New Year's Eve 2009

1 last post for 2009. Here we are spending New Year's Eve 2009 at home. Andy celebrated his New Year about 40 minutes ago at 9 PM, midnight Eastern Time. He does this every year and it drives me nuts. But.... I guess he is entitled. (However, we aren't ON the east coast....we are on the WEST coast.....) He also starts celebrating his birthday at 9 PM the day before. So, the kids and I haven't hit 2010 yet. I took Rose and Joey out tonight to look at Christmas lights 1 last time. David couldn't be bothered, he was too busy playing the Wii. Sort of sad because half of the people have taken their lights down in our favorite neighborhood. The true end to the holidays. Now we are home starting to play bowling, boxing and Mario Kart on the Wii. It will be a fun night in with the kids. Joey is still up.... who knows if he will make it till midnight, but we'll see! Oh, and like we do each year at home, we are also watching the Grateful Dead, New Year's Winterland show, the last show played at the Winterland Theater on New Year's Eve, 1978, before it closed for good. Here we are in all our new-found Wii-ness! Happy ALMOST New Year!

Update: Joey made it till 11 PM. Good try...... Maybe next year champ!

Memories, Like the Corner of My Mind...... 1 Year Ago

It was 1 year ago that I really started to update the blog regularly. I didn't quite know all the tricks to posting pictures then. Lately, the kids and I have been reminiscing about our fun "White Christmas" in Seattle with my brother Dave's family. It was one of the best family vacations I've taken. We had such a great time with everyone.....sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, going to the JETS/Seahawks game in the blizzard, waiting for the electricity to go out so we could use the new generator (never did happen)..... We called them yesterday. They didn't have a white Christmas.....but it's probably coming. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from last year.

Wii Wish You a Merry Christmas, Wii Wish you a Merry Christmas, Wii WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a Happy New Year!

A belated Merry Christmas to all! Our festivities started with on Christmas Eve. The kids decided they really wanted to shop for the family. So I packed them up and off we headed to the Dollar Store. Now, you would think I would have gotten out of their pretty inexpensively, but $41 later...... we had FINALLY finished our shopping. Andy had to work....trash never stops, but he was able to get off early. We headed off for or usual get-together at Dad & Jann's house with Karen, Mike & kids, and my step-brother Kurt. It was a fancy soiree with our traditional pizza dinner. We were tipped off that the kids would be getting clothes for presents, so we brought a gift, a kid's board game for them to play. They played the game many times and loved it. They all got hats and gloves with their clothes, so they all had a great time parading around the house with the hats and gloves on. It was a fun evening, and Jann's deviled eggs were great. (Andy loved the little smokies.) Mike went online on his Blackberry and check Santa's progress on NORAD. When he first checked, Santa was in North Korea. By the time we got home, Andy went online to check and he was in Nova Scotia, Canada. The kids scrambled to get into PJs. "Daddy, where is he?..... Albuquerque, New Mexico? Is that close?" Then they would hurry even faster. Then they had to out out milk, cookies and carrots and Rose wrote a note for Santa. "Daddy, where is he now? South Dakota?.... is that close?" "YES!!! You better hurry up and go to sleep!" We let them lay on our bed and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This usually puts them right out, but they were SO excited that they watched the whole thing. I finally went up to lay down with them until they fell asleep around 10:30. The kids slept till about 8:15 Christmas morning. This was much appreciated by his elves who were up until 3 AM getting the house ready for his arrival. Santa delivered as hoped... good thing we got to see him a few days prior. The kids were SO excited to go down the stairs and see that indeed, Santa had been there. "David, SANTA CAME!!!" They hurried over to scope out all the presents. We of course let them jump in and start to tear them open. David kept exclaiming, "I'm going to open my Wii Mario Kart." Wow, a giant helicopter, Littlest Pet Shop Pets, a Tow Truck, a purse and all sorts of Barbie make-up, a keyboard, PIXOS! With each present David opened, he became more and more dejected..... he would turn to me and say"this isn't my Mario Kart." Santa had strategically placed all the Wii gifts at the back of the tree, so these were the last for the kids to open. When they finally got to them, they were ecstatic. I LOVE to see them so excited. This has really been the most exciting Christmas because the kids all truly believe in Santa. As it should be! It almost makes getting evicted from the house, because we can't pay the mortgage, because we greased Santa's pockets worth it.

