Christmas

It was a mellow holiday with just the 5 of us. We went to a movie in the morning, hung out during the day and then started Christmas Eve festivities around 430 with a trip over to the neighbors house for a cocktail and appetizers. They kids played for an hour and we socialized, then returned to our house to do our make it yourself pizzas again. The kids opened their Christmas Eve jammies and their family game (this year it was Spicy Farkle and Quelf).  We also played Clue (The Office version) that I had found at a thrift store while Christmas shopping the week before. Although the kids had no idea who Toby was or why someone named Angela might want to kill him with a Dunder Mifflin trophy in the break room, I laughed the entire time.  We watched The Grinch and then the kids went to sleep together in the bonus room. It was a really fun day. 

Brian's new found love of vinyl brought last minute presents for the kids from Santa: record players and one record for each of their bedrooms. Faith got a rainbow stripe turntable and the Matt Nathanson album, Jake got a black one with Mumford and Sons, Tanner got black with the FUN album. They all got new headphones. They were really excited and have been playing them every day since then. A few days after Christmas Faith asked my why her record only played half the songs over and over again. She had no idea you had to actually physically turn the record over in order to hear the other half of the songs. I find it so funny that in this day of digital music the kids have record players- just like I had when I was their age. I didn't have cool music like them, though. As I recall I had the Grease soundtrack and the Muppet Movie. Actually, to be fair, I kind of want the Grease album for our collection!

Like usual, we spaced out Christmas morning by starting with stockings, taking a break and having a snack, opening a few presents, then getting breakfast started, opening a few more and then eating breakfast, etc.... It was fun and peaceful and the kids had a great time playing with things as they opened them. Faith got a new doll from Auntie Sue and roller skates for her Build-a-Bear from Grandma Mary. Papa got her matching outfits for her and Julie (her American Girl doll).  They all got rainbow looms from Uncle Eric. Jake got UnderArmour gear from Auntie Sue and Tanner got Star Wars legos, the Star Wars movies, and a lego carrying case from Auntie Sue. They both got Air Jordan sweatshirts from Grandma Mary.  Their book from me this year was Harry Potter,  as I know they have just as fond a memory of reading it together this fall as I do.  I was surprised by a present from Jake: he had bought me a necklace I had seen in a store in Truckee when we were there in August. He used some of his own money and then paid Nana back for the rest of it by working around her house a few times.  He was so excited to give it to me and I was so touched.  

The kids present from us this year was a trip to Disneyland. They had no idea. We have never been- well, that's not true... we took Jake when he was about to turn 3. Tanner was 3 months old. It rained the entire time. The only picture we have is of the four of us on the train with Mickey Mouse ponchos (mine is covering the baby bjorn that Tanner is riding in).  In any case, we have been talking about the best time to take the kids, wanting them to be old enough to want to ride the cool rides but still young enough to want to hang out with us- LOL. We decided this is the year. 

We wrapped up three mini Mickey Mouse dolls and the tickets and it was the second to last present that they opened.  I think they were shocked. The excitement took a few moments to kick in but once they all realized that we were leaving on Jan 1, they were pretty psyched.  One of the things in the box with the tickets was a Disneyland vacation planning DVD so we stuck that in the player and the kids got to see what it looks like and got to see a few of the rides. They really didn't know much about what Disneyland is (the product of having grown up in Idaho and not CA???).  Much of the last week has been about planning the trip and also keeping the kids hyper/exhausted behavior in check so that they are still alive to enjoy the trip on Wed. We will be there part of Wed, all day Thurs and Fri, and half a day on Saturday. We bought a planning app called "RideMax" to help us figure out how to get on the most rides with the shortest amount of wait time. Disney in the digital age! We kind of wanted to just go and wing it but everyone we talked to said we have to "have a plan" and use the Fast Pass system and all that, so we'll see how that goes. The last present the kids opened was from Nana who got them all Disneyland gift cards so their souveniers are taken care of! I have a strong feeling that if we compare the time spent riding on actual rides to the time spent shopping with that fifty dollars, I know which one will come out on top! 

Given how much a trip to D-land costs for a family of five, (so ridiculous)  this is the one and only time they will go to Disney on our dollar so we want to make the most of it. We are all excited and the kids are counting the hours until our flight leaves (37).  

