Happy Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2006 by carrievoris

Well, by now I’m sure all of you have rushed to wrap all of your presents, attended a Christmas mass/program, tried to get your exhausted children tucked into bed so Santa would stop by, finished final Christmas Eve “preparations”, grabbed a few hours of sleep, participated in the subsequent frenzy of unwrapping all the presents, cleaned up the wrapping from the presents, possibly made a Christmas dinner, or at least stuffed yourself with someone else’s cooking and now…now you are sitting wondering where has Christmas gone? (And that was all just the past 18 hours or so!)

No wonder we all feel so exhausted come December 26th. And now, having done all of that for 2 kids (as my friend Kimmer said) you can truly appreciate my parents and all of the wonderful Christmas celebrations we have had over the years. It is really, really hard work.

But it is done for another 364 days.

At our house, I just got beat playing a Wii game by my 3-year old. Granted it was a game that requires a little rhythm, which I have not one little bit of. But I think all-in-all it was a very successful and definitely fun Christmas. Christmas really does take on a whole new level once you have kids. Emma was so engrossed in the midnite (actually 9:30) mass last night and seeing the Baby Jesus in the manger. She looked so sweet in her Christmas dress and then promptly fell asleep on my shoulder about 15 minutes into the mass. (Reminded me of when Ken would fall asleep every year at midnite mass when we were kids.)

She woke up long enough to put out her cookies, milk and letter to Santa and was asleep pretty much the minute her head touched the pillow. Addie on the other hand was so tired that she was completely wired, so J. actually took her out into the vestibule and she did not fall asleep til we were nearly home.

When we finally got to bed, (like I said – it is hard work getting the “preparations” completed before morning) and I was lying there I realized I felt that anticipation, that sense of not being able to possibly wait until Christmas morning arrived, and I haven’t felt that since I was a kid. But I was just so excited to see the girls’ excitement the next morning, and we were not disappointed! And even better – there was not one mention of the Butterscotch. Well, E. did name her little ride ’em pony, Butterscotch, but she did not seem disappointed in the least that the actual Butterscotch wasn’t under the tree. Hooray! Small victory for Mommy and Santa.

At any rate, we are happy and well and ready for a “normal” week. And I hope you also had an amazing Christmas, got to experience some anticipation, some craziness, some good food, and most of all some happiness with your own families.

Merry Christmas!

Almost here!

Posted on December 23, 2006 by carrievoris

Emma is counting down the days and I am furiously trying to get stuff done and feel like I am ready for the “Big Man in Red” to be here. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day – and we are quickly out of days. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. So instead of writing…I’m going to try to squeeze a little more time out of the next 24 hours. I’ll post pics and stories soon, I promise.

In the meantime…here is another very funny re-enactment of Baby Jesus’ birth to enjoy. (In case you missed our re-enactment from Emma earlier in the week, you can read it here.) I can so totally see Emma doing something like this in about 4 or 5 years. I’m not sure if the story is true or not – I read it on another blog and nobody can get confirmation on the validity, but it is too good to make up!

Enjoy.

———————————————-

[This story came from a discussion forum in the UK… “Tescos” is a supermarket chain there.]

Went to Abigail’s school Christmas concert. Each class did a little something followed by a song or 2. Anyway, Ab’s class did a Nativity scene, with Ab as Mary. A few minutes into their bit Ab promptly lifted her dress & shoved baby Jesus up it. The script then wandered away from what they’d learnt & goes as follows…

Joseph: “What are you doing?”
Mary: “I’m feeding our baby”
Shepherd: “Have you got a bottle up there then?”
Mary: “Don’t be silly he’s having milk from my booby”
Joseph: “That’s disgusting”
Mary: “No, that baby milk they have in Tescos is disgusting. My baby’s having proper milk”
Shepherd: “What’s a booby?”
Mary: “Those sticky out bits ladies have”
Shepherd: “They’re not boobies, they’re nipples”
Mary: “No they’re not, they’re boobies”
Joseph: “So why can’t Jesus have milk from a bottle then?”
Mary: “Because I haven’t got a breast pump with me – you forgot to put it on the donkey”
Shepherd: “Can’t you ask the teacher for a bottle to feed Jesus with?”
Mary: “No because this is the best way to feed Jesus. Anyway bottles haven’t been invented yet & even if they were I’ve just had a baby so if you think I’m faffing about round Tescos to buy baby milk when I make proper milk in my boobies you can think again”

I felt a teeny bit sorry for their class teacher – she did try her best to steer them back towards their proper lines but she was laughing so much she didn’t really stand a chance. The line about Joseph forgetting the breast pump finished her off – she slid to the floor & couldn’t get up for laughing…

Via Hathor

Happy Birthday, Gert!

