The Wonder and Excitement of Christmas

The best part of Christmas for Dan and I (other than the new Lexus, ofcourse) was watching the kids' wonder and excitement. We've witnessed a small glimpse of doubt coming from Tristan this year so it was especially fun to see his excitement Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma D's. We ate Dad's Orroz con Pollo and one of my new salads. Mom had some games ready for us, including a card game called "Slap" and a game in which we told a story based on an assortment of items she'd put in a sack (it was a very interesting story!) The kids got to open the pajamas Grandma had made for them.

After we were home, we got Santa's milk and cookies ready and the kids also wanted to leave some carrots, lettuce and apples for Santa's reindeer. We had a long discussion about the appropriate time for getting up Christmas morning. Dan and I decided that 7:00 would be fair. It was a hard sell for Tristan but he finally relented after I explained that Dan and I would be up late cleaning and getting the food and other preparations ready for Christmas.

Well, that was nice in theory. Dan and I finally got to bed around 2:00 a.m. and it wasn't long before Tristan was up, telling me he had woken up and couldn't go back to sleep because he was so excited. I'm pretty sure he'd checked out the scenery downstairs. I think I told him to go back to bed and think about school. It must have worked because we didn't hear anything more from him until 6:30 a.m. when he came in to wake me up and tell me it was only 30 minutes until 7:00. Before long, I heard his and Jolie's voices downstairs, and then I heard both of them in Gavin's room, trying to wake him up.

The kids were full of excitment and wonder. Gavin was thrilled to find a battery-powered train that Santa had set up for him. After we were through opening gifts, we spent the rest of the day putting toys together and playing with them. Mom, Dad and Lisa came over for brunch and stayed the rest of the day. We did our traditional Raclette for dinner. It was a great day!

Tristan's Eight!

Tristan turned a big eight years old on Friday! I can't believe it. The kids were out of school for winter break, so we spent the morning with our friends, the Jeppersons. They're moving to Kansas City next week so we were especially glad to see them. It's going to be hard to see them go.

Tristan's friend, Evan, also has a birthday the week of Christmas, so oddly, Tristan spent his birthday at Evan's party. They had pizza and went bowling.

We had a family party for Tristan Friday evening. Grandpa and Grandma D., Aunt Lisa and Grandma I. came over for his favorite dinner (my "famous" spaghetti). I made a special candy cane-covered cake which we ate with peppermint ice cream.

Some of Tristan's favorite gifts were his Heelies and archery lessons. He chose to go for the archery lessons instead of having a party with his friends this year.

Happy Birthday, Tristan!

When You're Two... the World is Your Playground

I had to grab my camera this morning and catch Gavin playing with Sir Topham Hat and his engines. He was at my feet while loading the dishwasher and he asked if he could turn the "windmill" inside the diswasher. Then he said something about a bridge and ran to get his trains. Before I knew it, he was using the small rack of the dishwasher as a bridge for his engines. Before long, he had Sir Topham Hat sitting on an upside-down water pitcher next to the dishwasher.

A Fresh Blanket

Dan and I spent last weekend in San Diego where (big surprise) it was warm and sunny. When our plane landed in Salt Lake Sunday evening it was raining, and by the time we got home it had turned to snow and it was sticking to the roads. By morning we had ourselves quite a little blanket of fresh snow (6-8 inches?)

I'm actually happy for the storm because we've had a crusty layer of old snow hanging around from the last one. There's nothing like fresh, powdery, Utah snow!

Tristan wore his snow bibs and boots to school and Jolie and Gavin and I played for a while and even had a little snowball fight before the kindergarten bus showed up.

Jolie, Jolie, Jolie!

My mom came by this morning to give Jolie an early Christmas gift, this GORGEOUS dress. My mom made it! We saw the fabric several weeks ago and we knew it would make a beautiful dress. Jolie is a lucky little girl.

I wish I could say that Jolie's disposition at church today was as beautiful as her dress. She was rather damanding and sulky. I didn't understand why until I realized that she must have been tired. Last night Dan and I were out late at a Christmas party. Although the babysitters put the kids to bed at 8:00 as instructed, Jolie apparently stayed up until 11:00 or so, spying on the babysitters. This morning she had all sorts of information to report about what they did after they put the kids to bed.

Our babysitters are twin sisters who live in our neighborhood. At church I asked them about last night. They had no idea she was awake but what they told me was consistent with what Jolie reported, so I'm certain she was awake at 11:00 or so.

