Let the Decorating Begin!

I began my marathon Christmas decorating this weekend. I decided that since I had help I better get busy. So far we have worked on it two days and I'm probably only two thirds done. I blame my Chistmas obsession on working at Elegant Accents for 10 years. I worked on Christmas 12 months out of the year so I am always thinking Christmas decorations. I have also collected a small dump truck load of decorations in the process. I had to give up my TOTAL control of where each ornament is placed on the tree this year though, as you can see my tiny assistant had his own ideas of how to decorate a tree. Yes, I left them where he put them. Surprised? I am. Anyway, it is looking pretty good, I can't wait to get it all finished. We are taking a break today though to take Jayke to the park and go out to lunch. We are hoping some of the traffic in town has died down now that the "tax free" days are over.

Food, food, and More Food!

Here are the boys and their boil! Low-Country Boil that is. Apparently it is a popular dish in the South. I know it is now a popular dish in our house. Basically you take a bunch of crab, shrimp, sausage, new potatos, and corn on the cob and throw it all in a big pot and boil it in this seasoning. It is kind of spicy and REALLY good. This will be the first time my mom and Jim have had it. We made it for Mike's parents when they were here last weekend. Another reason I like it is I don't have to do anything, Mike does it all. Nice for me since yesterday I cooked everything for our Thanksgiving dinner. That was the first time I've had Thanksgiving at my house and I must say that everything except the mashed potatos turned out great! Everyone had to admit, even Mike, that I had made a great dinner. I shocked even myself! Jim did help me brine the turkey but everything else was all me. Tomorrow we will be off for another culinary treat. We are going to The Beacon Drive Inn in Spartanburg. Mom and Jim saw this place on one of those shows that tells you all the best places to visit. It is suposed to be "world famous". I pulled the menu up on the web and I am prepared to try the specialty which is Chili-Cheese a plenty. It says it is a chili-cheese burger with fried potatos and onion rings "piled" on top of it. They also have fried pie. I guess the "experience" is as much the treat as the food is. After eating we will have to head straight to the hospital to have our arteries cleaned out. We will at least have to hit the shopping malls for the "tax free" shopping they have here for the two days after Thanksgiving. That will give us a little exercise.

Happy Turkey Day!!

A sad little hombre

Here is Jayke with one of his gifts we brought him from Mexico. As you can see he did not like his "ugly hat" and did not want to wear it. Being the mean mommy I am, I made him put it on so I could take his picture. In my defense, he had been crying before the whole hat ordeal so that is why his face is all red.

Below is a happier picture of him with his Mexican gear on.

Ferry to Cozumel

We took the ferry over to Cozumel. Here are some pictures of the island as we aproached it. One of them shows the cruise ships docked for their day tour. We didn't stay on the island that long because it was a lot more expensive since the cruise ships stop there. We ate lunch then headed back.

Woohoo! Havin Fun!

This was taken our last night in Mexico. We had a hard time controlling these two party animals!

CROCS!

These guys live right outside the building we stayed in in Mexico. There is another one somewhere in there with them. You can't tell from the picture but they were pretty big. I had to lean over the little wall separating their little pond from the sidewalk leading to the buffet to take this picture and I was just waiting for one of them to move, scare me, and cause me to drop my camera in for them to use as a chew toy.

Fiesta!

On Thursday night the resort has a "Mexican Fiesta". I took a bunch of pictures but it was too dark and only a few turned out. There were a lot of performances, dancing, mariachi singers, a "cirque" type performance, and others. Everyone was given a hat or bandana. Here is a picture of Dad and Mike in their hats along with a couple of the costumes the performers wore.

