"It's the most wonderful time of the year..." At least that's what I keep telling myself...

Although we had a fabulous Christmas I can't say it was one of my least stressful ones! Shopping for family, teachers, bus drivers, Jack's direct reports and many others to putting together our annual holiday note and Christmas card to planning menus for when family arrives into town is busy but expected. Compounding that with the unexpected is when the season can really start to feel overwhelming like when you accidentally agree to host a holiday social at your house the same night your kids are performing in their holiday concert at the school or when your car decides to not start in the Target parking lot on your first official holiday shopping day. After an unsuccessful attempt by Roadside Assistance to jump it, it was clear this was not a battery issue. I finally had to call a tow company who late that night towed it to the dealer. Of course when the dealer called the next morning they stated after two tries it started right up. Somehow we still managed to end up with a $1600 bill... Lesson learned: Don't be such a softy with the service manager and hope future break downs will occur when Jack is in town...



Next up was LUX's annual holiday event at the Cinci Zoo's Festival of Lights. Jack missed out on this last year so I was excited for him to see it since after all he's responsible for it even happening. But after spending almost two hours in traffic trying to get somewhere that should only take 40 minutes, and circling around all the parking lots before finally being allowed into a parking lot that wasn't full we all questioned if we'd be up to the task ever again! Lesson learned: Go at 4, just before it gets dark and before all the crowds arrive! That had been Jack's plan but I talked him into going later when the lights would look prettier...big mistake!!! By the end of the night and after a trip to the gift shop we all kept telling ourselves it was all worth it...haha!



Then there was the devastation that struck the Roddy home when Sage found this gem of evidence in the guest bedroom...



You ask what that is? Well it happens to be an empty sheet of Christmas labels that mistakenly didn't get thrown away. Mrs. Clause was feeling so on top of things having wrapped most of the gifts the week before Christmas but unfortunately in her haste to be quick she was a bit sloppy and left this with a stack of unused labels. Sage approached me one afternoon while wrapping her own gifts asking me what it was. When I quickly responded it was an empty sheet of holiday labels she went on to point out that with her X-ray vision she could read what the original labels had said on them "Dear Sage, Love Santa" and wondered why Santa would be using our labels. Lesson learned: Never ever share the truth about Santa until your kids are certain they know the truth!! Turns out her questioning wasn't because she doubted at all. I'm still mad at myself for coming clean when I didn't need to especially after having to see her cry all night over the devastating news...

Then, the day all my family was to arrive into town Ty dislocated his knee at swim practice. After X-rays and an MRI we were thankful that no surgery was needed. He continues to have the worse timing with his injuries.

But in amongst all the craziness we encountered this holiday season, we were also provided with wonderful opportunities to perform acts of kindness. Although at times I did feel like I had taken on more than I really had the time for, I quickly reminded myself how selfish that seemed considering how blessed as a family we are. Here are some photos from Christmas Eve morning when we were providing breakfast for families at the Ronald McDonald House.





As we were returning home from our time there I was reminding the kids how thankful we should all feel that we get to be the ones performing the service rather than being in the shoes of some of these poor families at the Ronald McDonald House who were spending their holiday in a room far away from their homes praying their child would be healed or someday be lucky enough to return home healthy again. We could someday be in their same shoes as one never knows what challenges lie ahead but for now we are in a place where we can serve and how important it is for our kids to see this! From preparing food boxes to playing Santa for a family in need, to providing and preparing breakfast on Christmas Eve morning, in a very small way we were able to serve as a hand of the Lord during this holiday season. Isn't this really what the reason for the season is? Lesson learned: Christmas begins with Christ.

Another highlight was a week or so before Christmas Jack came home with a couple gift bags stuffed with beautifully wrapped packages. (A dead giveaway his wonderful assistant Diana had to have been in on this). He sat us all down and explained that this holiday he wanted us to really focus on spending time together as a family and how these packages would play a role in that. He lined up all the packages on our dining room table and each night a new one would be opened. This collection of packages turned into a wonderful collection of card and board games that we would play each evening. Surprisingly every one was a hit! It was a great idea and what fun we have had playing all these new games together.




We were a little late getting our photo with Santa this year but it's a tradition I won't let go of. If I have my way the boys will be 18 and still participating in these photos!!! We also have a wonderful Santa who comes to our church breakfast each year who Sage enjoyed visiting with even though... :)



Twas the night before Christmas...



