Time Honored Tradition

The boys and I made Christmas sugar cookies. I had never let them lick the beaters before and they were thrilled when I presented each with one. When Domino was finished with his beater, Rascal had to inspect it to make sure he wasn't leaving anything good behind. He gave Domino's beater a few extra licks just to be sure.

Hiding Out

I didn't forget about you. Really. It's just been - well - busy and boring (sometimes simultaneously) around here.

My boss is retiring at the end of the month and attempting to tie up all loose ends before he leaves, which means my work load has increased significantly - at least for the time being. I have no idea if "my services" will still be needed when his replacement is hired (seriously, who needs to hire someone in this day and age to transcribe 2 faxed sentences because they don't know how to type an email?!) so I'm trying to make the best of it all while I can. The kids and husband aren't always entirely supportive ("you're working AGAIN?"), I've met with my boss more times in the past 3 weeks than I have total since I was hired 2 years ago, and at the end of the day when I just want to curl up and watch The Office and 30 Rock - I have another pile of faxes to type. It's been very stressful and I have to admit, I haven't been balancing all my plates very well.

The boys are officially on their 3 week winter break. Yes, you read that right - THREE WEEKS OF VACATION. Last year, the school district spaced out the vacation nicely and we had the 3rd week of vacation take place during the first week of January. For whatever reason, this year the vacation begins a week earlier so Santa will have one week less of shopping time before the holiday - cuz you know I'm not draggin' those 2 out shopping with me unless I absolutely have to. It's hard enough just going to Safeway with them to pick up stuff for dinner without one asking for the moon and the other complaining he wants to go home. The thought of heading out to do holiday shopping with them makes me want to curl up in a ball and swear off all commercialism - which isn't really a bad idea considering the state of our current financial affairs...

But life isn't all me complaining (although I think Tonester would disagree with that statement lately) and we played hooky from school one day this week to check out the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The planetarium show blew our minds, the rain forest was unbelievable and the aquariums were out of this world. We enjoyed lunch outside on a gorgeous and VERY sunny SF afternoon, marveled at skeletons, pendulums and laughed at the very entertaining penguins. At times, I couldn't tell who was more excited to see something, the adults or the kids!

Here's a few photos of the fun.

Thanksgiving Thanks

It's official - Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

For the first time that I can remember in a long (long!) time, my family was together for Thanksgiving. For many years, Tonester's side of the family laid claim to the day and my family would try to gather "some time" during the holiday season. One year my family couldn't get their schedules coordinated and we actually exchanged some holiday gifts at Domino's bday in March.

I've decided to be the squeaky wheel and have now hosted 2 holidays at my house - even being so brave as to tackle the bulk of the cooking solo. I followed up Thanksgiving Day this year with my side of the family with a "Thanksgiving - The Sequel" with Tonester's side of the family the following day. And I enjoyed every minute of it!

The table setting

I resurrected my parents "wedding china" for the day. It's a gloriously awful pattern that I have grown to love for it's kitsch factor. When my dad passed away I inherited almost all of his "stuff". I was only 22 at the time and I lived in a studio apartment that I now refer to as "the blue box". Storage space was nonexistent and I let a lot of my dads stuff go - but something made me hold on to that china. I'm not sure if my sister knew it was still floating around because she seemed pretty surprised to see it.

My Side

This is one of my favorite photos of the day. Yes, it's a horrible photo, but it's a very important one to me. It's a picture of my brother and sister, their kids and my mom. It's a very rare thing to have them all seated at one table together.

What I'm most thankful for...

And what would the holiday be without Tonester and our boys goofing around?!

Bridging The (Small) Generation Gap

Another of my favorite photos - cousins bonding over computer games.

3 D's.

My brother and his beautiful kids.

I wish I had taken so many more photos, but instead I was enjoying "being in the moment".

Thank you to my entire family for making it such a special day. I am truly thankful.

xoxo,
N

Once Upon A Time...

I just recently discovered Facebook. It's funny - I didn't realize I knew so many people. I've reconnected with a girl I went to LCM with back in the early 70's, as well as some folks I have worked with within the past decade or so.

Recently, my old friend Scott joined Facebook and "found me". Scott and I used to both be managers at Wherehouse and he was a dear friend through many of my silly and dramatic early 20's.

