Christmas

Christmas Eve day was mellow, filled with card games and Wii, and writing letters/drawing pictures for Santa and his reindeer. Santa had sent personalized video messages for each of the kids, so we watched those together. Tanner was the most entranced by this activity and you could tell he really believed it was from Santa himself. Faith was scared of it at first, but sat on Brian's lap and watched it, even smiling a little as she realized it was just a movie. Jake still wholeheartedly believes in Santa, but he questioned the elves ("Why do they put things in boxes and packaging? It makes me think that they buy the toys at the store instead of making them!") and also the existence of Rudolph ("I don't know if I believe in Rudolph, Mom. I mean, he isn't in all the books and movies and he has a red nose? I mean, why can't Santa use a light?".At 3:30 we put in The Santa Clause 2 and due to the DVD player malfunctioning, we ended up all six of us in our bed upstairs- actually there were 7 of us if you count Milo! We all enjoyed the movie, complete with fresh popcorn.

After a snacky dinner then we opened our Christmas Eve jammies. Mary had made all of the kids jammies for the occasion. I looked stunning in my Mickey Mouse Christmas Feeties and Brian was quite handsome in his Capital High jams that the kids had got for him.

The kids took baths, and then headed back downstairs to open the Family Game. It was a game called Headbandz that Grandma Mary had gotten. Each player wears a headband and puts a picture card on the front of it. You can't see your own picture, only the pictures that other people have. You take turns asking questions to try to guess what is on your head. Faith needed lots of help, but Tanner was KING of this game. He asked great questions and clearly got the deductive reasoning bit of the game. After several rounds of this game we decided it was time for bed.

The kids put out the cookies, milk, and letters for Santa and we put them all together in the boys room- Tanner's mattress moved onto the floor by Jake's bed, Faith in bed with Jake. After about an hour of excited chattering from upstairs, they fell asleep and we went to work on the Talking Princess Oven.

Jake woke up at 4:45 (obviously he takes after his mother in the area of excitement on Christmas morning. I remember waking up that early and then waking Kim up to share in the excitement). The little ones slept until almost six. We brought them all in our bed for a little bit and then let them wake up Grandma (who had already been awake for awhile, I am sure) at 630.

Santa had brought Nerf tag and snuggies for all the kids, and filled their stockings with all sorts of toys, baseballs, books, candy, and assorted craziness. Faith was most

interested in her Pez. We usually take a breakfast break after stockings but this year it was so early no one was hungry yet, so we plowed into the presents, employing the "whoever opens a present picks the next one" strategy. We took a break from the festivities to go pick up Reba (she was at mom's house for the night since she had taken to opening presents under the tree and tearing them to bits during the night) and make pancakes.

The kids played with the things they had opened already-CuPonk for Jake and Tanner, a coloring book and new sharp crayons for Faith. After pancakes and bacon (except Tanner who chose yogurt and sausage... mmmm) we went back to the tree to open more gifts.

Jake's favorite gift was Madden 11- he was sooooo excited when he opened it and must have hugged and thanked Mary about 30 times. I thought he might cry

he was so excited. He also got NFL Football Training Camp for Wii from us, a Mike Lupica book from Grandma Cori, a digital picture frame for beside his bed from Auntie Sue, a dart board from Papa, and some cool new tennis shoes from Uncle Eric.

Tanner and Faith's favorite presents were the Pillow Pets from Quincy and Jessa. They haven't let them out of their sight since Christmas morning- even accompanying us to the airport this morning to drop off Mary. Tanner got a Wii fishing game from us, a build a bear from Mary that has an iPod speaker in it, legos from Auntie Sue, and finger paints/puzzle from Papa.

Faith got the talking princess oven from Auntie Sue, legos (pink, of course) from Uncle Eric, and a Build-a-Bear puppy from Grandma Mary. In the end, they got WAY TOO MUCH STUFF and even tho we vow every year not to go overboard....we did (or, rather, all of the family did!). Christmas Day was pretty mellow, too, culminating with a hastily thrown together dinner of pasta and garlic bread (Note to self: Next year buy the Honey Baked Ham and make the grits!!!).

