Nick's birthday aka Christmas Eve

This year we actually celebrated Nick's birthday on the day after Christmas for a couple of reasons-

Firstly, my parents would be arriving that day and when it comes to birthdays, the more the merrier.

And secondly, we got an invite to spend Christmas Eve with some friends.  They said, "We'll get a ham, and you can bring dessert!"

Nick wanted chicken enchiladas for his birthday dinner (this is how I know he is actually my child- that was my standard birthday dinner request growing up) so, I figured we could either force our will upon our gracious friends, or wait a couple of days.  Wait we did.

Dinner was good.  No, it was great.  I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but I love the fact that despite the fact we don't live near family, we're surrounded by plenty of people who through the years have stepped in to fill that void.

So, I was asked to bring A dessert.  I brought three.  First, I decided to make a tart.  The one on my food blog with the pastry cream.  Only instead of strawberries, I did a mixed berry kind of thing.  Actually there was a picture of that in one of my cookbooks, and Madison paid me a compliment by (sincerely) saying that "it looked exactly like the one in the picture!".  I don't mean to brag, but that is the first time that has ever happened.  Seriously, my reality rarely (never) matches those gorgeous professional pieces of art you see in cook books.  (recipe found here)

But then I decided that it might be "too grown up" for some of the kids, and I might not want to share with those who don't know any better, and one of my kids said "But what about Santa?!?! We NEED to make sugar cookies!" Kill two birds with one stone.  Santa gets his cookies, and the kids just might stay away from my once in a lifetime glorious tart. (cookie recipe found here)

And then just cause I am a glutton for punishment, and I swear the cool-whip was calling to me from the refrigerated case in the grocery store, I had to make chocolate balls too.  If I didn't make them for Christmas, when?!?! Before you know it, New Years and it's dang resolutions would be upon us, and I might not get around to making them for a very long time, so I had to.  I just had to. (easiest recipe ever found here)

And other than the usual opening one present (pajamas) that was our Christmas Eve.

The day after Christmas, Nick got his chicken enchiladas, and I even surprised him with butterbeer cupcakes. He's been in love with butterbeer ever since we visited Harry Potter world,

so I found these little cupcakes and I thought I'd give them a shot.  He USED to request what we call "strawberry dessert" but now he has told me that from here on out, he'd like butterbeer cupcakes, thank you very much. I didn't take a picture, cause my cupcakes didn't look nearly as good as the picture on blog I got them off of, (pathetic, really) so for those interested, here's a link to that blog for that recipe.

Both days turned out great, but sifting through my pictures I am saddened to see that I didn't get a single one commemorating my oldest child turning 15.

This picture will have to do-

He was getting ready for the big New Year's Eve dance the next week.  That's his snazzy "Official replica 11th doctor bow-tie" from the Doctor Who series.  He spotted it on the website ThinkGeek.com, but it was sold out clear until Christmas!  He was seriously distraught and checked back regularly so I could buy it for him. Somehow though, Santa worked his magic and was able to procure one which he found in his stocking on Christmas morning.  True story.

15 years ago, I became a mom to the teeniest, tiniest little thing. (3 lbs 11 oz)

And he hasn't stopped growing. He passed me up long ago, and any day now he'll have his dad beat.  One thing I have to mention,  although I look at that picture, and it feels like a lifetime ago, and so many other details forgotten, I can still feel the ghost of that teeny little body in my hands, feel the weight of him (ha ha) as he slept on my chest. crazy huh?  And I remember the feeling of terror the day we finally got to take him home. I couldn't believe those nurses were just going to hand a totally helpless tiny human being to us kids and say "good luck!"  I'm not much of a kid any more, and Nick isn't so helpless, but 15 years later, I am no less terrified.

and on that note.... Happy Birthday, Nick, I love you.

Christmas Season 2011

 Amidst all the caramel making, (50+ batches)

(which I totally do to myself- I'm not complaining and I don't need any lectures- you know who you are) we still managed to fit in some Christmas merry-making (much of which I didn't take pictures of, so I'll just throw in some pictures of my kids to appease the grandparents)

playing a viola duet of Christmas carols at a nursing home,

piano recital,

freezing our wimpy Arizona tails off looking at the lights at the temple,

looking for Buddy our shelf elf,

and making gingerbread houses.

And probably a few other things I am forgetting.

But this girl-

spent much of her free time writing letters for Buddy to take back to the North pole,

and decorating the house with her own special touch.

(Seriously though, how sweet is that letter to Mrs. Clause?  Love her. )

(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

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! :)

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.

addendum to the last post

I realized this morning I neglected to mention what the present was, and just in case anyone might think I was referring to an iphone or an itouch, I thought I'd clarify that I'm talking about something a little more age appropriate than that.

And supposedly won't break if you drop it.

Like this-

Or this-

shhh. don't tell.

Guess what Christopher is getting for Christmas?

Think he'll keep his grimy little hands off mine?

I know, it's wishful thinking.