One Rockin' Party

A rock wall

a best friend

a neighbor friend




a cousin

another cousin

a new friend

a friend's sister

one more neighbor

and a little sister

throw in a bunch of cupcakes

and you have all the ingredients for a Rockin' Party!

J is GR8

Happy Snow Year

D has been taking the week between Christmas and New Year off since we moved to WA. What started out as a result of his having to many vacation hours on the books that if not used would be lost forever, has become a nice time to decompress after the crazy holiday season and to prep for the upcoming new year.

The last few years we've been doing that by going on a New-Year's-Eve sledding trip. This year was extra special ~ M's spectator days were over and her maiden voyage down the mountain were upon us.

Upping the "special' factor were the cousins coming along for the ride.

They sledded, ate, and goofed off.

Getting everything together and packing up the car = Tiring!

Taking M to the snow after a sleepless, coughy night = Probably not the best idea.

Tickets to the tubing park for two hours = $46 (What happened to the days when you just grabbed a tire and slid down a snowy mountain for free?)

Giving your kid the feeling he's on top of the world and him saying this was the most fun he's ever had: PRICELESS!

HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR

That's a Wrap

The HUGE production that has become Christmas starts in October and goes through the end of the year. It's the summer blockbuster of the winter. And like most movies now a days, it's over the top.


Even the Christmas lights have the ability to go 3D!



As I wrote in my previous post, I, too, get caught up in the madness. Each year I struggle with how big we should go. On the one hand I want my kids to have it all ~ Christmas is for kids and kids love presents. Lots of them ~ On the other hand, I don't want them to lose sight of what the season is all about. I've unofficially set a three gift limit. Jesus got three gifts, and if that's good enough for Jesus.... It doesn't always work out that way and I'm not even sure that I love this idea but I do love that I've not gotten any complaints about it from the little people. Even when they learn of the masses of goodness their friends received, not a peep, which only makes me want to buy them more......and the cycle of confusion continues.


This year started out innocently enough with the decorating of the tree. Both of the kids joined in as we listened to Christmas music.



I had originally thought I'd set up the smaller artificial one in the bonus room so they could decorate it to their liking. Then I got all sentimental and decided this was our family tree and so they should have a part in the task. They loved looking at the ornaments of past years and finding a spot for them on our beautiful grand fir. That it was seven feet and full of prime real estate was lost on them and most of our guys ended up at their eye level and bunched together.


That right there is what changed my mind. I cracked open the box that held their special tree and set it up out of sight upstairs. They loved having it close by when they sat down to watch TV, play games, or do crafts.


Speaking of crafts, on one of our many Winter Break days, they sat down and decorated ornaments. I thought it'd be cute to have them do one each year going forward to see how much their artistic ability has improved. The 2011 version is below:

M's is on the left and J's on the right. I wish I'd started doing this with J years ago, but as you can see, the learning curve is there for the taking. J has a lot of talents; art isn't one of them. Things can only get better from here!


This year was also Ms first time at the Nutcracker. She was mesmerized by the ballerinas. For a while. She is only three and a 2 o'clock matinee was bound to cut into her nap schedule. But only if she let it:

And she didn't.

Our annual Christmas card was nonexistent. But the reminder of why, wasn't:



They just don't cooperate when it comes to posing together. Crying at these yearly photo sessions is becoming a tradition around here.

I felt a little irresponsible not sending out well wishes ~ if unpersonalized cards without so much as a message count as well wishes ~ yet just eliminating that one thing made me feel so in control. I was really ahead of the game this year.

So ahead, as a matter of fact, that I just thought everything would fall into place. I didn't put much thought into Christmas Eve. And it showed. It was a weird day. Just a normal Saturday. No hoopla. No fanfare. Nothing. Definitely not meeting my Christmas Eve standards. It was sunny for one, I didn't cook posole or tamales, and the house wasn't permeated with the smell that lingers when those two yummies are on the stove. We pulled out a tri-tip that didn't defrost and ended up with this:

From TOP nonetheless. Not very appetizing. Luckily mass was about to start and Christmas Eve is my favorite of the year. J and I went to the standing-room only service and it was just what I needed to get the night back on track.

Once home we finished watching Ironman 2. It doesn't scream Christmas, but that's what we had left over from the previous night. Soon after the finale when OUR children were all snuggled up in their beds, I remembered that we didn't read the "Night Before Christmas." So up they went.

And then it was Santa time. Even he had a rough time at our house this year. J's stocking gift was too big!