Posted on December 22, 2006 by carrievoris

Dear Shealyn,

I cannot believe you are 7 years old today! It seems like just yesterday I held you for the first time and you were all tiny and soft and full of sweet baby chub! (I searched for my all-time favorite photo of you “nake-y” on the towel with all of your baby rolls, but I couldn’t find it! I will find it though – and embarass you someday, I’m sure. Maybe for your 18th birthday!) 🙂

Anyhow, I know we don’t get to see each other very much because of the (now even bigger) distance between us, but I want you to know how very proud I am to have you as a godchild. I think you are turning into a very independent, smart, and wonderful girl. I love hearing stories of what you are “up to” and seeing pictures and just watching you grow, even if they are all from afar.

I wish you the happiest day today and a great year full of suprises, learning and happiness.

Love,
Aunt Carrie

Christmas Cheer In the Mail…

Posted on December 21, 2006 by carrievoris

I think it is safe to post our Christmas card now – most people have received it in the mail. And if you haven’t, but you were expecting to get one, well, um…it must still be on the way, or lost in the mail.

So the outtakes are posted on the flickr account, but I was trying to get a fun picture of the girls in front of either the Rose Bowl House or the actual Stadium, to commerate Michigan’s trip to the Rose Bowl on the 1st of January.

As you can imagine, it was a bit more difficult to get 2 girls, looking at the camera with sweet angelic faces, their pretty dresses all spread out nicely with no underwear sticking out, all of their hair lying down clipped back with bows. All right, it was more than difficult – it was IMPOSSIBLE.

So this is the picture we went with this year. An action shot, but I actually decided that I really love this picture. If nothing else you can see just pure joy on their faces as they chase each other. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

And yes – this really was on the Rose Bowl “front yard” – I did not Photoshop it in (but thanks for thinking my Photoshop skills are good enough to do that!). No Photoshopping occurred on the actual photo this year – only the Christmas embellishments were added.

Coffee, coffee, and a little more coffee.

Posted on December 20, 2006 by carrievoris

That is kind of what I’m subsisting on right now.

1 teething, purple Tylenol sticky, up all night toddler = one very tired, cranky mommy.

Any ideas on either how to make all 4 molars come in more quickly, or how to knock her out so she doesn’t care that they are all coming in at the same time?

P.S. Baby Motrin, Baby Tylenol, Baby Orajel, Hyland’s Teething Tablets, Hyland’s Teething Gel, and some sort of homeopathic Teething potion. None of them work. I think they are a ploy to make the parents feel like they are helping, but in reality… they do nothing.

We must be doing something (kinda) right…

Posted on December 19, 2006 by carrievoris

In this very commercialized-Christmas kind of world, how do you teach your children what Christmas is all about? I’m sure we’re not alone in this dilemma, but I’ve been particularly worried about it this year – Emma is old enough to start learning this kind of stuff, right?

So we’ve been working on giving, not only receiving. Making crafts for our loved ones. Making cookies for all of our friends and neighbors. And we’ve talked a lot about the real reason Christmas celebrations were started. And on some level, I thought it was all sinking in. And it has been really fun sharing these little traditions with the girls. (I know Addie doesn’t really have a clue, but she sure does love to help with the baking parts!)

Until this week. All Emma can think or talk about is the stupid Butterscotch pony at Target that “Santa is going to bring me.”

Me: “But Butterscotch lives at Target, there isn’t room for a pony here at our house! I’m not sure Santa would take Butterscotch out of Target if that is where he lives.

E: “It’s ok, Mommy. Butterscotch can live in our living room by the Christmas tree. Santa will bring it to me.

Needless to say, I’ve been feeling a little defeated the past few days. She is obsessed about it. And it is disheartening – especially because I know she is going to be very disappointed on Christmas morning. (BUT, Santa will NOT be bringing a Butterscotch, no matter how disappointed she is. The pony is quite dumb…takes up a lot of room…and costs $249! For a stuffed animal that neighs! I don’t think so.)

So…yeah, I’ve been thinking that maybe the whole Christmas idea was a little lost on her. Maybe she is too young. Maybe next year.

And then there was this afternoon. Somewhere along the line, through all of the talking we’ve done, the books we’ve read, or the DVDs we have watched, Emma learned the real “Christmas Story” and did a pretty good (and funny) job of re-enacting it for me. This is how it went…

Emma was “riding” on one of her stuffed bears into the hallway, with her blanket over her head and another bear tucked up into her shirt.

E: “Bye, Mom! I’m going to Bethlehem.”

M: “Oh, why are you going to Bethlehem?”

E: “Because I am Mary and I’m riding my donkey to have a Baby Jesus be born.”

M: “Oh, how do you know that it is a Baby Jesus?” (I asked this because we have also been talking about Aunt Meesh’s new baby-to-be, and we don’t know if it is a baby girl or a baby boy, yet.)

E: “Because the Angel came and told me that it has to be a Baby Jesus.”

(Fair Enough! I’m slightly excited at this point…something is sinking in!)

M: “Ok, then. Let me know how that goes.”

Then she turns around, lifts up her shirt and the bear pops out and falls to the ground.

E: “Mom! I had a Baby Jesus! We need to wrap him in waddling clothes!”

So we did – well, not “waddling clothes” but an old blanket.

E: “Okay I have to go put him in the hay so the kings can come see him.”

And off she went with Baby Jesus. My little Virgin Emma.

