Christmas Clearance

Well, here it is January 5, and I still haven't made a post about Christmas.  However, I did manage to score some super cute Christmas clearance at Dollar General Market in Scottsville for 70% off.  Why was I in Scottsville shopping at DG?  I had a meeting there yesterday and needed butter and cheese before coming home for the day.  $14 later, I scored my groceries and a nifty Christmas bundle.

Christmas, as usual, was a whirlwind of action.  I LOVE that the holiday fell on the weekend because that meant we got an extra day off work.  We also get two floating holidays at SKyPAC which I saved for the week after Christmas.  I got to take the entire week off.  It.was.HEAVEN!  I loved every single second of staying up wayyy passed (not past, that can only be used as a noun, adjective, adverb, or proposition, but never a verb - just looked that up to make sure my days of ENG 100, 200, 300 at WKU hadn't failed me - free lesson, you're welcome) my bedtime, sleeping in, eating 'til I popped, and enjoying every single, fleeting minute with my kids.  Where oh where has all the time gone?  Why oh why will they not stop growing?  I feel old.  Old enough to get my hair dyed.  Yep, did that for the very first time during the break.  I naturally have dark, really dark hair.  However, it's been riddled with gray lately and mostly hidden beneath the layers of hair.  I can see it, and it was driving me nuts.  I bit the bullet and had my trusty sister-in-law, who came to my rescue when I decided to cut my bangs (ugh) years back,  complete the dye task.  She's fantastic and makes it look natural.  I've not had one person notice or comment which is nice and means they never noticed the gray either.  Yay!  Cheers to hair maintenance from now on...

Christmas - we had "the talk" this year with the 4th grader.  I wanted didn't want to talk about Santa, but let's face it, the Santa stuff takes the whole present buying shenanigans to a different level.  I can't really give Miles a Santa gift without buying the other two Santa gifts.  And, I have abnormal kids who can't tell you one thing they want for Christmas.  That, or it's a strange request, like when Karson said she wanted a headboard?!?  For real?  Miles wanted gummy bears.  For real?!?  I can always count on Isaac to have a list though and find him incredibly simple to shop for.  Back to the Santa ordeal...me, Isaac and Miles are sitting in the family room one evening, pre-Christmas and Miles point-blank asks the Santa question - "Mom, is Santa real?"  I froze, not knowing what to say, so I responded with the proper parent answer when you don't know the right answer, "what do you think honey?"  He responds that he thinks Santa is real, and I say that's all that matters (he's not convinced).  He continues to waffle with his belief so I decide to bring Isaac into the conversation (great move by me).  Isaac matter-of-factly states "well NO ONE can actually live at the North Pole - its' too cold.  AND, no one has ever seen a flying reindeer.  I mean someone would have seen one by now, don't ya think?"  There you have it, band-aid ripped right off!  Miles, still not convinced continues to waffle.  Isaac shoots a glance at me and says "Mom, I'm telling him."  He spills the beans, and at first, Miles is a little shocked.  We proceed to have the conversation about the magic of Christmas and how Santa is part of that, not to share this NEW secret with others, etc., etc.  I admit, I felt a great sigh of relief it was all out on the table.  Karson knew in 2nd grade, Isaac in 3rd, Miles (now) in 4th - cats out of the bag! I didn't splurge on gifts (not that we normally do), but Christmas morning felt nice and special (minus the Red Suit).

We kicked off the month with the Pogue Family Christmas (Dec. 7 post).  We got to see our niece/cousin as a NewYorker in the BGJHS performance of Elf The Musical Jr.  What amazingly talented kids!  I took a vacation day on the 19th and spent the day with our tribe at Opry Mills ~ playing games at Dave and Buster's, lunch at Claim Jumper and watching Rouge One: A Star Wars Story at the IMAX 3-D.  I also managed to find Isaac a Titan's Sweatshirt which seemed like a major task.  Titan's fanwear is hard to come by these days, or I'm looking at the wrong places?

Claim Jumper was yum!

 Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at the Garcia's on Christmas Eve Eve!

Karson didn't have many days off from basketball during the break, but the team did manage to have a little holiday gathering after one of the practices.  We'd gotten an extra large Sour Patch tin at It's Sugar! at Opry Mills for the gift exchange.  Guess who came home with it and was thrilled?? 

 Christmas Eve at Pop's and Meme's house...

Deaton family gathering at The Warehouse on Christmas Eve afternoon!

