The Christmas Letter

so……..Christmas cards went out on Wednesday. If you didn’t get one it is either because we don’t have your snail mail address or you are the card whose address label printed funny and Jeff put aside to show me and now we don’t know where it is!

if so, this is what it looks like:

 

(don't mind that little yellow triangle in the middle of the photo.....that is the photo place trying to tell me the photo's resolution is crummy! it looks just fine people......chill out!)

here is a brief tour of what each photo is of……….more specifically than “here’s Ryan and David and Dolly”……..which really is all that one in the center is! above that is the photo of Jeff and I (with Dolly) at the Running with the Bears half marathon. you might remember reading about it HERE?!?!? this photo was post race. yes, we all three survived! to the right of that is boys in mud. no shocker except it was after a 5K obstacle race and the boys are a bit older than your average mud playing kiddo. in the bottom right is a photo taken at our 20^th anniversary dinner at a super swanky restaurant in town (The Kitchen......duh!). unbeknownst to us, or her, a friend who is an awesome professional photographer was on assignment there that night. not only did it provide for some fun conversation, but also resulted in a really nice photo of us! I guess once every 20 years?!?!? and last but not least, a family shot from the Red Shoe Crawl. who can resist an afternoon of walking around eating scrumptious tidbits? I might have mentioned it HERE.

as you can tell from the photos, 2013 was a pretty spectacular year for us Bergs. we ate good food, we went to fun events, and a few of us even got older (not me).  Ryan would like you to know he got his driver’s license……but I am pretty sure you heard me scream. Jeff has gotten more interested in bike riding and David has been dipping his toe into the world of running. sssshhh........the word “marathon” has even crossed his lips! as for me, I went from taking Dolly for 2 mile walks to completing 5 half marathons in 2013 and starting to prepare for a couple triathlons in 2014……all something I would have laughed at you about a year ago!

 

with all that and a kid graduating from high school, 2014 is looking pretty crazy too! (starting with a Polar Plunge on New Year's Day........at least what passes for one in California!) I hope 2014 brings you some equally fun adventures!  

p.s. because I KNOW you miss it SO MUCH.....I will be doing a Year of 24 wrap up.......more like clean up......before year end. sheesh! what a slacker, huh??

Wishing you a Holly Dolly Christmas!

as before, Christmas time reminds me of how many wonderful friends I have......and how many addresses I don't have. heck, some of them I don't even have phone numbers......but that has not lessened the friendship! thank heavens for the internet.

to each and every one of you, I thank you for your friendship!

 

though......Dolly may not quite feel the same way!

It's World Cardmaking Day! Check out the Bloghop!

Here is your friendly reminder to come check out my scrapbook blog to see the card I made for Operation Write Home....and to continue on their Christmas card bloghop! I think you'll enjoy it!

btw, if you click on card #124 (the really cute snowmen), it will take you to the OWH blog and there are additional cards linked at the bottom! some amazing works of art to check out.....

If you somehow didn't know......

I am a scrapbooker!! I even have a blog dedicated to my layouts! I have been a more diligent scrapper but without an internet scrap-home, I will admit I have lagged. So that blog is aptly titled: Sometimes Susan Scraps.

I bring this up now because on Saturday I get to participate in a really cool event: Operation Write Home's World Cardmaking Day Bloghop! The organization collects cards for the troops to use to send home messages. I went to a crop this past weekend and made a card after each layout. It was quick and easy and a great way to use my layout scraps!

The Bloghop on Saturday has over 100 blogs signed up! That means 100+ great Christmas cards to check out! If you are a cardmaker or scrapbooker with a blog, I encourage you to join the event. Sign ups are welcome through Wednesday night. If you aren't, I encourage you to check out the hop, see some beautiful works of art!

And, have no fear, I'll be sure to remind you about the hop again later in the week. Right now I need to work on my card!

