Tonight my mom comes in town and it's a non-stop 2 weeks while she's here.
What's on the agenda?
An Ultimate Christmas Party - ASL, decked-out house, an hour drive.
Family Christmas Party - at my non-decked-out house.
Krohn's Conservatory - poinsettias for everyone!
11 Year Anniversary Celebration - themed hotel room, cheesecake, and Martinellis. Check!
Christmas Eve and Day - including Rob singing at church. A Christmas must!
Family Christmas Party - 3 1/2 hour drive, almost all the Thacker siblings, lots of laughs.
Meet the Parents Party - My new friends in the Deaf community come to meet my mom and dad. At my non-decked-out house.
Dinner with Friends We Don't See Often Enough - unless they turn us down. And then I'll cry and feel sorry for myself.
What's not on the agenda?
Wrapping presents - I'm all done!
Stressing out - We're adults now. We'll have none of that.
Lazing about in PJs on Christmas Day - what's up with going to church on Christmas Day? It's about presents! Presents!
Sending out Christmas Cards - We don't have any Brag pictures this year. No follow-up to "Check us out on the beach at Key West" photos. Too disappointing to think about.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm signing off until 2012. (Well, maybe I'll post some pictures. Maybe.)
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Best Christmas Ever!
Not really. But it was good and fun and I liked it.
(What says Christmas better than a robot snowman?)
Lights at the Zoo
We have a zoo pass this year for the first time, so we enjoyed lights at the zoo. It was crazy-packed because we went the night before Christmas Eve, but it was fun. One of the best parts was walking through the light tunnel (the lights moved),
and the trees that were timed with a Christmas song. Pretty cool. Then we went home and drank hot chocolate cause we were all ice cubes before the night was over.
Christmas Eve
We went to Khron's Conservatory with the kids. Usually this is an anniversary activity for us, but our kids are getting bigger and they're more fun to take places now.
Fun enough, Santa was there. The guy must have been a Santa at a local mall, cause he came prepared with candy canes and told the kids that he'd see them later that night. Cute.
tangent about Santa Claus
Let's interject here that my boys are totally and completely sold on the idea of Santa Claus, which makes me uneasy. Santa is fun and all, but it's a lie. A grand, magical, fun lie, but still a lie. I was trying to drop hints to them about how he's not real, but they didn't catch it. "Isn't it UNBELIEVABLE that Santa travels around the world in one night?!" Rob kicked me for that one. ... Elijah's teacher the Sunday after Christmas (not in my home ward) told the kids that she'd seen Santa Claus and the reindeer, and Elijah was so excited telling us about it, and I just glared at Rob and told him that I hated him and that he had BETTER take care of this. ... I don't mind us allowing the kids to believe in Santa. It's hard for me from time to time, but they do love it, and Santa can be made into a good message. But I object deeply to people making up stories and making huge productions about it. If you have to feed the kids lies and make a production to keep them believing, isn't it time to just drop it?
To Rob's credit, he works with me. He patiently explained to Elijah that his teacher didn't see Santa Claus, cause no one actually has. Then explained to him that people actually HAVE seen Christ. (And herein is my problem with Santa Claus. Santa Claus = Christ. Santa Claus = a lie. Therefore Christ = ?) ... Whatever. I'm not going to be able to do it for many more years. My boys are just so trusting. Rob says he'll tell Elijah when he's 9. I might insist on 8.
end of tangent
I suggested to the kids that we skip carrying presents out to the tree. They didn't like that. So we kept our traditions of The Christmas Story telling, new pajamas, and carrying the presents to the tree.
Christmas Day
We opened presents and played games and then, around noon, started packing up to go see Rob's family. Our Christmas traveling rule includes not being stressed about travel. And Rob got super stressed out, and I told him he was grounded next year. If someone asks if we're willing to travel on Christmas day, the answer is no. If they ask why, we can say, "Because last year failed." So there.
His brothers and sister sang a lovely Christmas song on Sunday morning, which off-set the fact that one of the missionaries in the ward gave the worst talk I've ever heard. I almost went and told him so, but decided to be nice and only complain to Rob's family about it.
We spent the next 48 hours hanging out with his whole family: lots and lots of kids and chaos. It was brilliant!
Then we came home and finished up with what seemed like the second half of Christmas day. We played with the new toys and watched our Christmas movie (Toy Story 3, which wasn't AMAZING like everyone told us it was (did anyone else notice that it was the same plot as Toy Story 2?), but it was good), and I went to bed at 9 because a migraine was threatening to ruin the next day.
I woke up 12 hours later without a migraine and we shipped our kids off so we could celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We went to the temple in Columbus, ate lunch together, and shopped a little. It was great. The next day we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (which was way better than I'd even hoped. Loved it!) and just kinda hung out. Around 3:00 we were starting our second movie when the preview for Tron: Legacy came on and I was reminded that I wanted to go see it. So we spontaneously went and watched it in Imax 3D. It was not worth the Imax 3D price, and the ending killed the movie for the both of us. Fun movie, though, and the visuals were cool. Then we went home and ate Raman and avacado sandwiches, cause we're awesomely romantic like that.
Last movie the next morning was The Sorcerer's Apprentice which was horrid. Rob said, "It was fun!" and that's true. But, seriously. They poked fun at the whole Merlin magic thing until it felt like a mockery. The lead male character's crisis wasn't sold well enough. And the lead female character was beautiful and nice but stupid ("I don't understand science or any of that stuff, but I do love music! And did I mention that I'm really pretty when I smile? People love that."). Gag me. I asked Rob how he could stand watching such shallow, horrible characters, and he said, "I don't analyze my movies, Tamra. It allows me to just enjoy them." Oh.
Basically, I was reminded, again, why I don't watch many movies.
We had the time to fight on our 48 hour date. It hadn't occurred to me before that fighting is a luxury of time. Normally there are too many things to do to bother with fighting. :) But we got in a good pointless fight, which was more fun than you'd think it would be.
We also reflected on our last 10 years of marriage and about what may or may not be coming in the next 10 years (like it's possible to know). In 10 years Miciah will be 19 years old and in college (or whatever she wants to do)! That's nuts. Elijah and Tank will be in high school. We'll be 41 and 39 years old. We'll be completely out of debt. Hopefully we'll have been able to take some nice family trips. ... We didn't dream about the roadblocks coming, but I know they're there. Bring it on, life! It's been worth it thus far, so I have a lot of hope for the years to come.
New Year's Eve
Then we picked up our kids, took down the Christmas tree (hurray!), and went to a party where we talked and had fun. We were home with our kids by 10, and we stayed up until midnight and played games. Well, everyone else played games and had fun, and I mostly slept on the couch. After it was all over, Rob came to pick me up and carry me to bed, and I think I tried to kill him. He left me there.
New Year's Day
The next day I could appreciate that it was fun to watch the kids enjoying our time up late on New Year's Eve. Teancom loved banging the pots and pans. Elijah was totally into the games we were playing. And Miciah could stay up until 4 every morning if we let her. It's nice that our family is getting older, and the kids are fully able to participate in fun things. I LOVE that our kids are getting older.
We had the missionaries over, as well as some friends, and we played games and talked and ate and enjoyed the new year's day.
End of Holidays
And that's that. I'm glad the holidays are over and that we can now move about the cabin freely. Every year I enjoy the craziness that is the holidays, and then I enjoy that they're over, too. You know how people sing songs about making Christmas last all year? That's my version of Hell. I love Christmas, but I love when it's over, too.
Oh. Sometime in there the sun came out, the temperatures rose, the snow melted, and the kids were able to play outside with friends! It was a nice break from the ultra-cold temps we've had through most of December. Also with the warm-up, our basement flooded a little. We figured it was from the snow melt (even though that's never happened before), but discovered a few days later that the hose was on! Ugh! We think it'd been on for months but the temperatures were so cold outside that it kept the water frozen and therefore not running. Problem solved now, but man, we felt like idiots.
(And please note that this was posted before February! Hurray for me!)
Lights at the Zoo
We have a zoo pass this year for the first time, so we enjoyed lights at the zoo. It was crazy-packed because we went the night before Christmas Eve, but it was fun. One of the best parts was walking through the light tunnel (the lights moved),
Christmas Eve
tangent about Santa Claus
Let's interject here that my boys are totally and completely sold on the idea of Santa Claus, which makes me uneasy. Santa is fun and all, but it's a lie. A grand, magical, fun lie, but still a lie. I was trying to drop hints to them about how he's not real, but they didn't catch it. "Isn't it UNBELIEVABLE that Santa travels around the world in one night?!" Rob kicked me for that one. ... Elijah's teacher the Sunday after Christmas (not in my home ward) told the kids that she'd seen Santa Claus and the reindeer, and Elijah was so excited telling us about it, and I just glared at Rob and told him that I hated him and that he had BETTER take care of this. ... I don't mind us allowing the kids to believe in Santa. It's hard for me from time to time, but they do love it, and Santa can be made into a good message. But I object deeply to people making up stories and making huge productions about it. If you have to feed the kids lies and make a production to keep them believing, isn't it time to just drop it?
