Unique Like Everyone Else

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!!

We had a lovely Christmas celebration joined by Nonnie and Pop-Pop this year!  It was fun being able to introduce them to and include them in some of the traditions we've developed over the years for our own little family, as well as partake in some of the time-honored ones they created for me when I was a child.

For the past few years we have been lucky enough to be invited to a delicious dinner at our good friends, The H.'s, Manicotti Madness Christmas Eve Supper.

     

They are such gracious hosts and such amazing chefs! 

 

On our way back home, stuffed and content, we drove through one of the most decorated streets in our community.  Almost every house is crazily lit up, with lights zig-zagging across the street connecting all the homes, ginormous candy canes flanking the entrance to the neighborhood, and the story of The Night Before Christmas painted on large signs to read as you slowly drive down the road.  A feast for the eyes, and a definite dose of Christmas Spirit.

 

 

We were all ready to head straight to the "nestled all snug in their beds" portion of the evening when we returned home, but one of Santa's elves had left a couple of packages under the tree while we were out. 

 

New jammies for J-Boy and J-Girl!

 

Christmas morning has taken on a much more mellow tone now that the kids are older and understand and appreciate the beauty and indulgence of sleeping in. Still, they were up ahead of us and quietly went through their stockings, and helped Edward with his.

 

We ate a leisurely breakfast, and then worked on a puzzle that J-Boy got in his stocking while we waited for Nonnie and Pop-pop to arrive back over at our place. 

 

After a round of kisses, hugs, and Christmas morning greetings, we introduced them to our new Sock Monkey that Big Daddy had scored at his office party a few days before.

 

I just love it, and it has become expected that if someone starts up the monkey, it is required that you stop whatever you are doing and come to dance, dance, dance, dance. 

 

 

Once the House Rule was explained, even Nonnie and Pop-pop were willing to play along!

 

 Many lovely gifts were given and received.  Some elicited more excitement and raw emotion than others, but all were good, appreciated, and met with the utmost gratitude.

 

Dishwasher rinse agent for Nonnie
(Yes, "Really."  And, yes, she was happy! 
She and Pop-pop are now SoCal residents
and must succumb to the harsh reality of hard water.) 

 

Coconut Soda for Pop-Pop--a delicacy and difficult to come by
unless you know where to look!

One bottle in his stocking as a tease...

 

...and a box with 8 more!  Next time I'll send the stockboy to the back with a cart
instead of just his bare hands with the instruction, "as many as you can carry."

 A new laptop for J-Girl, which J-Boy was just as excited about so
his sister wouldn't have to share with him anymore. 
In the Spirit ofof the Season, that kid...

 

A bit emotional...a few tears were shed.

 

 And a dream several years in the making finally came true for J-Boy!

 

Santa, so wise, brought a board game J-Boy had never heard of, but has been
proving to be one of his favorite gifts in the lot!

 

And he knew just what to get for his sister to make her smile.

 

Another neat thing that only Santa could know is that a doll can still make a
girl happy, even on the cusp of fifteen years of age.  How does he do it??

 

You can see that we were well looked after, truly blessed, and had a wonderful Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope yours was lovely, too, and that the New Year brings you
nothing but the best in love, health, and happiness in 2012! 

Mutual Adoption

"I'm not a 'cat' person."  I've said it for years.  But there's been a cute one hanging around our neighborhood for several weeks now.  It is clean, friendly, but collarless.  Well, when we first noticed her she had a clear collar with a handwritten, hospital ID-ish number on it.  Then that disappeared.  We all (the neighbors) assumed the owner had removed it.  But still, nobody claimed her.

And yet, she seemed to claim everyone.  "Don't feed her!" I said, when Big Daddy mused over the idea.  "I think [our neighbor] Pearl or Li'l B have seen her eating their dogs' food."  And I've seen her sitting sentry at our other neighbor's garage door, like she belongs there.

 

One day I was unloading groceries from the car, and got the bejeezus scared out of me when I returned for the next set of bags.  As I leaned into the back of the car the cat BOLTED out of it! 

 

 

She came to visit us one sunny afternoon when we were hanging out in the backyard.  Big Daddy was working on his computer and I was crocheting.  She jumped up and snuggled at my feet on the chaise for a half an hour!  (Kinda weird that I let her, huh?  She was so very clean, and we really assumed she belonged to someone in the 'hood because she was so very tame and friendly.)  Then we started to see her hanging out back there on her own.

 

 

So we broke down and put a bowl of milk out for her. 

