Kristy Dorminy

I am not sure if I should issue a warning or not before showing all of these pictures, but let me  say that all of these people are very sweet, kind-hearted and normal people.  Or at least I thought so before this party.

Last night was the second annual Tacky Christmas Party for the Sunday School Class.  Last year we had “Christmas Past” twist.  This year it was just a tacky Christmas party, and oh how these crazy folks rose to the occasion!  It was hysterical.  There was a contest and everything.  As ugly as my outfit and Josh’s were, we didn’t even touch the tackiness that was in the room.  Mind-boggling tackiness.

We’ll start with this mild outfit I wore.  Striped socks, ugly yellow shoes, “let’s raise a little cane” sweatshirt, side ponytail…..yet so mild, so very, very mild.

Sweet Coleen and her gigantic ear bobs.

Oh. my. word.  This is Josh with Bill and Melissa.  They were HILARIOUS!!  They came in looking like this and “in character.”  We all just died when we saw them.  Many of us could not recognize them at first!

This is Melissa, again, with Missy and Dana….all looking quite tacky.

What beautiful Christmas Tree shirts.  Rebekah got this from her mom’s closet.  Very funny.

“Bubba” the Snowman

Lovely duck tape to hold the table cloths in place

Josh, Merrilee and Jason.  She stole her sweatshirt from her mom’s closet, too!

Missy, Michelle, Heather, and Cindy.  I was going to crop out the trashcan, but I thought it would add to the tacky level of the picture.  Cindy must have paid a million dollars to get one of Michael Jackson’s jackets.

Gangsta’ Christmas being beautifully displayed by Guy.  I wish I had a picture of Julie with him!

Deidre & Mark with Josh.  Deidre’s outfit was off the charts tacky.  Ankle boots with red hose!  Oh my.  That’s all I can say.  Except that Mark’s sweater is very ugly.  Very.

We played a game called, “Hummdinger.”  It was fun and funny.

Chad was not a good hummer, but I think his team miraculously guessed correctly.

The Group Shot—crazy people, just crazy.

This is spooky.

We had a very fun time!  The class members are so much fun to be with and seemed to all enjoy being together.  The Party Planning Committee always does a phenomenal job, and I am so appreciative of all they do to make these fun times happen.  I am already looking forward to what next year’s theme might be!  We will have to put a lot more thought into the outfits if we are going to try and hang with these messed up people.  Messed up people that I love dearly.

These pictures were taken before we left for our visit to Santa Claus.  We should have known that Mack wasn’t up for taking pictures…not that he ever is, but still.

This is when Josh told him to step away from the girls and that he just wouldn’t get to have his picture made.  He stepped away and cried and cried.

And the girls posed and smiled beautifully

You know, Mack is a lot like Josh.  Josh would rather not take pictures of anything or have his picture made.  I feel like I am asking him to have two teeth pulled without medication when I ask him to have a family picture taken.  (maybe he isn’t that bad about, but he does not like posing for family pictures)  This morning Mack showed me this pose and told me, “This is what Daddy do.”

And he does!  He sometimes stands like that while he is talking to me in the kitchen.  It cracked me up that Mack noticed and showed me!  It was so funny.

OH, but Josh is always dressed when he stands that way.  🙂

Here is Mack showing me the start they put up on the calendar this morning.

So maybe it is illegal to show this online???  Not sure, but really, who is on line looking for illegal Santa picture scanners?  Let’s hope not many.  ANYWAY, the picture turned out great.  Mack couldn’t have made a meaner face. I am not sure if he is mad because I made him sit on Santa’s lap or mad because I made him wear that red sweater vest.  It cracks me up.  He looks soooo big here, too…probably because he is big.

The morning started early.  We left home about 8:30 to go eat at Waffle House.  The kids love that place.  They ate lots of scrambled eggs, waffle and some sausage.  Then, we took off for the mall.  We were too early for Santa to be there, which is when Molly started getting worried.  “Will he come from this way or that way?”  and “How will we know where he is?”  and “Will he come over to us?  I don’t want him to come over to us.”  Bless her heart.  She started getting more and more nervous the longer we waited, and I wouldn’t let them go to the play area to pass the time because the level of “germy-ness” over there is probably off the charts these days.  I am not a germ freak either;  I just want to do what I can to keep the flu or any other sickness from invading our home during this Christmas season….or all winter, for that matter!  OK, so Santa starts walking towards his station from upstairs, all the while ringing his jingle bells and saying “HO, HO, HO!  Merry Christmas.!”  He gave Ruby and Mack “five,” but Molly would hardly look at him.  We were the second ones in line.  They all ended up doing just fine.  No one completely refused to go up to him, so that is good.  Ruby said she wanted a jump rope.  Molly said she wanted her training wheels off her bike, which she already has, so it sounds like Josh and I don’t have to spend much money this year!

