(Ghosts of) Christmas Present

We had a nice, quiet little Christmas. Just the six of us. The kids got most of what they wanted, except for the real puppy Madison asked Santa for. Christopher was very happy to finally be able to "play Christmas."

Ghosts of Christmas past

I debated posting this last picture, but I figure after posting all those stinking cute pictures of myself, I need a good dose of humility. Ü

Happy 14th Birthday, Nick!

I think Nick is learning it can be tough to have a birthday on Christmas Eve. You never get to celebrate with friends, and your day tends to be overshadowed by the celebration of the birth of another baby born half a world away a couple thousand years ago.

But we try to make his day special, and he's still basically the same little boy who would say "I like having my birthday next to Jesus's".

So who was I to say no when all he wanted for his birthday were my homemade chicken enchiladas for dinner, strawberry dessert instead of a cake, and to go see the Christmas lights at the temple? (Okay, four. He also wanted a Kindle.)

The strawberry dessert was the hardest, apparently there was some strawberry blight and 2 out of 3 of the stores I went to were out of strawberries, and the third charged me an arm and a leg for barely adequate berries.

I did have one little surprise up my sleeve. The Sunday before his birthday I sat next to my friend Scarlett. Her family owns a Cold Stone Creamery and she was saying how on Christmas Eve, they were going to send the employees home early, then hand out free ice-cream in their pajamas.

I thought Nick would get a kick out of that. In fact, I knew it would make his day- free ice-cream, served by friends in their pj's, what's not to love? So we hatched a plan...

We had to time it right, and eat dinner early, so we could head off to "see the lights" by 5 pm. Of course the sun wasn't quite yet down and the kids were starting to worry that we'd get there too early to actually see the lights. And then they were pretty confused when we pulled into a random parking lot because I "felt like ice-cream".

The best part had to have been when Scarlett dished him up a huge bowl of ice-cream and said "Happy Birthday, Nick!"

To which he responded, "Hey! How did you know it was my birthday?"

And she pointed to the back wall and said "Cause it says so right there!"

That's when he noticed for the first time the birthday balloons, and the "Happy Birthday Nick" sign, and the streamers.... (To be fair, the whole place was decked out in red and green streamers, and so to the casual observer it just looked very Christmasy)

I think for the first time, he was totally speechless.

Then while we ate our ice-cream we were entertained with Mason's (Scarlett's son) wicked Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktail impersonation, only with ice-cream and caramel sauce. Scarlett was also pretty impressive as she caught several of his flying balls of ice-cream.

Then it was finally time to be off to the temple to see the lights. It was crowded, but a beautiful evening to be there. Nick enjoyed chatting it up with the missionaries and commented how happy and friendly they are and how he can't wait to go on his mission.

And my first thought was that he's already got the happy and friendly part down, he should make a pretty great missionary....

and then I wanted to scream "No!" because it hit me- I have just 5 short years left. 6 months and he'll be in high school. 4 1/2 years until he graduates. Just two more until he will be driving. And time seems to be speeding up and as proud as I am of the young man he is turning into, I found myself a little sad too...

Happy Birthday, Nick! (Stop growing okay? Please?)

Gems

My dad retired about a year ago. He was a chemist/rocket scientist. (for reals)

He's kept pretty busy since then.

He bought a season ski pass to Alta where he promptly messed up his thumb and had to have surgery. (it didn't slow him down one iota)

He's built furniture, worked on his restored 69 Camaro, and has worked on fixing up the house. He's gone on all sorts of backpacking/rafting/biking/canyoneering trips...

But what I am most excited about are the 1800 pictures he spent days converting to digital from negatives and slides.

Well, One thousand Eight hundred and Twenty Five to be exact.

My parents just arrived this evening and he handed me a thumb drive so I could have a copy of all these gems from my childhood. I've spent several hours since then pouring over them.

