Christmas Morning Madison Style

Well as she usually does...she woke up early. Thank heavens Santa had come. Barely. She woke at 1 am. She was so excited. And you can tell she is used to me because she would open a present and hold it up and smile for the camera :)

I will say she was slightly disappointed that Santa didn't bring her the Season 1 Hannah Montana DVD. She is "SURE" its because he knew someone else was getting it for her. That could be a problem.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me. And I will be away for a bit. We are able to go home after all. So we will be spending the next week in NC with our family!!! I will try and take lots of pics for you guys.

So the question of the day...What did Madison get?? Well she got a kids digital camcorder, a scooter, Disney Channel Scene-It, iCarly charades, a memory card for her camcorder, 2 new outfits, a webkinz lil kinz yorkie, and a stocking full of lip gloss and perfume and lotion.

Merry Christmas everyone. Thank you for being part of my life :)

Here are some pics from our "Christmas Morning".

Oh Christmas Tree....charlie brown style

Charlie Brown has NOTHING on us! Toy sales have kept me hopping ( I think I've mentioned that before??). So we didn't get the basement finished. Which means we couldn't move my inventory downstairs. Which also means we couldn't move my mom to Madison's old room and move my computer to my room. Which culminates in how we couldn't move the loveseat so that we could put up my MONSTER of a Christmas tree. I LOVE my Christmas tree. It is very special. And not just because I stood outside Kmart in Wisconsin in the bitter cold at 4 am to get it for $30. LOL. But more because its huge. And my wide assortment of weird ornaments represent something in my life. Many are from Madison's first few Christmases.

But alas we had no room for the beast. So we had to improvise. This means we dug out my moms little 4 ft white tree. Now it looks just pitiful in our living room LOL. But Madison wanted a tree and a tree she would get. It's not her fault I've eat, breathed and slept Ebay for weeks.

So tonight we pulled out the decorations and we got the tree up. Though "up" seems a bit of a stretch.

So here are pics of our tree. Noone can say we didn't do Christmas. I'm just waiting for snoopy to pop out :)

Oh and the sweetest thing. Madison had bought some gifts at her school santa shop. She has kept them hidden for weeks. As soon as the tree was up she ran in her room and came out with the gifts. They are now under our little tree. Guess I need to get her some gifts under there huh?

I'm dreaming of...

not a white Christmas that's for sure! We have PLENTY of that. There is approximately 2 ft of snow in my front yard. EEK! We actually had a blizzard warning today and they pulled the plows off the road due to whiteouts. They say its the most snow we've had at Christmas in 50 years but I'm not buying it. Other than the blowing snow and whiteouts it doesn't seem any different than every other year. (insert eye rolling smiley here)

But what am I dreaming of? Well to be honest I want to go home. I want to spend the week I had planned with my family. I want to see my grandma for what could very well be her last Christmas. I want to visit with my cousins. I want my aunt to be way too joyful. I want to see the kids that are growing up too fast. I want our whole family together for the first time in AGES.

I think its not too much to ask. I sure have worked hard for it. I've spent the past week and a half literally going non stop. On the days I slept I slept 2 hours. The rest of the time I just didn't sleep. I have worked myself to death. And yet here I sit 4 days before we are supposed to go and I don't know if we can.

I've cried as much as I can cry. All I can do now is pray. But I've been praying and it hasn't gotten me very far. I need the sales to come in tonight/tomorrow so I can go. I am so tired of never being with family on the holidays.

Sometimes life just sucks.

Aren't I positive tonight?? LOL

Spreading the Christmas Joy....

Well I tell ya...its been a rough couple days for me. I've worked myself to absolute DEATH this past week. But today was our planned "friend Christmas day" so I had to fake the Christmas spirit for a while. It turned out I had a good time.

Madison had her BFF Tori over. First they exchanged gifts. Which was a first for Madison but she REALLY REALLY wanted to buy Tori something. So that was neat.

Then I had bought a Gingerbread House Kit from Walmart. Do not let the box fool you!! It is NOT as easy as it looks! Our walls kept collapsing. It was NOT pretty. But I think the finished product is slightly cute although NOTHING like the lovely picture on the box.

After that we decided to make some cookies. Martha Stewart I am not. I always wanted to be the mom that bakes cookies after school. Ummm everyone else prefers I don't. I am NOT a baker. So I buy the mix and just add eggs and butter. I still managed to screw it up at first. Who knew you should put flour on the wax paper to keep the dough from sticking??? Well amazingly enough the cookies are edible. They do however look like they took steroids. Which happens when I make homemade cookies. How did I manage to screw up a mix??

It was a fun day! And it was nice to think about something besides toys for a while. Here are some pics from the day. Ignore the mess in the background. Blame it on toy sales. LOL.

Cheetahlicious!

Well as you may (or may not) know....Madison got tickets to see The Cheetah Girls for her birthday. Well the concert FINALLY got here. I must say we had a GREAT time. It was a mom/daughter date....oops I mean night, madison has told me not to call it a date LOL.

Before I go on to tell you about it....I have to say something. I was in a bind. This concert was the ONLY thing Madison wanted for her birthday. But I couldn't swing the tickets AND the trip to Chicago to see it. A wonderful angel who prefers to remain anonymous stepped in and insisted she help me out. I can't express my thanks enough to her. Without her this would not have been possible. She says it's just what she does. But she made one little girl VERY VERY happy!!

Now back to the concert. We had awesome seats. We could see the stage really well. Now of course just being in The United Center was awesome to me. I tried to take a pic of the flag hanging with Jordan's name/number on it, but it was hidden. But I saw it and thats what matters. LOL.

Ok Ok...Back to the concert. The opening act was The Clique Girls. I thought they were really good. Madison could have cared less. Of course later when we got back to the hotel and she looked them up online and found out one of them was 12....THAT made them cool. LOL.

After them, they had a 20 minute intermission. During which Madison insisted on a photo shoot. My little superstar in training. Well then the Cheetah Girls came on and they put on a GREAT show. It was even better than the Party's Just Begun tour. But the coolest part came about halfway through. The song came to the end and they disappeared down into the stage. We assumed they went to change. Well the Cheetah Boys (the male dancers) did an act and then they came dancing down the aisles. That in itself was exciting. Then all of the sudden we are surrounded by bodyguards. The Cheetah Girls popped up out of a second stage RIGHT BEHIND US. Oh.My.Word. Madison was sooooo excited. Well the guards started making sure people were behind the invisible lines so I knew what was coming. I pulled Madison over to me (I was on the aisle seat) and sure enough the Cheetah Girls came singing down the aisle. RIGHT BESIDE US. It was truly exciting. I think I was as excited as she was. LOL I know. I am weird. Well Madison actually touched one of them.

Anyways the concert was awesome. We had a lot of fun. The bad part was having to walk 4 blocks in the freezing Chicago weather to get to the car. And we had a few brief moments with my brother before we took him home. All in all I rate the trip an A+

Now....as weird as I am....I took over 150 pictures. I was so excited to get good shots I couldn't stop. So indulge me as I share a ton of pictures. Not nearly the 150+ that I took...but a lot none the less.