The Five Days of Christmas

If you've seen my posts on Facebook from the past several days, you are already well aware that Andrew, Franklin and I were snowed in at his parents house over Christmas. We were originally going to spend Wednesday night through Friday in Hiawatha with his family and then head to my parents in Iowa early on Friday morning to make it to 10am church with Noel, Hillary and Quinn.

Well. Change of plans.

The blizzard of 2009 really scrooged me.

Let me share a brief recap of our five days of an unexpected Hiawatha/Moore farm Christmas.

Wednesday:
Adam and Emily Griffin arrive in Wichita around 4pm. Their puppy Tyson and our puppy Franklin play for about 45 minutes. Franklin looks really rolly polly compared to Tyson. Tyson runs circles around Franklin. Andrew gets home and we load his truck up with suitcases and presents and drive to Hiawatha for the night. Feel like Santa in his sleigh. :)

Thursday:
I get up, get ready and drive into town (with 4-wheel drive on the entire way in Andrew's truck) to pick up Halley, Megan and Katie for our annual Christmas Eve morning "us eight girls" breakfast. High school friend reunion! It was so much fun, but it couldn't last forever because the snow is really picking up. Spend a bit of time at Noel and Hillary's with Quinn and Halley, drop Halley off and head back out to the farm. Andrew does chores with his dad for 3+ hours. Butch, Ruth, Andrew, Zach and I pile into two trucks to drive across the frozen country for a family dinner with Butch's cousin and family. Had so much fun, drank too much wine and stayed too late! On the way home, about a mile from the farm, both trucks get stuck in snow drifts. Boo. Work on not getting too claustrophobic as we sit in the truck cabs waiting for Butch and Zach to get back with the tractor to pull us out.The tractor arrives to save the day, and we finally make it home well after midnight. Exhausted...sleep in the "snake room". (Haven't heard that story before? It's a good one, just ask.)

Friday:
Merry Christmas! It is still snowing and still blowing 30+ miles per hour. Open gifts, eat lunch, watch the Hangover. Andrew is convinced he, Franklin and I are "the three best friends that anyone could have, we're the three best friends that anyone could have..." Watch TV, throw myself a pitty party that I am stuck and don't get to see my family for Christmas and go to bed.

Saturday:
Still snowing, still blowing. TV, Facebook, solitare on the computer, TV, Facebook, solitare, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. No snow plow truck. Andrew leaves me inside again and does chores with his dad for 3+ hours. TV, Facebook, ..."hey you can come outside to the shop with me!" Yes! Something to do!

Watch Andrew work on his brother's truck. Blaaaahhhhhhh.

Watch The Proposal, TV, try to convince Andrew to play cards with me. Pitty party. Bed. Did I mention typically dogs aren't allowed inside the house at the farm? Whoopsies.

Sunday:
Stopped snowing! A bit less breezy! And, what's that? SNOW PLOW! Go into town for a change of scenery. Hurry up and get the truck ready or I will start walking there myself.


Exchange gifts with Noel, Hillary and Quinn.
Read a book with Quinn and play with Dora stickers. Really excited to see new faces!
Back to the farm. Exchange gifts with Luke and his girlfriend Lori (who were stuck in St. Joe, in their own house). Pack up. HOME! Not so fast...Andrew forgot his jeans in the laundry...back up...

Finally, by 7pm we are HOME! Franklin and I felt the same way - it is so good to be back. :)

YES!

Bahumbug!

Christmas hasn't happened exactly as planned this year, and we all know how well I deal with interrupted plans.

Thanks to mother nature, Andrew and I have been bundled up at his parents' house since Wednesday night. We are completely snowed in and haven't even thought about making it to town because of the huge snow drifts. I am going to die of boredom. Not to mention, we didn't get to go to my parents' for Christmas.

Trying to keep a positive attitude, but any last ounce is just about gone. Helppppppp!

Christmas on a Car

I left Dillon's on Saturday morning, and as I was waiting to turn left onto the road, three cars drove by me that were decorated with Christmas decorations. One had a wreath on its front bumper, one SUV had garland and red bows tied to its cargo rack and another SUV had antlers sticking up from its front windows.

Maybe this is becoming more popular, but I'm not sure why?*image courtesy of smarthome.com

Way Behind...

