An Explosion of Christmas Cheer

The Christmas festivities started off well enough this year although Emily experienced one minor upset the day after the class Christmas parties that we honestly believe resulted from too much walking taco

and too much gingerbread man. 

But by that night, Emily was able to eat normally and we honestly thought everything would be okay. little did we know the demon that lay in wait. 

Jane was oblivious as she fervently and futilely wished for her two front teeth

and danced away to some quality yule log entertainment.

The afternoon of Christmas eve, I got off at 2 pm, which was a huge surprise and gave us plenty of time to make Jesus' birthday cake.

The kids decorate said cake every year. 

This year's theme was candy and horror movie. 

I think it says "Happy Birthday Jesus" (It's red frosting, not blood). I am sure Jesus would appreciate the effort that went into it. 

Then it was time to get some cinnamon rolls rising in the fridge for Christmas breakfast. 

The kids were riveted to the reading of the Christmas story

and ecstatic about their new PJs and slippers. 

In no time at all we were loaded into the car and off to see the lights of the big city. 

The kids got tired so we had to cut the trip short. 

I should have known something was up. We only got a couple of the super crazy houses. 

But we shuttled the kids off to bed and put the presents under the tree

and hung the stockings... with care. Because I always buy too much to put in them.

The next morning, we were awakened shortly after 7 by the sound of shuffling slippers... and coughing... and retching... and flushing... and crying. 

Jane could barely make it downstairs to see her presents. 

While Emily could hardly contain herself

Jane stared glassy eyed at the festivities. 

The situation continued to deteriorate

and deteriorate.

Emily tried not to let it get her down.

Jane appreciated Emily's willingness to unwrap her presents for her. 

And while Emily opened her stocking, Jane told us that she was too sick to open hers and that we had better not steal her candy.

After an hour or so of being bothered

Jane was relieved to be left in peace

while the rest of the family ate breakfast.

The remainder of the day was spent switching off sitting with Jane and holding her Big Gulp cup for her in the event that she needed to make a deposit. We watched the worst movies ever. While Chris was running, I broke down and purchased Dolphin Tale 2 for her. Chris was pretty sure his account had been hacked. In the end it wasn't much better than the standard Netflix fare. The Gruffalo's Child was played on two separate occasions throughout the day. 

Emily was fortunate to miss most of this. She had free reign of her toys (and her pick of Jane's). She began the traditional Christmas Lego assembly and new video game playing. 

Meantime, it snowed and snowed and snowed. Emily begged to go sledding, but that wasn't really an option. We were too busy either puking or cleaning up puke. 

Two days later, Jane is on the mend. But a funny thing happens when you clean up puke. I am choosing to look at the bright side and hoping that it helps me shed those holiday pounds. That's why Chris married me. Because I'm such an optimist. You have excellent taste, Chris.

Fourteen

Fourteen years ago today, I married a guy who promised to love me for the rest of my life, eventually get a career and to take out the trash whenever practicable. So far he has lived up to those promises and more. 

This year has been a great and challenging year. 

We've had some pretty big triumphs like:

finishing our bedroom remodel without one major argument

                                  

                                 

Baptizing Emily                                                                           

                                

And going on another wonderful Disneyland vacation. 

                               

One of our greatest triumphs involved Chris starting a new job which he loves. 

(this is a selfie he probably took on a break at work)

We also had some challenges that mostly surrounded a very bad daycare situation for Jane and the fallout that resulted. But even that turned into a triumph after a summer of hard work and a successful beginning to the school year. And in the end Chris and I were closer for having gone through those struggles. 

The decision I made 14 years ago is the best one of my life. It has been worth every bit of work and more. 

This morning I woke up to presents and flowers. 

The presents contained my favorite chocolates:

 And in a truly classy move, Chris remembered how much I loved these nuts from this little shop in Hanalei. He had them shipped all the way from Hawaii.

 Thanks for a great anniversary, Chris. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love you!

December: part one

December is a busy month around this joint. It usually starts out with the school Christmas program.


Emily is on the end.

Jane is in the middle. Looking enthusiastic.

Then came tree decorating. 

This is our special ornament this year - commemorating our trip to Disneyland this summer.

After that came Jane's birthday. 

She helped decorate her cake. Nice candle placement, Jane.

When you're six, you get a REAL American girl doll. Jane loves her. She came with the name Isabelle, which relieves Jane of the enormous responsibility of naming her. It also relieves the doll of being named something like Alson or Soshie.

Blow out them candles, Jane. 

We are happy to have Jane in our family. I am also happy that she is 6. She is starting to develop compassion for others and she is becoming more responsible every day. She has grown up a lot in the last year. 