We got all of our Christmas stuff taken down yesterday and will spend New Years Eve with Sheila and Wayne- just hanging out at our house with a bottle of champagne and some good music and/or movies. The kids will be in bed extra early since we leave for the airport at 6AM the next day. 

Christmas Prep

As we quickly speed toward Christmas I figured it was past time for me to post about the Alan Family Preparations. With Thanksgiving being so late this year and our trip to CA ending on Dec 1st, we were lucky to get the advent calendar up only 2 days late and not forgoing it all together. Not that the kids would have let us forget about it all together...they love that thing and look forward to it all year. In any case, we got our tree on the 8th (while driving down to Home Depot to pick our our tree we discovered that The Merc was selling trees this year so we stopped, found one we liked out of the 5 they had, and called it good). We decorated it last weekend. The annual "oohing and ahhing" over the old ornaments occurred and the typical stories that surround each one were once again told as we took turns hanging them on the tree.  Our snacky dinner once again included pigs in a blanket but this year I also made homemade asian meatballs (not so good) and homemade jalapeno artichoke dip (yummy). We followed the tree decorating with our annual watching of Shrek the Halls.

All in all a night full of Alan Family Traditions. It was supplemented this year with a brand new Christmas album. And when I say "album" I don't mean mp3 or CD. I mean ALBUM. When we stayed at Sheila and Wayne's house in Oakland last month Brian rediscovered his love of vinyl. Sure enough... Black Friday found my husband ordering a new turntable on Amazon and his new hobby has been born. I found him an old compilation Christmas album at a thrift shop and so we listened to old favorites by Ella Fitzgerald, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Nat King Cole, and others.

Last week we took the kids to Target to do their holiday shopping with their allowance money. They each picked out a toy to donate to Toys for Tots and then shopped for their siblings with Brian and I's help. In the interest of full disclosure and honestly...unfortunately I happened to be at the end of my emotional rope that day (really stressful week at work and other personal issues) and I was far less patient and enjoyed what normally is one of my favorite holiday traditions far less than I normally do. During showers that night I accidentally dropped Jake's piggy bank that we bought for him before he was born.  It shattered and that was basically the straw that broke the camel's back. I LOST IT. The kids were worried by my tears and Tanner, bless his heart, climbed up onto the couch with me, laid on my stomach and patted my head and just kept saying, "It's OK Mommy. You're the best mommy in the world".  He later wrote me a note that included, among other sentiments, the line, "It must be hard handling everything". Hoping a little reality that mommy has a breaking point doesn't send all three into therapy later in life!

Jake's band performance where he played a solo on the bells for Jingle Bells. It was actually a pretty good performance, as far as first year band performances go... but I think my favorite part was watching Jake help and joke around with his buddy, Anthony.  Anthony has downs syndrome and he and Jake have been good friends since the first week we moved here. After the performance Anthony's mom approached me and told me that she had gone in to watch band practice the prior day and had been so touched by how good Jake is with Anthony and she had baked him cookies and written him a thank you note for his kindness.

In the midst of all the festivities, Faith lost her two front teeth. One day apart. So she is now the living embodiment of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth".  She looks too cute... and too old. She also sounds a little lispy!

This weekend Brian and I spent two nights "away" in downtown Boise at this weird little Bed and Breakfast off the beaten path. It honestly took a military-like maneuver to make it happen. And we owe friends and Nana a HUGE thank you for working with us to cover the kids for two days. It couldn't have come at a better time. I feel well rested and much more centered now and ready to hit the last 10 days before Christmas with optimism and joy.  We spent Friday night out to dinner with good friends and then, after meeting up with the kids for Tanner's last basketball game  (where he was on fire and hit 3 layups in a row) and party, we headed out for a full day of Christmas shopping.  Sunday we woke up late and lounged around the room for awhile before heading downtown to try a restaurant called Bacon that we've wanted to try for a year or more. It lived up to it's name.  We followed up breakfast with some used vinyl shopping at The Record Exchange where Brian got me in the spirit of his new hobby. When we got home Brian dug out his dad's collection of 45's and we reminisced and played song after song of mostly 50's and 60's stuff. We found some original Beatles, Elvis, and others that we couldn't believe were in there.

Tonight is the season finale of Survivor. A bittersweet night in that it marks the end of my Wednesday dates with Jeff for awhile....but a great end to a much needed great weekend- 3 hours of pure SURVIVOR. Poor Brian will be hiding in the bedroom.