A Merry Christmas Indeed!

Christmas Eve was festive. We took a long nap and then started a Where's Waldo puzzle while watching A Christmas Story. Puzzles are addicting. Especially Where's Waldo ones. 

Exhibit A: Kelly not able to leave the puzzle long enough to eat his baked potato.

We went to bed around 1am but couldn't sleep. I felt like a kid - Santa was coming...how could I sleep!? (Also Kelly kept trying to push me off the bed.) Kelly had the same giddy excitement so he left to do some of the puzzle. He did not come back until 5am...when the puzzle was 99% done! There went our Christmas day activity.

We finished it pretty quickly after we had Christmas extravaganza time. 

Now, onto Christmas morning. The magical time when gifts were exchanged. 

Let's take a look at the winnin's.

In this picture, I'm sporting a cute hat Mom sent me and the pinball I found wrapped in a Lindor truffle wrapper in my stocking. 

How the present went down: "Cool a truffle...hey this is heavy...A PINBALL!!" 

Here we are in the aftermath. Santa got us so much stuff!

(Note the RSL scarves - awesome. Some fancy headphones for Kelly. Lots and lots of candy. My pinball. Some floss from my mom. Some beef jerky...Man, we got it all)

But the real icing on the cake was a present Kelly got me. When I opened it, I knew I had married the right man. A caring, thoughtful, loving man who knows me deep down into my soul. 

I felt like I was on one of those jewelry commercials where the wife's eyes glaze over as she opens the box and she whispers "I love you" or "Merry Christmas, sweetheart" and then some soft music plays. I heard music. The room felt all warm and soft around the edges. My eyes glazed over. My heart grew 3 sizes. I knew Kelly loved me. 

FART SHOES!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world! Here is a video of me showing off my most treasured present. 

 Kelly got some shoes too. But they don't fart....yet.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve Tradition

Since Kelly and I are on our own this year, we have to make up our own traditions. Here is our new Christmas Eve Tradition: Monkey Bread for breakfast!

I took pictures along the way... except for when things went horribly wrong. I forgot to take pictures then. 

First, I got all my dough pieces all cinnamon sugary. Mmmmmm

If I were ever to be lost in a canyon, I would hope it to look like this:

But then Kelly said, "What about the nuts?" I forgot about the nuts!

So, I put the rolls back in the giant ziplock bag and poured in the nuts. As I was shaking the bag - BAM! The zipper was no longer locked and all the cinnamon sugar and nuts and little delightfully sugary rolls were on the floor and the counter. It's not a Natalie Cooking Show without some kind of disaster!

But then, after burning my finger and walking around with sticky, sugar feet and cursing the bundt pan for being too small and making my bread explode over the top, it was finished. And it was quite good. 

It's a tradition! Christmas Eve breakfast!! You only have to do it once and then yell, "TRADITION!" while it's happening for it to become a tradition, right?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I love being full of the holiday spirit! I went to Kelly's parents' house today to make Christmas candies. We made fudge and peanut brittle and baklava! Even though I mostly just stirred things and then was dragged away by my 3 year old nephew who thinks I'm the bees knees, I feel like I can say I made those treats. I'm a candy chef. (In all honesty, I mostly just read books and played with toy cars.)

When I came home, I was even more festive!

Kelly and I don't have stockings this year, since it's the first Christmas on our own. We've been looking around places for stockings, but nothing has grabbed us yet. So, while watching Christmas episodes of Boy Meets World, Home Improvement and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, I came home and made our own! The 90's sure knew how to celebrate Christmas!

And I attempted to know how to make stockings. 

Merry Christmas to us!

Twas The Day Before The Day Before Christmas Break

Today was "Dress like a Who from Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas" day. So, like a good teacher, I did my best to look like a Who without any planning the day before.

 How to Dress Like a Who in Less Than an Hour

by: Natalie Thomson

Step 1: Wake up at 5:30am and decide, in your sleepy state, that you need bangs to look like a Who. Whos ALWAYS have bangs!!

Step 2: Cut your bangs and tell yourself, "You'll look so cute." And then when you don't believe you, tell yourself, "They'll grow back so fast. You can do this. WHOS NEED BANGS!" (and then secretly hope you look like Zoe Deschanel in New Girl).

Step 3: Cut up a plastic cup that you took from the hotel room on your honeymoon and put it in your hair. 

