Holiday Mural 2015

So every Christmas season we cover a wall of our dining room with paper and make a giant holiday mural.  This year KC suggested Santa's work shop.  It is a tradition that we are all featured in the mural so you will notice that our faces have been added to "elf bodies".  The pictures don't really do the mural justice as it is so big and getting it all at once instead of in bits and bobs of smaller pictures has much more impact.

I love that this is still so much fun for all of us.  We draw and paint a lot but we also add objects to give dimension--bows on the packages for instance.  The packages are made from scrapbook papers and the "ribbon" is duck tape because our cat would ingest real ribbons.  The star on the tree was on top of the tree in Lissa's room last year but it broke and could not go on this year.  However it could be tacked above this "tree."

Something new to the mural this year was the incorporation of KC's advent doodles.  He started doing this last year with his friend the fantastic artist Jane Houghton.  Jane actually published her doodles this year into a little count down that goes on a teeny easel and is on our dining room table.  KC makes a doodle a day and we have found ways to incorporate his into the mural. If you look closely, Rob is holding skates that have laces with a #8 squiggled into them.  There are also doodles that act as ornaments on the mantel. ( a canle and a nutcracker)

Perfection is not the goal and everyone contributes ideas and art as the month goes on.  As the days shorten and we creep closer to the shortest day of the year, things like this brighten my spirit and help me wait for the return of the light.

Lissa at nearly 9

 Lissa turns 9 in a few days.  The 16th, to be exact.  I look back and she has grown so much in the past year and accomplished so much.  I am so proud of her.  She fascinates me, challenges me, and being her parent constantly makes me look for ways to meet her where she is.  And Lissa is always in a different place from any of my other kids!

She is fiercely independent, impetuous, tempestuous, intensely loyal, brave, silly and enchanting.  She is a vibrant package of contradictions that somehow blend into the amazing person she is.  The top picture was taken during our holiday decorating, in late November.  The middle two were taken today.

For all of Lissa's life and most of KC's Ben lived next door to us.  The kids grew up together and Ben spent a LOT of time with us at our house.  The kids formed a club that they call KLB (from the initials of their names) KLB grew with them and became a really organized little affair. They developed a comic book making side of KLB. They rotated being "captains" of the club.  They made the TShirts that you see them wearing in the pictures.  They pretty much created official KLB club everything.

Then, this summer Ben moved.  He is still in town and they still see each other often, but they don't see each other daily, the way they used to.  It has been hard on all the kids,even though my kids understand that in most every way possible this is a good move for Ben and his family.

When I asked Lissa what kind of party she wanted she immediately asked for a KLB party.  So Ben came to our house about noon today and is spending the night and will go home tomorrow about noon.

They have had a blast. They played outside.They made an indoor fort and played there. They did crafts. They decorated gingerbread houses and played games.  Lissa chose Chinese food for supper and they stuffed themselves on the really super delish food that the little place down on the corner churns out.  Then, I suggested that we go to a local botanical garden that has an amazing light display.  Only about half an hour away, it was a great way to spend time outdoors on an amazingly balmy night.

We all had a blast. The lights were amazing. And what kid doesn't like being up late in the dark?  All of mine love it at any rate. When we got home, we actually had Lissa's cake and ice cream.  The cake was at her request, a KLB themed cake in the official KLB colors of red, blue and green.It is the only cake I have ever seen that did not say Happy Birthday and instead had a wobbly KLB written on the top by the birthday girl herself.  It was perfect.

The bottom picture is of Lissa fooling around with friends at the recent Girl Scout holiday parade.  One of the things I admire about my youngest daughter is her determination.  She gave Scouts a try a year ago and it was a meh kind of experience for her.  But she did not give up, in large part because if the program was only adequate, the friendships were strong and compelling enough to keep her involved.

Lissa is virtually unstoppable when she sets her mind to something.  This will be a huge asset to her in later life.  She wanted to learn to swim this year and gave up one dance class to accomplish the goal. At the end of the 12 week session she could swim the length of the pool, do a very adequate kneeling dive, do back stroke and float.  Next, she would like to try basketball, so I am presently looking into that for her.  I love that she samples, experiments and tries things out.  She isn't sure where her niche is but she enjoys the journey.

Happy Birthday my princess!

Sunsets

Today was one of those days.  A day when everything was just a little off.  An overwhelming amount of paperwork that had to be deferred while I drove to a 3 hour training.  Racing back into my office after the training I neglected to notice that my car door did not close all the way.  This left the dome light on and subsequently the car did not start when I went to go do my taxi run for the kids.  I got a jump start and all was well as far as that but it did put me a bit behind schedule.

We arrived home briefly so that I could grab my supper smoothie and as we were returning to the car KC noticed the sunset (oh, the early sunsets of December) streaming red and pink behind us.

