Resolution

RESOLVE:

1.to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine (to do something): I have resolved that I shall live to the full.
2.to separate into constituent or elementary parts; break up; cause or disintegrate (usually followed by into).
3.to reduce or convert by, or as by, breaking up or disintegration (usually followed by to or into).
4.to convert or transform by any process (often used reflexively).
5.to reduce by mental analysis (often followed by into).

I think it's funny that it means to stick to something AND to break something up. New Year's resolutions are funny that way too. They either propel you forward like a tank of gas or cause you to disintegrate. I rarely make them because I have plenty of resolve without a formal declaration at year's start. My goal this year is to pare down my remaining debit by half (at least). I also hope to ditch the crutches by year's end. Here's hoping.

I have only those resolutions, but I certainly have hopes. I hope the year brings my children wisdom and maturity (I'll settle for a slowing down of fits). I hope we get to travel (even if it's only to theme parks or weekend trips). I hope...hmmm...well apparently my hopes are few. That's probably for the best because "expectations are premeditated resentments."

I want to read more, laugh more and generally feel better. I can't wait to finally eat that stupid top tier of the wedding cake taking up valuable freezer space! I'm a little sad Leeloo will be all grown up this year. In 2013 I will have an 11 and 4 year old, whoa! I hope my car functions more. More date nights would be good too.

I don't feel overly excited to see the year end or the new one begin. I think it's more of that grown-up-ness and contentment. Happy New Year!

Christmas: Crushed It.

Every year we get a little better at the holidays. We failed miserably in more than a few areas when we started. Late presents, no presents, badly timed holiday activities, realizing at the end of a long day we had no idea what we'd eat for Christmas dinner, etc, etc... Every year we get it together a little more. Gaining inches here and there. Last year wasn't bad except for Isaac's heartbreaking reaction to most of his gifts, some last minute DIY finishing, misplaced (temporarily) gifts, and overall stress. We even baked, decorated and then forgot to leave out Santa's cookies last year. On the plus side last year we finally nailed splitting time between our 4 sets of parents in a satisfactory way (which is no small gain). All the gifts were delivered on time and dinner was pretty good too.

This year was pretty amazing. It definitely left last year in the dust. I didn't win the lottery, hire a nanny or find myself suddenly free of all physical limitation (although those would have been great Christmas gifts). I just did things differently. I started shopping for the kids birthdays and Christmas in September which ended up really helping. I made Christmas a full time job (even more than I normally do) for months. I was determined everyone would get nice, thoughtful gifts. I wanted to relax Christmas Eve knowing everything was ready for Santa. I wanted to pat myself on the back rather than dropping from exhaustion while mentally ticking off the list of things to improve for next year. Guess what? I totally did it! I scored free wrapping paper not once, but six times through clever couponing. I got quite a few awesome Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals too. I kept my eyes and ears open and really worked for those nice gifts when they were reasonably priced. I used every resource and most of my energy and got the job done. I snatched up my Christmas roast on sale. Most of the awesome things filling the stockings (Crayola markers/paints, tiny transformer figures, screwdriver shaped pencils, candy, etc) I got on sale with coupons. I was even able to make donations this year: Crayons to the local library and an awesome Barbie and a board game to Toys For Tots! I can't tell you how good that felt.

Despite my requesting we take a year off from our traditional DIY gifts to alleviate day of stress Mike insisted on repeating his coffee project (roasting it himself in gourmet flavors). It was much appreciated, by everyone but me. I had hungry kids in the car looking at books Christmas morning while we waited for him to finish up the label printing so we could go to the family brunch...sigh!

Every gift was thoughtfully chosen, wrapped, sorted into piles according where it needed to go and ready with time to spare. Santa's treats and the reindeer food were out before the kids visions' of sugar plums commenced and I even had the roast and veggies in the crock pot (I opened it Christmas Eve) before bed. In years past I have either failed to get Mike a gift or felt remiss that I couldn't "do better". Not this year, he got a Ninja (like a bigger Magic Bullet), Hugo 3D and an awesome hardware caddy (or as I like to call it a "bits and pieces keeper") with a couple hundred pieces of hardware already in it. All of them were hits.