Step 4: Find a shirt with stripes (Whos always wear stripes) and accent it with a bright sweater and a nice jumper. Or, in my case, an apron.

Step 5: Wake up your husband to take a picture of you because when you tried to attach the camera to your mini tripod it kept falling over and the lighting was bad and, were my eyes crossed in that picture?!...It just wasn't working out. (Thanks Kelly!)

Step 6: When you ask your husband how you look, he will respond with, "You look like you're going to work at a diner."

Step 7: Every time you regret cutting your bangs, just remember: You look like Zoe Deschanel. Everyone thinks so.

It was a fun day. I gave my students a test and then made them silently type an essay. So festive!

My favorite moments from today:

Student: (pointing at my hair) Why are all the girls doing their hair like that today?
Me: Because it's Dress-Like-A-Who-From-Whoville day!
Student: Oh....I don't like that place.

Student: You look gorgeous today, Mrs. Thomson!
Me: Gorgeous? Nice word choice! (high five)

Christmas Lunch!

Kelly has been going to work without bringing a lunch recently. He's half hoping the office peeps will say, "Let's all go get sushi!" and he's half telling himself, "I'll just go home on my lunch..." But we all know when it comes lunch time, if you don't have it pre-made, you'll probably go to McDonalds.

So I, the sweet wife, offered to make Kelly's lunch tonight. In my tradition of lunch making, I drew him a picture. His new coworkers have not yet seen my lunch bag designs, so I tried to make it a good one:

I showed Kelly and he buried his face in his hands and said, "I'm going to get beat up."

'Tis the season!

Quick 8th Grade Story

I just sneezed in class and while other kids were saying, "bless you" as loud as they possibly could without sounding rude because they LOVE being able to talk during silent reading time, one boy sang the quick , 2-word theme song: "Kim Possible."

hahahaha

WHAT?!

8th grade rules.

I watched the most recent episode of The Walking Dead with Kelly tonight. Remember me in your prayers that I won't have nightmares.

THANKS!

How You Know You've Found "The One"

Last night Kelly and I were having a hard time deciding what to do. I was up to my usual antics of following Kelly around like a puppy and doing annoying things like climbing in his lap and trying to hug his arms while he typed on his computer, and Kelly was finding internet videos to show me.

Our usual go to when deciding what to do on a Friday night or Saturday night or when we have a day off or any spare moment really, is to go play pinball. Who doesn't love the chase for Wizard Mode and the wacky artwork?

But, we wanted something different last night. Just, something new.

So, Kelly opened up a file he had on his computer called: Things To Do...

First, we had a wheelbarrow race in our apartment.Kelly won because I went first and was laughing too hysterically to move very fast. My arms kept laughing with me and dropping me to the ground.

Next, we had a thumb war. I won and Kelly didn't call for a rematch because I had lost at the wheelbarrow race and he's a nice husband.

Then it was on to playing with matches. I chased his un-lit match around with my flame-filled match until his caught fire. Then we lined a few up in a row and watched those babies burn! (And come on, who didn't used to do this when their parents weren't home? Classic!)

And finally, after our (my) burning desire to build a fort was thwarted by the fact that we didn't have any extra sheets, we decided we needed to make puppets.

So, we drove to Hobby Lobby to buy some foam for the heads and they were closed. (Anticlimactic, sorry.)

So we ended up at the Jordan Landing nickelcade, playing The Twilight Zone and Scared Stiff. Which was magical and really fun, like pinball always is.

So I guess I'm trying to say, you know you've found the one when whatever you do - no matter how mundane or silly - feels like something you should blog about. Kelly makes every day feel like Disneyland. He's my "The One."

Those Telling 8th Grade Conversations...

We all know what's important in middle and high school - the music you listen to! The music you listen to determines who your friends are and who you hang out with. Just admit it. You know it's true.

Case and point:

First day of 8th grade Algebra, I turned around to the girl behind me and asked, "Do you like MxPx?" (or I might have said The Hippos...)

I didn't know this girl. I had no reason to really be friends with her. As far as I knew, all we had in common was Algebra. But, she said yes and we started an instant friendship: Hangin' out, going to the skate park, button making parties, going to the movies, going to shows. Oh, so many shows... and we're still friends to this day. We were roommates for a while in college, I introduced her to her husband (kind of), and we were even in each other's weddings! Who knows, if she would have said, "Who?" instead of her enthusiastic, "Yes!" our lives would have been so much different...

