So what?

This may mark the longest blogging hiatus ever taken by myself. Where have I been? Well, Christmasing of course! Sophie had her first Christmas program last week and Olivia got to sing a song on stage too! It was really fun to watch them perform. I was there with my mom and Steve, sitting in a pew in the church next to the daycare, watching my girls in front of lots of other people....waiting for a mishap that I couldn't control....noticing how out of reach they were from my grasp, knowing I couldn't even holler at them to stop any negative behavior. What would they do?? What might they say?? I bit my preverbial fingernails. But look how cute they were!

Let me tell you, the program went off without a hitch. Except when Sophie noticed Uncle Dan slipping in a few minutes late next to Amy and Hannah in the back of the church. Sophie already towers over all other three and four year olds. She has neon bright highlighter style hair. She was wearing a red sweater. Did we need to stand out more? YES!

"UNCLE DAN!!!!" she screamed waving frantically. This was during a beautiful rendition of "Away in a manger" that the pastor played softly on his acoustic guitar while the good children sang......"UNCLE DAN!!!!! WHERE'S HANNAH?? AMYYYY! WHERRRRRRE'S HANNAH???? HEY UNCLE DAN! HI AMY!!!!" Visualize a lot of waving and very loud yelling. Dan desperately tried to stop the scene by holding baby Hannah high up in the air for Sophie to see. "Here she is". He mouthed to Sophie. "Sing!" he tried to convey. I leaned forward in my pew and tried to loud whisper Sophie's name while making sign language at her to just sing! For goodness sakes, just sing!!!! Oh no. Why should she?

Well, to top all things off, the director of the daycare came forward with a beautiful cake adorned with one lone candle. The kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. As soon as the director got to the front of the church with the cake, Sophie dives from the third row up to be the first to blow out the candle. Thanks Sophie. Knock those smaller kids down. Don't let them win! Oh geez.

I apologized to the director afterwards for Sophie's rock star antics. She just laughed and said, "This has been the best concert to date!"

So.....So what? Sophie's a rockstar. She's got her rock moves. And she doesn't need meeee and guess what? She's having more fun. And now that that's done, she's gonna show you tonight....she's alright.....she's just fine! And mom's a spazzz so....So what?

We got some good family pics afterwards, along with some pics with Sophie's awesome preschool teachers and her little best friend Abbey. Night complete. We left very proud parents of both of our tiny singers, rock star antics and all. Merry Christmas!


Sophie and her teachers

Me and the girls

Grandma Jan and Hannah

Uncle Dan and Hannah

Santa and the poor people

After learning about Toys for Tots at church yesterday, Olivia posed this question in the car: "Mom. Why doesn't Santa give presents to the poor people? That doesn't make sense!"

Errg. My stomach dropped. Yes, it now appears like Santa skips over poor people because she was told that some kids wake up with no presents under their tree on Christmas day because they are poor. Yikes. Another flaw in the Santa theory has been found.

Think fast Mom! I wasn't ready to break the news to a precious 5 year old heart. Geez, I believed in Santa until the fifth grade when a fellow classmate made a joke about it...."Yeah, like Santa's real". WHAT??? Anyway, I told her that Santa will find a way to get poor people a present on Christmas day, whether its by another person or by Santa himself or that he might ask God to help out too. Sometimes presents aren't always wrapped up either. Someone might serve the poor people dinner, or drop off food at the food bank. They might get a new coat or a hat. But we'd take a present to church too, just in case they need more than one.

Questions from children that make me sweat also make me think about the true structure of things in our society. Sometimes things just aren't set up right, and our traditions may be flawed. Children may be the first to point these out. Olivia Noelle always keeps me on my toes. :)

So we will bring a toy for a tot and hopefully make a poor family's Christmas. Maybe I'll tell her Santa told me to drop it off. Hmmmm.....all this work to try to preserve a childlike wonder, an excitement to rival all others, wondering even if it doesn't make sense....is Santa real? Wouldn't that be fantastic? For now, we'll keep up the facade. I just can't let go yet.

Surprises

We were given our first Christmas gifts last night. We've been in anticipation of a surprise party put on my Dan and Amy (my brother and sister-in-law) for weeks. What could it be about? The Christmas movie marathon was already scheduled, and most of us were to be at the Christmas Eve service at church. Dan graduates with his MBA the following week after the marathon so what on earth could it be? Why would we need another get together? So we pondered this........

