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!