! It was great to only hear bad 80's music in the background instead of crazy hoards of children like we usually do. We missed the Wheelers who were in Oklahoma visiting family but managed to have a fun time in spite of their absence.

Walter's Christmas Party

Every year my Mom's side of the family gets together for a Christmas party. When I was little this party was always on Christmas Eve but as our family grew and people were getting pulled in lots of different directions we decided to start having the party the weekend before Christmas. This past Friday was our party. My mom is one of 8 children so I have a TON of cousins who now have their own children so needless to say it is quite a gathering.

When I was growing up my Aunt Barb always had the party at her house on Christmas Eve. This was the BEST night of the year. I can vividly recall her tiny house in Maplewood with a ton of people crammed into their basement. I remember ducking my head to get down the steps and having the best night in their unfinished, decorated basement. We always had a pinata and we always danced until late in the night. My cousin Belinda and I would always perform our famous dance to "Greased Lightening"..ha! I remember falling asleep on the way home and getting carried inside and waking up to Christmas morning. I also remember the first Christmas that Aaron and I were dating and each family was asked to put together a skit or dance. Aaron did a lip sync/dance to Elvis' Heartbreak Hotel. My Grandma, a huge Elvis fan, wanted me to marry him right on the spot! It was hilarious. What great memories!

We took a picture of my aunts and uncles this year and named it "The 7 Dwarfs" since my tallest uncle is about 5'8. The 8th dwarf, my Aunt Nancy lives in Texas so she wasn't able to make it in this year but she is short too! When I started dating Aaron he looked like a giant!

I am so grateful to have such a close knit family that enjoys getting together and remembering old times. I love them all so much and hope we all have many more years of Christmas Parties.

Christmas Torture!

As I sit here tonight I think of all the craziness that the Christmas Season brings. I think of all the decorating, Christmas cards, shopping, baking, school plays, church plays, teacher gifts, party planning, and STRESS! I think of Olivia a few years ago bawling her eyes out because she was petrified of Santa. Why do we do it? I wanted a picture to remember and (I hate to admit that it is one of my favorites) and I vividly recall the chaos surrounding this photo. Aaron and I were frantically trying to get her to stop crying by jumping around like idiots. I am sure we were yelling out some bribes also...new Barbies, ice cream, etc.

I also think of Olivia two nights ago at her school Christmas program. She had a speaking part where she was supposed to say a memorized verse all by herself. As the microphone was being passed down the row I could see her starting to panic. Her face was turning red and she was starting to mouth the words to herself...desperately trying to remember her line. When the microphone was almost to her she looked at me and mouthed "I don't know it." I wanted to run up on that stage and scoop her up to save her from her intense fear and embarrasment. But instead I hid behind the video camera praying that she would remember. She stumbled a tiny bit but quickly recovered. I was so proud. But later I thought, why do we do it? Sure it was cute but the stress was intense.

I think of the crazy mornings getting ready for school when the stress level is peaking, and not because the girls are any different it is just me thinking of the 100's of things I am supposed to get done that day and wondering how am I going to do it? Why?

The Christmas Season is about the birth of Jesus who was sent to save us! How great is that? Why does this amazing message of love get lost in all of the chaos? The gift of Jesus is the greatest gift we could ever imagine receiving so why does it get pushed aside? I am vowing that next year ( this year I am too late!) I am going to try very hard to reduce the stress of the holidays and keep the message of Jesus as my main focus. I can't imagine the sadness He feels when He sees us rushing around with our traditions and gift buying that mean absolutely nothing that is relevant to His birth. Imagine that it is your birthday and you invite people over for a party. How would you like it if your guests didn't even show up because they were too busy running errands and doing other "important" things. I am sure this is how Jesus feels.

So next year Christmas Cards will be from Costco and not to 175 people, gifts will not be wrapped like a fancy department store, teachers are getting gift cards, we will not host 18 parties and we will start new traditions that focus more on the birth of Jesus!!

I am asking that someone reminds me next November of this posting. I will bet it will either be my husband or my mother!

PS Off to a party...

