Are you looking to mix it up a bit for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner? This idea does require a little bit of extra work but it is SO worth it to see the joy on your family member’s faces.  And if your family has traditions that include having the exact same thing every year, well then, you’ll just have to decide it it’s worth messin’ with tradition. Personally, I think it is.

This idea came from my sister. The Surprise Buffet!

I should also note that this requires that only one or two people make the entire meal. If that is not an option for you then this won’t work. What we did in our family is my sister and dad made the meal and all the rest of us gave them money to offset the cost of groceries.

So basically you just call everyone up that’s going to be at the dinner and ask them what their absolute favorite food is. You may need to set some boundaries. If everyone says prime rib or crab legs you’ll be in trouble and might have to also ask what their second most favorite food is.

Then you just make everyone’s favorite food. If possible you will want to put up a curtain (or a sheet in our case) to block off the kitchen so no one sees what’s cooking. When everyone sits down at the table they’ll have the joy of being surprised by what’s being served, enjoy great food and possibly find out a little bit about their family members, i.e., “You’re favorite food is asparagus?”

Now don’t be like my family. Well we did make a funny memory so go ahead. Anyway, when my sister was calling and asking what our favorite foods were she kinda cheated and asked my mom what my dad’s favorite was. And my mom told my sister something that turned out not to be my dad’s favorite food. Then when we were eating my dad found out that he was never asked what his favorite food was! Ooops.

You can of course tweek it a bit. Maybe have a main course dish and then ask everybody for their favorite side or favorite dessert. You’ll be sure to have fun and make some great memories!

Here’s the link to the post where I shared about our Suprise Buffet.

The “curtain” so no one could see what was cooking!

Yum!

Last night at the Michael W Smith concert we sang that over and over – let the Church arise.  Today’s a day you can put that into action.  Time is running out to let your representatives know that we do not want abortion included in the health care reform.

If you live in South Dakota the link to contact Rep Herseth-Sandlin is http://hersethsandlin.house.gov/contact2.htm or better yet give her a call at 202.225.2801.

Here’s an example of what you can say if you contact her through the website:

“I encourage you to vote down today’s health care reform bill, the whole state is watching.  In the least, remove abortion funding and mandates from health care reform with the STUPAK-PITTS Amendment!  We South Dakotan’s are smart enough to notice that all of the other “ammendments” don’t stop tax-payer funded abortions so please include the STUPAK-PITTS Amendment!
This is not the health care reform we (South Dakotans) want. “

If you don’t live in South Dakota here’s a link where you can contact yours: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Here’s the email that shares additional information about the STUPAK-PITTS Amendment.

— On Fri, 11/6/09, StopTheAbortionMandate.com <info@stoptheabortionmandate.com> wrote:
>
> TODAY is the defining day of the struggle to remove the abortion mandate from health care reform.
>
> TODAY is the day to take a stand — for LIFE.
>
> We are on the eve of the vote of the U.S. House of Representatives health care bill.   This legislation is estimated to cost our nation over $1.2 TRILLION and still contains a massive abortion
> industry bailout in the form of government funded abortions through the “public” option.
>
> Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry are pulling out all the stops to get this bill passed. They know it will open the floodgates to billions of dollars of government funds for their
> abortion business — and they are pressuring elected officials into giving them exactly what they want.
>
> There is nothing more important today than FLOODING our Congressmen with calls and e-mails insisting that they explicitly exclude abortion from any health care reform bill!
>
> CONTACT CONGRESS NOW:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yg6jot5
>
> This afternoon, pro-abortion House leaders are expected to put forward a “Rule” intended to BLOCK the only Pro-Life Amendment on the table — the Stupak-Pitts Amendment — from receiving a vote.  Instead, the “Rule” is expected to include the Ellsworth Amendment, which House leadership has been deceptively calling a “pro-life” amendment. The Ellsworth Amendment specifically ALLOWS federal funding of abortion in the public plan and allows government subsidies to go to private plans that include abortion coverage.
>
> Don’t be fooled! Such a “Rule” would prevent any truly pro-life provision from being considered or included and will result in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
>
> We only have TODAY!  Tell Congress: “Remove abortion funding and mandates from health care reform!” Don’t delay!

