Best of 2010

I figure all the Phoenix Magazines and Newspapers have a Best of, so I wanted to do my own version! :-)

BEST BLOG ENTRY
The Spohrs Are Multiplying "Moving Violation" I must think about this blog like fifteen times a week and laugh to myself. I even told Pat about it. He doesn't care about blogs, but he laughed!

BEST FAMILY VACATION
Knott's Berry Farm, although Laughlin was a very very close second.

BEST NIGHT OUT
Lori, Katie, their high school religion teacher (who is now a friend because Lori worked with her) and two sisters Lori knows from soccer all went to the Arcadia Postino one night when Lori was in town over Thanksgiving. I learned that my abdominal muscles are SEVERELY out of shape because the laughter that night KILLED my stomach. I had to make my stop laughing because it hurt so bad.

BEST NEW RESTAURANT I TRIED THIS YEAR
DEFINITELY St. Francis, HANDS DOWN!

BEST HOLIDAY
Easter for sure, always so relaxed and fun.

BEST PICTURE
Pat doing the grass shot at Jamba Juice on Mother's Day!

Gets Better with Age

For those of you who don't hang out with Pat on a regular basis, you probably have not had the pleasure of hearing him talk about how he gets better looking with age. Seriously, he talks about it all the time! It is hysterical, and a constant source of entertainment (except maybe when I look in the mirror and don't share the same sentiment about myself, but I digress!). Since meeting him almost 12 years ago, I have heard about how he thinks he looks like Harrison Ford, that he is the white Denzel Washington, and his latest "twin" is Ryan Reynolds. It must be AMAZING to have the self confidence that Pat has.

Anyway, my grandma ADORES him, and if she happens to be over when he gets home from work, she oohs and aahs and gushes over how great he looks in his suit, shirt, tie, sweater, WHATEVER! It is really quite funny because we all know she will start talking about it the moment he walks in the door. This Christmas Eve, I had the kids in jeans and t-shirts, I was in jeans and a black shirt, and out walks Pat in his shirt, tie, sweater vest and dress slacks.

The moment we arrived at my grandma's house, she starts gushing about his outfit, and it was STILL GOING ON when we were on the dessert course of the meal. Just what Pat's ego needed, a little more hearing about how wonderful he looks.

Homemade Christmas

I tried REALLY hard to not buy gift cards this Christmas. Sure it is fun going to spend them after the holidays, and TRUST me, I appreciate gift cards, and I love to get them, I just wanted everyone to have a little something to play with or open on Christmas. For two special families in our lives, I made homemade freezer meals and gave it to them to take home and enjoy at their leisure. Some were Pioneer Woman (LASAGNA, MAC AND CHEESE, OATMEAL CRISPIES, PIZZA DOUGH), some were good ole stand bys (CHICKEN IN THE CROCK POT, TACO MEAT, SLOPPY JOE MEAT), and another was a new fav(GREEN CHICKEN)! I know I would love not having to cook for a week or so, so I really embraced giving people what I would want!

Loyalty

"Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy man?" Proverbs 20:6

I am loyal to a fault. You know when you go on job interviews and people ask you what your best and worst quality is? I always say that I am loyal as my best quality. However, lately, I am beginning to wonder if it is one of my worst qualities. I only say this because I am loyal to those I love and cherish, and I am not so loyal to those that rub me the wrong way. I need to work on this. I also get very hurt and feel quite sorry for myself when people are not as loyal as I believe they should be to me. Instead, I need focus on my actions and not worry so much about others. It is wonderful that I am so loyal, but who am I to demand it in return. I think I will focus on this as the new year approaches.

After the Party is the After Party!

When I read in the local newspaper that the hotel down the street from us was hosting a Christmas party for kids, I thought it would be the PERFECT way to get in the holiday spirit. As with most things, Pat was supposed to go with us, he was late, showed up as we were almost done, but I am trying not to let this bother me AS MUCH as it used to. HOWEVER, I will one hundred percent admit that this is one of those events where I could have used about 8 extra hands!!!! It was incredible, and I think I would have been a little more relaxed if I had another set of eyes, ears and HANDS!!!!!!!!