No one cared. Donuts, a 3DS, and a huge dollhouse (that apparently M knew about) later, along with various other goodies from Santa, made the morning complete.

Then it was off to Vancouver to hang out with the Ks. It was business as usual there: Hubby and BIL and/or FIL bickering about the prime rib's internal temperature; kids fighting and tattling on each other; MIL opining without solicitation; FIL pining for more togetherness; SIL and I bearing the self-inflicted battle wounds caused from too much tongue biting and eye rolling. Ahhh, the joys of family holidays. They're good folks. And making the trip to Sacramento would provide material in its own right to talk about; however, we didn't go to Sacramento, so I gotta work with what I got :)

We headed to Portland for the night.

And it didn't take long for it to turn into a freak show.

(D modeling my Christmas gift from AK ~ Sexy!)

The cousins went swimming while my SIL and I grabbed a much-needed cocktail at the hotel bar. Then off to bed. I snuggled with my kiddos and it was a perfect way to end the day.

D was up bright and early the next morning to feed the meter. My FIL, too, was up and calling at 8:30 and in the lobby by 9 to return the wallet D left on AK's counter the night before. It was during that same visit that he told D about his hearing on the news that the City of Portland was not charging for street parking this day.

After a myriad of agendas were discussed, everyone left with their respective families and promises to be in contact. I went shopping downtown while D and the kids took a train ride to Voodoo Doughnuts where they met up with PK's family and waited in line an hour and a half to get their sugary concoctions. All the while the truck was sitting at an empty meter with a not-so-sweet $32 ticket on the windshield. Needless to say, D was not happy. He never called his parents to meet up with them because he was so angry.

By the time we met back up at the hotel he was tired, hungry, and fed up. We left around 1, got some food in him, and made the hour and half drive back home.

A pilot for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2? Close, but not quite.

There's always next year!

It wasn't perfect. It never is. But we were together and that's all that matters. To quote Jillian Michaels, "Perfect is Boring."

CHRISTMAS 2011 ♥ THAT'S A WRAP

Euseb

Most days I'm completely okay with not being a contender for the "Mom of the Year Award." Every once in a while I'll run into a super-cute, super-creative project that SuperMom out in blogland has devised to make the rest of us feel inferior. That inferiority doesn't usually last longer than the time it takes to read it, and with the click of a mouse, it's gone.

It's gone until December rolls around, that is. That's when I really feel the pressure to step up my game. Last year I incorporated the feast of St. Nicholas into our repertoire. Two years ago it was the Epiphany; albeit that's in January, but it all rolls into one when we turn the the page on November. This year I wanted to do something for Advent. And then there's the problem of an unnamed little elf that for the last couple of years has been showing up at the home of several friends and whose sole purpose, I'm convinced, is to cause me anxiety.

Who is this guy and where did he come from? And most importantly, why am I so intimidated by him? I can tell you one thing: If he made his appearance at any other time of the year, I wouldn't give him a second thought. But, alas, he comes in December and if the story is to be believed, some overachieving parents long ago set him on the shelf as a reminder to their young children that they were being watched. It's a cute tale and all, yet it was missing something; it was too Pagan for my needs; in its original form, just one more thing to add to an already-aggressive agenda. Nevertheless, he had my attention. I went back and forth on whether to splurge the 30 bucks ~ yes, 30 ~ and decided against it. I knew if I was going to take this on, I had to find a way to connect all the dots: St. Nicholas, Advent, the birth of Christ/Jesus' birthday.

So I came up with my own. This is Euseb:

I found him at the Dollar Store; not because I'm cheap ~ I looked at a Lladro (at Ross) and a Lenox at Macy's. Both of which were much more money; both of which didn't fit the bill ~ but because he was IT. I named him after my dad. And then I turned into a rhyming fool:

Good Morning, My Friends

I'm glad to be here. I came down from Heaven to spread Christmas cheer.

My name is Euseb. I arrived this morning. Nico dropped me off while you all were snoring.

St. Nicholas is Santa, as I'm sure you remember, He comes every year on the 6th of December.

His story in a nutshell: He gets dropped off by St. Nick in the wee hours of December 6th and that's when our Advent season begins. He's here to watch them. He has a cute little clipboard as his means of communication. Like the elf, he moves around during the night and in the morning when the kids find him there may or may not be a treat for them.

