It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Happy December everyone. I've been woefully neglecting my blog lately, so I thought I would try (and the operative word is try) to blog every day this month about things I find wonderful. We'll see how it goes.

The first thing I want to write about is, as cheesy as it sounds, the reason for the season. I know I am not always demonstrative about my faith. We all communicate things differently, and while I feel like I do miss opportunities at times, I am definitely getting better at being open and vocal about it. But hopefully not in an obnoxious way. There are enough obnoxious Christians in the world to go around.

I love Christmas. The fun, Santa, snowmen, trees, gifts, family, stockings, cookies, hot chocolate, shopping, excitement part of Christmas. As I've previously stated, I'm a fan of pomp and circumstance, and there are definitely parts of Christmas that fit in. Its so great to see Quinn's face get excited when he sees the lights on houses or the decorations at the mall. Its great to be with friends, have fun, and enjoy all the minutae of the season. But I truly love the Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Bethlehem, angels, wise men, manger, shepherds, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John part of Christmas. The first part wouldn't exist without the second. So much good as come to the world and to me because of the birth of one baby, and for that I am eternally grateful. Agree or disagree, its what I believe. I will gladly talk about it with you, but I don't want to argue or be called names or be forced into a stereotype that I personally do not fit into. And I will show you the same courtesy. To me, this is what makes the entire season so wonderful.

Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given

and the government will be on His shoulders.

And He will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Might God

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

Happy Thanksgiving! Oh wait...

That was like a week ago, right? Well, things around here have been crazy, so I haven't had much of a chance to update, so I'm doing it now. Better late than never, right?

Thanksgiving was very nice this year. We spent it at Ross' sister Bridget's house and it was a great time and we had one delicious turkey cooked by Bridget's husband James. Seriously good. The next day was the beginning of the whirlwind, as my best friend Joy got married on Saturday. And what a time it was.

Friday I got up and went to Barnes and Noble and Target. I wasn't going to go out, but Joy asked me to pick up some wine for her honeymoon, and since there was a Black Friday deal I wanted at B&N, I went. For the first time ever. And it wasn't so bad. I was around 8 and home around 9:30, so not bad. Then we left for the rehearsal lunch and rehearsal. I was a bridesmaid and Quinn was a ring bearer, so I've been prepping this for a while. It was a beach wedding and since Quinn LOVES the beach, there could have been issues, but I think the rehearsal helped.

After the rehearsal the entire bridal party and some extras went to stay the night at the Postcard Inn on St. Pete Beach. Super cute little boutique hotel. Not the family friendliest, but still super cute. As Ross said, it is probably the place to be at spring break and during the summer.

The next day was a swirl of getting ready and pictures and the actual wedding. Quinn wasn't perfect, but for a 3.5 year old, he did pretty good. It was an absolutely perfect day weatherwise, and the wedding was awesome. I'm just happy to see my friend marry someone so wonderful for her. And he's definitely a lucky guy too! Congrats Joy and Creagon, I love you both!

And here are some pictures...

After the rehearsal we hung out on the beach at the hotel. Quinn so wanted to go in, so we let him...in his underwear. We really didn't think he would stay in for as long as he did. That kid loves the beach.

During pictures at the hotel the next day, the beautiful bride.

Mommy and Quinn looking adorable.

First dance

Some of the most awesomest friends I could hope for.

3 More Books

At the beginning of the year I was doing pretty good with book reviews, and I've kind of let that slack lately...like everything else. So I thought I'd write up three quick ones, for all of those that I'm sure are incredibly interested.

I read Outlander in a kind of trade with my friend Kate. I would read Outlander if she would read the first Harry Potter. While I did end up liking Outlander, she definitely got the better end of that deal. Outlander is a historical fiction book set in Scotland at various times in the past. I don't want to give too much away, but there's some crazy time travelin' and even crazier relationship building. While the crux of the story was good, there was a whole lot of exposition that was a bit unnecessary, if you ask me. Wordy is a good word for it. But overall, I liked it enough to possibly read the next book in the series at some point in the future.