Christmas morning was once again a big success. Between Ty opening up a hover board with a dislocated knee, Sean and Paul opening up mom and dad's gift which was an envelope that included a photo of their wrapped presents sitting under mom and dads tree back in UT (She didn't want to lug them out here), Paul and Sean giving me a blue tooth ear piece because apparently they both thought their lives were at risk driving with me while I used my phone navigation and answered calls earlier in the week, Connor opening up a box of brown sugar to cover up for the video game he was hoping for, Jack getting a carved polar bear... we shared quite a few laughs. I think the highlight of the gift giving came from Sage. On her own without even asking, she had purchased two knitted scarves for Grandma and I from a friend who was making them at school. I had assumed it was art she had made at school as usually that's what she gives for Christmas and admittedly those are my favorite gifts but not this year. She had mentioned earlier in the month that her friends and her were starting a scarf business but that since she didn't know how to make scarves she'd be responsible for marketing them. Her pay would be half price scarves. I never thought a thing about it again until I opened up my scarf. It was so sweet and she was so excited for us to open them.






Dinner's on...And it wouldn't be Christmas dinner without Christmas after dinner gifts! With the hope of the family taking on the new hobby of golf together it only seemed appropriate that everyone get stocked with a supply of personalized balls! Here's how we differentiate between them...



Our little happy campers...



Some of the extracurricular activities during the week of everyone being here included the boys all seeing Star Wars, Full Throttle racing, sharing Blaze pizza with the family (our favorite pizza place), Sean and Paul experiencing nasty Skyline Chili for the first time and lots of fun family time together!!!



I won't spend time detailing how Connor and Tyler unknowingly made my life much easier by throwing away my large bag of Christmas returns by accident. As Jack pointed out, was my time worth returning what was in the bag? I think so but I'll never speak again of the $200 worth of clothing that got thrown to the curb...lol! Hopeful that somehow the bag ended up in someones hands rather than at the sanitation pit...

The best news of the season? Elf officially retired...for good!!! Mrs. Clause may be following close behind...Happy New Year and high hopes for peace on earth in 2016!!!

Thankful for good friends!

It has become a bit of a tradition for us to spend Thanksgiving with the Hayes Family! When Jack first recruited Rick from Orange County we knew it would be a difficult move for them and did our best to make their family feel welcome here in Ohio. Through the course of that we became good friends and have really enjoyed hanging out together! Our first Thanksgiving here we hosted them and the following year they had us. Last year we spent Thanksgiving out in Utah but this year we returned to our traditional deep fried turkey dinner at the Hayes house! Rick is quite the master of fried turkeys and Steph is always such gracious host! Fun times!!!

HaLlOwEeN 2015

After decorating the yard with hundreds of pounds of pumpkins last year we were really excited about the prospect of taking the seeds from all those pumpkins and attempting our own pumpkin patch this year! Jack had watched a bunch of youtube videos on how to preserve and plant the seeds and with literally thousands of seeds we were feeling quite confident in our ability to pull off a patch! At first things were looking real good. We had vines taking over the garden area and blooms everywhere! Unfortunately though, the blooms would eventually wither away and there was no sign of pumpkins! After a little more research, we learned there are male and female blooms and you need both to have successful pollination. Apparently, we only had a garden full of male blossoms! Every morning the blooms would open up really large and it was so beautiful but sadly none of those gorgeous blooms would turn into anything. Finally, at the end of Sept. I noticed a few small balls of something growing. To our surprise, we ended up with an assortment of orange and green "things". I wouldn't necessarily classify them as pumpkins but at this point we were just happy to finally have something! Needless to say, I don't see farming in our future...

Here are Jack and Sage busy planting more pumpkin seeds once we saw that our first batch of seeds were sprouting vines!



Here is Sage with the first small batch we got. There was only one that I think could actually be classified as a carving pumpkin...



Here are the fruits of all our labor. haha! Although they weren't nearly as amazing as all the pumpkins displayed in our yard last year, they were definitely unique in their own way and they found their home on our dining room table...



A trip to the store was required to get some actual carving pumpkins...



This year the kids were looking forward to trick or treating especially since last year we were out of town and they didn't go. I kept reminding the boys that they are on the verge of going from the trick or treaters to the greeters but they would hear none of that. Ty was just lucky he got to go at all though because he had been the sickest I'd ever seen him the whole week leading up to Halloween but he was determined to go and since the weather cooperated I gave him the ok. Thankfully unlike the last few years, we had NO RAIN and mild temps, at least until around 9. But by then all the little goblins were back in the house since Mason has a strict trick or treating ordinance that only allows kids to be out between the hours of 6-8! Connor and Ty and a couple of their friends all went as characters from some show they watch (I couldn't tell you what the show was) and Sage had gotten the idea I'm sure from some Disney show or video that she wanted to be a detective. Sage turned down an invitation to attend a Halloween party at a friend's house so she could instead trick or treat with her dad in our neighborhood! We will assume it's because she enjoys the one on one time with her dad rather than the fact our neighborhood gives out really good Halloween candy...Indeed she came home with one red face from all the running that she did and much too much candy. The first words out of Jack's mouth when they returned was he had never seen her run for two hours straight...haha! This didn't surprise us though. Since her first year trick or treating Sage has had more stamina than her brothers. This girl loves to trick or treat which is funny because I just tossed out Easter candy that she had yet to eat.