Random shots of Quinta Avenida

A Little Mexico

We are back! We had a great trip! Here are a few pictures of the beaches and the market, Quinta Avenida, that we went to. The first picture is of the beach down from where we were staying where they haven't developed yet. It was pretty rocky. The other beach is in Playa del Carmen. The third picture is of one of the iguanas we would see on the sidewalk on our way to the pool everyday. I think they liked having their picture taken because they always posed whenever you saw them. The next picture is a shot of Mike and I after a long day at the pool. No, it is a picture of one of the stores at the market that I thought was really cute. The skeletons represent the Day of the Dead but I don't know much about that and the last picture speaks for itself, "Casa Tequila"! I've never been so happy to have an American Diet Coke in all my life! The Mexican Diet Cokes just weren't the same and I couldn't get used to them. The drink of choice for our family was the Miami Vice...Pina Colada, Stawberry Daquiri with a shot of Baileys. Mike couldn't get used to the Mexican beer so one afternoon at the pool bar he decided to try one drink of every color. My sister joined him and they had a VERY happy Happy Hour. We mostly hung out at the pool and on the beach and in the spa. We went shopping at the market and took the ferry to Cozamel. We went to the Mexican Feista at the restaurant in the resort on Thursday where they had a Mexican show. Every other night we went to watch the band and all the drunk people dancing which was a show in itself. I will put more pictures up later when I get a chance, I'm still trying to get organized and rested up.

Mexico!

We are off to Mexico today!! Hopefully I will have some good pictures for the blog when we get back. I've included a link to the resort where we are going under my list of links if you want to check it out. We will be on the Caribbean at what they call the Mayan Riviera. Looks really pretty in the pics on the website. For those of you who have warned me about going to Mexico right now (Kelly and Grandma) it is an all-inclusive resort so security will be tight...don't worry. We plan to visit some ruins and maybe if I am brave enough snorkel, we will see. No more blog entries until November 18th or 19th.Adios!!!

Phone talk 101

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to talk on the phone! Now I have a protege! Here is my young one in training. Talking to his Oma of course. Oma is a good practice partner because you can have 5 minute spells of saying absolutely nothing with her. Good for a two-year-old since he has a hard time coming up with things to talk about. I used to have to hold the phone for him but as you can see he has graduated to holding it on his own which means he can now walk away with the phone. He has begun the "walking and talking" phase in his training. To complete his "walking and talking" skills he will need intensive training from his Opa in the art of "pacing until you wear a hole in the carpet" while on the phone. While working with Opa he will also learn the "no good-bye hang-up" Actually, now that I think about it, he may already have this skill mastered as when he is finishes talking to someone he just hands the phone to me and says "Here Mommy, you talk". After finishing his studies with Opa he will move on to "using speaker phone so you can have a 3 hour conversation while doing 200 other things". This he will learn from P'pa who is a master. I think this lesson is self explanatory. The final lesson in his phone studies I like to call "the cone of silence" taught by Meemaw. This occurs when you are asked a question which requires much thought therefore causing a long period of silence in which the person on the other end has to actually ask if you are still there. This long period of silence gives you the opportunity to thoroughly plan your response so as not to offend or upset the other party and if possible give the answer the other party wishes to hear. You must be very talented to master this skill. After many hours of practice I'm sure he will be able to carry on a 3 hour conversation with ease. That will be a good thing since some day he will have to call his mother.

Panda Scared By Baby - Funny

This video cracks me up everytime I see it!

Another Dog's Blog

Simon didn't want to be left out so he posed for some pictures with Jaykeb on our deck.

Meow!

My Living Room

Here is a picture of the living room. I only got one angle because the kitchen was too cluttered with all the Halloween decorations I still have to put up. The kitchen will be the next room I put on here when I get it ready.

A Dog's Blog

The boy and his dog. Jaykeb LOVES his dogs! Here he is with Laynie our Cheagle(chihuahua/beagle). I don't think Laynie was cooperating in the first picture. She really does love him too.

Elmo

Boy, I can't wait to hear this all the time after Jayke gets his from my dad for Christmas!

Sad to See Them Go

I hate to throw our pumpkins away after Halloween. I don't know why and of course Jayke absolutely does not want me to throw "Jack" away. I'm sure part of the reason is because I LOVE Halloween so much. I'm still packing up my Halloween decorations. I might get them put away by Christmas.