To Rob's credit, he works with me. He patiently explained to Elijah that his teacher didn't see Santa Claus, cause no one actually has. Then explained to him that people actually HAVE seen Christ. (And herein is my problem with Santa Claus. Santa Claus = Christ. Santa Claus = a lie. Therefore Christ = ?) ... Whatever. I'm not going to be able to do it for many more years. My boys are just so trusting. Rob says he'll tell Elijah when he's 9. I might insist on 8.
end of tangent
I suggested to the kids that we skip carrying presents out to the tree. They didn't like that. So we kept our traditions of The Christmas Story telling, new pajamas, and carrying the presents to the tree.
Christmas Day
His brothers and sister sang a lovely Christmas song on Sunday morning, which off-set the fact that one of the missionaries in the ward gave the worst talk I've ever heard. I almost went and told him so, but decided to be nice and only complain to Rob's family about it.
We spent the next 48 hours hanging out with his whole family: lots and lots of kids and chaos. It was brilliant!
Then we came home and finished up with what seemed like the second half of Christmas day. We played with the new toys and watched our Christmas movie (Toy Story 3, which wasn't AMAZING like everyone told us it was (did anyone else notice that it was the same plot as Toy Story 2?), but it was good), and I went to bed at 9 because a migraine was threatening to ruin the next day.
I woke up 12 hours later without a migraine and we shipped our kids off so we could celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We went to the temple in Columbus, ate lunch together, and shopped a little. It was great. The next day we watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (which was way better than I'd even hoped. Loved it!) and just kinda hung out. Around 3:00 we were starting our second movie when the preview for Tron: Legacy came on and I was reminded that I wanted to go see it. So we spontaneously went and watched it in Imax 3D. It was not worth the Imax 3D price, and the ending killed the movie for the both of us. Fun movie, though, and the visuals were cool. Then we went home and ate Raman and avacado sandwiches, cause we're awesomely romantic like that.
Last movie the next morning was The Sorcerer's Apprentice which was horrid. Rob said, "It was fun!" and that's true. But, seriously. They poked fun at the whole Merlin magic thing until it felt like a mockery. The lead male character's crisis wasn't sold well enough. And the lead female character was beautiful and nice but stupid ("I don't understand science or any of that stuff, but I do love music! And did I mention that I'm really pretty when I smile? People love that."). Gag me. I asked Rob how he could stand watching such shallow, horrible characters, and he said, "I don't analyze my movies, Tamra. It allows me to just enjoy them." Oh.
Basically, I was reminded, again, why I don't watch many movies.
We had the time to fight on our 48 hour date. It hadn't occurred to me before that fighting is a luxury of time. Normally there are too many things to do to bother with fighting. :) But we got in a good pointless fight, which was more fun than you'd think it would be.
We also reflected on our last 10 years of marriage and about what may or may not be coming in the next 10 years (like it's possible to know). In 10 years Miciah will be 19 years old and in college (or whatever she wants to do)! That's nuts. Elijah and Tank will be in high school. We'll be 41 and 39 years old. We'll be completely out of debt. Hopefully we'll have been able to take some nice family trips. ... We didn't dream about the roadblocks coming, but I know they're there. Bring it on, life! It's been worth it thus far, so I have a lot of hope for the years to come.
New Year's Eve
Then we picked up our kids, took down the Christmas tree (hurray!), and went to a party where we talked and had fun. We were home with our kids by 10, and we stayed up until midnight and played games. Well, everyone else played games and had fun, and I mostly slept on the couch. After it was all over, Rob came to pick me up and carry me to bed, and I think I tried to kill him. He left me there.
New Year's Day
The next day I could appreciate that it was fun to watch the kids enjoying our time up late on New Year's Eve. Teancom loved banging the pots and pans. Elijah was totally into the games we were playing. And Miciah could stay up until 4 every morning if we let her. It's nice that our family is getting older, and the kids are fully able to participate in fun things. I LOVE that our kids are getting older.
We had the missionaries over, as well as some friends, and we played games and talked and ate and enjoyed the new year's day.
End of Holidays
And that's that. I'm glad the holidays are over and that we can now move about the cabin freely. Every year I enjoy the craziness that is the holidays, and then I enjoy that they're over, too. You know how people sing songs about making Christmas last all year? That's my version of Hell. I love Christmas, but I love when it's over, too.
Oh. Sometime in there the sun came out, the temperatures rose, the snow melted, and the kids were able to play outside with friends! It was a nice break from the ultra-cold temps we've had through most of December. Also with the warm-up, our basement flooded a little. We figured it was from the snow melt (even though that's never happened before), but discovered a few days later that the hose was on! Ugh! We think it'd been on for months but the temperatures were so cold outside that it kept the water frozen and therefore not running. Problem solved now, but man, we felt like idiots.
(And please note that this was posted before February! Hurray for me!)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Almost Christmas (an update)
On Friday I was able to fly out to Utah with Miciah. Traveling with just one child who is 9 years old is Heaven! Course she was crying on the airplane about how bored she was. "I told you that you'd be bored. I told you to bring a book." "I don't want to read." "Then draw." "I don't want to draw. I just want to get off this plane." "Well, at least stop crying so the rest of us don't have to be tortured by you." See how caring and sympathetic I am? I learned that at Mom School.
I was able to see lots of family (and I missed some family, too. There's too many of you!), and that was great. I went to the Downs Family Christmas Party and was able to be the one who ticks off Grandma. It's a special place of honor. I fought off 5 others for the privilege.
Interestingly (to me), I went to BYU campus and felt no love for the place. I didn't hate it, but I didn't have any positive feelings towards it. I do, however, have a love for BYU's chocolate milkshakes, and I was able to get one. I even broke my rule about not eating if you're not hungry. We'd just gone to Cafe Rio and it's impossible to be hungry after Cafe Rio, but I sacrificed so I could get my yummy shake.
On Sunday my mom and dad and brothers and sisters had a family party at Rob's Aunt Lisa's house. She has a great big house that's perfect for entertaining, and we were delighted that she let us have our party at her house. It was great to get together with my family. I like them all a lot. ... Also fun: My family doesn't really know Lisa, and Lisa is something of a celebrity. My brother asked what she did to be able to afford such a great house. I told him that she started a scrapbooking magazine. My brother just kinda stared at me blankly. It was awesome.
The Wedding
Monday was the wedding! My brother Collin got married to Katherine and I'm so happy for them! Miciah and Dea (and others) were flower girls, and this is how adorable they were:
Seriously cute, right? A friend I haven't seen in a long time turned to me when Miciah was walking down the aisle and said, "Oh, Tamra, she's gorgeous!" It's true. She's a beautiful girl. But she's not cocky about it. Someone told her once that she was so pretty and she said, "People at school tell me that all the time." It wasn't a snotty comment, it was just a this-is-the-way-it-is comment. I love that she's beautiful and doesn't really care. She's just Miciah and it's nice that she's pretty, but she's still just Miciah. I'm hoping she holds onto that throughout her life.
This is me and my mom and my sister Lori (my only sister) all dressed up. Or, rather, they're all dressed up and I'm just kinda Tamra dressed up:
My sister is taller than me and my mom, but not THAT much taller. She's wearing heals and I'm not. She's about 4 inches taller than me. It's funny, our girls, who are months apart in age, are keeping the same trend. Dea is about 3 inches taller than Miciah at any given time. It's a good tradition.
Another family tradition: Collin got married in Sambas. All the best people get married in tennis shoes! They actually looked really really nice with his tux. Much better than my white tennis shoes with my dress. I should have gone for Sambas, too. What was I thinking?!
I came home yesterday so that I could say Happy Anniversary to Rob. He was saying, "I'm sure you're really tired," and I was saying, "Are you kidding? It feels like 8:30!" We had our traditional cheesecake and sparkling cider, and we'll celebrate further next week when we have a 2 day date. Hurray!
And Christmas is in 3 days! I better start actually wrapping the presents, I guess.
I was able to see lots of family (and I missed some family, too. There's too many of you!), and that was great. I went to the Downs Family Christmas Party and was able to be the one who ticks off Grandma. It's a special place of honor. I fought off 5 others for the privilege.
Interestingly (to me), I went to BYU campus and felt no love for the place. I didn't hate it, but I didn't have any positive feelings towards it. I do, however, have a love for BYU's chocolate milkshakes, and I was able to get one. I even broke my rule about not eating if you're not hungry. We'd just gone to Cafe Rio and it's impossible to be hungry after Cafe Rio, but I sacrificed so I could get my yummy shake.