Each department in the hotel had a booth set up. We made the HUGE mistake of going to the culinary department first, and they had GINORMOUS gingerbread cookies to decorate. They had tons of toppings and frosting, and the woman working there was darling, helping me with both of them. LOOK AT THESE COOKIES. . .





I say mistake of going to that booth first because GUESS WHO WAS STUCK CARRYING AROUND SAID CREATIONS!!!!!!!!!! I had no hands left to do anything, and at each booth they got prizes, stickers, reindeer food, etc. They had a Wii set up and a bowling game where you rolled the ball down the alley to elves. SOOOOOO FUN! Secretly I was hoping there would be some Candy Cane Martinis for the moms who were schlepping all the stuff around, but quite honestly, I would have had NO WHERE to put it! :-) They had hot chocolate and eggnog, popcorn, and Santa even made an appearance. All this for the grandiose price of two cans of food. TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY WORTH IT! As we were leaving Jackson told me that the Christmas Party was better than eating!!!! Those of you who know him, know that is saying A LOT!




Afterwards we went to Islands and had a great family dinner. By great I mean, we had dinner and listened to Tyler whine the entire time. She was one tired pup!

Polar Express

I got one item off my Christmas list for sure this year, and I definitely BELIEVE in Santa. What an AMAZING experience it was to head straight to the North Pole and see where the elves and Santa are hard at work preparing for Christmas.

The kids have talked for weeks about going to the North Pole and telling Santa what they want for Christmas, and would you believe it, you couldn't get a word out of them when they were sitting on his lap. They sat and stared at him in amazement. It was really sweet. I did find out that Jackson wants a clock and the Super Mario game for DS, while Tyler wants a Hannah Montana CD and DVD. Did you know Santa has a limit on how many things you can request? You can tell Santa TWO items you REALLY want, and then after that, Santa gets to pick more things he thinks you might like if you have been REALLY good! (The picture isn't the best because they made me turn off my flash, and my pictures are always so fuzzy without it, why is that?)




The train ride was super fun, though I thought I was going to toss my cookies watching everyone chow down on chocolate chip cookies and a hot chocolate chaser! If you don't know by now, I CANNOT really stand sweets, a Vanilla ice cream cone from McDonald's occasionally, but the sweet and sweet combination was leaving my mouth COATED in a sick film, and I didn't have a taste of either. The kids loved it and were PLENTY sugared up for all the Christmas singing fun that occurred on the ride. I have to admit that it was SUPER fun singing the songs along with the rest of the passengers on the train, and I liked all the hand motions and movements that went along with it. My most favorite part of the ride would DEFINITELY have to be the chefs that were on board leading the singing. None of them had super voices, and I think that was KEY to it being such an amazing success. You didn't have to have a great voice, it was just about having fun.

When Tyler heard Santa was on the train, her eyes didn't deviate from the door that he was going to come through. She was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to see him. She was a far cry from the terrified little girl that was Tyler. She is growing up so quickly and is much more willing to try things as long as mommy,daddy, or Jackson are nearby. I am pretty certain Jackson was in a food coma. He enjoyed himself, but he was much more reserved. He was so cute standing up and singing, "Five Golden Rings" in his "manly" voice with Patrick as requested by the chefs.






My recommendations if you go: bring your own copy of the Polar Express (I CANNOT STAND BEING READ ALOUD TO), DECK YOURSELF OUT (if you are the freakiest of freaky in your pajamas, you still won't be the most decked out), DECK YOURSELF OUT NO MATTER YOUR AGE, and bring ear plugs for when your kids receive their gift of a jingle bell from Santa on the train and ring it until it mysteriously disappears OR in our case is now sitting in a "treasured" spot on a HIGH shelf!

FAVORITE Phoenix Area RESTAURANTS

After my blog the other day, I am surprised if anyone is still reading my blog-HELLO SCROOGE MUCH!!!!!!! Seriously, it is just the stress of the holiday season. I am dying to have that fresh cut tree smell in my house, snuggling up on the couch to watch some Christmas movies and a fire in the fireplace. I really do like this season!

