Dear Santa...

Dear Santa, just me, Kinley. First of all, I just want to say thank you for listening to my complaints over the last few years. The helper you sent to our local mall was a gazillion times better, in fact, I told my mom I was pretty sure it was really you. I thought it was super funny when you told me you were going to need another sleigh to bring everything on my list. I hope I didn't talk your ear off, my mom told me I was talking to you for a really long time. I wrote you a letter a few days ago just to remind you what I really want. I really want you to come to my town and bring me a Little Einstein computer. I told my mom that your favorite treats are hot chocolate cookies and orange juice. She looked kind of funny but said she'd try to make those. Anyway, I had a great time visiting you and I hope you have safe travels.

Your friend,

Kinley

Christmas preparations

We've been very busy getting everything ready for Christmas. I did my usual pathetic attempt at decorating (trust me, Martha would have a heart attack). I'm finding that Christmas through the eyes of a 3 year old is much more magical than my rusty old eyes. Kinley, of course, beyond excited for Christmas to come. Unfortunately she is not quite understanding everything, she is under the impression that we each have our own Santa Clause and hers happens to live at the North Pole.

In an effort to embrace my inner Martha (assuming I have one) I decided to attempt a recipe for homemade marshmallows. I must say that even with my lack of culinary skills they turned out really well. Of course they could be cut into perfectly little cubes like the picture in the magazine, but I'm still rather impressed with myself. Kinley had an absolute blast dipping them all in the sprinkles. Around 4 o'clock she was totally bouncing off the walls, so I guess next year I will step up my sprinkle consumption monitoring. I think this might be our new holiday tradition.


If anyone is interested in having their own children on a sugar high, let me know and I'll send the recipe right along.

Opposites do attract

We did a little babysitting this morning, well, it's not really babysitting when you have your kid's best friend come over to entertain her. I realized while Kinley and Reese were playing today that they really are complete opposites. Thank heavens for Reese, I think she helps calm Kinley down and she definitely helps her be a bit more girly. The girls wanted to play dress up. Of course Reese went straight for Snow White and Kinley went straight for "Spiderman Girl". In an effort to glam it up a bit, Reese suggested that Kinley add some jewelry. Kinley then spent a good 10 minutes trying to convince Reese that princesses fight bad guys, Reese felt like they probably didn't do that, and then she patiently watched Kinley fight off the bad guys that were coming for the princess. Oh well, they had a great time together, they usually do. I think we all need a friend who is willing to watch you fight off pretend villains while wearing a dozen necklaces and never once calls you cuckoo.

Quote of the Week Part 2

This week we have Rich to thank for our Quote of the Week. Rich has expressed several times lately his hatred of glitter. Today I asked him to put our star on top of the tree, unfortunately the star was also glittered. So he starts in again with his animosity towards all things glittered. This leads us to our quote.

Rich: Look at all this glitter. Glitter on my hands, glitter on the couch. I'm going to invent a non-transferable glitter.

Me: I'm so sorry, I had no idea you hated glitter so much.

Rich: It's not your fault. It's Christmas' fault.

So thank you Christmas, you're ruining our lives. You and your stupid glitter. Merry freaking Christmas.

Quote of the Week

This week's Quote of the Week comes courtesy of Kinley, just a tiny excerpt from dinner last night. "I really like this dinner but it sure doesn't taste good."

The runner-up quote also goes to Kinley. While driving past Albertson's on our way to Target, Kinley asked if we were going in that store. I told her no and that we were going to Target. She said, "oh, is that store only for old people that don't have kids?"

Halloween party and Halloween night

This year we were invited to an awesome Halloween party at a local celebrities home (right Kandis?). Okay, so they are our friends and neighbors too. The party was a blast and I'm pretty sure it was the first Halloween party we've ever been too. I was even able to convince Rich to dress up, which he hates, but he looked wonderful. He went as road kill and I was dressed as partly cloudy with a chance of rain.

Here is the famous hostess and her hubby. Aren't those the best 80's costumes ever??? His jacket literally says "members only". So awesome.

The spooky food and treats.

Then on to Halloween night. We went to the neighborhood's trunk or treat and had a great time. After every car Kinley would say, "that was so fun, I'm having a blast." It was pretty cute. The highlight of the night for her was handing out Halloween candy. Whenever the doorbell would ring she would come running yelling, "there's some more treatsters." Then she would give them a gigantic handful of candy.

Here is Kinley as Snow White with her friends Logan the vampire and Landen the dinosaur.

Carving pumpkins

Pumpkin carving at our house always ends up the same way. I have to gut the pumpkin while Rich does something actually entertaining. Kinley complains the whole time because the guts are gross and scary. Then Rich and Kinley carve the pumpkin. This year Kinley surprised me and actually picked out two seeds all on her own.

Apparently pumpking carving just wears Milo right out. He slept like this the entire time.

Rich and Kinley chose to do a cute little spider pumpkin. I think it turned out pretty well.