On Sunday my mom and dad and brothers and sisters had a family party at Rob's Aunt Lisa's house. She has a great big house that's perfect for entertaining, and we were delighted that she let us have our party at her house. It was great to get together with my family. I like them all a lot. ... Also fun: My family doesn't really know Lisa, and Lisa is something of a celebrity. My brother asked what she did to be able to afford such a great house. I told him that she started a scrapbooking magazine. My brother just kinda stared at me blankly. It was awesome.
The Wedding
Monday was the wedding! My brother Collin got married to Katherine and I'm so happy for them! Miciah and Dea (and others) were flower girls, and this is how adorable they were:
Seriously cute, right? A friend I haven't seen in a long time turned to me when Miciah was walking down the aisle and said, "Oh, Tamra, she's gorgeous!" It's true. She's a beautiful girl. But she's not cocky about it. Someone told her once that she was so pretty and she said, "People at school tell me that all the time." It wasn't a snotty comment, it was just a this-is-the-way-it-is comment. I love that she's beautiful and doesn't really care. She's just Miciah and it's nice that she's pretty, but she's still just Miciah. I'm hoping she holds onto that throughout her life.
This is me and my mom and my sister Lori (my only sister) all dressed up. Or, rather, they're all dressed up and I'm just kinda Tamra dressed up:
My sister is taller than me and my mom, but not THAT much taller. She's wearing heals and I'm not. She's about 4 inches taller than me. It's funny, our girls, who are months apart in age, are keeping the same trend. Dea is about 3 inches taller than Miciah at any given time. It's a good tradition.
Another family tradition: Collin got married in Sambas. All the best people get married in tennis shoes! They actually looked really really nice with his tux. Much better than my white tennis shoes with my dress. I should have gone for Sambas, too. What was I thinking?!
I came home yesterday so that I could say Happy Anniversary to Rob. He was saying, "I'm sure you're really tired," and I was saying, "Are you kidding? It feels like 8:30!" We had our traditional cheesecake and sparkling cider, and we'll celebrate further next week when we have a 2 day date. Hurray!
And Christmas is in 3 days! I better start actually wrapping the presents, I guess.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
O Florida Tree
An unexpected but very pleasant side effect of losing our van is that I get to re-claim Christmas. No longer will we be going to Utah for weeks on end. ... We wimped out of driving across the country in our Corolla with 3 kids in the backseat. ... So just Miciah and I are flying out for an extended weekend stay, and Christmas is saved!!!
I wish I could describe how excited I am about this. Seriously. Thank you, dead van. I throw flowers on your grave.
Last night we decorated our Christmas tree. We did a Florida theme to remind us that our biggest Christmas present to the kids already arrived: Key West.
While in Florida we collected a bunch of Spanish moss (and carried home a few paper wasps with it) to hang as tinsel, cause that's pretty much what it looks like in the wild: tinsel gone crazy. In Key West we bought a Christmas ornament and they wrote on it for us: "Thacker Family" and "Key West 2010." And then, last night, Miciah and I hot glued some yarn to the back of shells and beach rocks to hang as ornaments. Throw in a few white lights, large pine cones (also from Florida), and glass gold balls and viola! A little bit of Florida in Ohio.
Shells and yarn. Move over Martha Stewart. Here's Miciah showing off one of the ornaments she made:
I don't know why she's puffing out her stomach like that. Apparently that's her "I'm so proud of my work" pose.
And the Key West ornament:
Let Christmas begin!
I wish I could describe how excited I am about this. Seriously. Thank you, dead van. I throw flowers on your grave.
Last night we decorated our Christmas tree. We did a Florida theme to remind us that our biggest Christmas present to the kids already arrived: Key West.
While in Florida we collected a bunch of Spanish moss (and carried home a few paper wasps with it) to hang as tinsel, cause that's pretty much what it looks like in the wild: tinsel gone crazy. In Key West we bought a Christmas ornament and they wrote on it for us: "Thacker Family" and "Key West 2010." And then, last night, Miciah and I hot glued some yarn to the back of shells and beach rocks to hang as ornaments. Throw in a few white lights, large pine cones (also from Florida), and glass gold balls and viola! A little bit of Florida in Ohio.
I don't know why she's puffing out her stomach like that. Apparently that's her "I'm so proud of my work" pose.
And the Key West ornament:
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I'm Mad at Christmas
We have a lot of fun packed into the next month and a half, and the thing I'm looking forward to least is Christmas. Consider:
* We'll be on a tropical island for a week!
* My brother's getting married!
* We'll see lots of family!
* Rob and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary by staying at an awesome Bed & Breakfast for 2 nights!
* Starting at the first of the year, my brother is moving to Dayton, just an hour away from me, and I'll get to see him all the time!
Oh yeah. And there's Christmas somewhere in there.
And I'm feeling like Who Cares. ... Feeling like I have to salvage my holiday. Or like I have to jam all our holiday activities into the time we have. I just don't like it.
Christmas, you have wronged me this year. And I don't forgive you. Next year I expect you to not be overshadowed. Work on that, please.
* We'll be on a tropical island for a week!
* My brother's getting married!
* We'll see lots of family!
* Rob and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary by staying at an awesome Bed & Breakfast for 2 nights!
* Starting at the first of the year, my brother is moving to Dayton, just an hour away from me, and I'll get to see him all the time!
Oh yeah. And there's Christmas somewhere in there.
And I'm feeling like Who Cares. ... Feeling like I have to salvage my holiday. Or like I have to jam all our holiday activities into the time we have. I just don't like it.
Christmas, you have wronged me this year. And I don't forgive you. Next year I expect you to not be overshadowed. Work on that, please.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The Rest of the Year
About this time of year, every year, I start looking ahead to sort of feel out what our Holidays will be like. And here's the break-down. (If you live in Utah, please pay attention!)
October 12 - 26: My mother, grandfather, and for part of the time my father, are in town. Hurray!
October 16: Miciah's birthday. Can you believe she'll be 9?!
November 1 - 12: JURY DUTY! I've never done jury duty before. Can't say I'm excited, cause it'll be a massive re-arranging of our schedule, but it'll be interesting. And it's a Grand Jury, so I won't have to live with the knowledge that I just put someone in jail.
November 19 - 29: Thanksgiving in Key West!!! Who's excited?! Also, a stop over in Atlanta to visit our good friends who just moved there.
December 15 - ?: Christmas in Utah!!!
December 20: My brother gets married.
December 21: Our 10 year anniversary! 10 years, man. Crazy. But it's been lovely.
Wow. All of that happening in the next 3 months. Not sure I'm ready for it. But in some ways it'll greatly simplify our plans. All we have to do is get to the places we're going, and hopefully they've planned something fun!
So, if you live in Utah, heads up! Rob and I and kids will be around for Christmas. (The dates listed include travel time. So we won't BE THERE on the 15th. That's the day we leave Ohio.) We will be asking some of you to help watch the kids while we celebrate our 10 year anniversary by going to a fabulous bed and breakfast in Midway. We're spending 2 nights this time, because 1 night is just not enough! And then if we can join someone(s) for Christmas-type festivities, we'd be very, very grateful.
Here's to a great rest of the year! Cheers!
October 12 - 26: My mother, grandfather, and for part of the time my father, are in town. Hurray!
October 16: Miciah's birthday. Can you believe she'll be 9?!
November 1 - 12: JURY DUTY! I've never done jury duty before. Can't say I'm excited, cause it'll be a massive re-arranging of our schedule, but it'll be interesting. And it's a Grand Jury, so I won't have to live with the knowledge that I just put someone in jail.
November 19 - 29: Thanksgiving in Key West!!! Who's excited?! Also, a stop over in Atlanta to visit our good friends who just moved there.
December 15 - ?: Christmas in Utah!!!
December 20: My brother gets married.
December 21: Our 10 year anniversary! 10 years, man. Crazy. But it's been lovely.
Wow. All of that happening in the next 3 months. Not sure I'm ready for it. But in some ways it'll greatly simplify our plans. All we have to do is get to the places we're going, and hopefully they've planned something fun!
So, if you live in Utah, heads up! Rob and I and kids will be around for Christmas. (The dates listed include travel time. So we won't BE THERE on the 15th. That's the day we leave Ohio.) We will be asking some of you to help watch the kids while we celebrate our 10 year anniversary by going to a fabulous bed and breakfast in Midway. We're spending 2 nights this time, because 1 night is just not enough! And then if we can join someone(s) for Christmas-type festivities, we'd be very, very grateful.
Here's to a great rest of the year! Cheers!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Christmas Day
Okay, here's the Christmas Day post. I know, it's now mid-February. Still, here are some Christmas Day pictures and stories. Enjoy!
When we asked Elijah what he wanted for Christmas, the only thing he told us was this:
Love the boy.
The two gifts that he might have liked better than Lucky Charms were:
Wii Sports Resort, from Grandma and Grandpa (seriously, a cool game):
and these:
Nerf Swords! They were such successful gifts, in fact, that we later bought 3 more swords. Now all of us have one, so we can have family sword fights.
