Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's House

We accomplished quite a bit on Christmas Eve this year.  I felt like I was running out of time to get all of those Christmas "traditions" accomplished this year, but we squeezed a few things in at the last minute.  Better late than never I guess!

We spent the morning baking cookies.  The kids actually did almost all of the mixing, baking and decorating themselves this year.  It was fun to watch them work together and help each other.  They were very proud of the finished product.

Next up on the agenda was some last minute shopping.  For the past 4 or 5 years, I have taken the kids to the Dollar Store to shop for Grammy, Papa, Pancho, me, and their siblings.  It is so much fun to watch them shop.  They spend so much time mulling over the treasures (junk) in the store, so they can pick out the perfect gift for each person. Then that go home and wrap them all themselves too. I like this tradition because it gives us a chance to talk a lot about "giving" and the kids have so much fun watching everyone else open the special gift that they picked out just for them, when we exchange presents on Christmas Eve.  I am not sure how many more years I am going to get away with going to the Dollar Store, but for now it works great.  My kids hate to go shopping from  store to store and this  is a one stop shop, so they love it!

Then we went to the movie "Tangled" as a family.  I am not always a fan of every kid movie, but I really liked this one.  In fact, the whole family did!  It was so cute and funny too!

After the movie, we had just enough time to get a picture with Santa, before heading to Christmas Eve Mass.  The kids got their picture taken at about 4:30 and Santa was leaving the Mall at 6:00 (so we literally were one of Santa's last photos of the year).  I had pretty much given up on the idea of getting a picture with Santa this year.  Both boys have had basketball practices and tournaments, the kids have had sleepovers, and there was never a time when all three kids were home at the same time!  Imagine how happy I was when we had this short window of  time between the movie and church to rush down and visit Santa.  Lucy was just as excited as I was (of course), but Max was so over it!  He DID NOT want a picture with Santa.  We literally had to make him (which by the way, I plan on making him do this every year until he gets married!)

Max (too cool for Santa), Lucy (thrilled to be with Santa) and Sam (mostly happy to be wearing the Pittsburg Steelers Hat he had just opened from his cousins)

Lucy also loved the candy cane and reindeer antlers she got from Santa

After Santa pictures, we rushed home, got dressed in our Christmas clothes and headed to the children's Mass at St.Paul.  It was such a beautiful Mass, with many of the St. Paul kids acting out the Nativity.  My kids loved watching it.

After Mass, we all headed over to my Mom and Dad's for our Christmas Eve tradition.  We always eat my Mom's delicious homemade  Clam Chowder, then we open our gifts from Grammy and Papa and we give them a few gifts too!  It is always such a fun night.

Lucy and her Papa,

as we were getting ready to start opening gifts!

My Dad got some lovely gifts from the kids like, coffee mugs, candy, and a piggy bank!  My parents do such a great job of acting so excited about each gift. 

(By the way, we do get my parents REAL gifts, that are not from the Dollar Store too!)

. . .the boys got a little hyper waiting for Mom and I to finish the dishes.

"Brother Wrestling" is a common occurrence with these two.

Sam almost has him!

Somehow, the older brother still always finds a way to win . . . for now!

I just noticed that we never got a family picture with all of us dressed up.  The boys changed out of their church clothes second that we got home.  Oh Well!

My Mom's beautiful tree!

Sam giving Grammy a big hug to thank her for all of the cool gifts.

My parents totally spoil my kids!

Lucy was so proud of the Army Knife she picked out for her Daddy at the Dollar Store!

I was helping Max put batteries in some of his gifts.

 . . .and this is what Sam picked out for his Dad at the Dollar Store.

He thought it was soooo funny!

Lucy got so excited about every gift that she opened!

She was full of "Thank You's", hugs, oohs and ahhs all night.

Sam got a very cool electric guitar.

Its made out of cardboard, but looks and plays like a real guitar.  He was playing it all night.

When we got home, Lucy couldn't wait to leave out some of the cookies that she had made that day for Santa.  Of course, she had to leave some milk to go with the cookies and some carrots for the reindeer too.