It was requested that the Wii be set up immediately, so I spent the next-however-long installing it. A quick phone call to our brother-in-law Brad for a little advice, and we, and when I saw we...I mean me.....had it up and running. At this point, David took over and showed us what to do to start the play...... now that really isn't so surprising, is it? It went over VERY well, as expected. Rose and Joe both started out playing with David, but faded after a short while, and moved on to other things. I packed up the wagon a little later, and off we went to Karen's for afternoon festivities and dinner, and as we knew it would happen, Andy had to stay home with David so he could get in as much Wii time as possible. They did come meet us eventually, and we had more Christmas fun.

Madeline was really excited because she got the hamster she really wanted, and had talked about forever. She has named her Fluffy, and she really is quite cute. Owen got a basketball hoop that took 8 man-hours to assemble. Next time Santa, please leave some $ to pay for assembly..... by someone else. Mike's Mom and step-dad were there along with 2 cousins from Oklahoma, I think, and of course my Mommy Dearest! We had a great dinner. Rose tried ham for the first and loved it. There was another round of gift-giving for the kids and Mom. Madeline and Rose both got Hannah Montana guitars and strutted their Rocker stuff pretty convincingly. Soon it was time to head home, where David of course wanted to jump back on the Wii. All I wanted to do was head up and get in bed, which is just what I did. Joey came up with me, and Rose followed shortly thereafter. David was kicked off the Wii at 10 PM when he finally was made to come up to bed. Santa really was good to us this year.....well, to the kids mainly which is what we decided....and what it's really about for us right now.

Today has been a nice 'Christmas Hangover' day. The kids all slept till nearly 9 AM, as did we. The kids jumped right back on the Wii. This time we convinced them to try some new things. We played bowling, baseball (only 1 ornament has been broken so far by an errant baseball bat), boxing..... they kids are HILARIOUS to watch play this..... but of course, all roads lead to Mario Kart. I did take Joe and Rose for a walk to the park along with 3 other neighbor girls for a little while.... and Dave stayed home to play the Wii. It was nice to get out of the house. This evening Andy went to meet up with his good friend Kaz for drinks, so the kids and I headed out to look at Christmas lights. We have been a million times, but I always feel like we need to keep going, especially now that Christmas is officially over, because soon everyone will be taking them down. There are a few really good neighborhoods locally that "deck the halls".... We went the weekend before Christmas to our favorite neighborhood and had to compete with a double decker bus and 2 limos for viewing. My particular favorite place does Karaoke 1 or 2 nights right before Christmas. My Mom's neighborhood puts out luminaries in front of (almost) every house on Christmas Eve. It's been a while since I have driven through her neighborhood on Christmas Eve, but that's always fun to see too. I do love this time of year, it's so fun and festive. I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed holiday season this year.

A funny side note; I was in Costco about a week and a half ago on a rare shopping trip without the kids. I was looking at kids jammies alongside a couple. The man said to the woman..."no kid wants pajamas for Christmas".... I turned to him and said "what about for Hanukkah?"

School Holiday Festivities

David and Rose both had holiday singing performances and parties at school the last day before break. This is always the most exciting time of the year.....always so much going on right before the much anticipated 2 week break from school. David performed with the class on stage (like Rock Stars) in the Multi Purpose Room for all the parents and their 4th grade Big Buddies. Rose and her class performed twice, once in the classroom for all the parents, and once for their 3rd grade Big Buddies. It was extra special for Rose because her Big Buddies class has our neighbor Tyler in it, so she got to perform for him and his Mom, Lisa, who happened to be there that day. Rose was really excited to wear her new party dress Aunt Helene bought for her. She was ever so cute!! They all sang beautifully and we all had a great last day of school. And the Rudolph antlers on David's head? He wore them ALL day. Kid loves his hats!

