Blattman Chronicles

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Rands this year again.  Another year of successfully enjoying lots of great food, fabulous company and fun games!

We started putting up the decorations the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Due to my extremely late Thanksgiving night coupled with a touch of morning sickness, I sat out on the 3 am sales.  We took a quick kid’s shopping trip at 10 and then spent the rest of the day decking our halls.  Hudson and Annie were so helpful and very willing to help!

Will was sweet enough to finally let me get a real tree.  It fits perfectly by the front window

Amber and I did the Turkey Trot again this year the morning of Thanksgiving.  Will missed snapping our photo finish, but the guys were present to be our witnesses.  I love that the guys give us so much love and support!  I chalk Will’s confusion up to the fact that we were able to shave several minutes off last year’s time.  He just wasn’t expecting us so soon.  In all honesty, our speed wasn’t earth shattering…and in Will’s defense, the guy next to him was chatting him up about cameras.

Hudson and Oakley got to run the kids’ Mile race this year for the first time.  I was so proud of them.  They ran hard and they finished!

It was a great way to get Thanksgiving off to a running start.    Thanks to Amber for letting her cute family enjoy the day with us.  This was just another reminder of how much I love my family and how supportive they are of me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is one of the few times,  I think my camera picked up a little too much detail…or flaw is more accurate. So maybe I should have pulled the hot glue spider webs off the ball before I snapped the shot.  I’ve been having so much fun finding different types of ornaments to make for our tree this year.  This would be ornament type #2.  It’s made from 20 1″ circles(I used a punch).  It’s not difficult to do, but a little more time consuming than the Borax snowflakes.  I used hot glue to stick everything together.  Looking back, I will probably be adding little rhinestones to the corners.  Just look at the ball.  Let’s face it, it needs a little something right where all of the circles meet.   I found that Memory Makers had easy to follow instructions.  You will have to use the search bar out the the side and type in ornaments.  You can download specific instructions(If you do use her instructions, I suggest that you keep her circle folded as a triangle in step 6 and then just fold your other circles around the triangle template.  It just adds an extra step to draw the triangles onto each circle).

I think this might be the year we retire our wickedly, awesome college tree.  With that being said, I realized I was going to be in need of some fun ornaments when we get our new tree.  Then I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you just make your own.”  I scoured the internet and my brain to make a list of ornaments that I want for our tree this year.  This is the first item on my list.

I used to have my second graders make Borax snowflakes like these.  They are easy to make and they turn out super sparkly.  The picture doesn’t really do it justice, but I swear there is good sparkle.

If anyone is interested, you mix 3 TBS of Borax for every cup of hot water.  I usually boil the hot water 1st and then mix in the Borax.  For those of you thinking, “What in the world is Borax?”  It can be found by the other detergents in the cleaner aisle(20 Mule comes in powder form, look for a turquoise box).  I dump the mixture into a bucket and dangle pipe cleaners (bent into the snowflake shapes) into the  bucket.  I used fishing line as the means of hanging.  The ambiguous  ”they” say the flakes need to sit over night, but I find that 3-5 hours is sufficient.  I have found that the hotter the water, the bigger the crystals are when they form.  I’m wondering if there is any correlation there to the amount of time it takes for the water to cool.  Cooler water tends to create smaller crystals and sometimes results in powdery residue.   Jim?!

I love when random comments or events happen that remind you how much you LOVE being a mom!! I must be lucky because it has happened twice this week.

Event #1

The kids and I are in the car headed to the beach.  After being in the car for 2 minutes, the following conversation takes place.

Hudson:  Mom are we at the beach yet?  I have a headache!

me: No Hudson, we just pulled out of the driveway.  We won’t be there for another 15 minutes.  Do you even know what a headache is?

Hudson:  Moooom, a headache is when your head hurts and my head hurts.

me:  Where does your head hurt?

Hudson:  Well, I always get a headache when we are supposed to be there.  I have a headache so we should be there already.  My head hurts all over it.

Annie:  I have blonde hair all over my head.  Sometimes I just call it yellow!

Event #2

Annie and I were walking through the Christmas department of a store a few days ago.  We had the following conversation:

Annie:  Oh mommy, it’s Jesus!

me: What?!

Annie:  Can I hold Baby Jesus, please, please, please?

me: Um, sure you can.  Be very gentle.

stroking his belly and head softly…

Annie: Oh, he is so darling!

Needless to say, I was thankful they were selling pieces of the nativity separately so we walked out of the store with a Baby Jesus.  I couldn’t possibly make her return him to the shelf after that.  I found it a little funny as we were checking out.  I glanced up at the register’s monitor as the clerk scanned the baby.  I felt very awkward seeing, “Jesus $2.00.”  I stood their with mixed emotions wanting to laugh and be horrified at the same time.  I just bought Jesus for $2.00. I felt extremely blasphemous.  Come to think of it…I still do, to a degree.