Christmas Church

Last weekend we made it to church (finally!) and it was grand. Abby had a wonderful excuse to wear the Christmas outfit that Grandmama had gotten for her. The kids sat with us through the service and did pretty well (except for the periodic request "to play angry birds, PLEASE daddy!" Her favorite part of the day? Going up and down the stairs afterwards with her pal, Gracie.

I was, of course, just thinking about every persons hand who'd been on that railing and how sick they were. This is what happens after a month straight of someone at our house having snot running down their face and finally getting a reprieve. This is quickly always followed by "take your vitamins!" "where are the probiotics?!" and "eat your brussels sprouts!"

Fordy wished he could be running with them...

509. the gift of the magi

510. amazon prime

511. hearing "mommy! I'm so thankful for you and daddy and fordy!"

Lacing

As the Christmas insanity draws near, our girl has taken up lacing. Who knew it could be so much fun? I guess it's when you lace up some hand-me-down brand new purple "puuuuuurple" converse with yellow laces.

As for Ford? He still just loves to eat things. Even Elmo phones.

504. a grand day at Disneyland (pictures to come!)

505. family we love

506. imessage on my new phone

507. finding groupons the day they expire

508. a tv successfully mounted on the wall

Sugary Sugar Cookies, Sugar!

Although we didn't go see Santa while Grandma was here, we did do something super special -- Abby's first attempt at Christmas cookies! They were (thank you, Alton Brown!) the best sugar cookies we've ever made.

See Abby licking her finger in this picture? Perhaps it's because instead of rolling out the dough on flour, you roll is out on powdered sugar. Yep. Insane. Which meant 9000 washing of hands during this process.

Doesn't Grandma look like Mrs. Claus?

"Now wait till I get it ready, Abby..." which never worked. She was always trying to sneak dough no matter how many times we told her to wait.

Now push it down like this...

"And then move them over to the cookie sheet..."

And waiting to eat them, was, of course, the hardest part. We couldn't even wait to frost 'em. Those little snowmen went down the hatch before we could blink.

Don't worry....Grandma still got plenty of time with Fordy...

501. dressing the tree. again. (don't ask).

502. a full, 5 hour night out - knowing hubby could handle every minute of it

503. opening the mailbox every day to discover new cards! i love this time of year!

Shatterproof Christmas

While my mom was here, we were supposed to go see Santa. Until Abby said she didn't want to. Hmmmm. After all that talk about her wanting him to cut his beard, I guess she's holding out until he does. So, instead, we went to Home Depot. A terrible replacement. But somethings needed to get done! Grandma had the brilliant idea of buying shatterproof balls for the bottom of the tree. Brilliant! I would've just spent the rest of the month arguing everyday with Abby about why she "can't touch those pretty Waterford ones."

She was obsessed with hanging each one just perfectly...

Fordy watched cheerfully...

And at the end of it all, the tree ate Abby.

Followed by she and Red taking a well deserved nap.

498.making our own Christmas traditions

499. Righting wrongs

500. figuring out the morning nap and it stretching for 1.5 hours

There's No Place Like Home

While I was putting Ford to bed last Wednesday night, I started to hear some crazy gusty wind outside. Granted, our house is noisy and it often sounds like someone is jumping on the roof when the temperature outside changes drastically... so I didn't think much of it. But later, when Abby and I were reading in her room, one of her windows which had a slight crack in it started to break even further because of the wind. I grabbed her and put her to bed in the playroom when we lost power. She was asleep in about 2 minutes, totally fine with the howling wind just outside the window, the lack of usual white noise and her parents acting a bit freaked out.

Most people in Pasadena were prepared for this, but since I live in a hole and never, ever get to watch the news (it's way too graphic for the two year old eyes!), always listen to kid songs in the car so I can have some peace and quiet and only have time to check my email when online, I had no idea what was coming. The next 12 hours consisted of some Auntie Em type stuff, up to 100 miles an hour at our house. At one point, we were afraid that our large sliding doors might shatter they were shuddering against the wind so often. The good news? Grant and I got some quality time together, loudly talking over the crazy wind outside. It was funny how after awhile, we got used to the noise. Still freaky, but we got used to it.

My mom arrived the next day - we still can't believe her plane could land -- and we spent that day and the next night without power, our temperatures dropping more each hour. That night Grant was up stoking the fire every hour and trying to keep the place above 58 degrees. At about 4am, our power came on, while the folks just across the canyon from us had their power out FOR FIVE DAYS. Five. Days. For every single one of those 5 days, we were so very thankful that we had power, warmth and the smarts to make Christmas cookies. Many of our neighbors lost trees, had damage to their homes and when we drive through Pasadena, a week later, we still see hundred year old oak trees toppled from the roots. We've still got a lot to clean up around here... but relatively speaking, we're doing pretty good! Thank you for your calls and emails to see if we were okay!

The day before we lost power was a lovely day. Abby was blowing bubbles...

Rubbing the bubbles all over her hands...

Got caught in the act of putting the wand in her mouth ("Mom! My lips hurt!")...

and ironically, like Dorothy, sporting her sparkly slippers. Hopefully she was thinking "there's no place like home."

And the look I love....that glassy eyed stare that comes after lunch when she's ready for a rest.

495. a fireplace that works and actually puts out heat

496. a stack of wood that had been delivered a week before

497. the perfect timing of grandma's visit

Itty Bitty Goes For A Ride

Before the crazy windstorm almost blew us all away (more on that later)... we spent many an afternoon, as you know, hanging outside. We had really warm weather before a few weeks ago. Then we had a crazy cold snap.

Abby decided that Itty Bitty needed a ride on her bike. I walked outside to find this...

And then Abby decided to join her.

There's Fordy... back around the bushes tormenting Red the dog...

Is she still back there? (love the tongue on this one...)

She spent the rest of the ride worrying that Itty had fallen off. Don't we all do this? Worry while we should be looking ahead? Yes. Yes, we do.

But there are Itty's feet. Perfectly dangling off the back.

You'd think the boy would be getting a tooth with all that drool....

But no. Not just yet. Those cheerios will have to wait.

The pears and peas and carrots and sweet potatoes and avocados and yogurt and bananas and rice cereal are in full swing, however. (Whew. This introducing food thing is tiring!)

492. electricity. oh, my ... how thankful i am for electricity!

493. our sliding door not shattering in 100 mph winds

494. knowing exactly where the candles and flashlights were (a first!)

Elmo Calling

Abby now loves toys that she can pull around. Isn't that a one year old thing to do? Anywho... this ancient telephone is her recent fav. I had it when I was a kid and it was a gift from my big brother. I'm shocked that this wins out over the Elmo cell phone. Here was her conversation today...

"Mom. It's ringing."

"Hmmm. It's still ringing."

"Mom! It's Elmo! Hi Elmo!"

"Elmo? What you doing?"

"Elmo? I'll talk to Santa for you. Okay, Elmo. Bye!"

Book of the Week : Curious George Goes To The Hospital (or "Hopsital" as Abby says)

489. not being in the hospital for heart surgery during the recent storm (we know someone who was!) 490. electricity! 491. windows that withstood our 100 mph winds the other night