The second day of Christmas

An always-generous Madeline let Anna use a pair of her socks this morning. They looked cute in their matching Christmas socks. In case you can't see it, they have frogs on them.

Today was day two of Christmas for us. My sister (the one who is ABD - which for those who are graduate degree illiterate - I include myself in that category - is All But Dissertation, which means she is VERY close to having her Doctorate in Literature) and her already a Dr. of Political Science husband, Greg - whom I call Gregela - came to visit and we had a great time!

Here is Gregela making Madeline's request for our "official" Christmas dinner, dirty rice. We saw Paula Dean making it on a show and Madeline said she wanted it. I told her she'd have to ask her "Parrain" who is the only person I know who makes it. Of course, he said "yes". How could one say "no" to Madeline? For the record, I tried to help by making the rice so it would be ready for him when he got here, making it faster but ended up not only burning the rice but ruining my big pot/pan in the process.
This is Gussie! The cats are not happy that Gussie is here. Gussie is getting on up there in years and she doesn't need to be out in the cold so she came to Auntie Lisa's house to join in the festivities.

This is Tylar and Jon checking out my new Iphone. Oh yeah, it's totally cool.
For Anna, this was a two-binkie day. If you enlarge the picture, you can see she has one in her mouth and one at-the-ready in her left hand.
Sadie in her new head gear.
Madeline in hers along with her new boa, posing with "Parrain".

Pamela with a new toy she got in her stocking, not able to figure it out.

Ahhh, success.

I hope your Christmas season is still in full swing as ours is. We'll have the Wangler Christmas on the 30th this year, stay tuned for pictures from that!

Merry Christmas, 2007!

Merry Christmas, Everyone! This is what our living room looked like before the tornado went through. We had our traditional reading of the story of the birth of Jesus, then checked out our stockings then, the package opening started in earnest.
This was the girls trying not to check out the stockings before we read the bible. Oh, it's so hard to wait!

After reading and presents, we went to church, well, some of us decided to be heathens and stayed home. I won't mention any names...Jon and Aaron. They felt like going to church two days in a row was quite enough for them. Well, Ok, I'll give them that.

Then is was our non-traditional Christmas dinner. Lasagna, garlic/cheese toast, salad, it was delicious, and served in a timely fashion. That's only funny because last night, it took hours for the rice to cook for our red beans and rice and we were chewing off our arms in hunger.

Anna with her new baby who has a bottle with milk in it that looks like it disappears and makes sounds when you turn it upside down. (Thank you, Michele!)
She also got 4 binkies from her brother. Probably the most loved and appreciated gift given (by both Anna and her parents).

This is me when I was asked where Jon and Aaron's gifts from my Mom were. Oops! I forgot to put them out. Yikes~!
OK, you'll have to turn your head for this one, unless you're drunk or asleep on your computer desk. This is Anna at Christmas pagent practice, feeling very comfortable being up on the part that we don't call a stage. She actually got up there and did her part on Christmas Eve and I will try to get that on here tomorrow.

But, now, I'm tired and want to go to bed.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and you were surrounded by loved ones and happy times. May God bless you all!

Fun Christmas webpage

You can go to the following link and have blast from the Christmas past.

http://members.shaw.ca/cybernana/html/funpage/hippoxmas/hippoxmas.html

And, Happy Birthday to my sweet Mumsey! I love you!

Various Christmas activities

So this blog is a little late in coming. Sorry all you curious people, just been a bit busy around here lately. So here's a bit of what's been going on.

On Friday night, we put up the Christmas tree. Jon and Tylar came over and ate with us then helped us decorate our lovely tree. Here's the before picture...

Here's Jon with the beloved "New Orleans Saints" ornament. He got the honor of hanging it this year.

And here's the after picture of the tree...

Yeah, I know, we don't have a top for our tree. I've never found one that reached out and grabbed me. I will one day.

Now imagine it with a large portion of the front missing a bunch of ornaments. Say about the height of one 2 year old who lives in our house and doesn't know how to keep her hands off of things.

On Tuesday morning, Anna's school had their Christmas party. This is Anna in Santa's lap.

She does NOT like Santa or anything else dressed up in a costume.

Then Anna and I joined Sadie and Madeline up at their school for their "Holiday" parties. And because Anna is usually the "picture girl" on this blog, I decided to use a picture of Mads this time, instead. I took this one after the parties on the playground.

And, guess who just got her final quiz grade in and made a 100? Yep, that's me. A far cry from the 34% I made on the quiz before that. But, in my defense, it was about a 4 line dictation and one comma wrong and you fail. The lady at the school said NOONE passes that quiz. Final, here I come! I'll let you know when I pass.

We've been elfed

OK, this was a totally fun thing to do. If you want to do it for your family (max of 4 people) check out www.officemax.com - I don't mind giving them a plug since they let me do this...I think you have to copy and paste this link below to see what I did, it's worth it~!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1466715396

Happy Birthday, Sadie!