> And just in time to help get the word out that the current health care reform bill DOES fund abortion on demand with government money, Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition members just launched a new ad on CNN Headline News today. Check it out here and share this with others:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iPym0GvYEg

>> Craig- as Congressman Chris Smith said on Monday night’s massive Stop the Abortion Mandate webcast:”THIS IS THE BIG ONE!”
>
> Act now, or millions more innocent unborn children will die.  CONTACT CONGRESS TODAY!

> For Life,
> > Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition
> http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com

Abortion hurts women. Let the Church arise.

I often talk about Angel’s meltdowns. I’m not sure if they are just your normal toddler meltdowns or if Angel is like the creator of the meltdown so does it better than anyone. It does seem like she has them alot. Every single morning. Well, four times every single morning. And then she’ll throw in a few 1/2 dozen in the evening for good measure.

Definition of meltdown: screaming, yelling, crying, running to hide, sometimes throwing things, unsure of what she wants, everything mommy or daddy does is wrong.

And then. All of a sudden. Poof, they are gone. We haven’t had one in two weeks.

Now you know that I’m not one to over analyze these types of things. You know that right? Hello?

Ok, well anyway, even though I don’t normally analyze everything these are the things that have changed in the past few weeks that might have contributed to her change – lack of meltdowns.

1. She turned two.

2. We eliminated her morning nap.

3. We took away her paci – er, I mean – she gave her paci to Charlie dog.

4. We removed the nightlight from her room.

5. Caleb has started pulling her hair and pounding on her even more than before.

6. We decided to not sell our house.

7. We are amazing parents. And humble too. I guess that’s nothing that’s changed.

Well obviously it’s not number 7. But that’s about all I know for sure. And that she probably just went through her “terrible twos” early and we are very thankful that we’ve been meltdown free for a few weeks. The bad news? Caleb is almost 11 months and he’s watched his sister very closely for the past 6 months. Hopefully he learned what not to do!

Today Caleb looked pretty:

Today I cherished the hugs I got from my kids. And wished they wouldn’t run off so fast.

Today Angel wore boy’s pull-up pants (hey, they were free!) and spent alot of time on the potty chair…thanks to this guy:

Today I got a text from Princess that showed off her new haircut. And I wished she was home so I could see her up close and hug her and tell her how beautiful she is.

Today Angel rocked her socks off (and her shirt and her pants):

Today Caleb and Angel were in no way permanently harmed by listening to “let the bodies hit the floor” and rocking their socks off:

Today Angel told me I was amazing, beautiful and stunning (thanks to Pat’s coaching). When I asked her if she knew what that meant she said no.

Today Pat told me (for the fourth time) that he doesn’t want to sell the house. And I didn’t argue (for the first time). And we got a call from someone interested in making an offer. God is obviously trying to teach me something.

Today I listened to Steven Curtis Chapman’s new cd. And cried. And wondered how many days I’ll have to hold my children.

Today Angel and I danced:

And I sang off key and tried to hide from the camera.

Today I celebrated with friends who had great joy in the birth of a child and cried with friends who faced challenges beyond comprehension.

Today I had Apple Jacks for lunch, six too many Dove chocolates for an afternoon snack and miraculously saved supper from being ruined.

Today I read this post and thought it was good.

Today we found Angel’s duck:

It was a good day.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

This year we didn’t celebrate Halloween but I did go out the day after and buy some costumes on clearance for Angel. (Yes, I’m pretty sure that makes me a hypocrite).

Growing up we would spend alot of time at my Grandma’s house. Grandma had this chest full of old clothes and me and my siblings and cousins would play dress up all the time and put on plays for the adults.

So I thought it was time for us to start a dress-up collection for Angel. Now I’m pretty sure we weren’t two years old when we played dress up and put on plays. But hey, ya gotta start sometime.

Angel wasn’t so sure though. We’d put on an outfit, she’d run and look in the mirror and then come out and say, “take off”. But she sure did look cute while it lasted.

Mirror, mirror…

And then yes, I did have to try on the horsey/pony/unicorn thing. It fit perfectly.

I’d say we better leave the dressing up to Angel!

One duck.

Long body. Stubby arms. Flappy feet. Bright neon green hair. Charming yellow smile. Crushed cookies and other unidentifiable snack food in the bright neon green hair.

Reward: A very happy two year old.

Here’s proof!

Now back to my unannounced bloggy break!

We had a jam packed weekend, most of which involved celebrating Angel’s 2nd birthday.

I already shared that Princess came home for the weekend – surprising us! That was Thursday night and so we all had fun hanging out and playing together.

This is obviously not Princess, but Prankster.

