Christmas Memories



Christmas 2012 has come and gone. The tree has been put away and Bo is taking down the outside decorations as I type. I am still trying to clean up and get things back in some type of order but I suspect that will take a while. It was a good Christmas.

 

 

I found out that I am going to be a Great Aunt during the holidays. Aren't Great Aunts supposed to be old and wear aprons all the time. Mine were. Bob and Sarah are expecting in July and everyone is very excited about that. That poor baby will be rotten.

 

 

We went to church Sunday and while we were getting ready, Emma was coloring. Check out the glasses and teeth. No, we didn't let her wear that to church. We might have if we could have gotten away with it.

 

 

 

On that note, we have been looking for a church for several months now. We left our church in March and have not been going anywhere regularly. We have visited a new church the last two weeks and really enjoyed it. There are several Asian adoptees in the church that are Emma's age and we were really excited about that. Everyone made us feel so welcome and it had a really good feel to it. I don't know if that is the church for us but I know that of all the ones that we have visited it just felt right. I am excited to go back.

 

 

 

Here a some pictures from over the last few days. I have more on my new IPhone and will attempt to figure that all out. I have not been on the whole IPhone wagon, but I think that I may be on it now. I feel so 21st century.



 

My sweet and nutty nephew Ben with my kiddos. They love Ben and I think he feels the same.

Pap, Nanny and Ashton. Pap and Nanny have 7 grandsons total, 6 that they actually see and one granddaughter who thinks she is a boy.

Christmas morning at approx 8 a.m. (which is very late for our kids) I hear this little excited girl in our bedroom saying "Momma, Ho Ho, toys, choo choo train, close you eyes, come on, come on." I think she had looked down the steps and seen her train and she was adorable. She was so excited and couldn't wait to show us what she had found. She also went over to the fireplace and checked out the plate that she had left for Santa and told me "food all gone". I don't know anything about those Oreo Truffles that were left for Santa.

Ashton is a huge Duke fan and loved his hat. He also got a Duke phone case and Tervis mug that he is enjoying. Somehow, I managed not to get any pictures of Brady. What kind of mother am I?

We headed to Bo's parents house after opening presents at home and Emma had to help with the dishes. I love the way she is all bent over helping.

Emma loved Giggee's new Nativity scene. I am not so sure she is getting the whole meaning of it all and there was some action packed moments between baby Jesus and the wise men, but she was loving it.

Thanks to Pop and his diligence, our daughter is the proud owner of a Snowbird hat and gloves that he won after being the winning caller. Apparently there are not as many people calling at 4:30 in the  morning as there are in the afternoons when I am always trying to win money.

Emma is loving her Pop and his new toy. I love this picture.

Our girl loves Popeye. I don't know exactly why and even how she got in to it, but she loves him . She draws pictures of him and pretends to be him and whenever she and her brothers are fighting she yells for her spinach and I magically give it to her and she wins. Well, Gig found her some Popeye spinach for Christmas and it was a hit. She also got a remote control car from Aunt Pam that she loves. She is a menace with it, but she loves it.

 

 

So now it is back to reality. I am heading back to work tonight and Ashton is in a ball tournament for 3 days. Brady, poor baby, had all of his wisdom teeth removed yesterday and he may be a pitiful little thing right now. His jaws look like chipmunk cheeks, made worse by the fact the he shaved his beard a few days ago and now his face even looks more babyish. Say a prayer for him, he isn't the greatest patient, but he is doing pretty well. He has told me thank you repeatedly while I have been taking care of him. Emma was all on board to take care of him and was patting him and babying him yesterday. It was all good until he had an episode of vomiting and I heard her exclaim "Ooooh" and that just about did it for her. I couldn't help but laugh.

 

 

 

I hope your holiday were good and that the new year ahead will be the best yet.



Trying to Catch Up

I realize it has been forever since I posted to our blog. Bad momma, bad momma. Or it might just be BUSY momma instead. Just like everyone else, trying to get ready for the holidays and it feels a bit like running in quicksand, although I have never actually done that.