Which she then began to expect and clamour for.

 

 

It doesn't appear that she's going away any time soon.  She started growing on me.  I said to the kids, "Maybe we'd better name her," and they laughed, and we continued to call her "Cat".  I said to Big Daddy, "I kind of like having this outddor cat."  And he put a hand on my shoulder and said, "I would like to go on this journey with you."  Which cracked me up a) because he's such a dork, and b) because he's "not a cat person" either, especially allergy-wise.  So we bought a Cat a bag of food at Trader Joe's. 

 

And BD, without a peep, disappeared into the garage at some point and emerged with a house for her!  A house!  And she loves it!

 

 

She doesn't go in there all the time.  We're not sure if that's where she warms up at night.  We still kinda think she may spend her nights at her "real" family's house. 

 

We welcome Cat to hang out in our yard, kick back on our lawn furniture, and have a little snack (as long as it does not come out of our pond!) as long as she likes.

 

But she can't come in the house.  Sorry, Cat.  We already have a furry snuggler and my guess is you two wouldn't get along very well...

 

 

Nope.  We wouldn't do that to you, Edward!

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes My Brilliance Astounds Me

We are only two weeks into the school year, and already I am bored with making lunches for the kids.  Especially J-Boy.  In addition to having a narrow palette of foods he finds acceptable or even tolerable, when you add the persnickety/perfectionist aspect of presentation, I am limited even further by what will travel well in his soft-sided lunchbox.  While we've come a LONG way, I can't tell you how many cereal bars I ate when he was under the age of 5 that were "ruined" because they broke in half before he was able to take the first bite.

J-Girl adopted a bento-box style lunch carrier, from Laptop Lunches, a couple years ago.  At first I found the constraints of the hard sided partitions and case to be annoying, but soon I learned to love it.  I can't talk J-Boy into using one, though.  Even with his love of things Japanese.  If they made a digital one, he would probably be into it, for the greatest thing to come out of Japan for him is video games.  If I could download meals to get him some HP ("Health Points" = strength, energy in video games), that would be awesome!

So, back to the boredom...I decided to spread peanut butter between graham cracker squares to change up the ol' PB&J.  When I thought about how they would fare in the lunchbox, though, I pictured a sticky mass of crumbs that would never get eaten.  My problem was that I didn't have an available plastic reusable container that the graham crackers could fit in.

What I DID have, however, was the box that the graham crackers came in! 

 

VICTORY!!

Hat Trick

Big Daddy and I had been feeling...displaced. As in two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. And if TWO things can't, well, certainly FOUR things can't. And when some of those things bring friends over, and then take over the living room with gaming or movie watching, or line themselves up along a couch, each with a laptop (is that weird to anyone else??) then Big Daddy and I find ourselves pushed outside or holed up in our room to watch the other TV.

But we LIKE being around our kids. And they seem to LIKE being around us. We are pleased that they do not hermit away in their rooms. So we decided we needed some extra seating downstairs. We looked long and hard at various sofas, tiny sectionals and chairs. Our space really isn't that big. We eventually discovered that patio furniture can be of smaller scale, is WAY less expensive than indoor furniture, and was just what we needed to solve our issue.

It is a perfect place to read or crochet, do a sudoku or chat.  Tandem-ness, if not togetherness, as this area is separated by a half-wall from the living room.  Here is the first little project I created while chillaxin' in our new nook:

Little hats!

Just kidding.  They are not hats.  But when Big Daddy asked me if they were hats, I had to stick them on something!  I was especially laughing at the R2D2 pez dispenser.  Have you seen The Family Guy's Star Wars Parodies?

I resisted for SOOOO long, and tried NOT to like that show, but I love it!

 

Ok, so they are not hats.  But I'm sure you noticed the lovely paint job in that shot of our room.  The half yellow/half white wall?  We had the house repiped uh, recently, *cough, cough* and haven't repainted yet.  Still, I had to spring into action when I saw this:

 

 Ta-daaaaaaa!!!

 

Protective head gear!  Now I can rest even easier!  :)

 

Hidden Treasure

J-Girl has been a lucky duck.  Neighbor B moved in when she was 6 years old, and the two of them have been peas in a pod ever since.

 

There is another girl in J-Girl's class that lives across the street, and for a few short months there was yet another female classmate who, with her mom, was staying with friends on our little cul de sac, too.  