Sam was a little skeptical this year, he set up a video camera pointing at the cookies in hopes of catching Santa on camera.  That way he would know once and for all if he should believe, and lets just say that Max is a teenager in an 11 year olds body and leave it at that.  Pancho and I had all kinds of hilarious ideas for Sam's video camera, but in the end, he hadn't actually turned the camera on, and I had run out of energy to be funny at that point.

Milk, cookies and carrots!

We love you Santa!

Skiing? Sledding? or Putters?

Yup!  You guessed it Putters!

So our original plan was to go skiing today with the Hakalas and Dacars.  It is actually an annual tradition.  We have gone up to Willamette Pass with this group, at some point during Christmas Break, for the past 4 or 5 years.  This year, its not looking like its going to happen though.  The Hakalas couldn't go due to Christy's inflamed knee and Ethan's fever.  That left me as the only adult skiing with 3 or 4 kids (Pancho, Liz and Doug do not or will not ski).  I axed the skiing idea at that point, so we settled on sledding.  Then as the time grew near to dig out all of that snow gear and drive an hour up the mountain, we all agreed that Putters sounded a little more relaxing!

We practially had  the place to ourselves, and the kids had a blast playing on the playstructure, playing video games and battling it out in a round of lazer tag!  Meanwhile, the adults got to visit!

Liz and I

I love this girl.

Since neither of us have a sister in real life, I make her be my sister!

Max, Jack, Ellie and Sam

Our kids are really like cousins.

Jack was so sad when he didn't get to be on Ellie and Sam's team, but ended up being pretty happy when Max blew everyone elses score out of the water and won all four rounds for their team!

Lets just say Sam wasn't too happy though. . . ahhh the competitiveness of brothers!

While the older kids were playing Lazer Tag, Lucy and Pancho enjoyed a round of father/daughter put put golf!  Lucy absolutely adores Pancho, he just cracks her up all of the time. It was fun too watch them having so much fun together.

Lucy picked out purple balls and clubs for them to use in the game.

While everyone else was off playing, Liz and I got some much deserved visiting time.  Liz is a teacher too, so we always have a lot of good teacher stories to share. 

Tea Party at Ruthie B's

One of my very favorite things to do in the whole world is to go to Ruthie B's for a tea party, especially at Christmas time.  So I started making plans with Lucy right away.  I  asked her who she wanted to invite to our tea party, and she knew right away that she wanted her best friend Lauren and her Grammy.  That was the perfect guest list for me too!

Lauren and Lucy were so excited for the tea party!

They got all dressed up 2 hours before it was time to go.  They also dressed up their stuffed dogs and put them in baskets to bring along. Then they had practice tea parties in Lucy's room.

Lucy, Grammy and Lauren

I am so sad that Ruthie B's is closing for good at the end of the month, so this was our very last tea party at Ruthie's :(

Ruthie B's is actually an antique store set up in sections by holiday and/or color.

Lucy LOVES the pink section, so she couldn't wait to show Lauren.

Neither one of the girls were too sure about how they felt about tea,

however, once we added enough sugar and cream, they were instant fans!

pinkies out!

I wanted to show the food in this picture.  They ordered peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

When their plate came, it had bread cut into little shapes and little bowls of peanut butter and jelly.  They got to make their own mini sandwiches.  How perfect!  They loved it!

Then for desert they ordered "mud with worms". 

It was really chocolate pudding with oreo cookies smashed into it, gummy worms and tons of whip cream on top.  Yet again, the perfect desert for kids!

We were seated in the "Halloween Section".

I had never sat in there before, it was pretty scary!  The girls had a great time looking at all of the pumpkins, old costumes and scary masks.  The rest of the store was all decked out for Christmas with tons of adorable home made Christmas items.  My mom and I could have spent hours looking at everything.

I am so happy that my Mom, Lucy and I (along with Lauren of course) got to have one last memory of Ruthie B's together.  I will certainly miss it when it is gone!

Happy Birthday Mom and Pancho!