 Christmas Morning at our house (sans Santa)

A Christmas Cutie holding a Christmas Cat at Pap and Nana's Christmas night.

 Annual girls trip with our besties to The Escape Game in Nashville ~ this year's quest MISSION MARS!  And, yes, we escaped!  #goingpro #cantlockusup  #gottheshirt
 Dinner at PF Changs to celebrate the victory.

 Karson and Aidan made their relationship official in December.  His family spent the holidays out of town so the lovebirds were anxious to see each other when he returned.  I told Karson if you all are going to "go out," don't go to a movie where you can't talk and hang out, do something fun together.  She agreed and settled on lunch and skating at the SOKY Ice Rink.  I took them to AZZIP for pizza and to the rink for skating.  They spent about two hours on the ice and seemed to enjoy it and each other (giggling, hand holding, hanging out).  We went over to his mom's work to say 'hi', and then I took him home. 

Karson spent NYE with all her school buddies!  #middleschool #parentsnotallowed

 

Matt and Isaac spent New Year's Day at the Titans game.  Thanks Uncle David!

  

 Tuesday, we hit the ground running.  6 AM was a rude awakening with a busy day ahead.  Karson got a new schedule at school which includes PE meaning she added another bag to her collection.  She had four bags to take to school on Tuesday.  The team had pictures after school and a game against Owensboro Catholic.  Isaac also had a game Tuesday night.  The whole day felt like a blurrr.  Welcome 2017 - a wonderful new year, making many new memories and loving life!

Beautiful Basketball Player

This time last year, Karson had ZERO interest in participating in South Warren Middle's Winter Formal.  The girl simply wanted an evening off and who could blame her?  She devotes many afternoons and nights to sports teams and works hard on her academics.  The last thing she wanted to do, on an evening off, was get all gussied up and go to a dance.  Forget it!  In fact, that night she came home, got in her PJ's, watched Christmas Vacation and had the best time - all alone!  This year was a different story.  She talked about the dance, wanted to go, and even wanted to go shopping for a dress!  I could hardly believe it.  Now granted...I am hardly the "girlie" type so I can totally appreciate her lack of interest in shopping.  I'm not a make-up and heels kind of girl and spent much of my middle/high school years like Karson - on the ball court or the softball field.  Needless to say, I was excited for BOTH of us.  However, I am totally practical too, especially this time of the year.  While I wouldn't care to spend some dough on a nice dress for Karson, it's also nice to find some affordable ones.  We looked at Francesca's and saw some cute formal dresses, but we'd already browsed rue21's website and she'd seen quite a few that she liked in there.  I'm fairly certain there isn't an article of clothing in rue21 that costs more than $20.  We snagged her dress for $19.99 the week before Black Friday, and when it got marked down to $13.99 on Black Friday, the store price adjusted it for me.  How cool!  I absolutely loved the dress,so did she and thought she looked stunning!  And, chances are, she will never wear the dress again, so $14, yes, please, and thank you.  We did spend a little more on the shoes.  Fortunately, most shoes at Shoe Carnival aren't too expensive so we got a cute, natural colored pair to compliment the dress.  She had to go with a w-i-d-e heel because the girl can't walk in those stiletto-type shoes.  Heck, I can't either.

Karson also got herself a date for the dance. She and Aidan have been friends for some time now and talk frequently.  They met at church camp last summer and he and Isaac were buddies last year at 212 Academy.  I don't know Aidan very well, but I know Karson.  She's level headed, way smarter than me, and know that if she thinks this young man is special, he most certainly is in our book.  I don't want to embarrass her too much (because I know she reads my blog), but I like him and that he makes her happy.  I also think they make a pretty cute couple?!?!

His mom and I have become instant texting buddies.  We have both laughed about how "inexperienced" our children are at "going on a date."  We decided to get them the traditional FORMAL dance flowers - a corsage and boutonniere to embarrass them further.  We're sneaky like that!  It was truly comical watching them try to get both the corsage and boutonniere on, but they handled it like champs (despite our snickering giggles)!

A group of girls/guys got together for pictures before the dance. Everyone looked amazing even though my iPhone didn't capture the best of pictures! 

Had to take a serious pic - not sure what this is all about?!?

 We dropped Karson and Aidan off at South, and I had one of those semi-emotional moments - my daughter's first date.  My little girl is no longer little.  In the profound words of Kip...