Christmas morning was pretty magical. It was neat seeing John's excitement, though he definitely was not expecting all the gifts and treats. We got up early and went to the 8:15am Mass. We had to wake John up because he usually sleeps in until 9am (I know, I am one lucky mama!). The first video below is of John after we got him dressed for Mass. He wasn't sure what to make of all the presents under the tree.
After Mass we opened our gifts to each other and then went upstairs to be with my parents, brother, and grandpa. One of the best moments of the day was when we walked into my parent's house. Andrew and I were greeting my brother and mom, but John ran past us. He made a mad dash for the tree and fell half way there, only to quickly rise to his feet to continue his sprint. We thought he was just excited to see more presents, but he had his eye on a gift that was not wrapped. My parents got him a Strider bike! He grabbed the bike and swung his leg over the seat - as if he's known how to ride a bike his whole life. It was the cutest thing! His raw joy and excitement was contagious to all of us.
We all opened gifts to each other, ate yummy food, and played games together. Christmas was very special this year because we had an honored guest with us - my grandpa. He lives in Oregon, so I do not get to see him much. It was quite a treat to celebrate with him. He is known for his ability to recite long poems from memory, so listening to his recitations added to the perfection of our Christmas day this year.
My goal is to do a few crafts each year so that a lot of our Christmas decorations will eventually be homemade. This year I made a tree skirt that was inspired by this pattern.
I also made a stocking for John.
I made a few batches of cookies and attended a cookie exchange. I really think cookie exchanges are the best way to get a great variety of treats with the least amount of effort! John even joined in my cookie decorating efforts! I got the idea from Life as a Mom. She suggested using pastry brushes, but I didn't have any so I used baby spoons. I think brushes would have worked better - I had to help John a lot! Mom St.Hilaire told me that she used to have her kids paint the cookies before they were baked with an egg yolk mixture, which looks neat when baked. I think I will try that next year!
We did not have an Advent wreath last year or for most of this year. I ordered one from Bronners, but it didn't come until the 4th week of Advent. To tide us over, I drew a wreath on the chalk board in our kitchen and added a flame each week. We also hung the cards that we received around the boarder:
Every year that Andrew and I have been together, I have participated in cutting and decorating Andrew's parents' tree. It is a cherished tradition for me, and we wouldn't miss it for anything... unless it was snowing. We just don't drive in the snow - too risky!
Fortunately, the weather was great. So we took a trek up to Bellingham and hunted for the perfect tree:
We found it!
Then we decorated it with all of the St.Hilaire ornaments while singing along with Elvis' Christmas album:
Advent Party: John and I hosted a party for our friends and we made paper chains to countdown the days till Christmas. It was fun to have a big crowd at our house! John didn't really get the idea of ripping off the chains each day... maybe next year!
Advent Calendar: Last year (2009), Grandma and Grandpa St.Hilaire gave John an Advent calendar that has a piece of the Nativity scene for each day. It took a little time and discipline, but he quickly learned to take the piece out of the pocket and place place it on the scene above. I also put a candy cane kiss in each pocket - which he enjoyed very much. It wasn't long before he knew what the words "Advent calendar" meant. Whenever I said those words he would get a huge grin on his face and run to it!
Waiting: This year we made a concerted effort to hold off on our celebrations until Christmas. As a child, I was always hauling out the boxes of our family's decorations the day after Thanksgiving. So waiting was a challenge for me. I wasn't sure if we would just hold off on our tree or on all decorations, until I recognized that our church does not decorate at all until Christmas Eve. I want our home to reflect the church, so I decided it would be best to only have our Advent calendar and wreath out until Christmas Eve.
The best part of waiting to get the tree is that we got our tree for a dollar at Rite Aid!! It is still standing proudly in our living room, but we will be taking it down later today and putting all our decorations away. I definitely was very excited to put it up on Christmas Eve, but it made for a very busy day... Andrew and I may do it differently next year. It is fun figuring out how we want to celebrate these holidays in our own family.
Seriously? I have not updated this blog since the beginning of December?? Wow, I guess we have been busy around here. During the course of this week I will attempt to give an update on all of the things that have happened in our lives since I last wrote. For today, I will share our letter that we sent out with our Christmas cards, written by my wonderful husband:
~ ~ ~
Dearest Family & Friends,
Peace be with you as we celebrate the joyous occasion of the birth of Our Savior this Christmas season!
This letter is getting out a wee bit later than we had hoped, but hey, thank goodness the twelve days of Christmas come after December 25th and not before! And now that the new year is looming, we look back in amazement at another year gone by in the blink of an eye.
In May, we celebrated John’s first birthday. Around the same time he began to take his first steps, and since then the world has never been the same. John loves to run around the house, climb on furniture, and generally tear the house apart. Lindsey can usually keep up with him, but on her busier days you can definitely tell where our sweet little boy has left his mark. Throughout the year he has gone from one fixation to another. It used to be pens and then cellphones. More recently his fascination has been with hats. He also loves to wear his red rubber boots around the house all day, sometimes from the moment he gets out of bed.