Uggggh! The Tough Lessons of Childhood!

Tonight we attended the Reflections Award Night, an annual celebration of our children's achievements in the arts. Tristan entered a photograph that he took of the Blue Angels when we were in San Diego. Last year he won a trophy and his entry was sent onto the next level of the competition. His photo was a close up of "November Snow". Although this year's photo was much more impressive, he was faced with one of the hard lessons of childhood: WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR RAGE AND DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN OTHERS RECEIVE TROPHYS AND YOU DON'T.

It was rather embarassing when Tristan's name was called and he stomped up to the podium to receive his certificate. He then hid his face in my lap and proceeded to cry and grunt (did I mention we were sitting on the front row?) This is the proud photo I took after his meltdown was complete.

We spent the ride home and 40 minutes afterward lecturing him about how we don't always win, someone has to come in second place, a trophy isn't a measure of sucess, it's knowing you did your best work and tried your hardest.

I guess these are lessons we all have to learn at one time or another. Some of us have a harder time than others.

The Feast

Despite all the work, Thanksgiving was very nice. The kids were excited to help with the cooking. Tristan and Grandpa made a special pumpkin pie, Jolie and I made a mud pie (yumm!) and both of them peeled potatoes. Gavin tried to do some damage on a couple of potatoes with a variety of kitchen tools, as well.

We used our high tech Viking meat probe to determine the cooking time for our turkey but it failed us. Fortunately, Jerry arrived early and suggested we give the turkey a little more time in the oven.

We were excited to have our friend Maria with us. She brought her grandmother's famous stuffing and a delicious pecan pie. We sat in the family room after dinner, moaning about our waistline discomfort and looking though the shopping ads. Maria and mom also talked Dad into giving them a foot rub.

Pilgrims and Indians

Yesterday I helped with Jolie's Thanksgiving feast. The kindergarteners have been learning about Squanto and the first Thanksgiving. They got the rare privilege of eating in the cafeteria! This has been a much-anticipated event for Jolie. All week the kids have been working on their costumes. They died macaroni for Indian necklaces and decorated their Indian headdresses and Pilgrim hats. They each got to choose which costume they wanted to wear to the feast (this year the Indians were much more numerous than the Pilgrims).

One of the kindergarten teachers told me that a sixth grade class walked by the cafeteria as she was bringing her kindergarteners in. She said you could hear the sixth graders in almost a group sigh, "Ooooohhhh..." as they watched the little kids. It was as if they were all fondly remembering their own kindergarten Thanksgiving feast years ago.

I'm glad I got to be there. I'm sure Jolie will remember this for some time.

Christmas Cards

I was up until 1:00 this morning working on Christmas cards. I just finished them so I thought I'd post some photos! I've been in a card swap for the past couple of years. I send blank cards each month to people all over the U.S. and Canada. I get cards from all over, too, which adds a bit of excitement to the trip to the mailbox each afternoon.

I'm also rather pleased with myself because I used materials that I (mostly) had on hand. I made a gift album for Dan's parents last Christmas and I had a lot of paper scraps left over. I also made the embellishment ("Merry & Bright") in MS Word! If anyone is wondering how to write text in a circle, please ask. It might just save you 2 or 3 hours of trying to figure it out on your own.

I'll get 24 different Christmas cards back from this swap. I can't wait!

Autumn... Autumn... PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US!!

This week we've had some beautiful Autumn days close to 70 degrees. Ofcourse all good things must come to an end, and in the case of our weather, it's usually from one extreme to another. The forcasters have been warning of a big change, so we decided to enjoy the sunshine while it lasted. We joined Grandma on one of our favorite trails for a walk.

Yesterday was one of those days of urgency in which we all knew we'd better get certain things done or we'd regret it. I caught a glimpse of my neighbor doing the last of her fall cleanup at 8-something in the morning when I got Tristan off to school. Throughout the day I saw people out doing the necessary chores of fall. On our way home from parent teacher conferences we saw some neighbors on their roof putting up Christmas lights! It didn't make sense until I realized they were saving themselves an icy climb later in the season. It was a busy day and we didn't get a chance to start raking the leaves and pods off the lawn until dusk. So while the rest of the neighborhood was out in their yards during the day, we were outside raking leaves in the dark. It wasn't bad though, it was still pretty warm and the kids played a fun game of "Ghost in the Graveyard".

The Main Event!

