my nephews and santa

i have so so much to catch up on but first things first,
i had to share this funny photo of my sweet nephews
with santa.  my s-i-l shared with me and i had to repost.

jayden {3} + jamison {9 months}

jamison

i love both of these photos,
but my favorite is the one of baby jamison wailing.
i'm guessing once his big brother wasn't by his side,
he took one look at the big man in red and it was all over.
{i think this is the cutest crying baby photo i've ever seen}

i so want to love on these little guys.
i haven't met the baby yet. 
hopefully in the new year.

christmas 2013

fortunately, not everyone was awakened at 5:30am by finn's piano playing.
aunt jen said she didn't even hear it.

though finn had been up since the crack of dawn,
the rest of us crawled out of bed just before 7am to
witness the chaos of christmas morning.

christopher put the camera on a tri-pod to record all
the craziness, and i had my camera in hand even though
my eyes were still half shut. 
{the mostly blurry photos are testament to my not being fully awake}

finn was thrilled with the space lego set and a battleship to
complement the aircraft carrier he and scout received last year. 
he also loved the harry potter boxed book set he received
along with a few other chapter books.

santa surprised scout with the lego chima sets he wanted
so he was thrilled.  he also received a dinosaur dig set,
lots of new chapter books, his favorite being the city of ember series
from his cousins in utah. {i'm actually suggesting this to my book group
when we get to the young adult genre}. they sound fantastic.

for the majority of the day, we sat around in our pjs,
{the little guys for the ENTIRE day}, but just before we skyped with loved ones,
i threw on a pair of jeans and the cute initial sweater that jen gave me as a gift.
she has a matching one with her intial too. they are super cute - so cute we
want to do a little photo shoot in them.  *grin*
some pictures of our christmas.

the center picture in the collage shows a box of harry potter bertie botts every flavor
bean which each boy received in their stocking from auntie jen. 

as they are both loving harry potter right now, jen was right on with this gift!
i had no idea these even existed.  the boys loved trying to get the adults to eat
the disgusting candies which included vomit and dirt flavored jelly beans.
{scout tricked me into eating the 'earwax' one promising me it was popcorn}. 
it was absolutely disgusting.

oh how i love christmas!

the nutcracker

while my boys were away playing in the snow,
i held down the fort at home and made one last
big effort to get our home ready for christmas.

but before all that began,
i spent friday night at the san diego civic theater
watching the nutcracker with my sister jen,
my friend cathi {from my breakfast bunch},
and her sweet 7 year old daughter lia.

it was lovely.
i don't know what i enjoyed more - the costumes, the dancing, the music.
all these years and i had never seen the nutcracker live before.  kind of sad. 
for many families, it's a tradition - the audience was packed with children and families.  
i vow to take the boys to see as children. 

i spent the rest of the weekend finishing up my christmas shopping,
wrapping presents, ordering our cards, and i even squeezed in these two
holiday 'chick flicks' - love actually and the holiday. i loved them both!
it was truly the perfect way to end a weekend sans my boys.

bring on christmas, this mom's ready.
{once she gets her boys home of course}

christmas wish list: 2013

before christmas comes and goes,
i want to be sure to record what was on the boys' 'wish list' this year.
looking back years from now, i want to remember what the boys enjoyed.

their lists were made about 3 months ago {literally},
and i put them away in a safe place, so safe i can no longer find them.
i remember theem well though as they only had 3 things on each of them:
various forms of lego sets,  specific books, and scout asked for card pack 2
from the 39 clues series. easy peasy.

one thing that was listed wasn't so easy.
ever since the curiosity landed on mars, finn has been consumed with
space, mars and rovers.  he spends hours drawing/designing, building and reading
anything that has to do with space, so i wasn't surprised he asked for this lego set.




















it has a pretty big sticker price, and since his father recently picked up another
lego mindstorm {used from craig's list}, i don't think santa will be bringing this
to the house this year.  still, he should have plenty of new things to build.

i was really looking forward to finn opening this harry potter boxed set
that is being sent to him as a gift, but after our roadtrip to tucson a few weeks ago,
he may not have any to read. {he's on book 4 already}.
i've never seen him so excited about reading fiction.

though i'm sure he will finish book 4 on his roadtrip to utah this weekend,
school is closed after tomorrow through new years so he won't be able to
check out anymore. just a few more days... 