Speaking of hits, besides replacing my broken crock pot with a larger, programmable one (which I made the roast in), Mike also replaced my broken Kindle with a better one, installed a remote dimmer switch on the bedroom light for me (WOOHOO!) and got me a nice paper cutter. A+ for sure! Everyone loved their stocking hauls this year too (and EVERYONE's stocking was full).

The kids were thrilled with their gifts this year. Expectations seemed much more realistic and before every gift opening event this year we discussed everything we already have and how thankful we are to have it (to try and curb the "Gimmies"). I think they did well. I heard a lot of sincere Thank Yous. If anything, I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the abundance. I know I was. Nothing felt rushed (expect the a fore mentioned coffee labels) and with the exception of dropping one gift out of the box on the way out the door, which Mike had to drive back home to get Christmas morning, nothing felt forgotten. We ended the day with happy kids and full bellies.

Everything seemed to be as it should be.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Photography by Lara Jackson

Christmas Eve?!? Wow. Well here it is folks, I wish you all a pleasant 48hrs. I leave you with Roo and I in our Christmas dresses. Happy Holidays!

Baking Day!

I love to bake! It's just fun and the rewards are almost always worth the effort. This year I decided to make some chocolate covered pretzels for the neighbors. We also decided we had so much fun at our Rice Krispies treat Halloween party we'd make Santa some of those this year. I figured we could use some of the pretzels and make reindeer treats.

Why yes, that is a new apron. A little Christmas gift to myself from Flirty Aprons. Before we could begin Mike had to rig me up a double boiler. I'm told steaming the chocolate from underneath rather than heating it directly prevents burning. I can attest to improper chocolate heating being trouble. Once in college I burned a batch chocolate and partially melted the microwavable mug/bowl I was using. This is what he came up with:

Resourcefulness for the win, eh? The recipe, as you can imagine, is very simple. You need wax paper, shortening, chocolate chips and pretzels. Most of the effort involved is stirring the chocolate (and washing the pan later). We used wooden skewers to stir so we could toss them when we were done. This one was fun for the kids because I let them do most of the dipping. They may not all have turned out pretty but they were very tasty!

I was afraid they'd need to be refrigerated. I don't know about you, but I did not have two cookie sheets worth of space in the fridge. It turned out that 25min on the cool counter top was good enough. Phew! I wanted to pack them up in something the neighbors wouldn't feel obligated to return so I used Lllyods beef and Country Crock side dish counters. I know Martha Stewart would be horrified, but I gussied them up.

A little decorative ribbon, humorous Christmas card and cinnamon stick/vanilla bean go a long way towards prettiness. I think the neighbors were pleasantly surprised. Once those were delivered it was time to make Santa's treats. I used the original recipe.

I made the treats during nap time. It's as easy as it gets: melt butter, add and melt marshmallows, add cereal. The problem is that melted butter plus melted marshmallows equal hot lava that sticks to you. That's way I did that part alone. After it was mixed together I pressed into my fancy muffin tin.

Now I have learned through trial and error (mostly the latter) that kids eat more decoration than they apply to any baked good, ever. So, while decorating cookies after school sounds like an awesome plan, I assure you waiting until after dinner is better. When the kiddos were bathed and pajama-ed we set to work.

I was so proud I posted a picture to the Rice Krispies page on Facebook and they replied:

Kellogg's Rice Krispies: Those are simply adorable, Katie! We are sure they'll help Santa make it through his busy night

Go Team!

Isaac made elves and snowmen as well as reindeer. I find it's best to just let the kids go where their imaginations take them. Liberal use of candy corn in December, why not? A Christmas alien? By all means. Hoestly we're lucky not to have had 6 Christmas squid. I think the results speak for themselves. Everybody picked one to eat tonight, but we're saving the best two or three for Santa (of course).

Not Quite...

Today was not the end of the world as it happens, but if it had been I would have ended my existence on a high note. I was with a great friend, in sparkly clothes, watching a great show and best of all Mike had the kids. Hurray!

It was a spectacle of a concert, Carrie Underwood Blown Away Tour. It was nice to be out. It was nice to have some time off from Christmas craziness too. A break from being someone's mom. A break from feeling sad. It was nice all around. We had lunch first, it was nice to have a whole conversation and no one calling me away from my food.

