Dreamin' of a White Christmas!

Well, it started getting white, but this snow picture was taken on December 26.  I think that still counts doesn't it?  We had a wonderful Christmas.  We made it around to every side of the family between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Christmas night we had Steven , Elaine, and Keith over and we played the Wii and watched it snow.  We usually have a larger crowd, but this year we lost several groups of people for various reasons.  Maybe next year it will be back to normal.

Emily got a BB gun from Santa and Abi got lots of Squinkie stuff and a pillow pet.  Santa also left us a replacement DVD player for the car since our old one bit the dust several months back.  So we are all good.  Emily thinks she is Anne Oakley and couldn't be happier with her new gun.  She didn't ask Santa for it, but Santa must have known.  I got a pair of Montana Silversmith earrings and a nut cracker.  I am such a lucky girl!  Brandon got a set of chrome flaming GT surround emblems for his Mustang.  Now if only the temperature would get up over 50 degrees he could put them on.  Hopefully everyone had a good Christmas and now for the New Year we all must make our resolutions to lose that 10 pounds we gained over the Holidays!

Christmas Vacation Continues...



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Emily making peanut butter cookies



Ok, maybe I shouldn't have had such a good day on Monday because we have been paying for it for the past 2 days.  Abigail woke up yesterday throwing up.  We still made the best of the situation and she and Emily were able to clock in over 8 hours on Netflix.  I got some much needed house work done since I was tied to the house for Abigail's little emergencies.  I did however take the time to hold  Abigail and watch Where the Red Fern Grows between cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors.  Later that night Emily and I hit the kitchen to make some Gingerbread shaped peanut butter cookies.  Abigail was a tough little trooper and so pitiful but by last night she acted better.  Then this morning I was woke up by the sound of little feet hitting the floor and running to the bathroom.  She got better as far as the throwing up went, but was completely drained energy wise.  We had planned a movie and Melting Pot trip for today and so here again one of our kids was subjected to the Burnette Boot Camp way of doing things.  I packed Abi an entire change of clothes, her Motrin, and a double layer plastic Food Lion bag lined with paper towels (can you guess what that was for?) and we headed to town.  We got Abigail some Chik-Fil-A because she thought she might could eat that.  She hasn't ate much of anything these past 2 days.  She ate 3 nuggets and I was relieved to finally get something in her, but worried that it might revisit us.  I was prepared and what will be, will be, so we headed to the theatre to watch the new Narnia movie in 3-D.  The poor child is sick to her stomach and we make her sit through 2 hours of action packed 3-D torture.  She slept during a couple of parts and when we left we rode over to the Melting Pot to do dessert.  Brandon decided he wanted to order the entire 4 course meal for us so we were in there for another 2 hours and Abigail had to sick there and smell all of those crazy aromas for all that time.  She was able to enjoy one little shrimp and we made it back home without any incidents.  Then at 11:15pm she decides she is hungry so we head to the fridge to see what we could make quickly.  She decided on a gogurt and then she wanted me to fry a smoke sausage for her.  Here is was almost midnight and I am in the kitchen frying up some smoked sausage!  As I said before, it is all about the kids!  So... what will be in store for us now?  Will tomorrow be a great new day?  Will one of the other members of the family be sick tomorrow?  Will we be able to enjoy it?  Of course we will be able to enjoy it, we are the Burnette's!!!  I am so thankful to have the most wonderfully resilient kids ever.  They are the best ever and have made this week at home rather enjoyable (in sickness and in health). 

The BEST Day Ever!!!!

Today I started the day by dragging 2 kids out of their warm little beds so I could make it to my 8:30 dentist appointment.  Fun, fun, right?  Well not so... I have to have 2 old amalgam fillings refilled.  There goes my 2011 FSA money already.  Oh well, it got better from there.  Me and the girls rode over to my work because I had to drop off an ornament exchange gift for later this week.  Then we went to Showmars for lunch.  We wanted to go over to The Melting Pot for dessert, but they don't open until 5pm during the week.  Emily was crushed but we decided to go visit daddy at work and use the internet to find the closest ice skating rink.  Emily has been wanting to ice skate ever since we went to Gatlinburg at Halloween.  We found a place out in Indian Trail that had an ice rink open to the public so we headed down there to check it out.  Neither one of my kids has ever set foot onto ice with sharp blades under our feet.  I figured I would go and pay the money, they wouldn't be able to do it, and then we would turn around and go home.  Well, I paid the money, suited them up and let them loose.  About 5 minutes of watching them and I was just torn up.  Abi was clutching to the wall and had only went about 10 feet and Emily wasn't far ahead of her.  I couldn't go out there without ice skates so silly me said a short prayer (for those of you that don't know-I have a metal plate and screws in my ankle from a roller skating accident), and then went and paid for my admission and rental fees.  I felt like a big goof, but hey my kids needed me!  When I first went into the rink area, Emily just thought I came out there to talk to them, but when she realized I had skates on she was so excited.  Abigail was relieved too and I stepped out on that ice and thought to myself, My God Lisa you are 32 years old and have a huge medical deductable, what the hell are you thinking!  But my babies needed me!  Abigail and I got our rhythm figured out and before the 2nd time around we were really skating.  The more we went around the less we needed the wall and it was the most wonderful thing I have done in a very long time! I LOVED IT!!!  Then BAM!! down on our butts we went.  I had my sunglasses on top of my head and they flew in the air and then came down and landed in my lap.  I was laughing so hard at myself I couldn't get up and the few seconds I was down I got my butt wet.  Abigail said her butt got hurt, but I said Oh, you're ok, let's go!  Besides, it's all about the kids, right?  Then we ran into one of Emily and Abigails softball aquaintances and her mom.  The other mom got Abigails other hand and the 3 of us followed Emily and her friend around the rink.  We would make a few laps and then rest a few minutes, then repeat.  It was wonderful.  Why in the world did I wait this long to ever try this?  I think it is better than roller skating.  Abigail got hungry, I got 2 bleeding blisters, and Emily got a small rubbed place on her ankle so we left after about 2 1/2 hours.  Apparently when you go ice skating you need to eat well before going and wear socks that are thick and tall up your legs so the skates don't rub.  We will know next time.  I am going to try to get Brandon to go with us then.  The kids were asleep by the time we got home and Abigail was ready to do some stacked Christmas tree cookies.  Then Brandon came home and no supper was on the table (all we had were sugar cookies) so we had no choice but to go out to get something, dang what a shame!  So to say the least, our 1st official day of vacation was fabulous!  Here is a picture of Abigails tree creations.  I think she did pretty well by herself.  She is such a cute thing working in the kitchen.  She put herself to bed by 9:30 tonight.  I think I got all I could out of her for 1 day!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Oh my goodness, less than 10 days till Christmas and I feel like I am forgetting something or someone!  Please forgive me for not sending out Christmas cards this year.  For some reason this year I am emphasizing cookie projects and making edible goodies (yay for my waistline).  I have the week of Christmas off at work and I have all of these wonderful ideas about what I want to do with the kids while we are all at home for the Holidays. Ii want to make reindeer and Santa Claus cookies out of Nutter Butters, Star stacked cookies in the shape of a Christmas tree, and of course the normal Chex mix, white chocolate pretzels, and ritz crackers with peanut butter covered with chocolate.  Abigail and I have already made 2 batches of Chex mix and we started some pretzels Wednesday.  I guess if I forgot someone's gift I could just buy their love with homemade goodies. 