We were truly blessed by Grandma Mary's presence this year and already miss her. We missed all of the rest of our families and all of our friends in CA but feel grateful to keep up through email, phone calls, Skype, text messages, holiday cards (arguably my favorite part of Christmas!), and even Facebook. Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Christmas Is Coming

Last Friday we took the day off to go Christmas shopping with Mary. We had already finished ours, for the most part, but had to get stuff for the kids from Auntie Sue, Eric, Papa, etc... So fun, shopping with other people's money! We spent the day out- got lunch, Starbucks, hit the mall, Walmart, etc... and had a great time. This week Jake was off school so he and Mary spent most of the time baking and playing cards together. They got a lot of quality one-on-one time together and we benefitted from the yummy cinnamon rolls, cookies, potato salad, spaghetti sauce, Chex Mix, and other treats that they made. Jake has loved the hundreds of games of Go Fish, Old Maid, War, Crazy 8's, and Uno. Plus he has had an almost untiring audience for his basketball moves upstairs. That kid has got quite a layup!

Work was slow with all schools on vacation and scut work all done for the time being so I was able to take it pretty easy- getting presents wrapped during the day, coffee cards delivered to all the "extra" people we wanted to thank, meeting a friend for coffee, and even cleaning out my closet, the kids toy closets, and all of the books. Brian spearheaded that event and even though I nearly cried as I whittled my shoe collection down from 40 to 29 in the end it was well worth it. Bags and bags of crap were donated- two huge boxes of books, several hefty bags of clothes (both of ours), and lots and lots of old toys. The house looks great and we are really hoping to pare down further this year, going for a "simplicity" resolution. If nothing else, we are committing to donating one item for every item we bring in the house. So... if I feel I must have that 7th bathing suit I will need to get rid of one that I already own. If we get the boys yet another shirt, one goes to Goodwill. Hopefully it will help twofold: cut down on our spending for trivial items and also get us to live more simply. After the New Year we also plan on restarting P90X. I was really good until yesterday when I just gave up and decided to put it on hold until Jan. 1. With all the treats around it just seemed sort of pointless!!

We have watched our favorite holiday special twice (Shrek the Halls) and still laugh out loud through most of it- even the kids quote their favorite lines now. Tonight we went out Christmas Caroling with the neighbors- an annual event put on by the Merc. I couldn't believe I got Brian out to do it with us!! He and Faith came home early and had some delicious hot chocolate ready for the boys and I when we returned. Earlier in the evening we had taken some time to drive through the neighborhood admiring the lights and plotting our display for next year. I FINALLY heard my favorite holiday song: Baby it's Cold Outside.

So, all in all, we are all in the Christmas Spirit and ready for a relatively quiet Christmas Eve tomorrow filled with what is sure to be many more card games, some more baking (I am making a double chocolate cheesecake), Wii games, basketball upstairs, a showing of The Santa Clause, family game night (Headbandz anyone?), new jammies, and a "snacky dinner" complete with Lays chips, sandwich fixings, olive bread, homemade potato salad, and spinach dip. It will just be the six of us this year, no turkey dinner and stuffing but lots of time together. Christmas morning will be pretty mellow, too (as mellow as Christmas morning can be with three children under 7 and way too many toys....). I am making pasta for dinner and already have a long Family Nap in the plans for midday, as well as lots of basketball and football on TV :)

I was looking through our Christmas album yesterday and came upon pics from Christmas 2008- we had the joy of seeing so many of our friends and family that year in the Bay Area. We miss you all and send our love this holiday season!

Holiday Triple Header

This last week was the last day of shcool for winter break for both Jake's school as well as the pre-school for the little kids. As such, it was a little bit of a crazed holiday week for us here at home, with teacher gifts, Christmas parties, holiday pajama parties, gift exchanges and performances (and related costuming and make-up madness). But we go thru it and had a lot of fun.