Oh. An unexpected fantastic Christmas purchase: a $1 stocking stuffer. We bought each of the kids a $1 stuffed animal from Target. Elijah fell in love with his koala bear. He talks about koala bear's soft ears. He draws pictures of it and then posts the pictures on the walls. He takes koala bear to bed with him. In fact, koala bear has pretty much replaced Care Bear as the sleep comfort item. Who would have thought, right? Best $1 purchase ever.
The kids bought each other gifts, which was cute. We took each of them to the dollar store and they bought each other (and us) $1 gifts. Elijah bought Tank a sword that lit up and made noises, which was cool. Originally Tank liked it better, but it died in under a week:
Of course, Tank opened it first, so he didn't really care about his other gifts. Which was fine.
Here Elijah presents me with a gift he created a few weeks before Christmas. It's a drawing on a piece of paper and a bunch of junk mail folded up:
Elijah loves to give.
I opened this present, which was the book I asked for: a collection of CS Lewis works. It's a beautiful hard-bound book, and I love it:
I opened it and Tank said, "Oh! A boring book!" You can see how enthused he looks in the picture.
Instead of buying each other gifts, Rob and I pooled our gift money and bought a digital photo frame. We LOVE it. Best idea ever.
The coolest gift Miciah got was a bunch of Barbie stuff from the neighbors. It's hundreds of dollars worth of Barbies, accessories, clothes, a doll house, a carriage, etc. They were going to give it to Good Will, and then they thought of Miciah. Additionally, we got Miciah this stuffed duck, since she's obsessed with ducks:
There were other presents, of course, but it was a relatively small Christmas. This was on purpose. Still, for all our efforts to keep Christmas "small," Rob and I realized how easy it is to spend money on the holiday. We kept to our budget, but it was somewhat shocking to review all the money and where it was going. Hundreds of dollars worth of a Small Christmas. Heaven forbid we ever have a Big Christmas!
It was a perfect day. We watched movies and set up the new race track and played Barbies and Miciah's Magic Fairy Garden Game, and had sword fights, and ate coffee cake. Life doesn't get much better than that.
We took a video of everyone in the family saying "Thank You":
When we asked Elijah what he wanted for Christmas, the only thing he told us was this:
The two gifts that he might have liked better than Lucky Charms were:
Wii Sports Resort, from Grandma and Grandpa (seriously, a cool game):
Nerf Swords! They were such successful gifts, in fact, that we later bought 3 more swords. Now all of us have one, so we can have family sword fights.
Oh. An unexpected fantastic Christmas purchase: a $1 stocking stuffer. We bought each of the kids a $1 stuffed animal from Target. Elijah fell in love with his koala bear. He talks about koala bear's soft ears. He draws pictures of it and then posts the pictures on the walls. He takes koala bear to bed with him. In fact, koala bear has pretty much replaced Care Bear as the sleep comfort item. Who would have thought, right? Best $1 purchase ever.
The kids bought each other gifts, which was cute. We took each of them to the dollar store and they bought each other (and us) $1 gifts. Elijah bought Tank a sword that lit up and made noises, which was cool. Originally Tank liked it better, but it died in under a week:
Here Elijah presents me with a gift he created a few weeks before Christmas. It's a drawing on a piece of paper and a bunch of junk mail folded up:
I opened this present, which was the book I asked for: a collection of CS Lewis works. It's a beautiful hard-bound book, and I love it:
I opened it and Tank said, "Oh! A boring book!" You can see how enthused he looks in the picture.
Instead of buying each other gifts, Rob and I pooled our gift money and bought a digital photo frame. We LOVE it. Best idea ever.
The coolest gift Miciah got was a bunch of Barbie stuff from the neighbors. It's hundreds of dollars worth of Barbies, accessories, clothes, a doll house, a carriage, etc. They were going to give it to Good Will, and then they thought of Miciah. Additionally, we got Miciah this stuffed duck, since she's obsessed with ducks:
There were other presents, of course, but it was a relatively small Christmas. This was on purpose. Still, for all our efforts to keep Christmas "small," Rob and I realized how easy it is to spend money on the holiday. We kept to our budget, but it was somewhat shocking to review all the money and where it was going. Hundreds of dollars worth of a Small Christmas. Heaven forbid we ever have a Big Christmas!
It was a perfect day. We watched movies and set up the new race track and played Barbies and Miciah's Magic Fairy Garden Game, and had sword fights, and ate coffee cake. Life doesn't get much better than that.
We took a video of everyone in the family saying "Thank You":
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Christmas is
... going 35 mph on a snow-covered Interstate. A 2 hour trip turning into 2.5 hours. Arriving safely anyway.
... making sugar cookies. (First year ever.)
... having good friends over for Christmas Eve dinner. (Also first year ever. Miciah's idea.)
... listening to all the funny things the 3-year-old says while opening presents.
... coffee cake for Christmas Day brunch.
... candy canes, any time I want them.
... Luke 2.
... cards taped to the wall.
... participating in the Tu. family concall on Christmas Day. (2.5 hours--there's a lot of us.)
... M&K's family rapping Jingle Bells, complete with Ma doing a backflip at the end.
... the rose music box that Rob gives me every year. Always manages to be my favorite gift.
... not wanting to write the Christmas or Year in Review blog.
... making sugar cookies. (First year ever.)
... having good friends over for Christmas Eve dinner. (Also first year ever. Miciah's idea.)
... listening to all the funny things the 3-year-old says while opening presents.
... coffee cake for Christmas Day brunch.
... candy canes, any time I want them.
... Luke 2.
... cards taped to the wall.
... participating in the Tu. family concall on Christmas Day. (2.5 hours--there's a lot of us.)
... M&K's family rapping Jingle Bells, complete with Ma doing a backflip at the end.
... the rose music box that Rob gives me every year. Always manages to be my favorite gift.
... not wanting to write the Christmas or Year in Review blog.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
It's December 15th
and time for another update.
Thanksgiving
We'll start at Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with Rob's family up in Toledo, and it was fantastic. Rare for a family get-together: there was almost no fighting amongst kids! All the kids were old enough to just go off and play, so we didn't see them all day. I suppose I should be lamenting that my kids aren't constantly attached to my hip any more, and I should be singing a sad song about days gone by. ... Whatever. It's GREAT! Hurray to have the baby stage behind us!
Rob also was able to spend some one-on-one time with his sister, Chiara, and I don't think that's happened in a long time. Good times.
While we were up there, Rob's mom asked Teancom if he was her baby. He said, "No. I'm my mommy's baby." It just made me smile, cause I'm always asking him if he's my baby. Sometimes he'll say that he's big instead, but usually he's happy to be my baby and sit on my lap and suck his fingers. He's still a cuddle bug. He's also possessive about the term "baby cakes," which is one of the pet names I use for all my children. The other day I called Elijah my baby cakes and Teancom said, "I'M your baby cakes!" He's actually really possessive about just about everything that involves me. We were watching old home videos of Teancom as a baby, and I realized that he's been possessive of me from the very beginning! What a stinker.
Nativities and a Migraine, a story
The weekend after Thanksgiving Rob went back up to Toledo to sing in his mom's stake's Nativity with his sisters. Miciah went with him, so it was just me and the boys at home from Friday night to Sunday morning. They had a great time and it went well. Plus, me and the boys sounded like a treat. Having only 2 kids around is not a problem, right?
All except on Friday night my vision started dimming. It was really bizarre and sort of scary, since it's never happened to me before. I was having trouble reading because spots of light kept getting in the way of the text, and the whole left side of my peripheral vision was black, like static. It's not like I was up late, either; I was in bed, lights off, by 10 p.m.
I didn't have time to wonder about what was going on, though, because when I woke up at 9 the next morning I had a MASSIVE migraine. The worst of my life. So I called Corene and she took the boys for a few hours. Then I called the Browns and they took the boys for a few more hours. I was finally able to get out of bed at 1 p.m., the boys were back home at 3, and we survived the rest of the day. We didn't go to a party that evening, which was a bummer, but what do you do. Rob came home before church to get the kids because I still wasn't feeling good, but we did go as a family to our stake's Nativity display later in the day, and it was fun, even though it completely drained me.
No more migraines like that. It was NO GOOD at all. And it just figures that it happened on the day when Rob was out of town, right? I guess that's the way it goes. How else can we be deeply grateful and in debt to our friends?
A Working Furnace is NOT a Luxury!
Yesterday morning our furnace wouldn't start. Luckily, it wasn't very cold outside, so the house stayed at 65°. Rob came home to take care of stuff, and he went downstairs and randomly started tapping things with a hammer until the furnace started again. So we have heat now, but who knows how permanent that situation really is. So we decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and purchase a new furnace. We've had problems with the furnace nearly every year we've lived here, and some of the problems have been large problems.
