Wordless Thursday - Cousins Meet for first time

Mack and Jade play in the snow

Meet for the first time, and become great playmates

and share their first Christmas together. 

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Tiffany @ Mom-Nom.Com

Tiffany is a wife to her best friend and a mother to two beautiful children, Bubs & Bubbette {No, those aren't their real names. Sheesh.}   When she's not doing public relations for one of the top zoos in the country, she's over-sharing at Mom-Nom.Com, {http://mom-nom.com} the e-result of her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses, after nearly losing Bubs in an accident in July, 2009.  Now? She's just trying to figure out where they go from here...one post at a time. 

http://mom-nom.com

______________________________________________________

Hi, I'm Tiffany
 
I blog over at a little land called Mom-Nom.Com. (http://www.mom-nom.com) and Kristina was kind enough to invite me to her space to help share the holidays with y'all.  She's amazing like that.  This time of year, there is nothing I love more than starting a fire, grabbing my favorite blankey, making a nice big bowl of stew...and taunting my kid with Elf on the Shelf. 
 
Wait. 
 
What?
 
Yep, you heard me right, friends.  There is nothing more traditionary in my home than the month long torture that Elf of the Shelf brings to my son.  {Side note:  a lot of normal children are tormented by the mere sight of Elf on the Shelf.  Fortunately, for us, my son is not among them.} 
 
 
I give you Exhibit A:
 

 
And the resulting Exhibit B:

Son: BUT WHY!
Me: Elf is watching. 
Son: ugh. 
 
or
 
Son: This is not fair. 
Me: Don't forget about Elf. 
Son: ugh. 
 
or, maybe even
 
Son: Please, Mom. PLEASE!
Me: Elf said no. 
Son: argh. 

I am all about traditions, people. 
 

Twas the night before Christmas

I'm working today, which is ok. I'm off at 3pm and the office is going to be nice and quiet. The best part of being a parent is being Santa. I can't wait for Mackenna to wake up and open up all her gifts. This year we are doing Christmas eve at my house and Christmas morning.

** The family is having a rib cook off ** 

Everyone in the family is getting their ribs prepped and we are going to have a rib cook off and see who has the best ribs. This is going to be awesome. 

My uncle Jeremy from New Zealand, " That's awesome, I will be a judge!"

So, this evening the rib cook off will commence. I will update with photos another time with the racks stacked up to each other.

This Christmas I'm really Thankful:

- We had money to get gifts this year

- Surrounded by love

- My family is here from New Zealand

- Partaking in lot's of food and egg nog

- Having time off of work to visit family in Seattle

- 6 awesome guest bloggers that will be featured on my blog next week. 

I'm so thankful that we are still very fortunate to partake in Christmas and be surrounded by family.

Merry Christmas Bloggers & Followers!

Family from down unda

I'm been slacking on the ol blog this week due to family in this week. 

** Stay tuned next week, I have 5 awesome bloggers that are taking the stage **

So, thus far I've been staying up pretty late, since I have to work this week to hang out with family. 

Their America bucket list

* try a twinkie --> my uncle thought they were awesome. He even tried a Ho Ho

* Drink our Local Beer

* Tour Lake Tahoe --> I heard the hubs was a really good tour guide

* Watch NFL football

* My cousin Jade wanted an American Hot Dog --> she ate the whole thing

* My Aunty calls potato salad, freakish looking salad

* My Aunty doesn't like tater tots

Today, I believe they are headed up to the ski resorts to go snow tubing and check out the villages at Squaw and NorthStar. I'm having lot's of fun with my 4 year old cousin Jade. So damn cute. 

* Christmas Update * 

I've actually pretty much finished my christmas shopping. Just need to wrap up and print some photos from the family photo shoot. 

Are you ready for Christmas?

Tis the Season to be... Stressed

Last night I licked, wrote and stamped more than half of the Christmas cards. What a relief to get those baby's done. With all the hussel and bussel this month I haven't had a change to breathe let alone have a moment of peace or relaxation I feel like.

What is left for me to do 11 days for christmas:

* Noel night's --> Northstar @ Tahoe... We go every year and have Mack's picture taken with Santa. It's a fun night and they have a Starbucks up there. 

* My Christmas Party @ The Ritz Carlton @ Tahoe. My company Christmas parties are so much fun. Food, drinks, dancing and prizes. Last year we all got Ipod's I wonder what is in store for us this year. 

P.S. I got my dress in the mail from Macy's and I'm in love. Love, Love it. 

* Picking aunt and uncle up this weekend from San Francisco. They are flying in this weekend from New Zealand. 