Seriously though, we don’t even do the whole Santa thing here at home.  We talk about and read about who the real Saint Nick was and what he did to help others, but we don’t go into the whole “Santa comes into our house and leaves the presents” story.  And before anyone thinks we are being crazy, we don’t think that anyone that does do this is evil or ludicrous.  We just chose not to do it.  We both grew up with that tradition and liked it.  I even thought that a cute little flying fairy came in and unlocked the door for Santa if a house didn’t have a chimney.  Josh’s dad dressed up like Santa one year and visited Jason and Josh in their room in the middle of the night.

So now you are all thinking, “Then why in the world do you get their picture taken with Santa?”  I just like it.  It is funny to see the pictures of them crying or pouting and just to see them growing each year.

HO, HO, HO.  Merry Christmas.

We are still doing school, though the month of December seems to be a hard time to stay focused on reading, writing and arithmetic.  Today we were doing addition and subtraction, which Ruby let me know that she didn’t understand what I was talking about until I said, “plus and minus.”  Those were the key words.  We also played some phonics and word family games, then got Mack safely to bed after lunch so that we could do a couple of fun projects.

We made hot cocoa and wrote down what happened to the water, the powder and the marshmallows and peppermint.   A science experiment of sorts.

Molly is going to have Kindergarten two years in a row because she already does everything that we do!  Even when I’d rather her not.

Ruby enjoying her cocoa (sort of) while she wrote the answers to the questions…she looks like such a big girl here.  I can see her as a college student ordering $7 coffee drinks with her Dad’s money.

Side note:  This is why I don’t like sharing my office area with three little munchkins!  Eaten apple just laying on my desk and a sticky mouse to go along with it.

Ruby crushed up some peppermints so we could mix them with melted white chocolate and then let it harden on wax paper.  YUM.  She is supposed to give it to someone.  I wonder if she wants to give it to her teacher????  Me, that is.

It really was a productive school day.  We went to church tonight, and I got to see her in the Magnolia Room as she sang some songs with her choir class.  She was so cute up there!  This is the same room that we didn’t go in to see Molly sing.  In our defense, we didn’t know in advance about this performance.  Molly likes to tell me, “Remember when I sang in that room?  I was looking and looking and looking for you, but you were not there.”  UGH.  That’ll make you feel like complete poop!  I explain to her that I didn’t know before hand, and she is beginning to come around and will add to her statement that, “Yeah, they should have told you.”

For the record, Molly has been great lately.  And tonight I told her that in Cubbies I wanted her to not miss me and be sad, but to love me and be excited that we will see each other soon! (She usually is very quiet and tells me it is because she misses me….I mean, we only spend 90% of our time in the same room.) She had a great night at Cubbies and Choir and the teachers even commented about it!  Gran, keep up your praying.  Gran said she prays every day for Molly to have a good time and to talk to her friends and teachers.  It worked.  Yipee!

We are glad we have already gotten our tree, decorated it and put up several other things for Christmas, but I am not sure putting something in the stockings was a good idea.  Ruby can’t reach into the stocking, but she can ask five million times a day if she can look at what is in her stocking.  “NO!!!!!!!!!”  It’s my own fault, I suppose.

All that to say that everyone is excited about Christmas.  We laugh at Mack because he is a little confused on the nativity sets.  He has heard that Jesus is God’s son, so he names those in the nativity as “Murray (Mary), Baby Jesus, and God (Joseph).”  Not an easy thing to explain to a 2 year old.

We are hoping that the birth of Jesus is what sticks out the most to our kids each Christmas season, though it is very easy to become distracted.  Josh and I were having trouble ourselves as we roamed a very pricey Christmas Tree Farm.  They had the most gorgeous wreaths I have ever seen.  There was ornament decorating for the kids and face painting.  They even had trees that had “snow” on them.  Beautiful and expensive.  Someone, evidently, buys their trees at this place or else they wouldn’t be in business…we just aren’t one of those families.

Here’s the outside of the building

Me and the kids in front of one of those fancy trees

Mack found some marshmallows to stuff in his mouth

They sat and watched some fish in a pond

This is Berry Patch Farms where we got our tree…very cute place with a fun tractor ride for the kids

Kids waiting on the tractor

Josh measuring the trees to see which one would fit best

Mack is pleased with the tree!