 

 

I am almost done with Christmas shopping and I am sure that I have missed something. I have managed to make 3 batches of Chex Mix and test them all, leading to a rather weird headache, blurred vision thing yesterday that I suspect my have been sodium induced. We have not gotten our Gingerbread House made yet, nor our cookies, nor our Oreo Truffles. I am hoping to manage to do that today in between laundry and praying that my sore throat and cough disappear. I did not ask for a cold at Christmas!

 

 

We have also been battling a serious case of Eczema. My poor girl has been absolutely pitiful with red itchy patches all over her legs and arms. We have tried just about everything and finally one of the friendly docs that I work with gave me a prescription for a couple of things to use. I am anxious to see how she looks when she gets up this morning.

 

 

Brady arrived home a week ago and his first semester could have been better. I am not surprised by this. I don't mean to sound negative, I just happen to know him better than anyone else. He is changing majors and anxious to start something different. He has been given a stern warning about next semester and in the words of Forrest Gump....that is all I have to say about that.

 

 

Emma visited with Santa yesterday. She didn't want to sit in his lap and I didn't get a picture because it is basically a racket when it comes to those Santa pics. Let me say that Santa's helpers were right there to make sure you didn't snap a picture of your own. He asked her if she wanted a doll baby and she told him she wanted a choo choo train. That ain't good. There isn't a choo choo train in this house so I was caught off guard on that one. I explained to Santa that she wasn't much on dolls and really prefers cars and swords. What can I say?

 

 

She is excited about Christmas this year. We have discussed what the real meaning of Christmas is about and she doesn't really understand that. We had a rather heated exchange in the car a few weeks ago about baby Jesus being born in China. I gave up and decided that if she wanted to think He was born in China, then I was okay with that. I happen to know there are a lot of great things that come from China and the best of all was sitting in my backseat at that moment.

 

 

I am extremely proud of Ashton who scored 16 points in a ballgame last week. He was beaming and it was the shot in the arm that he needed. My mom was listening on the local radio station and I think she was beaming more than anyone else. I don't have any pictures of that game because once again, bad momma.

 

 

 

In the last week, I, like so many others, have been filled with a profound sadness over what happened in CT last Friday. When I heard the news, all I could do was sit and cry. I had been sleeping and Brady came home and hugged me so tight. When I asked him what was up he told me I needed to see the news. All I could think about was my daughter being dropped that morning at school, just like all of those little boys and girls. I pull up every morning and she hops out after giving me a kiss and I never really think about her safety. Let's be honest, we shouldn't have to. Our kids should be able to go to school and feel safe and I suspect that will never be the same again.

 

When I picked her up on Friday afternoon, I just squeezed her so tight and kissed that little forehead and thanked God that my baby was coming home. Since then, I have prayed for all those parents who didn't get to pick their little ones up that day. Life is crazy sometimes and there are no answers. All I can do is pray for those people, including the family of the young man who was disturbed enough to do what he did. The Mental Health system is a mess. We see it on a regular basis in the emergency department.

 

 

 

I am sorry to be a downer, but when I was posting these pictures today, I just couldn't help thinking about all the events of the past week.

 

 

Emma enjoyed holding her new baby cousin at Italian Christmas. I really don't know if he felt the same way or not.

 

 

 

 

She has been watching a lot of Christmas programs and dressed herself as Santa. I am not so sure about the Rollo had, but she looks adorable.

 

I might have stolen the snowmen idea from my friend Melissa and sharp sticks are probably not the best idea for kindergartners, but the snowmen were a hit.

 

See that powder sugar face. Oh yeah, they were a hit.

 

Painting her Christmas tree. Notice the tongue out, working with such determination.

I could never teach. NEVER. NEVER. But watching Miss Savannah with these kids just makes me smile. Look at all those faces looking up at her. They just worship her and you can tell that she loves them so much. She is amazing and I am very thankful that my daughter is having a great year at school.

 

They all exchanged books this year and that was such a good idea. Everyone seemed so happy and Emma is loving her princess book. Of course, she would have loved one on cars, tractors, swords, super heroes, etc.