Sending you a Christmas card.....

so while writing our Christmas letter and printing the labels, I realized that many of the people I have the most interaction with are not those I am sending cards to. Many of the people I really should be wishing the best of the holiday season are those on Twitter or Facebook....or even Foursquare. I spend time with them every day....but don't have addresses or even phone numbers in most cases!

in 2010, I made countless new wonderful friends, learned so many things, and have had a blast thanks to people I may never met! so if you are one of those people.....and you KNOW who you are.....please accept this as my Christmas card to you.....and imagine that everyone in the family hand signed it....cuz we did!


oh....and if you are thinking "but I AM one of those people that Susan sends a Christmas card to every year" then have no fear.....it is on its way! I mailed them on the 22nd. so you might want to print out the one above and put in with your other cards until the real one arrives!

Merry Christmas everyone!

12 of 12.....January 2008

aaah! a new year a new 12 of 12!!! Chad decided this year to leave out the bonus pictures. guess that will make it easier for me to scrapbook! lol!!

so to start the day off........the boys were supposed to go on a hike but it was postponed until Sunday because there weren't enough grown-ups able to go. I was supposed to donate blood but had such a headache Friday night that I finally broke down and took some medicine. I tried to do without but couldn't handle it. I still have the headache. it has come and gone all weekend.

this is my new fav game on Webkinz. the music is rather soothing and I have found that a couple of games before bedtime certainly helps me wind down.
breakfast.....though I am at home I still had my fav.....Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats! YUM!!!
D spent most of the day doing homework......either homework assigned for the weekend or homework he just didn't do during the week.
remember that hot chocolate pot that Nora mentioned in her blog?!?!? well here it is in action! it was such a dismal day that hot chocolate was perfect! I love how it goes directly into the microwave!
here is J testing out the equipment for the Scout's Pinewood Derby. he is using my laptop to run the timing equipment and thought it a good idea to check it out now. good thing because it didn't work! after a few calls to their tech support and some setting changes on the laptop they are in fine shape. except now we get a bunch of odd message when we boot up the laptop. hopefully when the derby is over we can return my laptop to its regularly scheduled programming! lol!
while D did homework and J figured out the laptop, I listened to Christmas carols and took down the Christmas decorations......atleast the ones on the tree. somehow things go much faster where there are four of us doing this and we are putting them ON the tree! but I got it done. I'll tackle the rest of the house today (Sunday)....maybe! this was the new ornament this year. I figured with our family's love of Starbucks it was perfect!
I had to go pick up R from a friend's house. this is the temperature at about 2 in the afternoon. I don't think it got any warmer!
here I am in my new glasses at dinner. since my prescription didn't change I figured I could get some funkier ones that won't match everything but I will enjoy wearing. in fact, I think I want to go back and get another pair in a dark or hot pink.
like I said in yesterday's post, we went to The Melting Pot for my birthday dinner last night. R was supposed to take a picture of the waiter MAKING the fondue but it didn't happen that way. so instead you get a photo of the actual cheese fondue pot! lol! dinner was YUMMY!!!
last week I bought R and myself the Wreck this Journal books. he is doing much better at ruining his than I am at mine. he took his last night to document his dinner. the directions say to use the book as your napkin but R said that he eats too neatly and wouldn't have anything to wipe on it! lol!! so instead he painted and stamped the paper with the different fondues.
on the way home I finally got my gas price sign. the price has been bouncing around quite a bit the past few weeks. you can see changes of 5 cents between the morning and afternoon. kinda crazy!!
so that was January 12th in a nutshell. no photos of the nap I took or the picture sorting I did....but otherwise a pretty good description of the kind of day we had.

hope yours was fun!

and a frothy Christmas to you too!

aaaaah! the day after.......toys and such scattered around. RockBand already acting up! uuugh! well....atleast the boys were in good spirits today. I got nothing memorable accomplished other than some buttons put in pretty jars and some ribbon wound around little cards. I am not done yet and my scraproom looks worse than when I started but I am enjoying myself. wish I had more than 7 more days off from work! wish I had taken a nap! lol!!

