So This is Christmas

Christmas... the most magical time of the year. Also the most exhausting. It is impossible to simplify Christmas to a level where it does not suck all available energy. I'm sure it doesn't help that I had the bright idea to get married four days before Christmas and then the even brighter idea years later to have a baby two weeks before Christmas. Anyway, I'm trying to count my blessings and this year my blessing is that I was able to ask my boss to delay any overtime 'til January. He agreed and that made for a much, much merrier Christmas than we had last year. 

This year we got to see all the grandparents. My folks spent a few days before Christmas in town. 

And Chris' dad stopped by on the eve of Christmas eve. I am sad that the only picture I could find of him was his legs. He did a great job making sure that the girls had beautiful doll clothing and accessories. I'm sure Carol was proud that he is showing her two precious granddaughters so much love. She was much remembered this Christmas. 

Look at the cute UW doll dress! Emily loved it. 

Then, on Christmas eve, I got to come home at 3:00. Yay! It left me time to bake Jesus' birthday cake. Now, I know this sounds like a weird tradition, but let me explain. Lots of people bake cookies for Santa, but I think that's just silly because he's, well, not real. We use Jesus' birthday cake to remember what we're celebrating. We have it for dessert on Christmas eve. The girls are entirely in charge of decorating it. Do we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus? No. That would be weird. Do we leave a slice out for him to come and eat in the night? Yikes, no. Do we even believe that December 25th is Jesus' real birthday? No. It's in the spring. But, the cake is a lovely tradition that helps us remember what we are celebrating. 

The girls always do a lovely job. This year their medium was crushed candy canes.

Then we opened the Christmas eve gifts, which are always PJs and yet always a surprise to my two cherubs.

Then Daddy read from Luke 2.

Then off to see the bright lights.

There are some crazy Christmas houses around town, but this year we drove a few miles out of town to see this insane one. It makes me exhausted to even think about the amount of work that goes into something like this. The homeowners were dressed as elves, handing out candy to spectators. Extraordinarily magical.

Then we came home and put the kids to bed with threats that there would be no presents if they didn't go to sleep. And then we put the presents under the tree. As a kid, we put presents around the tree as they were wrapped. My kids have zero capability for leaving stuff alone, so we haul the loot out on Christmas eve. It's kind of nice because all the magic just happens overnight.

This is our special ornament for this year. Betcha can't guess where it came from. 

Then, Christmas morning came with all its glory. The kids slept in til 7:45, which was lovely. Although Emily reports she woke briefly at 5:00. I am grateful to have not. 

Some of the faves:

Slippers. Yeah. Weird. But much appreciated. 

These boots from grandma, which she sought high and low. 

Robes. Again an interesting choice for Christmas MVP. 

We paused before stocking opening to have a healthy breakfast. 

The girls had spent so long opening that the cinnamon rolls were barely warm by the time they showed any interest. 

And then stockings were opened. Every year they are mad that I put underwear in the stockings. I don't think I would put it in there if it didn't make them mad. 

We finished off the day with a screening of Elf, during which Emily ignored the movie in favor of her ipod, which she got again this year because last year's ipod fell out of the car at a truck stop. This ipod is larger and engraved with her name and phone number. Less appealing to truckers and meth addicts that frequent I-80 truck stops. I hope. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Let the countdown to spring now officially begin!

Lucky Number 13

Thirteen years ago today, Chris and I got married. It's been a wonderful and difficult thirteen years. I usually like to reflect a bit on our anniversaries and this year I have been thinking about Chris a lot: how much I appreciate him and how much he has grown and changed over the years.

He is a great husband and father. He has been an equal partner in household duties since I went back to work. He loves me and he loves the kids. He shares my sense of humor (without that, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have made it 13 years). He is smart and he works hard. But I think what I love most about Chris' personality is that he keeps trying. I have never seen him throw up his hands and give up: not in college, not professionally, not on being a better dad and husband and, most importantly, not on himself.

I have known Chris since he was 19. I loved him then and I love the man that he has grown into. I am so blessed to be able to be his wife.

I'll sign off with a few selfies from this past summer's adventure in paradise. It's been a great year, Chris. Here's to a million more that are even better! I love you!

Take Five

Last week I woke up one day and realized that she's no longer a baby, she's no longer a toddler and she's hardly even a preschooler anymore. Jane is 5. As difficult as that is to believe, it is the truth. 

We had a small family celebration on her real birthday which included presents:

One of her faves is this beanbag. Her butt has seldom left it since last Tuesday. Notice how it's personalized? we thought that would prevent thievery. It kind of worked.

She also really loved the leap pad. She played with it nonstop for two days but now I think we need to feed it more apps. Well played leapfrog, well played. 

When I asked Jane what kind of cake she wanted, she didn't say the name of a character (hurrah! I HATE decorating cakes) but instead requested pink cake with chocolate frosting and red sprinkles. I can do that. No problem.

For Jane's "party" she requested a trip to Build-A-Bear with her cousins. (Notice how accommodating this kid is? No crazy character cakes and no inviting her entire preschool class to play pin the tail on the donkey in my living room. No wonder I love her so much.) So yesterday, we headed south and her cousins headed north. We met in the middle and made some serious bear magic.

Jane selected a pink bear which she then dressed as a princess:

                                      

Lucy created a ballerina pug:

Simon's golden retriever sings the Star Wars theme.

And Emily came home with Rudolph's girlfriend (who required 4 high heeled shoes instead of 2 because she has 4 feet and bears apparently have 2?)

Here are the girls' creations:

It was a delightful, low-key party, which is exactly the kind of party I dig. And everyone came away with a well dressed stuffed animal in a delightful cardboard gingerbread house. Bonus.

