Monthly Archives: December 2012

Out with the old…

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So. 2012.

Really you weren’t so bad. Or at least you didn’t start off that way.

January we stayed busy in Spain with Three King’s Day, Puerto Sherry, and eating at my favorite 100 Montaditos.

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February was Mckenna’s Rainbow Birthday which was SO much fun to do and a day trip to Vejer de la Frontera.

The 'new' part of the town.

The ‘new’ part of the town.

March brought basketball, homemade hot sauce and a scrapbooking getaway for me.

The girls!

April was a super busy month for us with an ER visit, beach days, Easter, zoo trips, children’s theater, goat farm, hosting my first bunco and FERIA!

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May was even MORE feria, Mother’s Day, a trip to the bee farm and a photo session from one of friends!

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In June Omar reenlisted in the Navy, I had my going away lunch at work, we celebrated Father’s Day, took a day trip to Portugal, I graduated, and we had our last week in Spain.

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July, oh July. We left Spain (and left part of my heart there), moved to Hawaii, saw tragedy in Colorado, went to Hanauma Bay for the first time (of many!), and the kids started school!

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In August we finally got to move into our new house, hit up the North Shore, snorkled, got a Harley, and swam with a sea turtle for the first time!

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September. My month of woe. We spent some time at Kaneohe Bay, Omar turned 5, and we found out daddy was deploying. Daddy deployed.

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October saw more beach days, bird rescues, the end of my football season, a month down of deployment, a port call in Malaysia for Omar, and a great Halloween for the kids.

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In November we hit our four month mark of living in Hawaii, Mckenna made it to regionals with her robotics club, we elected Barack Obama for a second term, my husband got older, I got older, I hit my one year blogging anniversary, we hit our 11th wedding anniversary, and the kids and I spent Thanksgiving in California.

One. More. Bite. Of. Pie!

In December we lived through another tragedy, I baked WAY too much, took a million pictures of the kids at the beach, threw a party, and had a wonderful Christmas.

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2012 it’s been real. Peace out.

Happy Christmas!

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Surprise! We spent Christmas Day the exact same way as everyone else, but I am going to throw some pictures up here anyways!

stockingsChristmas morning, kids were up at 7am (two hours earlier than they have been up all Christmas break!) We do things a little crazy here… Stockings are at the breakfast table and the kids sit and open stockings and we eat breakfast before diving into the present opening. This makes sure mommy has coffee, we aren’t starving and we can relax and enjoy the gift opening. Bowser even got a stocking this year and was very happy with it!

We then had a bunch of this action:

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Gift opening is such a traditional family thing. I’ve been talking to some friends this year and it’s really amazing all the different ways that families open their gifts on Christmas morning! I keep all of the gifts hidden, including the ones sent from family, the only gifts under the tree before Christmas were some I had received. Then on Christmas morning there is the big surprise reveal with a mass of gifts all mixed together. Then everyone opens one at a time so we can all ooh and aah over each gift. It can take awhile, especially when we have a big group of our family together. One Christmas it was my mom and dad, two brothers, my sister, my aunt and her two boys, and the four of us. You couldn’t see the floor in my moms living room and we were opening presents for HOURS. But I love it. We get to relax and it isn’t a mad rush of tearing through the gifts in 10 minutes.

Anyways, all of this eventually led up to my gift that Omar had sent me that I was saving for last. I really thought it was a pair of shoes because the box was just the right size:

cameraNope, it’s my new baby girl! I was SO surprised and wish he was here to give it to me in person! I am in LOVE with this camera. Although I am still such a sentimental baby that I can’t give up my Canon quite yet. I have had that camera for FIVE years, we have been, literally, all over the world together! It’s like an extension of my hand! Switching from Canon to Nikon is a little crazy, got to figure this new one out but so far I am having a blast!

We spent some time the rest of the day doing some cookie business, well the kids did anyways while I made a big ol’ dinner just for us.

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Dinner was great, well that mac and cheese could have been better. Mckenna got all dressed up and put on some of her new makeup courtesy of Mimi! I got a huge kick out of this dumb little Lego figure I had picked up for Omar’s stocking. You didn’t know which one it was going to be and it ended up being good ol’ Hamlet with poor Yorick. Perfectly suited for a five year old, right? I, however, love it!

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We had a really good day with just the three of us. We were missing daddy BIG time though. Glad that this is one more big holiday over and done with and we can cross it off the list! Just counting down the days!

 

 

Christmas Eve Eve

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I’m ready. Really 100% ready. Gifts are wrapped and ready to be put under the tree tomorrow night. I finished getting everything I needed for Christmas dinner, and my final task of finding new pajamas for Christmas Eve.

I’m ready as I can be but so not in the Christmas spirit this year. I LOVE Christmas, usually I am just so overwhelmed with things I need to do I can’t enjoy it, but right now I am done with everything. Trying to keep the kids happy and entertained, and just not feeling it. Our family isn’t whole this Christmas and it just sucks. So I’m trying to throw my pity party and still keep it fun for the kids. It’s been crafts, outings and treats non stop around here. I still need to bake some more cookies to hand out and some sugar cookies for them to decorate. Another batch of bars bars along with Russian Tea Cakes and jam thumbprints.

Today was a trip to the local ice skating rink. Mckenna had been wanting to do it for awhile and I figured hey, right around Christmas would be the perfect time to go. I have to say I was freezing my butt off in there! I think they said it was 58 degrees! The hoodie I was wearing wasn’t cutting it. I stayed with Omar while he skated/slipped/fell around the kiddie section. Mckenna was off on her own in the big rink. I wish Omar had liked it more, he just couldn’t get the hang of it and got frustrated. It wasn’t the magical trip to the rink I had planned (why does nothing ever work out the perfect way I imagine in my head?!) but Mckenna had fun, we got out of the house, Omar had his first skating experience.

Now as I’m sitting here I am starting to feel nauseous. I don’t know if something I ate isn’t sitting right or if I’m getting a stomach bug (which it seems like everyone is getting!) Crap. Hopefully I am just imagining it because my neighbor is sick. I can’t be sick before Christmas!

Christmas Party!

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I invited my football team over for a Christmas party this week. I was a little nervous ahead of time because people are TERRIBLE r.s.v.p.ers these days. So up until people started showing up I was really only sure of two or three ladies. Thankfully more showed up. I made a giant 8lb pork butt in the crock pot and turned it into bbq pork sandwiches. Of course I had told everyone to bring sides or dessert and every. single. person. brought a dessert. Really? So I made some mac and cheese really fast. But there was plenty of food in the end. We all had a really good time, the kids had a great time, so it was pretty much a success!

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Group shot with some of my girls. Don’t worry, the pregnant one doesn’t play, she is one of our assistant coaches wives!

We ate, drank and were merry. Can’t ask for more than that.

Easy Teacher Gifts!

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Okay, these are the Christmas gifts that I got for my kiddos teachers. They would work for male or female teachers which is great because I know the guys can be hard to shop for! I totally forgot to take a picture before my kids took them in but thankfully I was in the class for a Christmas party and snuck a picture. I know, I am so weird and I’m pretty sure the other parents caught me doing it and think there is something wrong with me. But damn it! I needed photographic evidence of my cute craft!

I bought the cups and used some self adhesive vinyl and my cricut to cut out their names. You might be able to find these letters at a craft store pre-cut. I then put drink mixes including some of those Starbucks Via Iced Coffees in there. And I send in some of my bars bars I made. I hope they like them and use them. It’s a step up from the coffee cups it seems like everyone sends in. I got the cups for $6 so plus the various drink mixes I spent less than $10 per teacher. Not too bad.

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