so I started reading Nora Griffin's blog through Moriah Bettencourt's blog. I found her blog through Lisa Damrosch's blog. Lisa teaches at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I have taken a few kick butt classes from her and love her patterned paper work. it is just AMAZING!!! so anyway.....I am getting off track here............on the 20th, Nora mentioned a hot chocolate frother from Williams & Sonoma. having not purchased my gift for J yet.....and his continuing love of hot chocolate......I thought this would be perfect! R and I snuck over to the mall on Sunday morning bright and early and pre-hoarding masses and picked one up.

tonight we tried it out. in our enthusiasm I think we (read: he) over-frothed!! it makes even 1% milk hot choc taste pretty darn good!! I can't wait to have some with the GOOD chocolate!!

so......have a little indulgence yourself. yeah, probably not that you needed any encouragement this time of year, huh!?!??! but do it anyway! better yet.......share your indulgence with someone else. I sure am glad that J did tonight!

I'd like to order the double carb dinner.....

with a side of tryptophan please! and if that weren't making me sleepy enough......reading the Wikipedia entry for tryptophan would definately do it!

Christmas morning rocked....in many more ways than one! not only was Santa's pressie a big hit (pun intended) but everyone was excited and surprised by the tickets to Walking with Dinosaurs! J was rather speechless.....I finally had to tell him I won the tickets. lol!!

the boys spent a good portion of the day playing RockBand. wow! it is difficult.....either that or I have lost my sense of rhythm! maybe it was luck but the microphone doesn't work so we didn't have to listen to either of them butcher the lyrics to any of the songs. I already ordered the replacement microphone. later in the day R found out that it locks up when he tried to play drums only on a particular tune. he can't get past it until he plays it. I am hoping I can just exchange the disc portion of the game tomorrow locally.

other than that, I was hit by an organizing bug. I sorted all my buttons by color. I can't find anything in the house to store them in nicely but expect a trip somewhere tomorrow (I know....I am insane) to solve that problem. until then they are being kept nicely in my Tupperware veggie dish. yes.....THAT many buttons! I also sorted my Primas by color and they look SOOO pretty! I am trying to organize my scraproom a little more creatively. right now it looks like a cluttered warehouse. I am also hoping to get myself some more actual room on my scrap table. wish me luck!!

dinner, while not our normal holiday spread, was quite enjoyable! the turkey was delicious and juicy. J thinks I did something special.....nope! after begging a Pampered Chef friend to e-mail me a recipe I had forgotten, the stuffing was excellent and it has already been request that I make it again next year. wow! just don't tell my dad, okay?!?!? J made crescent rolls and we had steamed carrots. like I said.......I am full and ready for a nap!

so in many ways our day was full......full of fun, family, and food. I hope yours was the same!

waiting for Santa.....

I love that the boys still believe in Santa....... or perhaps they believe in the magic possibility of Santa?!?!? either way today has been filled with Santa updates courtesy of Norad and discussions about what we should be leaving out for him and the reindeers. a mother's heart was touched when R suggested that we leave an extra candy cane for him to take home to Mrs. Claus because she does all that work to help Santa out!

other than that.......a wonderful afternoon with the in-laws. my headache is still in full force and has been joined by that always unloved relative Aunt Flo. but praise the makers of Aleve and Sudafed, I have managed to avoid cowering in a quiet and dark room. though I did tell J that the boys will NOT be staying up late tonight. I still have 1 pressie to wrap and he needs to set up Santa's score.

but back to the in-laws......there are obviously not enough children in the family as all the kids were totally beyond spoiled! I guess J knew beforehand that his brother was buying D a new bike. WOW!!! I think R was almost as excited as it means that he can ride his bike to pick up D at school and we might be able to start our bike rides to the library again. I told the boys to enjoy all the pressies as it was a lot more than they were getting tomorrow morning! the pile WAS really big!! in addition to the pile, J got a Magic Bullet.....the box for that itself was enormous! I am looking forward to some tasty treats.....let me know if you have some good recipes in case we run out of good ones in the recipe book that came with it! lol!

