Christmas Morning,

Got off to an early start at the Richmond Household. Brett got up at about 3:00 to use the bathroom, and I don't think he ever fell back to sleep. I am sure when he got up, he peeked over the ledge to check out if Santa came or not.He then got up at about 5:00 and woke Brady up, I could hear them chatting quietly. I got up to shower at about 5:30 and then Bryan took his turn, and then on to breakfast. We are mean parents and made the boys eat their breakfast and brush their teeth before opening gifts. The bopys took to the task with a bunch of energy, it seemed like they never had Christmas before. Brett got a Nintendo DS, and games to go with it, The Republic Gunship(Star Wars),The Millenium Falcon, a Donald Driver jersey, and some games. Brady got a Nintendo DS, Spongebob lamps for his bedroom, and a Spongebob clock, and a Donal Driver jersey too. Most importantly he got a big old garbage truck that he saw at Wal-Mart. He has been wanting it since Thanksgiving. He slo got some DVD's and clothes. Bryan got some PSP games, clothes, DVD's, and some things for the grill. I got some Snoopy things, Bear things,a crock pot, and some phones, and a 24 inch gold chain that Bryan got a great deal on from Zales. All in all we had a nice Christmas, and everyone was together and happy with all that Santa brought us. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Squadron Kid's Christmas Party.....

Was held yesterday the 20th. We took the boys and they got to see Santa arrive on a snowmobile. He arrives in style up here. We had a fun time, the kids got to make some crafts, they made reindeer out of clothes pins, which turned out really nice. Then we played bingo and each boy was one short of winning each game. Then it was on to the visit from Santa, the boys got fishing stuff for thier tackle boxes. Then we got the winners of the guessing games. They had a few different things to guess the total amount of in containers. Brett won the container of mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I guessed the amounts for him, he was off doing something else. We all had a fun time. They had a lot of good food and it was a nice relaxing time, during the busy Christmas season.

Neighborhood Moose

These might be a little blurry, but it's all that turned out.

One day Brett went to go get the mail, and he was walking out of the garage when he noticed this moose in the neighbor's front yard. I heard a big commontion and next thing you know, Brett comes falling inthe door from the garage and screams,"There is a big moose in Mark's front yard, and the damn thing scared the shit out of me." I asked if he closed the garage door and he said no, so we closed that and he locked the inside garage door thinking that the moose might try and break in or something.Any way the moose hung around the front yards for about 90 minutes. We had fun watching it and next thing you know the baby moose showed up too. It was funny hearing Brett barreling in the house and seeing the look of death on his face. Poor Kid.

Inflatable Spongebob

Ma bought an inflatable Spongebob Santa Claus for the boys, it came today. Brady was happy and sad, he thinks Spongebob will blow away if we put it outside. Bryan set it up in the mudroom for about an hour so they could enjoy it. It looks so cute. Brady wants it set up in the house year round, but we dont' have the room for it. Hope he doesn't get an idea for it to be set up in his room after his tree is down.

Brett's Concert

Brett had his concert today, his was the last one of the concerts. They all did good. Brett actually sang along. It was kind of neat to hear kids that actually could sing, compared to the kindergartens that kind of scream and are out of tune. The sang about 5 songs, again they were wintery/snowy type songs. It was so nice to hear those kinds of songs for a change.

Brady's Concert

Brady had his first Christmas Concert today. He walked his class in because he was on the end in the top tier. We sat in the front row to get good pictures.Brady spotted us and and tried not to look at us allot, because he would turn red. The sang some really nice winter/snowy type songs this year. We have a new music teacher and she wanted to do some fun songs. In the group picture, it includes the class that I supervise for lunch and the other early morning kindergarten class. They all did a good job.

St. Nick......

Payed us a visit Friday night. The boys woke up early to find their stocking filled with a few itmes. Brady got SpongeBob cards, a bag of M&M's, and a pen. He likes to practice writing words. Brett got Star Wars cards, M&M's, and mechanical pen and lead.Bryan got a PSP game and I got Snoopy Uno Cards, and a Bear figurine. Now they can't wait until Santa comes!

Brady's New Blankie

Brady finally got his new blankie from Ma this week. We saw the material in the summer and I thought he forgot about it. He mentioned it a few weeks ago and I told Ma about it and she said it was coming. He was very excited to finally get it.Thanks, Ma.

Sugar Cookies

I was in the baking mood yesterday, so I made some sugar cookies, with a little help from Nestle. I wanted to do something fun, so I picked out some cutters and went to town. The boys were excited about being able to decorate.So we used some gel frosting to decorate, I will buy some frosting later today to decorate the other ones that didn't get decorated. Brett was afraid that we weren't going to have any cookies for Santa, I told him not to worry that I plan on making a bunch more.We have 5 days off before Santa comes, so we will have plenty of time to make lots of sugary treats for Santa.

Winter In Ice 2008-North Pole, Alaska

We took the boys to the Ice Park in North Pole, AK. It is located by The Santa Claus House. This is the second year they had the Winter in Ice, ice sculptures there. It is a much smaller version of the World Ice Sculpting Championship that is held in Fairbanks in Feb. and March. We took the boys last night, before it got too cold out to enjoy it. They had some really cool sculptures and 4 or 5 slides made out of ice. The boys had a ball going down the slides. They had one that looked like a louge. It was so big andfast. Bryan went out with the boys and had a great time. The only thing that sucked about it was you had to wait for people to get done with the sleds that you used for the slide.

Wish Bone

We had a great Thanksgiving. Bryan made a turkey and all the fixings that go along with it, dinner was great! Brett looks forward to finding the wishbone and making a wish, this year was no exception. He couldnt' wait for Friday to roll around when the wish bone would be dry enough for him to pull it apart. Normally Bryan and Brett do the traditional breakage, but this year we let Brady take Bryan's spot. Each one grab a side and let it rip, only to have some pieces break off and each having an equal portion fo the bone. They both got to make a wish and all is good until next year.

Nativity

I finally found the other half of the Jeff Fleming Bearfoot Bears Nativity. I had the one set with the animlas and wise men, and needed to find the Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus one, I finally got lucky last weekend and found it at the Santa Claus House in North Pole. I was so happy to finally get it, and couldn't wait to put it all together.

New Dishes

These are the new dishes that I ordered from Kohl's. I am addicted to that web site! I was surprised when I opened the box and took out the dinner plates, they are HUGE!!! I had to redo my kitchen cabinets so that I could fit the plates in with the door closed. I ordered another set but they got damaged in transit, so I am waiting for Kohl's to switch them out or credit my account. The dishes go with my placemats that I ordered from there too. I love shopping online at Kohl's during the Holidays!

The Richmond Family Christmas Tree

We put up our tree this past weekend, seeing that the Packers weren't playing. Not that it mattered much, seeing that they lost. Any way, last year we had it in the dinning room and weren't thrilled with it in there. We moved a few things out from the corner and put the tree there. It looks so nice there, and it's nice ot have the tree in a room we spend a lot of time in. I decorated it with all glass balls this year. It turned out really nice. I always wanted a tree with all balls on, so I got my wish this year.