Some I had seen. Many I had not. (Including some of my own kids) There's a bunch that don't interest me terribly- boy scout trips and such. A few of the pictures are blurry or under or over exposed, but there are many, many gems to be found. Cute, funny, ridiculous, memory loaded, and even the cringe-worthy. I'm sure I could spend the next year (and I might) posting a retro-pic a day. Here's just a couple to get started. (I plan on doing a whole retro-Christmas themed post soon Ü)

This is the first one that made me bust up laughing. Would you believe this kid grew up to get his PhD in bio-chemistry or something like that? (I can never remember- I try to pay attention, but it is way over my head, and all I hear is "blah, blah, blah....discovered a new protein strand...blah, blah, blah" Or something to that effect.) Oh, and that was the first computer our family owned. My dad built it. To be fair he also grew up to be captain of the swim team and got his name on the school records board more than a few times. (I now have the photos of the records board to prove it)

This was the first of quite a few "What was I wearing?" pictures. It took me a few minutes to realize that was my grandmother's funeral I was wearing combat boots to. FYI, I think they were the only shoes I owned, and I'm not wearing make-up because I cried it off. John and I are engaged in this picture, but seriously, I think if he turned sideways he'd disappear. I forgot how skinny he was. Good thing he has had all these years of my good cooking to put some meat on his bones.

Speaking of good cooking- This picture is like a little time capsule. Those must be my favorite chocolate chip cookies Rich and I are helping my mom make. Notice the cookie sheet on top of the black and white TV? Rich and I used to watch shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers, and Polka Dot Door while eating cereal every morning. (one picture- a flood of memories) And see my dad's ginormous lunch box I had forgotten all about? And speaking of ginormous, I am guessing the reason why the cookie sheet is on the TV must be because that freaking huge zucchini is too heavy to move.

Seriously- I am considering making 2011 a "picture a day" kind of year, and if I can't find one (or more) new ones to take, I'll just pick one from the file my dad so graciously supplied me with. (unless there are any objections? seriously- speak now or forever hold your peace)

Golden

Better late than never.

Over two weeks ago Maddie celebrated her 11th birthday. Her golden birthday. You know, eleven on the eleventh. I bought gold candles for her cake.

Which of course also means that I celebrated my golden anniversary of being 24. The eleventh time I turned 24 on the 11th.

Yes, I realize I totally just made that last bit up, and as at least one of my kids likes to point out, I'm not really 24, also, clearly the day is all about the little girl -as it should be.

Since her (our) birthday fell on a Saturday, I took her donuts to share with her class on Friday, and also brought her In-n-Out and ate lunch with her at school.

Throughout the next week I was treated to lunch a couple of times with friends Ü.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we woke up. John and Nick were off at a boy scout campout, so the rest of us rode our scooters to Einsteins for breakfast. I only fell once. All in all, a good morning.

The rest of the day was spent seeing A Christmas Carol at the local Hale Center Theater, then off to Benihana for dinner. Naturally, we got a babysitter for Christopher.

One interesting item of note- Zach ate and enjoyed 4 pieces of shrimp before he figured out they weren't chicken. I don't know how he didn't know they were shrimp. He watched the little buggars get cooked, and their little tails get chopped off and tossed in the chef's hat. He still refuses to accept the fact that he likes shrimp. I wish I had video to prove it.

I thought it was a really good day. I think Maddie did too. Of course nothing could top my birthday eleven years ago when I got the best birthday present ever.

I'm not dead.

Just in case anyone was wondering.

Like most people this time of year, I've just been busy.

And so now of course, I have a little bit of blogging to catch up on- 3 birthdays + Christmas + and a few other little odds and ends, and I'm procrastinating because the more I have to do, and the longer it's been, the less I am inclined to do so.

But I guess I'll start with some of the odds and ends.

I did manage to take a couple pictures this month, and so I'll share those.

For all those who asked- yes Madison and I got an A. 100%. 50 out of 50.

