BEHOLD!
The Drama.
The Spectacle.
The Awe.
Christmas Morning At Grandma Ann's House!
The Drama.
The Spectacle.
The Awe.
Christmas Morning At Grandma Ann's House!
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Big Surprise
December 20, 2007
We flew into Phoenix to spend Christmas with the family. As usual, what was originally planned as a relaxing vacation was turning out to be several days packed full of activities with the family.
With Corinna and her clan flying in from Florida, the whole family was in town and we took the opportunity to get some professional family photos done. I even managed to drag my mom into the photos. It has been over 14 years since the last time she had any professional photos done of herself. We called in the expertise of Lori Lott, our wedding photographer, to handle the herd of Mattingly's that had taken over Linda and David's house.
The following days were filled making our rounds to spend equal time with parents and grandparents. To reduce the amount of luggage we took we decided not to do our Christmas shopping until we got to Phoenix. (At some point near the beginning of December I swear we had all decided that because everyone's money was tight we would not buy any gifts for each other. But apparently the holiday spirit is stronger then the will of the wallet.)
So on top of all our, "you're-in-town-so-you-need-to-come-visit-us-because-we're-family-and-if
-you-don't-you-know-you're-going-to-feel-guilty-about-it" obligations, we also needed to shop for gifts, wrap them and get them under the tree without other family members noticing. We realized there would hardly be any time to hang out with our friends. So we promised ourselves we would visit them on our next trip down.
As the days went by my fantasized vacation slowly started to evaporate. There would be no dropping off Elektra with the grandparents and having a date night with my hubby that included wining the jackpot on the nickle machine at the local casino and celebrating with a big scoop of ice cream at Mary Coyle. (Hey, I'm allowed to dream!)
We did get a chance to have the grandparents watch Elektra for us, but not for a romantic evening out. Instead, we needed to do some more last minute shopping. The whole family had planned to get together for dinner at Linda and David's that night. Near the end of our shopping Ray started receiving phone calls from his mom. Supposedly Caleb and Zack were hungry and getting restless. We were holding up the dinner train and we still hadn't finished buying everything on our list. So we made a mad dash through the aisles and threw what we could find into our cart.
The cell phone was still ringing as we loaded the car and headed to Linda and David's. When we got to the house we parked in front since the carport was full. Rather then waist time opening the garage and going through the garage door we went through the front. We didn't want two hungry boys waiting a second longer then they had to for their dinner.
As the front door opened, I only had a second to notice the lights were out in the house. Then everything went bright as a large group of people crowded into the front room yelled, "Surprise!".
Ray, my sneaky little hubby, had planned a surprise birthday party for me and invited my family and all our friends. The party was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people showed up, especially with it being only a couple of days before Christmas. I discovered later that all those phone calls Ray was receiving was to confirm last minute party details and to check-in on where we were at.
Ray's brother, Frank, served up bowls of homemade chili. There was also chips & dip and of course a huge birthday cake. I think our friends were more surprised then I was when they found out that I never suspected a thing.
Well, it wasn't the jackpot at the casino, or a double scoop of honey banana ice cream, but with over a month of planning, Ray had pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party that was nothing short of perfect.
We flew into Phoenix to spend Christmas with the family. As usual, what was originally planned as a relaxing vacation was turning out to be several days packed full of activities with the family.
With Corinna and her clan flying in from Florida, the whole family was in town and we took the opportunity to get some professional family photos done. I even managed to drag my mom into the photos. It has been over 14 years since the last time she had any professional photos done of herself. We called in the expertise of Lori Lott, our wedding photographer, to handle the herd of Mattingly's that had taken over Linda and David's house.
The following days were filled making our rounds to spend equal time with parents and grandparents. To reduce the amount of luggage we took we decided not to do our Christmas shopping until we got to Phoenix. (At some point near the beginning of December I swear we had all decided that because everyone's money was tight we would not buy any gifts for each other. But apparently the holiday spirit is stronger then the will of the wallet.)
