Getting Lit

 

After enjoying a leisurely Thanksgiving week spent celebrating Jack’s Birthday, eating turkey, sleeping in, and finally getting to some stuff that’s been idling on the ‘to-do’ list it kind of felt like I woke up on November 25th and Christmas reared up and slapped me across the face. It was like a complete 180, toss the turkey and hang the tinsel! I told Kevin I like to wade in slowly to the Christmas season…or at very least a Cannonball where you get a running start before making a big splash. Usually that’s not the way it goes for me, but for some reason this year just felt like an in your face, “WHAM,” here’s your Christmas!

 

 

Needless to say I’ve had to blink a few times and shake my head, but a week later I’m catching my stride. The kids are a big part in that. It’s hard to resist feeling Christmassy when they are so wide-eyed and excited.  We’ve go the tree up and decorated. Pageant rehearsals have started at Church. We’ve even got this years Gingerbread constructed and decorated (Emilie did the boxcar and helped with the station, Jack did the flat beds and helped me with the Engine, I did the Caboose and Engine, and Kevin did the Station). If all that doesn’t get you in the mood looking at Christmas lights will.

 

 

 

While we still haven’t gotten our own lights up…we got them out and are in the “assessment phase” if that’s worth anything…. We did got view the Neighbor’s epic annual display and went to view the lights at Rock Creek, as well as the holiday light parade downtown. The kids have also spent an exorbitant amount of time on the phone with Grandpa Duchow consulting on his light display. That’s almost as good as putting up your own lights right?

 

You never know, light could still happen around here. First we have to figure out where the staple gun got to though. I think this next week may be a baking week…I feel like making gingerbread men, but you never know until it happens (kind of like my blogging lately ) Jack is going to blow a gasket if he doesn’t get to make kiss cookies soon (Seriously, we’re really low on peanut butter and have no kisses, and we’ve been putting him off for about three days now, but it’s to the point that he wants to just take the peanut butter we have left and just fashion one or two cookies…pleaaaase, Mom…puhleeeeeease!) and my coffee would like some egg nog snickerdoodles to complement the holiday. I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned and find out……

Rock Creek Light and Happy Birthday to Me

Tis the Season so they say….. the season where everyone becomes incredibly busy. Don’t get me wrong, I love it and I’m careful to keep us from becoming so busy we don’t enjoy things.  However between all our normal activities and Christmas ones things like blogging get set aside for a time.

I have a few minutes this morning though and I thought I’d get you all caught up.

First up, the lights at Rock Creek. We went to see this spectacular show last Friday night. As usual it was phenomenal. Plus we don’t have to take a stroller anymore which is even better. The kids were mesmerized by the lights and had great fun picking out different strings, banana lights, pizza lights, Pillsbury dough boy, leg lamps, you name it it was probably there.

Jack enjoyed the miniature village because it had a small airport and landing strip. That took the village awesomeness rating from about a 6 to a 12. He kept dragging us back to it, “look at the airport!”

Emilie impressed me with her observation skills. Not only was she looking at the stuff around her at eye level but she was noticing thing way up in the trees over her head. Not to shabby for a 3 year old or a lot of adults for that matter.

Kevin and I managed to work on one of my resolutions for the year which is “Take more pictures of the two of us together.” I realized when I started looking for a photo to put on the Christmas card that I’d been woefully lax in taking pictures of just us. So I guess that can be my New Years resolution.

The only downside to the lights was that Bull the camel wasn’t there. He swallowed a carrot wrong this past fall and sadly has passed onto camel heaven. He is definitely missed. Still the light are fantastic one ton Camelidae or not. If your in the neighborhood (this includes anywhere in the Magic Valley) it’s worth the trip.

The next big event was my birthday on Monday. Yep I’ve survived 32 years and I’m looking good to do another 60 or so. This year my birthday was on a Monday so there was the typical Monday chores that had to be completed. Jack had to be dropped off/picked up at school. Grocery shopping and laundry needed doing (if we wanted food and clothes anyway) and the kids had their last swim lesson of the year (they both passed their current level and will be moving up in January BTW). Still we made it special. Emilie and I stopped by the Espresso Heaven for fru-fru coffee and a kid’s cocoa before grocery shopping. Kevin did the dishes and loaded/ran the dishwasher for me (trust me folks – this is a huge deal for me).

After swim lessons we went out for a pizza dinner at Gertie’s Brick oven Pizza. Not only is it a pizza buffet but it also has a little room full of arcade games and is decorated with old airplanes hanging from the ceiling (and it’s right next to the railroad tracks) the kids love it. After dinner it was home for cake, ice cream, and gifts. I was spoiled once again. Thank you all. Near or far I definitely felt loved by my friends and family. Now onward to 33.

