TTMT

Today's "Talk to me Tuesday" courtesy of Heidi...  


What are you looking forward to this Christmas season?


Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time so I look forward to a great many things!  I love spending time with family, seeing the wonder and excitement on Austin and Carter's faces,  and the traditions that we have on each side of the family.  It's so fun listening to my kids talking about traditions and the things they look forward to.

Traditions with Grandma Ween: the boys get to make a gingerbread house with her (this year they are opting to make a train), finding a pickle ornament on her tree, and Grandma reading aloud "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and passing a gift every time she reads the word "the" in the story (the last person with the gift in hand gets it), and making fudgens at the end of our day together

Traditions with Papa and Grandma Di: celebrating on Christmas Eve and attending candlelight service (the boys love lighting the candles and singing Silent Night), getting to open gifts BEFORE church (I NEVER got to do this growing up - Santa always came while we were at church!), only one person opens a gift at a time so that everyone gets to see what everyone else gets (thankfully the kids are fairly patient!)

Traditions at home: Carter LOVES helping put up the Christmas tree and winter decorations while listening to Christmas music, baking, baking and more baking (the boys love having their hands in this - especially Carter), participating in the church Christmas program, leaving cookies out for Santa BEFORE we leave for the cabin on Christmas Eve, waking up in their own home Christmas morning to their Santa gifts and stockings along with everything else under the tree, the neighbors showing up mid-morning on Christmas Day to check out what the kids got and bring them a gift (they spoil my kids rotten!), hanging in jammies all day on Christmas listening to Christmas music and just spending time as a family

Of course I'd be crazy not to mention looking forward to the time off from work to enjoy time with my kids and sleeping in~even though I just got a jury duty notice for December 21 :(  Aaron seems to think this is quite hilarious!  Me, not so much.

I'd love to know what the rest of you are looking forward to this Christmas season!

Abundant Blessings

Today was a joyous day spent with a variety of family members.  We were so blessed to be able to spend the day with my grandparents, my parents, Aaron's mom and husband, my brother and his family, and my sister-in-law's brother and family.  What a great day to have everyone under the same roof spending some quality time together!

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving...besides the food of course...is the tablecloth tradition that I started back in 2004. I didn't realize that it had been that many years ago.  Everyone who is with us on Thanksgiving writes on the tablecloth with a fabric marker what they are thankful for that year.  It's so much fun to look back at each person's memories from years past.  All of the kids like getting in on the action too!  Drake's taking his turn here and telling how he is thankful for his new house.  I just love looking at what they kids put down each year without any prompting from the parents.  

Sometimes my hubby is a little too honest in what he's thankful for...

It really is a story for another time!

There are simply so many things I am thankful for...

a loving God, an amazing family - (parents, grandparents and in-laws), great friends, a terrific support system at home and school, two sweet and loving boys, a patient husband, a full-time job, a niece and three nephews that I adore, two sisters-in-law that I love, a brother and brother-in-law that are pretty darn amazing, a comfortable home, two funny kitties, and my new digital slr camera :) - yeah, that's part of the above story that we're saving for another time!

Here's a few more pictures from today taken with my new toy!

Ween and Doug looking good as always.

Carter and great-grandma Janet sporting some grins.  Yes, Carter's wearing a bow-tie.  It's another story in and of itself.  Just be thankful that for once he wasn't wearing slicks and a t-shirt!

Kasie and Braden hanging out by the fireplace.

Hey~Tim's half smiling at me!

I hope all your Thanksgiving memories are good ones! 

Winner! Winner!

As my boys like to say, "Winner!  Winner!  Chicken dinner!"  Well...when I walked in the door from school today, I was greeted by yips and shouts of excitement followed by this grin...

Mr. Carter was over-the-top excited as he was elected as a student council rep for his class :)  It will definitely be a celebratory night at the Clayberg household!  I'm guessing ice cream (his absolute favorite) will be in order!

Way to go Cart!

Did you notice?

What did you spy with your little eye that was out of place?  Was it the fuzzy caterpillar crawling across my husband's lip?  I can't wait until December 1 when that caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly that flys away...far, far away!

However, the caterpillar across my hubby's lip is for a good cause, so I'll deal with it for a month.  How many of you know it's actually Movember?  Movember is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year to raise funds and awareness for men's health.  Since I'm living in a household of males, I can see the value in this.  An entire little posse of men at Aaron's work are participating in this charity event.  The had to start cleanly shaven on November 1st and let the "stache" sprout from there!

Feel free to check out Aaron's weekly progress here.  If you so desire, you can make a donation in support of men's health in Aaron's name.

I Spy...

I spy with my little eye something "off" in this family picture.  Can you locate it?

Talk To Me Tuesday

After being tagged by Heidi a week or so ago, she decided to start up Talk To Me Tuesday.   Her question for this Tuesday is,  If you could relive one day of your life, what would it be and why?  

(Of course she added- it can't be your wedding day or any other obvious major milestone.)

Right now I would have to say I would LOVE to relive a vacation day from a couple years ago while Aaron and I were in Cancun with some friends.  (I could use a vacation right about now - too much going on at work and feeling a bit under the weather today!) We headed to Isla Mujeres for a day as we were told it was a fun little excursion day and you could rent golf carts to tour the island and have loads of fun.

Do this look like a golf cart?

Apparently when no one in your group remembers to bring an ID with them, they won't rent you golf carts.  However, Joaquin will take you to the back alley to rent some scooters :)  Oh my!  This was definitely a day to remember!  Great friends, lots of laughs, authentic Mexican food, not a care in the world, Stu trying on a silly mask that made us nearly wet our pants, the men feeling like they were something pretty special on their own personal "hogs", the wind blowing through whatever hair dangled down from the rockin' helmets, a massage under the palm trees on the beach...it just doesn't get much better than that!