if you are taking a moment out of your life to read this tonight.....I wish you and yours a very merry!!! (the same even if it isn't Christmas Eve! lol!) I started the stuffing so I can have a little more relaxation tomorrow......a little more time enjoying the fact that my boys still believe!

let the puking commence....

should I start this of by stating I can handle any bodily fluids other than puke?!?!? okay....now that we have that settled......J started getting sick shortly after dinner. and please, no comments from the peanut gallery! everyone was fine....though I am a tad queesy from the just the idea of puke.

is it bad that I really hope it is a combination of the fact that he didn't eat well after donating blood today and the chili from yesterday's office potluck and NOT the flu?!?!? I don't want to spend my time off work (not to mention Christmas) with a flu bug in the house........AND J made 4 batches of dough for english muffins today. he has enough dough to keep him cooking all day and maybe into Monday. I would hate to see it all ruined......and us english muffin-less Christmas morning!

so I am sleeping downstairs. he went to bed about an hour ago after not getting sick for almost an hour. he is under our normal covers plus 2 thermal fleece blankets and says he is still cold. please send us healthy vibes for Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Eve Eve......

btw.....I DID manage to get some presents wrapped this evening. R helped me out. I was even able to do the family traditional trick where you get the kid to wrap one of his own presents! lol!! my mom still complains about my grandmother doing it to her. I am sure it will make her year to know that the tradition has continued. and boy won't R laugh when he finds out Christmas morning! lol!!

yes Bergs.......there is a Santa Claus!

and he arrived at the local GameStop at 12:03 today in a big brown truck!!!

the gift above all other gifts finally showed up today. (RockBand bundle for the PS2) the guys at the store were so apologetic for things beyond their control.....all I cared about was walking out of there with my big ol' rockin' box!!

so if you want to buy me something for Christmas but haven't done your shopping yet......might I suggest ear plugs?!?!? lol!

guess I am not the only one (bonus post)

and hey.......quality not just quantity! lol!!

guess I am not the only one getting confused and turned around dealing with Christmas this year...... atleast they make it look cool!

today is a good day!

not only did I get THE CALL.......(aaah! a voicemail message I may never ever delete! lol!!) but I also got a really strange e-mail. almost deleted it because there was no subject line but something about the name of the sender rang a bell for me (no clue why even now that I opened the e-mail)......but I won tickets to go see Walking With Dinosaurs!!! I am going to have three VERY excited boys come Christmas morning!!! (or two if dh reads the blog between now and then! lol!)

in not as exciting news.....I got my haircut and will be washing that gray right outta my hair in just a few hours!

no phone call....... (updated)

and 39 minutes until the store opens.

UPDATE 10:08:
now it supposedly SHIPPED today and will BE here on the 21st. I know it isn't the poor dude on the phone's fault but this is ridiculous!!

today is........is NOT the day!

today is the 18th and is the *release* date for RockBand. so I patiently waited (patiently.....HA!!!) until all of 10:23 before calling the store I have it on pre-order at. adding to the stress was that Amazon massively screwed up and sent many, MANY people e-mails stating that their games weren't going to be shipped on the 18th, but on the 28th! 28 is greater than 25 and therefore BAD BAD BAD!!! so event hough I have gotten several reassurances from GameStop that I am okay, I still called.

according to the weary sounding employee, I should get a phone call tonight confirming my game will be there tomorrow. (and yes......you know the next thing that came out of my mouth: what if I DON'T get a phone call???) so I asked, and he said to call him about noon-ish. obviously this man doesn't realize that this is IT. this is the latest and the most needed of all Christmas gifts and I plan to BE at his store at noon-ish.......

maybe I can call from my cell phone in the parking lot?!??!

taking my share of the blame.....

being as J is my first husband I will admit that I have made some mistakes.