Christopher likes to pick out my clothes. His favorites are the "name shirts". He's learning his letters, so he likes shirts with letters on them. I wore this particular shirt one day when I had no other exciting plans than making caramels. (Naturally I was seen by someone who is the kind of person to wear heels and lipstick to do her grocery shopping and she did laugh at me when she came to the house to pick up their order of caramels- in a good natured, non offensive kind of way...)

Of course, that was nothing compared to the outfit I wore to drop Nick off at his jr. high. He had a super-early morning church activity one day and they were supposed to drop the kids off at school. But they were running late and Nick landed on my doorstep needing a ride to school. I fished my keys out of the jeans pocket that were lying on my bedroom floor, and rushed him to school. As I pulled in to the parking lot, it occurred to me that I needed to phyiscally walk him into the building and sign him in. Did I mention I was wearing a dirty blue t-shirt, no bra, purple and white striped capri pajama pants, black and white knee high socks, and brown Mary Jane Crocs? I personally think the only thing that would have made the outfit better would have been pink curlers, and some kind of green mud facial mask. I don't own any curlers, but I am seriously considering it in the event I totally want to embarrass any of my future teenagers. (to my offspring- consider this a warning) "Why on Earth did you let me leave the house looking like this?!?! You could have mentioned that I might want to put on the jeans as I was fishing the keys out of the pocket!!!! You realize you have to walk into your jr. high and be seen with me?!?!?" And just to add insult to injury, as he was walking off to class, I yelled across the courtyard, "Byyyyyeee, Niiiiiiiick! I LLLOOOOOOOOVVVVEEEE YOOOOUU!!!!" He swore he'd get me back for that last bit, and my response was something in the neighborhood of "No, please, anything but that! Moms just hate it when their children tell them how much they love them in public!"

Our ginormous safe was finally delivered. 2-3 weeks late. They lost the paperwork, which was fine by me because we had to clean out our closet to make space for it anyway, and then they ended up refunding us $120 for "our inconvenience". The box still resides in my living room. ALL the kids play with it. Right now I am thinking "A Kindle? Legos? Wii games? American Girl Dolls? Forget buying Christmas presents. All I needed to do was go to Lowe's or Home Depot and see if I couldn't score a couple giant refrigerator boxes."

This last month between the 4 kids we had 3 musical concerts, 2 recitals, and 1 pre-school Christmas program. Christopher loves music time. I've been told by a few teachers, he's most attentive when they are singing. He was singing Christmas songs all month. Of course when he had his little Christmas program, I don't know if he sung a note. He was too busy playing around, or lying down, or jumping off the stairs on the stage...

I think that's about it- oh and I'd like to send a little shout out to three of my newly discovered blog stalkers- Kaitlyn, Morgan, and Emily. Hi! :)

Number One

John is #1 in his company in terms of traveling. The guy in the #2 spot didn't even come close.

He went on 49 trips this year

Gone a total of 249 days

69 different cities

7 different countries

231,453 miles traveled.

His boss is making him the poster boy for too much traveling.

Caramels, caramels, and more caramels

That is my life right now. I should be making more, but I ran out of pecans and Costco doesn't open for like 10 more hours.

I started to think this was the year that nobody was going to buy any, or like a fraction of last year, but the orders are still rolling in. I am having a hard time keeping my head above water. So to all you people whom I am related to (by marriage- those I am related to by blood can make your own) I probably won't expect to get a package in the mail until after Christmas. Sorry. The plan was to get yours out first, (cause so many of you never got your package last year) but then, well, life happened.

Life-

I turned 35. Madison turned 11. On the same day. I still need to write about that. It was a good birthday, and a nice break from the stove. I only made one batch that day.

Nick passed math!!!! 63.3% !!!! I've never been so happy to see a D on a report card in my life. Which is actually ridiculously unacceptable for such a bright kid, but we'll take it. He failed both semesters last year. He was hovering at about 60% for most of the semester, but he did really well on his final, so yay!