Wednesday was the big day, we had performances at Jake's school during the day and both the little kids had their performances Wednesday night at the clubhouse. Both Grandma's were here and able to go which made it even more special.

All of the kids did great. Jake's performance was HUGE with both 1st and 2nd grades in costume (Jake was a reindeer). He did great and sang along and did his choreography, but did it all in a way that you could tell it was getting to the borderline of "being cool" for him and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last one he really tries all out in.

Tanner was a sheep in his (complete with wool and

a black nose) and did great for Tanner. Performing doesn't seem to be his strong suit so far. He kind of sang along and rang his bell when he was supposed to. He spent most of the performance staring at his teacher to make sure he didn't "mess up" and smiling when you looked directly at him.

Faith is the performer in the family. She obviously LOVED every minute of it. Singing loudly and smiling from ear to ear. I thought she was going to give herself or the poor boy next to her a concussion with her jingle bell, but we made it thru with no major injuries. We had cookies and snacks after each performance and the kids cam home tired from all the excitement.

We are finally finished with our Christmas shopping for the most part (wrapping...not so much), and coming into the home stretch. Jake is off this week while the kids are in daycare so it should be a less hectic week as we head into the Christmas home stretch.

Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Alan Family!

Extreme Sledding

Here's a video the boys and I took of them seldding this morning over behind the Merc. They wanted me to build a jump and think they are extreme sledders, so I thought I would make an X-Games worthy vidoe out of it for them (you know if they had sledding in the X-Games). Anyway, the boys loved it, so here you go....

The Big Dead Tree

We got our tree a little bit earlier this year than last. We went to the house down the hill from us like we did last year, one day after picking Tanner and Faith up from day care. It was a great day to pick up a Christmas Tree, the snow was falling lightly, we had to shake the snow off the limbs of the trees to see which one we liked. The kids drank hot chocolate while mom and dad argued about the various trees.

The guy had a new species of tree this year that we had never seen before. They were very fat

and round which Marisa immediately liked. The one she really wanted had no top though, so I refused on the grounds that they was no place for our angel. There was another tree of the same type that did have a top and after much shaking and deliberation, we had found our tree. We tied it on the roof of the car and headed back up the hill home.

Some things started to become clear about our out of the ordinary Christmas tree pretty quickly as we tried to put it up. It wieghed about double what normal Christmas trees weighed. This meant I had to try to lift it up in the Christmas Tree stand while Marisa anchored it in place. Cori was over and between the three of us we got it up (not straight, but up), only to stand back and see that it looked like it was about to fall over (for the record, it wasn't it just looked that way). So we had to undo it and start completely over. We were able to finally get it straight enough and got it decorated. To be fair it is a very pretty tree once it was up and decorated.

We had our usual snacky dinner with the Christmas music playing while we dug thru the ornament boxes and I gave each child their ornaments

to hang while Marisa supervised the actual hanging on the tree. This was Faith's year to put the angel on top as you can see and when we were done, we had a very pretty Christmas Tree, all ready for presents.

The other properties of our Christmas Tree species have now begun to reveal themselves. Starting with the fact that it drinks about 2 gallons of water a day. I am constantly filling the thing up. On top of that, I'm not sure what it's doing with the water because it's turning browner and crunchier by the day. There is a large circle of pine needles on the ground and it's kind of looking like a sad "hair club for Christmas Trees" infomercial. I'm pretty sure it will be like a Christmas Cactus by the time the 25th rolls around.

Well it was pretty for a couple of weeks anyway and we've already said that we're going to go back to the old stand-by species from now on for our trees. What is Christmas as parents other than the season of lessons learned?

Santa 2010

The Hidden Springs Annual Holiday Party was yesterday at the barn. Hard to believe that this is our 4th one! The kids were looking forward to seeing Santa- well, the boys were looking forward to seeing Santa. Faith was continuing to tell us that she would not sit on his lap and would we please tell him what she wants this year???

