Christmas Celebrations

Our Christmas celebrations have now officially ended. The much needed rest and clean-up will begin soon! It has been a crazy time full of family frenzy! We have been to the airport twice, back and forth to Ridgecrest twice, and had a quick trip to Carlsbad. It was worth it because of all the great family time we had! My pictures with Rob's family blurred a bit, but next weekend we will have them over for his mom's bday and I will get some pics then.

The first picture is of the girls on Christmas morning!

The 2nd pic is my mom, brother with his son George, my sister, me, Rob and the girls.

3rd picture: My dad and all of us! My stepmom had already pooped out!

And last..... but not least are my Christmas toys! Boy was I surprised to get a Gypsy from Rob and a Kindle from my dad and stepmom!

Traditions...more crafty kids

I have been saving Christmas cards for about 15 years! I have been planning on a craft (place mats) for that long and needed enough cards to make it. It seems that 15 years of Christmas cards would be plenty...but I like to use cards and not the picture cards. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE picture cards! But they are not the best for the craft. I started making these with my grandma Jo when I was very young. She got enough cards every year that we could make the place mats every other year. They are soooo simple! Kids do need some cutting skills, though! So here is what you do: You take Christmas cards and you use a cup or something round to trace circles on the cards. I try and get the girls to get the main pictures and then we also look for phrases to trace. You trace the same size circles for all of them. Then you have to cut all of the circles out. The circles get arranged on colored contact paper (green or red) into a rectangle type shape and then they are layered so that the cards cover the area that you want. Then place clear contact paper over what you have made and then trim around the edges. We only had frosted contact paper for ours, but the girls say it looks cool!

Our pictures show a little of the process and our final products. To make them extra special, we cut out some circles that included our relatives signatures! In one picture you can see my Grandma Jo's signature! I am sure glad that she taught me about crafts and I have these ideas to share with my girls. She would have loved to be a part of this time with us!

Christmas Baking

Last weekend we made Christmas goodies for gifts. The girls and I baked and cooked all day. We made chocolate covered pretzels that were then covered in crushed peppermint. We also made reindeer cookies from gingerbread dough. I finished with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Savannah is getting good at following recipes. I let her try and bake some cookies all on her own a couple of weeks ago and she had a little problem with tablespoons vs. teaspoons. This mishap included 3 TABLESPOONS of salt instead of teaspoons! She quickly learned the difference and is very careful now! I also found out it is easier for Syd to reach if I put a plastic tablecloth on the floor and then she can decorate and use cookie cutters. I just have to remind her to keep her feet away from the dough!

Happy Baking Season!

Savannah made lunch while we baked!

So it begins…

One of our Christmas celebrations includes a day spent with some great friends. We call these friends the MNF group (Monday Night Football), because we get together during football season for football, food and friendship. They are more than that though! They are some of our closest friends. Today we celebrated the season with brunch, a gift exchange and a day in pajamas! We even went to the park down the street in our pajamas! The kids thought it was great!

The girls…

The presents

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…

We braved the cold weather and the threatening skies in order for the girls to march in a little Christmas parade in Murrieta. It was a little push cart parade and their troop walked the route singing Christmas songs and waving to the crowds. At the end of the parade route, the girls were able to see Santa. Our great friends, the Capone’s, met us for the parade and visit with Santa.

The Berghorns and Capones Visiting with Santa The paradeBefore the parade

Let it Snow!

View from Aunt Diana's house.

Ridgecrest, my hometown, is in the desert and is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Snow falls every couple of years here and it is always an exciting time. While we were visiting for Thanksgiving, snow fell on the Sierras right outside of Ridgecrest and Inyokern in an area called Walker's Pass. Walker's Pass is on the way to Lake Isabella and it is one way to get toBakersfield from Ridgecrest. The snowy mountain views were fabulous and I talked Rob into driving us up to see the snow. He had been complaining about our 80 degree Thanksgiving so this was a great opportunity for him to be in some "weather". We made the short drive and found the snow was melting fast...but the sky was getting very dark again. We climbed around on the snow and took some pictures and then decided we were cold enough to leave. Just as we began to drive away, small flakes began to fall. We stopped to see if it would turn into anything and sure enough a stronger flurry began. The girls had never been in falling snow before! They were very excited. It was a quick little trip that ended up super fun!

