clean floors, dirty paws

Though we have spent two Christmases together in the past, this is our first Christmas as a family. Because Ryan and I would be spending the actual holidays of Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Fresno, we decided to have our own Nessier family Christmas here with the kids on Wednesday. We had cheese fondue, sparkling wine, a fire, presents, and a lot of fun. Abner was in the mess of things from the beginning, big surprise, and both Lilly and Georgia made guest appearances to open their gifts and keep watch over any possible crumb that may hit the floor. After our own little Christmas celebration, we headed off to Fresno to spend Christmas Eve at the Esmays. We had so much fun watching Nolan run around with giant candy canes, eating cookies with generous amounts of sprinkles, holding new baby Reese and catching up with family we see all too rarely. Next was Christmas morning at the Lamers. I could fill a page with all the fun we had, but I will sum it up in one word, Garmin! Afte

As I mentioned in a previous post, we were without a refrigerator for about 8 days. Well, to be completely honest, we did have a refrigerator, but it was about the size of a 24 pack of beer and that is about all that was inside. I never realized how essential this appliance is to modern living. Do we chill the beer, the water or some food? Is it ok to leave almond butter out of the fridge for a week and then put it back in? Who knows, but the giant hole in our kitchen is filled, by a centimeter, and we couldn't be happier. Well, that is another lie, I would be happier if it wasn't stainless steel; quite possibly the most deceiving name for an appliance finish ever created. "STAINLESS STEEL," are you kidding me! If you are a person who lives alone and wears little white cotton gloves at all time then it may stay stainless, but if you are a somewhat normal person with dogs and a husband and FINGERPRINTS then stay away, far away from "stainless" appliances.

About a month ago an ice cream truck that I wouldn't let my child within 50 feet of moved in next door. I say "moved in" because the ice cream man lives in his questionable van in our neighbor's driveway. Allow me to share a small back story. You see, our neighbor is probably 97 years old and in the year we have lived here I have only seen her once. That one time was right when we moved in and she told us the only people she ever wanted to see in her driveway were her and my husband if he was pulling weeds. Duly noted little old lady but THERE IS A CREEPY ICE CREAM MAN IN YOUR DRIVEWAY? I have a few theories. 1: This creepy ice cream man is her son and she won't let is weird ass in her house, so she makes him live in the driveway, in his van, in the freezing cold 2: She is so old and out of touch that she doesn't even know there is a crazy ice cream man living in her driveway. LADY! CRAZY ICE CREAM MAN IN DRIVEWAY!! 3: He is not selling ice cream out of