Christmas highlights

Wow! Christmas is over. The anticipation builds for at least a month and then in a matter of hours, it's all done. I love Christmas but there is such a sense of relief when the day is over. Especially when it starts so early. Our children waited until 5:25am this year before they went downstairs. That was so nice of them! Here are a few of their favorite things this year. Things with wheels played an important part of our gifts this year.

G-man really wanted a snowboard but had to settle for Shawn White snowboarding game for the Wii.

Sweet Pea loves her very own scooter! No more hitching a ride with her brother to school.

Mr. E with his new in-line skates. Happy day!

Little A is very happy with his Iron Man suit!

Before Chaos insued.

Of course, we cannot forget, hubby's ambitious State to Gate ride. He started downtown at the state capital and rode his bike all the way to The Golden Gate Bridge. 117 miles (I think) It took him 8 1/2 hours. He even had enough enery to walk halfway across the bridge when he was done! Wow! I'm afraid to even ask what's next???

Merry Christmas

For those that may be new to our blog, welcome! You see, I just sent out the bulk of my Christmas cards last week and with it, I attached our blog address. I just wanted to welcome anyone visiting for the first time. I hope that you enjoy keeping up with us. Feel free to stop by any time and don't be too shy to say hello. (hint, hint, Em)
We've been receiving lots of Christmas cards. It's always fun to check the mail to see who sent us a card. I love to see pictures of family and friends that we haven't seen in a long time. I enjoy reading the Christmas letters and catching up with you. This blog is as close as I will get to writing another Christmas letter. As my children grow and get busier, I find myself looking for ways to simplify my life. Cutting out the Christmas letter was top on my list. I'll try to at least keep a card coming each year. Thankfully, because of our blog, I feel no guilt over that decision whatsoever. I realize that it may be a lazy way of communicating but it's definitely better than nothing! Until next time, enjoy.

Are you kidding me?

I happend to be coming home the same time as Sweet Pea today. As usual, she was walking in the gutter. She hopped in and I asked to see her "treasures." Would you believe me when I say she found yet another one of those unmentionables.!! I'm not kidding. (sorry no picture today, one was enough) She picked this one up because it was "cool." This one was pearly and the center piece moved up and down. Yikes! I now see that I did not give her enough information yesterday as too why we don't pick up someone elses garbage! I'm so glad it's Friday.

"Treasures"

Every morning Mr. E and Sweet Pea scooter to school together. The problem is we only have one working scooter. The solution is a compromise. Mr. E does the scooting while Sweet Pea squats down in front and holds onto the bar. It's very cute to see them scootering along. Although on occasion they have hit some bumps that have sent them crashing to the ground. On one such occasion, Sweet Pea had her sweater tied around her waist. On the zipper are these two cute little pom poms that hang down. Well, the pom poms got caught in the wheel and down they go. There was a little road rash that went with that crash. Another thing they enjoy doing on their way home is to look for "treasures" in the gutter. They come home with all sorts of things, rocks, nails, nuts and bolts, broken toys, paper, pens, pencils, hair bands all sorts of fun things. Today I happened to be waiting for them outside, and I see Sweet Pea riding the scooter in the gutter, as she gets closer I can see she's holding something in her hand. As you can imagine I was really excited to see the fun "treasures" she found today. Note to self, remind kids not to collect treasures after garbage day!