Speaking of Nick, I am probably crossing a line here, (which probably won't be the first time) but Nick finally figured out the name of the girl he has a crush on. She's in his EVYS with him. He's liked her for over a year. But until recently didn't know her name and was too embarrassed to ask. She's cute. I've seen her. I actually watched her chew him out for forgetting to dress up the day they had pictures and dress rehearsal. "I reminded you!" "You did not!" "Yes I did!" "No you didn't." "Yes I did." "Okay you did." I have three thoughts on the matter- firstly that is the kind of girl he needs. Someone who will keep him in line. Secondly, I'm happy to see he has already learned that the girl is always right. They playfully argued back and forth, but he eventually conceded. And lastly, I am not too worried. I was late picking him up once and he said "That's okay, her mom is always late and I got to hang out and talk with her". "Oh,would you like me to be late more often?" "No, that's okay, I'd rather go home and eat." I think I will really start to worry when food takes a back seat to a girl.

John is home FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR. And get this- he had his annual review with his boss today, and got nearly perfect scores on everything except his work habits. It's not what you think- his boss actually told him he works too much and needs to balance his family life and work life a little better. Well duh! Then later in the day someone else was trying to convince him to spend 5 straight weeks in Europe. In February. They compromised. He'll be gone three.

That's about it. My brain is mush. It's after midnight and there are three batches of caramels I should probably cut and wrap before I go to bed tonight. I do really like giving them away. It's nice to be able to do something and give people something that they love so much. Warm fuzzies and all that. John took some to a work party and made this lady that helps him out with stuff cry today. "Thank you! you made my day! I've been looking forward to these all year!" And the extra money is always nice. I just wish I could figure out some way to spread it out over the rest of the year. I'd say "Christmas in July" and tell everyone they'll get their caramels then, but the last thing I'll want to do in July in Arizona is slave over a hot stove all day.

I hope I get an A

I mean, uh, I hope Maddie gets an A. Cause it's her project. Not mine.

She came home about a month ago and informed me that she had to construct a Colonial home. Of course this kind of project is one of those where the kid couldn't possibly do it alone, so that means lots of parental involvement.

Construct a Colonial Home? Out of what? Wood? Cardboard? Popsicle sticks? We also had to include the surrounding land. Crops and a water source and stuff. That was the key for me. As I wondered how on Earth I was we were going to construct this, I kept thinking "well, I know how I would do it if it were a gingerbread house..."

And then I thought "Well, why the heck not?" I'm not so comfortable with wood or crafty materials, but baking? I've never done anything like this before, but it's worth a shot.

And as luck would have it, last year on a whim, I bought a Gingerbread book with all sorts of house plans in it that just happened to include a New England Colonial house. It must have been fate.

I was afraid my genius plan would fall flat on it's face, but unless I trip or something on the way to school, I think it turned out better than expected.

(And yes, I let Maddie help. I might have done the shopping, and the baking, and the constructing, and was the chief pastry bag wielder, but she helped alot with the planning, and the design and the decorating. )

And so without further ado, The Big Reveal-

Everything is completely edible of course. Fruit leather shutters, window panes made out of thin strips of Juicy Fruit gum, a chocolate block for the front porch, and we just had to include the Peeps Christmas tree ...

pretzels for the fence, frosting tinted brown for the dirt...

strawberry and chocolate Twizzlers for the roof...

Tootsie Rolls for firewood...

assorted candies for the garden...

a gingerbread cookie cow...

and last but not least, chocolate rocks and grasses made out of thin strips of gum.

The 5th grade has been doing this project for a few years now, and I think mine hers is the very first gingerbread one.

as stubborn and sneaky as his mother.

We are keeping the Christmas presents in the office.

The door is kept locked at all times, to keep one particular child out.

Guess where we keep the key, and guess who figured it out?



