Holiday Overload!

Hello my dear, sweet friends!
My posts are beginning to be fewer and farther between-
this makes me sad-
1) because I love writing.
2) because I love that you are reading it.


I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EDUCATIONAL to share with you.
Zip.
Zilch.
Nada.

We have had SO MUCH CHRISTMAS packed into our Christmas break.
For Real.
Like Christmas EVERYDAY.
Our Christmas morning was great! Lots of oohs and ahhs . And batteries, And loud noises. And wrapping paper. And naughty puppies. And smiles and hugs. And coffee- and more coffee.

The day after Christmas we went to Santaland. After going through some drive through lights, we ended up in a tent with bungee jumping, spider crawling, and rock wall climbing.
All the things you would expect to find in Santaland!
There was also a petting zoo.
Yes.
I said petting zoo.
There were frisky bunnies. Greedy goats. A grouchy (smelly donkey) and chickens and roosters.

As some of you may know- Betty is lost! So when  I saw those chickens I was so anxious!!!!

This is Colonel Cluck, he is new to our home and is helping us to find her. I hope we find her soon.

For those of you who do not know who Betty is- It's okay- As you get to know me, it all starts to make sense.
(Not really, but it makes me feel better to say that).

Yesterday we went to see MORE lights and ate at Patti's Settlement in Grand River KY.
Ignore the "do" on "Thumbs". He was wearing a hat. When he took it off, there was a slight resemblence to Conan O'Brien.

The food was AH-Mazing! The Mr ordered a 2lb pork chop.
I like to call it a small roast.
Not kidding. The leftovers alone fed two Littles.

Some of you may remember last Christmas when we went to "Cock of the Walk" in Nashville. It was, again, great food.
It was very smiliar to Patti's. Food was different. But check this out:

And I DON'T DO METAL!!
Made it a little hard to enjoy the great food. I did my best to drown it out.
We are going to have to start scoping out the places we eat during the holidays a little better!

Ugh. That's all I have for that one.

Grandma saw an opportunity to make them be SERIOUS in a photo- which they NEVER ARE.
She gave them guns.
I hardly ever see my Littles without their glasses. So this is a nice one to have.

We trolled all of the little gift shops. Everything was half off and if it was Christmas related- 75% off.
So we went to all of the shops.
I picked up these tiny guys.
Love them.

When we got home, we just started to vege. I was in a great place.
Had my coffee.
My footed jammies. (I totally look like I belong in  a Dr Seuss book when I wear them).
But nonetheless, I was ready to blog.
I wanted to share my Holiday Adventures with you.
So I grabbed my Mac, went to plug it in-
and SAW SPARKS!!
The cord to the adapter was ALL CHEWED UP!
Wonder who did that?!?!?!

Oh, don't say how cute he is in any comments cause this little guy is in BIG TROUBLE!!

Well a Non Educational Post from Squirrels wouldn't be complete without involving a funny search or the word "Poop".
No searches tonight.
So what does that leave us with?
Yep.

This was in the Littles' stockings.
The side says "Grandpa says: If you rub chicken poop on your lips, you'll never lick 'em!" Which in turn I guess keeps you from getting chapped lips.
The best part is the disclaimer. "Contains no real poop." on the side.

Also, they say that things are "tailored to you" when they show up in your sidebar. Really?


So this has been a random collection of "stuff"!

Tomorrow brings napping cleaning, napping organizing, and celebrating.
(Really, I will be celebrating)
So chances are, I won't see you until next year!

Caution: May include mushiness.

Thank you everyone for your ideas and support and love in this beautiful bloggy world! I really feel like I have become a more thoughtful and reflective educator. I just feel like I am on the best possible team that I could be on with all of you! Blogging brings new meaning to the word collaboration!

Enjoy the rest of your break and best wishes to you and yours in 2013!
Happy New Year!!!

Button Courtest of Jen Ross

Click above to head over to my shop and save Dec 31-Jan 2!

Good-bye Rex

 First- Goodbye, Rex.

Today we held services in the backyard at the National Hamster Cemetary for Rex. He was a good hamster. He gave us 2 happy years. His brother, Larry,  went on to a better place this past September and a distant cousin, Chuck, was buried in the first plot a few years ago. We are going to shop for Rex's headstone tomorrow.
Stop smiling because I am not kidding. They were all boarders in the Tori's room. I went in to give her a kiss to wake her up this morning and noticed Rex was in his food bowl, but not eating. She took him out and we held him and rubbed him to keep him warm. We laid him back down comfortably after about an hour or so and then we waited, and waited, and waited. And around three o'clock when I checked on him there was no breathing.
So when the Mr came him he went straight to the back yard and began to dig. We went outside and there were a few words spoken and then it was over. It was all very sad and yet another crappy thing that has happened to her on her Christmas break. poor baby!

We tried to pep her up  a bit. We all went to Opryland Hotel and saw the lights. And we drove through Jellystone Park lights and we went to Santa's village and she did the jumpy thing with the bungees. The boys did it too and it was pretty funny! They were WAY up there!
We also tried something new for dinner.

Before I can go any farther, I have to share SOME MORE OF MY CRAZINESS with you. And I am in no way knockin' crazy, because I know I am - it's on paper and they make me take my meds!!!!! Remember the OCD thing???
Well, the CRAZY started kicking in when I was preggers with #2. I began having trouble driving. A real tightness in my chest. It was just a weird feeling at first, but then it manifested into this physical discomfort and eventually- full blown panic attacks! thanks to the meds- I can drive short distances (I live 2.2 miles from my school).
I also got this weird thing about metal. I am not allergic to metal, I can (prefer not to ) touch it. That was 10 years ago and now my silverware is packaged up under a counter. and we use camping ware. It is plastic and hardy and dishwasher safe,
I cannot drink from a can. I cannot touch unfinished metal....chalky stuff also gives me problems. I know it is weird- the Dr has no idea....I am going to head over to the therapy couch one day and see what the heck happened and why I am so screwy when it comes to that!

OK, back to the regularly scheduled post-

So we went to Cock of the Walk near the Hotel. Have you ever been there? I haven't . Don't know why, but we just never did go there! It smelled wonderful and I couldn't wait to be seated and start eating.....until.......I saw the set up. It is family style- which I can handle but,,,

Let's count the metal:

1. Apps are served on metal tray.
2.Cornbread in cast iron skillet. (several on table)
3. greens are in a metal pot.
4. There is a metal bucket with the silver and napkins for the table.
5. The cups are the little tin camping cups.
6. A giant platter of our family style meal
.7. and the silverware to eat with.

Oh, and you can't see it pictured, but there are metal pitchers all up and down the table for you.


I thought I was going to stroke out! the Mr asked our server for a to go cup and to go plastic silverware..






The food was great, but I wasn't able to have a conversation with anyone because my jaws were clenched the whole time! So I looked like a real anti-social B***H! His fam knows about my weirdness.....but the 75 other people who were in the dining room didn't and they were just scraping away on those tin plates with their metal forks and spoons!!!

It was supposed to be an evening to cheer up the girl. which I guess worked because she sat across from me and giggled the whole time, threatening to scrape her fork on her plate!!! "You're welcome, sweetie!"