Ahhhh!  Christmas Break!

It's finally here and now I am starting to feel the Christmas spirit.

A few weeks ago, my good friend from High School, called to say that she and her family were going to be in town during Christmas Break.  She invited our family over for Sunday Brunch at her parents house.  I spent many hours at Jenny's house in High School and of course our parents became friends too.  It was like a mini reunion when my parents, my family, Jenny's family and her parents all got together for the first time in years.  Our girls got along right away and played together the whole time. Our parents got caught up on their lives and of course Jen and I had a great time telling old stories.

My best friend from High School,

 Jenny and I . . .

Lucy and Isabella

My little girl and Jen's youngest daughter are both 7 years old and became instant BFF's.

The whole crowd having a delicious brunch,

(My boys were both at basketball events, such a bummer that Jen didn't get to see them)

Jenny's parents John and Marcia,

J.D., Jen, Vivienne (10) and Isabella (7)

The Girls

Vivienne, Lucy and Isabella

They all three played piano for us!

 

Mom and Dad

Our family (minus the boys) in front of the tree.

Thanks so much to Jenny and her family for getting us all together and serving such a delicious brunch.  I still cant believe how many memories we all share, it was fun to look at old pictures, laugh at the old pictures and to watch our little girls become instant friends too.  I miss you Jen, but I am so glad that I got to see you on Sunday. Hopefully we wont let so much time go by before we get together again.

After brunch with Jen's family, we picked up Sam (Max was still at basketball camp) and headed out to Cottage Grove.  For her birthday, my mom wanted to get us all together to watch a play at the Cottage Theater.  They were performing Beauty and the Beast.  It was such an great play.  I wasn't expecting much from a little theater in Cottage Grove, but my expectations were blown out of the water!  The costumes, actors and sets were amazing!  The kids loved it, (and Pancho and I did too)!

Mom, Dad and Lucy

after the play.

Lucy got to meet Belle and get her program signed after the show.

She is still talking about meeting Belle!

The Clock and The Beast,

along with some of the other characters, meeting people after the show.

I highly recommend this theater.

My parents are regulars here and they tell me all of the plays are as good as this one!

The Birthday Kids (Pancho and Mom)

After the play, we headed back to Mom and Dad's house for some cake and icecream.

Yes, my mom made her own birthday cake.

No one can compare to her home made from scratch cake, and I let her use the excuse that she is making it for Pancho for his birthday.  But really we all know that we would all much rather eat her cake, than any cake I could make or a store bought cake!

A special Happy Birthday shout out to two of my favorite people in the whole world.

Thank You Mom for being such and amazing example of how to be a good wife, friend and mom.  I love you  so much and I thank God for giving me the best Mom in the whole world.

 . . .and to my husband Pancho.  I couldn't have dreamt up a better life partner.  You are an awesome Dad and husband, and I am so lucky to be making my way through this crazy life with you by my side.  Thank you for constantly making me laugh and for telling me daily that you love me.  I love you too, and Happy Birthday!



This craziness I call my life . . .

The difference between being a stay at home mom and a working mom has been staggering for me.  One thing that I remembered from last year was how CRAZY the time between Thanksgiving and December 18th (my last day of teaching before Christmas break) was.  This year was no different, in fact it was even more crazy!

All three of my kids started basketball right after Thanksgiving.  That means Max has practice Tuesday and Wednesday 6:30 - 8:30.  Sam has practice Monday and Thursday from 6:30 - 8:00, and Lucy had practice Tuesday and Thursday from 6:00 - 7:00.  Add to that, Lucy's average of 2 games per weekend and Max's 2 weekend tournaments (4 games each), and it was more than I could handle.

Don't forget all of the regular Christmas jobs that everyone else has, buying gifts, shipping gifts, wrapping gifts, creating photo cards, picking up cards, buying stamps, addressing and sending cards, baking cookies, getting a tree, decorating the tree, getting the house decorations out of the attic, decorating the house, etc.