(fortunately the "key" is one of those little stick things and you have to stick it in the little round hole just right to unlock it)

~~~~~~~~~~
Update-

I originally wrote this yesterday morning, but as I had also written about Nick serenading me awake, I decided to schedule this to post today, since who knew when I'd get around to blogging again. Anyway, last night we had a little family night get-together and during the flurry of activity Christopher discovered I had left the office door unlocked. I'm not sure how, but somehow he managed to retrieve some of the presents I had stored on the highest shelf in the closet in the office, (I am thinking he used the stool, and then put it back. He might be a total stinker in some areas, but he's my best at putting things away when he's done with them- without being told) took them over to the Christmas tree, and proceeded to start unwrapping. He only got one undone before he was discovered, I promptly took the presents away, and safely stowed in the locked office. Not 15 minutes later, he was discovered with more, quietly unwrapping them in the shadow of the Christmas tree. The office door was open, but still locked. I can only think in my haste I didn't shut it tight.

Where oh where is that little boy from last year who was simply content to be? Who was teaching me lessons about slowing down and just enjoying the season? With no thought or clue whatsoever as to what this was all leading up to? He still likes the lights and the decorations and the caramel snitching, but he is completely obsessed with presents this year.

"What's your favorite song?"

Madison asked me this question the other day.

Is it possible to really answer that question?

My favorite song on the radio right now? From a particular decade? Rock? Hymn? Classical?

There are way to many possibilities. And of course mood and other such things cause my "favorites" to change almost moment by moment.

I'm not even sure I could pick a favorite song from a particular artist. Maybe from a particular album, depending on the album, but that's pushing it.

Take Wicked for instance. Popular, Dancing Through Life, What is this Feeling?- Love those songs. But then again Defying Gravity is awesome, and For Good makes me cry, so how do you pick just one?

But when it comes to Christmas music, I've managed to pick that one song. And more recently a particular version of that one song. Michael Crawford's O Holy Night. Josh Groban's is good too, but Michael Crawford's voice just has an unmatchable power to it (Hello? Phantom of the Opera). And I love the addition of the children's voices in it. Additionally, I think it's a great CD to play on those days when Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman or Rockin around the Christmas Tree feel a little too commercial and you want a little more "True Meaning of Christmas" playing over the airwaves. (Don't get me wrong. I love me some of that other stuff too. )

In other musical related news- Nick wakes me up in the morning. I don't even hear my alarm anymore. I turn it off in my sleep and roll over. This morning, he kinda rubbed my arm, then broke into a song from the Disney movie "Robin Hood". Complete with finger snapping. Then he proceeded to say "Studies show that people who are woken up by being sung to, wake up happier."

I'm sure he made that up, but it still worked on me.

Decorating

John hung up Christmas lights AGAIN this year. They were up the weekend of Thanksgiving. Can you believe that? I can't say that ever in our marriage have we had Christmas lights TWO years in a row. We were averaging once every three years. So, sad, I know, but now we are on a roll. I think he finally, finally decided that the joy it brings the five people he loves most in the world is worth an afternoon of frustration and a little bit of electricity. On a whim, he even bought some snazzy LED snowflake thingies at Costco a month ago.

I bought wreaths for our front door. We'd also been lacking in this department. We have double doors, so one wreath looks goofy, but I think two wreaths look like your house has eyes, and all the wreaths I see at stores look either really tacky or aren't very budget-friendly. I finally found some I like though. See the little cinnamon sticks?

These aren't that new, some but I just wanted to share some of my favorite kinds of ornaments. I have lots and lots of favorites, some are home made, some are souvenirs from places we visited, gifts from family or friends, and some are just dang cute (in my opinion) but for whatever reason, I love these little clippy ones. Instead of hanging down from the branch, they clip on the top. Which is awesome cause I like lots of ornaments, and these are perfect for maximizing branch usage. They sorta fill in the gaps. Once you think "wow, I don't know how I could hang another ornament on the tree without them banging into each other" you pull out the clippies and all sorts of options open up. They're can be hard to find though, so when I do, I usually grab at least a couple.