Christmas . .

Whoa, it's been a LONG time since I updated this. And I have no idea how that much time went by so quickly. During the last half of December, we were consumed with Christmas programs, parties and preparations, and then after Christmas, the massive clean-up and recovery. :) It really struck us this year the amount of time (WEEKS) and effort goes into the celebration of one singular day. By December 27th, we found ourselves completely bone-weary exhausted and resolved to do a major overhaul of Christmas in 2011. It will be interesting to see what we come up with . . .

In the meantime, here are some of our memories from Christmas 2010:

(I love this pic of my dad. Shortly before Christmas, we were at my brother's and he fixed my very masculine, hunting/fishing/outdoors loving dad a PINK cosmo. And he drank it. :) )

Noah's piano recital. He's come so far this year. One day I heard him playing Christmas songs, went and asked him where he found Christmas music, and found he didn't have any - he was able to re-create them from his head.

This is his amazing instructor.

Our tree. We all LOVED it. It's real, and it's "flocked" - meaning sprayed with a white foam material to look like snow. It was a trick to decorate, however.

My new favorite ornament. Found it this year - was over the moon.

Noah's school program - he's in the top row, in the red.

Jack's school program - he's basically in the center of the picture, in red.

A fun night we had with our friends at Storybook Island - they decorate the whole park with millions of lights - it's just beautiful.

(That's a plaster Santa - not the real deal).

Christmas Eve was a great day for us. The four of us went to our favorite place for lunch (Qdoba), spent an hour at Border's spending gift certificates, had coffee at Starbucks and then headed home for a game of Battleship before church.

The boys vs. mom and dad. They won.

All ready for church -

Had a few moments of goofiness . . . .

I love this picture.

Christmas morning, the boys found enormous stockings left by Santa. (which they don't buy into anymore).

Opening gifts . . . .

Is that a look of happiness, or what?

I created "scrapbooks" for each of the kids on Snapfish - each book contained approx. 300 photos from 2010, and they LOVED them. Jack said it was his favorite gift. It was #2 on Noah's list. So many of these pictures they never see, because they don't sit down at the computer and look at them. So it was fun to re-live the year with them.

Later on, we headed up to my mom and dad's in Spearfish. Jack and Noah read the Christmas story from my dad's giant antique bible.

The 26th, the whole family went bowling. I didn't even bowl because I wanted to capture all the fun (and I had a neck injury). It was the first time all the Horak cousins had bowled together. And it was my nephew Aaron's first time EVER, and oh the cuteness!!!

Does he look PROUD or what?

And his older brother Colby nailed it!

Sometimes it was a group effort . . . . (Cayel, Colby, Aaron).

Noah, who looked so huge compared to these little guys -

See what I mean? The biggest cousin and the littlest cousin. Makes my heart hurt to think Noah was once that little . . . .

Again. The cuteness. Can you stand it?

Jack's form. He wanted to bowl on the big guys lane (Dad, Grandpa and his two uncles)

The happy bowlers.

Happy New Year!

The closest I'll get to baking this year . . .

So two weeks have gone by (how the HECK did that happen??) . . . and all I can really tell you is that it's been total insanity. I'll update more later, but in the meantime I wanted to share my very favorite Christmas recipe with you . . . might want to READ it before you attempt to make it. Perfect for when your Christmas season is a little crazy and you need a good laugh. :O) Enjoy.

Christmas Tequila Cookies

1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups of dried fruit, such as dried cranberries or raisins
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila (silver or gold, as desired)

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup, and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large, fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, so try another shot . . . just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, pick the frigging fruit off floor . . . . Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Check the Cose Juervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.
CHERRY MISTMAS :)

It's no wonder mornings are stressful around here

This morning I took an inventory of everything the boys needed to take to school with them:

homework folders with all necessary worksheets and forms
homework planners
textbooks
reading (chapter) books
library books
Math game binder (Noah)
Christmas book for Jack to read to the kindergarten class
midmorning snacks for both
lunches for both
lunch money (Jack)
art project money (Jack)
water bottles for both
gloves
hats
snow boots
snow pants (yes, they even need those)
coats
shoes
2 cups of cornmeal (Jack - class making a recipe)
props for Christmas program (Jack)
gym shorts and shirt (Jack - has uniform for gym)

Seriously.

This is for a 7-hour day.

It's a wonder we ever make it out the door by 7:55 am, and that the kids don't need a Uhaul to go to school.

When did school get so complicated?!?

And then to get myself ready AND take care of Murphy . . .

Oh yeah, and the kids need breakfast. Imagine that. So demanding.

Anyway, there's no point to this post. (Other than to garner some sympathy for my insane mornings.)

I know I'm no different than anyone else who has kids in school, but when I realized EVERYTHING that needed to be inventoried every morning before we walk out the door, I was amazed. And thought I'd share. Happy Tuesday.

Mario and Luigi

Happy Thanksgiving!

And since it's Thanksgiving it seems totally logical to discuss Halloween. Makes perfect sense, does it not? ??

Unfortunately it makes sense in my crazy world where I can't keep up. Today, Thanksgiving, is the first day in a long time where I've had time to just sit, lounge, think, and get a few things read and updated. Thus, we'll go over Halloween since that's where I last left off . . .

