Our Christmas Spirit ~ or lack thereof.....

Sitting here on Christmas Eve and it doesn't seem like Christmas.  We have no decorations inside nor out, and most of all, no Christmas tree.  Well, I lie.  We do have a Christmas tree...

Ok, ok, we know that it is a ceramic tree with some of the lights missing, but at least it's a tree.  It is not like we are being Scrooges' this season, we have had so much going on that it did not make sense to put up a tree for 2 days.  We had the carpet and flooring laid on Monday and Tuesday this week and putting up a tree for just a couple of days seemed foolish.  The kids are older and they know that it is not about the tree or the decorations.... it's about the presents (LOL).  We told Jacob that since it's a tiny tree that there would be tiny presents under it.  He didn't buy it.  It was really difficult getting into the spirit this year for so many reasons.....  too many to list here!

But we are trying to get in to the spirit.  Right now, we have on the first airing of the night of "The Christmas Story".  And the turkey is hanging out in the brine to be fried tomorrow.  We started a new Dudley family tradition tonight, we made homemade dumplings and fried rice.  Scott and I figured that since we will have authentic dumplings next year why not start today.  Jacob helped to make them and Scott did the rice.  It was pretty yummy!  

Jacob is tracking Santa on the noradsanta.org site waiting patiently for him to get to his house (with the tiny presents).  I'm waiting for them to go to bed to start (yes, start) wrapping presents.  Our tradition is that there are no presents under the tree until Christmas morning.  I don't know why we started this 12 years ago, but we did.  Growing up we had presents under the tree, just not the ones from Santa (which of course did not get delivered until Christmas Eve after my brother and I went to bed).  I guess parents do the weirdest things.  

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!  Remember what the season is about...  it is about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Flooring & Home Movies

So much has occurred the past week, let me catch you up.  We met our second realtor on Saturday ~ wow, what a difference.  On Saturday, we called and set up an appointment to meet with another carpet rep, also our second estimate.  Monday the fine people from Carpets Direct (a local, family owned business) came to the house and gave us an amazing quote for the entire house.  Let's just say that the first quote from Empire (name used to protect you from foolish purchases) was $2000 more than Carpets Direct and we are laying new flooring in the kitchen.  The new flooring will be laid on Monday and Tuesday next week.  The house is going to look so different.  Scott Patrick, our realtor from Keller Realty, will take interior pictures once we get the new flooring down.  We are very pleased so far with our second choices.  

Also over the weekend we started going through Scott's closet.  We found home movies from when the boys were little.  When we put in the first VHS tape (do they still make those?) into the VCR the boys were mesmerized.  Jacob kept laughing at Warren and Warren kept laughing at Jacob, ahh, brotherly love.  They also found it funny how young we looked and how much hair their dad had.  Hahaha!   We also noticed that our cats (Homey, who is in Cat Heaven and Lucky cat) used to rule the roost.  In every shot there is either one or the other sprawled out or batting a toy around.  It's quite funny to see how simple life was back then.  Scott is in the process of transferring the VHS to DVD as we speak.  Who needs prime time TV when you have home movies from the 90's.  

We have a lot of work to do over the next few days to get ready for new flooring.  We have told the kids that it is spring cleaning times 100.  We have 24 plastic bins that we are able to stack in the garage to help us get organized.  We also plan on several trips to Goodwill and a large garbage load next week.  The weekend is sure to be busy yet very productive.  

Tis the season for fruitcake

I cannot believe that it is December the 5th.  How time flies.  I did my Christmas cards tonight for our friends and family who live out of town.  It was hard to get started with the holiday list this year for some reason.  We watched the fruitcake episode on Good Eats tonight, I guess that means that I need to get my act together and get out the Brandy!  For those of you who have never received one of my infamous fruitcakes, the process is a labor of love.  I've been making them for years, and every year I say the same thing, "is it good, or are you just being nice?"  Everyone likes the mini loaves, but sometimes I wonder ~ I tried it once, only once.  

I guess the reason I'm having a hard time this year is because of the time frame.  I realized the other day that we only have approximately 12 weeks until the relocation process becomes reality.  And two of those weeks Scott will be in Germany and China.  Can you say, "holy cow, batman!"  I told him the other day that I think that Dallas will be in the Super Bowl because he will be in China on February 1st.  He was not too impressed with my Jimmy the Greek impersonation.  

The holiday season is off and running, I hope it does not run by too fast.  

You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

Let me preface this by saying that today's message will be not for the casual reader.  Instead of a blog, I'm calling this a "b-itch".  Sorry in advance if that offends anyone, but that is what tonight's read will be.  

First off, today is December 3, and "A Christmas Story" is on for the first time (that we have noticed anyhow).  I am including this because my dear husband is quoting almost every line before it is said, argh!  I think there is football or something on satellite somewhere.    

Second, we met with our former realtor tonight.  Yes, former realtor.  We originally met with her (and I will not use her name to protect the innocent) before Thanksgiving.  She had scheduled an appointment on one night but had to cancel because of a migraine.  Ok, maybe.  The next night she showed up late with jeans and a sweatshirt on.  Ok, maybe we should have had the light go on then?  Over the Thanksgiving holiday week, we were not in town, but she told us that she would have "the sign" in the front yard on Friday and meet up with us on Saturday when we got home.  I called her when we got back in town, left a message "expecting" (expectations, who would have thought?) for her to return our call and meet up with us.  Yea, right.  On Monday, I called again.  This time leaving one of "those" messages on her voicemail.  It's amazing when you leave one of those messages, the return call is very prompt.  She told us a story about thinking that we were out of town until this weekend ~ why? we have kids that go to school (again, the light did not go on...) and she was going to put the sign in the yard this upcoming Friday (blah blah blah).  She agreed to meet us at the house tonight at 4pm to go over the paperwork and sign the contract.  Well....  she called me at 3:45 asking to move it back to 5:30, then called again asking for 6:30, then at 6:30 called and told me where she was.  Finally, she got to the house at 7pm and we had had enough.  I told Scott that I was not getting the warm fuzzy's from her and that we need to kick her to the curb.  He agreed (I know, like he had any choice!).  ~ I don't get feisty too often, but when someone really takes advantage of the situation or does not treat me or my family right, you better watch out.  We are currently taking applications for a real estate agent.  Those who can and will sell our house please step up.

I thought it was a pain to sell a house, no one told us that finding a realtor was a pain also.   

Thank you for reading this far in the post.  It was therapy for me to write it out.  I hope you enjoyed reading about my misery!!  

December 2

For those of you who live in Georgia...  Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, December 2.  It is a very important runoff election.  

Go and do your civic responsibility, again!!

Terra Cotta Warriors

The family and I went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors last week.  WOW!!!  Definitely worth the money, and I would recommend the audio tour.  The High Museum is a great place to see an exhibit ~ you can see the other exhibitions within the High for the price of one.  And if you get the audio tour, it works for all the galleries.  Your tour guide for the audio tour is a warrior named Chip.  You will be able to "meet" him as you enter the gallery.  Chip will walk you through the exhibit and tell you a story.  If you are not familiar with the TCW, then Chip will be very informative and will make the tour all the better.  And if you know about the exhibit, the audio tour will be entertaining.   There is a child and an adult audio tour ~ you can hear both versions with the same headset.  All in all, I would highly recommend this one! 

After seeing this exhibit, we are all very excited to travel the Museum of the Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses in Xian sometime during our relocation to see the excavation site and the other warriors.  It is about a 12 hour train ride from Suzhou, and the train ride in itself will be an educational experience for us.  

Not a "real" warrior

We were not allowed to take pictures, so this is the next closest thing!