Next up on the December agenda: our marriage turns 14. Oh... and Christmas. There's always that.

Emily and Jane Let it Go

Halloween happened again this year.

With both kids in school, I thought maybe I should go to Jane's class party since Emily has had one of us there for the majority of parties for the last three years. 

Chris ended up agreeing to go to Emily's party nonetheless. 

And wound up with the assignment of decorations... which he excelled at. 

From what I hear there was some pumpkin volcano action. Pretty wild party...

I attended the Kindergarten party. Anything that involves 20 - 5 year olds is bound to be wild. In the background is Grandma Mimi. She has been class grandma to one of my girls for several years now. We love her. 

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins. We had an anti-Pinterest Halloween. Jane drew on her pumpkin...

and then I cut it out. After which she cleaned off the marker for about 15 minutes straight. That pumpkin was as clean as a whistle. 

Emily carved her own pumpkin...

splendidly.

One of our neighbors told me that she loved the pumpkins because you could tell our kids had done them themselves. Lovely compliment I think. 

My favorite part of simple pumpkin carving is that it only took about half an hour, leaving us plenty of time for Charlie Brown. 

And finally came the trick or treating. Yeah, they're both Elsa. Yeah, so was half the neighborhood. I like to let my girls be whatever it is they want. Even if it is the same thing everyone else is. 

I carried Emily's jacket. She didn't put it on all night long. 2.5 hours of trick or treating in 40° weather and no jacket. That is dedication. 

I wore a coat and switched off halfway through with Chris. At which point I got to answer the door. I love trick or treating because it's the only time you see some neighbors. Unless you're super social, which I am not. This leads to some interesting situations like:

There was one guy who came to our door. He had his daughter with him. He was all of thirty, wearing a full beard and... an Elsa costume complete with long blond wig. He held out a bucket. He told me the candy was for his infant son. Riiiight.... I hope that baby enjoys that peanut butter cup (mashed up with a little banana and a squirt of breastmilk) in two months... when he's allowed solids. I gave him candy anyway.

I also got to see the kids of a gal whom I didn't immediately recognize because she unfriended me on Facebook. Not that I minded giving them candy... but their mom also sent them up the driveway with a card for the beauty products line she peddles. I have no idea what I did to offend her but apparently she's willing to talk to me if I'm putting in an order for skin cream. Welcome to classy town...

Other than that it was mainly an adorable parade of kids. We went through 420 pieces of candy. (notice I did not say "handed out" - we love to share in the delights of the season). Just before 9, as the kids started to get really big, we ran out of candy and called it a night. 

The kids had a pretty good haul. That's a lot of candy. 

As a postscript to Halloween, I decided to wash my winter coat after I was done. It hadn't been washed since last spring and it was a bit stale. So I threw it in the wash... with my phone still in the pocket. That was the day that we found out phone insurance is worthless. We also found out you can get a perfectly decent phone on Amazon for $80. My phone has been buried in rice for 2 days and is finally to the point where it will turn on. But then the screen keeps flashing off and on every 2 seconds. Lessons learned: DON'T wash your phone. DON'T pay for phone insurance. You're welcome. 

Close Encounters of an Extracurricular Kind

We're pretty well into the swing of things and things are busy, but good.

Jane started dance class this fall which means that she gets to wear a sparkly pink leotard once a week. She is loving it. Chris is, of course, looking forward to being able to attend a dance recital again after last year's hiatus due to Emily's Taekwondo phase.

Speaking of Emily, she's chosen ice skating as her extracurricular du jour. She reports that she is learning how to do a snow plow stop. Stopping is very important when it comes to ice skating. 

Both kids are enjoying school. Their teachers are fabulous and they are both very engaged in school.

After a rough first day, Jane has really blossomed at school. I have come to realize that she was so ready for school. She was ready to be challenged and ready to be engaged and ready for the structure and constant activity that comes with school and although sometimes blankie rides to school with us in the morning, he never goes in the building. She worships her teacher and gets along with her classmates. School has been great for her.

Emily has a fantastic teacher this year who is amazing with both order in the classroom and imparting a passion for learning in her students. She has a goal to read a million words this year. I hope she makes it, but if she doesn't, I hope she keeps her love for reading.

Here's hoping that the pleasant but constant hum of the school year machinery continues without too many hitches.

Aaand We're Back

Today the kids went back to the educational system. Because it's necessary that they get some book learnin' so I'm not supporting them when they're forty. 

First things first. Before Jane could start Kindergarten, she had to have a last day of preschool. We all had mixed emotions about this. On one hand, she was excited to move on. On the other hand, preschool has been so great for her. Her teachers have been fantastic and she has learned and grown so much.  

