Pickled Butts

Christmas Day

This morning we woke up for our first Christmas in our house.  We lived here last year, but we were at the cabin over Christmas...so this was a first for us in our house.  We agreed we wouldn't spend much money on each other (or anyone else either...sorry) this year since we are trying to save for our baby.  We each bought each other some goofy stuff, but it was honestly just sad/funny to see our huge tree with the smallest amount of presents I have ever seen under it.

After we were done (so about 10 minutes after we sat down), we headed back upstairs to get ready for the day.  My dad and Raelynn showed up a little after 11, and everyone else started to trickle in around noon.  I was trying to figure out how to skype through Mike's iPod...then through the TV with Ryan's family while others started making brunch.  We had coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon ,sausage, juice, milk, cocoa, fruit...and bologna.  You have to be a Rodgers to know what that really means...and that when asked on holidays if you like bologna to say "Yes!"

During the making and eating of the food, Mike turned on one of the new movies I bought for us for Christmas, "How to Train a Dragon".  He hadn't seen it yet, and the kids all love it...good choice.  About half-way through the movie we pressed pause and started our gift exchange.  This year we changed it up again.  We were missing some key parts to the family; Wendy & Michael, Ryan's family and Carlys.  The past few years we have been doing a gift card exchange white elephant style. The adults were $25 each and the kiddos did a separate exchange with $10 cards each.  It was always fun to see where people got cards from and then to try and steal the card you really wanted.

We decided since we are wanting to do another family trip (like the cabin trip, but not at Christmas time), we would each put our $50 towards a vacation rental of some type instead.  Regina is going to open an account to place the money in until we decide for sure what, where, when, etc.  And instead of buying birthday presents for each other this year and next (I vote from now on) we will put whatever money we would have spent into the vacation account.  Whoever wants to participate can...and Regina is the money keeper.

We still wanted to do something fun on Christmas, so we agreed to do an adult/kid white elephant gift exchange with everyone.  $10 was the limit.  Mike and I bought a portable card reader (for digital cards...like SD cards) and these funny coasters I found on-line called clumsy coasters.  A lot of items weren't stolen, but some were taken the max two times towards the end.  I don't remember the exact order, but here's the basics of our exchange.

Richelle went for the biggest box. It was a package from Regina. This time it was "Cardinal Badminton"...too funny. She was smart and talked Hayden into stealing it from her later in the game.

Another funny gift from Regina's family was a "Wiggles" themed box.  It had a "Wiggles" movie and blanket inside...Bill was the lucky recipient.  I have a feeling the "Wiggles" box will be making the rounds again next Christmas...and probably the next.

Jake picked a flashlight...which was then stolen by Hayden. 

Jake's next selection had a tropical theme...the box contained a Hawaiian shirt, coconut glass and a necklace.

 

 

Brooklyn chose a good gift...a version of the game "Scene It".

Dad selected his own contribution- a Coldstone gift card.  Raelynn seemed happy with his choice.  Funny enough, she also chose her contribution- another Coldstone gitft card.

Savannah picked a box of Sees candy suckers.

Robyn stole Dad's Coldstone card...so he picked another gift from under the tree.  He picked a box of "stress relief".  It had a stress ball and some other assorted items...including a fart sounds keychain.  Not sure how that's supposed to be "stress relief", but it is definitely a boys gift.  My dad looked thrilled.  Luckily Carsen stole that immediately.  So Dad ended up with the pack of coasters we contributed.  They are funny...and useful.

Sydney chose a bag with e self-hypnosis book inside.  We got a good laugh out of that one.  I still don't know who that was from...must be from Regina's fam.

Billy stole Hayden's flashlight...so Hayden stole Richelle's Cardinal Badminton.

Richelle then chose some sort of iPod music player...pretty cool and her favorite color.

Anthony chose a DQ gift card...

...which was promptly stolen by Derek.