Although fluent in his own native language, John is still working on speaking English. “Hat... go?” is his way of telling us he’d like to put his hat on so he can go outside and play. “Auh?” he says as he points to something he wants. One of his favorite things to say is “BY-e”, with sort of a Southern drawl, as he smiles and waves at strangers passing by or as he’s leaving the room. Everyone loves to see his cheery face, especially his “Mama” and “Dada”, who feel so blessed to have him entrusted to their care.
In January, I began working part-time for our parish, Our Lady Star of the Sea, to help with marketing and web management, in addition to working at SwingSetMall.com. Having both jobs and working six days a week have definitely kept things busy, but we feel fortunate to have the extra income which has helped us to pay off all our debts and get us closer to owning a home (just waiting for home prices to fall a bit more in Malibu). At SwingSetMall.com, we’ve had a record year of sales and growth. Without going into details which would violate the terms of the confidentiality agreement (in which case I would have to kill all of you), let’s just say the business is doing better than ever and showing promising signs of continued growth in large part due to this thing called advertising. Praise God! We hired a new employee in September to fully manage the warehouse and shipping, and although Glenn is still not keen on my idea of hiring an in-house sushi chef, I think that day is coming soon. :)
Lindsey has been staying busy with all of her duties as a (wonderful) homemaker. She finds a lot of fulfillment and meaning in the little things she does each day. She is also leading a mothers group at our church which meets every week. She tries to reach out to our friends and have lots of play dates for John. Fortunately, we are blessed to be in a community where there are many moms who are homemakers, so Lindsey feels blessed to have so much support.
Another important part of our lives has been our continued involvement in pro-life work. This year Lindsey helped lead the Pro-Life Youth Committee at our church. I am still co-directing the Anti-Choice Project, now a non-profit organization, with our good friend Tom. Other highlights of the year include attending 5 weddings of some of our dear friends; a trip to Bellingham to be with my two sisters, Jenny and Marie, who were visiting from out of state; several batches of homebrew; more than one trip to the mechanic; going to a Dave Matthews Band concert with friends; and of course our annual camping trip to Mt. Adams to pick huckleberries.
We love you all and hope to hear from you soon. May you have a blessed Christmas season and a happy new year!
We thought the "S" in "self" was just brunt out, but that it was a funny coincidence for the season. However, we also noticed that once Christmas was over, the sign was fixed! Hmmm, maybe it wasn't a mistake...
Sure enough, as we made our way back home from Thanksgiving, we were on the look out, and saw that the "Tacoma Elf Storage" was back! We were so excited, we actually cheered! I hope they keep it up every year so John can learn to appreciate it!
We had quite an eventful Thanksgiving week! We decided to leave pretty early on Wednesday to head for Bellingham. There was still snow on the ground from Monday, but it seemed pretty safe. We didn't want to drive in the evening for fear of the road getting icy. We were blessed to have left early because once we got to Lynnwood Andrew noticed that our car was in the red zone on our temperature gauge. We found a mechanic that could look at our car, but not until Friday. So we toyed with the idea of leaving our car and renting a car for a couple of days. As it turned out, once we got to the mechanics, Andrew asked if they were sure they couldn't squeeze us in that day. The man said he would see what he could do. We waited for about an hour, not sure if they were even working on it. Sure enough, they were able to fix it and we were on our merry way again...
Until we drove another 50 miles or so. Andrew noticed that the car was getting hot again. We made it safely to Bellingham and decided to take the car in again on Friday.
Thanksgiving day was SO wonderful! We woke up to a flurry of snow falling from the sky with about 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I love the feeling of being stuck at home when I have no where to go!
I provided the mashed potatoes, as I have for 3 years in a row, and they were very yummy! (I'm a sucker for good mashed potatoes). Mom St.Hilaire cooked a feast! Jenna brought the green beans. It was a very delightful dinner, with exceptional company!
Thanksgiving dinner
There was a crazy rain and wind storm on Thursday night. When we woke up, there was hardly a trace of snow on the ground! On Friday we took the car in again. They told us it wasn't going to be finished until Monday. We were supposed to leave on Saturday morning because I had a baby shower to go to back home. I was very sad to have to miss the shower, but it was nice to have a couple of extra days with Andrew's family! I was also able to catch up with a few friends.
Dinner on Friday night (second round of Thanksgiving dinner!)
Grandma let John play in her kitchen drawers! =)
While we were there we watched the movie Karol: A Man Who Became Pope. It was so inspirational and I highly recommend it. I was worried that the actor playing Karol would not be good enough to play the role, but I was quite impressed by him. Watching this movie made me think about what really matters in life: our relationship with God! It was appropriate to watch for Thanksgiving, because it reminded me of how thankful I am to be part of such a wonderful Church!
We picked up the car on Monday and headed home... only to see that the engine was still getting hot. =( We're not sure what to do now.
We woke up this morning to a thin blanket of snow on the ground! John didn't care too much, but he liked looking out the window at it. Before his nap, I took him out to play in the snow for a bit. He wasn't sure what to make of it and he didn't seem to want to touch it either. It's still snowing out there, but we hope it melts away by Wednesday so we can go enjoy our Thanksgiving in Bellingham with Mom and Dad St.Hilaire.