Sadie got a gift card to Target today and we happened to be going there for other purposes so she got to shop and chose the "Disney Channel Holiday" CD, much to Madeline's chagrin. "Sadie always gets the discs" she says. Whatever. Anyway, Madeline is enjoying it as much as Sadie and by the looks of this video, so is Anna.

This was the "other purpose" for why we went to Target, the girls' Christmas dresses. Sadie went with non-traditional, but yet still pretty, brown. You can't see her shoes very well, but they're brown, too, and really go well with the dress. The others got theirs, too, they just haven't tried them on yet.

Happy Birthday, Sadie. You are very loved and we are happy you joined our family 9 years ago. We can't imagine our lives without you.

In these last nine years, you have shown us how loving, caring and intelligent you are. School comes easy (too easy, probably) for you. You love to sneak into our bed in the middle of the night and sleep so close to us you practically push us out of the bed. You also make sure your legs are out of the covers right as you fall asleep so that makes for interesting coverage for the rest of us who may be sharing a bed with you. You love your sisters, although you sometimes would rather not show it. You are the one who comforts Anna when we correct her and she cries. We don't always appreciate that, we feel you may be undoing our disciplining, but it is sweet to witness.

This past year, you took your first communion. How proud we were that you took this sacred sacrament seriously and you are enjoying going to Mass with us and being able to take part in the whole service.

You're hard to figure out. When we send you to bed, you take your homework with you so as to put off going to sleep as long as possible. But, if I tell you to go to bed and take your homework with you, you don't. You just go in and go to sleep. Go figure. Lesson learned on my part.

You like to play school but only if you can be the teacher. How many times has Madeline come to me in tears because you won't let her be the teacher? You probably have a career in teaching, I can see that in you.

You also love horses, dogs, cats and you love to take care of your Webkinz online. At least those animals I don't have to feed. Puss-n-Boots is your constant sleeping companion. You almost can't fall asleep without him.

Thank you, Sadie, for these last 9 years of love and joy. You are a special girl with a brilliantly bright future ahead of you. May God direct us to show you your path.

Birthday parades

Today we are having Sadie's birthday party. I say "having" because it's still going on. There are two girls spending the night, one has already gone home (she wasn't spending the night - no hostilities or good gossip there).

Before the birthday party, however, we participated in Arlington's Parade of Lights. How many girls get to participate in a parade as part of their birthday party? Not many, I'm thinking.

While we were walking to where we were to meet with our float, we came across this bevy of Elvi (plural, of course, of Elvis) and since the girls actually said, "oh, look, Elvis!" I asked if I could get the girls picture with them. They were very kind and said "yes" as evidenced by this picture. Sorry about my finger in the way.
This is Mads and Kolton on the ACA float. What a cute float it turned out to be.
From the parade, we took the 3 girls, Sadie and Anna with us to New Yorker Pizza and Pasta where they made their own pizzas then we went to Dollar Tree where each girl got $5 to spend and they shopped their hearts out.

This picture is of Anna "shushing" the girls because they were being loud. Get used to it, honey, it's only going to get worse.

Here are all the girls I'm sure singing some "Hannah Montana" song.
Sadie blowing out the candles on her "cheeseburger" birthday cake. It only looked like a cheeseburger, it tasted like delicious chocolate cake, how disappointing - NOT!
So now, they're playing "supermodel" or "project runway" or some such. I think they're expecting me to be the judge. I'll let you know how it goes.

The honored laid to rest

Today, we buried Aunt Betty and Uncle Ernie. This is the Army soldier who gave the flag to Peggy. The uniformed person behind him is the Navy person who also gave a flag to Peggy. They did everything twice, unfolding and folding the flag, playing taps, presenting the flag. It was very moving.
Then we moved on to the graveside, where Peggy placed both urns of cremains. Madeline added her touch by adding a soldier rubber duck. We gave those to the Veterans who came to the school on "Take a Veteran to school day". She thought they deserved one, too.
This is George's (Conrad's dad) grave marker. He's right across the street from Betty and Ernie. How's that for coincidence?
A view of the cemetery with the flag at half-mast. It really is a beautiful place. Peaceful, even.
This is where Betty and Ernie are buried. It was an absolutely georgeous day. Very appropriate that it was also "Pearl Harbor Day". They both served during WWII.

Celebrating lives well lived.
All the cousins.
Paul and Anita's girls. Since neither of them read the blog, I will tell you I plan to have this picture printed and give it to them for Christmas.
Rachel took this picture of Anna and I in a tender moment.
I guess it was all too much for Hannah. Doesn't she look peaceful?

All in all, it was a very fitting day to say our final goodbyes to Aunt Betty and Uncle Ernie. Georgeous, family gathered, yummy food, love, laughter and full of memories of two lives well lived.

Thank you, Aunt Betty and Uncle Ernie for your service to your country and your love of your family. We will never forget you.

finally the videos

These are the videos I tried to put on here yesterday. They finally behaved and pasted themselves on here. The one on the top is the song Madeline (and her Smart Elf friends) sing and then the one on the bottom is Mads introducing herself.

