Who's the Ugliest of Them All?

Finally - celebrating the Ugly.  The Friday before Christmas, Dave and I went to my brother and Sister-in-Law's house for their 3rd annual Ugly Sweater Party.  This was the first one I've been able to make (thanks to a sick kiddo the first year, and then being out of town last year).  I have to say, it was kind of fun shopping and creating our ugly sweaters!

We were especially proud of Dave's upside down snowman (notice the jingle "bells/balls").  I can't claim this as an original, rather it was inspired from Pinterest.  We also found out that someone wore something similar last year... oops.  We weren't there so it doesn't count. LOL

Then we had to get a picture with the hosts...

Yes, my brother is wearing thermal underwear for pants....

There were roughly 25 or so of their friends who enjoyed the apps and adult beverages.

Oh and then the parent chaperones.... Kent is Rana's dad, and then Grammy and GrampC.  Everyone was proud of GrampC because he didn't fall asleep on the couch.  He's known to do this and then Matt and all his friends like to draw on his face with permanent marker.  I do believe that trend started one Christmas here at our house.

There was a contest for the ugliest sweater... plus the "bead" game where you can't say sweater, beer or wine.  And the winners are....

Dave 2nd place, the guy in the middle is the bead winner (his wife gave him her beads) and Jimmy won the ugly sweater (but his was for the pants... there was a discussion about whether they were coral or salmon colored).

I think my brother actually won, but being the hosts, they didn't feel it was right to win the prize.  We came home with some booze.

Santa: Caught on Tape

Is he real?  What does Santa do when he comes to your house?  Will Doodle (our Elf on the Shelf) fly with Santa? These are the things that a 5 year old thinks about at Christmas time.  So we decided to set up a "hidden camera" to see if we can capture Santa's arrival and Doodle's departure.

Here's what we captured: (Doodle the Elf is hidden in the tree, about mid-range.  It's hard to see with the lighting, so look carefully.)

A Day Care Christmas

Drew may have "graduated" from his home day care nearly 3 years ago, but you're never too old to celebrate Christmas with Ms. Stephanie and her present and past day care kids.

Drew is in the back left - some of the kids weren't watched by Ms. Stephanie, but they did have siblings who are/were watched by her or are part of the Preschool where Drew went.

Ms. Stephanie singing with all the kid in preparation for Santa's visit.  Love how they're all screaming rather than singing the various songs.


And finally Santa appeared.  Drew got some presents.

I have to say this was the first year that Dave wasn't Santa, and I don't think anyone figured out who it was - which was the Preschool Director's son...

We always look forward to the very nice dinner and hanging out with everyone, thankfully it's everyone we know.  It'll be strange when the day comes that we won't know any of the parents because we (and Drew) are that old.

Our Little Angel

Two days after the tragedy at the elementary school in Connecticut, there was an emotional Children's Program at our church, and Drew was part of the Angel Band.

 That's part of the Angel Band - grades Pre-K through about 1st grade I think are in this photo. The entire Children's service was grades PreK through high school, so quite the ages spread.

What made this program special for us was that it was Drew's first speaking part!

And here is the video:


What you can't tell by this video is that Drew spoke loudly and very clearly.  His lines were:
"We pause, reflect and give thanks for his sacrifice - redemption's price."

We have some additional videos, but I must apologize for the bouncy photographer. Dave was busy filming and trying to help Drew focus and do some of the hand motions...

Here's Away in a Manger:



And I'll share one final video (we had about 20 minutes of the hour long program on video.  This was their final song - Jubilee.


We followed the service with a Chili dinner and some conversation with Grammy, GrampC and GG who also saw the show. We were so happy with how Drew behaved and performed for the service - especially after a weekend full of rehearsals, he was so over it.

Merry Christmas!

I'll share posts about the Holidays over the next few days (possibly weeks if I don't get my act together).

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from our family (including Doodle the Elf on his last day with us - he's hiding in the tree).

We are blessed with our friends and family - much love to you all.

Sometimes Your Husband is Right

Here is a case why you should actually listen to what your husband says...

On December 8th I ran my fourth half marathon of the year (13.1 miles) and I did so 24 hours after getting over a stomach bug.  Not my brightest moment.  Not by a long shot.  And before I left for the day - he warned me it probably wasn't a smart move.  But I paid $80 and already had my race bib etc.... I just had to do it.  Plus I felt pretty good - even if I knew my time would suck.

So once again my neighbor and I had a 7am race start - this time in Walnut Creek.  Sorry about this photo, I handed my phone to some old guy who had technical difficulties (he was just excited he got the cop car in the background).

So while it was cold and foggy just past the start line, I did pretty well in the beginning.  Especially for not being able to run except for one or two times in more than a month!  I ran the first 3 1/2 -4 miles before starting my run-walk plan.  I was going to run for 4 minutes and walk for 1 minute before repeating.

I did that until I got to the big - and I mean BIG hills around miles 4-7.  The last hill which started around mile 6 was a killer, I could barely walk up the sucker... and it was Foggy!  But the reward at the top was great!

This was after we rounded the corner after the super steep hill - what you can't see is that we're finally above the fog and in the background there's just a blanket of it.  I was able then to run the full downhill portion - roughly miles 7-8 1/2.. in which we ran right back into the chilly, wet fog.

Once I reached the 8 1/2 mile point I went back to my run walk combos, but the 4:1 ratio turned more into 3:2... then into 2:3... until it was more like 30-45 seconds of running for about 4-5 minutes of walking.

Turns out all that running kicked up the tummy troubles... uh oh.