As kind as these girls are to J-Boy, sometimes including him in their activities or joining him in his, it just isn't the same as playing with his own friends.  We do our best to keep a decent flow of dudes passing through the house on weekends, and he is invited over to their houses equally as much.  But there are times when the envy, the unfairness gets the better of him.  It seems so unjust that his friend-time is something that has to be scheduled, planned in advance, when J-Girl can just wander next door on a whim and, BOOM, half the day--if not the whole weekend--is spent with her bestie. 

The house directly across the street from us went on the market.  It had been a rental, and with every new tenant we always kept our fingers crossed that a nice boy about J's age would move in.  Never happened.  The Palooza's moved in;  they are young, it's their first house, and they only have furry babies for now.  *Sigh* 

What they did have, however, was a house warming party. 

 

And at this housewarming party, among the Palooza's varied guests and friends from work and church, were many of the familiar neighbors we have come to know and love.  But J-Boy was about to strike GOLD!!

 

Hidden "deep" down a flag lot, private and obscured, was a boy, another J-Boy, the same age as OUR J-Boy, and his little brother, a third J-Boy!  (I think I'll refer to them as J2 and Li'l J)  They've lived there for...TWO...YEARS!!!!!!  And did those guys hit it off.  They, of course, all speak the same language (video-gamese with dialects of Nintendo, PlayStation, etc.), and it turns out that when they weren't inside tackling the various villians of our digital universe, outdoor play was done in respective BACKyards, not fronts.  So neither of us knew that the other even existed!  This discovery is HUGE!! 

We owe the Palooza's a big thank you for giving us all a reason to crawl out from under our rocks!  Hip, Hip,  Hooray!!

Playing Catch (Up)

Big Daddy always says, "Life is for living, not recording."  At the same time, he does enjoy my blog entries (I think!) and he definitely likes looking back at old pix of the kids and our long-gone dogs. 
That being said, he has no sympathy for the concept of being "behind on blogging"
and is more likely to pull me outside to play a little catch now and then.

 So, I decided I would do one massive post to catch you up on some of the stuff
we've been up to for the last *gulp* four months, so I can clear the slate
and leave more time for living.

 Leeeettttttt'ssss seeeeeee.......

I had a lovely getaway with my High School buddies

 

J-Boy graduated from his Adaptive Skills/Behavioral program.

 

And he had a Floor Hockey tournament.

 

The kids enjoyed sibling time.

 

 
 

I retaught myself to knit and actually made something.

 

Apparently I cooked some good food, too.

 

We had one set of grandparents come for a visit.

 

And then the other set came.

 
 

And we skyped with Aunt Vicki.

 
 

J-Girl worked on some sewing projects.

 

J-Boy had a pretty big part in the 6th grade play.

 

We almost adopted a puppy.

 

But worried it wouldn't be fair to Edward.

 

We went to Staples Center/L.A. Live.

  

where J-Girl and her buds ice-skated.

 

 

And then cheered on the Kings.

 

from all but the last row in the stadium.

 

Three of us were able to move to a lower altitude to combat severe acrophobia,
the cure for which, who knew, is cotton candy.

    


The kids grew, J-Boy surpassing his older sister,

 

which made us realize how little time there is before these kids are not kids anymore.
We down-sized one of our business ventures.

 
 

And simplified our life so we can enjoy more leisure time together
while we are, still, all together.

Doing things like playing frisbee golf at our local park.

 

 

And while we stay busy living this life that is for living,
we still take time out to record those cherished moments that make
the living of this life so very precious.

 

"I'll be right there, Sweetheart!"  
I think Big Daddy wants to head up the street to shoot some hoops. 
J-Boy's basketball season starts tomorrow.

 

A Time to Wean

This isn't a post about New Year's Resolutions; that post would be titled "A Time to Purge."  No, I realized this morning that I really need to back off on the coffee.

But I LOOOVVVVEEE coffee!  The thing is, I amped up from my 2 cups a day to, well, I stopped keeping track.  All in a month's time.  Because we had company, then more company, and I need the boost to stay up and get blah, blah, blah done, and I'm so tired from staying up late, and I didn't sleep well (hmm), and, and, and.  And this morning, now that  all the hubbub of the Holidays is over and it is back to me being the sole coffee drinker in the house (Big Daddy likes 'em cold and decaffinated, and he's on his own for that) I found myself reaching for The Big Pot.  In which I make 8 to 10 cups, in the morning, in the afternoon, and possibly the evening depending on what's for dessert and who is joining us. 