It's fun to now be on the outside of those very funny and very telling "what bands do you like?" conversations. I love walking around class, eaves dropping, in hopes I'll over hear a hilarious 8th grade conversation.

I got a new student yesterday which is prime time for those conversations. You know the first thing kids do is look at what she's wearing. Is it a band shirt? Is she wearing skinny jeans? Any girly accessories? Then, once they've decided if her style matches theirs, they can move in for the kill and ask the very telling questions...

Girl in class: So, what kind of music do you like?

New girl: Metal Core.

Girl in class: Oh, cool what bands?

Metal core?! My response would not have been, "Oh, cool what bands?" It would have been more like: "What?! Hahahahahahaha. That sounds hilarious and possibly awesome. Are the songs just all screaming about wrestling?...Do you have a lot of angst?"

So, I guess they're meant to be friends. They both like...metal core.

8th Grade Mysteries

Today during group work, one boy yelled at another, "You stupid whale digestive system!"

Did I miss something?

I'm grading papers right now.

On this paper, instead of writing his/her name this student wrote "D is for Dad."

I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean...

Dancing

I used to dance like this:

I think I'm going to change my style...

Brave Little Lunch

Out of all cartoon characters, I try the hardest to be like good ol' toastie. I think I give off more of an annoying radio vibe though.

This guy knows what I'm talking about...

Candy Rabies

I have a problem. A problem called I-want-to-eat-candy-all-the-time-even-in-my-sleep. And we just so happen to have a whole cupboard full of candy right now. FULL. I'm talkin' baby Butterfingers, mini M&Ms, regular M&Ms with peanuts in them, gummy worms: the works. The delicious works. So today, after driving home and foaming at the mouth because I couldn't wait to get home and EAT 12 BUTTERFINGERS, I decided I needed to do something about this problem.

I came home and instantly forgot that I wanted to do something about it and ate a handful of gummy worms. But THEN, after I was full, I told Kelly we needed to do something about this problem. So I picked up a popcorn bucket and shoved all the candy inside, handed it to Kelly, and locked myself in the bathroom. He's hidden candy from me before - he's a good hider.

I come out when the coast is clear and, of course, instantly start searching for the candy. It's not on the water heater, not in the DVD box, and not by the potatoes - so it was out of sight. PHEW.

Problem solved.

Until I go to pack my lunch and see THIS:

Thanks a lot, Kelly.

Short Stories

I have to read 200 short stories this week. Some of them are pretty good.

Here are 2 of my favorite excerpts so far:

"Well it all started around the year of World War 3. We fought that war for 20 years against Jamaica."

"He took the bat and took a swing at my head! I started to run. He started to run after me and he was fast!....I had a plan to turn around when he got close and punch him in the face. It worked."

Oh, 8th graders. You are so funny.

Telephone Pictionary: Halloween Edition

Kelly and I threw a Halloween Party tonight. It was a lot of fun. (I'll tell you about it later...) But at the party we played Telephone Pictionary.

Here's how it works:

You start out writing a sentence. You pass the sentence to the next person, and they attempt to draw what you have written. The drawing then gets passed, and the next person writes a sentence for the picture. You continue passing paper around, alternating picture/words until you get your original phrase back. The results are usually hilarious.

If you've ever played Telephone Pictionary, then you know how fun it is. If you haven't, BEHOLD the spoils from last night:

Beginning: Star Wars Characters wearing snuggies

Ending: Star Wars cast under a full moon

Beginning: A vampire disguised as a clown trick or treating amongst children, suspiciously.

Ending: Superman holding up an old man for candy, and the old man has a cat mat.

Beginning: A warewolf peeing on a tree

Ending: A warewolf, very surprised, started peeing on a tree in the moonlight

Beginning: A dancing skeleton

Ending: Something about a boombox and a skeleton dance party.

Beginning: Stay Puff Marshmallow man eating a Ghost Buster.

Ending: The Michilin Man throwing people on the statue of liberty.

Beginning: Warewolf making a pot of chili and a salad.

Ending: A cat boiling something.

Beginning: Frankenstein is a cross dresser.

Ending: A nurse tightens Frankenstein's neck bolts.