scout still LOVES to read, so he had lots of books on his wish list.
he isn't reading HP likes his brother right now. after the first book,
he was digging around our home library and discovered the hobbit.
he devoured it last week and asked to continue with the lord of the
rings books, which he also found in our little library.

i'm trying to determine if they are appropriate. {he's only 6}
c thinks it's fine....that scout's imagination won't create anything as
scary or dark as hollywood creates. that's for sure, but still, i've been
soliciting advice from teachers, family members and friends who've read
the books just to get other opinions.

ideally i should read the book first or read with him,
but i wasn't a huge fan of the movies and i'd much rather read what
i'm supposed to read for my book group or one of the hundreds of books
on my list. if only there were more hours in a day! 

he's got the roadtrip tomorrow and will want to bring it so a decision has to
be made soon.  =/

well it's late and i still have to pack lunches for the boys, finish packing
their bags and snowgear and i really need to find a photo for our holiday card.
we're behind this year {again}, so it looks lke we will be doing a new year's card.
i'm taking off much of next week so i will have a nice window to get them done.

~ i'm enjoying all the sweet holiday cards that are coming in. it's such a treat every
year to see photos and read letters about what everyone has been doing. 
i just love holiday cards!

holiday head party

i don't think i've ever posted about the annual 'holiday head' party,
but i've meant to, especially now that it's in it's 15th year!

it all started back in 1997.
christopher and i had just moved to san diego from tucson
and reconnected with all the friends we had made the summer prior
when c was doing his internship here.

when christmas rolled around, the group had a party/gift exchange and
one of the guys gave a glass head with a bunch of pencils in it as a gift.
here 'tis and i can hardly believe pier one still has it in stores!

it was such an odd and random gift,
that someone in the group decided to adopt it for our annual holiday party.
at the end of our annual party, our names go inside the head {it's hollow},
and whomever's name gets drawn hosts next year's party.
it is and will forever be known as the holiday head party.

oh, and i can't forget to add that the recipient of the head
must display it in their home at all times until the next party.
as finn pointed out, it's just like the gerber cup
{which i've been known to hide sometimes}
c always find and pulls out to display proudly.

anyway, this past sunday night was the big party,
and because the host welcomed children this year,
and the boys are older, we decided to bring them along.

the gifts given and received were very thoughtful and it
reminded me how far we all go back and how well we all
know each other. we've shared alot through the years.
kate, our newest member of the group, and the girl i recently
ran the half marathon with, was my secret santa.
she surprised me with 4 tickets to the nutcracker!!

i've never seen it live, so i am SUPER excited.
the tickets are for this friday night and though i planned on
taking the boys, i remembered they will be gone.

c decided very recently he wanted to play in the snow with
the boys so he's taking a roadtrip to visit trevor and the family
in brianhead this weekend.

since i still have so much to do before the holidays
{i haven't even ordered our cards}, i decided to send the boys.
also, the nutcracker tickets can't be exchanged, and there was
no way i was missing it.  i just have to find new dates.
jen's committed to being one of my dates.

in the meantime, i've been trying to get ready for christmas.
thanks to amazon, i'm almost done shopping. the boys however,
are more than ready. 

they tell me every day how many more days until the BIG day.
this year, they haven't talked much about santa. i think it's because
finn has some serious doubts.  at 9 years old, i imagine that's normal,
and i wonder when a change will happen.  he wants so badly to believe.
{and i don't discourage it}

i just hope the magic of christmas for him lasts a little bit longer...

occasional morning ritual

finn worked on an project called 'outside the lens'
where he had to photograph things in his life that were important to him.
one of the photos he included in his project was of his morning ritual with
his dad.  if the boys get out the door a little bit early for school, they stop
by the neighborhood starbucks.

c assures me it's not every morning they go for a special drink but they do
go at least once a week.  {i have a hunch it's often more than once a week}

oh how I love my little chocolate lovin' boys.

eat.....drink....and be merry

last night was our company's holiday party
and eating, drinking and being merry was what
it was all about.

with the downturn in the economy,
we'd been staying 'in' the office having catered food
brought it, but word on the streets {in the hallways}
was employees wanted something different SO
my coworker, who is part of the 'events' committee'
planned something at this new casual burger joint eureka.

it was exactly what the employees needed.

to mix things up a bit, tina thought a photo booth would be fun
and was it ever. all the employees - young and old loved it.
here's a few fun photos of us girls being silly.

i wish i could share the one of my boss in a green wig but
i really like my job and want to keep it. *wink*

the little guys were at home with bibiana, last summer's sitter.
they hadn't seen her for months, so they were very excited.
from what i heard, they had 'almost' as good of a time as we did.

gosh, there's so much more to post about. 
it's been a great week.  i got to spend an afternoon with my dear
friend jen, my sis leslie and her hubby were in san diego visiting,
and christi, aka world's best nanny to our family,
had a baby GIRL - elsie.  she's so beautiful!!

so many exciting things  - i've been smiling all week.