When Santa walked in Faith was fine- no running away screaming or jumping into my arms in fear. That was a good sign. We were patiently waiting our turn when Faith started to show signs of anxiety: asking for me repeatedly, withdrawing, no longer playing with her brothers. All of a sudden she broke out in tears and ran into Brian's arms, sobbing. Heaving sobs, the hiccuping kind that sort of break your heart a little. She was terrified. We assured her that no one was going to make her sit on the fat red man's lap and she sat with her head buried in Brian's shoulder for the next 15 minutes.

Tanner and Jake sat on Santa's lap together- Tanner was not going to do it alone! Tanner asked him for a new stuffed animal, Jake asked for a drum set. Brian took Faith up toward Santa and held her as Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She refused to answer but did say "Thank you" when he handed her the present.

They were all excited about the presents they got. Tanner got Toy Story 3 (I see a Movie Night in our near future!), Jake got a Tom Brady shirt and a Hardy Boys book, Faith got a stuffed horse in a purse. They got to make mini-gingerbread houses, paint tree ornaments, and have lots of treats. Both grandmas got to come this year, which was great. I love the holidays and I was reminded this year how little time we have left to enjoy it through the eyes of small children.

Cinderella

In yet another stunning example of how I am doing things with/for my daughter that I swore I never would.... Mom and I took Faith to the stage production of Cinderella while the boys were at the Boise State game last weekend. So sexist- that the boys are at a football game while the girls are at Cinderella. Oh, well. Mom turned 70 at the end of November and one of my gifts to her was a "girls day out". We saw the ad for Cinderella in the newspaper and decided that would be a lot of fun. We dressed up (well.... by Boise standards anyway) and headed out to Nampa. It was really cute- so many little girls were dressed up as princesses and they were selling tiaras and wands (Thanks, Grandma!). Faith enjoyed the production but was half asleep by the second half. We ended up leaving about 3/4 through the show, meeting up with the boys at home for a pizza dinner and early bedtime.

I am not sure what about the "princess" thing bugs me so much. Brian tells me to stop fighting it and embrace the "girliness" and I am trying... But I just don't understand why she wants to dance and do gymnastics instead of throw a ball and play lacrosse. I don't understand the "pink pages" in the Toys-r-Us catalogue and why those are the only pages she wants to look at. Why does she want barbies and an Easy Bake oven for Christmas? This raising a girl thing has me stymied. The other morning I was putting on mascara and Faith came in the bathroom, grabbed an eyeliner or something and mimed putting it on saying, "I'm making myself pretty, Mama!". A little piece of my heart broke there- does she really already have the message that she can only be pretty if she has makeup on?? I know, I am making too much of an innocent comment but,still, it scares me to think of what messages I am sending her by something as simple as putting on a little makeup once in a while. But the messages are all around us, just like the pink pages in the catalogues, and there is only so much we can do to counteract them.

I love having a girl for so many reasons, but one of them is that it reminds me again

and again that some things, some of our childrens' character traits, JUST ARE. They are not the way they are because of something we do or don't do. As much as we tried to not go down the "princess and barbie road".... here we are. In lots of ways we are handed what we are handed, personality wise. I guess that means I give up taking credit for the good things but also get to give up some of the guilt for the bad things! I"ll take the trade-off!

Boise State 1-0

Ever since we moved here, Jake has been asking to go to a "real" football game. His first choice was a BSU game since he knows all the players and follows college football (much closer than me, actually). This year Tanner joined in the fray and they both asked for BSU tickets for Christmas. Since I wasn't about to take them to a bowl game (after Christmas), we explained that they would have to get a present early so we could go to a game before the season ended. Like most kids, they were all over that, so we went today.