Kayden, Olivia, Abigail, and Renae (not sure of the 2 little boys' names)

I haven't even taken the time to go have a family picture made.  I wanted to do this back in the summer and it never happened.  Then I thought we would just do a Christmas picture and so far that hasn't happened.  I guess we will just depend on my amateur photography skills for collecting the Holiday snapshots.  I was able to take the kids to see Santa on Tuesday and we do have a picture of them with him so I have done one traditional thing this year.  Tuesday I only worked a half of a day so I could go stay with Abigails kindergarten class while they watched Polar Express and had hot chocolate and popcorn.  Boy was that an eye opener!  Thank goodness there are people suited for that kind of work.  I would never make it a week under those conditions.  Of course there are the really good kids that listen and don't complain and can sit still for more than 45 seconds at a time, so I guess those kids give you hope!
Check back soon because I plan to show some more of our Christmas fun plans as we encounter them!

We have had a wonderful start to the Holiday Season. We went to Maw Maw Kaye's for Thanksgiving and had a great meal. I actually won a Butterball Indoor turkey fryer and it came in the mail the day before Thanksgiving. We fired that baby up and used it to deep fry a whole turkey and a turkey breast. It did a really good job-I would have to say it is one of the best things I have won off of the radio! Thank you Bob and Sheri! I only took one picture the entire day. Abigail had made a pilgrim costume at school and I got a picture of her with her Great-great aunts Ruby and Ernie. Later that night we went to see Brandon's mom and stepdad. We had a late night and I went to bed at 11:30 and got up at 4am to go to Belk and JCPenney before work. By that afternoon I was exhausted and for the rest of the weekend I felt like a zombie.



That Saturday after Thanksgiving we had some friends over for a weinie roast. We just had a little fire over at the shop to roast the weinies and marshmallows on. Afterwards we went to the house and brought out all of the Rock Band stuff up that we haven't played with in months. We distracted the kids with a movie in the basement and the adults got the band going again. We have never been able to do good with the drums and Amanda showed us how to get it done. She was the best drummer we have ever had! I think Brandon will never want to play them in front of her now that he has seen how good she is! Of course the kids came up and joined after the movie and we played till after one in the morning. It reminded me of the late nights with Amy and Brian on New Years Eve! Nothing beats a good band practice!


Brandon and I took our annual trip to Charleston SC on December 4 and had a good time as always. We had a wonderful room at the Lodge Alley Inn. We always stay there and it is always interesting to see the room because they are never the same because of the way the building is. There is nothing cookie cutter about it! We had a big split room that was divided by a wall that held the gas logs. I even have a pole in the bedroom! No No No, not a pole for dancing, just a pole, but we did get some laughs out of it! We visited our favorite oyster bar Pearlz and went to some other restaurants we hadn't ever went to before. 



Abigail the pilgrim girl with her two great-great aunts Ernie and Ruby on Thanksgiving



Brandon and me posing in front of fireplace at the Lodge Alley Inn

Abigail before the Christmas program

Sydney with her big sister Taylor (Abigail and Renae's 8th grade buddy)



Renae and Abigail-the Kindergarten divas



Abi and Kelly

Monday night after we got home we had to go to Abigail's Christmas Program at school.  We had supper and rushed out of the house as I snapped a few pictures.  The pictures turned out good, but Abigail still had spaghetti on her face.  Oh well, that's life!  She had a cute little program and I have to say I had one of the cutest girls in the crowd!  I was so glad to get home from Charleston to see my girls.  I have lots of special activities planned for the holidays and I can't wait to get started.  Hope you enjoy these pictures and more will follow.