The past few weeks, and even past few months really, have been so, so busy. But, before I close up shop until the new year I thought I'd leave you with a quick recap of the last few days.

Andrew and I made Christmas cookies to distribute to our neighbors this past Saturday. We made three different kinds:

1. Snow cookies (or Snow on a Plowed Ground Cookies - can you tell we are from the midwest?)
2. Snickerdoodles
3. Star- and tree-shaped sugar cookies

I usually only put in one sheet of a cookies at a time, but Andrew wanted to speed up the process since he was also watching football. They all turned out pretty good, except for Andrew was trying to multitask (bad idea), and a few sheets got burnt. No biggie, we had plenty to go around!

We had a great time, Franklin came along to spread holiday cheer and we were really glad when we could cross this brilliant idea off the list. :)

The really fun thing about handing out cookies is that we got really good gossip about crazy cat lady that lives across the street from us (more on her later), and we got cookies back in return yesterday!
These people are really good cookie bakers. They made Andrew, Ali and Franklin replicas! So of course we had to take our picture with our own personal cookies.
Franklin loved his so much he tried to eat it. Whoops.
I finally got all of my holiday cards out (last two today!) even though I had them ordered and had them sitting in my office before Thanksgiving. One of my favorite things about Christmas is sending and getting holiday cards, pictures and letters in the mail! Looooove it! So, I hung up all of this year's by my desk so I can look at the holiday cheer all day long.
And, finally, one of my other favorite things is wrapping presents. I absolutely believe that a gift is so much better if it's wrapped nicely. So, I spent one Saturday afternoon this month wrapping presents for our families and just finished the last one this afternoon. Yay for Christmas!

Out of Office: Urgent Request

Thanks for your message. I am currently out of the office on holiday break. I'll respond to voicemail and email messages when I return on January 4th, 2010. If you have an urgent message, please contact Franklin, administrative assistant of the year.

Happy Holidays!

Ali Moore

What's a Blog Post without a Franklin Update? :)

Franklin has completely recovered from his surgery, and I even think he his demeanor has calmed down a bit. He had even quit humping my leg 10 times a day, until a few days ago when apparently he got the itch again. And again and again.

Anyways.

He has done some funny/random things lately.

1. All of a sudden he decided he needs to nap on the couch at night while Andrew and I are hanging out watching TV. Boo. I really didn't want pets on our furniture so at first we were really good at getting him off, but sometimes he just looks so cute and cuddly. Andrew and I are both turning into huge suckers so Franklin has now formed a habit of climbing up to snooze with us. Don't tell him, but he's getting a snuggly dog bed for Christmas this year so I'm hoping that helps him quit his couch addiction.

2. Last week I decided I was going to try three new recipes for dinner. I made this elaborate grocery list and was going to email it to Andrew so he could stop by the store on his way home from work. I left it on the kitchen table and came out to find it completely chewed up on the mat Franklin sleeps on by the back door during the day. Grr...
3. Franklin naps a lot during the day while I'm working, but every once in a while he walks into my office to check in on me. One day he climbed up on my chair behind me and put his front paws on my desk and stayed this way for five minutes watching me work.
Yes, I have become one of those crazy pet people that talks about their animal like they would a child, but I work at home with little human contact so give me a break. :)
Everyone have a great week!

Marshmallows Roasting on an Open Fire

Andrew and I have been using our fireplace a lot over the past couple of weeks. We still haven't picked out furniture for our family room though so it's hard to enjoy our toasty flames. I usually end up sitting on the brick ledge in front of the fire.

Last weekend we figured out how to really get a good use our of our flames. SMORES! We made a specific trip to the store just to get the yummy gooey supplies. So much for watching those indulgent holiday calories. :)

Andrew being very manly (duh) and getting the fire going.
Getting our supplies ready for roasting...
Here we go! First bunch of marshmallows ended up completely charred. Still very yummy, though.
Staying warm and toasty.
Finished product!

Cutest Dog of the Season!

Franklin spends a lot of time surfing the web and was every excited when our friend Brittany sent a link for him to enter Hallmark's Cutest Dog of the Year contest. Obviously, he enters...this contest is right up his alley.
We have been talking about the likelihood of victory, and I am trying to keep him grounded, but obviously this is falling on deaf ears. :)

You can vote for Frank the Tank here - http://www.hhofdogcontest.com/results/current-entries

Can You Blame Me?