Then, later in the day Baby Jesus became Toto, because she was then playing the role of Dorothy. I made the mistake of telling her to pick up Baby Jesus and she said,

“Mom! That is Toto, my puppy!”

But I at least feel a little vindicated that she knows there is more to Christmas than just Santa.

Lesson for today

Posted on December 18, 2006 by carrievoris

Wow, I’ve been just posting a lot of pictures lately. It isn’t that I don’t have a lot of stuff to write about, truthfully I just need one thing to be “lazy” about right now – so my blog is going to have to be it. However, I didn’t take any pictures today, (I know, I know! There is a first for everything, I guess.) so I will have to write a little bit. Let’s see…what would you like to hear about today? How much teething children suck? How to live on only 3 hours of sleep – for a week straight? I got it…Carrie’s lesson for the day.

Here it is…

Let’s just say the mechanic at the dealer tells you that you are going to need a new air conditioner compressor. And you tell yourself you can live without air conditioning, right? At least until after Christmas, you decide that you are just not going to run the fan at all.

(Here comes the lesson part…listen up!) Do NOT drive the stupid vehicle around. As it turns out, even if you don’t run the fan/heater/air conditioner – the compressor will seize, break a belt, render your vehicle totally useless. Your sweet husband will scramble around trying to find a place to take it, you will end up waiting for a tow truck and then following the tow truck to the service dealer, and then you will inevitably end up paying more than it would have been to fix it only one week earlier.

You’ve been warned.

Random stuff for a rainy day…

Posted on December 16, 2006 by carrievoris

It is raining in Southern California today! Not just a little, either. We had an all-out, rainy, chilly, perfect for hot cocoa, kind of day. It was nice. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same so the girls and I will be baking!! This weather really does help with the Christmas spirit, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

The girls, preparing for the great rainstorms!

Before all of the rains yesterday I took a few pictures of the preparations for the big parade. This is our front yard…

Bleachers as far as the eye can see..

It is going to be so much fun. I can’t believe the parade marches literally through our front yard! And we got tickets for the Big Game, too. (Go Blue!)

And two final pics today – just because everyone keeps asking me. Yes, the leaves (some of them) do change color, and some of them fall off the trees, too. But, remember when I took this picture it was the middle of December and nearly 70 degrees. Even if you miss a little Christmas snow, you can’t beat SoCal weather!

Elmo Winner!!

Posted on December 16, 2006 by carrievoris

Well, we didn’t get very many funny Christmas stories…either nobody wanted to share, or we have a very serious bunch here. I couldn’t decide between the ones we did get, they were all very cute and mostly revolving around kids or pregnant ladies, (which are both pretty funny, I guess) so we did a little name in the hat drawing this morning.

And the winner is….

Michelle B. – who happens to be one of my good friends. Congrats, Michelle – I’m sure you, uh, I mean – little Emma, will love the Elmo. Michelle is actually an amazing cellist and is doing a huge concert this weekend – so wish her luck and go buy her CD!

Thanks to all who indulged me and played along.

My All-time Favorite Christmas

Posted on December 15, 2006 by carrievoris

Okay, so the story of my favorite Christmas is actually a little funny as well, so I will add it to our funny Christmas story contest. Of course it isn’t eligible to win the Elmo. By the way, we’ll announce our Elmo winner tomorrow.

Most of our friends and family know this story already, but this is for any new folk joining us, and of course, it’s good to have the story written down somewhere, you know – for the kids!

So, on with the story. Ahem….well, apparently my memory stinks and we (J. and I) are just debating which year this actually occurred. I am of the mind that it was 1991, he thinks 1992 – at any rate it was a long time ago.

We had gone to midnight mass with my family and were on our way home when Jamie said he needed to make a quick stop at The Station. For those who don’t know, The Station was one of the two competing pizza joints in our tiny little town. Pretty much everyone in town had worked at The Station at some point in their working career. J. had actually worked and managed The Station through most of his high school years, and then again on college summer and Christmas vacations. Oh, and…it is also where he had first asked me out. Yup, behind The Station, next to the delivery door and the dumpster. Totally romantic, right?

So, he needed to make a quick stop at The Station. Remember it is like 1:30 in the morning at this point. (Can you see where this is going?) So fast forward 10 minutes, our song, “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx (Don’t laugh – it was the late 80s when we started going out!) was playing on the jukebox, J. is on one knee trying to get through a very sweet proposal, I’m realizing what he is doing, and am in tears and there is a knock on the door. In the middle of J.’s proposal. So he opens the door and it is the police. Leslie is a very small town, so the police knew us.

Policeman: “Jamie. We saw the lights on. What are you doing? Are you having a problem?

J: “Um…no. I’m just trying to propose to my girlfriend.”

Policeman: (stammering as he is backing out the door) “Uh…oh. Wow. Okay. Good luck. Good night.”

And then J. came back and picked up where he left off…and I said, “Um…OK.” – Nah, I said, “Yes!” of course.

It was by far the best decision I ever made. And the best Christmas, too.

BarelyControlledChaos

Chaos Controlled.Barely.