Our LOOOOOOOOOOONG Trip to NC

Well our trip down was extremely long and very eventful! About 2 hours into the trip we hit ice. Not unusual in Michigan. We slowed down and decided to move along because we would pass it.

NOT.

Turns out an ice storm hit northern indiana, southern michigan and northern illinois.

By the time we got to South Bend Indiana we were on a solid sheet of ice. Driving at around 10 mph because of course we were sliding all over the place. Finally my brother decided to take an exit.

Not the best idea. We got stuck. And there we sat for 3 hours. Along with everyone else. Someone else thought they were past the problem and went up the exit sliding and hit another car. Which brought the cops. Which he slid up the road. Notice his position in the below photo? It wasn't intentional.

We almost got hit by several people, including a snow plow. Eventually we got up the exit, got some breakfast and decided to move along.

Past South Bend we couldn't get anywhere. They had all roads closed.

We gave up (me very resistantly) and got a hotel. So our 14-16 hr trip took like 2 1/2 days.

Here are a couple of pics from our being stuck.

I will say the hotel was AWESOME. It had the MOST comfortable beds I've ever been in. I'd love to go back and sleep there again. Maybe under better circumstances. LOL

Our Small Family Christmas

I have to say our small family Christmas was nice. My brother arrived and we had a big ham dinner with all the fixins. Then it was time to do gifts!

First I have to share my gift from Madison. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I needed it sooooo bad. I was using a broken chair that I fell out of daily. So her dad took her shopping for me, nana and uncle moose and this is what I got:

Then here are some of Madison opening gifts:





Had to get a picture of the Barbie while she STILL had clothes on. This is proof that the dolls ARE dressed when they enter my house LOL
And I took a big chance on Madison's gift. I wasn't sure what to get her and I thought she would really like a piano keyboard. But I wasn't positive. Well looks like it was a success!
Nana opening her gifts!



And of course Sophie had a present. Bear and Sebastian were elsewhere and we couldn't get them in to open gifts. But Sophie really enjoyed hers! (they each got bags of treats!)

And as always uncle Moose had to make a big production of opening gifts. Or maybe that's for the camera?? LOL. But it was funny because Madison packed his gift (a watch) in a large box and then threw a bunch of junk in the box. So he had to dig through all the trash to find his present. And in true Moose fashion there was a commentary along with the unpacking (example..he pulls out a straw...he says Are you trying to say I suck?)





And dad opening his gifts. Well sort of. One of dads still needs to be ordered. Oops. Mom will get right on that.

And I didn't take pictures of Madison murdering us at Scene It or any of that. But I did get pics of her trying out some of her other gifts:

Prepare yourself

For picture OVERLOAD. I am home. And I have pics to post from our small family christmas with my mom, brother, madison, me and Brian. Then I have a TON of pics from our trip to NC.

So prepare to be bombarded with photos.

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.