It is Just Getting Crazy!

If you guys know anything about me, you know that I am a Craigs List Junkie. I have actually had to take a break from it because I would spend hours scouring the adds looking for furniture etc. Anyway, as you are all well aware, we have a Presidential Inauguration in January. Hotels up to 100 miles from DC were booked by the day after the election for this event. Well, some enterprising folks are renting out their homes for the inauguration.....for get this,..... up to $50,000.00 for the week! You know what is crazier???? People are paying it! In a few short searches on Craigs List I found home from as far away as Richmond an hour south of us renting for $10,000.00 for the week. Heck, In Stafford/ Fredericksburg area people are renting 3 bdrm townhouses for $15,000.00 . Perhaps we really need to think about doing this ourselves...only downfall....no hotel rooms available for us to stay at. I guess we could rent out the two spare rooms and the basement for $10,000.00? Right? Humm.... we could even put sleeping bags down in the basement and Carson could sleep with us and we could easily sleep 15-20 people.

Here are a few links to some ads on Craigs List...
Fredericksburg Rental
Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania
Richmond This one includes the guys car!
D.C.
This one is per night!!!

When we were in D.C. last weekend they were already working on the stage in front of the Capital. While this is historical for our nation, I am not looking forward to the huge influx of people that are anticipated. The news media is already reporting upwards of a million to a million and half people. Traffic is going to be a HUGE nightmare! We are NOT planning on going anywhere near D.C. during that week. Now, had this been McCain that had won the election... I would really consider attending at least some of the festivities.

Hello, Cupcake!

If you look at my blog roll on the left, you will see I have them divided kinda by interests, family etc. In the third group down, there is a phenomenal blog called The Sunday Baker. I found Tanya's blog from another website I frequent called Two Peas in a Bucket. That site is mostly scrap booking, but there are several boards for different interests, and I happened upon a posting asking for blogs for crafters, and cooking. Tanya's blog was listed and from day one I have read it religiously, if not daily, at least several times a week. I say all that to let you in a secret..... a lot of bloggers have give aways...or blog candy as many call it. Tanya posted a give-away several weeks back for unusual or favorite recipes. I posted a comment on her blog with my mom's recipe for spaghetti cabonera. Well it won for that particular contest. I was very excited because the give away for that contest was an amazing cookbook called "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Nothing but cupcakes, and the unique ways to decorate for any theme or holiday.

While I haven't had the opportunity to make anything yet.... I will most definitely be making me some cute Christmas cupcakes next week for the Bake sale at Carson's school.

Aren't these Christmas Lights the Cutest Ever!...and they look pretty simple too!

I Love the Nutcrackers...but don't know if I have the patience for them...yet!The snowmen and Christmas trees are adorable and really look doable...just gotta decide what I am doing!!
Thew neatest thing about this cookbook is that most of these cupcakes are not done with fancy equipment, or supplies. Most can be done with simple decorations and using a ziplock as the icing bag.

Drop on over to The Sunday Baker, check out her blog, she has some outstanding recipes, crafts and contests. Oh and I will post pictures when I make my cupcakes.....if they are cute that is.

Starting the Season Right!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Starting the Season Right! *addendum*

Seriously...This cracks me up! I am challenging everyone who reads my blog to Elf themselves and link to each others....lets see how many we can get elfing this year!

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Since we are spending Christmas in Texas, I could not justify spending the day shopping so we headed up to D.C. and went to the newly opened National Museum of American History . This branch of the Smithsonian family has been closed for at least two years for renovations and overhauling and expanding of the exhibits.

They have Julia Child's Kitchen..... Sorry for the flash flare...The Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz, THE Star Spangled Banner (a 3.5 hour line, didn't get to see) Trains, trains, trains and more trains, old cars, and all sorts of transportation from the past. The lines were several hours long to see many of the exhibits so we plan on going back on a weekend when it isn't so crowed...if that is ever possible. What we did see was incredible. The museum is huge.... three stories and at least two city blocks long. Gallery after gallery of Americana at its best. I really felt old when I saw stuff from my childhood, a few short years ago.

Nope the trains are not from my childhood..... I am WAY younger than that!

But because Carson loves trains...we spent the majority of our time there.




Carson rode the El train, from Chicago.
Some really cool old cars.... and I don't know cars, so I am NOT going to guess what this one is. Carson said it was "Doc" from Cars...and I believe Doc was a Hudson....so????

This just reopened last weekend....so needless to say...the place was packed! Fortunately, we walked right in with no lines, however Wayne wasn't so fortunate. He searched for a parking spot for about 35 minutes and met us in the museum....but not before waiting in a line that wrapped around the building and was about two city blocks long. It went pretty fast and he soon joined us. We were literally shoulder to shoulder and butt to butt packed with people in this museum.

I think we are museum junkies.... at least Smithsonian junkies...we have hit almost all of them and a couple of them twice! This one is definitely going to be on the list of we must go back to because we visited two galleries on one wing of one floor...in about 3 hours....way too much to see in one visit.

I Survived!.....

My first Thanksgiving that I had planned, bought, prepared and cooked all by myself. I did not do too bad, if I do say so myself. We bought a huge Turkey (I am convinced that Butterball shoots those turkeys full of steroids or something) it cooked to perfection. Made the dressing...NOT stove top either. Made the cornbread for it on Sunday and had been saving stale homemade bread for a couple of weeks in the freezer. It was really, really good...and all homemade. I baked two pumpkin pies, on Wednesday, along with two apple pies. We had mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce (unfortunately if it doesn't look like the can...some people in my family won't eat it). I candied some yams, made the gravy and we had french cut green beans. We had a couple of guests join us, and they provided great company and entertainment. We have had turkey the past two days... and I STILL have a ton of turkey left.....I am thinking about freezing the meat in smaller bags for sandwiches...because that is the best part...the leftover turkey sandwiches.