"Wait," he said. "please, I have to try and get a picture of this."

I almost said no.  We were behind schedule.  Dance class started in just a few minutes.  But there are only so many sunsets.  And when the goddess grants us the beauty of one, he is right.  We need to pause.  To be there. To enjoy.

Two days ago a dear friend passed away.  Her family had run the local flower shop for 75 years.  Jeri had seen us through christenings, weddings, funerals and memorial services, recitals and anniversaries.  She watched my children blossom.  Each year we brought cookies to the shop and she gave us a pointsettia.  She loved us and loved my kids-all kids.  Jeri won't see another sunset.  I need to remember to enjoy sunsets and all the other things that are a lot more important than always being on time.

Festive!

Things have been busy with holiday goings ons here.  Saturday was particularly stacked with busy and fun things.  Lissa had a birthday party to attend.  KC and Rob and I went to our city's holiday stroll.  They also sealed a new time capsule before the event and we watched this as well. And, in a 5 seconds of fame moment, the local paper interviewed me for my thoughts.

The holiday strolls is so much fun.  It was unusually warm and pleasant this year and we meandered around.  We noshed on the loads of free food that is available,oogled crafts, made some gifts at a local bead shop and chatted and hung out with friends.  About 20 to four I had to leave Rob and KC and walk back home so I could pick up the car and drive over to get Lissa at the party.  When I left, KC filled out a raffle ticket for a new bike. . . and when I came home I found out he was the lucky winner.  He gets his bike tomorrow and he is one happy little dude!

Later than night I had a holiday dinner party to go to at a coworkers house.  It was a lot of fun. Great food, laughter and general festiveness.  I was not out late and home in time to see the littles before they went off to bed.

Today we had church and after service there was a surprise birthday party for a wonderful fellow.  A good friend, Bart was also Rob's mentor in coming of age.  I know Rob would have wanted to be there but he did not get home from work till 2:00 a.m. and was just rousing when  I left for church at 9.  We stayed for a bit to wish Bart happy greetings and then came home.

Kirsty had made a beautiful evergreen swag for the front porch of our home and woven lights into it as well.  I got busy in the holiday department as well.  I made these really cute gifts for the kids dance teachers.  The school is doing their recital based on Frozen this year.  I turned tiny ballet slippers into Elsa and Anna holiday ornaments.  I got the slippers at the consignment store and the rest of the decorating stuff was mostly from the dollar store, so it was inexpensive and a lot of fun to make.

After that, I made the cemetary boxes for my grandparents grave and for my mother in laws and brought those down.  I always feel better getting those on. Why I need to visually mark that someone cares about those who are buried there makes no sense, but I do.


Tonight was the first night of Hannukah and as usual, my kids played the dreidel game.  We are not Jewish but our religion does honor Jewish roots.  And my kids have always loved dreidel nights.  I was the fly in the ointment as I would not stop watching the Patriots game to join in as I usually do.  I have promised that I will play on Tuesday night though in retrospect I would have had a lot more fun with the dreidel than I did watching my team lose!

Murals and Calendars

Even though the kids are bigger, much of what is important to us all at holiday time remains home made.  KC wanted a Star Wars advent calendar this year.  I checked them out.  Store bought cost $40.00 if you could find them.  Yes, they have some little Star Wars toy each day.  But aside from knowing I would be stepping on little toys for 24 fun filled days till the dog ate them or Eldest Son vacuumed them up. . . well, I could not justify the price.  I love the kids being able to open something and mark the time till the big day.  But I don't love it enough for the price it was sold at.

So I decided I would make him an advent calendar.  I used the magic of the internet to find 25 pictures and phrases from the movies.  I popped them into my scrap book program so that I could size them down to what I needed.  I printed them.  I used the same scrapbook program to then print a 4 page picture "banner" (as seen above.

Then I just worked on the back of the picture and cut out the doors with an exacto knife and taped the picture there. Wrote the numbers on the doors with silver glitter paint and voila! A calendar for cost of paper and ink.  And a very happy boy.

I know it might not fly for some kids. But this guy is artistic and creative so he was thrilled by the idea that it was made by hand.

We also started our annual Christmas mural today.  KC's idea was to have Santa's workshop and have us all be elves.  One elf making toys, another baking etc.  Kirsty put up the paper last night and the drawing and painting has commenced. This is an exceptionally enjoyable activity because it is something anyone can add to when they have a few minutes and just want to do something to de-stress.  Every year I wonder if this is going to be the year that they roll their eyes and say how "over" these traditions they are.  And I am so very grateful that year has not yet arrived!

