Here we go again!

In case you've been living in a hole...American Idol starts tonight. I'm torn! I swore off reality TV or any kind of show that required a big committment. The only show I watch right now is Desperate Housewives and only because I can fold and put away laundry for the week at the same time. But I have to admit...I find myself looking forward to watching it. So I guess I will. And then I'll get sucked into the message boards and blogs about it...then I'll get a favorite that I'll have to vote for...then I'll be disappointed when that favorite gets voted off...then I'll wonder why I watched in the first place! Oy!

On another completely different note...it's cold here. Only I feel guilty even saying that, with all the ice storms in the midwest, specifically in my hometown in Missouri.

But FOR US, it's cold too. Sunday was the coldest day in 16 years! It only got up to 46 degrees (don't hate me...remember the summers, remember the summers). My boys and DH refuse to dress appropriately, giving the ol' "I'm a MAN...the cold doesn't bother me!" excuse for not wearing a coat outside. Even the boys use that when they want to wear shorts instead of jeans. Since I'm outnumbered, I just give up the fight and let them freeze. So what do I worry about instead, in all this cold? The tortoises. They hibernate in a box in the garage sitting on top of the freezer. It's the best place for them because the temperature stays pretty constant and I don't have to worry about rain or cold weather if they were outside. So each year, I save a handled box from the boys' school fundraiser to make it easy to remove it when we need to get into the freezer (which is more than once a day in this family). But I was worried, with it getting into the twenties at night, that the temps might be low in the garage also. Below freezing temps for torts can be deadly. My Bob clock to the rescue! Now I can rest easy because I can check the temperature in the garage any time. Even the other night, the coldest night, when I checked in the morning, it was only 51 in the garage. And the torts stay tucked in and toasty. At least there is someone in this family I don't have to worry about.

More about the holidays

As I wrote below, my family came out to Arizona for Christmas. My mom, oldest sister and her youngest daughter arrived before Christmas and my nieces from my other sister came out on the 27th. All of them stayed through New Year's. We had a full house and created many new memories as we celebrated the holidays with my brother and his family, who also live here.

Our traditional photo of the 4 boys in front of the tree took a slight twist this year when we included G-Ma. My mom wanted me to make her a rosary this year for Christmas. At least that's what she said 3 months ago. She then promptly forgot about it. But I did it anyway. She designed it - each decade was one of her children's birthstones. Since she has 2 sets of twins and me, there were 2 topaz, 2 aquamarine, and 1 peridot. The Hail Marys were sapphire for her own birthstone, and the Our Fathers throughout the rosary was my dad's birthstone, ruby. It came out a bit gaudy like any mother's ring might, but I think it looks a bit like a stained glass window.

We went to 2 movies while they were here: Night at the Museum (great family movie and just a real delight!) and Dreamgirls (what can I say...I'm a sucker for a musical). I recommend both of them.

The rest of the visit was taken up with lots of eating, talking, playing games, and just enjoying each other. New Year's Eve was spent at our house, with more drinking and eating and then at midnight, we went outside to shoot off all the poppers and crackers that DH had bought for the boys and my nieces. What a mess that made on the driveway!

I hated to see them all go home. But all good times must come to an end and the day they left, I took down all my Christmas decorations and got the house back in order. I'm ready to move on to the new year! And as soon as the boys go back to school on Monday...I'll do just that. :)