Okay, I know I just used almost an identical picture in the previous blog post, but hello. My dog is really cute, and I feel the need to share his charming good looks with you.

Since it has gotten colder, convincing Franklin to spend the entire day outside is getting tough. So, he usually ends up inside for about half of the day (for now). And, lately when he's not hanging out in my office, i.e. pulling on my shoes or chewing on my desk, I can find him in front of our back glass door.

He LOVES laying in the warm sunshine! Me too. :)
P.S. Check out the belly wrinkles!

Tis the Season

Andrew and I spent last night drinking some vino and decorating our Christmas tree! What a great night. Our ornaments are all red and gold, and I decided I'm going to look for a few more of the same color during after-Christmas sales later this month, but try and get some different shapes since we only have round balls. :)

We put our tree up in front of our bay window, and I think it looks so pretty! Plus our neighborhood can be creepers and enjoy it too by peeping through our windows as they drive by.
I tried to get some traditional child-in-front-of-tree pictures with Franklin. What a challenge! He was so excited about all of these new toys to play with - ribbon, tree branches, etc. I caught him trying to sneak an ornament off of the tree...
"Who...me?"
This is about as good as it's going to get.
I am trying to give him a break since he's had an upset stomach since Thanksgiving Day. An unnamed relative thought it was a good idea to brighten Franklin's Thanksgiving and give him a dog dish full of ham grease. He has been leaving diarrhea presents in his kennel every morning for Andrew and I to clean up since the feast. Franklin has had tummy issues before, and our vet told us that a bland diet should help clear it up. So, today we started Franklin on boiled chicken and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is eating better than I am! My ham sandwich was not up to par with his food. :)

What a rough life...

The Weekend of Firsts

Andrew and I shared a lot of firsts this past holiday weekend.

1. Hosting our first married Thanksgiving with both sides of the family
2. Dealing with our first house crisis
3. Putting up the lights on our house and pulling out the Christmas decorations (pictures to come!)
4. Lighting up the first fire in our home

We have zero fireplace tools so Andrew improvised and tried to make it as manly as possible to make up for not having the proper tools to handle the broken sprinkler pipe situation.

Whatever works. :)

Christmas Lists

I recently told my dad I knew I was growing up and becoming more of a "real" adult because of the items I had been writing down on this year's Christmas list.

I still have a few of the normal items I probably had several years ago like gift cards to buy myself clothes or a new coat, etc. but I also have really grownup items.

1. Space heater for my home office (I mean this is the epitome of my dad. I might as well call myself Larry.) :)
2. Sheets for our bed (I feel like my grandma got these pretty frequently for Christmas.)
3. Gardening gloves (preparing myself for spring landscaping projects around our house!)
4. Travel coffee mug (coffee = adult)

But, my dad really made me realize even though I'm growing up I'm still a child because he said when you get to be his age, all you want on your list is for your kids to be home with you. And maybe a new sweater. :)

I'm really thankful to have such great, supportive parents. And, I will be home for Christmas.

Still Outnumbered

Before Andrew's side of the family had to head back to Hiawatha on Thursday afternoon after Thanksgiving dinner we took a family photo. I think it turned out really cute. We used the bench Andrew made me for our 2nd-year anniversary (when we were dating in high school) and set everyone around it in the backyard of our house.

We even got Zach to kind of smile, but don't ask him to smile with his teeth showing or his eyes close. I told him to practice for next year.

Anyways, I guess Ruth, Lori and I better get used to always being outnumbered by the boys because Luke and Lori found out on Wednesday that their baby due in April will be a boy!

We are really excited to buy cute little blue boy clothes. My brother Noel and sister-in-law Hillary are expecting their second daughter in March so it will be fun to have "one of each kind" as Andrew says. :)

Happy Belated Turkey Day!

What a great week! Andrew and I had so much fun having our families visiting for Thanksgiving. Preparations started really as soon as we moved in back in late July as we set out to accomplish several little house projects before the big day.

The countdown really began though on Sunday once I picked up our Honeysuckle White 21 pound turkey and started to let it thaw out for five days in our fridge. The week went by so fast as we finished up last-minute projects, grocery shopping, etc.