1. Maybe Amy was pregnant and there would be a big announcement!
2. Maybe we were actually going swimming at Adventureland


This is when Dan and Amy said to bring our swimsuits. Then they told us closer to the date to dress nice but bring a set of grubby clothes, like what you'd paint in for our activity.

3. Wait, is Dan making us redo his basement? To this idea Mom replied (in the typical all-loving all-accepting motherly response), "Well, even if we are redoing their basement, they'll get a pool table and a ping pong table and we'll have some great family times down there so it will be worth it." :) I suppose.

4. Are they moving?
5. Did Dan get a new job? No, he just did. Maybe he's moving up again?
6. Did they win the lottery?? (I really wondered this).

So, we dressed up and showed up with our sacks of grubby clothes, ready to paint the basement and hear Amy was pregnant, they were moving, Dan got a new job, and they had won the lottery.

"Merry Christmas!!!" Dan yelled as we walked in the house. It smelled great in there and it looked gorgeous as only Amy can create. "Um, hi. Merry Christmas". I said this reluctantly because I didn't actually know this was a Christmas party. I brought nothing. Crap. And I was a tad under dressed. Grumble in my mind.

Dan was obviously excited beyond all belief and I walked in to say hi to Amy and find the baby. That's my normal routine. Where's the baby? Amy was cooking at the stove, something that smelled divine, and she was even wearing a soft apron. (She's awesome like that and I love her.) The table was set elaborately. There was wine and homemade place settings. There was Christmas music playing in the background. It was a gorgeous sight to behold. So I relaxed. We hung out and chatted. They had set up babysitting for us with their neighbors next door and even ordered a pizza for the kids, so I helped Dan take them over there. Special delivery. We raise you three more kids to your two already small children. How nice of them! I was starting to feel special. As I was chatting with this neighbor, Dan and the neighbor guy had gone out to check something out outside as all men do at some point every evening. Suddenly, Dan came rushing in saying to the neighbor lady, "It's still a surprise! Have you told her?" He was laughing and out of breath. "No, of course not!" the neighbor girl said. So we thanked them and left and now I was REALLY wondering.

We sat down to the BEST dinner I have ever had and I'm not exaggerating. We had prime rib and it just melted in your mouth, and salad, and homemade rolls, and strawberries dipped in chocolate to top it all off. Amazing. But before we had started our salads, Dan and Amy uncovered their surprise.

Dan told us the meal was meant to make a memory for us. It was part of their Christmas gift to us, and since Lianna and Shawn wouldn't be with us Christmas Eve or Day this year, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Also, under your plate you will find an envelope. Everyone must open it at the same time. Remember, the purpose of this night is to make a memory for our family......so wait for one another.....and then open it together to find out a clue about our activity for tonight.....

So we all grabbed our envelopes and looked nervous excitedly around at the others...."Ready?" Mom said? We were ready. So we opened our envelopes. A ticket was inside!!!

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA
Admit one
TONIGHT @ 8 pm

"Ahhhhhh!!!!! Whooohooooo!!!!"

A little background here. Our family LOVES Christmas. What's more, we LOVE Christmas music. We all but wear out our Mannheim Steamroller CD's shortly after Thanksgiving. And this year, I saw that Mannheim was coming to Des Moines. So I rallied the troops and decided we were going. But somehow, the tickets wouldn't sell to us and Mom couldn't get them reserved. It turns out that Mom really didn't even know what Dan and Amy were up to either. It just didn't work! Isn't that amazing? I would have ruined their surprise. But I didn't. Because the tickets wouldn't sell. As Lianna and I would say, this was a true Christmas miracle...like the ham left on my plate that one year shaped like a candy cane. Yep. True story.

Anyway, they had treated us to dinner. This was memorable in and of itself, but then to treat us out to one of our biggest dreams ever....there we were, ticket in hand. Surprise complete. We had an hour to finish dinner.

The concert was fabulous. There were lights and lasers, firebombs, and sparks, fantastic music, a funny narrator that no one could follow but funny just the same, and a FANTASTIC night out as family. One we will never forget, thanks to Dan and Amy, crowned the new couple of suspense. We had a blast!

I have never been capable of surprises. It was all I could do NOT to tell others what I bought them for Christmas because I couldn't contain my excitement. But lesson learned, sometimes surprises are more fun than anything else. We feel truly blessed to have a family like this and last night was a blast. Thank you Dan and Amy and H. We love you very much!

A new tradition?

