Christmas pics

As anyone with kids knows, the holiday season is an incredibly busy time of year. Every year we know that as soon as Halloween is here, that's it--the rest of the year flies by. Added to that fact is that I had my final on December 12, so I haven't had much time to post. We had a great holiday season. Jason and I both took a lot of time off work so that we could spend the first week of winter break with the kids. The day after Christmas, I drove the kids to Blythe to meet my mom who took them for the next week. I managed to save a couple more days off this year so I got to take off two days from work without anyone to take care of. I have to say I was really lazy, I pretty much just laid around the house and watched the first season of "Glee" on dvd that I picked up. Not that I endorse laziness, but it was really nice to have the time to do whatever I wanted and not have school/work/kids demands placed on me. J and I went out to dinner to a few places that the kids don't like or are too expensive with the five of us and enjoyed our time with each other. Last night I made the drive to Blythe again (by myself again!) and picked up the kids. I love to miss them, and I love when they come home. It's nice to enjoy your kids telling you stories when (sometimes after you've heard their voices for six hours straight) you don't always want to hear them talk. So we're trying to get the house picked up and ready to return to work/school, but I did want to share some of our holiday pictures with you.

At the beginning of the month, Cole tested for and passed to get his beginning gold belt. We had a little bit of a struggle with him at the beginning of the month with karate (his frustration at a few things was making him tell us he didn't like karate--luckily we know how much he really loves karate). He's having fun advancing and we are enjoying all the stages as he progresses. Next test will be for his Gold belt.

Bailey had her first concert at school for band. I was as excited for her as she was to perform (and totally related when she would tell me how nervous she was as we approached the day of the concert). For only playing for six months, I think she's pretty talented, and she really loves playing. I've yet to hear an arguement from her when I tell her to practice. Hopefully she'll keep up that love of playing an instrument.

Decorating the tree is always one of our favorite family activities. This year we bought a real tree and our house smelled so wonderful. While it was a pain to bring home and dispose of, it brought back so many memories for me as my family always had a real tree every year when I was a child. Digging into the box of ornaments always brings back so many memories of our Christmases together. As children, both Jason's family and my family gave us ornaments each year in addition to ones we made for ourselves or were given as gifts from friends/teachers. Nowadays, mine and J's ornaments hardly make it onto the tree because we've kept up the tradition of a yearly ornament for the kids. We usually try to pick something that represents what our kid's interests are for the year and it's so much fun to go back and remember years when we got certain ornaments.

Another of my family traditions that I've carried over is the way that the kids are allowed to come down Christmas morning. The kids are not allowed to even peek at the downstairs before J and I get up in the morning. So usually the night before, we tell the kids what time they can start waking us up (usually 7 am), and then they'll come in to get us up. This year we got really spoiled because the kids were so tired, I think it was after 8 when they came to get us. Then they have to line up at the top of the stairs in order of height while we set up cameras. When we're ready, we call them down so we can start taking pictures and video. Once they come down, they get to open their stockings before breakfast. Each kid gets a dvd (and in more recent years) a cd from Santa in their stocking, so it's always fun to see which movie and cd Santa brought.

Santa also brought hats and gloves because they kids have been too cold in the mornings to ride their bikes to school. Lindsay got the Princess and the Frog soundtrack and the new Tinker Bell movie.
Cole got the Transformers soundtrack (he really likes rock with bands like Green Day and Nickelback) and the entire first season of Clone Wars on dvd
Bailey has (finally!) fallen in love with Harry Potter, so she got the new Harry Potter movie on dvd and the Emily Osment cd she's been wanting (and let me tell you, Santa had a really hard time finding it in the stores around here--they were all sold out!).
Even Charlie got to open his stocking and he had a great time chewing up Santa before destroying him later that day.

Some of the highlights for Bailey this year were some DS games, and a lot of equipment to go with her Zune: her own headphones (so she could give her dad back his), a dock with a remote and speakers so she can listen to it without the headphones.
Some of Cole's highlights were this Star Wars book (which is a complete visual dictionary of everything Star Wars), a new DS (which Santa actually got used since the last DS Cole got two years ago got broken within six months), some games for his DS, and more legos and bakugan.
Lindsay's highlights were a DS (which used to belong to her mom, but she hasn't figured that out), a huge Bobby Jack pillow (that she fell in love with at Bed Bath & Beyond and carried around with her the whole time we were in the store and cried when she had to say goodbye to him--she is seven and not three, right?), and a ton of new Littlest Pet Shops.

I really tried to do less this year than I have in years past, and I think I succeeded without the kids really realizing it (or if they did, they didn't mention it to me). Getting Cole's DS secondhand (and on sale too) was great as was the idea to give Lindsay mine since it was sitting in my drawer not being played with. With as much as I tried to tone it down for the kids, though, Jason went wild in gifts for me, not the least of which was a Cricut expression (which I did find for a screaming deal for him--almost half off), and another Fossil watch. I objected, and tried to get him to allow me to return some of the things, but he's told me it's a reward for working so hard in school this year, so as much as it pains me, I'm going to let him spoil me. The best gift by far though, and as much as it must have pained him to buy it for me, he bought me an authentic Dodger's jersy from the '88 world series when the Dodgers beat the A's through Kirk Gibson's iconic home run, and includes Mike Soscia's name on the back who is my favorite Dodger of all time. This pained him because J is a huge A's fan and we both have such different memories of the '88 world series, and I always remember to rub it in, I mean, I remind him who won. :D There wasn't much for my wonderful husband to open up this year (his computer died earlier this year so he will be getting a laptop, we just couldn't do it in time for Christmas), but I tried to do my best. I found him a new Grinch ornament (I try to find a new one for him every year as Grinch is his favorite Christmas story and has become one of our family traditions regarding the reading of the story and watching the movie every Christmas eve). Cole found him a pin that has a Mr T shaped "poo" on it that says "I pity the poo". This past year J has taught the kids all about Mr T and now has them driving me nuts quoting him non stop, so this was perfect. I also found a book called Chuck Norris vs Mr T and it's all just a bunch of jokes regarding two of J's favorite joke subjects. We had a great time, as always, reading the names off the gifts as one of Jason's family traditions got handed down to our family. We try to find funny and clever names to write on the gift, usually having something to do with the gift itself. Before you get to open a gift, you have to read the names out loud so wen can all get a kick out of it. This has been a really wonderful Christmas season, and I'm not anxious to leave it. I'm so grateful for all that my family has been blessed with, the love that we share and for the sacrafice of our elder brother who made returning home possible.