* Christmas Shopping... I have a confession... I haven' started. Oh My! Next week I'm going to be doing it all. Getting photos printed from our family photo shoot and framing. 

* Wrapping gifts, baking cookies and breads, and filling stockings. 

* Christmas Dinner... This year we are doing a ham and deep fried turkey. We usually go to other family member's houses for dinner on the holiday's but this year we are hosting Christmas Dinner at our house. 

* Pack and organize self for Mack and I's travel to Seattle to see my side of the family... I don't even want to think that far ahead. 

What's left on your list to do before Christmas?

Do you have as much to do as me with 11 days left?

I'm starting to get a little stressed out and I might have a mental breakdown at some point this week... I can feel it. However, the holiday's are all about spending time with family and making the most of the season. I always feel like it has to be perfect. Does it? Maybe not.. I guess I need to just cool it. 

2010 Christmas Card

Here it is Lady and Gents. Please excuse the click and hide image. I had to basically print screen to get it off of shutterfly. I guess they don't want you to copy or save image as and take it for free or something. Whatever! 

Anway here it is. 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Weekends come and go so quickly it seems like. You get home on a friday night and a blink of the eye is monday morning. What the eff?

First of all Friday was my brother's 18th birthday. We watched movies and ate pizza and even gave him a beer. A christmas brew. I went to bed early and woke up the next morning with no intention of doing much and then all of sudden my brother and I are pulling in christmas boxes to the house from the garage. 

And then.... a christmas bomb went off in my kitchen and living room. My mom started putting things up and then we moved to the kitchen and starting dusting and cleaning the pop window in my kitchen. Oh, and then let's clean the blinds, and pull the coverings off the light fixtures and dust and clean them. It started to get a little crazy, but it looks real good now. 

Sunday, we went to go and get the xmas tree. We have high vaulted ceilings in our house in the living space, so we got a 12 FOOT TREE! It's a bit ridiculous, but I love it. I had to use a tall barstool to decorate most of it. Mackenna handed me ornaments and watched Christmas movies on the couch. 

Here is the final product. Kind of a bad photo. (Disclossure, I don't have the world's crappiest camera, I just use my droid phone a lot. It's so handy not too.) 

Thankful Thursday - Relatives meet USA

My Aunt Dayna and Uncle Jeremy

This christmas is going to be the best one yet of my existence. Ok, as far as I can remember them back. My Aunt (dayna) and Uncle (Jeremy) and Cousin (Jade) are coming to the United States for the first time ever from New Zealand. 

This is me in New Zealand 2005 in Queenstown. Price William was
there at the same time as me. 

Lil Background or reference my previous post Parents from Different Countries. Anyway for the purposes of this post I will tell you all again. My dad is American and My Mom is Kiwi (from New Zealand). So, I have family on each half of the world basically. 

Anyway, my mom's sister, my aunt. (are you confused yet... sorry!) They are coming to America for the first time ever this Christmas. Plus, they get to come to the most beautiful part of this country in my opinion Lake Tahoe, California and see snow in masses of amounts for the first time.

Scratching your head... Yes, New Zealand has snow in the South Island. I have snowboarded at every single of their 3 resorts. : ) However, this might sound silly, but it is more costly to fly to the South Island then to fly to Australia, which is like 4.5 hours away. Weird huh! Plus I'm sure you have all seen snow in the movies Lord Of The Rings... Ahh ha! I got the image in your head now. The entire movies were filmed in New Zealand and majority of it in the South Island. 

Sorry I went off on a tangent for a moment. My Aunt and Uncle live in the North Island on North Shore. 40 Minutes from Auckland, New Zealand. They have a lovely home right next to the beach in a highly nice area... (bitches!) Sorry. 

This is me and my mom is New Zealand, where my great grandma lived and
I visited as a little girl. (Please excuse the pajama pants, yes they have sheep on them.)

They will be coming to visit December for around 2 weeks, a week with us and a week in So Cal. You know the DisneyLand thing. My cousin Jadey will love it. This is so funny to me, but I will make fun of them just a little bit. They wanted to rent a car and drive the California coast. First of all, ya its a nice drive and its pretty but HELLO they live in New Zealand, where the entire country is boarded by Ocean. Why in the Hell would they want to drive the coast of California, go see something you haven't seen, because they have seen oceanthere entire life. (sorry aunty and uncle I'm just sayin).

I'm beyond excited to get on the piss (get drunk) on rum and egg nog with the family and watch my aunty get on a snowmobile for the first time and scream her head off. (It will be fun aunty don't be a baby.)

I am way more than Thankful that they are coming to visit my neck the world. I will post photos of their visit in December sometime. :)