Journey to Bethlehem....actually Journey to a LONG LINE that leads back to the car!

Last Sunday to conclude our crazy, busy weekend we had dinner at our house (unfortunately our oven broke during the cooking for 30 people and so our baked mostaccioli turned into microwaved mostaccioli) and then headed out with a group of our friends (and lots of little ones) to see the Journey to Bethlehem. I have never been to it but have heard from many people that it is very well done and a great family tradition to start. They simulate the actual steps that Mary and Joseph took on their way to Bethlehem and the birth of Baby Jesus. They have actual animals and people in very impressive costumes. And so we started in a very busy parking lot in which we needed to take a bus to the actual location of the event. The little ones were very excited since some of them (Olivia included) had never been on a school bus. As we pulled into the parking lot we saw a VERY long line but to make it exciting there were some animals along the path that kept the attention of the kids. And so the anticipation was building, we were getting closer and closer to the actual event. We entered a building and after another line we were seated for a short play. As we were watching the play Jordan leaned over to me and said "I think it is raining". I quickly said "Oh, no that isn't rain because the rain isn't supposed to start until midnight." Ha! After sitting through the play for another entire performance ( I felt like I was in the movie Groundhog Day!) an usher told us that it was in fact raining and that they had spotted lightening. The plan was to keep us in the building until it was safe to go outside. Well, that never happened! We finally decided to throw in the towel and head back to the buses. When we stepped outside the temperature had dropped about 30 degrees! The kids were pretty disappointed but handled the change in plans pretty well. I vote we try it again next year but I might be in the minority!! As Aaron said, "It is fun doing life with you anyway." I can't think of a different group of people that I would want to wait in line with for 2 hours than you guys!

Whew...CRAZY WEEKEND!!

When the Christmas Season began it seemed like everything was scheduled between the 11th and the 14th...6 parties!! I knew this past weekend would be busy but I really was not prepared for the absolute craziness. So, as I sit her this morning I am thankful that my kids had a snow day today and that I am still in my jammies! Here is a recap of the weekend:

Thursday night we had a Christmas party for one of Aaron's clients. This isn't any Christmas party because the entertainment is not typical...this year we were entertained by Puddle of Mud and then LL Cool J. How cool is that? But unfortunatly the LLCool J songs made me thing I was back in high school and I started acting like a high school girl (that was never good) and the next morning I was kicking myself! Luckily my mother let the girls spend the night so Aaron and I rolled out of bed pretty late and had a delicious hangover breakfast at Bob Evans..yum!

Friday night we had dinner at Tony's for my parents anniversary. It was fun just hanging with the family enjoying those delicious steaks. Afterwards I went to my friend Shelley's house for a "Hens Wrapping Extravaganza" party. We wrapped presents until about 1am which was very fun and productive!

Saturday was a fiesta dinner party with many of my grade school and high school friends. About two hours before the party as I was frantically cleaning my distastrous house one of our Christmas trees ( our real tree in the hearth room with all of our precious handmade ornaments made by the girls!) came crashing to the ground. So amid the huge puddle of water, tree limbs and broken glass I found my most treasured ornament of the twins shattered on the ground. I was sick! This is a handpainted ornament of the twins on their 1st birthday. Impossible to replace! But I knew that our guests would soon be arriving and my house was in shambles so I quickly re-decorated the tree. Trust me, it isn't as much fun the second time! But all in all we had a great night and had fun visiting and catching up (till 1am!) The girls were even able to catch up with "Bob". He quickly reminded all of us about picking us up from volleyball practice in high school and how bad we smelled! He would always roll down all of the windows and try to freeze us all to death!

I love these girls so much and wish that we all lived closer. Between us we have 12 girls and 6 boys so needless to say life is crazy right now!

Sunday we had the Killion Christmas party and then our friends came over for dinner. We had a field trip planned to go see the Journey to Bethlehem. But this evening will require its very own blog entry since it was so eventful...stay tuned!!

Tis' The Season...

