Bring on 2011!!

Here it is, the last day of 2010... One year ago today, Raygen Paige past away... One year ago today, my dad was put in the hospital with what would end up being a long journey to an amputated toe. One year ago today, I thought the entire world was closing in on us. And it only got worse as the year went on. I have been attempting to write about this all day, but I am just now getting to it. I guess I just didn't want to think about all of the things that have happened to us in 2010. It seems like everyone I know had a tough year. But we made it through, and now we are ready to say good riddance to 2010. May 2011 be better than 2010 was! I wonder what 2011 has in store for us? I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year!

I am going to attempt to make black eyed peas tomorrow... And then I may eat the whole pot, just to be sure that I have good luck in 2011!!

Happy New Year!

I never had this problem before...

Robison, Roboson, Robinson...

This is what I now have to deal with every time I have to tell someone my last name. I NEVER had this problem when I was Shawna GREEN (just for the record, I still would be Shawna Green if it wasn't for my dad MAKING me change it). I could just say, "like the color" and everyone understood. Not anymore! Now, every time I say my name, I get "Robo, Robi, or Robin?" Just for the record, I probably wouldn't even notice or care if it was spelled wrong. But now, I when someone asks my last name I cringe. And heaven forbid that I have to give some one all three of my names! It becomes a 20 minute spelling bee! I really should be used to this by now. I have had the first two of my names for my whole life, and I have been a RobiNson for almost 2 years (we have been married for 3 1/2, but I resisted the change for a while). But this morning, when the lady on the phone asked my name and I had to spell the WHOLE thing, I really wanted to bang my head on an open stapler... Then when she asked where I grew up (I assume because of my first name) I considered jumping out the window. She really sounded shock when I told I was born and bred in Oklahoma. So, thanks mom (because I think you are responsible for the first 2 names), dad (because you made me change my last name to Robinson and said I couldn't drop Mariah and make myself Shawna Green Robinson), and Josh (for siding with my dad on the name change).

The boy named Sue never had this problem!!

O Christmas Tree!!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, The bulbs I bought are too big!!

Yes, that is right. I bought 3 1/2 inch bulbs for a little 6 foot Christmas tree. I bought them the day after Christmas last year and they were practically giving them away, so I bought them and never thought a second about the size issue. It just looks... like something is missing (like the rest of the tree). Josh thinks if we put some ribbon on it, it will fix it. He really likes the big bulbs. I am just not sure that our little tree can pull it off. I don't have much time to figure it out. The Robinson Christmas celebration starts 1 week from today...

My other Christmas tree issue... There is a little tree that I have that I put in front of the window. I pulled it out of the box last night (yes, I realize that I am running WAY behind on the decorating) and set it up on the stand. Conner started decorating it without fluffy the branches out. It looks like a sad little twig with decorations on it. He was completely finished and very proud of himself before I realized what he had done. I tried to convince him that we needed to fluff it out a little, but he was not buying it. He said if it was going in his room (he thinks our guest room is his room) then he could make it look however he wanted. So, now I have to take all the decorations off and fix it and HOPE that he doesn't notice.

Looks like it is Christmas Trees 2 --Shawna 0

Christmas Cookies!!

Conner decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to make gingerbread cookies. To Conner, gingerbread cookies means sugar cookies, in the shape of gingerbread men, decorated in colorful icing. So, I got on the Internet and found a sugar cookie recipe and an icing recipe. Of course, I had to alter it just a little. It had some ingredients in it that I didn't have on hand, but I was determined to find them and decorate cookies with Conner. The recipe required meringue powder and gel food color. I had never heard of meringue powder. I convinced myself that it must be some new specialty item, so I went to a specialty food store in mid-town Tulsa to look for it. Big mistake... I found the powder, it cost almost $20! But, they did not have the gel food coloring. I bought the powder and went home for the night. Just in case you are wondered, the gel food coloring is used to color the icing without altering the flavor. On Saturday, I went to Stillwater with mom and we stopped by Hobby Lobby to see if the had the gel food coloring and and to get other cookie decorating supplies. They had everything we needed, including meringue powder for $5!! We got everything we needed and headed home.

On Sunday, Conner came over. We made the cookies in the early afternoon so they would have plenty of time to cool. Conner loves to help cook.

After the cookies cooled all afternoon, we were ready to start decorating. We made the icing and after A LOT of mixing, the icing was stiff enough to outline the cookies. I outlined the cookies and then we made a bunch of colors. Then we filled our squirt bottles with the colored icing and started decorating. Conner did a great job. The plan was that this would be our practice run before the real Christmas cookies. In case you haven't decorated with flood icing before, you have to use a toothpick to move the icing around inside the piped outlines. About half way through the decorating I realized that Conner had only asked for 1 toothpick. I looked at him to ask him if he needed another toothpick (I assumed that he was using one toothpick for all of the colors and mixing them together) just in time to see him lick the green icing off the toothpick and start smoothing out the yellow. I nearly fainted. I guess kids don't realize that everyone doesn't want their tongue all over their cookies!! So, Conner got to keep all of the cookies for himself, which is probably what he wanted in the first place. We had a lot of fun decorating together and next time we will make sure we don't lick the toothpicks!!

Conner decorating.

The finished products!

More of the completed cookies!

Christmas Time is Here!!

Last night was Conner's Christmas Program at school. All of the Kindergarten and Pre-K classes sang songs and recited poems and stories about Christmas. At the beginning of the program, one of the teachers said she wanted to make this program an annual event because it isn't Christmas unless children are singing... Well, it is officially Christmas now! They sang their little hearts out. Conner's class made little reindeer hats to wear. The horns were their hands. All the kids "horns" stood straight up... except Conner's. His were straight out! It made it really easy to pick him out of the sea of little kids.

There was a cute little girl in the row in front of Conner. She had a band aid on her forehead, courtesy of Conner. He was trying to give her a hug the day before and some other kid pushed them over and she busted her head on the corner of a table. Conner got in a lot of trouble... according to Josh, he got into more trouble than he should have. It was, after all, an accident.

But they delivered a very cheerful Christmas program, band aids and all!!

See the band aid?

This is Conner before the singing started.

Two Santas??

I was at a circus over the weekend and I witnessed something very disturbing... They had two Santas. Not only did they have two Santas, but they had them both in front of the crowd to be introduced at the same time. They brought out two elephants. On the first elephant was Santa and Mrs. Claus, on the second the had a Santa that they introduced as Santa Alex. Seriously? Do they not realize all of the awkward questions they created for parents when they did that? I was confused myself... I mean, who thought that was a good idea? Conner was their along with my friend's youngest daughter Shea. Neither of them said anything about, mainly because they were ready to leave, but there were other little kids already asking questions. Other than that, it was a great circus, as far as circuses go.

Starting a Blog

So, I have been think about doing a blog for a while now. I write a Christmas letter every year, and most people seem to enjoy it. Or at least, they tell me they do. If you are one of those people and you have been lying to me about liking the Christmas letter, then look what your lying has created :). My plan is to write a blog post anytime something enters my mind... I will try to keep the ranting and raving to a minimum... I am guess it will mostly be post about things that I have broken, or burnt, or trips we take, or fights I have with Josh over animal heads on my walls. You know, just generally my life. So I hope you enjoy!! See you soon!

P.S. - Please don't hold me to any type of regular schedule of posting. This will be a "when ever I feel like it" type thing.