My hippy chick

Yeah, but not hippie like a beatnik.  Hippy like in pain.  Back when she was really little just a bit over a year I believe, Miss Lissa jumped off the couch. She was copying her exuberant big brothers who were taller and stronger than she was. She landed wrong and I knew right off something was wrong.  After an ice pack didn't help and kiddie tylenol didn't help we trotted to the local ER. Where we got zero help.  I got the rent a radiologist who was less than useless.  I am being 100 per cent honest when I tell you that they had me prepare her for the x-ray.  I am not a radiologist and I did a poor job.  The xray showed nothing, and was blurry.  The weekend radiologist said all was well, gave my daughter a popsicle and sent us home. 

Except she could not walk. Except she screamed in pain when I changed her diaper and had to lift her little bum. My family primary care was on vacation and the hospital had automatically sent the films to his office.   We were stuck in limbo for 2 weeks.  Managing pain with tylenol, carrying her everywhere.  I was frantic as my youngest is a very energetic, on the go child and her behavior and  constant pain were highly atypical.  There are times as a mom you know something is wrong. This was such a time.  Eventually she began to crawl, hitching both legs together at the same time.  That was when I knew it was the hip. 

The Dr came back from vacation and saw us.  After telling me I was an overprotective parent they finally agreed to re-do the xray.  I got a call at work 20 minutes later where in hushed tones they said they were very sorry and she had indeed broken her hip.  However, the hip had all ready begun to heal and appeared to be in proper alignment so nothing else was needed.

And she healed and all was well.  Till about 3 weeks ago when she began to periodically complain of her hip hurting.  Most times she has not been doing anything outrageous and I tracked it  carefully to be sure.  I asked my wife to call our Dr for an appointment as Lissa is STILL a high energy girl with a very high pain level and for her to ask for pain meds is very out of the norm.

This time we got our Drs new nurse practitioner. She does not know our family and this was our first meeting. She told my wife there was no way anything from that long ago could cause a problem now and that we should give her tylenol.  Minus the popsicle it was that long ago ER visit all over again.

Yesterday Lissa almost could not get out of the car after they got home from doing errands.  When I got home from work she was better but in no shape for dance, though we let her go to Girl Scouts. It was obvious that climbing stairs hurt signifcantly.  I was worried to have her sleep in her bunk bed (top bunk) so she was in my bed last night.

Today we called the Dr again and he saw her and has authorized an xray.  He wants to rule out any spur or calcification that may have resulted from the original injury and depending on what the xray shows, an MRI may be the next step.  I am just thankful that we are at least getting some diagnostic assistance as it kills me to see her hurting.

Holiday blur!

I blinked and it was Thanksgiving!  I guess it just feels that way.  Life is so busy and I am always trying to soak up every minute of it.  It was a wonderful day.  A day filled with joy, laughter, family and friends.  As usual, there was lots to prepare.  Our gatherings are so large we don't fit in our dining room any more.  There is a large table there but squish 13 plus people around it and no one can move.  So we move all the furniture out of the living room, bring in banquet tables and rental chairs and find it accommodates all who come much better. 

I was sad that my older kids cousin N was not able to come this year due to transportation difficulties.  Even the younger kids missed seeing her--though I think in that case it was primarily because her daughter is around KC's age and they are very good friends. 

Food was delish, the table looked pretty and managed to combine things from all the various families whether it was in the food choices or the flatware, or the salt cellars that were my great grandparents.  KC got to watch the Macy's parade with his Aunt Lynne.  Their tradition was snowed out last year and they had to resort to watching in their separate locations and texting as they saw the floats go by.  He was happy that this year, it was "normal."

Friday morning found us decorating for Yule.  I had gathered all the harvest decor the night before so that we could jump into decorating right away. I knew it was something the kids would want to do first thing and I was not wrong.

Our house is a sprawly old victorian.  It can and does get a lot of decorating. We are still not quite done but things are looking festive and it does not look overblown.  One would think it might if you saw how many totes of decorations came from the attic, but really it gets spread over so many rooms that it is really pretty.  Rob still likes to put the tree together for us and helped the littles and I decorate it.  K focusses on the outside.  Chet pretty much stays in his room till we are done and then he likes to help ferry the boxes back to the attic and vacuum up the floors.  The littles flit here and there and bring me items for the displays and decorate the little trees in their bedrooms.  Christmas is still magical to them and it still is to me for that matter. I love the music, the sparkles, the memories.

Saturday we had our usual errands, went to our church craft fair,  and then spent the afternoon with friends at the local roller rink.  These friends used to live right next door to us and the kids so very much miss their best buds.  So for 4 hours we skated and chatted and had a blast.

Sunday we drove up to Maine to see my mom.  She has some health issues right now and will be having a cardiac test tomorrow at the hospital up there.  If things are not good they will likely do an immediate stint.  We brought her favorite soups and canned fruits so she will not have to worry about food as she rests from whatever is done, reading material and music. And of course just being there with our love and laughter helped her greatly. When we got home, Lissa marched in our town's holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony. 

Compared to the rest of December, this was a relaxing weekend!