Christmas 2008 Update

The week before Christmas was a bit more stressful than usual this year. I had a slithery little thing hiding under my bed for nearly seven days. I will admit that it was fun to think up how we might wrap such a gift in order to make a real wow factor. We were worried about the creatures lack of oxygen, we decided to wait and wrap him up first thing in the morning. Besides, we were up late enough as it was, but it wasn't because we were putting anything together, it was because of a long standing Allen tradition. Every Christmas Eve Mark comes up with some new and challenging booby traps to keep the kids from sneaking down to the Christmas tree without getting caught. I must tell you, it really makes gift opening somewhat dull in comparison. It's great to see Mark carry on such a fun tradition from his father, and it is even more enjoyable to hear the kids talk about it in anticipation. Needless to say, we had a great Christmas and yet we are breathing much easier knowing it is all over for another 11 months. Spring is now my dream and focus. Already I am tempted to look in the garden for the peeping of a daffodil, but I have refrained knowing I would only be disappointed. Snow and ice have dropped lightly from the sky now and again to remind me to stop dreaming of blue sky and flowers.

Our creepy costumes for performing Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

I just found this picture and thought you all might enjoy seeing what we might look like if we actually had crawled out of the grave. After teaching myself, I taught five others how to do the dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". To make my sparkly Salvation Army dress look old and haggered, I ripped up the dress and then soaked it in tea and cocoa. I may have looked like death that night, but I smelled of apples and spice tea and chocolate.

New Years Eve and More.

Last night we ditched our darling kids at a friends house for the evening. While Lauren and Garren celebrated the night with fireworks, games and food, we went out dancing. The night held lots of fun for all of us, yet I believe that my age is starting to catch up with me. Staying up until the wee ours of the morning is no longer that fun and exciting. My bed really does seem to call out for me. Although I started to die out when it got late, I didn't actually get home and into my bed until about 2:00 a.m. this morning. Garren and Mark snuck out and played a few night games about that time on unsuspecting friends who deserved a good pay back after last years pranks on us.
When the alarm went off at about 7:00 this morning, both Mark and I could hardly pull ourselves out of bed, and we wouldn't have, but we had previously invited more than 30 hungry mouths (our friends) over for brunch today. Luckily we somehow got all the food ready and the gathering was a great success. The only problem is that now we are expected by those same friends to make it a yearly tradition. I guess sometimes it just doesn't pay to do good...just kidding.