Rose with our neighbors & school-mates Anastasia and Lexie. Anastasia moved away the following day. We will miss her...she is a sweet girl!

Waiting For Santa............

Ok kids, we better go see Santa today....you all need to tell him what you want.... YEAH!!! An hour and a half later of screaming, crying and fighting, off we go to the mall! Now, 2 days before Christmas, I'm pretty sure it will be smooth sailing with NO wait to see the Big Man. Better pack some snacks in my purse for the certain 5 hour wait. But if we don't go today, we probably won't see him at all.....and the kids really need to tell him they want a Wii. I decide not to bring a stroller so I wouldn't have navigate around a million people and have to deal with elevators and every other Mom or Dad in frenzy mode 2 days before Christmas. As you all know, it's no small feat for me to get out the door to go anywhere. By the time we get in the car, I am ready to pull my hair out....but let's go have some fun kids!!! We got to the area where Santa was without too much obnoxious yelling on my part only to find the line closed off and the adorable elf, who really was too tall to have the job, telling us frustrated parents that they were closing the line because Santa will have to go to lunch. He didn't want us waiting in line only to get to the front and have Santa have to take off for break. How thoughtful of him! I asked if we could take our chances and wait.....I knew this was the only time I was willing to do the whole Santa trip. Ok, he said, so we got in line and waited. There were probably 15 other families who did the same thing after us before that elf had to get serious with the new comers and just say no. Well, after not TOO much "No David.... ROSE! Stop it Joey....... GET IN A GOOD MOOD FOR SANTA....." there we were, right up to SC. They don't let you take pictures, so I didn't get any on my camera but we did buy a family "value" pack, so perhaps I will get Andy to take it to work and scan it so I can post. Anyway..... we got a good picture and the kids were able to tell Santa what they wanted, so mission accomplished! Now hopefully he will come through with that Wii......or we are in for a BAD Christmas! Happy Holidays!

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane........

I have some pretty spoiled children who think that all the wonderful opportunities they have in life are quite normal, and doesn't everyone live this way? They really get to do some pretty special and fun things thanks to many good friends of ours. Recently we were invited to attend a work picnic for the desert operations Andy oversees. We were all set for a nice little 2 hour road trip up to Palm Desert when Andy was asked by the owner of the company if we didn't want to fly up with him. Well, ok, if that will make you happy Sir, SURE!!! We would LOVE to! So, we packed up the car, made the 20 minute trip to Gillespie Field where we went through ZERO inspection or security and waltzed right onto the company plane. (It's a VERY nice little 8 seater.) Andy gets to fly up to the desert about once a month, so this was old hat for him. It was about a 15 minute flight and there we were. Barely enough time for Joey to get up a full head of steam and become a really PESKY flier.... The picnic was held at a baseball sports complex that has small replicas of Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. It was pretty neat. We all had a really good time at the party, but it was COLD, and we weren't all that prepared as far as cold weather clothes went. So, we tried to keep the kids UBER busy with bouncy fun and whatnot. It wasn't so bad. After several hours of fun, spin art, tattoo-ing, bead making fun, etc., we were all ready to go and at that point Joey was Crank-City Crankus. He became a lap child to save the peace for all of us on the return flight. Fortunately the boss (and the pilots) didn't mind, and off we flew, back home for another 15 minute flight. It was quite turbulent on the flight there, which is always a lot of fun, as far as I'm concerned, and fairly smooth coming home. David was so busy watching the monitor that showed the map, flight route and duration left in the flight each way. We kept trying to remind him to look out the window. The kids loved it. We are so lucky for Andy to have a family owned company he loves to work for that really values their employees.