Thanksgiving Blessings!

We are so blessed this year in particular, we have our health, home, a wonderful, loving family, friends, both old and new. I wanted to take a couple of minutes and thank God for the many little blessing that I know I take for granted each day. Take time and thank Him for the "little" things in your life...it will really make you appreciate them so much more.

Trains, Trains, and More Trains.... oh and Santa Too!

Yesterday we had plans to got to the model train show here in town. Admission was pretty cheap, so we made an afternoon of it. There were all sorts of trains...tiny models ( I am not a model train aficionado, ask me about Geo Trax... and I can answer you) so I am not sure of the gage of these trains, but I think they were the HO gage.Larger gage and some really big gage trains as well. Carson was fascinated... he has always LOVED trains... and had never seen that many in one place. He was so focused on the trains that I could not get him to look at me for anything! Finally got him to turn around.These photos aren't the greatest quality...was using my little pocket camera, and I am not used to the lag time...so I kept on missing the trains...

I was a complete basket case... they had the trains themselves roped off, but the dealers had some very, very expensive antique engines etc. on the tables. Carson reached over and picked up one, and I about died when I saw the $495.00 price tag on it. I carefully pried it out of his hands, and apologised profusely...The dealers really need to get a clue though... this place was full of kids, an accident waiting to happen. Needless to say we did not spend a lot of time with the vendors.When we first walked in we were all three given a door prize ticket and we weren't there for ten minutes when Carson won a door prize. He won a real nice framed print of Santa and a train at Christmas. We will definitely use it with all our Christmas stuff this year. He was kinda upset that his prize wasn't a real Polar Express Model train....but that just leaves the opportunity for us to consider that for the future if he really shows an interest in doing the models.Right now he is still interested in the TOYS... I don't freak out when he touches these.

Santa was there and I wasn't able to discreetly listen to what he wanted... so I am sure that we will see Santa again soon. I really want to go to Tyson's Corner and see THIS SANTA.
I am 99.99% positive that this was a female Santa... fooled Carson... which is a good thing... cause he is already asking "those" questions.

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program

Last evening was Carson's Kindergarten Program on Thanksgiving. I had the pleasure of attending both performances, one for the school and then the evening event for the parents.

Carson has been practising for weeks, he would recite his poems, and sing his songs wherever we were....the grocery store, a restaurant, the bus stop....anyone, and anywhere. If there was someone within earshot, who he could sucker into listening to him, he would give you the whole run down of every song and poem. He has had them memorized for several weeks so that means that I have them memorized as well. He did such an amazing job and we are so proud of his hard work, but he really wanted his Momo and Papa to hear it. We did video the actual performance, however, I am a bit leary posting videos or pictures of other peoples children without their permission. So we did the next best thing and he repeated all of them for them via my trusty little camera. ****Disclaimer**** If you are not a member of my immediate family or a close friend, you are free to go back to your regular blog reading. This may be a bit on the sugary side for some of you.....just kidding...enjoy! Oh, disregard all the "stuff" on the counters behind the boy, Carson insisted that this was where he had to sing his songs.

I am sure that we are in for lots of performances in the years to come, and this one wasn't even his first....It was however, the first one HE was excited about and looking forward to.

Oh and a little note...Kindergartners are not known for long performances... this one started at 7 p.m. and the final bow was at 7:09 p.m.

He wouldn't sing the cutest song because it wasn't done with the piano...it was done to a soundtrack and he said that he can't do it without the other kids to do the gobbling in echo... I offered...but it wasn't the same.

Side note to Momo and Papa... be prepared... he will have you guys all singing this too when we get there!

Christmas is in the Air!!!

Wayne and I are having a bit of a disagreement over decorating for Christmas. We donated our Christmas tree before the big move and have yet to purchase a new one. So while I do have a small back-up tree, I won't be able to put up my millions of ornaments on this one tree. Here is where we disagree a bit, I plan on doing all my normal decorating, even though we will be spending the holiday in Texas. We fly out on the 21st, but we HAVE to make it exciting for Carson until then. He was already panic stricken this summer when he realized that our house doesn't have a fireplace for Santa to come down. We are going to write Santa a letter and remind him that Carson will be at Momo's and Papa's for Christmas and they have a fireplace. Wayne doesn't think I need to haul out all my Christmas stuff.....whereas, I am wanting more....more, and still more. My favorite time of the year. Just because we wont be here for the last nine days of the month, doesn't mean that the holiday should not be decorated for....right??? I might have to start decorating next week to get as much mileage out of it as possible.

I am also ready for fun stuff to do as a family to kick off the Christmas season. I have been asking around for some of the things that the "locals" do. There is the Christmas Parade, I am assuming it is a lot like the Electric Light Parade in Amarillo, but this one goes through the Historic district of downtown Fredericksburg. A real Victorian era Christmas. We are gonna hit this for sure.

There is a model train show coming up this weekend as well as the second weekend in December that we are planning on attending.

One of the things that we are really looking forward is the Santa Train. The VRE, Virginia Railway Express, announced today that it will be having their annual Santa Train. (Info here) From what I understand this is a hour long train ride that you can ride to go see Santa. It is only run one day a year, and everyone tells me we have to get our tickets early as they sell out fast. This will be a wonderful surprise for Carson.....he adores the Polar Express, so this should be a blast.

I would also like to head into D.C. on evening or weekend to see the capital and all the other areas decorated for Christmas. I don't even know if they do it or not, but I would love to see it at night.

Perhaps the most exciting thing we are doing is driving to Baltimore on the 21st and getting on a plane to fly to Amarillo...We are way beyond excited!
So even though Thanksgiving is still more than a week away....I am ready for Christmas!