Patty Johnson's Blog

We went to Appleton today to celebrate Nick's birthday at Funset Boulevard in Appleton. It was Mom & Dad, Lily and I, Becky and Family and Cindy and Family. We really had lots of fun riding the carousel, riding the train, playing in the ball pits, climbing through tunnels, playing in the toddler zone, playing video games and having birthday cake

Here are a couple of family photos taken around Christmas. The first two are Lily being a little daredevil and jumping over a box and a large truck. We also had fun trying to give Lily, Braeden and Zach a colored bath all at once (using cool Crayola color tabs) but the boys weren't very cooperative and wanted to get out pretty quickly. Also check out the videos below. Two of them are when I tried to sneak up on the kids who were all singing Christmas songs together.

VIDEO: Daredevil Lily HERE
VIDEO: Danielle, Lily, Braeden, Zach playing in bathroom HERE
VIDEO: The kids singing "Holly Jolly Christmas" HERE
VIDEO: The kids singing "Santa Claus is coming to Town" HERE

We got to my parents house early and the kids were ready to dig into presents. My mom had got my Dad some cool color changing speakers and we wanted to use them to listen to Christmas music. This ended up being more difficult because most of the music playing devices in the house didn't have an output port. Once we gave up on that (was later fixed by attaching an mp3 player to the speakers) we opened presents. It was a crazy madhouse with presents everywhere! The rest of the day we basically just hung out and ate yummy Christmas Dinner

After Adam worked half of a day we had our family Christmas at home. Lily is now a super pro at ripping into presents! Then, we went to my parents house to hang out. We played couples scrabble with Steve/Lori, Becky/Mark, and Adam/Patty as teams. We were winning the whole game until Steve & Lori won on a ridiculous word. We celebrated Dad's and Lori's birthdays tonight with a big yummy birthday cake that the kids helped decorate by adding sprinkles! We also made divinity which is a type of white fudge candy. Once you get through all the first steps you then have to stir and stir and stir until it's the right consistancy. Of course the longer you stir the harder the mix gets. We always take turns stirring and try to stir as much as you can until you have to pass it on. I'm pretty terrible at stirring because I'm weak but Lori and Dad are pros. After that we did some other Christmas prep before going home.

We went to Stratford to celebrate Christmas this weekend. We took a nice dip in the hot tub Saturday before it got too cold out. Sunday morning they woke us up super early to open presents. Lily was groggy at first but she was okay since there was presents involved. In addition to my sweet new camera, Adam got the first season of Dexter on DVD and I got an awesome assortment of scrapbooking stuff! Lily got lots of toys including a Dora talking house, an Elmo giggle and go firehouse and some circus Backyardigan bobble heads. We had a great but then had to drive in crazy weather to get home. And to make matters worse I forgot my camera in Stratford but Adam's dad was nice enough to meet us in Mosinee to bring it to me so I could have it for Christmas! It took us a while to get home and I was super nervous because it was snowy, slippery and basically a white out.

Today we went over to my parents house to bake. We made oodles of cookies including chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, frosty cookies, 3 different types of chrismas tree cookies, cutouts, and oatmeal cookies. Lily had fun doing cutouts and putting sprinkles on. VIDEO: Lily singing the Grinch song in the bathtub HERE

We went to see Santa at the Centerpoint mall today. Lily was very excited and knew all the things she wanted to tell him that she wanted for Christmas, but once she sat on Santa's lap she got all shy and wouldn't look at him or talk to him.

Today we went to Madison's surprise party. She thought she was having a party at home but her dad convinced her that he had to work late so she had to come to the Knight of Columbus where he was supposedly having a meeting, to pick up her party food and the cake. She then left a note on the door and came rushing to the place really mad that she had to leave the house because her friends were supposed to be showing up to her house at any minute. Of course all her friends where at the surprise party. She was excited and some of her friends are in a band so they played for the party too which was cool. VIDEO: Mike headbanging to "Proud Mary" HERE

Today Lily and I went shopping in Wausau with Mom, Dad, Becky and Braeden. We went all over and even went to the mall which I haven't have been to in years. Lily found a playground in the mall which she had a blast in while Mom was getting her rings cleaned at the jewelry store. Lily also rode on a fun spaceship ride.

It's always fun to decorate the tree. Well, putting on the lights and garland isn't as much fun as digging out all your old and new ornaments and finding that perfect place for them. My favorite ornament is the one that has a photo of me and Santa from 1983. I showed it to Lily and she thought it was pretty neat that it was Mommy as a little girl with Santa. Lily had fun hanging all kinds of ornaments where she could reach. I really like our tree this year. I'm a little allergic to Christmas trees but only for the first day or two so it's not too bad.