Livin' It Up on New Year's Eve

I spent New Year's Eve eating creme puffs and eclairs and watching a CSI marathon with Colin. Andrew was at the New Year's youth dance with Adria. He went as the bishopric presence at the dance, but I think he secretly wanted to see who his fifteen year old daughter was dancing with. Eva was in usual form with, "Mom, it's past my bedtime. I better go to bed!" It's nice to have one kid that doesn't kick and scream her way to sleep. Liam, however, rolled around trying to sit on Colin's head until he finally passed out. It was probably all the sugar since he and Eva discovered that they like eclairs which according to them tastes like they have 'melted ice cream' in the middle. After years of staying up past midnight with sick kids or insomnia or whatever else parenthood and adulthood brings, New Year's Eve has lost its mystique. The days of watching Dick Clark and the shiny, glittery ball drop on Times Square and wishing I were there are gone. Even venerable Dick Clark is on his way out to be replaced, I presume, with faux-DJ Ryan Seacrest who I'm not sure has actually seen or held a vinyl record. New Year's Eve is definitely not my holiday. Now the last day of school: there is day I can still celebrate like a teenager.

Notes from Christmas

Life has been busy, but I thought I'd share a few moments from the past few weeks

*The Nativity Reenactment: We decided to start a new tradition and act out the nativity. Originally, Liam was set to be baby Jesus. At the last minute, he decided to wear an old Harry Potter cape-costume since everyone else was in costume. Then he began making these hawk-like Caah noises and flapping his arms. When asked what he was he said a bat. So a Christmas bat is now part of our nativity scene.

*Santa's Cookies: Eva wanted to leave cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and water for the reindeer. Santa ate all the cookies, but one and drank the milk. One carrot was left with nibble marks out of it. But with no chimney, how did Santa get in? Too many questions and I'm not sure Santa will survive this next year for Eva.

*Casual Christmas Morning: It felt good to have a cosy gift opening and then a lazy Christmas Day. We love our families, but not having to rush around this year was nice. On a different note, we are all sick of ham leftovers.

*Wedding Reception: Adria and I helped man the kitchen for a wedding reception in our ward. It was exhausting and fun. I learned a lot about logistics, organization, food and venues for wedding receptions. It won't be too many years before I have to start thinking about these things. Yikes!

*Crazy Weather: We have had days where the high temp was in the teens and ice or snow on the ground. Then the past few days, weather in the 50s and even 60s with LOTS of rain. Too much of a variation all at once, has our sinuses going crazy.

*Church Zaniness: Our ward rotates starting times with the other wards in the building every year. Starting next week, we will be going at 1pm. I keep telling myself it's better than the 3pm we once had in Virginia. We also had the opportunity to go to tithing settlement with our 'bishop'. One of those odd moments in a long first year as the bishop's family.

*Late Hours: We are a family that naturally likes to stay up late. Over the break, we've been slowly edging back our bed times. Of course, this makes for cranky people and throws off the next days schedule. Last night everyone was ordered to bed early. The kids were great probably due to Christmas vacation exhaustion. Now, if only, I could fall asleep early.

We wish all our friends and families a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's and Best Wishes in the upcoming year!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...And We Ate Chinese Food

All of December has been hurling along to this one day, Christmas. Too many activities, too much food and too much shopping. Last night, I decided takeout from our local Chinese restaurant was in order. I had already been in the kitchen preparing for today. The last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner. Of course, no one complained. Give the kids chicken fried rice and their tummys were happy. While I continued to bake pie crusts, we watched A Christmas Story. You've gotta love Ralphie and his quest for the perfect Christmas present.

By 6:30am, we assembled in the living room for presents. Apparently, Eva had been checking the clock every hour since 4am. Adria was ready for her to just get the suspense of "Did Santa come?" over. Sadly, I think this is the last year for the Santa myth to exist for Eva. She's had too many questions and too many naysayer friends. But there is still Liam to keep Santa alive.

Merry Christmas!!

No School Voodoo

Last year Adria and Colin decided that anytime the weather threatened to cancel school they would practice a little voodoo to help Mother Nature along. Somewhere on the internet they found a list of superstitions that are supposed to help increase your luck. With an impending ice storm and finals looming and wanting more time to study, Adria called on her little brother to save the day last night. Colin flushed ice cubes down the toliet, ran around the house six times and performed a few other "good luck" charms, all the time giggling. Andrew teasingly told him to stop it as he needed to go to work today, and Colin needed to stop his "voodoo" practices. I have to wonder who started these superstitions. What person thought flushing ice cubes was good luck? Sounds a bit like something someone who plays the slots would invent. As it turned out, Mother Nature cooperated and glazed the roads with a sheet of ice and sent temperatures in the teens. Now I am at home with rowdy kids eating mac and cheese for lunch. Who knew hanging scissors on the wall would send good luck?

***Note:Writers of this post do not actually practice or subscribe to voodoo :-) Apologies to all voodoo loving people out there.

Have You Seen the Camera?

This has been my mantra for the past few weeks. Not having a camera around discourages blog posts. Eva had her 7th birthday on December 9th and I wasn't able to take pics. We gave her a goldfish which she promptly named Madison. As soon as we can, we'll let everyone know what she looks like(Eva is assuming it is a she, but how can you tell with goldfish?).

The end of the semester is approaching. Andrew has papers to grade and Adria has finals to prepare for. Liam just said his name for the first time. It comes out "We-um Bown". As parents of a child with a speech delay we are excited. He attends a special education preschool and has a speech pathologist to work with. Colin is flying along on the guitar. We were treated to Deck the Halls at our last Family Home Evening. Eva is constantly asking if she can read a book to us.

Cross your fingers and toes and hope we find the camera before Christmas!

O Christmas Tree

Monday night was spent decorating the Christmas tree. I set up the tree with all the lights. The kids took care of the ornaments and I rearranged them later. All and all I think we did a pretty good job. We decided the to use a smaller tree this year, one that we bought not long after being married. Colin provided 'Deck the Halls' on the guitar. It's the first Holiday song he's learned so far.

**I wrote this post last week intending to take a pic of our tree. Alas, I cannot find the camera.