Anthony chose again and took Raelynn's Coldstone gift card.  This did not make her very happy...at first.  We tried to tell her that Robyn had the another Coldstone gift card and that she could steal it...instead of stealing it, she made sure Robyn would be willing to take her to Coldstone with that card...and then chose another gift from under the tree.  She was very happy when she opened her box and found Toy Story 2 inside.

I chose a box with Toy Story inside. I was happy with my choice.  I don't think I own the first one, so it's a good addition to the collection.

Trent chose the card reader we put in.

Mike chose the best gift of all. Seriously.  It means nothing to him, but it means everything to me...or to any one of the original Rodgers.  My parents went to a white elephant gift exchange in the early 80's (83 to be exact).  My mom came home with the strangest gift, but she thought it was hysterical.  She placed it on a shelf in our family room on display and it was always there.  Regina ended up with it...until now.  It's a jar of "pickled butts".  I am so excited to have the jar at my house now!!  I thought it was so cool of Regina to share it with one of us.  I don't think I would have parted with it.  It's just one of those stupid, funny, inside jokes we are all in love with.  I will have to take a picture of the jar...

Miss McKenna selected her own gift!! Her idea was so cute!! It was a "snowball fight in a box". At the end, it became a snowball fight in my living room...it was a lot of fun!!

We had a nice time together...even though we really missed our missing pieces.  I think this year we spent the least amount of time together than ever before.  We didn't want to meet too early, but Robyn's family had Cardinals tickets...and Santa brought Derek and Anthony tickets too!!  They all left for the game before 4 o'clock...and Mike and I had to be out the door to his family dinner not too much after that. 

It really is hard to juggle both families at the holidays sometimes.  We seem to plan our get-togethers before Mike's family, so we try to plan around what Mike thinks his family will plan.  In the 6 years I've known him, we've never celebrated Christmas with his family on Christmas Day.  Luckily, we figured this year might be different since Christmas was on a Saturday.  We planned brunch with my family on Christmas morning just to be safe.  We were on the phone 4-way (Robyn, Regina, Richelle and I) discussing what would work best for all of us and our other half's families...(and since my other half told me he had NO clue what his family was going to be doing...his normal answer) we decided brunch was the safest option to avoid any conflict.  About two or three weeks later, we got the e-mail saying when and where Mike's family was having their celebration.  I am glad we chose wisely with the brunch option.

We walked in the door at Kelly's a few minutes before dinner was ready.  We had prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, salad and a lot of desserts.  Dinner was delicious!!  We sat and talked for a while and then Grandpa Santa started passing out gifts.  We have seen A LOT less of Patrick and Sarah since we moved away from the east valley...and we didn't get to see them very often when we did live closer.  It was fun to sit and chat with Sarah for a while.  It was also fun to watch the two 2 years olds...Ivy and Molly.  Although they are nearly a year apart, they get along with each other quite well...most of the time.  They are pretty dang cute together. 

I really hope we figure out how to get pregnant around the same time Patrick and Sarah decided to have another baby.  Since I am the lone babyless sibling in my family...our kids will be on their own with no cousins close in age.  It would be so fun to have at least one cousin close in age on one side of the family.  When I was growing up, I loved having Carol to play with and looked forward to seeing her at Grandma's.  This is all still true...she one of my most favorite people in the whole world.  I would love for my kids to have the same opportunity.

After Grandpa Santa finished passing out all the gifts to the grand-kids, Mike and I had to leave so he could make it to work on time. 

He left and I decided to wait until tomorrow to clean the house up.  Instead of cleaning...I changed into my footie jammies and curled up in bed.  That was much better than cleaning...

The kitchen is about half done from the mess that was made...so it shouldn't be too bad.  The other big project I need to get done tomorrow is taking down the Christmas tree.  I am sad December is already over, but I want to get it done before work on Monday morning. 