As a little backstory to the introduction...When she would practice at home she would say her name and what she does for Santa. She has become enamored with jelly beans so I told her she should say (half-joking) that she paints the jelly beans for Santa. Well, it's morphed into she picks the jelly beans.

And, here's a link to a video I was invited to view today. It's amazing what this guy can do, that he is an actual guy singing this song. Amazing and weird all at the same time. Click here to view it.

Christmas cheer

The picture below will tell you why I am tired, ALOT. I was sitting in the next room and had no idea that Anna had the stamp pad. The permanent ink pad. She amazes me with her stealth. The ink pad was on the desk I was at and she still managed to make sure I was distracted enough not to see her get it. This is also why you should never get permanent ink pads.


Miss Persis' Dance Studio puts on "Elf Shows" every year as a community service. Mostly, they go to nursing homes and such. They do get to perform for the Mayor of Arlington, so there are some places besides nursing homes where they perform. This is Madeline dressed as a "smart Elf". Notice the shoes. (That's Miss Persis behind her in the blue shirt.)
Afterwards, they meet and greet.

How cute is she?
This is Mrs. Lily, who was so appreciative. What a lovely lady.





This nursing home just happens to be where Uncle Haymie lived before he went home to be with Lynne and live out the rest of his days in the peace and quiet of the country. (Uncle Haymie was another one of Conrad's uncles.)



OK, I had video of Madeline singing her song, but apparently the videos don't want to load. So, instead of keeping these lovely pictures from you, I will omit the videos and send this blog on out.

Baby Shower, Prison Break

Sunday, we went to a Baby Shower for Ashley and Scott. The Grandmother-to-be is seen in the picture below in the purple shirt and blue jeans. That's Conrad's sister, Dana. I love her! She's always so intuitive and dead on with advice and such a gracious hostess. And, her husband, Sam, makes a great margarita and even better salsa.
The Wanglers always play charades at family get-togethers. This is Madeline trying her hand.
This is the newest Wangler out and about, Eva Brooke. Proud Momma, Esther, doesn't even look like she had a baby six weeks ago. What a beauty (both Esther and Eva)!

Then we move on to today. Last week, they told us that today the dance studio where Madeline takes dance would look a little different. They would be filming "Prison Break" there today. Well, Anna and I "just happened" to get there a little early and "just happened" to get close enough to take some pictures.
This is the mural that was on the side of the dance studio.
This is a picture of them shooting the show. We heard them yell "QUIET!" and "ROLLING!" and then "CUT!". I asked if we could get closer and this guy told me as long as I didn't take any pictures. Well, why don't you just cut off my arms? Anyway, I got closer and saw Dominic Purcell, the star of the show and let me just tell you, he is CUTE! But, oddly, there was a guy who was part of the show but not on it that was just as cute. Sorry, Dominic.
When I was walking back to get Madeline from dance, I saw these people, associated with the show and asked if I could take their picture for my blog. They were very kind and obliging. I wish I had had one of my cards to give them so they could see themselves. Oh well, opportunity missed.

This is while they were filming (while I was still far enough back that I guess it didn't matter if I was taking pictures or not because the guy who told me not to take pictures didn't say anything about me filming). Anyway, you can hear what they say when they finish a scene. The filming is above the vans, if you can see that, then I pan around so you can see what goes on during filming.

This was pretty exciting stuff for "downtown" Arlington. I enjoyed seeing T.V. being made right in front of my eyes.

Thanksgiving, the conclusion

Remember last Thanksgiving? We went over to Paul and Anita's and Paul fried a Turkey and madness and mayhem ensued? I just went to my posts to put a link to last year's mayhem and of all things...it never made it to the blog! I had forgotten the camera and I was relying on others to send me pictures and I guess they never did. Well, suffice it to say, Paul fried a turkey and upon taking it out of the fryer, you guessed it, spilled the whole VAT of grease all over the patio. The only other person out there was Anita and, yes, her foot got burned badly. She had to go to the ER and well, that's the story in a nutshell.



Well, this year, we went over to Paul and Anita's and Paul fried TWO turkeys and you know what ensued? How 'bout some overstuffing of tummies! Yummmmmmm! No spilled boiling hot grease, no skimping on turkey so there would be some left for Paul and Anita when they got home from the emergency room, just slap-happy eating and giving thanks and watching the cowboys tromp the NY Jets, oh yeah, can it get better than that? Here's a picture of the conquering heroes.

Just look at that delicious turkey!
Here's (from l. to r.) Richard, Conrad, Margaret, Peggy, Paul and Eden.
What a happy group! Anna riding Eden's rocking horse.
Uncle Paul holding Maddie Rose (he's the only one allowed to call her that).
And, since there's never any pictures of me on here, I decided to include this one of me and my sweet hubby.

During the Cowboy's half-time show, Anna got jiggy with it.

Again, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving.

And, now, let the Christmas holidays officially begin.