On Wednesday evening after work we started a whirlwind of cleaning and cooking. My mom suggested making several dishes before Thanksgiving Day to free up my oven a bit and make things less chaotic. Plus, several of these things taste even better reheated after all of the flavors have time to blend.

So, on Wednesday evening I made:

1. Cranberry sauce (which was a new recipe and turned out sooo yummy)
2. Stuffing (from scratch - yes, this involves making biscuits and cornbread from scratch so it was pretty intense, but I just don't like it any other way)
3. Candied yams (yes, from scratch - it's Thanksgiving and that's the way they should be!)
4. Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake (one of Andrew's favorite holiday desserts)

Andrew's parents, his older brother Luke and girlfriend Lori, plus his younger brother Zach arrived a bit after 10pm, and after a couple of hours of chatting, I was pooped out.

We got up pretty early on Thursday morning and started the turkey. Throughout the day I continued to apply my Autumn Spice Glaze, plus work on setting the table, setting out appetizers and snacks, working on the remaining side dishes and dealing with a broken sprinkler pipe.

Yep, we even had to turn the water off for a while during my cooking escapade. Not a happy camper. Apparently, when a referred landscape guy came to winterize our sprinklers, he hit a pipe which caused it to leak and flood our yard. Thank goodness for the handy Butch Moore and Sons crew because the boys got it plugged and the water back on in time for dishes. And to use the restroom. Ha. What a nightmare. I'm sure the sprinkler guy appreciated my frantic not-so-nice calls and messages on Thanksgiving, which I do feel a bit bad about, but please don't rupture my sprinkler pipe the day before I'm cooking for a house full of people and eliminate my water supply.

Anyways, everything turned out soo good. And, I timed things perfectly! Andrew's mom helped out quite a bit, as did my Aunt Jan from Fort Worth, and then once my mom arrived about an hour before the big show we really got everything together (potatoes and gravy, rolls, reheating stuffing and yams, plus continuing the turkey). Success!

We had great food, great conversation, great weather and even eventually water. Such a fun time!

Check it off the list - Andrew and I hosted our first successful Thanksgiving as a married couple.

I made the first complete big turkey day meal...

He carved his first turkey...
And, we really appreciated everyone traveling to visit. :)
Happy Thanksgiving!

Wedding Pictures

I think I previously mentioned having a fun idea to fill a wall in our newly painted guest room. A few weeks ago, Andrew made me stick to my guns, and we created this super cute wall collage of immediate family wedding photos.
It's so fun to go in and look at the creepy similarities between my grandpa, dad and brother, my mom and me and Andrew and his dad. We're still hoping to collect a few more and add them once more family weddings take place, but for now, our little guest room wall will suffice for our "family tree". :)

These pictures of the pictures aren't good quality, but aren't old wedding pics just the best?

My dad's parents:
Andrew's parents:
And, my parents:
And, we re-purposed an old black table into a white night stand for the guest room. Guest room is finished! For now...

Your Trash, My Treasure

Andrew may soon get tired of me enlisting his help for random DIY projects around our house, but until he does, I'm going to continue to pile them on.

And, to my defense, it was his idea to go to the garage sale down the street. :)

Found these chairs in need of some definite TLC, three for $5 just around the corner. I'm sure the previous owners thought, "who is going to buy these?" and I thought, "what a steal!".

Yep, all of them used to have wicker seats with huge holes in them. This is what they looked like after we removed the straggling wicker pieces (Step 1).

Step 2: Have your hubby purchase plywood from Lowe's, use a jigsaw to cut to the correct shape and then router the bottom to fit snuggly into the seat hole.

Step 3: Purchase fun printed upholstery fabric and quilt batting for the cushions.

Step 4: Cut fabric and batting accordingly, tightly wrap around the plywood insert, adhere with heavy duty staple gun, screw entire piece to chair and tada!
Franklin is always such a big helper. :)
We also purchased an arm chair for $5 at the same garage sale that just needed updated fabric on the cushion (used to be wild animal print that just doesn't go with my decor).
I think I'd like to paint these chairs white eventually, but for now, we got these chairs updated in a day and now have four more places for people to sit on Thursday for turkey day!