We had a great Christmas.  Different than normal and a little more stress with timing issues...but it was great to spend time with family and friends.  I really love to buy presents.  It's one of my favorite things in the whole world.  It was hard to not do it this year, but I know it's for a good reason in the long run.  In the last 4-6 weeks we have been able to put about $1500 in our baby account and we were lucky enough to get a generous gift from Mike's parents for Christmas.  Mike asked me if I wanted to put the money towards an iPad or my new camera lens or something else for the house...or did I want to put it in the baby account.  I told him I really wanted to put it toward the credit card and the (no)baby money that is a remaining balance still from our previous procedures that didn't work.  We agreed to put all of it in the baby account which bumped up the number quite a bit.  Only about $15k to go.  Wonder if Patrick and Sarah were planing baby #2 when we're all 90!!  LOL

Christmas Week

This week has been quite busy.  Mike has been working days, so it's been nice to have him around.  Having him around makes the days (err...evenings) go by even faster.  I really like having him home for dinner.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Kyle's 33rd birthday at Uncle Sam's...like always.  Sadly, I think the food there is going downhill.  Makes me sad.  Jake asked his mom, "Is the guy whose birthday it is gonna come to the party?"  We cracked up at that.  Derek & Carsen know exactly who Kyle is...and why he isn't at the party.  But Jake hasn't quite grasped the concept yet.  I love the innocence.

On Thursday afternoon, Richelle brought the boys to help me frost sugar cookies.  Derek and Jake helped a lot, but Carsen was in a mood...and not a good one.  He moped around and ended up on the couch watching Avatar.  All the boys ended up on the couch after the cookies were frosted, but Jake would run circles around the house (through the kitchen, into the dining room, around the stairs, through the entryway and back to the couch) every time the movie got tense.  I loved watching his anxiousness.  Up down, up down..running around.  I'm not sure he sat still for even a minute.  It was too cute.

This week I also baked and cooked a lot.  I found some new recipes and had fun making them.  I found some copycat recipes for Cafe Rio's sweet pork and the fixin's to go with it.  It was awesome.  I also found a new recipe for Minestrone soup...also delicious. 

On the 23rd Michelle finally ended her pregnancy.  Richard Royal Rodgers was born at 2146 hours.  He weighed 9lbs 9oz.  Ouch.  Now that's a big baby boy.  I guess they will call him Roy.  I will have to think of something else to call him.  Not sure what that will be yet, but something cute.  I feel bad for the kid and I don't even know him yet.  I got made fun because of my name a lot in grade school.  I had a boys name and I was Mr. Rodgers' daughter...with short boy hair.  I am assuming Ryan and Michelle (both with normal names) never lived through the torture of being teased about their names...otherwise I'm guessing a different name would have been chosen.  Oh well....the cute little guy isn't mine, so I guess it doesn't matter what I think.  Maybe being teased about your name is normal.  I love my name now, so screw all those turds in elementary school. :)

I met my girls (well...some of my girls) for brunch this morning.  I brought my camera, but no pictures were taken. Two of us were not made up...and two were.  I decided it was best there was no proof I left the house like that.  I love my girlfriends.  They are amazing.  Natty is almost 9 weeks pregnant...due August 2nd, 2011.  We are very excited.  I can't wait until she is showing.

For Christmas Eve dinner we went with my dad and Raelynn to Mellow Mushroom.  I figured since we were celebrating with my dad and Rae we should keep with the Rodgers' family tradition of a pizza dinner.  We had a nice time...and the food was good.  After dinner, we went home and Mike watched It's a Wonderful Life while I worked on getting stuff ready for Christmas brunch with my family and I made a dessert for dinner with Mike's family.  I'm not a baker, but I do like to cook.  Maybe I should work on my baking skills?

It feels strange to be Christmas already.  Short sleeve weather during the day and our heat isn't on yet.  I guess it's a good thing I have me hoodie footie jammies to keep me warm.

Pajama Gram

At work, a lot of time is spent in the car.  In patrol it was mostly by myself, with Mike Greenfield or with whatever rookie I was training at the time.  In robbery...almost all my car time is spent with Rob.  The people you spend this time with get to know you in and out...and it goes both ways.  During some random conversation quite some time ago I mentioned to Rob that I used to love sleeper jammies...ya know- the ones with the zipper and the feet.  I had some until I was at least 10 or 11...and I would still have them if I could find some.

