Christmas, part 2

Our "second" Christmas was with a group of friends that we get together with almost every Wednesday (holiday weeks being one of the rare times that we don't get together)! This group of friends deserves a post all to itself, so I won't get into all the specifics of who these people are in our lives. I'll just say that we had our annual Christmas "White elephant" party. For those of you who aren't familiar with what a white elephant party is, it basically means you find something that no one in their right mind would want, wrap it up, and bring it to the party for someone else to receive.

We have rules for the party for this group. (because they were necessary, thats why...)

1) The gift has to come from your own house (no buying something awful at a second-hand store and wrapping that up)

2) Umm...I guess we have one rule

When it is time to open presents, each year we have to come up with a way of deciding who goes first at choosing and opening a present. This is always a point of much discussion. We have used birth months, birth years, and who knows what else. This year the party was at our house, and we decided to use the very sophisticated system of...drawing a number.

So...the first person gets first choice of what gift they open. Then the second. Then the third. Then the fourth. (Do you see where this is going?) The tricky thing is that each person after the first can either choose to steal someone else's present, or they can pick from the yet unopened "treasures". This can be challenging because you may not want what someone else has, but it may be better than the unknown "treasure" to be found in one of the other packages.

Well, without further ado, here are some pics of our fun evening.

 and here are some of the wonderful gifts...

(This one might need some description. This was Mr. Wonderful.

He said things like "whatever you want, dear", and "why can't your mother stay for 2 weeks?")

saddle bags (really don't know the story behind those...)

assorted paper and pens

ceramic bear

hand exerciser

"glee" board game (I now actually own this because I stole it!

It was the debate of which is the lesser of 2 evils. A known gift vs. the unknown...)

"Employee testing kit"

Christmas star that works intermittently

and finally...

a present that has made its way around the group for many years...

the "male birth control" shirt!

The shirt is from Africa, and the words are in French

but the pictures speak for themselves don't you think??

Sorry, I missed some of the people and presents, but this gives you an idea at least.

Thanks to some of our most cherished friends for a great evening!

Christmas, part 1

We have had many phases to Christmas for our family this year, and I feel way behind in documenting them. Our first "Christmas" came when the kids opened their presents from Dylan's older brother (remember Dylan is adopted, and we have the joy of still being close to some of his birth family). The kids absolutely LOVE Trin, and anything from him is absolutely treasured! This year Dylan got a K'nex set, and Aleah got a princess playhouse that you can color.

Oh, actually our first Christmas was opening their presents from Dylan's "Gramma Judy" earlier in the week. Then they got their presents from Trin.

(I think Dylan is excited, don't you?)

Yes, they are opening their presents at a skating rink. Isn't that where you open presents??

Remember that he won?

Well, Dylan's brother and cousin were some of our guests for that day.

Somehow I missed getting any pictures of them.

Probably because they are now 19 and 15!

So, that is the first installment of Amundson Christmases. How many more will there be? I'm not even sure yet. I guess we'll all know when I get to the end of them!

I see Hollywood in our future...

Okay, maybe not, but here are some pictures of our cute kids in their Sunday School Christmas Program.



(Please ignore how badly Aleah needs a haircut!)





Quite a crew! This is just 1st-5th grade
(and is missing the kids on the sides).
The younger kids came in later.





Dylan had a speaking part in the program




He did such a great job!





Aleah did a good job singing her songs, too!

 Sorry, nothing terribly entertaining or witty about the narrative on this post...just not feeling the creative vibe today I guess!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Well, actually he is in town...and we visited him the other day. We are not REALLY a "Santa" family, but we aren't NOT a "Santa" family either. We haven't really told our kids that there is a Santa, and we haven't really told them that there isn't. They are happy for now believing that there is, and that is fine. What we DO tell them for sure? The true meaning of Christmas...the baby in the manger...the reason we give gifts...since He was the perfect Gift.

But...we do try to visit Santa every year anyway, and may I just say...we have THE BEST Santa anywhere. I'll prove it to you, but as you know, a picture says a thousand words, so here are many thousands of words I am sharing with you ;)

One looks a little more excited about this picture than the other...

and that is why he is THE BEST Santa!

Our Story...part 1

I have been trying to figure out how to share our "story" in a way that really tells it well, but doesn't have anyone sleeping or clicking away 1/2 way through it. I think I will write several "installments" and share them at some interval. First up: the dating phase...

My husband and I met in high school (I know, most long-term relationships begin when you are 18...) around Christmas of our Senior year. I was attending a private, boarding school in Minnesota (go to http://www.ffhillcrest.com/ to see the awesome school I had the priviledge of attending for my last 2 years of high school!). My husband-to-be (htb) went to one of our biggest "rivals". We met in the hallway of his high school during a girls' basketball game. (Usually when sharing this in person, at this point people will ask if I played basketball as I am about 5'11. The answer is NO! Have the height, but absolutely NONE of the talent or coordination.) My twin sister and I (tall, blonde, identical twins tended to be a magnet for attention much to our dismay as we were very shy) were being harassed by some boys from the rival school. My htb got pulled into the conversation somehow, and I think it is fair to say that we were both "interested" from the start. Now the tricky part was getting to see each other again. I knew his name, but there were a lot of people with his last name in his town (I checked!). He knew my first name, and that I went to Hillcrest, but that was it. I think we ran into each other at a couple other games through the next couple months. Finally in March, he worked up the courage and called the school and asked for "Alissa" really hoping there was only one! He said later that he had the backup explanation of that I was a twin to help pin down the right girl :).

Realize that he was calling a dorm with 70 or so girls living there, which takes quite a bit of courage at 18! Our first phone conversation involved me using the 1 phone that was available outside of the dorm office perched on the old desks and furniture that was stored in the room. During the conversation he jokingly asked if I had a boyfriend. There was a pause...and I said "well, kind of...but I was planning to break up with him today". Not exactly what you want to hear when you are trying to ask a girl out! His next question will live in infamy. "Well, is he big?" like, "can I take him??". My answer? "Yes". Seriously, the guy was like 6'5 and did not look like a typical high school Junior! Ah, the awkward moments that define our high school careers...

Obviously I did break up with the "other guy" and agreed to a date with Mike. And that is a story for another time...

Healthy...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. This is a chance for us to share our "failures" over the past week or so. Not that we ever "fail" at anything...

You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I certainly did not TOTALLY skip exercising at all this past week. I mean, I had been doing so well. I would never use busy days and evenings as an excuse to not be healthy.

Along the same line...I certainly did NOT forget to bring anything to work for lunch today...and then was NOT too lazy/busy to leave to go get something...so then did NOT eat Christmas cookies (yes, significantly more than 1 cookie!) that a student brought to me today as my lunch.

How about you?

He won!

He won!

a skating party...

 Dylan went to a skating party a couple weeks ago for being on Safety Patrol at his school. They had a drawing for different prizes, and he won a skating party for him and 15 friends. On a Friday evening. By the end of December. So...we made it happen this week. I texted some moms a few days ago, and tonight we had a party! We didn't quite make it to 15 friends, but we had 11 (and 3 moms including me).

My kids...

Well, they both had a lot of fun.

They just show it in different ways...

Aleah's response:

Dylan's response:

and...

He won...

the race

(the blur in the front is him)

and she...

was cute

The End