I have included a video...WARNING...turn sound down before you watch the video...the radio distorts and makes a horrible sound!

Thanksgiving…

 

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year!  Rob’s family came up from San Diego area and my mom, brother and nephew were also able to make it.  We enjoyed our usual turkey dinner and grandma’s noodles.  The girls had lots of fun with their cousins.  On Friday we made the trek to Ridgecrest and had another turkey dinner at my dad’s house.  We also got to enjoy more time with my brother and nephew.  My dad has 3 new pug puppies and that kept the kids occupied a lot of the time.

Sydney, Savannah and spider George  Cousins on Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving picture!

Tis the Season to Be Crafty!

Stocking by Grandma Jo



Rob says it is the season to eat and watch football....I say it is the season to be crafty! I love to find a holiday craft and start working on it as I watch tv or movies snuggled under a blanket. I have been crocheting, but that has started hurting my wrists, so I took a break. Then I started looking at Christmas gifts and started thinking about my Christmas decorations. Some of my favorite
decorations are stockings that my grandma handmade, each sequin hand stitched and the letters cut out of felt and sewn on. I love these stockings and they are so special to me. I put them up every year and remember the times that I did Christmas baking and crafting with her. I realized that my grandma was never able to make a stocking for my nephew George. I decided to try and see if I could copy her beautiful craft"woman"ship and make his stocking. It was a little scary starting out. I wasn't sure if I would be able to cut anything out of felt and make it look like it was supposed to. I wasn't sure how my wrists would take hand sewing all of the sequins. Well I am excited with how it is working out so far. I decided to try a snow man, poinsettia, and a truck. So far they look great! The sequin sewing is a little tedious, but also surprisingly therapeutic. I actually can't wait until work and the daily grind is over, so that I can begin sewing at night! I haven't told my brother that I am making this and I hope to surprise him with it. George won't understand the meaning behind it yet...but I can't wait until he understands and knows how special it is and he is!

My work, with the snowman, next to grandma's work

Guilty Pleasures!

Okay…here it is…I admit it! I watch soap operas. Well not all, just one! It isn’t my fault, really, it is in my blood. Both of my grandmas watched Days of Our Lives and so did my aunts and mom. I have been following this soap forever. My friend Cathy and I listened to Bo and Hope’s wedding on cassette tape after her dad taped it for us! So I am crazy about this show. NBC had a “Day of Days” event at Universal City Walk today, and my friend Mona and I went to “stalk” (Rob’s word, not mine) the stars of Days.

Doug and Julie Sami and Rafe EJ

The cast….

It’s Slime Time!

The students at my school have been working hard to increase their scores on the state tests.  I am the language arts coach and I get to work with all of the kids and teachers in all grades in this area.!  My partner in crime is Alicia and she works with teachers and students in the area of math and English Language Development.  Our principal made a deal with the students.  He told them that if they made Annual Yearly Progress he would get slimed!  Then he brought us into the act.  We played along and told the students that we didn’t want to get slimed, but we would do it for them!  Well we received our results and the students did it!  They made the progress they needed to and so we had to get slimed.  The pictures are the results of our slime day!  The students loved it and wasn’t so bad for us!  I would do it again in a heartbeat if it helps motivate our kids to work hard!  Yeah Students!      

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time with the Youngs and the McIntyres in our old neighborhood last night. The gets got way too much candy and they only went down two streets! Rob and I got into the spirit and dressed up too! Rob was a nail (yes, I know he is strange) and I was a blind ref! Our girls dresses as a vampire fairy and a witch! It was a great night!

Pumpkin Patch

  Today we made a trip out to the Live Oak Pumpkin Patch.  Our great friends the Young's and the McIntyre's went with us for a terrific trip!  It was a hot day, but the kids had fun picking their pumpkins, riding the ATV ride, getting lost in the corn maze, and shaking hands with a little monkey (oh…that was me :)).