So...one day Rob tells me he bought me a present.  I was surprised...and had NO idea what he would have bought me.  I figured it was an early Christmas gift, but could not think of what he would have picked out.  He handed me a box...and inside was a cool purple hatbox type container.  Inside that was a pair of red sleeper jammies...just my size.  They are awesome!!  And came complete with a hoodie.

Mike isn't the biggest fan, but I am in love with them.  I freeze at night!!  Mike still sleeps with the fan on and I have an extra blanket and a heating pad trying to keep my feet warm.  With these jammies I have been sleeping warm and in a deep sleep.  I love them.  If you want some, you can order them from here.

Temple Lights

Last Sunday we met up for our annual Christmas dinner with Grandma Joyce and trip to see the Temple lights.  We decided to do a soup bar again...I brought my homemade tomato , Robyn brought her Carrot Chowder and Richelle made potato soup from Bear Creek.  You'd think the homemade soups would go first, but nope....the potato was gone fast!

We were missing a few bodies.  Mom was in California...with that missing group.  Sydney was babysitting...Mike was at work...Anthony was...well...Anthony.  And Grandma decided she didn't want to come to her dinner.  Awesome.

Luckily, all we need is each other, so the dinner got 10 out 10 points in my book. The food was good, the company was good, the lights were beautiful and the weather wasn't freezing cold.

(**I totally sucked at taking pictures this year.)

O Christmas Tree

The story of our tree this year is long...too long.  So here's the jist I have time for: It's finally up and we love it.  It could use a few more lights, but we were tired and honestly...we just didn't care anymore.  Maybe next year when life slows down a bit.  Haha

I had fun decorating the tree...Mike didn't seem as intrigued with the whole idea as much as I was.  I love Christmas and I've been waiting many, many years to have a full size Christmas tree in my home and a husband to share it with again.  I like to sit in the living room...on the floor because there's no furniture in there yet...and just look at my pretty tree.  It makes me happy.

 

I've also been waiting to buy Christmas decor until I knew where I would be, so I could figure out what colors I wanted to decorate with.  Well...we are waiting a bit longer for all that, but we did have to purchase a few decorations for the tree.  The rest of the house can wait to be decorated properly until after we figured out how to buy our chance at a baby.  Good times. 

Since red is my favorite color and Richelle gave me the beautiful tree skirt and the red & white ornaments from our Christmas at the cabin last year, I decided to go with red, white & silver.  The tree needed more than the one bag from last year, so I picked up one more of the same (well...basically the same) ornaments from Costco.  Plus, Robyn sent over an awesome pack of red ornaments.  We have a borrowed tree angel up top, but hopefully we'll find a star that matches what we like eventually.

I love it.

Delivery From Pottle

I came home from work late again on Tuesday night.  I walked in to a dark house, and when I turned the lights I found a large box sitting on the kitchen table. The box said "Pro Flowers" on the side...which made me say, "Huh?"  I knew something was being delivered, but flowers were never a thought. I had actually been trying to think all day what could have been sent to me.  Mike wouldn't tell me...he said I had to wait until I got home to find out.

I opened the box to find a beautiful bouquet of brightly colored Gerber Daisies...they made my day.  I found a vase to put them in, and as I prepared the stems for the vase a card dropped out of the package.  I picked it up, opened and read the message.

I haven't known Pottle very long, but the second I met her I felt a bond with her.  She is amazing...and we have some of life's unfortunate "happenings" in common with each other.  The more time I spend with her, the more I love her.  She is full of life and makes everyone around her happier just by being herself.

She was so sweet and so thoughtful to send me such a sweet gift.  Thank you, NBF Sarah Pottle!!

(**I took a bunch of pictures on Tuesday when I got this delivery, but my SD card won't let me see those pics...so I took more today...they are hopefully just as pretty as the day they got here.**)