Thankfully, this year we have more money in the bank to cover this, the tax incentives are better this year than they were last year, and we'd already been through the hassle of interviewing companies. So we just called up the 2 companies that we liked best from last year and asked for an updated quote (we still have all the paperwork. We saved it because we figured we'd be using it this year). The prices didn't change, and so we easily picked a company. Zimmer Heating and Cooling will be calling us on Friday to set up a date to install our new 95% efficiency furnace (our old furnace is a nearly 30-year-old 70% efficiency model). So either next week or the week after we won't have to wonder any more if our furnace will turn on after a cold night. Merry Christmas to us!
Rob's News
A lot of people have asked me about the news surrounding Rob and possible jobs for the Fall. Well, there isn't any news to share, and that's why I haven't shared it. Rob didn't get the Xavier job he wanted, but that wasn't unanticipated. He has applied for several more, a few of those in Cincinnati. He's still making connections with people and institutions and generally doing a good job of putting his name out there.
Some of the job-related things he'll be up to in 2010:
- In the Spring he'll be teaching a 10-week introductory genetics course for the University of Cincinnati.
- He's made contacts with Raymond Walters (a 2-year open enrollment college), and they asked him if he wanted to teach an on-line course at some point. They tried to make it work for January, but it's not going to happen.
- Raymond Walters has a position opening for the Fall, and he'll be applying for it. His contact told him they expect about 30 applicants, and she gave him pointers on how to prepare for an interview.
- He's teaching the same NKU Bio 120 lecture and lab that he's teaching right now, from January - May. He'll probably have 2 lab sections instead of the 1 he has now, which will mean a few more hours for him, but also a little more pay.
- In July he committed to teaching a 5-week Bio 120 course for NKU. It'll possibly be as much as a lecture and 3 labs (but probably not less than 2 lab sections). This means he will be ending his post-doc at the end of June so that he can teach this class. He's happy that they'll pay him enough that he can spend a month doing teaching exclusively.
- Most likely he will be unemployed for the month of August. Nearly every job starts in Sept. 2010. So it's a good thing there's still money in that savings account after the furnace purchase, since we'll be living off savings for a month or two.
And there you go. That's Rob's crazy life, and therefore our family's crazy life. Rob gives his final tonight, and I'm looking forward to our family's 2 weeks of together time. We're in need of it. Some days it's super easy to do everything I need to do, and some days it's just not so easy. With the Holiday season upon us, I've had more days of Not Easy, and poor Rob is taking it personally.
June will be our "off" month, even though he'll probably be scrambling to finish up with his post-doc stuff. I'm thinking about trying to do an extended weekend camping trip to a local-ish National Park or something. No 6-week cross-country venture for us this year.
Christmas
On Saturday we finally did our Christmas shopping, which has made me much less tense. 2 weeks before Christmas is cutting it too close for me, but we just hadn't had the time. I HATE that phrase now: "Don't have the time." Grrr. Anyways, it's mostly done, and our Christmas time is pretty much planned, so I've got my calm again.
Next week, Tuesday, this gift from my parents will arrive:
Hurray for a new stove!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom and Dad.
Our Anniversary
Next Monday is our 9 year mark for marriage. To celebrate, we're going to hang out at the museum on Saturday. Super lame, right? But I love it. Next year, for #10, Rob's been informed that the date can NOT be lame (even though I really do like lame dates). He's already thinking about it, and it may or may not require reservations for a cabin. I'm excited in anticipation.
A Miciah Story
To end this super-long update, I'll tell a really good Miciah story. This is from Sunday.
I walked by Miciah's teacher in the church hallway and he said that he yelled at Miciah. I was shocked because usually Miciah is very well behaved for teachers. He looked at me and said, "I yell at her every week, but today was an exception." I should mention that this is the teacher who does fun things like tease Miciah by calling her Queen of Yellow when she's wearing a yellow dress. Stuff like that. Perfect for Miciah.
Anyways, I asked what happened and he said that he asked her to stop touching his paper. She touched it again. He told her to stop or she would have to leave class. She touched it again. (At this point in the story I rolled my eyes. That's just SO Miciah.) He said, forcefully, "That's it! Get out of class!" Miciah looked like she was about to cry so he backed down and told her she didn't have to leave so long as she didn't cry. Then he felt bad (this is the difference between me and him. Miciah has taught me that I can't feel bad about it. I would have kicked her out of class and not had even an ounce of guilt) and so he said, "Am I the meanest person in the world?"
Miciah looked right at him and matter-of-factly said, "No. My Mom says that she's the meanest, most awful person in the world, so it can't be you."
Rock. On.
Thanksgiving
We'll start at Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with Rob's family up in Toledo, and it was fantastic. Rare for a family get-together: there was almost no fighting amongst kids! All the kids were old enough to just go off and play, so we didn't see them all day. I suppose I should be lamenting that my kids aren't constantly attached to my hip any more, and I should be singing a sad song about days gone by. ... Whatever. It's GREAT! Hurray to have the baby stage behind us!
Rob also was able to spend some one-on-one time with his sister, Chiara, and I don't think that's happened in a long time. Good times.
While we were up there, Rob's mom asked Teancom if he was her baby. He said, "No. I'm my mommy's baby." It just made me smile, cause I'm always asking him if he's my baby. Sometimes he'll say that he's big instead, but usually he's happy to be my baby and sit on my lap and suck his fingers. He's still a cuddle bug. He's also possessive about the term "baby cakes," which is one of the pet names I use for all my children. The other day I called Elijah my baby cakes and Teancom said, "I'M your baby cakes!" He's actually really possessive about just about everything that involves me. We were watching old home videos of Teancom as a baby, and I realized that he's been possessive of me from the very beginning! What a stinker.
Nativities and a Migraine, a story
The weekend after Thanksgiving Rob went back up to Toledo to sing in his mom's stake's Nativity with his sisters. Miciah went with him, so it was just me and the boys at home from Friday night to Sunday morning. They had a great time and it went well. Plus, me and the boys sounded like a treat. Having only 2 kids around is not a problem, right?
All except on Friday night my vision started dimming. It was really bizarre and sort of scary, since it's never happened to me before. I was having trouble reading because spots of light kept getting in the way of the text, and the whole left side of my peripheral vision was black, like static. It's not like I was up late, either; I was in bed, lights off, by 10 p.m.
I didn't have time to wonder about what was going on, though, because when I woke up at 9 the next morning I had a MASSIVE migraine. The worst of my life. So I called Corene and she took the boys for a few hours. Then I called the Browns and they took the boys for a few more hours. I was finally able to get out of bed at 1 p.m., the boys were back home at 3, and we survived the rest of the day. We didn't go to a party that evening, which was a bummer, but what do you do. Rob came home before church to get the kids because I still wasn't feeling good, but we did go as a family to our stake's Nativity display later in the day, and it was fun, even though it completely drained me.
No more migraines like that. It was NO GOOD at all. And it just figures that it happened on the day when Rob was out of town, right? I guess that's the way it goes. How else can we be deeply grateful and in debt to our friends?
A Working Furnace is NOT a Luxury!
Yesterday morning our furnace wouldn't start. Luckily, it wasn't very cold outside, so the house stayed at 65°. Rob came home to take care of stuff, and he went downstairs and randomly started tapping things with a hammer until the furnace started again. So we have heat now, but who knows how permanent that situation really is. So we decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and purchase a new furnace. We've had problems with the furnace nearly every year we've lived here, and some of the problems have been large problems.
Thankfully, this year we have more money in the bank to cover this, the tax incentives are better this year than they were last year, and we'd already been through the hassle of interviewing companies. So we just called up the 2 companies that we liked best from last year and asked for an updated quote (we still have all the paperwork. We saved it because we figured we'd be using it this year). The prices didn't change, and so we easily picked a company. Zimmer Heating and Cooling will be calling us on Friday to set up a date to install our new 95% efficiency furnace (our old furnace is a nearly 30-year-old 70% efficiency model). So either next week or the week after we won't have to wonder any more if our furnace will turn on after a cold night. Merry Christmas to us!
Rob's News
A lot of people have asked me about the news surrounding Rob and possible jobs for the Fall. Well, there isn't any news to share, and that's why I haven't shared it. Rob didn't get the Xavier job he wanted, but that wasn't unanticipated. He has applied for several more, a few of those in Cincinnati. He's still making connections with people and institutions and generally doing a good job of putting his name out there.
Some of the job-related things he'll be up to in 2010:
- In the Spring he'll be teaching a 10-week introductory genetics course for the University of Cincinnati.
- He's made contacts with Raymond Walters (a 2-year open enrollment college), and they asked him if he wanted to teach an on-line course at some point. They tried to make it work for January, but it's not going to happen.
- Raymond Walters has a position opening for the Fall, and he'll be applying for it. His contact told him they expect about 30 applicants, and she gave him pointers on how to prepare for an interview.