So on top of all our, "you're-in-town-so-you-need-to-come-visit-us-because-we're-family-and-if
-you-don't-you-know-you're-going-to-feel-guilty-about-it" obligations, we also needed to shop for gifts, wrap them and get them under the tree without other family members noticing. We realized there would hardly be any time to hang out with our friends. So we promised ourselves we would visit them on our next trip down.
As the days went by my fantasized vacation slowly started to evaporate. There would be no dropping off Elektra with the grandparents and having a date night with my hubby that included wining the jackpot on the nickle machine at the local casino and celebrating with a big scoop of ice cream at Mary Coyle. (Hey, I'm allowed to dream!)
We did get a chance to have the grandparents watch Elektra for us, but not for a romantic evening out. Instead, we needed to do some more last minute shopping. The whole family had planned to get together for dinner at Linda and David's that night. Near the end of our shopping Ray started receiving phone calls from his mom. Supposedly Caleb and Zack were hungry and getting restless. We were holding up the dinner train and we still hadn't finished buying everything on our list. So we made a mad dash through the aisles and threw what we could find into our cart.
The cell phone was still ringing as we loaded the car and headed to Linda and David's. When we got to the house we parked in front since the carport was full. Rather then waist time opening the garage and going through the garage door we went through the front. We didn't want two hungry boys waiting a second longer then they had to for their dinner.
As the front door opened, I only had a second to notice the lights were out in the house. Then everything went bright as a large group of people crowded into the front room yelled, "Surprise!".
Ray, my sneaky little hubby, had planned a surprise birthday party for me and invited my family and all our friends. The party was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people showed up, especially with it being only a couple of days before Christmas. I discovered later that all those phone calls Ray was receiving was to confirm last minute party details and to check-in on where we were at.
Ray's brother, Frank, served up bowls of homemade chili. There was also chips & dip and of course a huge birthday cake. I think our friends were more surprised then I was when they found out that I never suspected a thing.
Well, it wasn't the jackpot at the casino, or a double scoop of honey banana ice cream, but with over a month of planning, Ray had pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party that was nothing short of perfect.
Monday, February 04, 2008
The Christmas Battle
Christmas 2006 season was complete chaos. It had nothing to do with fighting the holiday crowds while shopping for gifts or dealing with tangle messes of Christmas lights and decorations.
No, I wish it was that easy. Here is a recap from last year: There was the two and a half week energy blackout, the crisis that sent me to the hospital and being surrounded by slippery ice covered hills that made it impossible for this preggie woman to get to her pickles and ice cream.
Now this Christmas, in our new house, we wanted to make up for lost holiday spirit. We didn’t just put up a few lights and decorations, oh no, we went all out, Mattingly style!
We found out that the residents of Willow Glen traditionally put out a small ‘Charlie Brown’ type tree in front of their yards, decorated with a simple strand of lights. So, not wanting to stand out as the odd couple, we purchased a small tree of our own.
(Side story: We had walked up to the store with Elektra in her stroller. Our intention was to buy a couple of items that we needed. On a whim, we saw the trees for sale outside the store and decided to buy one. So here we were in the middle of the night, me holding Elektra, and Ray pushing the stroller that was now carrying a fresh pine tree that seemed to wiggle in the stroller a lot more then an 11 moth old baby. Needless to say we got a lot of strange looks from everyone in the parking lot and on the street.)
Okay, so back to the original story. We pulled out all the decorations we could find and did the usual sorting of what goes where and what needed to be fixed or replaced. The living room was rearranged to fit the tree and the fireplace mantel was cleared in order to set up the nativity scene.
Thanks to a great dumpster dig by Ray, we had accumulated two large wreath swags on polls and about a dozen loose plastic pine garland. We hung one of the polls in the living room and one outside our front door.
The house was starting to take shape and look very festive. I was responsible for the inside decorations, Ray was in charge of the outside, and Elektra was in charge of making a mess.
Every day after work, Ray would come home and work on the lights. The inside window lights went up first. After some torn fingernails, several near misses of the staple gun going through the fingers and many sailor curse words, Ray managed to get the lights in place. Each window was now filled with the glow of pretty blue lights.