We bought the tickets several weeks ago and it was supposed to be the last game of an undefeated, and potential national championship season. But then the night-after-Thanksgiving-game-that-is-still-not-being-discussed happened, and it became just another game. We were both afraid that once Jake found out they lost in Reno, he wouldn't even want to go to this game (Utah State) as it wouldn't really matter anymore. He hesitated and talked about how their undefeated streak was over now. I explained that we would have the chance to be at the first game of the next streak (hence the title) and he was totally up for that.

It has been cold and snowy here all week, so we bundled up, took handwarmers and headed off to Bronco Stadium in the snow today. The game was a little bit of a laugher, BSU 50, Utah State 14, but we had a really good time. Tanners favorite part of the game was the dog that comes out and retrieves the kicking tee after kickoffs. Jake really loved the game, especially as it was Senior Day, and all his favorite players came out and were introduced with their families. Both boys had a blast and left exhausted, promptly falling asleep in the backseat on the drive

home.

I'm really glad we went today as Kyle Brotzman, unfairly labled as the goat for the Nevada loss, was cheered and given a standing ovation when he was introduced as a senior. Jake and Tanner cheered really loudly for him and he acknowledged the crowd. It's been a horrible week for him and I was glad to see the crowd support and show him that he was still an important and loved part of this team. All the senior holdovers that started Boise State out so high in the national rankings this year are leaving, so it will be interesting to see how they fare next year, both on the field and in the polls.

Until then. Go Broncos!

Snow day Philosophy

For working outside the home parents (and probably even "stay at home working parents" now that I think about it) snow days can go either way: they are joyful, on one hand, but are challenging on the other. You get the news and you want to be happy, as happy as your kids are. But the "work" part of you is saying, "Oh, crap! What am I going to do with the kids all day!??!". I know we have it easysince we both work from home, so we didn't have to deal with daycare issues or anything, we just had to adjust our workdays and tag team it.

So, after the first few minutes of "Oh, crap!" I decided that how you handle snow days can really be a metaphor for how you handle life in general. Do you look at it as a blessing? ie: Wow, a whole day to enjoy the winter wonderland with sledding, making snowmen, snowball fights, drinking hot cocoa, watching too many movies, coloring, playing card games, and playing too many video games. Or, do you look at it as a hassle. ie: Ugh! How am I going to entertain the kids all day while also getting my work done?? I decided I really wanted to try to view it from the kids' point of view (half full vs. half empty) and remember that my work that doesn't get done today will just get done tomorrow. Nothing is that urgent. The snow may be gone tomorrow (although it really doesn't look like it...) so we might as well enjoy it today.

We started the day with a trek through the freshly fallen snow to Grandma's house (she arrived

last night) with her half-and-half in hand (she had left it at our house). We spent some time playing there, then came home to shovel the driveway and sidewalk (everyone helped and that actually made it a lot of fun- plus our neighbor and his daughter were outside so it felt so wintery and neighborly to do it together!). Then I took the boys sledding (Faith didn't want to come), came home and made up some grilled cheese sandwiches, then plugged them in so I could take a conference call without interruption.

Now it has stopped snowing and the plows are running and the day is winding down (or at least it feels like it should be- it is actually only 3:00). Faith was just lying on the kitchen floor twirling around on her belly. She looked up at me and said, "Mommy, why is this day never going to end??" So, apparently, she is now bored and ready to get on with real life again. On the other hand, the boys just left with their sleds, bundled up in their winter gear, ready to build "jumps" for their sled hill. As they ran out the door they called back, "Can we make hot chocolate when we get back? And then can we all go in the hot tub together? And can we go to the library after that??" They are still embracing this gift- the extra day off in the middle of a work week. And the more I think about it, so am I.

Thanksgiving (the actual holiday)

Thanksgiving in Seattle was great. The drive was worth it. The three days there included lots of playtime for the five cousins, a snowball fight, snowman building, Wii, a sad loss for Boise State, a trip to the Seattle Science Center, some good food, quality adult conversation time, and a smidgeon of chaos!