- He's teaching the same NKU Bio 120 lecture and lab that he's teaching right now, from January - May. He'll probably have 2 lab sections instead of the 1 he has now, which will mean a few more hours for him, but also a little more pay.
- In July he committed to teaching a 5-week Bio 120 course for NKU. It'll possibly be as much as a lecture and 3 labs (but probably not less than 2 lab sections). This means he will be ending his post-doc at the end of June so that he can teach this class. He's happy that they'll pay him enough that he can spend a month doing teaching exclusively.
- Most likely he will be unemployed for the month of August. Nearly every job starts in Sept. 2010. So it's a good thing there's still money in that savings account after the furnace purchase, since we'll be living off savings for a month or two.
And there you go. That's Rob's crazy life, and therefore our family's crazy life. Rob gives his final tonight, and I'm looking forward to our family's 2 weeks of together time. We're in need of it. Some days it's super easy to do everything I need to do, and some days it's just not so easy. With the Holiday season upon us, I've had more days of Not Easy, and poor Rob is taking it personally.
June will be our "off" month, even though he'll probably be scrambling to finish up with his post-doc stuff. I'm thinking about trying to do an extended weekend camping trip to a local-ish National Park or something. No 6-week cross-country venture for us this year.
Christmas
On Saturday we finally did our Christmas shopping, which has made me much less tense. 2 weeks before Christmas is cutting it too close for me, but we just hadn't had the time.
Next week, Tuesday, this gift from my parents will arrive:
Our Anniversary
Next Monday is our 9 year mark for marriage. To celebrate, we're going to hang out at the museum on Saturday. Super lame, right? But I love it. Next year, for #10, Rob's been informed that the date can NOT be lame (even though I really do like lame dates). He's already thinking about it, and it may or may not require reservations for a cabin. I'm excited in anticipation.
A Miciah Story
To end this super-long update, I'll tell a really good Miciah story. This is from Sunday.
I walked by Miciah's teacher in the church hallway and he said that he yelled at Miciah. I was shocked because usually Miciah is very well behaved for teachers. He looked at me and said, "I yell at her every week, but today was an exception." I should mention that this is the teacher who does fun things like tease Miciah by calling her Queen of Yellow when she's wearing a yellow dress. Stuff like that. Perfect for Miciah.
Anyways, I asked what happened and he said that he asked her to stop touching his paper. She touched it again. He told her to stop or she would have to leave class. She touched it again. (At this point in the story I rolled my eyes. That's just SO Miciah.) He said, forcefully, "That's it! Get out of class!" Miciah looked like she was about to cry so he backed down and told her she didn't have to leave so long as she didn't cry. Then he felt bad (this is the difference between me and him. Miciah has taught me that I can't feel bad about it. I would have kicked her out of class and not had even an ounce of guilt) and so he said, "Am I the meanest person in the world?"
Miciah looked right at him and matter-of-factly said, "No. My Mom says that she's the meanest, most awful person in the world, so it can't be you."
Rock. On.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
And the Pictures
The tree:
Yes, she is her father's daughter. Larger than life. (Rob had to talk to her because at her piano lessons she was trying to make her teacher laugh all the time. Rob called her on it and she said, "I can't help it. Sometimes I feel like a comedian." I just stared at Rob and then said, "Yep. Sounds about right!")
The scene:
The ugly stuffed Santa Claus:
Teancom ("Take my picture, Mom! Take my picture!"):
And Elijah, who was SO into the moment:
The scene:
The ugly stuffed Santa Claus:
Teancom ("Take my picture, Mom! Take my picture!"):
And Elijah, who was SO into the moment:
A Christmas Tree for Scrooge
After some coaxing, the Scrooge of our family softened her heart and allowed us to put up our Christmas tree. Her children were very happy.
I have two things to say in my defense:
1 - I didn't realize I was Scrooge-ish until my kids wanted to put up the tree on Thanksgiving weekend. I don't like having the tree up for a whole month. It's fun, but let's be honest, it's a hassle. My kids spent some time nearly everyday asking me if we could put up our tree. Then they started saying things like, "Mom, if you liked Christmas more, could we put up our tree?"
2 - Every year, Christmas is so over-hyped starting in mid-October that I have developed a deep dislike for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. It makes me seem anti-Christmas, but I'm really anti-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving. I mean, what kind of grubby Americans are we? We can't take time to say Thank You before we're reaching for the gifts under the tree? Pathetic.
But it's December now. Our Nativity set (a Fontanini set that I cherish) has been out since Thanksgiving. We've started our annual Christmas story readings--a scripture and one uplifting, Reason for the Season story a day until the Nativity story on Christmas Eve. We visited a Nativity on Sunday--hundreds of beautiful Nativities on display (along with some really awful ones. What were some artists thinking?). For the first time ever I read Dickens' A Christmas Carol (and if you haven't read it, it's REALLY, REALLY good), and for the second time ever I read The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke (also amazingly good). I've started okaying the listening of Christmas music on the radio. And yesterday it snowed for the first time.
To me, Christmas is here.
So we put up the tree last night. It offered a good motivation to clean the house, since I told the kids that we couldn't put up the ornaments until all the rooms in the house were clean. I'm super mean like that, but they put in a good 2 hours of cleaning.
Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong set the perfect tone for the evening. I purchased 2 Mannheim Steamroller songs, and picked up Joy to the World sung by David Archelleta (free on the iTunes store, by the way). I'm going to have to go see which other Christmas songs are free AND worth owning.
Then we put ornaments on the tree and arranged all the knick-knacks. Teancom, especially, oohed and ahed over everything we took out of the boxes. He immediately claimed half of them as "his," and I thought he was going to pass out from excitement when I brought out the stuffed Santa Claus. It's an awful thing, so ugly, but now I'm glad I didn't throw it away. Most of these decorations we didn't put out last year (for simplicity's sake. Seriously, shouldn't this have tipped me off last year that I'm Scrooge-ish?), so Teancom was discovering many of these items essentially for the first time. Suddenly, everything we took out of the boxes seemed like a treasure to me.
To achieve this cheery Christmas result, the kids got to stay up late. After they were in bed, though, and everything was in its place and the room was vacuumed, I took Rob's hand and led him into the living room. I turned off all our lamps and we hugged in the glow of the Christmas tree lights. Some nights just really capture what family and having kids is all about.
(And then Teancom woke up screaming at midnight. That's reality for you.)
I have two things to say in my defense:
1 - I didn't realize I was Scrooge-ish until my kids wanted to put up the tree on Thanksgiving weekend. I don't like having the tree up for a whole month. It's fun, but let's be honest, it's a hassle. My kids spent some time nearly everyday asking me if we could put up our tree. Then they started saying things like, "Mom, if you liked Christmas more, could we put up our tree?"
2 - Every year, Christmas is so over-hyped starting in mid-October that I have developed a deep dislike for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. It makes me seem anti-Christmas, but I'm really anti-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving. I mean, what kind of grubby Americans are we? We can't take time to say Thank You before we're reaching for the gifts under the tree? Pathetic.
But it's December now. Our Nativity set (a Fontanini set that I cherish) has been out since Thanksgiving. We've started our annual Christmas story readings--a scripture and one uplifting, Reason for the Season story a day until the Nativity story on Christmas Eve. We visited a Nativity on Sunday--hundreds of beautiful Nativities on display (along with some really awful ones. What were some artists thinking?). For the first time ever I read Dickens' A Christmas Carol (and if you haven't read it, it's REALLY, REALLY good), and for the second time ever I read The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke (also amazingly good). I've started okaying the listening of Christmas music on the radio. And yesterday it snowed for the first time.
To me, Christmas is here.
So we put up the tree last night. It offered a good motivation to clean the house, since I told the kids that we couldn't put up the ornaments until all the rooms in the house were clean. I'm super mean like that, but they put in a good 2 hours of cleaning.
Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong set the perfect tone for the evening. I purchased 2 Mannheim Steamroller songs, and picked up Joy to the World sung by David Archelleta (free on the iTunes store, by the way). I'm going to have to go see which other Christmas songs are free AND worth owning.
Then we put ornaments on the tree and arranged all the knick-knacks. Teancom, especially, oohed and ahed over everything we took out of the boxes. He immediately claimed half of them as "his," and I thought he was going to pass out from excitement when I brought out the stuffed Santa Claus. It's an awful thing, so ugly, but now I'm glad I didn't throw it away. Most of these decorations we didn't put out last year (for simplicity's sake. Seriously, shouldn't this have tipped me off last year that I'm Scrooge-ish?), so Teancom was discovering many of these items essentially for the first time. Suddenly, everything we took out of the boxes seemed like a treasure to me.
To achieve this cheery Christmas result, the kids got to stay up late. After they were in bed, though, and everything was in its place and the room was vacuumed, I took Rob's hand and led him into the living room. I turned off all our lamps and we hugged in the glow of the Christmas tree lights. Some nights just really capture what family and having kids is all about.