I stopped myself and realized it was time to get back to routines, that The Big Pot needs to go back into storage.  The house is quieter.  The Christmas decorations are all put away.  There is an emptiness.  But putting away The Big Pot is the act of finality that signifies the Holiday season has come to an end. 

 

Sooooo, I guess what I'm really saying is:  Anyone wanna go to Starbucks?

Watch Out for Yellow Sn...Snow!!!

A few days ago I had started to blog about this:

 

 

But then THIS happened:

  

J-Girl's phone blurted with buzzes as the teen text squad spread the word, "It's snowing!" and J-Boy exclaimed, "It's a miracle!"  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totally!

Happy New Year!
May 2011 be filled with miracles!




 

Mother/Daughter Bunco Night

If you've not heard of it, Bunco is a simple, low-key dice game with a lot of partner switching.  It's really easy to learn, and so simple that it's easy to socialize over while playing.  A group of Bunco players usually consists of 12 players.  I used to play with a group regularly, and one of those women also belonged to a Mother/Daughter Bunco group.  That's so cool, I thought, I wish my Mom lived close enough to be part of a group with me. 

Well, the group disbanded as lives seemed to get busier and busier.  But I always thought about that Mother/Daughter group.  Then I realized something:  I'M a mother!  I have a daughter!  I could start that group!!  And why not?  It's a simple game; no where does it say that teens can't play.  In fact, my Bunco box says "For Ages 7 to Adult."  There is that small gambling element (everyone pitched in five bucks to play).  Mrs. Do-er pointed out that the chance of a monetary prize might be just the thing to pique these girls' interest.  And J-Girl and her friends are fun!  I enjoy their silliness in carpool and at the house, the giggles that spill from them on outings or trickle down from J-Girl's room.  They are a great group of kids, and it is hard to believe that they are a couple blinks away from going off to college, and won't be so big a part of our daily routines.  Yes!  This was a good idea!

Surprisingly, it was difficult to round up 5 other pairs of players.  It seems Friday nights are excellent times for sporting events and school functions, not to mention birthday celebrations or stuck-working-late last minute cancellations.  We ended up with eleven, and I had this penguin stand in for my nieghbor, C. 

As much as I love C, it was almost a nice thing to have Penguin as an ice-breaker.  Having a prior relationship with this penguin, I kept referring to it as a "he", and Neighbor B would pipe up from anywhere in the room, "Hey!!  That's my MOM!!"  It was quite funny, and soon Penguin was having M&M's balanced on his her beak and perhaps even being the preferred partner, as she needed help rolling the dice and keeping score.

All in all, it was a great evening, full on the fun, light on the head injuries.  (Whose idea was it to toss the fuzzy-on-the-outside-hard-on-the-inside dice around?  Oh, mine?  Sorry...)  It would be great if we could manage to get together every month or so.  Are you game?

 

Banner Late Than Never

Spoiler Alert, Sis!  This is a gift coming your way...

I have always admired the genuine love and thoughtfulness that my sister showers upon her loved ones every day, but especially on their birthdays.  She has a way of making you feel so amazing and special and loved and cherished.  Yeah, I'll bake my kids a cake and wrap them a few gifts, but I'll only put up decorations if there is a party and "others" are coming over.  And doing that for Big Daddy?  Fahgettaboudit.  He's lucky if I get him a card. I know, I know--you don't need to tell me how much I suck. 

So, I had this idea when my Sis's birthday came and went in September, and started working on this belated birthday gift that she could use over and over again to celebrate everyone else's birthday.  Am I thoughtful, or what?  I suppose her kids could put it up for her next year. 

 

I tried to get it done for my Dear Niece's birthday in October, but with not dusting my light fixture and ALL that decorating I needed to do for Halloween, the project just didn't get finished in time.  Again with the sucking comments?  Really?  I KNOW!!!  I KNOW!!!  It's just the way I roll.  The way I slowly, achingly slowly, roll...

 

This Happy Birthday banner came out just as I'd imagined it!  I think I will have to make one for our house, too!  And maybe a Merry Christmas one, too!  Fun! 

 

 

I "freehand" single-crocheted the first triangle without a pattern, then went back and counted out stitches and rows to see what I did so I could create the rest of them.  I added contrasting edges by single-crocheting around, then embroidered the letters with chain stitch and attached each panel with a very long crocheted chain.  Easy peasy!  It would be even cuter embellished with some buttons or other crocheted doo-dads.  Give it a try!  Let me know if you'd like the pattern and I'd be happy to pass it along!