THERE'S SO MUCH EXCITEMENT AROUND HERE I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!!! Tristan and Jolie were up early again this morning (did I mention they've been up at 5-something the last three days?) This time it wasn't the anticipation of Halloween that had them awake (and daylight savings hasn't helped), but it was the QUEST FOR THE CANDY! A good Mommy hides the Halloween candy before she goes to bed unless she approves of Rollos and Starbursts for breakfast. Once I got the stash out of hiding, there was some serious trading taking place on our family room floor. Gavin gave away a full-sized Snickers bar (yes, they give that out in this neighborhood) for Tristan's Play-Doh. A good mommy also monitors the trading to make sure less experienced Trick-or-Treaters aren't taken advantage of.

Last night we left for Trick or Treating at dusk (about 5:30) and we were home by 7:30. Tristan ended up ahead of us with a group of friends. I had Jolie on foot and Gavin in the jogging stroller so our pace was way too slow for Tristan. Things were more complicated this year as Gavin was in and out of the stroller at every house. I'd forgotten how scary some of the sights and sounds of Halloween can be to a little one. He was really frightened by the masks that the older kids were wearing. Jolie and I kept reminding him that they were kids in costumes and the scary faces were just masks. After a while he said "It's a mask, Mommy" as though he was trying to convince himself it was true.

Don't the kids look darling? I made Gavin's lion costume and part of Tristan's. My mom made Jolie's gorgeous dress and the other half of Tristan's costume. Jolie is Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Caribbean and Tristan is Jack Sparrow. We intended to give him hair and a beard and the works but I ran out of steam. I asked Tristan whether he'd rather spend an hour in hair & makeup or be out on the street that much sooner. It was and easy choice.

Halloween Costume Party

Ok, I went a little overboard with the parties this year. I'm in charge of three Halloween parties. Party number one was for the kids' friends. Yesterday they were out of school for some obscure, teachers-only holiday, so we had a costume party. My mom helped me with the festivities, thank goodness. I always forget how chaotic it is to have 10 kids running around.

We bobbed for apples and played a bunch of other games. They had lunch and went home with some really cool treat bags. The apple bobbing was interesting, given that we had a mix of boys and girls. Only two of the five girls chose to participate. The boys were all over it. Everyone except Tristan used the grab-the-stem-with-your-teeth-trick. Tristan submerged himself up to his shoulders to get his apple by the skin. I think everyone had a good time.

Pumpkins: The Deed is Done!

I've been holding the kids off on carving the pumpkins for weeks. I have to admit that although I love Autumn and Halloween, I don't look forward to cutting up the pumpkins. They look so much better when they're in their natural form. Since last night was Halloween Eve, we had to do the deed. I put Dan in charge. He and Tristan carved an elaborate face into the big guy and the other kids sketched simple designs on the smaller ones. We even grew one of the pumpkins ourselves! The pumpkin that Dan is holding in front of his face came from our garden. Next year we're going to give our plant more water in hopes that we get more than one pumpkin.

An Epitaph to a Murdered Spider

My neighbor just came by to show me an interesting item she found in her flowerbed. It's the headstone Tristan and Collins erected in honor of the murdered black widow spider and it's comrades. She had it hidden under her jacket because she didn't want the boys to think we were laughing at them. Her nineteen-year-old son found the epitaph. He said this was just the thing HE would have done at 7 years old.

It reads:

Spider (black widow, bees, box elder bug)
They died.
Died on: Date October 11, 2006
We killed them.

San Diego

We spent last weekend in San Diego with Nana and Papa. It was SO much fun. They had a lot of fun activities planned for us, including a tour of San Diego on the "Amphibeous Bus", riding the carousel in Seaport Village, a picnic at the grassy knoll, hanging out at the beach, a beach barbeque and bonfire with the Dog, Burger and S'mores families, a fun birthday party for me, watching the Blue Angels who were in town for an air show at Miramar Marine Station, and more time at the beach.

The weather wasn't very good by San Diego standards, but it was fine by us. We almost cancelled our beach plans on Friday but the kids insisted that "we promised" (gets ya every time), so we went ahead. Dan and I figured we'd go for a little while until the kids decided it was too cold. Tristan was waist-deep in the ocean within 10 minutes of us arriving. It was raining pretty hard when we first got there but it eventually cleared up and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

The other highlight of our trip was the airplane. We've done enough road trips lately that we appreciated the shorter travel time. Jolie was stoked to fly because she doesn't remember ever being on a plane, very strange since she's flown probably 10 times. Gavin loves everything about transportation (planes, trains, construction equipment, etc.) so the whole experience was right up his alley. Tristan was really helpful and more importantly, he helped carry stuff! It was the first time I've been through airport security with my ICD, so I was a little nervous about that. It would have been difficult to travel alone with the kids since I have to be taken to a separate area to receive a pleasant full-body pat-down whereas the kids and all our stuff have to go through the X-ray equipment.