A new tradition may have been born last night. My first annual best friends party took place last night. Everyone was told to bring their favorite cookie recipe or family recipe and we'd all cook it up together, splitting the batches before we left....all while drinking wine. I was very excited for this party and I planned as much as a non-planner could plan. I made little tiny Christmas trees for each guest that symbolized them to me. All silver bling for Angela, red modern metal balls for architect Katie, black and silver to match Amy's room, obnoxious display for the other Amy because that's how our family does Christmas, crosses for Jess because we love God, puppies for Stephanie because she dresses up her dogs, black for Connie because she is sexy like that, bright pink for Shawna because she wears it a lot, and a multi-colored, artsy tree for my expressive friend Theresa. I made a great Christmas playlist on Itunes, and I bought new wine glasses since my previous ones didn't survive 4 moves + 2 babies + Steve. I made a big batch of chili and tried to find matching bowls. I bought wine and got out and cleaned all of my baking dishes and pans. Steve even let me buy a pack of 3 new cookie sheets. Lucky. Anyway, I hope all my work paid off. Everyone seemed to have fun and so did I. Here are some pics. You can tell which ones were pre-wine. Not very many. One, maybe.



These ones turned out. Thumbs up.

A very funny turkey Olivia brought home from school. She lovingly gave it to Theresa as a gift.

Theresa tried a new healthy cookie recipe. They tasted like dog treats.
Katie & Amy

A "family" portrait with Jess

Let me highlight my guests of honor for you. Amy- my sister in law, Katie-my friend from ISU and camp, Amy-my best friend since we were little punks at camp, Theresa-nursing school friend, Shawna-nursing school friend, Connie-nursing school friend, Jess-nursing school friend, Angela-hard to explain how we met friend but really good friends for life, Stephanie-roommate from ISU. Connie and Stephanie couldn't make it and Shawna had to leave for work (the life of a nurse), but we had a great time overall. Lianna was there in spirit of course.

The point of the party was to celebrate my friends, because I really have great ones. Of course, all of my really good friends don't live close by or even in Iowa or even in the midwest anymore (gasp!). But for the ones close by and the ones far away (Tara, Tanya, Jana, & Nicki), I love you! And thanks for standing by me through drama and calm. Let's all celebrate another year past and a new year around the corner.

22 days until Christmas!

Phew

Yesterday scared the crap out of me. Olivia got in a ATV accident with her cousin. One had the throttle and one had the steering. One freaked out and let go and the other freaked out and didn't let go of the throttle and they hit Grandpa and Grandma's camper head on. Steve said Olivia's head put a dent in the fender of the camper and the four-wheeler did some damage to the side of the camper as well. From the kitchen window, I saw Steve running towards the camper and the two kids on top of each other and I ran outside as fast as I could to see what happened. Olivia was screaming and crying and her nose was bloody and blood was coming out of her mouth. Her face was puffy and already bruising. THANK GOD she was wearing a helmet. THANK GOD she did not lose consciousness. THANK GOD that she did not break her neck or worse. But her poor little face. The left side is very bruised and her lip protrudes further than her nose!

Steve feels awful. I feel awful because I told him not to let them do it. So now I bite back my I told you sos because I know he feels terrible. But I couldn't hold back my motherly instinct to save the baby. Forgetting all common sense or nurse sense, I picked her up out of the mess and tore up the steps with her to safety. Nevermind that her neck may have been injured? Come on Mom! Anyway, this whole scene made me very very thankful for my little Livy Lu and even more thankful that things weren't worse. Growing up in Pomeroy, I saw kids driving pick ups on the farm that didn't even have their permit yet. They drove tractors and farm equipment, ran mowers and whatever else was lying around. In town, we were lucky to ride in the front seat of the Crown Victoria.

Neither mentality is right or wrong, it's just different. So Steve and I have always butted heads on this subject. I always feel like a psycho for protesting, and so I back down. But even we can agree that if we let the kids do these things, we've got to do better. Things could have been so much worse than a ruined four-wheeler and a damaged camper and a banged up face. Steve knows this now and so do I. And just a gentle reminder here. Helmets save lives. Absolutely. 100%. Thank God she was wearing a helmet.

Our lesson was learned yesterday. Be ever vigilant. It's ok to be a crazy mom of safety. Put the nerdy knee and elbow pads on them. Pad their butts with pillows. Put on a HELMET. Whatever. Appreciate the babies. Protect them. Love them. Even if I'm overreacting, yesterday scared the crap out of me.