Jeremiah's Premature Mid-Life Crisis

I must share with you a couple snapshots from this morning. It was our last day of work before our two-week Christmas break (the one good thing about Virginia) and Jeremiah was very excited for crazy hat day at school. Wouldn't you know he had quite the plan.

Thursday night he went out and bought a Santa hat.

And white hair spray.

And this is what he looked like twelve hours later.

Petrifying almost. I can't help but laugh to myself as I recall eating breakfast this morning as I heard my dear 23 year old husband practicing his "ho ho ho"s in front of the bathroom mirror. A cheap Santa hat, lumberjack flannel, and a bushly white beard are perhaps not the most flattering of looks for Jeremiah. And can you believe this is post-accidentally-shaved-off-two-inches-of-his-beard? Can you imagine?? 

'Tis the season I suppose. 

Koehler Sibling Fun

Right now, a blizzard is striking down on Richmond, VA, keeping us from traveling north tomorrow for Christmas as was planned. Also, Jeremiah conked out on the sofa about ten minutes into A Christmas Story (which is a cardinal sin in my book). So, as I sit dealing with those two tragedies, I thought perhaps I should update on last weekend.

Last weekend Andria and Cameron came to visit us for the weekend. We had a blast!! There visit was highly anticipated, and far surpassed our expectations. We laughed a ton as we embarked on many fun and festive adventures. Soon after their arrival, Cameron clued us in on his two goals for the weekend. (1) To get fat. (2) To get poor. Mission accomplished.

Friday night we saw about nine houses on Richmond's FAMOUS (yes, a featured show on TLC even) Tacky Light Tour. Who knew there were so many nutty people out there? These houses were absolutely crazy, and the people who put the time and effort into decorating them must be completely off their rocker. But I'm glad they are. Their crazy antics provided hours of fun for us. Here are just a few. 

Saturday we went to a little ol' thing called TubaChristmas. Only, I don't think it's that little. I think it's like a legitimate thing in many cities. A bunch of tuba players seated on folding chairs accompanied by a large Italian soloist and a bunch of Richmonders shaking their keys as pseudo jingle bells. Outside in downtown Richmond. I felt embarrassed to have brought them there. But, with JEremiah being a veteran sousaphone player, I thought it might warm his heart. Not sure it did that, but it cultured us I suppose. We then walked to Bottom's Up Pizza and stuffed our face with pricey, mammoth-sized pizza. And even though we could barely breathe because our stomachs were puffed up to our diaphragms, we then headed to Two Sweet, a gourmet cupcake shop. Delicious! Here are some of the ones we sampled.

We fell asleep to A Muppet Christmas Carol when we got back and continued to eat and laugh more into the evening. Sunday was a complete washout (as is customary every time my family visits), but we made the most of it. We went to a second cupcake place, called Frostings. Better cake, but less cupcake for the money. The verdict is still out on the better cupcake vendor; however, I think Two Sweet is a step ahead. Lord knows we continued to eat onion dip and buffalo chicken dip the rest of the day, and started gaining our holiday weight a tad bit early for the season. It was worth it.

Deck the Halls

Our Christmas decor is finally coming together, and although these pictures don't do it any justice (in my opinion), I thought I'd share anyway. I went for a peppermint type theme this year, with lots of candy cane and peppermint patterns... even big red and white candies hanging above the dining 'room' table, which are quite fun. This afternoon we also put up some retro, fat colored lights on our railing--something that never would have been seen at the Koehler house growing up. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of my parents' taste in decor, and I myself try to mimic it, but there's nothing like the feeling of a hint of fun, gaudy Christmas.