When you get up each morning, come and look for me, and then look all about you to see what you see. Look up to the ceiling, look down at your feet, for you never know where you might find a treat ~ a project, an outing, or something to eat.

Some day's they'll be something; some day's they'll be none, but that doesn't matter; it's only for fun.

It really has been fun. They get up excited every morning to find him. And not once have I heard disappointment in their voices when he's all alone and bearing no treats.

His time to bid us farewell is fast approaching. Tomorrow will be his last morning here. I'm going to miss him.

My job here is done when the hoofs hit the top. I'll then start heading North. Home will be my last stop.

While my visits seem short from beginning to end, each moment is priceless because you are my friend.

Will I miss you? You betcha! You bet your cute rear. But don't you dare worry. I'll be back next year.

They woke up this morning to find out that they were being treated to a special pajama/movie/game day.

There are certainly things to be worked out and questions to be answered. Is he an elf? An angel? Why does he look so much like Santa Claus? Does Santa Claus come two times a year? (That one weighs on me.) Why can't we touch him? Is he magic? How does he get movies at Blockbuster? WOW!

One night early on when I thought M was sleeping, I walked into her room to set him on her dresser. She didn't say anything until yesterday when she proclaimed that I put him in her room, she saw me. OOOPS! She's said several times that he's not real. I'm not sure if she means the whole concept or the fact that he's ceramic and not flesh and bones. My answer is always the same: You've got to believe.

I believe that I really got it right with him. I wish he was a little more flexible; maybe not so fragile, especially since a second trip to the Dollars Store proved a fruitless effort in procuring a backup Euseb. But you take the good with the bad. He gives me the flexibility to customize, personalize, and incorporate him into whatever is going on in their lives year after year. Because I didn't spend $30 on a book, I can change the rules as I go along and blame it on Euseb. "Because Euseb said." Euseb's pretty much had run of the house these last 17 days. His loyalty is unwavering. He's the perfect accomplice to my madness. Every girl should be so lucky.

All business aside, though, he truly brings a smile to my face; an even bigger one to that of my kids. We're really going to miss Euseb and his wisdom.

So on Christmas morning while you're having fun, take a look all around you and see what God's done.

He sent us his son on this one special day. He sent him to us to show us the way.

So please take a moment, or maybe a few, and shout out to Jesus,

Happy Birthday to You!

The Missing Picture

My dad never got to meet his grand kids. While we were growing up, he was the grumpy uncle that was easily annoyed by the antics my cousins, my brother, and I provided. He wasn't a bad man, but his patience was limited when it came to the younger set. I would have thought that he would make no concessions for his own grandchildren.

Enter Ar in the summer of 2004. She came to my mom on "loan" from my Tia Lupe who had been watching her for a few months until the planning of her daughter's wedding took a toll on her time. She handed A to us until the big day. She was one.

We all fell in love with her. The wedding came and went. Ar stayed. She quickly became a part of our family. We looked forward to her arrival each morning.

My dad was a changed man. He played with her. He hugged her. He teased her. He loved her. And when her little brother arrived two years later, he had enough love to give him as well.

In the mornings when Car got there he would run into my dad's room to say good morning. My dad would still be in bed as Car walked to the edge to babble his greeting. On the day that Car went to see my dad lying in his coffin, he uttered the same thing he had for months one last time. In the days that followed, Car and Car alone would see my dad outside the sliding glass door. Car has no memory of any of this, or my dad for that matter. But the memories of the joy he brought my dad will forever be embedded in my mind.

When those kids stepped through the front door, they walked straight into his heart.

On the first anniversary of his death, I spoke about the comfort I felt knowing how much he would have loved his grand kids. I saw it with my own eyes. Without Ar and Car I would never have known. They are angels. I love them so much. Just like my dad did.

There will never exist a picture of my dad with either of his granddaughters, but I have a pretty good idea of what it would look like if there were:

This was waiting for me the other morning when I logged into Facebook.

That's my dad and my goddaughter, Ar. I can't make out the year it was taken ~ looks like '98, but that's when he passed away, and judging by the sandals and sundress Ar is wearing, I would assume it was sometime during summer. He left us on January 13.

I love the look on his face. This could very well be my favorite picture of him. I love it. It's exactly as he looked those last couple of years.

Looking at it made me realize that in the photo album of my kids' lives, there will always be a missing picture. It made my cry for the first time in a while over his death. It made me miss him. At the same time, it made me happy. And it made the realization of that missing picture a little bit easier to bear.

Thank You for sharing, My Ar!