This is a book I probably should have read a while ago, but just haven't. It is a classic, and rightfully so, although I don't really see the suspense part of it. There was some, but not enough for me to label this a Romantic Suspense book, as it states on the cover seen above. I did like the whole unnamed narrator thing, I named her Daphne in my head. Again, another book I liked enough, but maybe not as much as a lot of people.

I read this because I've read all the others. It was easily the worst book of the series, but I knew what I was in for. I like the series, so I liked this. And it didn't take me long to read it, so bonus.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Mike Wazowski! This was the first year Quinn picked out his own costume, and he was so excited to wear it. He really looked adorable. He had a great time at his school's Book Character Parade on Friday and Trick or Treating tonight. And yay for candy !?!

Here he is at school...

And here he is with all his cousins before Trick or Treating. There was no way we could get them all to look at once.
Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Happy Birthday Nana!!

We all love you and hope your day is great!!

Soccer and Cookies

Quinn started the Tri-Sports program at our local Y on Thursday. They do 3 weeks of soccer, 3 weeks of tee-ball, and 3 weeks of flag football(!). He had a few meltdowns, mostly based on some other kid taking the ball he deemed his, but once they started playing an actual "game" he really got into it. He was running after the ball, kicking it, all that good stuff. It wasn't really at the goal, but it was definitely something. Plus his friend Ellie was on his team, which he really liked. While I'm hoping for a soccer/tee-ball/football star, I'm just glad he likes it so far.

A few weeks ago I found some fall cookie cutters and sprinkles at Target and decided to make some cookies with Quinn yesterday. Making sugar cookies from scratch is no easy thing. Ok, making the actual dough is easy, its the rolling and cutting that kind of sucks. But we did the best we could and ended up with about 10 cookies. Quinn was very excited to help, especially the sprinkles part. And they ended up tasting pretty good!

The finished product!

Our "Vacation"

Last weekend we were able to go over to Disney for the weekend. As I've stated in the past, we are so lucky to be able to have passes and I do hope someday Quinn knows just how lucky he is to live here. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside, which was really nice. I definitely recommend it to anyone coming to Disney. We got there on Friday just in time for their nightly marshmellow roasting event! That made Quinn and Ross very happy!

We hung out there that night, eating and watching the end of the Lion King on an inflatable screen. Quinn thought that was cool.

The next day we continued just hanging out, going swimming and to the neat playground they had. Quinn even went down the waterslide with me. Just once though, since we got yelled at by the lifeguard because it was supposed to be one at a time. Oops, oh well.

After lunch we went back to the room and napped and then that night we went to Magic Kingdom. Even though we go fairly often, we always find new things to do. We went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor this time, which Quinn loved. He is going to be Mike Wazowski for Halloween, so this just made him crack up. He slept well that night!

The next day we checked out, but not before taking a picture of Quinn outside the first hotel room he ever stayed in.

Then we were off to Hollywood Studios for the Play and Dine breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. We got there late and they almost didn't let us in. But hopefully Quinn's cute face and Pluto hat helped, because we got in. Now most of the characters at this breakfast Quinn didn't care about. But he did care about Handy Manny. It took him a while to get to our table, but once he did, it was so wonderful. The waitress told him that Quinn was very eager to see him and Manny made sure to spend some extra time with him and pointed out how happy he was that Quinn had his Handy Manny doll. Then he came back with a special card for Quinn that said he was an awesome new friend. Then during the dance party Manny took Quinn by the hand and danced with him for the whole time. Quinn was just so happy. That made it all worthwhile.

After breakfast we went over to Epcot for Food and Wine and to meet some friends. We had a great time, as always. Quinn has recently started watching Finding Nemo and was really excited about the Nemo ride, which we went on twice. He especially loved the statues of the characters outside. Here is Quinn and Nemo together.

And here he is with Bruce!

I'm so happy with our weekend, we all had a great time. I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again soon.