We followed up with a lunch of Jane's choosing at Nordy's BBQ (the subject of McDonalds or Chuck-E-Cheese never even came up). I really like this kid. She can plan my Saturday anytime. 

Happy Birthday Jane!

The Family that Feasts Together

Thanksgiving... it happens but once a year. And it just so happened to happen last Thursday.

My folks came to town and hosted at their house here. My brother's family and my sister's family also came. It was great to see them.

We ate a lot of food.

We spent some fun cousin time. 

Jane has always loved to hang out with Uncle Ryan.

We had a fire and roasted s'mores. 

It didn't take long before the cold got the better of us.

The kids' favorite activity was shooting Grandpa's air rifle. Several soda cans met their end this past weekend.

Jane wasn't allowed to shoot, so instead she hugged

And ran to inspect the target once the range was clear. 

Everyone had fun. Now... on to December wherein we celebrate the birth of Christ, Jane, and our marriage. That's a lot of celebrating. Stay tuned to see if we survive. 

Some Thoughts on my Workiversary

Today is two years since I returned to work. That is significant because I finally get credit for all the time I put in before I left. So benefits-wise, I've been there for seven years, but sometimes I feel like I've been there for two and sometimes I feel like I've been there for fourteen years because I've worked with the same people on and off for that long.

I love my job but I never imagined how difficult it would be to be a working mom. I had great visions of having a job for 20 or 30 hours a week when I had children. The problem came when I realized I had to choose between full time and nothing. So full time it was. My schedule is like a game of tetris. The simplest tasks, like going to the store or taking a plate of cookies to the neighbors or getting the kids to extracurricular activities involve an astounding amount of planning. My afternoon workouts have turned into pre-dawn workouts. Sleep doesn't happen so much. I'm pretty sure my friends have forgotten my name because girls' night out has become a pipe dream.

But going back to work hasn't been all bad. I went back before I had intended on going back, partly so Chris could quit his job without worrying about replacing it with an equal amount of income. He was finally able to do that and it has made such a wonderful difference in our lives that it alone is worth the extra stress of being a working mom. And Chris has been nothing short of amazing - going to school parties, picking up the kids from daycare and fixing dinner most nights.

I also love my job. When I started back, it was to the "salt mines". I was rating bridges. Now that I'm back in design, I can honestly say that I really love my job. Sometimes the circumstances aren't ideal, especially at Christmastime when our bridge rehabilitations are due and for reasons which I won't discuss here we seem to be put in a bind every December, just when I need to devote extra time to family and friends.

But overall, my working circumstances have improved and I am getting much better at putting my family ahead of my job. After all, it's just a job. It's not real life.

This is real life:

and I would never let something as silly as a job stand in the way of that.

See Jane Read

I'm not a fan of a lot of things that happen in early childhood. Colic? You can keep it. Potty training? A necessary evil. Tantrums? Don't even get me started.

But I am a huge fan of that day when we first start getting those signs of readiness from our kids that tell us it's time to pull out the Dick and Jane.

Some parents use fancy methods that involve spending money and changing batteries, but in our house we are Dick and Jane purists. There's a reason it's been around for generations.

The first month isn't fun. I won't lie. That's why Chris and I trade off every other night. (Yay for me having the best husband in the world!) This is no one man job. There's a lot of "I cant" and "That isn't even a word!". But then the magic starts to happen. They slowly begin to be pulled in by the story. They laugh at the pictures. They start to become confident in themselves. That's how it was with Emily and that's how it was with Jane. 

Tonight Jane finished the Dick and Jane treasury. I was sad and a bit misty eyed that I will never pull it off the shelf again. Because I love the magic that happens when a kid learns to read. 

We will continue to read with Jane. We will listen to her struggle through Danny the Dinosaur and Frog & Toad. Then she will move on to the (somewhat inane) stories of Magic Treehouse. But our Dick and Jane days are done. Someday our kids will be parents and we will try to pass the treasury onto them. They will roll their eyes and tell us we are out of touch with kids and learning styles. That doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned Dick and Jane is inextricably intertwined with the magic of my babies learning to love reading.

Interview with a Vampire (and a Scottish Princeess)

We're all in candy detox right now so the memories of Halloween don't seem so golden yet, but I'll share them while they're fresh anyway.

This year we skipped the fancy internet patterns and the dremmel. Emily drew a face on her pumpkin, which was carved by a semi-responsible adult and Jane gave some general marching orders to daddy, who made her wishes into pumpkin reality.

(Emily's is on the left, Jane's on the right)

Someday, when Emily's a mom, she will appreciate the all the school holiday parties we attended. I look forward to the day when I can just send her to school with some juice boxes and tell her to have a fun time. Of course, this will mean that I'm no longer cool, but I will do my best to accept the downgrade gracefully.

Here she is, as Mavis the Vampire at her school party:

Just a few hours later, it was time to go trick or treating with Jane, who made an adorable Merida.

Grandma and Grandpa rolled into town just before the festivities began and came to wish the kids a happy Halloween.

And then we were off.

It was exceptionally windy this year so that red wig didn't last long. Jane lasted longer than the wig, toughing it out for about two hours and Emily lasted about two and a half before she fell and skinned her knee. They both outlasted me. I came home to switch with Chris halfway through, in accordance with our traditional Halloween agreement. 

The kids were rewarded with plenty of loot:

A couple days later we discovered how much joy $20 could buy in the Halloween clearance aisle. The answer is a lot of joy. The dress up box o'erfloweth. 

And now... less than two months left of the kids watching the Nightmare before Christmas. Because it's both a Halloween and a Christmas movie. Thanks, Tim Burton, you weirdo freak.