The concert itself was beyond my expectations. Even the opening act that I hadn't heard of before was good. It was good night.

Train Night 2012

ALL ABOARD!!

We have a special tradition my father-in-law started, Train Night. Every December (except last year when we went to Ice & Snow instead)he sets up his amazing Polar Express train and we bring the kids over to watch the movie. I'm pretty sure the first year it was just Isaac. By the following year we had a 3month old Riley. This picture is from 2010 when the kids were 8 and 15mo. That was the first year they both interacted/reacted to the festivities.

This year we changed things up a bit. We hosted Train Night at our house since we have a 3D TV and Polar Express on 3D Bluray. Mike made Chicken Bryon for dinner. Grandpa and Ya-ya brought the train and desert. We just set up a circle of track on the living room rug. His train has multiple speeds and can go forward of backwards. It makes steam and has whistle and people talking sounds. It's a pretty fancy toy even when it only goes in a circle.

Isaac was even old enough to man the controls this year! It was very exciting for me both because I LOVE train night and because we don't have our inlaws over very often. They are a lot of fun, but also very busy folks. I had pitta chips and hummus and crackers with fancy cheese waiting when they came in the door. I even put on my apron. It was fun. The kids got to wear pj's since they were at home which is more authentic to the movie anyway. My inlaws were impressed with dinner and even said it was "better than Carrabba's!"

I'm just a huge fan of Christmas in general and Santa specifically. We rang the sleigh bell and I could still hear it. I bet I'll still hear it in 30 more years too. If you get the chance to see Polar Express in 3D I highly recommend it. I saw in IMAX 3D in the theater when I lived in New York and it was spectacular. It was pretty great on the 3D TV too.

Roo's Toddler Christmas Party

You can never have too many Christmas parties! So, tonight we did a small party and gift exchange with Riley's school friends.

Riley gave me the gift she made. She also passed out the presents we got her friends. All books for the kiddos as it turns out. Awesome ones, I assure you. There was ornament painting, pizza and silly-ness before we headed home to bed.

Losing People

Sometimes you lose someone and it hurts, but the world starts turning again soon enough. It wasn't like that this time. Sometimes you lose someone and it hurts more because of your feelings about your own mortality than because of their importance to you. This wasn't one of those either. I have lost family and friends before. I have mourned both old and young. This was one of the very rare times where a death blew a hole in my reality.

I think some people shine a little brighter than the rest of us. When they pass and the world is a little darker you feel it more deeply. She was one of the most amazing people I have ever known. We were goofy children together. We never sat around bemoaning the things we couldn't do the world was far too full of things we could do. We understood each other, it is a wonderful thing to be understood at any age.

Even in the adolescent years we were in touch for, there was never angst or drama between us. She was one of the few people I personally know who always had to fight harder than I did. I respect that kind strength behind a smiling face. I respect it because I know what it costs to own that. She had a tremendous faith. She was only ever herself. I loved her.

I was sad not to be with her in final days, but seeing her family again it was almost if no time had passed. As I clutched her mother sobbing she revealed that my friend had even named her pet hamster after me! I laughed out loud through my tears. She would be glad she'd made me laugh in that moment.

Grief is a strange beast. I knew from the moment the news of her passing sucked all the oxygen from the room that my pain would endure longer than it had in the past. Her passing brought childhood memories streaming back to me. Reel after reel of sepia toned silliness. It brought her wonderful family back into my life. When someone loves you that much, even after years of not speaking, their family can't help but do the same. Her passing also reminded me to take a step back and count my blessings. She made her 31yrs on Earth count. She touched everyone who knew her. Now I owe it to her to make the most of my time here as well. I could never hope to do it with the same style, but I shall try to do it (as she did) with faith and a smile.

Do The Pajama Jam!

My friend and I thought we'd give our Mommy friends the gift of watching their kids on a December evening. It ended up being the usual crew, but it was super special to hang out with friends in jammies and have treats! Riley wore her Tinkerbell jammies and we brought an Oreo pie to share. We had pizza and then Mr. M took all the big kids to look at lights so we could set up the train as a surprise. There was pie, trains and some Christmas movie watching before pick-up time.

Forgive the phone pictures (I remembered the pie so, you know...priorities).