 

 

There is a good chance that I won't post again until after the holidays. Let's face it, it's a given! We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and can remember the real reason for this special time. That baby that was born in a manger, whether in China or not, that eventually gave His life for us all. 

 

Look Who Emma Found

I don't think it could be possible for a child to be any more excited about Christmas than this girl is. She is excited about every yard she sees that has decorations in it. Needless to say, when she came home Wednesday afternoon and daddy had decorated our yard, she was beyond excited. She told me "Close my eyes" and so she closed her eyes, and when we reached the top of our driveway, she screamed out with pure joy. It just melted my heart.

 

She couldn't wait to show Brady when he got home from school on Friday afternoon. She did the whole "close your eyes" routine with him...after he had driven right past the decorations. He played it off well and acted like he had never seen any of these things before.

 

I suspect this Christmas is going to be one of the best. She is at the perfect age and is so excited about everything. She is constantly singing her version of Jingle Bells...which I have to record for every one's listening enjoyment.

 

We have been busy this week planning for our annual Italian Christmas gathering which we had last night. We have also had ballgames and working and speech, etc. Last weekend we were able to to go to see Brady march at the last home ballgame. It was a big rivalry between the teams and luckily Middle won the game. Not so lucky, one of our players suffered a major injury and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance after the staff properly placed him on a spine board and took all of the precautions necessary. During that 20 minutes that it took to prepare him, you could literally have heard a pin drop in the stadium. EXCEPT for the words of a certain little 5 year old girl who kept saying to me "I can't see Mama, what's wrong, he need a Bandaid". Remember, my girl can't hear without her hearing aids and she didn't have them in, so she is like any other person and talks louder than she should. I am pretty certain they could hear her on the other side of the stadium. I just kept telling her that he had a bad boo boo and was going to the doctor which only brought about more talk about Bandaids. Thankfully, I have tried to follow up on the player and he did suffer a neck injury but has regained feeling in his legs and was able to walk with assistance this week. He will never know just how concerned one of his fans was.

 

 



Helping Daddy Rake Leaves

Let the Games Begin

Well, it's that time of year again. Ashton had his first basketball game of the season last night and they won big. I have to say that I am ready for it, although when your kid plays basketball it seems like the season never really ends. 

 

 

He had a total of 4 points in the game and NONE of those came from free throws. Needs to work on that area of his game. (Like I am some expert.)

And Emma is ready for it to begin too. She was in heaven last night. She helped me in the concession stand for 2 hours and aside from the occasional mishap she did pretty good. And she also got to see one of her favorite basketball buddies, Mr. Jesse Wayne. She loves him!

Another Tooth Gone

 

Well it took some serious convincing but she finally let me pull the other loose tooth. Considering that her permanent tooth was pushing it out, it was about time! 

 

 

Just making herself right at home on the bar watching her movie. Life is so GOOD. And my bar is such a mess!

Out of the Mouths of Babes....

Emma and I go to speech every Wednesday afternoon. It's our routine. Until now...because I am pretty sure that I may NEVER go back.

After speech yesterday we were on the elevator and there was a rather large lady on there with us. I hadn't really noticed her until Emma said "Look momma, a big belly" and pointed that sweet little one fingered hand at her. Then she said it again and again. Did I mention we had been at speech and that her speech is getting more clear and that I am pretty sure that the lady understood her. I looked at Emma with my sweetest most likely to kill you smile and said something like...."what, you are so silly, I don't understand you....." Oh, but I did and I am pretty sure the lady did and now I have to change my routine. Either that or find a really deep hole and jump in it.

While we waited for our car I explained to Emma that it isn't nice to point at someone and say things like that and that I am pretty sure she hurt the lady's feelings. Emma buried her head into my shoulder because I think she understood but wasn't exactly sure what she had done wrong. So we have some things to work on...lots of things. But I know that she was just being a kid and didn't realize that she was saying anything hurtful. I am pretty sure that when she realizes that she is "different" she will never be one to hurt anyone's feelings. If we could all learn from that lesson the world would be a much better place.