Around mile 10 I found a porta potty and went in not sure which end it was gonna come out... I figured if nothing a porta potty's gotta be good for a little relief.  Well it was a no go, so I decided to just keep going - at this point I only have a 5K left to go.  I figured I'd do more walking than anything.

And that's what I did.  I ran into my neighbor just shy of the 13 mile mark - she finished 30 minutes ahead of me.  Only about 2-3 minutes slower than our race in October.  And she hasn't run once since that race due to shin splints!

My final time was just under 3 hours (2:59:05) my worst time ever.  But this race wasn't about time.. it was just about getting to the Finish Line which I did not before nearly losing my shoe in the mud at the finish line.

My reward - to walk in the door and throw up for the next 13 hours - constantly.  And then have those "other" stomach troubles all day Sunday.  Apparently I wasn't really over that bug....

I was in bed the rest of the weekend, minus the two hours I needed to be at church.  I told Dave the thing he loves to hear the most (and rarely does) - that he was right.  I shouldn't have gone.  It wasn't worth it.

The Perfect Child

I have a bit of a Mommy brag - but I have the world's best child. Seriously.

Let me preface this blog by saying you probably don't want to read while eating...



Let's start with a little background. Wednesday night/Thursday morning Drew woke up in the middle of the night spewing everywhere. This went on every 30 minutes for hours!

Needless to say he ruined his perfect attendance at school that Thursday. I planned to stay home with him in the AM and then head to work while Dave took the afternoon shift.

Trouble is, about 30 minutes before Dave's shift started, this Mama caught the "Drew Bug". So I ended up working from home the next two days.

Friday evening while Dave was making dinner and about 15 minutes after bragging he was overlooked by this illness - BAM!! He spent the better part of the evening into the morning in the bathroom.

So back to me, Saturday I had a 1/2 Marathon scheduled and despite not being able to train due to weather and illness (sinus and other stuff) I decided I'd still go out there and know it won't be my best time... I just wanted the medal. Big mistake. Big. HUGE!

The second I walked in the door I lost it all and couldn't keep anything down. all. day. long. So I was bedridden (minus my runs to the bathroom) and Dave was bedridden most of the day.

Poor Drew was in his PJs all day long left to fend for himself. He did pop into the room looking for attention periodically and we played a couple of games, but for the most part our 5YO was fending for himself. And he was an angel! No harassing. No whining. No complaining. The perfect child.

Thankfully Dave turned a corner later in the day and made everyone dinner (which I managed to keep down). And gave Drew some much needed attention.

Sunday I was still only at 30% but had to take Drew to Sunday School - they are practicing for their Christmas Show and I had to set up the altar (hopefully I didn't share cooties). I came home and stayed in bed the better part of the day.

Dave was at about 75% and took Drew out for lunch and a bike ride to the park - poor kid had cabin fever. When he's home he's been doing his workbook (the picture above). Still never once complaining about anything.

When I picked him up at school tonight, he was so happy I wasn't going straight to bed. He said "mommy I take care of you when you're sick and give you get better powers. Just like you did for me."

See? Perfect child.

Remind me of this story the next time I complain about attitude problems....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cookie Monsters

The ladies in my family were at it again last weekend.... we were a couple of cookie monsters.  Well cookie baking monsters that is.

It's our annual tradition, the first Saturday in December the ladies gather to make more cookies than any one person can consume - ever.  In fact by the end of the night I was sure I was going to throw up if I saw another cookie.

Oh and that's just 1 of three tables and a refrigerator filled with cookies!  I got there around 9:30am (earlier than normal since I skipped my typical 5K) and didn't leave until after 10pm.  I think I pulled the last batch of cookies out of the oven around 9:30, so that left dividing up the mountains of cookies.

With one burned batch - we won't say which one of us did that one - I think we ended up with about 21 or 22 different varieties, some of which were double or triple batches.

This is why I bake only once a year... I don't have the patience to do this more than once.  But it's an awesome tradition that I look forward to all year.  Makes perfect sense right?

Brought to you by your bakers..
L-R: Rana, Mom, Me, GG

We Are Thankful

Every year we alternate where we spend Thanksgiving and Christmas - this year Thanksgiving was with Dave's Family (which means his family has Christmas next year).  So we headed to Los Angeles to spend it with Tata and Abuela. 

While we were expecting not to make the 6-7 hour (non-holiday weekend) drive at about 3am Thanksgiving morning - we managed to get an early start on Wednesday since we both got off work early and I found a killer hotel deal in Bakersfield.  It was nice to break up our trip - even if we were driving with the crazies.

So we pulled in to Tata and Abuela's on Thanksgiving afternoon and we were able to help out setting up and preparing everything. It was a smaller gathering this year. 

That would be our little Jedi  - we brought his "light saber" to LA with us (just the cardboard wrapping tube) but when we got to the hotel and he whacked it against a light post, the light saber came apart.  Tata fixed it with some red duct tape.  Drew is a happy Jedi.

Or is he an Angry Bird Star Wars nut?

I didn't get many pictures expecting to see all the family again on Friday, so the only other Thanksgiving picture I got was Drew with his cousins.

L-R: Drew, Summer, Henry

The kids played so hard together and all had a great time!  I think this was the first year everyone played together as well as they did.  Here's to many years to come!

Dessert anyone?

On Saturday just before we left, we managed to meet up with Tata at the park to get some of Drew's wiggles out.
L-R: Tata, Daddy, Drew

Abuela went to visit family in Mexico after Thanksgiving dinner.  I wish I'd have gotten more pictures, but I guess I was too busy being Thankful for the family we were surrounded by.