Next was the outside lights. We had unopened boxes from the year before and now that we had a ladder, Ray was itching to get the lights up. Of course, after getting all the lights up, Ray realized that we didn’t have an outside power source to plug them in. The lights would have to be plugged into the nearest power source which was the garage. So, happily, Ray announced that we needed to make a trip to Home Depot.
An extension cord, some self-timers for the inside lights and a few strands of lights (hey they were on sale), later, we were back at home and Ray was back to work. We underestimated just how long of a cord we needed to run the lights to the garage, so the next day I went to the store and purchased yet another extension cord.
As Ray finished hanging the lights, our neighbors across the street, which we have so fondly dubbed the ‘college frat house’, started putting up their decorations. They trimmed their house with lights and placed lights in their bushes.
Well, Ray then decided to add lights to our bushes. Then he used some of the pine garland and made a swag going across out gate. And of course the swag had to have its own set of lights. If that wasn’t enough, we also added a big red bow to our garage door.
I had ran out of hooks for the tree ornaments, so we took a walk up to Walgreen’s where I knew they would have some. There Ray spotted the lighted candy canes that you could stick in the ground. They were too cute to resist. So we bought several boxes of them to line our walkway. As Ray planted our candy canes he discovered that we were about a box short of fully lining the walkway, but it was okay, it still looked nice. We had went out that night and on our way back we saw that the college kids had put out a row of cute cut out snowmen that were trimmed in lights all along their banister.
“Oh, look honey. They have cute snowmen on their house.”
“Oh, it’s on now!”
“Now Ray, we’re not trying to keep up with the Jones.”
“Uh-un. They started it. They think they can out due us. They don’t know who their messing with.”
The next day we went back to Walgreen’s to see if they had any more candy canes. We picked up the last box they had as well as two pop-up snowmen complete with their own scarves and hats. We also had to go back to Home Depot to pick up a multi-outlet rod to house the plugs for our lights that were now starting to multiply in front of our house.
Ray set up the snowmen, strung more lights around our bushes and our tree, then added lights to our already garland wrapped banister. Since the snowmen didn’t have their own lights, Ray laid some more lights behind them to make sure people saw our snowmen at night.
Then the college kids put a white artificial tree in front of their house. So once again Ray was out there adding more lights to our tree along with some red ribbon garland and unused ornaments.
Finally came the straw that broke the camel’s back. Driving home one afternoon from shopping, Ray shared with me his plans for next Christmas of putting a big peace sign on our roof top and having our family re-enact the Nativity scene in our front yard. As we pulled up to the house we saw the college kids out in their yard with two light up reindeer and a thick strand of blue lights that they were trying into a shape on the grass to look like a little pond. As I was starting to wonder how much hay would be needed to make our front yard look like a manger, Ray got out the car and walked over to the college kids.
“Okay, I’m throwing up the white flag.”
“Man, we were getting ready to call a truce. You keep adding more stuff, we just can’t compete”
So the battle was over with the results being the best two decorated houses on the block. Of course now I’m thinking of adding a star of David and a life-size lit up menorah to next year’s decorates. Hey, it’s just a thought.
No, I wish it was that easy. Here is a recap from last year: There was the two and a half week energy blackout, the crisis that sent me to the hospital and being surrounded by slippery ice covered hills that made it impossible for this preggie woman to get to her pickles and ice cream.
Now this Christmas, in our new house, we wanted to make up for lost holiday spirit. We didn’t just put up a few lights and decorations, oh no, we went all out, Mattingly style!
We found out that the residents of Willow Glen traditionally put out a small ‘Charlie Brown’ type tree in front of their yards, decorated with a simple strand of lights. So, not wanting to stand out as the odd couple, we purchased a small tree of our own.
(Side story: We had walked up to the store with Elektra in her stroller. Our intention was to buy a couple of items that we needed. On a whim, we saw the trees for sale outside the store and decided to buy one. So here we were in the middle of the night, me holding Elektra, and Ray pushing the stroller that was now carrying a fresh pine tree that seemed to wiggle in the stroller a lot more then an 11 moth old baby. Needless to say we got a lot of strange looks from everyone in the parking lot and on the street.)