Mack had been concerned all day about how the tree was getting back to our house.  He said, “Daddy will drive slowly?”

We did some decorating around the house later that night.  The tree decorating would wait until Sunday afternoon.  We were tired from a full day….not to mention that we were going on four and a half full days of family time.

Here’s our “chandelier” over the dining room table.

The kid’s tree

Molly putting the angel on the top of our tree downstairs

This is a basket of books, each wrapped individually.  The kids get to open one each night leading up to Christmas…they are all Christmas-themed books.  I got this idea from a friend last year.  There will be a couple of DVDs in the mix, so that should be exciting for the kids.  Grandma’s, if you see any cute Christmas books or DVDs, feel free to send them our way.  I will give you full credit.  🙂

Forgot to mention that we did buy something from that first Christmas Tree Farm I was telling you about…mistletoe.  Funny.

Here’s another tradition I have…having the kids get a picture taken with Santa.  I wish you could see these up close because they are comical.  Somebody is crying in each of them except the one where they all three look “drugged.”  I am gearing Molly up for the event big time.  I am hoping it will happen tomorrow, but we’ll see….Molly asked if we could go in that pottery store (Pottery Barn Kids) and my reply is, “After we take our picture with Santa!”  She then will ask if she can get a slushee.  “After we take our picture with Santa!”  I am certain she is going to fall apart, but I am going to try very hard to help her enjoy the moment.  It is doubtful that will be the case.  Hopefully I will have a picture to show you tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Ruby is definitely fitting into the mold of the older sibling.  This morning the girls came down stairs and Ruby immediately remembers that today is the day that we start putting our velcro pieces in their proper place on our “Countdown to Christmas” nativity calendar.  I told her that it would be nice to wait until Mack woke up so that he could see it being done.  She said, “Oh, but I will go ahead and do it so that he can be surprised.”  Yeah, right.  The whole time Molly doesn’t argue at all that maybe she wants to put up the first piece.  I told her that tomorrow she could put one up.  She just smiled and shook her head.  Ruby then proceeded to tell her, “I do this one, you do this one, I do this one, you do this one….”  I stopped her and said, “Hey, what about Mack?  He’ll want to do it, too.  She said, “Oh, ok.  I do this one, you do this one, Mack does this one, I do this one, You do this one, Mack does this one,” etc, etc. all the way down to the next to the last one.  Then, Molly said, “Daddy could do the last one.”  Ruby said, “Nah.  I can do that one.  It would be my turn.”  I guess she is really getting “patterns” in our math lessons.  She is a hoot and very much in charge!

Before moving full-on into Christmas, let me add a few more pictures from Thanksgiving that Aunt Cacy sent today.

 

PawPaw with the kids at their table

My mom, Marcy, Cacy and Me

The pretty table where we ate

One more day in November!  Crazy.  We spent most of today decorating when we got home from church.  It looks so good and is very Christmasey.  I love this time of year.

Today was a gorgeous day!  We decided to go ahead and get our Christmas tree and start enjoying all the wonderful fun of the holiday earlier than usual.  I got out on “the wrong side of the bed,” one might say.  Josh quickly told me that if I was going to be “Bah-Humbugging it”, then we would all just stay home.  I laughed at him and decided to straighten up!  Then, Ruby started pouting about the jacket we told her to wear.  Josh told her the same thing he told me.  She straightened up, too.  As we pulled out of the driveway, I could hear Molly singing and singing “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.”  I commented on her joyful disposition this morning and that’s when it started.  A new Dorminy Family tradition….the “JOLLIEST ELF AWARD.”  Josh decided that Molly should receive the JOLLIEST ELF AWARD for the 10:00 hour.  Ruby said she wanted the award and wanted to know what it was….she didn’t quite understand that the award is the title itself.  Molly was so happy to be the winner of the hour and kept up a good attitude, giving us all a run for our money.  I am not sure Mack ever got the award…maybe once.  He was a stinker off and on all day.  He wouldn’t smile for the camera most of the day, and he was into EVERYTHING when we finally got home and tried to start decorating.

At Chick-fil-A, note Mack looking away from the camera

At the tree farm in front of our tree, note Mack’s “non-jolliest elf” disposition

Inside at Berry Patch Farms, enjoying a cookie….what a face that Mack is making!

This is the tree that is now sitting in our living room.  We are all so tired from a full day, so it won’t be decorated until tomorrow.  We made time to put up an artificial tree in the kid’s school room.  It has colored lights and decorations they have made or have been given over the past five years.  It looks so great!  I love that they have their own tree.  Josh unplugged it tonight after putting them to bed, then we heard scampering around, and when Josh went upstairs to his office, he saw that the tree was plugged back in.  I am sure our “jolliest little elf” had nothing to do with that!  I will be posting later on the full day’s experience of tree-shopping and family fun, but for now I will leave you with these pictures of Mack…..showing you another reason why we will have to wait until tomorrow to decorate.  This stinker is into everything!!

