Great Finish

In all my excitement about our renovated front entry back in October, you may not have noticed that there were a couple of things missing in the photos at the end of the post...things like a handrail, kickplates, and a triumphant guy who did a great job. I will be the first to admit that I thought those things would be added to the picture sometime around 2020, or whenever we decide to sell this house...but I WAS WRONG - Chris got everything together and finished the project on his own - in the same year as he started it! Many, many, many kudos to him for rebuilding our front stairs. They're even better than I imagined they might be!

Vernors supplied by Fraukow & Family...another display of Great Gift Giving!

Birthday for Days

Momo & Opa give each of their grandsons a Prince-for-a-Day Adventure on their sixth birthday - a day the boy gets to spend with MoPa all to himself, filled with adventure! As the youngest grandson, Lars has heard tales of adventures from his brother and cousins and has been looking forward to his own adventure for months! After breakfast, he got to open his Adventure Kit...


A travel cup/snackholder, for sustenance while exploring the world.


Sunglasses for UV eye protection and major coolness.


And, of course, a map for planning the adventure route! He also got a compass that Opa taught him how to use, so they could be sure they were going in the right direction.



Lars decided to head East and South, to visit Lucy the Margate Elephant who sits at the seaside on Absecon Island. Lars got to walk on the beach and collect shells, have french fries and ice cream and play games. He chose not to stay overnight so his adventure ended with takeout Thai food at home with everyone. The next day, he got to celebrate AGAIN (lucky kid) with lunch at Chuck E. Cheese and a special trip to choose his own two-wheel bicycle! He, Momo & Opa took the new bike for a spin in Duke Island Park, which has a great bike path.


On December 30th, his actual birthday, Lars got to open his last presents - Magnetix, a searching book about castles (Lars adores finding things in pictures), a story by Suzy Kline, and Fillmore to join his new collection of the Cars vehicles. All in all, a fantastic birthday!

"I've NEVER Liked Chocolate!"

The desperate cry of a kid who's had just a little too much of everything is universally recognized and any parent can tell you that the more absurd the statement, the more the kid needs a nap. Considering that my kid is nearly eight and still boiling that his temper fit resulted in his being left out of the afternoon excursion with his dad, brother, and grandparents, I'm guessing he will not actually take a nap...but I'm hoping a couple of quiet hours will at least give him a chance to cool down. He's gotten bored with just about everything except scowling for the moment and I'm considering a mission into the other room to confiscate all the books I can easily see, in hopes that he'll read one I don't scoop up just to spite me.

2-4-6-8...Let's Sublimate!

Chris and I justify our Omaha Steaks purchases by agreeing that we would otherwise be unable to provide the kids with such fine, interactive lessons in sublimation :

Merry Christmas!

The kids were SO excited that Santa came! Lars was ecstatic to get THE BIGGEST BOX. They were both fairly sure that it would contain ALL THE STARWARS TOYS...but were happily surprised and excited to find a SweetHands Stickhandling trainer instead. We set it up in the driveway yesterday and all had a go before the rain. It's put together in the lab now for daily use - they were down for a while this morning already!


Ross got the HEAVIEST box this year, a Thumler's Tumbler for polishing his growing collection of crystals and special rocks.

All in all, a great day and we have lots of new things to play with together this week!

Christmas Eve

Chris' family has a tradition of giving one present on Christmas Eve. Here are pictures of the kids getting fabulous books (and a sneak look at our usual fireplace):




And here's our fireplace after Santa worked his magic! With a nod to Navilyn, I'm charging the camera in anticipation of an exciting day tomorrow!

Gramma's Mixer

I was very pregnant with Lars when my Gramma died - too close to my due date to risk a four-hour drive north into the snowbelt, even though I knew it might be the last time that whole side of my family would be together. My aunt lived in town and called me from Gramma's house early on the day everyone would arrive to ask if there was anything I wanted from the house - she said she'd save it aside for me since I couldn't come up myself. In a moment of divine grace, I asked for Gramma's mixer, and it was mine. I honestly have no idea why I thought of her mixer. At the time, I was working full time with a commute that was an hour each way on a good day. Chris was also working and we had nearly two children - barely time to think, let alone cook...but there it was, the one and only thing I could think of that mattered to me.

That spring, we made a trip up to Syracuse to visit my aunt and a few cousins that were around and I got the mixer. My aunt reported that she had her work cut out for her in saving it for me as it turned out EVERYONE wanted Gramma's mixer! It was mine, though, and still is. In the years since, my life has changed a lot. Our work situations are different, which both forced and allowed more homemade meals. I've discovered I like to cook and bake and have gotten pretty good at it. I wonder sometimes how much of it is practice and how much of it is Gramma, stationed near her mixer, helping me figure it out.

Amen, Sister!