Okay, so back to the original story. We pulled out all the decorations we could find and did the usual sorting of what goes where and what needed to be fixed or replaced. The living room was rearranged to fit the tree and the fireplace mantel was cleared in order to set up the nativity scene.
Thanks to a great dumpster dig by Ray, we had accumulated two large wreath swags on polls and about a dozen loose plastic pine garland. We hung one of the polls in the living room and one outside our front door.
The house was starting to take shape and look very festive. I was responsible for the inside decorations, Ray was in charge of the outside, and Elektra was in charge of making a mess.
Every day after work, Ray would come home and work on the lights. The inside window lights went up first. After some torn fingernails, several near misses of the staple gun going through the fingers and many sailor curse words, Ray managed to get the lights in place. Each window was now filled with the glow of pretty blue lights.
Next was the outside lights. We had unopened boxes from the year before and now that we had a ladder, Ray was itching to get the lights up. Of course, after getting all the lights up, Ray realized that we didn’t have an outside power source to plug them in. The lights would have to be plugged into the nearest power source which was the garage. So, happily, Ray announced that we needed to make a trip to Home Depot.
An extension cord, some self-timers for the inside lights and a few strands of lights (hey they were on sale), later, we were back at home and Ray was back to work. We underestimated just how long of a cord we needed to run the lights to the garage, so the next day I went to the store and purchased yet another extension cord.
As Ray finished hanging the lights, our neighbors across the street, which we have so fondly dubbed the ‘college frat house’, started putting up their decorations. They trimmed their house with lights and placed lights in their bushes.
Well, Ray then decided to add lights to our bushes. Then he used some of the pine garland and made a swag going across out gate. And of course the swag had to have its own set of lights. If that wasn’t enough, we also added a big red bow to our garage door.
I had ran out of hooks for the tree ornaments, so we took a walk up to Walgreen’s where I knew they would have some. There Ray spotted the lighted candy canes that you could stick in the ground. They were too cute to resist. So we bought several boxes of them to line our walkway. As Ray planted our candy canes he discovered that we were about a box short of fully lining the walkway, but it was okay, it still looked nice. We had went out that night and on our way back we saw that the college kids had put out a row of cute cut out snowmen that were trimmed in lights all along their banister.
“Oh, look honey. They have cute snowmen on their house.”
“Oh, it’s on now!”
“Now Ray, we’re not trying to keep up with the Jones.”
“Uh-un. They started it. They think they can out due us. They don’t know who their messing with.”
The next day we went back to Walgreen’s to see if they had any more candy canes. We picked up the last box they had as well as two pop-up snowmen complete with their own scarves and hats. We also had to go back to Home Depot to pick up a multi-outlet rod to house the plugs for our lights that were now starting to multiply in front of our house.
Ray set up the snowmen, strung more lights around our bushes and our tree, then added lights to our already garland wrapped banister. Since the snowmen didn’t have their own lights, Ray laid some more lights behind them to make sure people saw our snowmen at night.
Then the college kids put a white artificial tree in front of their house. So once again Ray was out there adding more lights to our tree along with some red ribbon garland and unused ornaments.
Finally came the straw that broke the camel’s back. Driving home one afternoon from shopping, Ray shared with me his plans for next Christmas of putting a big peace sign on our roof top and having our family re-enact the Nativity scene in our front yard. As we pulled up to the house we saw the college kids out in their yard with two light up reindeer and a thick strand of blue lights that they were trying into a shape on the grass to look like a little pond. As I was starting to wonder how much hay would be needed to make our front yard look like a manger, Ray got out the car and walked over to the college kids.
“Okay, I’m throwing up the white flag.”
“Man, we were getting ready to call a truce. You keep adding more stuff, we just can’t compete”
So the battle was over with the results being the best two decorated houses on the block. Of course now I’m thinking of adding a star of David and a life-size lit up menorah to next year’s decorates. Hey, it’s just a thought.
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