Can a Picture Be Worth 1,000,000 Words?

Santa 2013

My kids are Santa pros. Gotta love em! Here are some, but not all, of the years past…

2012

2011

2010

2009

My Famous, Dead Neighbor

Another Year, Another Obnoxious Christmas Menagerie On Our Lawn

I think that a part of what makes decorating our house so much fun for me and SOB is pondering what the neighbors think about it. When we first started with the insanity decorations, we were back in Philly in an orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Luckily, someone there was kind enough to tell us what they thought. Then we moved to WV, to a nice, quiet, tasteful community. Until we came along!

Now we are here in the south hills of Pittsburgh. Our neighborhood has a reputation for being a little snobby, which can be daunting at times. However, there are enough people here who don't take themselves too seriously, and that more than makes up for the snobbery. Our house in located on a very visible intersection, and so we knew we had to do it up right this year, especially since we didn't do so much last year. It was done in stages over three separate weekends, but it is done! And it is a delightful smorgasbord of tacky insanity.

The kids love it. And guess what? So do the adults!

Tapped Out

So far this week, we've gotten new windows, we've sort of gotten the basement painted, had one kid with food poisoning, had one kid with a stomach bug, had one parent with a sore throat, got caught in a rain storm during a run, had 14 different kinds of leftover turkey, watched 45 painful minutes of The Sound of Music Live, and made one cat traumatized, possibly for the rest of his life.

In the interest of maintaining a positive attitude, I'm going to go hide in my bedroom with a big, giant bottle of champagne. See you monday!

Turkey & Stuffing 2013

We've been doing this for a long time now! If you have the time and the interest, here are all of the old ones, including some out takes. Scroll down to see the newest addition to our collection!











And finally, the new one!

My Name Is Amy and I Am Old

As I sit writing this, I have a big, old fashioned red rubber hot water bottle strapped to my low back. Why? Because last Friday I thought I'd be a good mother and take my kids ice skating. Even though she seemed to hate it last year, Maggie begged to be taken along. I hemmed and hawed over whether I should take her. I knew if it was just the big kids, we could skate around and have fun, but with Maggie there, she would have to be my main focus. Her enthusiasm won me over, though, and I suited her up in some snow pants and we headed out.

At the beginning, before we got on the ice, she was still very optimistic. But when we got out there she kind of fell apart. Learning to skate on hockey skates is tough, and she fell about a dozen times in the first five minutes. At that point, all she wanted to do was hang on me, and have me literally carry her to and fro. I was letting her hold my hands to skate her over to the bench for a rest, and she got tripped up on her own feet. All of a sudden she yanked on my hands in a weird, turn-y way, and I felt a lightening bolt of pain shoot up my back. And so now I am that lady, who is always grabbing her lower back and moaning and looking for hot water bottles and heating pads and taking ibuprofen round the clock. 

On the plus side, since there was no way in HELL Maggie was holding my hands after that point, look what she figured out: 

Was it worth the pain I am still experiencing? Not really, but watching this helps at least a little!