John turned 18 months old on Monday. That's right - he is a year-and-a-half-old! Whew, seems like yesterday I was in awe about him turning nine months old - and being outside in the world as long as he was growing inside me. Now he is TWICE that old!
I am so proud to be John's Mamma. He has his moments, but overall he is such a good kid! Here is a snapshot of John at 18 months:
He says cracker - "ka-ka" (same noise for bird!)
I can ask him if he went poop and he will shake his head "no" or "yes" - and he is usually right. Potty training - here we come! ;)
He gives kisses and they are so precious. Sometimes I will be playing with him and he will randomly lean in for a kiss. I love it when he does that!
He is a great sleeper and he likes to sleep with his Jesus doll that Grandma and Grandpa St.Hilaire gave him for Christmas last year. When we put him in his crib he will often grab Jesus under his arm and snuggle.
When I ask him to say "please" he smiles and nods his head, but never says it.
He is really getting attached to his Da-da. During the day he will often call out for him and when he gets up in the morning he says "da-da?"
Every Saturday we have homemade pizza and eat popcorn with a movie. Because of these special things, John loves Saturday nights! He enjoys helping me make the pizza. He pushes a chair across the floor and climbs up all by himself. He tries to "help" me mix the dough, but he isn't so helpful with that part. However, he is really helpful when it comes to assembling the pizza - he is sure good at dumping the cheese on!
It has been a long time since I've done quick takes... but I think it will be a nice way to catch up with the current events around here.
1. Visitors: A few weeks ago, we enjoyed hosting our sister, Christina, her mother, Liz, and Mom and Dad St.Hilaire. This was my first time meeting Liz and I have not seen Christina since our wedding. Their visit came as a surprise, but we were quite delighted! I had a lot of fun cooking and baking for them. One morning I made scones and decided to dig out my tea set from our stored boxes in the basement. I have never actually used the tea set, and this was the perfect occasion! I've always thought it would be nice to have a sister, and I am so glad I have gained five through our marriage! =) They brought a movie for us to watch called Sophie Scholl. It was very inspiring and I highly recommend it! Here are some pictures from their visit:
We were able to video chat with Christina's family! Family photo!
Andrew's brother, Terry, with our niece and nephews
2. Jury duty: This week was very busy for me! I was called in for jury duty on Monday for the Federal Court in Tacoma and was selected to be on the jury for a criminal case. I was hoping not to be picked and told the judge that it would be an inconvenience - but so did everyone else who was there. I had a gut feeling that I was going to be picked - especially when I realized that I was the only one representing my demographic (young-stay-at-home-mom). It was a very awesome and daunting responsibility to serve on the jury. We deliberated about all the evidence for around eight hours - over the course of two days. During our deliberation I realized that we were the most powerful people in that courtroom. The lawyers present the case, the judge oversees the trial and gives the sentence - but the jury alone has the power to decide if a person is guilty or not guilty. We found the defendant guilty on 3 of the 5 charges; however, just as the famous juror in the movie 12 Angry Men, I was able to convince 10 of my fellow jurors that we could not prove guilt for one of the charges. If I had not spoken up, he would have been charged with 4 of the 5! The whole process was very fascinating and I'm glad I had the experience.
3. Rash Remedy: John has had pretty bad diaper rashes recently. But we finally found the remedy! I told my friend about the rash and explained that it was really wearing down his skin and the diaper cream didn't seem to do anything. In fact, the cream hardly stuck to the area because the skin was so raw (ouch!). She suggested that I use Athlete's foot cream because it is an anti-fungal cream and it sounded like he was having a bacteria problem. She told me to look for a cream that had the active ingredient called "clotrimazole". I found some and we tried it - sure enough, within a few days his skin was healed! Who knew athlete's foot cream would cure diaper rash too!!
4. Mothers' Group: Last year I was helping with our Mothers' Group at Star. I was in charge of leading the prayer part of our meetings. In mid-September, I found out that the leader is moving in December and she asked me to take over her role as well. It has been quite a challenge and I won't go into all the details, but I know it will work out. My goal is to divide up all the planning and teaching so that I don't get overwhelmed.
5. Update on Andrew: He has been working a lot this year (6 days a week)! Recently, for Star of the Sea, he designed a billboard to promote the Catholics Come Home campaign which will be during Advent this year. The billboard can be seen on a very busy road here in Bremerton. On the billboard there is a website listed that Andrew also designed: bremertoncatholic.com . I am always so amazed by his talent! He has also been working hard for Swingsetmall.com! John and I are proud of his daddy, but we are looking forward to having him home on Saturdays again!
6. Christmas: I know it is a little early - but I am very excited for Christmas! I think having a little one brings back all the fun of a childhood Christmas.
7.Getting his groove on! Little Johnny love to dance! He has a certain move that he does a lot and it is SO cute! I've been trying to capture this move, but whenever I pull out the camera he usually stops doing it. Here is the best video so far. We like to listen to kids music on the TV and here he is dancing to the Wiggles theme song. Enjoy!