(And then Teancom woke up screaming at midnight. That's reality for you.)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Christmas Day, revisited
My dad has just chastized me about my last post. And he's right, I left out some crucial facts and gifts.
Fact: My dad was just as involved in helping us out financially, and in buying those gifts, as my mom was. In fact, he went with my mom to buy the pots and pans. Actually, while she was picking out those, Dad was picking out a wicked cool new electric razor for Rob. It's super neat and very hi-tech. You can run water through it! Without ruining it!! How is that even possible, I want to know.
Gift: My dad always buys us a book for Christmas. We pick it out and he buys it. Well, the book I picked out was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's fantastic and I loved it. Problem is, I wanted the Special Illustrated edition, which is the one I read (from the library). Come to find out it's out of print. I knew this because a month or two before he asked, I had looked up the book and saw it for no cheaper than $60. So I told him that's all I wanted, and Rob was in on it, too, since $60 is expensive and since Rob couldn't think of a book anyway. ... Well, by the time my dad looked, he could only find it for $150. He told me this and I told him to just buy the normal (IN print) edition, because $150 is too much. I told him to pick out whatever non-fiction book he wanted and to send that instead. Well, he bought me the Special Illustrated edition of A Short History of Nearly Everything! Rob is now reading it and loving it, and I'm a lucky daughter.
Fact: My dad was just as involved in helping us out financially, and in buying those gifts, as my mom was. In fact, he went with my mom to buy the pots and pans. Actually, while she was picking out those, Dad was picking out a wicked cool new electric razor for Rob. It's super neat and very hi-tech. You can run water through it! Without ruining it!! How is that even possible, I want to know.
Gift: My dad always buys us a book for Christmas. We pick it out and he buys it. Well, the book I picked out was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's fantastic and I loved it. Problem is, I wanted the Special Illustrated edition, which is the one I read (from the library). Come to find out it's out of print. I knew this because a month or two before he asked, I had looked up the book and saw it for no cheaper than $60. So I told him that's all I wanted, and Rob was in on it, too, since $60 is expensive and since Rob couldn't think of a book anyway. ... Well, by the time my dad looked, he could only find it for $150. He told me this and I told him to just buy the normal (IN print) edition, because $150 is too much. I told him to pick out whatever non-fiction book he wanted and to send that instead. Well, he bought me the Special Illustrated edition of A Short History of Nearly Everything! Rob is now reading it and loving it, and I'm a lucky daughter.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Christmas Day
So, now that it's the end of January and no one cares about Christmas any more, I'm posting my Christmas pictures.This is the scene the kids saw when they got up:
We kept it simple this year, and less expensive than normal. So we made oragami frogs, cranes, and paper airplanes for the stockings. And did you see that cool bike?! Here it is closer-up:
Bike Story
The bike is actually part of a cool story. Keeping it simpler than Really Complicated: Some really good friends in our ward called us one night in October or so and asked if we would like a bike for Elijah. They said they could hold onto it until a certain upcoming holiday event. We thought about it and said alright. They had bought the bike for their own son when he was Elijah's age, and he had refused to ride it. He's the youngest and now he's 12. The family had just cleaned out their garage and found this bike and thought of Elijah. They also had 2 bike helmets, and elbow and knee pads, too.
When they initially told us about the bike, I was wondering what condition the bike was in. They said it was "like brand new", but that means different things coming from different people. So when we picked it up I almost gasped. It was in such good shape, that the little "hairs" on the bike tires were still there! Incredible!
So we spit-shined it up a few days before Christmas and I'm still amazed that we ended up with such a great bike for free. It was Elijah's Santa gift.
A funny side story to the Bike Story: The bike tires needed air (because Santa doesn't bring bikes with flat tires), and Rob went out to the van to get the pump. It was the night before Christmas Eve, so on one hand we needed to know if the tires held air because if they didn't we needed to buy new bike tire tubes. On the other hand, there was a terrible ice storm that day, so it wasn't worth getting hurt over. Rob announced he was going outside anyway. I had just watched Cleo, our cat, trip all over herself trying to get across our deck. I told him he was going to break his arm or something! He went out anyway. He came back inside with the pump but also with a huge bruise across his shin from where he slipped across the driveway and right into the bottom of the van. Ouch! ... I tried to feel sorry for him, but, you know, I did tell him so. (And the bike tires did hold air, thankfully.)
2 Teancom Pictures
These two pictures are of Teancom with 2 of his gifts. One he really liked and has played with constantly since he got it: His green sparkly ball from Grandma (it's one of those balls with water and sparkles inside it--it's pretty cool). The other is his fireman's hat (each of the kids got one). You can see how much he likes wearing it:
This year, since the kids have been earning their own money, and since we didn't buy them many toys, we let them all take their money and pick out 1 gift a piece at Toys-R-Us. They didn't have much money, and we told them it had to be something they could afford. So this is what each of them chose:
This is Teancom's dog. It came with a bright red leash so he can pull it around. Who knew this was really TWO toys: the dog and a red snake!
Elijah wanted a camera. I told him this was just a "play camera", thinking he'd be disappointed that it didn't take real photos. He said, "It's not a PLAY camera. It's a pre-TEND camera." If you look into part of it, you can see photos of animals, and he thinks that's just as cool.
Miciah actually went with a single purchase in mind: Barbie and the Christmas Carol, the newest Barbie movie. And then she saw the duck. We had said only 1 gift, and we knew she'd be disappointed to not get the movie. She started crying when she knew she had to put the duck back. Rob was unmoved, but Miciah LOVES duckies, for some reason. So I suggested that, since she still had money left, we could make an exception. And she loves the duck. (Luckily our boys are nothing like Miciah and so there were no fits of "But she got more than me!" and "But you said...!")
Santa
Speaking of gifts, let's talk briefly about Santa. I'm not a huge Santa fan. In fact, this year Miciah was cornering me on some Santa questions and I couldn't redirect to Rob as I normally do, because we were in the car alone. She was asking how his reindeer could fly, etc., etc. I don't mind Santa being the Spirit of Christmas/Christ, in fact, I quite like the symbolism. But SANTA DOESN'T HAVE MAGIC REINDEER!!! I finally shouted to her, "Miciah, Santa is fake! He doesn't exist." She was quiet for a moment and then quietly said, "You're saying he's fake?" ... You'd think I'd ruined her Christmas, but of course she promptly acted like she hadn't even heard me and continued believing, just cause she wanted to. And I guess that's kinda cute.
And for those of you who are about to tell me, "Just say, "What do YOU think?"" I think that's a cop out and it plays on the believing nature of children, and that's just not nice or right. Santa just doesn't have flying reindeer.
However, flying reindeer or no, he still brings our children 1 gift a piece. Santa gave Elijah a bike. Miciah got the game of Life. And Teancom got a small tool set. The cool thing about getting the bike is that because you can't wrap a bike, Santa didn't wrap any of his Santa gifts this year. Less wrapping is always good. It did create a funny situation, though, when Elijah woke up and came out to see his Santa gift. We took a video of it, expecting this great reaction. You can watch the video if you want, cause it's cute. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhAiDpzgX_s ) But if you don't want to, the best part is that Elijah hardly reacted at all, since he was just barely awake and somewhat dazed. And even after he saw the bike, he got up closer to it and then saw Teancom's gift. He pointed to the tool set and said, "I've been wanting one of those." Figures. Teancom shares really really well, though, so they've both been enjoying the tool set.
Holiday Barbie and a Stuffed Reindeer
Miciah also wrote Santa a letter this year. Very cute. Unfortunately, she presented it to us a week before Christmas in a sealed envelope. This was of course well after we'd decided on and purchased her Santa gift. We opened it up Christmas night to read that she'd asked for a stuff reindeer (of all things) and a Barbie doll. The Barbie doll wasn't completely unexpected since while walking through Wal-Mart Miciah pointed out the $40 Holiday Barbie that she wanted. Beautiful. But $40. And we already bought Life! But the stuffed reindeer? Where did THAT come from?
So imagine our surprise and the humor surrounding the whole situation when R&C came over to give us their (mostly HOMEMADE) Christmas gifts (put me to shame). Gave us an onion chopper thing (it's genius!!!--one slam down and it's diced!) (the only gift not homemade), some bath salts and soaps (for me), a snowman and "snow balls" that you can throw at it and the balls stick (for Elijah), some hair ribbons (for Miciah), and for Teancom: a stuffed reindeer. Miciah eyeballed that for a long time. Then asked C if she could make her one, too. We explained to C that Miciah had asked Santa for a stuffed reindeer, but that she should NOT feel obligated to make her another one. C, thankfully, told Miciah no. Miciah then tried to talk Teancom into letting her have it, or at least borrow it. Teancom, the good sharer that he is, has let her borrow it several times and I find it just as often on Miciah's bed as in Teancom's room.
