Christmas Cheer on the Cheap

We've all heard of the Craigslist Killer, but have you heard of the more elusive (and very smug) Craigslist Cat?
Our good friends Rob and Tracy (who also happen to be Makenzie's godparents) gave us a little Christmas cheer in the form of a gingerbread house kit. It sat wrapped under our tree for less than a week and I thought it was going to kill the kids to leave it alone (hence our tree is pretty barren of gifts so I don't have to listen to the endless "how many more days until Christmas" and constant 'rearranging' of said gifts under the tree).
Sound Harley hosts free Santa pictures (on Santa's Red Harley) and Lance the Llama. The kids were more interested in watching how close the Llamas hind end was getting to the bike behind him, they found it highly entertaining.
"I'm a sexy beast"
This is probably the real Santa... I mean it's gotta be rough on a fella to live up in the Arctic year round.
We also took advantage of the Groupon deal of the day and saw the Alderwood mall Santa (possibly the best Santa around) on the cheap: $11 for our photos.
We got to the mall at 5:08. Santa went to dinner at 5:00. Of course he did. So I stood in line for the next 52 minutes while Mike supervised the kids running from the fountain to the Pokemon kiosk to Game Stop. In no time Santa was back from dinner and we had a prime spot in line (vs. the saps who still had another hour wait in line behind us).
Waiting. Waiting. And more waiting.

Tomcat Tree Trimming

I've been trying to post this blog entry for over a week, but I keep trying to use the new blogger interface with no success, so I've had to revert to the old interface (again) just so I could get this post posted!

Have I ever mentioned how awesome my fella is? Well here's a short list of some of what makes me fall in love with him every day:

The kids need to learn to tie their shoes. Makenzie's teacher said she only helps the Kindergartners tie their shoes until Christmas, after that they're on their own. So Mike made a practice shoe for them to hone their skills. And the kids loved it and practiced and practiced and guess what? They can tie their shoes now!

When my dad passed away, the fire department gave me his helmet. And for the past 10 years I always wondered why there was a big black triangle on the front of his helmet and mentioned to Mike how it would be nice to even just get a generic fire department patch to put on there since dads helmet is on display and the next thing I know, Michael had found out what truck my dad was assigned to at his station (that big black triangle is where you're supposed to put your truck#) and arranged with who knows how many people to get me that patch, for Truck 36. Best. Boyfriend. Ever.

As Michael hung Christmas lights, I employed our children and neices in yard clean-up (where we subsequently found out that someone had stolen Mike's backpack blower and weedeater, not cool). I promised the kids a trip to the candy store if they could fill the yard waste tote. I've never seen a more productive group of children in my entire life. Needless to say I dropped $25 at the candy store later that afternoon.

Our happy home :)

In the above picture you might notice that our star has fallen... It's the thrid time it's happened, so we've kind of just left it. Along with the clumpy arrangement of the ornament placement (I can't rearrange what 2 energetic girls so thoughtfully hung). But the star's placement is the sole work of... Pickles.

Here he is innocently admiring an ornament.

Here he is contemplating Natalie's baby ornament (maybe wondering where his "kitties first christmas" is).

"What?"

I thought this series of pictures looked familiar... This one is from last year when Pickles was just a little kitten.