Other fun things that happened today. No babysitting kids today so I thought I'd run a few errands. Not thrilled when Little A woke up with a headache. But feed him some breakfast, gave him some meds and tucked him on the couch while I got ready. I was pleasantly surprised when he fell back to sleep, which allowed me some uninterrupted getting ready time. He woke up singing the Star Wars version of Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. That's a good sign I thought! So we proceed to stop #1 not too bad, he was patient. Then on to a fabric store but it wasn't where I thought it was so I go on to Stop #2. Starting to whine. Just one more stop I say. Off to Staples, need ink cartridges, get the ink but, hey, I'm here so lets look around. Starting to get impatient now, he wants to go home. Head to the register, have to wait in line, the women in front of me has a little boy just younger than mine, that's running everywhere, touching everything, and I'm thinking, wow, glad mine's not doing that. Oh good, it's my turn, she turns to leave and I set my ink down and look at Little A, who is notably quieter now, and starts throwing up, all over the cart, himself, the floor! AAAHHHHH!!!!! ok, ok, think. AAAAHHHH, I have nothing! I'm out of the stage of having to carry around wipes, diapers, etc. I turn to the cashier who is completely helpless, "ummm, can you please get me some paper towels?" So I try to clean up the best I can, the cashier continued helping the other people in line after I moved out of the way. How nice. The only person who asked to help was the lady in front of me who went to her car and got some babywipes for me. Because, after all, she's a mother and understands these things happen. But as she left, I'm sure she said, Wow, glad mine's not doing that.

Today Mr. E got a retainer to help straighten a crooked tooth in the front. Here's a little clip, just in case you wanted to see.

Christmas Cards

It's always a happy day when it's time to take our annual Christmas picture! Some years it's just the kids, other years, it's the whole family. It just really depends on my mood that year. This year we ventured to do a family picture. Anyone that has children knows that this is a difficult task. It's really difficult to have happy children when it's cold outside and they're shivering, hence the turtle look from Sweet Pea, and you're trying to get them to be still and smile. Just the fact that we manage to take a picture, is all that I can hope for at this point.

I babysit a little boy, I'll call GiGi. Little A and him are one day apart, although you'd never know it, and best buddies. Yesterday, they were playing Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Little A says I'm going to be Theodore, the one with the A on his shirt. I guess I better start working on his letters with him!

Catching up

G-man had to make a pinata for his Spanish class over Thanksgiving break. This is the final project. His name is Snowball.

The day after Thanksgiving our Zoo and Fairytale Town are free. (just bring a canned food donation, or not they'll still let you in) We had a great time and we got there before the crowds. I guess everyone was still shopping at 10am.

Sweet Pea and Mr. E enjoying their turkey legs. It took them two days to eat them.

This year was pretty mellow. My sister and her family usually come up every other year, this was the other year so we invited Grandma and Grandpa to share in the festivities. Everything was delicious and we had a great time. After dinner, hubby's sister and family came up for dessert and we hung out and played Apples to Apples. The day went by much too fast.

What's Thanksgiving without football? On Thanksgiving morning our friends host a football game at their house. Hubby has gone for the past 8 years, as the kids have gotten older, they have joined him too, but this is the first year I've ever gone because I'm usually home preparing dinner. I tried to snap a couple pictures of the game. Hopefully you can pick out G-man and Mr. E. Hubby was somewhere else on the field. All in all a fun-filled day. Now, it's already December and it's time to look ahead to Christmas (I can only think about one holiday at a time) Now, I'm ready to put all my energy into Christmas. On Monday for family night we got all the decorations out and put up our tree. I have to say that I didn't do anything! My children are at the age where they want to do the decorating and being the nice mom that I am, I let them! Ok, Ok, the next day I did have to spread some of the Christmas ornaments around the tree so they weren't all clustered in one spot and I put some garland on my staircase. But I just watched as they unpacked ornaments and decorations like they were seeing them for the first time and listening as they reminisced about who made what ornament and when. It's wonderful. It might not be Pottery Barn perfect but I'm ok with that. Although, it's only been the last couple years that I've let that fantasy go. With age, I've come to the realization that my house will never look like a magazine cover. So there is no reason to stress about it. I used to get so frustrated and stressed out when the kids would rip open all the Rubbermaid boxes and start pulling things out and putting them up with no rhyme or reason. But now I just let them. I might have to move or rearrange later but that's ok because they are having fun and working together to create their own beauty and traditions that hopefully they will always remember. I love Christmas!