When Miciah had to pick a single gift to take to her class for a special show-and-tell, she chose? Teancom's stuffed reindeer.
Miciah and Elijah, opening one of Miciah's gifts from Grandma. We had curled Miciah's hair in curlers a few nights before and so it was still wavy that day. I think it looked really really cute and we should do it more often.
Aprons
My mom gave Rob and me aprons for Christmas (among other things that I'll talk about later). After we opened ours, Miciah said, "She didn't make me one!" So she was very pleased when she opened a package to find:
And my sweet boys. Elijah wasn't jealous at all when Miciah got one and he didn't, even though he's now in a stage where he loves to cook. After Miciah got hers, we just handed down the other aprons (also from my mother when she was getting rid of some or hers) and Elijah grabbed the one that used to be Miciah's and said, "This is mine now, huh, Mom?"
It's a Spider-Man nerf gun thing. It shot those darts pretty fast, actually. Of course, he broke it by the day's end. It was a clearance toy that I got for like 50 cents. Rob promised we could buy him a "real" nerf gun type toy that hopefully won't break in a few minutes. I have no faith in the toy lasting any longer if we spend more money on it. But, I guess we'll find out! (And check out Elijah's tongue in that picture! Totally cute.)
This is the kids eating breakfast at the table, with Christmas goodies everywhere. We cut back in terms of candy and food this year, too, so most of what is on the table is from others. We even saved some Halloween candy to put in their stockings. That's pretty lame, even I admit that. But it meant things were simple, and yet we still had a lot.
And my sweet boys. Elijah wasn't jealous at all when Miciah got one and he didn't, even though he's now in a stage where he loves to cook. After Miciah got hers, we just handed down the other aprons (also from my mother when she was getting rid of some or hers) and Elijah grabbed the one that used to be Miciah's and said, "This is mine now, huh, Mom?"The Wii
Me putting the wii together. Great picture, eh? I need a haircut in this pic, and I hadn't bothered with putting myself together yet (not that I look much different AFTER I put myself together, but you know).
We saved the wii to open last, of course. The kids were excited to get it, but not near as excited as we'd hoped. I'll upload the video so you can watch if you want (and when that's done, I'll include the link here). And another gift got hidden in the pile, so the very last gift they opened was Season 3 of the Avatar TV show. They were just as, if not MORE excited to get Avatar. Oops. It made me think, "And we spent HOW MUCH on the wii?" We'd planned all year to get the wii, and it's ALL we got the kids for Christmas. All the other gifts you saw there, besides the Santa gifts, were from someone else or we got them for free/really cheap.
For instance:
When asked later in the day, after playing the wii and riding his bike (in the fantastic 60 degree weather), what his favorite gift was, Elijah said the fire truck. The fire truck was a wooden set that Rob got for free at Home Depot. Elijah and Rob built it together and had a great time doing the project. It just cracked me up that it was his favorite, and we didn't spend a dime on it! ... Next time I think our kids will be scarred by going simpler, I'm going to remember the fire truck.
Elijah also loved this toy:
It's a Spider-Man nerf gun thing. It shot those darts pretty fast, actually. Of course, he broke it by the day's end. It was a clearance toy that I got for like 50 cents. Rob promised we could buy him a "real" nerf gun type toy that hopefully won't break in a few minutes. I have no faith in the toy lasting any longer if we spend more money on it. But, I guess we'll find out! (And check out Elijah's tongue in that picture! Totally cute.)Keeping it Simple
This is the kids eating breakfast at the table, with Christmas goodies everywhere. We cut back in terms of candy and food this year, too, so most of what is on the table is from others. We even saved some Halloween candy to put in their stockings. For instance: The kids get cereal every year (Rob's family's tradition). Usually we get them some brand name goodness, but this year opted for the cheap stuff. Not only were they just as happy to get the cheap stuff, they got like 5 times as much that way! All 3 kids still have some cereal left, and since there was so much in each bag, they've also been really good about sharing.
Christmas Gifts for Each Other
Another side to Keeping it Simple was our gifts to each other. In November I started telling Rob that what I wanted for Christmas was for him to grow a beard. He kept looking at me pitifully and saying that I KNEW he couldn't do that. No, I didn't know that. And Yes, yes you can. You just stop shaving. He kept telling me no, and I kept telling him that's all I wanted.
So finally he turned to me and said, "You know, I just looked at the calendar and we're going to be out of town for 2 Sundays in a row, so if you want, I can grow my beard for 3 weeks [Sunday night to Sunday morning 3 weeks later]." Fantastic!
My Christmas gift from him, then, was a beard for 3 weeks. It was amazing and I LOVE his beard. The Saturday before he had to shave it, though, was painful. I cried. Rob kept saying, "There has GOT to be some other reason you're upset." Nope. I just really really like the beard. ... For that reason--the pain of having and then losing his beard--I took no special pictures of him with the beard. ... And I will ask for a different gift next year.
My Christmas gift FOR him was, as it turns out, nothing. For yet another year, the gift I planned didn't show. But he loves me anyway.
The Best Gifts for 2008:
* Finances Taken Care of in December: My mom came in town for Thanksgiving and set us up really nicely. She bought some nice gifts for us (like the renewal of the Museum Pass!) and took care of groceries for several weeks. She didn't have to do any of that, but it made it so we were able to save quite a bit of money in December, and since we have such intense financial goals, that was a FANTASTIC gift!
* New Pots and Pans: We were given almost $300 in gifts from others and were setting out the Saturday after Christmas to buy needed pots and pans. So imagine our surprise and delight when on Christmas Day R&C brought over another few gifts from my mother. One of them was a new set of pots and pans! They're wonderful and beautiful. Bright red. 
* The wii: Needs no explanation. It's fun.
* Rob's beard: Though after crying for an hour over the loss of it, Rob's beard also qualifies as the WORST gift for 2008.
* Clearing up a Misunderstanding with a Good Friend: I had been stressed for over a month because of a complicated misunderstanding with a good friend. On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a long conversation and it not only cleared a lot up, but also took a huge weight off my shoulders. Starting with that Monday, I felt like I could think clearly again, like I'd been given my life back. So this DEFINITELY qualifies as one of The Best Gifts for 2008.
* Canned Chicken: Grandma Thacker usually gives all the grandkids $50 for Christmas. This year she gave us $50 worth of canned chicken. Excellent!! ... If you're not understanding why this would make my Best Gifts list, just know that it's an exceptional gift. Trust me.
And here's where I should add something sappy about how one of the best gifts is always the love and support of our family and loved ones. I'll skip the sap. You guys already know we love and adore you. (Though, if you don't know, or if you're doubting for some reason, send me an e-mail and I'll tell you again.)
Thanks for indulging me on this long post (though I guess you're all used to it). The next post will be back to funny kid stories, like normal.
Monday, December 22, 2008
This is our Christmas letter for 2008. I was going to send it out to more people, but then didn't. Tis the season for slackerness. Enjoy!
Rob and Tamra
Thacker Family
In the Year 2008
I’ve never done a Christmas letter before, thinking that my blog and updates are plenty of information. It struck me this year, however, that some people probably don’t read my updates, or just don’t care to get THAT MUCH information. So here’s a snapshot of the Rob and Tamra Thacker Family in the year 2008. It’ll be an exercise on brevity for me.
Miciah (7) is in First Grade this year and thinks she pretty much knows everything, though I’m still skeptical. First Grade is fantastic for all because it means she’s at school all day and that allows me some sanity while I just take care of my two mellow boys (when Miciah comes home Elijah morphs into Spastic Kid) and we have quiet adventures and pleasant outings. It’s a little weird, and I’m still not used to it.
Elijah (4 ½) is a sensitive, sweet, overly-emotional boy with a temper. His accomplishments include trashing any room in the house in 5 seconds or less, and then turning around and making you smile because he wants to make you happy. He is also very gullible and believes there really is a Lie Bug growing in his body (he seems to think that’s cool, though, so I guess that backfired).
Teancom (2 ½) is a doll. This year he’s mastered walking, running, speaking clearly, and being amazingly and addictingly cute. I no longer shy away from the F word: Favorite.
Rob (30, turning 29 in Jan.) earned his PhD from the University of Cincinnati this year and then promptly turned around and decided he’d rather be a janitor. With the economy what it is, though, no janitorial spots were open, so he took a post doc at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and that’s job security for 2 years. Hopefully people will need janitors in 2010.Tamra (27 ½): I have been catching up on my reading lately since Miciah is in school all day. I have learned through this that the word ‘omnibus’ means a collection of several books, that Heinlein is a sci-fi genius and Herriot is an amazing storyteller, that it’s plausible that the boy DOES die at the end of The Giver, and that Wodehouse’s Jeeves series may be the most hilarious stuff ever written.
Merry Christmas!
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