Fraukow wrote about her holiday woes and totally understand! It makes me grouchy to decorate and undecorate for the holidays...so I generally don't do much. I prefer to spend my time doing something WITH my family. I might feel differently if I worked fewer hours, but I abhor the commercialization of Christmas anyway so I sort of think I wouldn't do that much more.

We haven't put up a tree this year - it just seemed too too much to deal with around everything else that's been going on. We did get the chimney swept but still can't use it, so I'm planning to put our tree skirt on the hearth and spill presents out of the fireplace, which I think will look festive.

Our holiday plans are centered around our house this year and will feature a couple of guests, a couple of great meals, and (hopefully) a boatload of good memories. Chris' cousin Geri will join us tomorrow for a few days and his parents will come down on the 26th. On the 29th, we'll have some friends for dinner because I'm having a psychotic need to cook a turkey (I think it has to do with Fraukow's Hot Turkey Salad). Lars turns six on the 30th and then we'll celebrate NYE at Chez Stoll before tumbling into 2007.

As for presents, my own theory may be viewed as rather anti-holiday but it's heartfelt and based on these thoughts:

• I like to give presents to people I know and care for.
• Giving a Great Present makes me feel better than giving something just to give it.
• A Great Present is good to give (or get) on any day.
• Some of the best presents I've gotten break the rules of present-giving (like 'never give a woman a purse'... :) )
  

In support of these thoughts, I've been trying to Give Great Present for a while now. It sometimes means I suffer moments of doubt - this fledgling theory still needs quite a bit of working out - but I think it will be just the thing to ease my holiday stress. I think Fraukow will see a great example of a total hit AND miss when Lucas gets his present - I should have brought it up for him to open at Thanksgiving, but I suffered doubt (didn't want him to be without something to open at Christmas...) and didn't. In retrospect, I should have followed my gut and given it to him then - it was totally the right time. Ah, well...I think I learned something about Giving Great Present and I hope he'll like it for a long time anyhow.

Holiday Mystery

We moved in to this house at the beginning of December in 2003, so it was reasonable that year that a lot of holiday cards were delivered that were not meant for us. Our postman has had this route a long time and I'm sure he redirected many such cards before we saw them but I still recall putting "no longer at this address - please forward to..." for the people we'd bought from or "return to sender" on the ones that were not for them (they only lived here two years or so). In the years since, we've only gotten one wrong card that I recall...but we get it every year. I remember it because the return address is a town I've never heard of otherwise (Vincennes?). The family to whom it's addressed hasn't lived here in at least twelve years, by our reckoning. We've been here three; the people we bought from two; the family before that, seven. The name on the mystery card doesn't belong to any of the people that we know have owned this house. Each year, I've marked the mystery card, "Addressee unknown - please return to sender" and each new holiday season, another card shows up. Thinking that whoever sends them gets no greeting in return makes me sad each year, so this year I've decided to mail the note back to the sender myself, enclosed in a note explaning that those people don't live here. I hope it's better for them to realize they're using the wrong address than to think they've been being ignored at the holidays year after year?

Confused Baby Pokémon

R: YaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYai... !!!!!
L: WHGDgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdg (*gasp*) WHGDgdgdgdgdgdgdgdg... !!!

R: (over the din) And then you see me and you don't know who I am! YaiYaiYaiYai... !!!!!

L: (over the din) And so I WHGDGDGDGDGDGDGDGDGD!!!

R: YAIYAIYAIYAIYAIYAI... !!!!!

M: (yelling to be heard) What ARE you guys DOING??

[sudden silence]

R: (in very practical voice) We're baby Pokémon having an electrical battle because we don't know if we're on the same team and we're losing all our lifepoints.

M: (now curious) What happens then?

L: (also practical) We jump on each other and wrestle.

R: YaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYaiYai... !!!!!
L: WHGDgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdgdg... !!!

Smells Like...

It smells like snow today. Visual inspection of the outside confirms the possibility of snow and - more certainly - the kindergarten is having a Pajama Party, so Lars will be heading out in his pjs...and that's just asking for some white. I've got Irving on standby, if somebody is going to sing today I'd rather it be Irving than Chris. :P

SQUISH

In my Birthday post, I did not list the present from my OB/GYN which was a script for a baseline mammogram (I'll bet she knew nobody else would give me one of those). My sister (who reminded me that I should get a mammogram done this year) will be glad to hear that I went to have it done! While I won't bore you with specifics, my summary review is: Office process, painless; Procedure, OUCH. For next time, I'm contemplating a stiff drink beforehand with a ride to and from the offending appointment...

Morning Conversations with Lars

Lars: Mama, are you afraid of the devil?

Mama: Not really, but I try to always be a good person so that I won't have to ever meet the devil.

Lars: Oh, because you know he's right here.

Mama: He is?

Lars: [picks up foot and points to bottom, near big toe] Yes, right here under your foot.

