Christmas 3 Ways in 3 Days

Christmas 3 ways because every year it is a challenge splitting up the holidays since my parents are divorced I have to keep in mind my Mom, Dad, and my hubbys side of the family. 3 Days because we celebrated the 24th, 25th, and 26th.

 Sooo this year it went like this......

We went to church Christmas Eve with my mom (who declines to be in pictures :))

Vogue

Then we headed to my Mom's House for the rest of the evening. She had treats and goodies to eat, Christmas decorations up and all with just moving in I give her tons and tons of credit. 

Christmas morning my mom gave the kids a really cute book and a barn with animals to go with it~ They have been playing and fighting over it non-stop. I might also add that my wonderful husband made breakfast for everyone and then took Gregory outside to play, this is what they did...

Yes playing in the leaves in December, no cold weather no snow... Oh ya I live in California.... 

When our time came to a close with my mom and brother we were off to Adams parents.

Gregory played outside with his cousins before he fell asleep. Poor guy was not feeling to well but you cant tell by looking at this picture!

Opening his new basketball hoop

I just put this one up cause I liked how my hair looked.

Grace got a new car seat :)

The third way I experienced Christmas was in my heart, where I was with my dad. We couldn't be together this year...but next for sure. He got to enjoy a REAL WHITE CHRISTMAS!~~

The next day we decided that our present to our kids would be an outing with them. 

Can you guess where we went????

Yes we went to go see the dinos out by cabazon.

Haahhahahahaha me in my natural dramatic state

Then we took a drive to Palm Springs, drove around and walked around.

I could have this back drop for my backyard any day!

Random Pic the hubster took

I liked this one.

Elvis Estate

More beauty

All in all it was a great three days.

Overflowing Love

Its 2:50 in the morning

Pitter patter of little feet down the hall

I smile in the dark

Gregory's little silhouette standing next to our bed

"Do you want to get in, I ask?"

"Yes", he says

I pick him up grinning from ear to ear, lay him down

I snuggle up with him, do you want me to kiss you I ask? (He likes his forehead kissed) Yes he whispers

I kiss him basking in the joy that only a parent full of love can

He talks randomly about pickles, and starts to mess with Adam poking him, I smile


He falls asleep, I lay there transported to the time when I would lay with my parents feeling totally secure and protected with not a care in the world.


Overflowing Love is all I feel before I fall back asleep

So Many Posts, So little Time

Sorry I have been slacking off on posting the latest and greatest over at our house so here we go...

Dec 14th 2010- 3rd Anniversary

Let me preface..... No babysitter aka staying your butt at home.....

Sooooo we made the best of it, Adam had wanted to take me to the melting Pot but since that wasn't going to happen, I got a little creative. 

My Fav Wine

 Roses...awww

Love

Using our Rotisserie, is there anything more romantic than cooking together???

More Love

Made Fondue with Havarti, Jarlsberg and White Wine

To accompany our fondue we had hot Italian sausage, rustic French banquette,  lemon and olive oil sauteed broccoli, Italian sausage and pecorino roman cheese ravioli, and apples.

And it didn't come out exactly as it should, but nonetheless delicious.

For dessert Belgian Dark and Milk Chocolate with Strawberries, Pound Cake, Pretzels and Marshmallows. (We ended up celebrating the 15th as well wit the dessert...we were way to full on our actual anniversary to fit it in.)


Amazing Night, Amazing 3 years.

December 16th 2010

Christmas Now. So I said this post was coming, here is how we started making our own memories...

We will be starting a tradition where we bake for Adam's Entire Office...Easier said than done when you are also trying to teach your 2 year old how do make, roll, cut out, and frost the dough. 

Baking Cookies

                                                                     

 He informed me he needed to fix the dough...I said go ahead.

After 5 hours had passed and it was midnight thirty Adam and I were finally done, and tired. 

I love that my hubby can work a 13 hour day and come home help with the cookies, run to walmart to grab some things, come back home and help me clean up.

