Rebecca – Page 143 – Andelin Adventures

Merry Christmas to me!

Yes I realize I just totally skipped over Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, this year was not the center of my attention at all. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Kyle’s mom’s house, and I brought the pies. But the main thing, that I’ve been focusing on all week is getting ready to go to CALIFORNIA! That’s right we went to California again this weekend. So all week, I’ve been running around the house like crazy, packing clothes, gathering Christmas presents and cards (hey if I’m going down there WHY ship it?), cleaning, and trying to keep the kids from destroying the things I’ve already cleaned…….

Then Thursday evening after having Thanksgiving dinner at Karen’s house (and Kyle had a nap), we hopped in the car and headed for California. The trip down was pretty much uneventful, only stopping for potty breaks, water refills, feeding the baby, gas refills, and switching drivers, and we arrived at my parents house around 5 in the morning (CA time). The kids were really excited and it took a little bit to get them to settle down to pick a sleeping spot.

But the purpose of this post is to announce to the world that Kyle bought me a KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas while we were in California. Costco had one on sale with a coupon over Thanksgiving weekend, and we found a mail-in rebate online, so we researched them a bit and decided to go for it. So Christmas came a bit early for me this year, and hopefully Kyle will let me use it before Christmas too. 😉

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Party

I have never gone to the school to help in my children’s classes before. The school asks that you not bring other kids with you and well, I’ve got several little ones at home with me, so I’ve just never gone to help. But this year I decided that I would sign up to help with the holiday parties, and I would get Kyle to take the days of the parties off from work so that I or even he can go help out in Ethan’s and Tyra’s class parties. So this is the first time I’ve ever gone to help with a school party. 🙂 Tyra was SO excited to have me in her class. She and all the other kids had fun making Indian headbands and they got to color fruits to put into paper bag ‘cornucopias’. Then they got to have a piece of pumpkin pie, and would you know it? My child was the only one in the class that asked for a fork to eat her pie (everyone else just picked it up and ate it).

Christmas Lights

YAY! Kyle got the Christmas lights up on the house.

We had to buy new ones, because our red and green mini lights stayed on the house too long last year and they died, which is a bummer. But we went out and got some nice new lights and they are up. Ethan tried very hard to sneak up onto the roof again this year, but every time I saw him trying I told him to stop. 😉

Look at that face, it says ‘Dang mommy won’t you go away so I can climb up there in peace!’

M&M Duels

This is just something funny that Jonathan printed out and had me read when we were in California last month:

Whenever I get a packet of M&M’s, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the sweet as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two M&M’s between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That one is the loser, and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner continues to the next round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&M’s are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&M’s as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.

Occasionally I will get a mutation, an M&M that is mis-shapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.

When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, a Division of Mars, Inc., along with a 3×5 card reading, “Please use this M&M for breeding purposes.” This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free pound of M&M’s. I consider this grant money. I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament.

From a field of hundreds, we will discover the true champion.

There can only be one.

My Daisy

Tyra is now officially a Daisy Girl Scout! I am SO excited to be getting her into girl scouts, and SHE is even more excited than I am, if that’s even possible. 😉 She went to her first troop meeting yesterday and just LOVED it, she also earned 3 of the petals already!

Tonight we took her to the Girl Scout shop to get her vest and all the parts of the uniform, and Tyra was just beaming. How cute is my Daisy?