He posted this picture of us on his Facebook page.


Who is that girl?!
I barely recognize her.
She's so young.
I barely remember her.

And her hair?! The color! I can't remember it growing that way on it's own but I guess it did. Certainly doesn't anymore.

I look at the picture and think about the silly things that seemed so big back then. I have so much I want to tell her.

I want to tell her that there will be hard times ahead. And she will survive.

I want to tell her that "this too shall pass", just as Dad promised.

I want to tell her that everything she hoped for will really happen - when the time is right.

I want to tell her that some day, her son will make this art on the computer and say "That's our family! Dad and you are on the clouds holding us up, and Domino and I are dancing on a rainbow!"


I want to thank that girl in the photo for getting me here. She had no idea what the journey would be like, or what the results would be, but I can tell her it was worth it.

I Love Autumn

I used to think spring was my favorite season. "Ooh look how green everything is! Everything is blooming!". And then I convinced myself winter was my favorite season. "How I love it when it's pouring rain outside and I'm feeling safe and warm inside". But this tree has convinced me that autumn is my favorite season.


This a terrible photo taken with my cell phone camera, but that tree in the courtyard at Domino's school just takes my breath away.

Growing Up - But Not So Fast

Before Domino was born, we had no idea whether he was a boy or girl. We kept his bedroom a very gender neutral palate filled with dragonflies and butterflies. One of my favorite decorations in the room were a couple of whimsical stuffed dragonflies we hung from the corner of the ceiling like a mobile.


Over the past year or so I've been updating the kids bedrooms. Not huge room makeovers or anything, just pulling out some of the outdated and outgrown decorations and toys. I did make a big change in Domino's room and took down his homemade painted art work that has adorned his walls for years and replaced it with this:


Have you ever seen a kid hug a wall before?!

I added a few more Nascar items and he was thrilled with those as well.

And then I noticed the dragonfly mobile. It seemed so out of place among such big boy things. So I took it down. It was one of the last items in his room that remained since he was a baby. I was a little sad to take it down, fondly remembering the time I climbed up on a chair with my big preggo belly to hang the dragonflies up, wondering about the baby who would enjoy them and what he/she would be like.

And now I know that baby.

What I didn't know is how much he loves that dragonfly mobile. He instantly noticed it's absence and asked to have it back.

Turns out my big boy isn't quite as big as I thought. Thank goodness.

Now It Can Rain

We escaped the rain yesterday and had a really fun Halloween full of parades, parties and good old fashioned trick-or-treating fun.

Our usual Halloween has me at home handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters and Tonester taking the kids out to his sister's house for trick or treating fun with the nephews. This year however the nephews decided they are too old for trick-or-treating (!) so we had to come up with a new game plan.

We drove the boys down the street to the "Nascar house" - a house with 2 Nascar fans who have done up their garage with all sorts of Nascar paraphernalia. We knew they would get a kick out of the boys in their Nascar costumes. Tonester and the boys met them one afternoon while walking the dog and their garage was open. Domino had of course spotted the cool stuff and wanted to look at everything and they were more than happy to oblige. They even gave Domino an old Nascar calendar (1996?) they had kicking around that had Jeff Gordon still listed as a rookie.

After that there was the Halloween drive by at Grandma's and then we hooked up with some friends nearby and hung out at their house watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and handed out candy. We even brought over all our pumpkins because we didn't want them to go to waste sitting in our empty house!

I did feel guilty that I was contributing to the neighborhood-Halloween-empty-house-blight. It seemed like there were far more houses this year in the dark than I can remember. All the houses on our block were dark. Tonester said it was about 50/50 in the area they went trick-or-treating. Dark houses were the exception to the rule when I was growing up - and I think they were the ones that got egged. Kids would need to buy A LOT of eggs nowadays.

Here's a few photos of the fun from the day...

"Buzz & Woody" making potions at preschool

"M&M Racer, Jeff Gordon and the Mad Scientist" at Domino's "La-Bor-A-Tory" classroom

"Gorbulas", Lukas, Domino, Rascal, "Ruby" and Daphne

Is this a new Halloween tradition??