He was wwwippppppppppped outttt

Another part of our Christmas is it is very important for us to include all our family.Part of our routine will be alternating holidays between the bunch. Year out here and year with my Dad. That can be tricky and it would be great if everybody would congregate in one location but that's not going to happen so we make it work. We stay flexible, and try not to set our ways in cement. 

Another tradition we have will be no Santa. I never in 1 million years thought I would be saying that but here is our thinking...First off in order for this belief to start you must outright lie to your kids. And its not just once but over and over. I was devastated when I found out he was not real and I then questioned if my parents lied to me about anything else. After much pray and consideration this blog post sums it up for us. 

http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/SantaMyth.htm

The Santa Claus Myth Promotes Materialism:

The entire Santa Claus myth is based on the idea of children getting gifts. There’s nothing wrong with getting gifts, but Santa Claus makes it the focus on the entire holiday. Children are encouraged to conform their behavior to parental expectation in order to receive ever more presents rather than simply lumps of coal. In order to make Christmas lists, kids pay close attention to what advertisers tell them they should want, effectively encouraging unbridled consumerism.

Santa Claus is Too Similar to Jesus and God:

The parallels between Santa Claus and Jesus or God are numerous. Santa Claus is a nearly all-powerful, supernatural person who dispenses rewards and punishment to people all over the world based upon whether they adhere to a pre-defined code of conduct. His existence is implausible or impossible, but faith is expected if one is to receive the rewards. Believers should regard this as blasphemous; non-believers shouldn’t want their kids prepared in this way to adopt Christianity or theism.

Parents Have to Lie About Santa Claus:

Perhaps the most serious objection to perpetuating belief in Santa Claus among children is also the simplest: in order to do so, parents have to lie to their children. You can’t encourage the belief without dishonesty, and it’s not a “little white lie” that is for their own good or that might protect them from harm. Parents should not persistently lie to children without overwhelmingly good reasons, so this puts supporters of the Santa Claus myth on the defensive.

Parents’ Lies About Santa Claus Have to Grow:

In order to get kids to believe in Santa Claus, it’s not enough to commit a couple of simple lies and move on. As with any lie, it’s necessary to construct more and more elaborate lies and defenses as time passes. Skeptical questions about Santa must be met with detailed lies about Santa’s powers. “Evidence” of Santa Claus must be created once mere stories of Santa prove insufficient. It’s unethical for parents to perpetuate elaborate deceptions on children unless it’s for a greater good.

December 21 2010

GRACIE IS ALMOST WALKING!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK LITTLE ONE.

Oh and by the way, I never understood people who said :oh just wait till they are walking.... I love that they are walking its soo much fun. I would rather chase than carry any day. 

ok my time is up....Ciao for now....

Stargazing

Adam and I love anything and everything about space, when we had cable we would always watch anything to do with it and basically learn as much as we could. The last time my Dad came to visit us he left us with an amazing laser. It is so high powered you are able to shine it at the stars and and actually point them out as well as constellations! (No more following someone else's finger) lol.

Every so often we like to go outside when the kids are in bed and stargaze, we are learning about the constellations. Some we know are:


                                                                          Triangulum

"The "Triangulum Spiral (M 33)," a nearby galaxy 2.7 million light years away that under ideal conditions can be seen with the naked eye..."  http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/tri-p.html

The 7 Sisters

The cluster is dominated by hot blue stars, which have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, when it will have dispersed due to gravitational interactions with the spiral arms of the galaxy and giant molecular clouds.

http://www.crystalinks.com/pleiades.html

Polaris

The North Star or Pole Star – aka Polaris – is famous for holding nearly still in our sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. Polaris is not the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as is commonly believed. Polaris is only about 50th brightest.

Still, this star is bright enough to spot even from some suburban skies. In a dark country sky, even when the full moon obscures a good deal of the starry heavens, the North Star is still relatively easy to see.