Pat and I had taken Friday off and the kids slept in until 8:30 am. It was amazing to sleep in that long. We were up and at ‘em soon after that though because we had family pictures at 11:15 am and still had to do baths and all that fun stuff.  Our family pictures were at JC Penny and they turned out pretty good. I guess my only complaint is that there weren’t that many to pick from. But we still got a few nice ones.

After pictures we went home and the kids crashed for a few hours. I think I cleaned the house or did something productive. Can’t really remember right now!  We always go out to eat for birthdays and of course we had to do the same for Angel! So we went to Pizza Ranch where they have an arcade/game place. Not only did we stuff ourselves with good food but also played some fun games.  Angel (with mommy and daddy’s help) won 250 tickets and was able to get a Dora ball!

Saturday was Angel’s actual birthday. She was up bright and early and the first thing we did to celebrate was go out for donuts.   We decided to get groceries right after that. Not sure what the problem was but she pretty much had meltdown after meltdown. Pat sure did enjoy this little grocery trip. I think it was his first time experiencing the multiple meltdowns of Angel out in public!

After grocery shopping we went home and thankfully the kids crashed. Again. Saturday night we had supper at home and of course had to have birthday cake. Even though Angel’s party wasn’t until Sunday we couldn’t let her actual birthday pass without birthday cake.

Caleb enjoyed it too!

Her party on Sunday was at the Butterfly House. She was very overwhelmed by all the attention. I don’t think she smiled or said one word the whole time. She did give everyone hugs after she opened her presents. And then we walked through the Butterfly display and she finally came alive. She loves her butterflies.

Angel with her “Birthday hat”. Sorry, it was all I could find!

Her birthday cake – two butterflies and cupcakes.

Opening presents…

Butterflies up close and personal!

Even though it was crazy busy and sometimes stressful we had a fabulous weekend celebrating our baby girl’s birthday. And for the third time, Angel crashed!

I have about 150 birthday pictures to sort through so I can write a post about Angel’s birthday weekend.  Unfortunately that’s not going to happen tonight ~ this mama is ready to crash.

But I did want to share a cute story about Angel and her most beloved thing on earth ~ her pacifier.

For probably the past 9 months or so she has only gotten her pacifier at nap time and bed time. But she was still pretty addicted. She kept it in a drawer in her bedroom. We would often find her in her bedroom, sitting on her bed in the dark sucking on her paci. It was hard not to laugh at that.  Well we decided that when she turned two we would completely do away with the paci.

Her birthday party was at the Butterfly House and so for the past two weeks we’ve been telling her what a big girl she is and that she doesn’t need the paci. But that the baby butterflies need her paci so they don’t cry. She was pretty excited about giving her paci to the butterflies. I actually got this idea from Rocks in My Dryer whose daughter gave her pacifier to the squirrels in their backyard.

No I am not crazy.

But I am forgetful. I forgot to bring her paci to the Butterfly House. I realized this after we were home from the party. My family was still at our house and my sister-in-law Leana said, “Why doesn’t she give it to Charlie?”

This is Charlie:

He’s 13 years old and used to be my dog. But for the past two years or so he’s been my sister’s dog. We knew there was a reason he hadn’t went to doggie heaven yet.

When Angel woke up from her nap we start talking about how she’s such a big girl and that she doesn’t need her paci anymore. But that Charlie is just a baby and he’s very sad and he needs a paci. And then we asked the dreaded question. “Angel, will you give your paci to Charlie?”

She didn’t even hesitiate ~ her eyes got big, she shook her head yes and ran into her bedroom to get her paci. We rigged up a little necklace to put around Charlie’s neck.

For a minute there we thought she was having 2nd thoughts…

But then Charlie worked his magic…

Of course we had a backup paci just in case. But it wasn’t necessary. Tonight when she went to bed she went straight for the drawer where her paci usually is. We reminded her that she gave her paci to Charlie. She continued to look around the room for her paci. Finally after about 5 minutes of explaining that Charlie needed her paci she agreed and went to bed.

Hopefully the paci is history.  Now the duck, baby, blanket, cup and today’s addition of THREE Dora dolls that she must take to bed with her and tote with her everywhere she goes ~ that’s a problem to be tackled another day.

Our Angel is 2 years old today!

Here she is at 8 weeks old:

And yesterday before we had our family pictures:

Words can’t describe how blessed and thankful we are.

A very long detailed post about the weekend’s birthday festivities coming in a few days!