~ the stress creeped in today as i realized christmas is just 12 days away
and i haven't really started shopping!  amazon prime = my lifesaver 

where i'm from: finn

as i was filing away some of the boys' schoolwork from last year,
i came across this written by finn:

finn gerber, age 8, 3rd grade



 

and there were two more lines on the back that I forgot to scan. they read:

 

- I am from the small, floating plankton and the colassal

squid eating giant sperm whales.

 

- I am from me!  

 

 

where finn gets this stuff, who knows.

sometimes he is a complete anomaly to me,

so i love getting a little peek into his mind.

 

i don't know much about scorching grounds

and freezing space, but i do know i'm the lucky lady

who gets to parent this beautiful boy,

who fills me with awe and wonderment.

 

several times i week, i stop and think how lucky

i am to not just raise finn, but to know him.

of all the places he is from,

i hope he knows he is from a mother who

loves him more than words can ever express.

 

~ i have a couple of draft posts that i started over the break

that i really need to finish.  a few days after thanksgiving,

i hosted a baby shower for a long-time friend and coworker.

 

then the week got crazy.  deadlines have been keeping me in

the office much longer than i'd like and it's been frustrating.

i was heartbroken when i couldn't take the boys to their annual

physical last week...3rd year in a row christopher has taken them.

when i start to get sad and feel guilty about it, i remind myself to be

grateful that one of us has flexibility in our days.  it's also good for the
boys to see and understand that dads are every bit as capable as moms.
the boys will be better fathers someday for having a father in this role.  

 

christmas traditions: 2013

since becoming a mom, traditions have become rather important to me.
i didn't want the year to pass without recording a few of our family's
christmas traditions.

baking sugar cookies together for santa {and ourselves} is one of them.
we don't make cookies from scratch, we simply buy the betty crocker mix,
add the few ingredients and roll them out.

the fun for the boys is using our many christmas cookie cutters
i've gathered over the years and then covering the cut-out shapes
with as many sprinkles as the possibly can.  
we eat some right as they come out of the oven,
put some in the cookie jar and leave a few on a plate for santa.

another tradition is building a gingerbread house.
i picked one up from trader joe's this year and finn
did a great job decorating it. 
{scoutie preferred eating over building it}

my favorite of all our christmas traditions is the special ornament.
every year, the boys get an ornament that represents something
that was important to them during the year.

since the wizard of oz was the first large chapter book scout read
completely outloud last school year {in kindergarten},
i gave him the tin man, his favorite character in the book.

finn was given a mars rover toy.
i couldn't find a traditional ornament for him and since he studied
mars and the curiosity rover in particular this past year, i had to get it.
c devised a clever way to hang it and finn was beyond thrilled with it.
i made sure to write the year on the bottom of each ornament.

i found myself smiling at our christmas tree every time i walked by it.
the silver and blue ornaments are pretty, but it's the boys' special ornaments
{the ones they make and the ones i've given} that are so meaningful.
they represent the boys, their childhood and their uniqueness.

we spent christmas eve together and this year we
had auntie jen back with us. {last year she was in florida}.
we had our traditional meal of chili and cornbread,
and the boys had a blast tracking santa through nordasanta .

we discovered this a year ago and since then,
christmas eve is more exciting than ever before.
it's seriously the coolest thing!!
where was this when i was a kid?

when santa was just over the cape of south africa,
we got the boys away from the television and into their
new christmas jammies {another tradition},
so we could watch home alone 2.

before the boys went to bed,
finn's note warned us we would be awoken christmas morning
with him playing christmas music on the piano.
he didn't warn us that it would be 5:30am!!  *sigh*

finn's post-it note, 2013





when i heard him the next morning,

i convinced him to go back to his bedroom for an hour

we could all sleep for one more hour.

he said he was "too excited to go back to sleep",

but when i allowed him to go on the computer for an hour,

it gave us all an extra hour of much needed sleep.

i'll post out our christmas day shortly.