Rock Creek Lights

As promised a post on the Rock Creek Lights. Photos don’t give the whole thing justice so I’m sharing a video I found on YouTube. Keep in mind that this is the displays’ first year at the new location and the video is from last year at the old spot. It used to be up toward the forest on Rock Creek road, but in a shrewd business move (The guy who does the lights is somehow related to the store owner) the display was moved north to the Rock Creek General store. There is room for the display to grow even larger and parking is improved. While I felt there was room to improve for sure I’ll give them a break as I’m sure there were some logistics to be worked out given it’s their first year in this spot.

The kids, okay and Kevin and I too, enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I even managed to get one or two decent pictures of the kids. Tricky, since they wanted to look at the lights and not the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fans of Bully the camel need not worry. He also made it down to the new digs and was ready and waiting for carrots. Both kids were eager to feed him. So much that we went through the line twice. Emilie, was very gung-ho. I think she would have crawled right through the panels to cover Bull with hugs and kisses had she not be restrained. Really got to work with her on learning that you can’t just run up on an animal that is 15 times your size (being generous assuming she’s 30lbs…the camel weighs 440) no matter how docile they are.

Well, I leave you with a few more photographic gems. I always have so much fun taking picture of the lights. They are beautiful and the lighting also presents a challenge for taking good photos that I enjoy taking on. Mom, the Bumbles are just for you!

Rock Creek Lights

As is rapidly becoming an annual holiday tradition we trekked south again this year to see the lights at Rock Creek. It was pretty chilly, right around 20 degrees, so we put the kids in their snow suits and made the drive down to the South Hills. As usual the lights were amazing! The photos I take just don’t capture all the glory that is a couple of million Christmas lights, an entire Christmas village, and a 2-ton camel named Bull. As I tell myself every year…next year I’m going to film it.

Well, like I said it was cold out so the kids only lasted one trip around the loop before they were cold, about ten minutes in all. 45 minutes out, ten minute visit, and 45 minutes back home. It is soooooo worth it though.

In a big surprise to me Jack thought Bull the camel was the coolest thing ever. I was sure he’d be afraid of it. But, as a friend on Facebook pointed out: He was terrified of Santa, a regular man in a red suit; but a 2-ton, hulking, hairy, mouth-so-bug-it-can-swallow-your-arm camel?….No problem!

He talked about feeding carrots to the camel all weekend long. He told his grandparents (both sets), his teacher at preschool, the checkout lady at the grocery store, and pretty much anyone who would listen.

And here are some of my other pictures of “the lights:”

The Kangas Clan

Whew!

The past weekend was a busy one but so totally worth it. Friday night Brian came down from Bosie and he and Kevin left early Saturday for a late season archery deer hunt. They didn't get anything but a bag of homemade cookies (trust them to head into the woods and find girl scouts....well, friendly cooking making ladies in Malta anyways). Both claim to have seen the biggest buck they've ever seen. Of course, he was standing in the middle of a privately owned alflafa field laughing his antlers off at them.

Brian headed back to Bosie Sunday morning and we turned right around to welcome the Kangas family for an overnight stay on their way to Idaho falls. Christy is one of my very best friends whom I've known since middle school. We did 4H together and co-raised two guide dogs puppies. Now, between living in different states, work, kids, spouses, and all that goes along with it we don't get to see each other as often as we like.

Along with Christy came her husband Justin, mom Joan, and 1 year old daughter Abby. Jack and Abby were all to cute together. As with all children smaller than himself Jack had to stroke her hair. He really wanted to give her more pets and hugs but she would often move in to give him a hug and Jack wasn't quite sure if he wanted Abby to touch him or not. Such a dilemma!

 

Since it is Christmastime we decided to take our guests out to see the lights at Rock Creek. Its about 20 minutes from the house to the lights and the place is a little bit out there. I think that as the road got darker, narrower, and windier they began to question why on earth we would drag them alllllll the way out to the boonies just to see some Christmas lights!!

I've posted pictures before of the Rock Creek lights, but it is really hard to capture the scope of just how impressive this display is. Needless to say the guy starts putting the lights up in September, he doesn't get them down until March, and his December electricity bill is about $2000 above his normal bill. Yikes! Once we got there we were forgiven for our craziness and we all had a great time.

Feeding carrots to  'Bull' the two-ton Bactrian camel (two-hump kind) was a highlight for all. Jack's favorite light was Santa riding a motorcycle (of course). He also enjoyed an animatronic Santa who was stringing lights on a tree and climbing up and down a ladder. There was so much to see that we walked the loop twice. Yep, the long drive out to the sticks was worth it!



Needless to say we all had a great time. I just wish we could get together more often.