I'm posting a few of the 300-and-something photos I took over the course of four days. Geez... what's wrong with me? Truth is, we did so many fun things that I couldn't put my camera down!

Boys Will Be Boys

Today is the first day in a long time that we've been home without a man in the house. Dan's covering a shift for a co-worker who had to go to a funeral. That being the case, it would have to be the day that I found a black widow spider outside our back door. I was casually sweeping off the steps outside our kitchen and I thought I saw a beetle. It got caught in my broom and was rolled over on its back. Tristan immediately identified it as a black widow. I didn't believe him at first because it looked too big and meaty to be a spider. He showed me the hourglass on the stomach and insisted that it was a black widow. I still wouldn't have believed him but my mom and dad happened to stop by and my dad confirmed that it was a black widow. He and Tristan coaxed it into a jar so that Tristan could show it off to the boys in the neighborhood. There's nothing more prestigious to a seven year old boy than the capture of a potentially deadly insect, you know.

If that were the end of the story about the spider it wouldn't have made it to my blog. It would simply have been an ordinary day at our house.

Tristan got half way up the stairs with the spider before I told him that he couldn't keep the black widow in his bedroom. With my permission, he took his bug jar to Collins's house because he knew this particular friend would be equally fascinated with the spider. He was gone about 45 minutes and came home with an empty bug jar and mud all over his hands and clothes. Again, just another ordinary day.

During the past hour I've come to find out that while at Collins's house, the boys captured two bees and a box elder bug (they had to injure the bees in order to capture them) and they placed them in the jar with the spider. They watched the insects fight it out (Tristan reported that one of the bees bit off a spider leg and the black widow injected venom into the bee). Then they shook the jar violently and buried all of the bugs. To top it all off, they found a piece of paper and made a headstone for the grave.

This probably isn't surprising to anyone who's raised boys or to anyone who's been a boy himself. Dan wasn't nearly as shocked as I thought he'd be when I called to tell him the events of the afternoon. He just said that the boys went to more effort than he would have. I guess this is all standard boy behavior. In other words, BOYS WILL BE BOYS.

If I were my sister Robin (Queen of the Blog), I'd have photos of the black widow, the boys, and the headstone. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of this blog-worthy until Tristan let me in on the events at Collins's house. By that time the spider was no longer with us and I'm afraid it's too dark and I'm too exhausted to trapse down to Collins's house to take post-mortem photographs. So you'll have to settle for these photos of Tristan with his bug jar (I told him to give me a mischievous look) and a close-up of what's left of the black widow, the amputated leg. Yikes, now I know Tristan wasn't exaggerating.

Play-Doh is fascinating!

I had to catch Gavin on camera today. He and Jolie were experimenting with Play-Doh while I was doing some domestic tasks. The next thing I knew, he was sitting in the middle of the kitchen table with a toy drill, surrounded by a mess of Play-Doh. You can see that he's rather fascinated with the whole affair.

Oh, and if you're wondering what those markings on his arm are... it's Sharpie (i.e. permanent marker). He and Jolie had been coloring before the Play-Doh came on the scene. Somehow we ended up with a very meticulous coloring page by Jolie and permanent marker all over Gavin and my kitchen table.

When was the last time YOU slept in on a Sunday morning?

Yesterday was the day we COULD have slept in because we had a break from our 8:30 a.m. church schedule. It was General Conference weekend, so we got to watch church on TV in our pajamas. Well, it wasn't to be. Not only were the kids up bright and early (surprise, surprise!) but I stumbled out of bed to find them in Tristan's room building a humongous tower out of every cusion and pillow in the house. I mean every single one: the sofa cusions and pillows from two couches, bed pillows from all five bedrooms, even the decorative throw pillows from my bed. Ofcourse the goal of this endeavor was to climb to the top of the tower and proclaim themselves master of the universe. Once they lost their interest in the tower they slid down the staircase in their sleeping bags.

I guess some people have quiet, leisurely Sunday mornings. I've heard that some even sleep late, eat a leisurely breakfast and read the newspaper...