Well, the holidays have hit the Crowell Household with a vengeance...all of a sudden it is "go time". Time to decorate trees, bake cookies, Christmas lists, Christmas cards, shopping, wrapping, school programs, gingerbread houses, and many, many parties. Saturday we participated in our annual gingerbread house making contest with our neighbors from our old house. Last year the Crowells were the winners so we were hoping for repeat this year. But oh, it wasn't so. We actually won the Charlie Brown award which is given to the WORST house. And in all honesty, WE even voted for ourselves. Ha! Oh, well it was fun. This year our theme was a mall. Aaron quickly named our mall "The Mall of Shanty Town!" because it looked so bad. As you can see, it was awful. Congrats to The Catchings for their "Christmas in July" theme. Watch out next year, we will be back with a sure winner. We already have blueprints drawn up!

After losing this contest we quickly rushed home to meet some of our friends (some guests were already at our house...we really need to change our garage door code!) for the MU/OU football game which made us losers AGAIN! This loss hurt more than the gingerbread contest though. Ouch!

Our last party of the weekend was our annual tree decorating party with just Aaron and I and the girlies. We always get our tree from Manninos, eat turkey, ham, cheese and crackers, Fitz's root beer and attempt to decorate the tree. This usually turns into a "dance party" as the girls like to call it and very little tree decoarting! As you can see this is exactly what happened this year but we also added a wrestling match at the end. Their poor husbands someday are going to be shocked at our family traditions because they are WILD!! I pity the man that comes from a small, quiet family because he won't stand a chance. I pray for them daily!!

Dinner with the HENS!!

Last night I had dinner with my girlfriends, or as our husbands affectionately refer to us... "The Hens". It is amazing how therapeutic it is to just laugh with your friends. We talked about everything from career changes to fights with nuns. And "no", to all the husbands...we didn't talk about you once! We have all been friends for years but are suddenly becoming very close. I am so happy to have these women in my life and I thank God for each and every one of them. These girls are "real", loving, honest, funny, and selfless. I can't wait to see where our friendships lead because we already have some pretty great memories!

FRIENDS!

Last night we had a "leftover" party. A bunch of our friends brought over their Thanksgiving leftovers and we had dinner together. It was so much fun just sitting around the table and being together. Aaron and I are so blessed to have these special people in our lives and we treasure each one of them and their amazing friendship. We all "do life" with each other and in many ways have become family. We celebrate birthdays and holidays, help decorate each others houses, go to church together, play poker together and even do service work with each other. We root for each other's teams even when we don't want to and sit through many football games on pins and needles! We babysit each other's kids and even bring them home when early morning "throwing up" occurs. We take part in career counseling as well as marriage counseling at times. From moving days and hospital trips to organizing pantries and tough love when we need a little push, we are always there for each other. Always! I love every one of them!

Having true friends that you can live life together with is such a blessing.

Friends are the family that you get to choose!

Waking up to SNOW!!

This morning we woke up to some beautiful SNOW!! We only got about an inch but it still made everything look so pretty. We even found deer tracks in our front yard. Olivia was biting at the bit to get outside and play even though there really wasn't that much snow to do much, but that didn't stop her. She suited up and headed out with her beloved dog Sonny. I think it took her more time getting ready than the actual amount of time she spent outside!

I am thankful...

This Thanksgiving was one that I will remember for a very long time. We celebrated for the first time in our new home and welcomed quite a crowd of around 25 people. We had guests ranging from a few months old all the way to 90. This year as I was preparing our Thanksgiving table I began to get a little sentimental and decided to let all of my family know how special they were to me. I made placecards out of leaves and on the back of each of them I wrote a personal note letting each of them know why I was thankful for them. We all gathered in the family room prior to our dinner and each person read them aloud. Needless to say there were many laughs but also many tears. I am so thankful that our day was so special. I am thankful that my family and Aaron's family can all celebrate together. I am thankful that Aaron's grandma "G.G." was able to come. I am thankful that Jeff and Jen and the boys were able to travel from Chicago and that we were all able to meet Baby Lucas. I am thankful that my mother-in-law did most of the cooking and I just wore the cute apron! I am thankful that God has blessed my family beyond measure and that we all have such a strong love for each other. I am thankful that Thanksgiving 2008 was such a success!!

