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.