I thought I would give everyone some restaurants I happen to love because I get texts and emails ALL THE TIME about where my favorite places are. I will also include a list of places I am dying to try in case you are in need of a Christmas gift for me, you can go get a gift card or two!

1. POSTINO-without a doubt my most favorite place in Phoenix to eat.

2. Cibo is a CLOSE second!

3. District Kitchen at the Sheraton in Downtown Phoenix

4. Lolo's Chicken and Waffles-just over all fun-good entertainment, people watching, etc.

5. Dilly's Deli

6. Gallo Blanco

7. Bomberos-I could seriously eat at a wine bar EVERY NIGHT!

8. Matt's Big Breakfast

9. Uncle Sam's

10. Valle Luna and Macayo's come in as a tie because I used to LOVE Valle Luna when they gave you bean dip as an appetizer, then they took that away, and now I chose Macayo's occasionally because I LOVE THEIR chimichangas.

Places I would like to try.

1. Beckett's Table-we saw Justin Beckett, the first year we went to Phoenix Cooks, participate in an Iron Chef like competition, and I have followed him on twitter through the whole opening and what not.

2. AZ88

3. The Mission

4. Culinary Dropout

5. Joe's Farm Grill

6. BLT Steak

7. FnB

8. Stingray Sushi

9. Geisha a Go Go

10. Nobuo at Teeter House

I would LOVE it if you would leave me your favorite restaurant or, if you have been to any of the ones that I want to go to, tell me about it!!!!

Ten on Tuesday

1. I sometimes think about becoming a Jehovah's Witness so that I can stop celebrating holidays and birthdays. I seriously LOVE all the kids in our life, and we are so blessed that Jackson and Tyler have so many friends and are so loved, that being said, we seriously haven't had a weekend without a birthday party since September, most weekends we have two. Now a lot of the parties are only for one child, so it isn't even something Pat and I can split up and benefit from because we are always with a child trying to do something entertaining with them since they weren't invited to the party, instead of taking turns having some time away from the children. Add in the holidays now, and I am about to lose my mind. Plus since we have to celebrate the holidays with different people, on different days, it is just exhausting trying to plan it all. Seriously, does the Jehovah Witness church allow you to drink???

2. I won tickets to The Nutcracker. SOOOOOOOO excited to take Tyler. I think she is going to LOVE IT! These are the types of activities I would like to have time to do throughout the holiday season.

3. I also want to draw names next year for our family Christmas. I think buying everyone something is exhausting and stupid since most of us just do gift cards, so it is pretty much like buying your own gift, blah blah blah! I will happily buy for the kids, but the adults, do we REALLY need that much stuff?

4. I bought a new nail polish at Target today, and it didn't make it home with me. SAD!

5. I want to make tamales. I think I am running out of days and time to do such a daunting task. BUT, instead of feeling like a failure, I will try next year, or maybe in the Spring when I have less to do.

6. I wrote a note to Jackson's teacher about him missing school on Monday because of the Polar Express, and I apologized profusely. I got an email back from him stating that it was fine if he missed school because he is a "stellar student" but that other kids are missing a week and they need it. I SERIOUSLY think Jackson has this woman wrapped around his little finger. She just gushes about him all the time.

7. We were at Borders the other day, Jackson sat down, opened If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, and read the whole thing. I had tears in my eyes. He did a better job than some of my fourth graders did. He never ceases to amaze me.

8. Tyler is currently obsessed with Victorious:Freak the Freak Out, Shake It Up, Hannah Montana, iCarly, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Sonny with a Chance. Please tell me where my little girl went??? How is she already watching shows where the stars are in rehab and posing for Playboy?

9. Holly Robinson Peete and Hugh Hefner tweeted me this week! By far my most famous shout outs so far. Well, Howie Mandel might be a little more famous????

10. I am officially addicted to twitter. ADDICTED!