As you can see the night was quite the success! But it wouldn't be complete without a little trading taking place at the end of the night. Negotiating 101 in the works...

Celebrating with "Style"...

Sage and Jack have always been Taylor Swift fans but me on the other hand...not so much, at least up until her most recent album. I have though always appreciated her good girl image and desire to be a good example to young women. So in August, months after her 1989 World Tour tickets had first gone on sale, Sage casually mentioned how she wished she could see her in concert. I knew Taylor had come through Louisville months prior but as it turned out she would be coming back through Columbus and Indianapolis in the next few weeks. Well when Jack learned she'd be in Columbus on my actual birthday he thought it would be a great way to celebrate and encouraged me to look into tickets. Of course the whole tour had been sold out since close to ten minutes after tickets first went on sale back in November so the only way to get tickets was through winning them on the radio...lol...or buying them on the resale market! The good news about buying tickets on the resale market is that you can really search out the exact seats you are interested in (for a premium of course) and I'm fairly confident that half the tickets originally purchased were purchased with the intent to sell them on the resale market at a big profit. The bad news is that you pay multiples times the original ticket price due to broker fees and scalpers looking to make a buck. Never would I had imagined spending what we did on these tickets. NEVER! I mean good grief, just the broker fee was $250 and I will admit I didn't sleep for a few nights after purchasing them but Jack really encouraged me to do it knowing it would be a memory Sage would hopefully never forget and a great way to spend my birthday. We ended up finding aisle seats in the first row just above the floor in a section close to the stage so that Sage wouldn't have to worry about people blocking her view if she got tired and wanted to sit down for a bit. It was so worth the sick stomach I had over the darn tickets as they were great seats! Here's a few photos from our night!

The closest Sage would ever get to Taylor...lol!



In our seats waiting for Vance Joy to open up the show! I don't think Sage was too thrilled when she learned it would be another hour before Taylor Swift would be on stage but watching her stand up and dance to his music was so cute!



Almost time...



Finally!






Loved hanging out with my little buddy at her first concert ever even if she did ask about one hour into Taylor's performance how much longer it had!!! I calmly whispered in her ear that after what her dad had spent on these tickets she'd better be willing to listen to her for a full 24 hours...haha!!! It was a late night, she had been up since 6:30 that morning for school so I had to remind myself it was ok!



The return on investment? A couple guitar pics that some kind band staff member came by to give Sage as Taylor first started performing. We heard it was Taylor's dad but we don't know for sure! But Sage was sure excited to get them!



Definitely one of the more exciting birthdays I've had! Happy big 45 to me!!!

Western and Southern Open

Little did we know when we moved to Mason OH there would actually be some pretty cool things to do once we got here.  One of which is King's Island, a really fun amusement park with some amazing roller coasters.  But who would have ever imagined that we'd get all the top tennis players each year passing through our little town for the Western and Southern Open. This is the stop they make right before the US Open in NY and how fun it was to spend a day seeing some good tennis. From enjoying the morning/afternoon session with Andrea to the soaking up the evening session with Julie what a treat it was to watch Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and a few others try to defend their titles.  Here are just a few shots from the day!

Past winners wall

Marin Cilic arriving at the venue!

A couple crazy middle aged women...

Trying to keep my hair out of my face while taking a photo with Goran Ivanisevic who was a professional player and now coaches Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic. 

Watching Serena Williams get in some practice!

Watching Novak win this match!

The night session! Rafael Nadal for the win tonight.

Roger Federer for the win in this match!

A couple of the important people...the umpires!  Mohamed Lahyani (next to me) presided over the longest match in history back in 2010 during Wimbledon.  Such a fun experience and thanks to Julie for sharing it with me!

Good morning 4th and 8th grades!

After a fabulous vacation the week before school started it was time to head back to routines...and school! After running around like a crazy lady the day before school started to gather what the kids had missed at Open House and Orientation, the morning had arrived. Once again it's dark outside as the boys head off to the bus stop at 6:30 which just seems wrong! The clear theme from the first week of school was how much the boys had grown over the summer. They had grown 4 inches in the past year according to their physical a couple months back but it's not until people keep commenting that you realize, yes, they really are growing. It's only been in the last month that Ty keeps standing next to me to see if he has passed me up...



And here is our beautiful Sage before heading off to her new school this year! This will be school number 3 for her since moving to Mason! She attended Mason Early Childhood Center for 1st and 2nd grades, Western Row for 3rd and now Mason Intermediate for 4th! You know you are in the big leagues when you get an assigned hallway locker with a combination lock!