Christmas Uno

Just stopping in for a second to share some pictures. Corbin and I are off tomorrow to meet up with my parents and head down to Kentucky. We are renting a house with Breanna and her family, Sylvia and Rich, Trevor (Breanna's brother) and Viola (Sylvia's mom). Oh, and some dogs. Nate isn't coming, as he has to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It will be much less fun without him, but I know he's happy we are able to go.
Anyhow, because we will be gone for Christmas, we had our family (Nate, Corbin and I) Christmas today. Santa got the message to come a little early, and we had a nice time opening presents, eating lasagna, and hanging out together. Here's a few pictures from the day.






He really loves his Yo Gabba Gabba couch. He likes to point at all the characters and make us say their names. Over and over and over.

And a couple from playing out in the snow at Uncle Mark and Aunt Diane's.


I hope all of you have a Happy Holiday! Best wishes from all of us.

I'm a sucker for the Muppets

Tonight there was a new Muppets Christmas special on, and it was fantastic. I had forgotten how much I love the little guys. I tried to keep Corbin up to watch it with me, but he crashed halfway through (amateur!). He seemed to like them, though. Here's my favorite guy, Pepe....


Is he not the cutest thing? He left his life as a chef in Madrid to become a star in Hollywood. According to Pepe, "There were one too many close calls in the kitchen. I was mistaken for an appetizer, okay." Love him.

The movie was pretty simple. The Muppets had a pile of letters to Santa that needed to be delivered, it was Christmas Eve and the post office was closed, so they had to take them to the North Pole themselves. There were a few songs, a few guest stars. The bear (I forgot his name and wikipedia keeps showing me Fozzie. It's not Fozzie) was airport security and Nathan Lane was his cohort. At one point the Muppets were at the North Pole, and snow started falling, things started moving, and there was Santa in his sleigh!!! (Um, I hope I didn't ruin that for any of you. :P) I'm such a dork, I was watching from the kitchen while loading the dishwasher, and I just get this huge silly grin on my face. Santa!!!! Even at 28 (8??!?!?), I still love the fat man.

I've been trying to teach Corbin who Santa is. Relax, I talk about the Jesus part too, but at 17 months old a fat guy in a red suit carrying presents is way easier to understand. Anyhow, for Christmas this year "Santa" (Granddad) will be visiting the children, so my mom sent me a picture to try to get Corbin used to the idea. I show him that picture, as well as a video on Youtube about finding Santa. Now the kid is obsessed. On the video, when Santa comes up into view he starts pointing and shouting. When we are in Walmart he points at every Santa blow up, Santa book, Santa ornament, and Santa candy he can see. I can only imagine that when he meets Santa on Christmas day, he will be terrified. :P

Here's a couple of shots from today. He refused to smile for either of them, so you'll have to take what you can get. In the first one he's wearing a hat and messenger bag that cousin Carmen sent us yesterday. He's so metrosexual, right? In the second one he's showing his belly to the fish. It's good cause that involves two of his favorite things.... fish and showing his belly to things. He's a strange duck, sometimes.

Snow, Trees and Sniffles

So it's been snowing here. Quite a bit, actually. We have 12-18" inches on the ground, and snowbanks almost as tall as I am, as seen here...


See behind me there? Those are our mailboxes. The front parts are dug out, so they can still deliver our mail. The rest is a huge mound of snow. Anyhow, there's finally been a snow break for the last couple of days, but we have more coming. And coming, and coming, and coming. It seems this is pretty normal here. I'm not such a fan. We have snow mobiles that drive down our street. That's kinda weird. Sometimes this place is kinda weird.

Last weekend we went to Christmas in the Village with Amy, Michelle and Frank (that's my Sis-in-law, niece and nephew for those who don't know). To be more specific, we went to a craft show and watched a parade in sub-zero temperatures. The craft show was interesting. We were expecting a lot of doilies and toilet paper cozies, and we really weren't far off. The Cookie walk was no where to be seen (and damn, we were not happy about it. By we, I mean the adults. I'm sure the kids weren't happy either). We hobbled our cold, cold bones back to our house and decorated the place for Christmas.