Christmas of 2002

I have been digging through boxes in the basement this morning starting the process of decorating for Christmas. I know that Thanksgiving is Thursday but I just can't control myself. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I came across this picture and it made my heart flutter. My babies are getting so big I can't even believe it. I love Rachel and Madison in this picture. They loved the fur trim on their shirts and wore them everyday! Jordan looked sassy in her leather black pants (ok, they were pleather!) and Olivia is checking Santa OUT! I have many pictures that year of Livi screaming when she saw Santa. How times change. Last week, on an impromptu trip to the mall Livi hopped up on Santa's lap and rattled off her list in 5 seconds flat...not scared anymore!

My First Cover!

I did a photo shoot a few months ago for several stories in a St. John's Mercy publication and the magazine is out and I have the cover shot! Yeah! I love how the magazine turned out and just remember how much FUN I had taking all of the shots. I took all of the pictures in the magazine with the exception of one. I took pics of everything from fire departments (and a big fire truck) to a little boy, his family and the Director of Pediatrics who had a remarkable story to tell. I love incorporating my nursing degree and my love of photography. I am so blessed to have this opportunity. Thank you Shelley Powell for trusting me!

Missing My Friend

Well, I am back from Houston and I am missing my friend. We spent 3 great days together full of shopping, eating, laughing, driving, acting silly, watching our favorite shows, trying on wigs, just being girls! This picture is of our tearful goodbye at the airport...not fun! Isn't it ironic that you miss someone more after you have spent time together? That is how I feel today. But they will be back for New Years and our whole family is counting the days. My girls LOVE her boys and vice versa so we should have some rowdy nights with the Rays. I can't wait. While in Houston, I kept saying "I can't believe you live here." It is just so weird that she isn't in St. Louis anymore and I can't call her and have a "spur of the moment" lunch or shopping trip. Things change in life but true friendships will stand the test of time (and distance). I still talk to her every single day and thank God that He has chosen our paths to cross in this crazy life. She is like the older sister I never had! Much older! (Just kidding Shannon) Thank you so much for everything and I love you! Check out her blog since she took all of the pictures. http://www.raisingtherayboys.blogspot.com/

PS I also got the added bonus of hanging out with Evelyn one day. She is my friend that moved from St. Louis years ago and I haven't seen her in a long time. I love her family so much!!

Houston Here I Come...

Tomorrow morning I am flying to Houston to visit my dear friends the Rays. Chuck, Shannon, Phillip and Peyton moved from St. Louis to Houston this summer and I miss them sooooo much. Shannon was the friend I shopped with, ate lunch with and talked to on the phone 50 times a day (well, we still do that!). And so, I am heading South hopefully to warmer weather since St. Louis is terribly cold right now. I am so looking forward to shopping, eating and just catching up. Aaron will be holding down the fort until Tuesday night. May the force be with him...ha!

Musophobia

Most people have fears or even phobias to certain things...heights, snakes, the dark, etc. My phobia is of MICE! I am terrified of mice. I know, people think they are furry, cute little creatures but I am deathly afraid of them. And so tonight I happened to go out to the garage and noticed that Rachel had left the door open to the fridge. I bent down to close one of the drawer doors that she left open so that the big door would close and as I am reaching down a MOUSE literally jumped across my face!! I screamed so loud I am surprised that a neighbor didn't call the police. A MOUSE WAS IN THE REFRIGERATOR!!! I ran towards the closed garage doors and just froze for what seemed like an eternity but then I realized that the door was open to get into the house and I knew I had to protect my children inside. The mouse was between me and the girls. And so I ran so fast the mouse probably couldn't even see the bolt of lightening striking through the garage. You would have thought I was being chased by an axe murderer. I made it inside and quickly called the girls. And after scolding my dear Rachel for leaving the door open I told them to stay inside that the mouse was still in the garage. I soon realized that Jordan and Livi are NOT scared of mice when I caught them laying on the ground in the garage looking for the mouse. Livi was saying " Come here little mouse. We love mouses. We don't want to eat you." They are much braver than their Mommy.