It is also the busiest and craziest time at work.  Our school puts on two evening Christmas performances, one for the pre-K through 4th grade and another one for the 5th grade through 8th grade with the middle school play included.  As much as I love to see my kids dressed up and singing Christmas tunes, it is a lot of work behind the scenes for the teachers.  Tons of schedule changes and two 14 hour days at work in a row! Did I mention that the kids are getting a little amped for Christmas at this point?   It makes for some truly exhausting days at work.

Needless to say, I did get to do a couple of fun things during the past three weeks, but I have to admit, that my heart was not usually into taking pictures.  In fact, I was lucky if I made it to any event and actually stayed awake!  So here is a quick run down of the past three weeks of CRAZINESS!

A white trash Christmas!

The first Saturday of December was the day of the "Civil War" (UofO vs.OSU)

It is also the day that we usually get our Christmas tree.  I also had a very good friend who was recovering from surgery at this point, so I gladly offered to watch 2 of her 4 kids that day.  Needless to say, we did not make it on the "Norman Rockwell" Christmas tree cutting trip this year.  Nope!  This year we piled all of the kids into the car during a break between football games and ran down to the Grocery Outlet Parking lot and picked out the first tree we saw.  Round trip house, to tree lot and back to house 15 min!

We were actually cracking  up at ourselves.  I guess we are just in survival mode at this point. 

The boys even had time to  play a little football in the parking lot while we were waiting for the guy to tie our tree to the top of the minivan.  At this point the boys were begging us to get home as fast as we could so they could watch "The Apple Cup" and the USC vs. UCLA game.  Their priorities were not about getting the perfect Christmas tree that day.

We also got invited to a very nice auction.

We ran into our good friends the Hoffmans there!

I love this picture because Gary Hoffman is the only person in the world who can make Pancho look small. Ha ha!

Even  though we had a ball that night, I was very tired and I forgot to take many pictures.  I did not even get a picture of the people we sat at our table with, the Hakalas, the Fitzpatricks and the Speers.  We did have a great evening with them and we came away from the auction with some cool items too!

My parents had a Christmas Party at their house.

My Dad hired some real carolers to come sing (The Hanson Family Singers).

It created such a fun Christmasy atmosphere!

It was fun to visit with many of my parents friends who have known me since I was born!

I love seeing my parents having such fun with all of their friends, good food and festive music.  I have so many memories of my parents fabulous parties growing up.

Like I said, we had an average of 6 basketball games to go to each weekend in December.

Luckily, Lucy's season is really short.  It starts right before Thanksgiving and ends the third weekend of December.  So after Christmas break, I will only have to get 2 kids to practices and games instead of three!

Lucy was really happy to end her first ever season of basketball.  I think she enjoyed it, but I am not sure if its her sport :).  She loved the pizza party and getting her trophy though!

I went to watch my good friend Steph sing in an absolutely beautiful Christmas Concert at her church.

She did such a great job and I was so proud of her.

This picture was taken from my iphone (like I said, I did not always get the best pictures)

This picture was taken in the hallway at O'Hara, on our way to the first Christmas Program (Pre-K - 4th).

Lucy was very excited to sing!

Pancho was home driving the boys  to their various basketball practices, so I  took a video for him.

Lucy, Emma and Lauren before the show!

I love how much Lucy loves to sing.  She has been practicing these songs at home, in the car, and I can even hear her singing in her bed before she falls asleep.

Lucy's class.

Lucy is in the back row on the far right.  She is the tallest one in her class.

Lulu and her friends celebrating after the show.

Max's program was the next night, but I didn't get any pictures, because I was working that night!

Yup!  My class was the one on stage, as well as the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.  The middle schoolers put on a very cute play of "A Christmas Carol".  Many of my students from last year had starring roles, so it was very fun to watch them playing their parts.

I forgot to mention that Pancho and my Mom's Birthdays were during  this time as well.  Pancho's is December 10th and my Mom's is December 15th.  Luckily, I  have the most understanding Husband and Mom in the world.  They are always willing to let me put off their combined birthday celebration until after school is out for Christmas Break.