In the evening we ventured out (bundled up like crazy!) to watch the electrical parade. It was actually pretty good, for such a tiny, tiny town. One truck was pulling a flatbed trailer with a bunch of people sitting around a real bonfire. Cool. Corbin enjoyed it, I think.... it was hard to tell as all you could see of him in the stroller was his nose and eyes. He must've enjoyed it, he was way warmer than the rest of us. I think it was about 6* with windchill. We weren't able to go see Santa afterwards, as it was just too damn cold. I was disappointed, but I'm sure we'll find another opportunity for Corbin to visit with him.

We found ourselves a tree at St. Vinnie's and promptly broke one of the legs while we were putting it in the car. It's now held at a slight angle with the help of fishing line. The soft/unbreakable/less important ornaments are on the bottom half, where most have been removed at some point by Corb-monster. It's all a little sad looking, really. Most of our Christmas village is out on our 2 little shelves, our stockings are hung above our TV with care, and Corbin has claimed the dancing, singing mouse as his own. We're all ready for Santa.

Corbin has been sniffley for a while here, I think the change in weather is getting too him. Nate and I have been on and off sickies too, as has the rest of the Roscommon clan. I hope this starts to go away soon, but I have a feeling that having a husband who works with old/sick people all day won't help.

Here' s a couple of random shots from the last few days...

Such a big boy!


Goofball :P


This is the infamous Elephant move. Arm up, raspberry noise. That's an elephant for ya, folks.


Mom, let's go!!!


Ready for Christmas in the Village


Enjoy the snow, ladies and gents.

This one's for my mom...

It's Corbin in a sweatshirt Mom made for me, many, many years ago. For some reason it wouldn't send in her email, so I'm posting it here for her. Now you all may enjoy it as well. You're welcome.

Just a Quickie...

As I'm sick and really should be laying down. I hope all of you had very Happy Thanksgivings and are enjoying this, the beginning of December. Here, it is cold. And snowy. There are no signs of stopping. This is the scene out of my front window; snow, railroad tracks, and the parking lot of a Verizon store.

Isn't it lovely? See those rails there? In between those are the railroad tracks. Yes, the train comes by. Yes, it is very, very loud. No, things do not fall off of our shelves and walls. Between the closest rail and me is the alleyway we drive down. it's all quite beautiful and serene, isn't it? :P

Anyhow, we had a lovely Thanksgiving. Andrea (Nate's Mom) came down to visit and we had many mornings of coffee with Andrea, Amy and the kids. Thanksgiving proper was at Uncle Mark and Aunt Diane's house and was full of yummy goodness. We had a shark steak, beef jerky, cheese curds and egg nog (brought down by Andrea) throughout the weekend, and we opened our Christmas presents with her before she headed back home. Wouldn't ya know, I forgot to take a single picture! That's not like me, I know. I blame it on still unpacking. How long do I get to use that an excuse? Until I move away? Works for me. I do have this pic of Corbin and Cousin Frankie, showing a little of their family resemblance. Ya think?



I don't remember if I've mentioned that we bought a couch. Well, we bought a couch. It's from St. Vincent De Paul, because we are trying to reduce, reuse, or recycle. Ok, the couch really probably should be recycled, but we are reusing it for now. It was cheap, nearby, and not falling apart. Those were our three requirements, so we got it. Here's a pic, to show you it's beauty.

Yes, those are little orange and green flowers all over it. It also feels as though someone wrapped cinder blocks and plywood with sandpaper. Eh, it was cheap and it will do. Nate actually likes it a lot. Corbin does too, as it's easy for him to climb on and chase the cats when they attempt to lay on the back. Please notice that in this picture Corb is wearing a cardigan and sweat pants. Nate commented on how he reminded him of his residents at the nursing home... cardigan (at that point it was mis-snapped), sweats, he mumbles, and poops his pants. Poor Nate, he just can't escape.

Ok, seriously, I've got to lay down. If you'd like to visit and see the couch in person, feel free to call. It would love to have a new person to give rugburn to.