Arizona Winters..Good ole Globe

 So many of you know that Arizona does not have normal seasons. While the rest of the nation has this season called Fall Arizona has Summer, where it snows in winter Arizona has Summer. So now on December 14th we have fallen into winter. Many of my transplant friends have experienced the bitter winter, the golden fall, and the brightly colored spring, but we beat them all with our summers. Now I know you ask, wait? What are transplants? people that did not grow up in Arizona but moved here willingly after reaching their legal independence because of weather, love of swimming pools or just good old fashioned rebillion.

And to my transplant friends please know there is  place in this Copper State that does have all four seasons. It is the near dear home in my heart, Globe AZ. I remember having snow in the winter, beautfiul gardens in Spring, and football in the Fall ( I sound like a Kenny Chesney song). It's days like this that miss the small mining town, where everyone knows your name...wait that is a small bar in Boston called Cheers. But still I am so excited to be going to my grandparents in Globe for Christmas day. 

  Here are some pictures of the front of my house to show that Arizona can party down with the best of them :).

 Alex crunching fallen leaves outside our house.

front of the house decorated for Christmas.

Apparently the Three Wise Men were Cowboys

So today on the ride home from school I asked Alex the usual how was school, what did you do questions. This was the convo:

Me:So what did you do at school today?
Alex: I watched a movie at school today!
Me: Really what was it about?
Alex: It was about God.
Me: Really? and what else?
Alex: and a the baby Jesus, they had to run away with the baby.
Me: Who ran away with the baby?
Alex: The three kings they took the baby Jesus on their horsies.
Me: They did what did they say?
Alex: Yee Haw Cowboy

Moral of the story Alex knows the story about the baby Jesus and his correlation to God. Revelation, apparently the Three Wise Men were Cowboys!

Re Gifting

So recently Alex and I had a discussion about Santa Clause. He wanted to know why Santa has reindeer, why he says Ho Ho Ho, why he is so big. Well during this conversation Alex also told me that he wants new everything. He would show me his existing toys and say "I want this guitar but new one." "I want this buzzlightyear doll but new one". So in my infinite wisdom to educate and guide my child to be morally sound I came up with this idea. I took some of his older toys and re wrapped them for Christmas. Tee hee hee insert me twisting my mustache..NOT that I have a mustache I mean I do keep up with that kind of maintainence. Anyways and it was only a couple toys the remainder are new things he did want from Santa. I will keep you all posted on how that develops on Christmas day.

Guilty Pleasure's...I am a NERD

So I recently added a new "gadget" to my blog, Guilty Pleasure. It's basically a breakdown of the books I have read in the past couple of months. Some of them I have read for the 3rd time. This post is a little embarassing becuase it is showing my inner geek-dum (I just coined a new word). I read ALOT I typically have read one book in a one day period. This is something I have only recently found as my passion in the past couple years. I hated reading in school and would not be caught dead reading as a past time, but now I find the smallest pleasure in reading with a good glass of wine (I am also giving away to just how single I really am). This list also reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a coworker this week. The backstory she was telling me that over the Christmas weekend her and her husband are having a marathon of his favorite movies that she has NEVER seen. Here is how it went.

Coworker "we are watching all the Star Wars I have never seen them."
Me "what you have never seen Star Wars? Not even the new ones with Ewan McGregor?"
Coworker "OH WOW you sound like my husband when I say I havent seen Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter."
Me "WHAT? are you kidding me? I wish I could go backpacking through middle earth with legaless. AND Harry Potter is really a Cinderella story of sucess, the boy grew up in a closet."
Coworker " he lived in a closet?"
Me "Yea his parents were killed by Voldemort and his stupide muggle aunt and uncle raised him."
Coworker "what is Legaless?"
Me "Just the hottest Elf with kick ass archery skills"
Coworker BIG eyeroll as she turns to face her computer

To sum it up I realized I am a bigger nerd than I thought, also I have the same interests as a 16 year old boy....FANTASTIC no wonder I am still single lol

Making HomeMade Cinnabon Rolls

So tomorrow is my dear friend Laura's birthday. The only thing she asked for was a pan of my homemade Cinabon Cinnamon Rolls. Now I can not take all the created becuase I was introduced to this recipe by my aunt Heather years ago. It is an amazing recipe very yummy but you do have to make everything from scratch, bread and all. So here is the process.

 My bread baby, this is after mixing and kneading the bread.

This is after flattening out the bread baby and putting the filling of butter, cinnamon, sugar. Then you roll it nice and tight. Using string I sliced out all the rolls.

This is the end result. They look sort of choatic but OH so YUMMY

The Reason for the Season

Alex recently started going to a local Christian School and has been learning alot about God, and Jesus. So today while we decorated the tree I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about the purpose of Christmas. Now I warn all the theological scholars, and philosophers reading this blog that this conversation took place with a 3 year old who thanks God every night for making nana, mommy, and Buzzlightyear so please do not judge.

Me "Alex who is Jesus?"
Alex "Jesus is God's son, God is Jesus's daddy."
Me "Alex whose birthday is on Christmas?"
Alex "its my birthday!!!! "
Me "No your birthday is in September, its Jesus birthday."
Alex "NO Jesus cant share my birthday, Its my birthday too"
dramatic pause to evaluate how to handle this
Me "Alex who is Jesus?"
Alex "He is God's Son"
Me "Jesus was born on Christmas"
Alex "OH cool I love Jesus"

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

 So Alex and I got this tree from my mom when we moved into our first apartment in 2008. Alex was one years old, and this tree was originally my moms first tree way back in the 1992. I call this tree Charlie Brown because all the poor pine needles fall with the whisper of the wind(overly dramatic). I plan to buy a nice 7 ft pre lit tree after this Christmas but I wanted to give him a proper fairwell by including him in our first Christmas in our new home. However even if he is replaced he will never be tossed out he will hold a dear place in my heart even if that means Alex will enherit it when he moves out.

 This is the Sesame Street Branch

Alex was in charge of hanging all the Sesame Street figurines this is him in action.

"Mommy do you have a boyfriend?"

I started working on my super secret surprise present that I am make for a very close family to me. It involves patchwork, cut outs and sewing. One patchwork has a pink heart that I was pinning for sewing when Alex comes over this is the conversation:

Alex "mommy is that a heart?"
Me "yes it is"
Alex "OH COOL. Is that for you boyfweind?"
Me (shock face because I havent heard the word boyfriend since I was like 16 jk) "NO"
Alex "oh mommy do you kiss you bowfriend?"
Me (again shock face with nervous laughter, can my 3 year old know about my non existant dating laugh?) "No I dont have a boyfriend, and how about this if I get a boyfriend, I promise you will be the first person I tell."
Alex "ok thats good"

This was the funniest conversation he and I have ever had. I knew that the Mommy why are you single? Mommy why doesn't a daddy live with us? conversation would happen one day but not at 3. I am sure as his language skills get better I will need to do more explaining.