the first and largest of the mistakes was allowing him to sleep through the night when R was an infant. my rationale at the time was that I was off work on maternity leave and he needed to go to work in the morning. right......sure.......made sense THEN!!! but once I went back to work the problems began. he STILL slept through R's nightly feedings. it got to the point where I would be exhausted and tell him that it was HIS night to get up. still.......when R started crying I would end up having to wake up to wake up J! I will admit that I fell back asleep pretty quickly (remember.....I was EXHAUSTED) but it was still irritating.

the second mistake was being Super MomWifeChristmaspersonextraordinare. I did it all and looked darn good doing it! so now.....the past few years........when I have needed help I have pretty much been ignored. why not? I trained him to think I could handle it all on my own. I guess what put me over the edge (other than the fact that 7 days before Christmas I STILL do not know if/when/where we are having Christmas dinner) is the pressies for his family. we see these people once (golly.....maybe twice) a year and yet I am expected to find the most perfectest presents for each and every one of them. well......this year I am feeling unconsumerish. (do you like all the words I am making up here?!?!?) I don't want to just give people stuff to clutter their homes. so.......we bought a simple ornament for everyone along with a gift cert for dinner at a casual family place that we like. this way they get a present, they get fed, and I am not stressing. anyway.........J looked rather disappointed in this. did he offer alternatives? NO!!! that was when I told him that next year he WILL be more involved in this whole thing.

anyway.......I can still be mad at him but I do need to take my share of the blame. the next husband I won't make those mistakes. (joke.......JOKE!!!!!) and thanks Hatter, my dear friend, for the offer. but if you DO make a trip out here we will be doing more funner stuffs than dealing with J!

(grammatical and spelling errors contained in this post were purposefully on purpose)

thoughts on this....

the most wonderful time of the year.

I can almost guarantee that whoever wrote that song was: a) a man, b) married, and c) spending most of this season in his lazy boy watching football on tv while his wife ran around freaking out because she has less than 9 days to get everything done!

I'm just sayin'.

dang! can't believe I didn't blog!

I was online several times. even read a bunch of other blogs.....but totally spaced on posting! aaargh! maybe I can post twice today and make up for it?!?!?

yesterday I worked on scrap stuff for various deadlines. got quite a bit done. I will hopefully get everything finished today as I am once again running out of time! lol!!

last night we checked out Christmas lights. instead of going to our normal haunt (Dovewood Court) we went to a few new places. the one neighborhood was great!! we walked around an entire circle where more than half the houses had really gone all out. obviously someone who lives there has fun with a jigsaw because a majority of the home had wooden Disney displays. after that a quick stop at Starbucks for some warmness and then home to watch National Treasure. figured we needed to see it before #2 comes out!

I'll post later today.......can't BELIEVE I didn't post yesterday!!

believe in the 12of12.......

so.....can you guess what our bonus picture is supposed to be about this month?!?!? lol!! if you are clueless as to what I am talking about.....please check out Chad Darnell's blog.....he IS the 12of12 man!!

my traditional odometer/thermostat photo. still packing on the miles!! though less than 700 this past month. probably because the boys were off school for a week. and yes....42 degrees! we have had frost on the cars most mornings......bbbrrr!!!