=======================

Each week, Lars makes a little book for school. He has to highlight his wordwall words in the text, color the pictures, cut out the pages (four to an 8-1/2 x 11 paper), figure out the page order and staple them together. He reads the book at home a few times, then brings it in on Friday for a class activity. He usually cuts each paper in half and then each half in half to get the quarter size pages. This morning, as he was cutting the second page, he suddenly broke out his radio sports announcer voice, "I'm going to make a sudden turn! Look here! It's coming up! And now, with my scissors, I'm...goooING...TO...TURN! I did it! I turned! Did you see that? [holds up page with one quarter size corner cut out] Mama, it was AWESOME."

Getting His Game On

Ross, waiting to start a game on Saturday. His ferocious game face needs a little work...

In Which Ross Becomes Insanely Jealous and Portland Overtakes Hawaii as his Next Desired Vacation Spot

My recent trip to Portland had a delightful surprise ending - dinner and a show with a regional manager and his wife, who found themselves with a spare ticket on the day (their daughter couldn't make it). We ate in a cute little sushi place that had conveyor belt service - you can either select something right off the belt or call out your order and the sushi chef will make it up and send it your way. I thought it was a novel set up but conveyor belt sushi is apparently not uncommon in the Northwest and is rumored to be quite a popular method of dealing with service in small spaces in Japan. At dinner, I told them how much Ross likes sushi and how I thought he'd adore making his selections off the belt. Sure enough, when I made it home and described the place to Ross, his eyes lit right up and he declared that we NEED to go to Portland so he can eat there! Hawaii used to be his dream vacation spot but conveyor sushi service seems to have pushed Portland right to the top of the list. To his future wife, I'm sorry (!) ...but Portland is a pretty nice place to visit.

Shiny Happy People

Home at last! The boys are in a great mood this morning (they must be happy I'm home, too) and are celebrating vocally. Lars walked around for a while jubilantly reciting:

Hickory, dickory, DOCK!
The mouse runs up the CLOCK!
The clock and then
Hickory, dickory DOCK!
...

Ross treated us to a great Kevin Bacon imitation (including vocal pot clangs) on his way in for breakfast:

Whaddya got? You got a POT? (clang) SPOON? (clang)
You got a Pot! Spoon!
Rythym tune! (clang clang)

Both of them are now running around singing:

I see a Hiiiiiiiney
What's nice and Shiiiiiiiiiney
I see a Hiiiiiiiney
That's nice and Shiiiiiiney
Shiny hiney!
...

Ahhhhh...it's good to be home. :)

Lights Out

Coming back from the group dinner last night, our driver cruised right on by the hotel. I noticed when we passed Starbucks and when everyone else agreed that the hotel was surely behind us, the van got turned around and we headed back into a eerie darkness. Where was the hotel? Exactly where we'd left it, only completely without power due to the storm. The hotel had someone stationed in the entryway, prying the automatic doors open as people approached. Inside, a camp lantern lured you to the front desk, where they were handing out glo-sticks to those without their own source of light. Room keys were rumored to work but there was a working fireplace in the bar if you didn't want to sit in your room in the dark. Most of us opted for the cozy fire and, after a bit of cajoling, got the hotel to open the bar too - they didn't want to serve alcohol in the dark, in case we might bump into things. After pointing out that we were going to bump into things anyway, they relented and we settled in before the fire for an animated discussion about the emergency lighting in the hotel. We're SUCH party animals.

Portland

Things every business trip features:

* Impossible hours
* Missing my family
* Conference decor in every possible non-color

Things that separate one business trip from another:

* Personal driver pick-up at the airport, particularly at 9:50pm local time (1am body clock) when I am generally not inclined to lug my own suitcase around.

* Mint Milano cookies and chilled water waiting in my room, along with a note thanking me for being a Platinum Member (I welcome Mint Milanos anytime).

* Dinner includes a wine tasting featuring some surprisingly good local Oregon vintages and some fantastic food.

I will be glad to get home on Saturday!

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Heather did a nice holiday photo retrospective and I thought I'd follow her lead. My rendition is a bit spotty, as it turns out we don't have digital pictures from some of the years...you'll have to remember or imagine those years on your own

Christmas 1998, our last without kids:


Two weeks after Christmas 2000:


Christmas 2001:

Christmas 2004 (it looks like Ross just got a stocking full of coal but he was just practicing teenage malaise a few years early):


Christmas 2005 (I couldn't get the kids to stand still concurrently, so all the pictures I have from this year are of them separately or are terribly blurry):


In preparation for holiday pictures, Lars gave his own bangs a trim - can you tell?

Another Exciting Episode

Welcome back, folks, to another exciting episode of 'Let's Get A Group Shot!' While it might seem that technical support made an unfortunate musical choice, the tunes were actually all in their heads; no music was playing at the time of this photo:

Here, we see them following the 'sit-still-for-one-minute' request:


And, finally, Lars taking matters into control. He never did figure out what the other three were doing in the photo above, so he decided to squash them all - a tactic that has been working well for him over the last five years...why give it up now?