Christmas!

Our Christmas festivities began this year with making sugar cookies.  I hadn't planned on baking, but Spencer was adament.  "We have to leave Santa some cookies!" he cried.  "I want to eat cookies!!" Josh joined in.  "Bllaaahhhhppphhh!" Cole submitted.  I was outnumbered, so a-cookie-ing we went. 

Note Joshie's excellent cookie-frosting ensemble.  Fabulous.  (That's chocolate-orange frosting.  Also fabulous.)

That evening we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Usually I try to make something a bit unusual or at least interesting, but this year I got lazy and went totally traditional: ham, funeral potatoes, salad, and rolls.  Yum.  My boys luuuuvvv ham!  (Yes, even Cole got a taste.)

Such gracious table manners.

Next we opened our Christmas jammies.  Earlier I was debating as to whether or not I should even wrap them since everyone knows what they are.  But then both Josh and Spencer acted completely surprised, so I guess the pajama wrapping will continue for a few more years.

Josh was so excited about the puppy jammies he got (which he swore up and down in the store that he hated) that he wanted to get changed right then.  Right then.

Lance liked his jammies, too, even though they were used.  And by used meaning I had to wear them while I was in UT.  (Long story - will explain once I get around to blogging about my trip.)

Cole liked the wrapping paper more than the jammies.  Expected.

Joshie got right into his jammies and demanded pictures.  Spencer soon followed.

One cute boyo.  Two cute boyos.  Three cute boyos!

THREE CUTE BOYOS!

After our traditional self-timed family portrait, we started a new family tradition: Christmas Bingo!  I had bought really cheap prizes and the boys were completely, utterly, and deliriously happy about it.

After some cookies and milk and setting out a plate of reindeer food (because it was raining too much to put it outside), it was time to read about the real Christmas story: The Grinch.  Just kidding, we read about the birth of Christ and then finished up with How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Then it was off to bed.  I was actually quite surprised at how quickly everyone calmed down and went to sleep.  Perhaps they were really listening when I explained that Santa couldn't come if they were awake.  Or they were in ham-induced comas.  One of the two.

However, Santa came while I was awake.   I snapped this picture just after he left.  It's my favorite Christmas scene.

I thought for sure that the boys would be up early early, especially since Cole has been waking up around 3am again.  (PESKY BABY!!!)  But nope - I didn't hear any stirrings until 6:30am, and when no one came to bother me I fell back asleep.  I woke again at 7:30am to the sounds of Spencer and Josh playing computer games.  Seriously.  A room.  Full of new toys.  And they were on the computer. 

Either we have them very well trained, or they're just not right in the head.  Maybe a bit of both.

First order of business: go through stockings and then pass out the presents from under the tree.  Or, if you're Josh, start eating candy and cookies.

The present opening commenced!

It was pretty awesome.  We have some wonderful Grandpas and Grandmas!  And Santa was very kind, too.  He seems to be especially concerned with our health this year, as everyone got bandaids and first aid kits and such.  (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I had a bit of money left over in our flex account this year!)

We spent the afternoon playing and resting and fighting over toys and watching movies and fighting over different toys.  Ah, memories.

It was a very merry Christmas indeed!

Merry Christmas from the Madsens!

Our traditional Christmas Eve Pajama family picture:

And lest you let the above picture deceive you into thinking our family is close to perfection, a sampling of our Christmas Eve dinner:

And just a little somthin' to make you laugh:

More Christmas highlights to come - but for now, it's time to play with all our new loot!

Santa Visit

As we prepared to see Santa Josh told me "I won't cry this time, Mommy."

And he didn't.  Good job!  (Too bad Santa's not going to bring you the Pop The Pig game you requested.  He just can't stomach spending $30 on a game where most of the pieces will be missing in less than a week.)

2009 Christmas Card

What the UT?

What?  You didn't know?

Yeah, I'm in Utah for a dear friend's wedding.  Cole and I flew out early early early this morning.  Even though Spencer and Josh are both very good travelers, traveling with just one good baby?  Cake.

Lance the wonderful is staying home with Josh and Spencer.  Lots of daddy time and a Father/Son LAN (computer gaming) party on Friday night.  It's a little boy's dream!

I don't fly home until late Monday night. So, as of now and until then, I'm officially on a blogging vacation.

Until then,

-M

Paid In FULL

Lance and I were really blessed when it came to student loans.  Neither of us were in debt for our undergraduate schooling, and Lance got a decent fellowship and then a job for graduate school so that we only needed loans for his first year at Purdue.  We lived like dirt poor graduate students (because that's what we were) and so even the loans we had were minimal.  (Especially compared to some of our friends'!)

Just before Lance graduated we had all of our loans consolidated under Sallie Mae.  We got a lower interest rate this way and it seemed like it would make repayment easier.  Wrong.  Well, not on the interest rate.  No, on the repayment part.  Let's just say Sallie Mae made things difficult.  No, that's putting it lightly. 

Sallie Mae made paying off our loan a living **!(#@*!!  (I don't know what that last word is; just fill it in with your favorite expletive.)

They made it soooooo hard to even start payments.  Then they made it even harder to pay off anything more than the bare minimum each month.  They really weren't going to make that much interest off of us, but they were bound and determined to get each and every red cent of it!

Sallie Mae was always changing security procedures and generally making it a matter of national security just to check our account online.  And trying to get a REAL person who was actually residing in this COUNTRY?  Forget about it.

And no way were they going to talk to ME about the loans.  They were all in Lance's name, so he was the only person they could deign to talk to.  Nevermind the fact that I handle all of the finances in our family and knew all of the security answers (including his social security number) better than he did.  I became pretty adept at pretending to be Lance on the phone. 

Jerks.

Anywho, Lance received a decent Christmas bonus from work this year.  After paying our tithing, setting aside another 10% of it in our savings account, and then trying to get over just exactly how much ol' Uncle Sam decided he needed from it, we started to think about what fun things we could do with the money.  We tossed around a few ideas ("A European dream trip!" "A carputer*!") (Guess whose idea was whose...) but eventually we both realized that with the bonus and some of our savings we could pay off this debt.

I don't know why, but the thought was a little scary at first, mainly because even though we were paying off debt it still felt like we were spending all of that money.  But that feeling only lasted a moment - soon I felt quite exhilarated about the whole matter.

It's taken a good week of pretenting to be Lance on the phone, answering a bajillion security questions, depositing money and transferring funds, but just 10 minutes ago I clicked the 'send funds' button on Sallie Mae's site.

It felt awesome. 

Not only are we following the counsel of the prophets, but we're also doing something I've wanted to do for quite a while: dump Sallie Mae.

Excuse my French, but there are still three little words I want to say to ol' Sallie:  Paid. In. Full. 

Oh, and Bite. Me.

Awesome.

*For those who might now know (as in, anyone outside of my immediate family) Lance's dream is to one day build a computer just for the car.  Hence the name carputer.  His only obstacles?  Money, time, and me.

Self-portrait Tuesday: Fuzzy Hair

Remember way back when I talked about my hair falling out?  What I forgot to mention is that it eventually grows back.  Which is good.  But for a while, during this growing back process, it looks like this.  Which is bad.

I look like a dork, people.  A fuzzy-headed dork.  *sigh*

Okay, so in that one it's my face that makes me look like a dork.  But the hair doesn't help. 

This is even after trying to get the little hairs to stay down.  Which is the very definition of futility, but I still try all the same.

Oh well - at least I'm in good company as far as sticking up hair goes.