We left with a little "house envy"- they are in the middle of a major remodel using a very modern design. Plus their house has amazing views of the Sound from almost every room. Visiting brought back great memories of our Livermore remodel and both of us got a little nostalgic thinking back to the days of weekends spent at Home Depot and tile/flooring places, living in our dining room with infant Jake, and working together to make our house everything that we wanted it to be. But when we arrived home (after spending yet another night on the road, this time in Pendleton OR) we were so so so happy to be home that all house envy vanished and we appreciated our Pumpkin House even with all of its "decorator model" charm!

Thanks Lisa, John, Quincy, and Jessa for a memorable and fun Thanksgiving. But, just so you know, I think we will change our annual visit to Seattle to coincide with a different holiday- perhaps the 4th of July or Opening Day for the Mariners???

PS - the Science Center was very cool. We just had to post this picture of Tanner in the "Camouflage" exhibit trying to be invisible.

Thanksgiving Vacation

We had planned a trip to Seattle for Thanksgiving and didn't really think about changing plans even though the weather looked bad. ( yes, that was foreshadowing...) So we took off Monday morning. We had planned to go up through Lewiston and Brian was going to work there that afternoon, so hotel would have been paid for, but the main highway looked bad so we decided to go through Oregon instead.

We got about five hours Into the drive and the roads were pretty bad so we decided to stop in Kennewick for the afternoon/night. We found a hotel and schlepped the ridiculous amount of stuff through the snow to our room. We got the kids settled in and watched the snow continue to fall. Somehow I had managed to pack snow boots for faith but not the boys. Gloves only for Tanner and no winter coat for myself. Driving was out the question as everyone was sliding like crazy so we bundled up best we could and headed out to Red Robin for dinner- only a three minute walk away. The kids were in hotel room heaven with a unlimited tv and a video games and everyone was In good spirits, if still a bit worried about the driving ahead for the next day.

We slept like rocks and headed out in

the 15 degree weather and icy roads. About a half mile down the freeway the suburban died, it just stopped...in traffic. Brian got it to the edge of the road and tried to restart it to no avail. Well, a bummer for sure ( The week before we had put almost two grand into the car during its 120,000 mile "check up") but luckily we were on a populated road with good cell service so we called USAA roadside help. Hmmmmm. Well the first time I called I got a message telling me to a call back when the weather was better. Let's just say that a car that is totally dead gets really cold really fast in 15 degree weather. Waiting and calling back later was NOT an option.

Our next option was 911 or a cab. Luckily we had great cell service and wifi and by the time I called USAA back and got ahold of someone Brian had located a garage to get towed to. I was able to quickly convince the USAA operator that no, we could not wait four hours for a tow and she kindy arranged a tow truck and a cab which both arrived within 30 minutes, during which time the kids snuggled under their blankets and coats and my toes froze. So, we piled everyone into a cab with carseats and headed to Firestone to await our car, which, we were told, MIGHT get looked at that day.

So, an hour later we called the cab company back and they picked us up with all of our crap and brought us back to the same hotel to wait, now carless, until they could determine cause of problem and fix it. More video games! More tv! More family time In a 14 x14 space! The kids were troopers and we managed to get everyone over to the neighboring mall to get food and invest in snow boots for whatever lay ahead. That joke we had made the night before about spending t-day in Kennewick wasn't really funny anymore as the snow just continued to fall.

We actually had a lot of fun in the hotel - I think Faith will always remember getting the "ticklecups" from laughing so hard- but it was a bit stressful trying to decide if we should carry on to Seattle or go home if, and when, our car was fixed. We got news about 7pm that car was done (1300 dollars later) and we decided to wait till morning to decide which direction to go. Against Brian's better judgment we carried on and made lots of kids (ours and Lisa's) very happy, as well as the adults.

We arrived in Seattle just about 52 hours after we had set out from Boise. A few lessons learned: when traveling in weather that is at all questionable always pack snow gear for everyone, never underestimate the power of video games and portable DVD players, and attitude truly is everything