This year the kids COULD. NOT. DECIDE. what they wanted to be. Oh my word the drama and indecision that ensued in our household for the 2 months leading up to it. You would have thought we had 2 teenage girls trying to decide what to wear to the prom. Which sort of tells me they are outgrowing Halloween. :( Which sort of makes me sad.

We finally settled on Mario and Luigi - their two favorite video game characters (basically no video game is worth having unless Mario and Luigi are in it). We "settled" on them because I bought them as a back-up plan - knowing full well the kids would not have chosen a costume by 4:00 p.m. on Oct. 31st. But, they ended up liking the back-up plan. Mom always knows best.

And I guess I can now understand why dentists hate Halloween. All the candy really does make your teeth fall out.

Upon arriving home from treat and treating, Noah took a shower and then dove into his bag of goodies. While chewing on a tootsie roll, his tooth fell out. See it in there? :)

Maybe it's not an entirely bad thing if they decide they are done with Halloween . . . .

Someone in this house turned 40

and to give you a hint, it wasn't me. :) FINALLY getting around to "the birthday post." Mark's big official celebration was our trip to Hawaii this summer . . . but that was a few months ago and I couldn't let an occasion like this go by without doing SOMETHING. I mean the dude is getting OLD. :)

So, I surprised him by bringing his mom and dad out from MN and flew his brother in from Minneapolis. He came home from work on a Friday and found his mom and dad hiding in our office, and his brother hiding in our closet. :) It was awesome.

The next day, my family came over as well, and we had a big birthday dinner and played games. SUCH a fun night - great food, great conversation and we nearly laughed our heads right off.

Mark's unofficial "gift" from the bank was a new office! (Not really a gift, just a coincidence). He's OVER THE MOON - has spent the last 7 years in a cubicle with zero privacy, so this was a huge change. While his family was here, we went to hang some pictures, and found someone else noticed he was turning 40. :)

Here's a glimpse of his office . . .
Everyone played a little football in the yard on Saturday . . .

Noah's quite the kicker . . .

The Roisum clan . . . .

The boys gave Mark some new sweatshirts - and then had to try them on . . .

And this was the coolest gift - my brother and his wife had this made for him . . . !!

Is that the perfect gift for him or what? Now if the dumb team could just win . . .

Friends in High Places

Before I post about Mark's 40th and Halloween, I HAVE to share an amazing experience we had last week. In the past year, God has blessed us with a growing friendship with an Air Force couple. Christi was in my BSF group last year, and I began praying for her husband Tim before I'd even met him, as he was over in Afghanistan at the time. He pilots the B1 bombers stationed at the base here. When he safely returned, we all got together a few times, and, as they say, the rest is history.

So last week, he gave us a personal tour of the base - and better yet, the $300,000,000 machines he flies. We finished off the evening standing ON THE RUNWAY, watching 3 of them take off.

Oh my word.

There really aren't words to explain the experience. The ground shakes, your whole body - even your insides - shake. It's just breathtaking.

And it needs to go on your bucket list.

I'll remember it forever.

Here we are in the "van" that we took out to the flight line.
Living out here in the Black Hills, we've often watched in awe at flyovers at the fair, the rodeo, etc. So getting this close to one of these was amazing.

Here we are underneath - they only allow certain pictures in this vicinity. What you are able to see here is one of the bays that hold the bombs - where those flaps are open. We also got to see bombs (in 2 sizes!), but I didn't get pictures of them.

Ladder going up into the cockpit.

And the boys didn't need to be asked twice to head on up -

See Jack peeking out? Tim was so unbelievably patient with them - he allowed them to sit in the pilots' seats, explained the controls and answered all of their questions. They were up there for a LONG time. :)

Meanwhile, I took pictures.

The sun was setting, which made the view spectacular.

We got our cockpit tour then, too. And let me tell you, those guys aren't sitting in the lap of luxury up there. Holy cow, it's CRAMPED. Tiny little space. Tim said his longest flight to date is 16 hours. I would have succumbed to claustrophobia at hour 2. Noah was a tad bit mortified that there was a toilet up against the back of a pilot seat. With no curtains or walls. :)

Stinkin' PROUD to be Americans . . . .

The next day, Jack and Noah made thank you cards for Tim. Here's a quote from Noah's: "It was the best time of my life. Seriously." How cute is that??

It was just incredible - it left me in awe of our armed forces - these guys (and women) who give so much to protect our freedom. To see firsthand a small portion of what they are responsible for was inspiring. Can you imagine being responsible for a $300,000,000 aircraft?!

Tim deploys again in January. I'll be posting about it then, asking you to help us cover him and Christi in prayer while he is gone, and in harm's way. The thought makes me shudder.

To Tim - thank you again, so much, for a spectacular evening. And for what you do. We are truly blessed and honored to call you and Christi friends.

Some Great Pictures

Just thought I'd post some GREAT pictures my dad got of the boys playing football. I love it when he shows up at their sporting events with his fancy camera and big lens. :) Thanks, Dad!

And once I come up for air this week, I'll post Halloween and 40TH BIRTHDAY pics!! :)

Jack wound up playing quarterback A LOT -

And Noah was his best reciever -

I love this sequence of Jack (next 3 pics) showing him scoring a touchdown -