$3.19/gallon for gas. I checked last December's 12of12 and gas was $2.36........TOO insane!!!
Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats.....the breakfast of champions........or women who want something tasty for breakfast but are embarrassed to eat Fruit Loops in the office! lol! I actually keep a box in my cupboard and have breakfast at my desk whenever I get hungry in the morning.
today was the annual office building Christmas shin-dig! they have a caterer bring us ooodles of desserts......as seen in this photo. this year's selection was much broader (and much tastier) than previous years!! please know that I did NOT eat all of these! one of the girls in the office was out at a meeting so I grabbed enough to share with her. on the paper under the cookies is my list of what photos from each month I think I want to use for the annual recap Chad asks us to do. my intent is to post that tomorrow afternoon.
in addition to tasty treats........they hire a local high school choral to come sing. these kids have SPECTACULAR (spectacular..... no words in the vernacular can describe this great event ) voices!!! they always have the same school sing so we have watched these kids grow up (atleast 4 years of their lives.....) someday I expect to see one of them on Broadway or the Grammies!
and the latest obsession in our household......Webkinz. I hopped on a little this afternoon and earned R's bulldog, Winston, a couple hundred W (their version of money). also bought him a new outfit and a skateboard. I am SUCH a cool mom! lol!!
racing between R's afternoon bowling and his band concert, we cruised Taco Bell's drive thru for dinner. J was peeved that he was trying to order and I was trying to frame a shot. it wasn't like I could take a photo of my burrito while in a moving car! sheesh! lol!!
band concert........R is rockin' the trombone! funny since he has no rhythm! lol!
on the way home we picked up dinner, breakfast, and lunch for Stubbs.........disgusting gross live crickets! blech!!!!
aaaah! the lights on the house! I am surprised that I really like the larger bulbs. guess things go in and out of fashion. notice no big blow up penguin on the front lawn. it has been rather windy here and J hasn't put him up yet. somehow I don't think he will be up this year!
Tessa.......not a planned shot......but she was there and I had the camera! cool because I can rarely get a reasonably decent picture of her adorableness!
sniff.....sniff.......tonight was the very last episode of Pushing Daisies......though I actually believe I can see myself watching it in reruns until I had it memorized. LOVE the titles for the episodes as well......from the Pie-letter to tonight's Corpsicle. come ON!! PLEASE settle the writer's strike....I am SOOO going to miss this show! this and Ugly Betty......
and finally.....I can't believe I took a photo that includes ME in my pjs! lol!! can you see the cute little penguins on the bottoms??? this is our bathroom (obviously) and that is my adorable penguin glittery-candle night light. it comes out at Christmas.
well......sorry I don't lead a more exciting life. but, oh well! and now it is 10pm here! off to bed!

and NOW I need a nap......

today was the office/company Christmas party. we checked out a new restaurant in town, Paul Martin's American Bistro. and no matter how light I plan on eating, I always come away from office lunches STUFFED and in serious need of a nap! today was no exception!!

one of the guys in the office ALWAYS does the honors by ordering appetizers......this time was no exception: artichokes, clams, calmari, shrimp, and spinach dip (you can look at the menu on the site for specific into) along with the greatest bread!! J would be happy just eating bread there! lol!!

prior to going, I had planned on Clam Chowder (because I love it and rarely get it because the family doesn't like it) and a chopped salad. well.......in what would have astonished J, I actually ordered it. but......in what wouldn't have surprised my dh, I changed my mind before the waitress left the table and ended up ordering the Cedar Plank Salmon. (the link is to a review blog so you can see what it looks like!) I loved the spinach! I loved the mushrooms! I loved the salmon! I didn't love the bacon and onions on top or the broth type sauce. that was too salty. so....is it really too salty or am I just a picky person where salt is concerned?!?! probably a combination of both. but overall it was YUMMY!!!!

so after the appetizers, several pieces of bread (OMG! the bread! lol!!), and my meal, I still managed to eat dessert. in normal life I wouldn't have had dessert, but it is kinda tradition that we have dessert. so I ordered the banana cream pie. it was good. it was too big of a piece......... and looking back I kinda think I wish I had ordered the devil's food cake with sour cherries. but really....I can't complain! except that now I need a nap! lol!!

oh.....and as a side note......in case you don't check out the link to the restaurant's site......I will tell you that everything was organic. all the meat, produce, etc is organic and supposedly pretty much locally grown. I would say that they hold truer to the organic versus the local part as it looks many things come from other parts of the state and even some meat from Arizona. but it is a start, right?!?!? continuing on that side note......I read an article the other day about how organic fruits & veggies have MORE (significantly more) vitamins, antioxidants, nutrients, whatever than produce grown using pesticides!! that makes me feel even better about us trying to buy organic.

and now it is beddie bye time for me!!! (I wish! lol!)