There was a bit of a gap between the end of preschool/summer camp and the beginning of school.We did our best to fill the gap.

Their days with daddy included hiking, movies and a trip to the dinosaur museum at UW.

Mommy isn't as cool. We decorated cupcakes. Yes, that is canned frosting. Why? Because it's disgusting and I didn't want to be tempted by the cupcakes. Is that reason enough?

Also, their back to school prep included haircuts. Emily requested bangs. Thanks to youtube, she now has bangs. Jane said she wanted fangs too. 

This morning, they woke up early and were ready to go. Emily to third grade and Jane to Kindergarten. Jane said she wanted Moaning Myrtle pigtails. There was some debate over whether Moaning Myrtle has curled or straight fangs. 

You be the judge.

As soon as Emily got to school, she reconnected with her friends. I love that she invited Jane to hang out with her. 

But as soon as the bell rang, things got real. It wasn't pretty. It was almost as bad as Emily's first day of Kindergarten. Almost. 

I tried to get her to smile for a picture. When that didn't work, I decided to take an authentic picture anyway. 

But by the end of the day she was happy. She was also singing a song about a gummy bear. Over. And over. And over. 

Emily had a great day of third grade. At this point for her it is business as usual. That's going to change in four years in a big way, so we will enjoy elementary school for now, trying to forget that Junior High is looming in the distance. 

I hope tomorrow will go a little better now that Jane is convinced that school is fun. 

On a personal note, I was so glad that I didn't go home to an empty house after dropping the kids off. When I went back to work it was earlier than I had wanted and I went back kicking, screaming and miserable. Now I am grateful for my job because it gives me a chance to learn and grow while my kids are learning and growing. Also because I hate crafts and cleaning house and I have no self control when it comes to baked goods. Me being at work really is best for everyone at this point. 

Happy School Year!

Miles and Milestones

Summer is very quickly drawing do a close. I'm not thrilled about it, but there's nothing I can do to stop it, so I'm trying to let her gracefully go as I enjoy her last few days.

The end of summer means school supply shopping so last week we took Jane to grab her very first school supplies. She picked out a backpack, markers, pencils and then, somewhere around the sticky notes, age related milestones collided when Jane announced, "There's something wrong with my tooth". I looked at her tooth and touched it only to find that it was excessively wiggly. I told her she had her first loose tooth and that soon it would fall out and she would get a dollar. That's when she started to cry. She told me, "I've been worried about it all day".  Our school shopping trip fell into disarray amid questions and lamentations such as:

"Will it make me bleed?"

"Will it hurt when I twist it?"

"Will it just fall out into my hand if I cup my hand under my mouth and then the blood will fall out too?"

"Will the blood get on my shirt?"

"How can I eat without my tooth?"

The other customers at Target were not impressed. Finally the shopping trip ended and we were able to remove a sobbing and terrified Jane from the store. We tried to assure her that it wouldn't hurt much and that her friends would think it was cool and that she would get her very own dollar and some candy and that she could stick her tongue through the hole. She continued to fret.

Then, a week later, she was sitting on the couch after dinner and suddenly asked, "Mom, where's my tooth?". Apparently she had been so afraid of pulling it that it just fell out during dinner and was swallowed along with her meal. 

Then began the lamentations about still being able to get a dollar since the tooth was now on its way to her colon. It turns out she still did get a dollar and her friends did think it was cool and she can stick her tongue through the gap. Oh and also, it didn't hurt. Not one bit. Now she is less anxious about the tooth's next-door-neighbor, which is wiggly as well. 

Here she is with her gap. That's not food on her nose. She crashed on the playground last week at school. 

Another end of summer ritual is running Race for the Cure. For the last seven years we have run it for Chris' mom. Before that, we just ran it because cancer is bad in general. Boo cancer.

My time was 27:54 which isn't great with respect to real athletes, but I'm not a natural runner and I worked pretty hard for it. Also it was a personal best, so I'm recording it as a win because I need to stop comparing myself to others

such as Chris who ran it in 21 minutes and change. He won't give me an exact time because he is extremely self deprecating. If I could run that fast, I would get my time tattooed on my body. And not on my back where no one would see it. I would put it on my forehead.  

My dad hung with the kids while we ran. Here he is reading to Jane and cousin Lucy. I appreciate him doing this every year. We got to run with my mom, my sister and her husband thanks to my dad's help. 

In just two short weeks, kindergarten is coming. And then I will be a mom of two gradeschoolers. That is a crazy thought. At least Jane will have a great conversation starter, comparing tooth gaps with her classmates....