And lest I forget, let me finish the “jolliest elf” topic.  After the tree was tied to the car, the kids were all buckled in and we were ready to go, Josh accidentally spilled Molly’s diet coke all over his seat.  He started a little rant about how it shouldn’t have been in the car and what a mess it was and on and on….He walked away to throw the can in the trash and someone told Ruby to say to her Daddy when he got back in the car, “Daddy, if you want to win the JOLLIEST ELF AWARD, you better be careful!”  He just looked at me.  Hilarious.  Let’s just say Daddy didn’t receive that award during the 1:00 hour.

More Christmas posts to come!

We got back this evening from Augusta.  It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving!  All of the cousins played and played and played some more.  I enjoyed catching up with my sisters, and I always like the late night talks with my parents after the kids are in the bed.  We ate way too much, but that is just how it is on Thanksgiving, right????  Right.  I will narrate  as I post the pictures.  Cacy will be sending me some more pictures, too.

We went to see MeMe on Wednesday afternoon.  She was doing very well and seemed happy that we all came to visit with her.

What do you do with little kids in a nursing home?  Blow up the gloves into balloons and bounce it around the room!  That’s what.

That night we all ate outside at my dad’s “lean-to” behind his shop.  Molly followed Renn around “helping” her all night.

This is my dad getting the heater ready down at the “lean-to.”

The kids played with, what I called, “glorified trashbags” that I brought.  They would just throw them around, hit someone with them and them pop them.  Fun times.

Aunt Marcy with my girls

Mack and Vance

Aunt Cacy with her daughter, Kaybeth

Vance–mad about something

Classic Tommy (PawPaw) and Kay (Sweetie)…he never leaves his bedroom without shoes and socks…she could have been out in the freezing temps with shorts on!

My sweet husband

Molly was quite bossy most of the time.  There are seven grandkids and five of them are younger and shorter than her!  She took full advantage.

Molly and Renn

Mack in a little swing

Thanksgiving morning with three little munchkins I am thankful for!

Our family of five

My mom and Ruby

My dad and Josh watching the turkey fry

Mom making her dressing

Ruby reading “Dick and Jane” stories

Marcy, Jesse, Rennison and Vance…her finger is up her nose, how cute!

Renn is not happy

Mack wasn’t willing to be a part of the cousin group

Aunt Marcy doing dishes…had to get a picture of this!

Aunt Cacy watching Aunt Marcy wash the dishes

Renn and Me

Kaybeth picking her nose

Renn eating a turkey egg roll thing that my mom and dad made…..they were very good….turkey and dressing in an egg wrap and then fried.  YUM.

The guys all hanging out

We went to Aunt Cacy’s house later on Friday and the kids played outside,  then went inside the playroom for a dance party.

Ruby doing the sprinkler

All tuckered out from the dancing

All seven grandkids with Sweetie

All seven grandkids….at this point they are over getting their picture made!  They are all so sweet and cute.

Maybe after a good night’s sleep and some cleaning up around here, I can think of some stories to go along with all the pictures.  For now, I will go to bed!

My sister emailed me these pictures from Thanksgiving 2007.  Fun times at Gran and PawPaw’s house….here are my little Indians….and Mack, the chubby turkey.

Molly, 2 1/2 years old

Hilarious!

Look at those thighs!  Good grief.

A family picture…don’t all of our children look so happy to be with us????  Mack looks too chubby to make facial expressions or turn his head.  And Mack and Molly look so much alike here!   Ruby was 3 1/2 years old here…she has changed a lot, though she still has her very round shaped face.

I hope everyone is gearing up for a fabulous Thanksgiving!  We are!  And I am so thankful for so many people and things in my life.  I am so blessed in so many ways…to begin to make a list would be crazy because I am not sure I would ever be able to list all that I am thankful for!  The list gets longer and longer with each passing year.  This Thanksgiving I will be thanking God for His wonderful protection and provision in my life and the one’s I love.  I am so thankful for each person in my family, starting with Josh, the kids and moving on out to ALL of my family.  I am thankful for Josh’s job that God has used to meet our needs.  I am thankful for an incredible group of friends and fellow believers we get to attend church with.  I am thankful for my health. See????  I could go on and on…..I am so THANKFUL.  Happy Thanksgiving!!