Best of all, Polaris is readily found by using the prominent group of stars known as the Big Dipper, perhaps the northern hemisphere’s most famous star formation. To locate Polaris, all you have to do is to find the Big Dipper pointer stars Dubhe and Merak. These two stars outline the outer part of the Big Dipper bowl. Simply draw a line from Merak through Dubhe, and go about 5 times the Merak/Dubhe distance to Polaris.

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is a massive star as well. It may contain as much as 20 times the mass of the sun. Because of its large mass, Betelgeuse is a star that will run through its life history fairly quickly. The star has already consumed the bulk of its hydrogen fuel in the core and is on the way to stellar graveyard. Betelgeuse is losing mass at reasonably rapid rate. It is estimated that within a few hundred thousand years Betelgeuse will eject about one solar mass of material.

http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/betelgeuse.html

Orion's Belt

The proximity of the three stars in the sky is an illusion. In fact, the stars at either end of the Belt, Alnitak and Mintaka, are the closest together in space, Alnitak being a little over 800 light-years away, and Mintaka 100 light-years farther off. The central star, Alnilam, is much more distant than either of these, lying on the edge of the Orion Molecular Cloud, more than 1,300 light-years from the Sun. Alnilam is also easily the most massive and luminous of the three stars, so that despite its greater distance it still shines more brightly than its two companions. 

I just love looking into space, I mean it is always there and we forget to look up and gaze upon Gods marvelous creation. How beautiful it is!!! Here are some amazing pictures from the Hubble Telescope

I also was able to share a very special moment with Grandma Josie (Adams Dad's Mother) the other day. I was at her house at night and I was able to show her some stars and constellations. She loved it and so did I. While with her that night I realized how important it is to make an effort to make time for family. To bridge the generational gap.

Christmas Then....

When I was growing up Christmas was always at my Grandma Mimi's house and it was done to the nines! On Christmas Eve we would have a fire in the fireplace, make cookies from scratch, decorate them, make all kinds of yummy goodies, go to church and listen to an amazing man sing Silent Night, then head off to The Young's for a fun gathering (The Young's are my Mom's childhood friends Mr. and Mrs Young had 8 kids in 10 years!!!!!!) When we got home we would write our notes to Santa on a tissue paper and send it up in the fireplace to the North Pole. It was so magical as a child because the fire didn't burn the paper it actually carried it up the fireplace. Then we would set out carrots for the reindeer's, cookies and Milk for Santa, watch old movies, sing Christmas Carols, listen to my Grandma play the piano, and finally head off to bed, the anticipation just about killed me every year. Sometimes my Aunt would even jingle the sleigh bells and ask us if we heard Santa fly by, it was soo fun.

Finally the morning arrived, I remember it like it was yesterday, my cousin and I would wake up and there would be a sheet over the entry way to the living room where the tree was, we were FORCED to eat breakfast first... There was no rushing to get to the gifts, you had to eat, and this took a while since again, everything was made from scratch so it had to bake, or cook, or fry or whatever, :) but it was a llllooong time to wait when you were 7. Once that was all said and done, one of the adults would ever so carefully remove the sheet and we had to walk out patiently no running (even though I knew I could have ran up and down the walls I was so amped) the sight was always magnificent! The tree decorated beautifully, stocking nice and plump, presents from family, and from Santa (He always used different wrapping paper), I basked in its glory. Finally time to open the gifts. Now let me just say the way in which we opened presents was someone was "Santa" and would hand someone one gift to open and then it was another persons turn to open their gift, there was no rushing, tearing gifts open one after another, no frenzy. Def. something I didn't understand at 7. We were also taught how to be gracious for anything we received, no matter what it was you thanked whomever gave it to you got up and gave them a hug. After the presents were opened we would check out or stockings, there was always a tangerine and gold chocolate coins, and lots of other goodies but those were my favorites.

I still have that stocking my my mom made with my name stitched into it. ---Sorry having technical difficulties uploading the photo---

I love the memories I have of this time of the year and wouldn't trade them for anything, but now with a family of my own its time to make new memories.



Next Post...........Christmas Now.....