Freeze dried ice cream sammich

Santa put them in the kids' stockings

Dreaming of santa

Visions of sugar plums, perhaps?

Irene concurs

Rhys says 'thumbs up!'

Stirring the wet ingredients

Ready to make Santa's Favorite Cookies

Irene with her birthday bread pudding

bread pudding was NOT her first choice. or her second or even her third! there was a run on all of her favorites - no italian wedding cake. no coconut cream pie. not even any lemon merengue (sp?) pie - even though our waiter said it was on his menu. ah well. she was well pleased with this too. of course, had i known that her favorite dessert wasn't going to be there, i'd have made something fabulous. poor beanie girl...the top is one of her presents from Papa and Gramma.

Happy Birthday, Beanie!

8 years ago at this time, my water had just broken, and I was in active labor. It was many many hours before she was born - but at 10:04 pm, Denise (our wonderful nurse) brought the wee bitty bean for me to kiss (she was a c-section, so i couldn't hold her right away). She was beautiful and perfect and 8 pounds 9 oz such a wonderful christmas present. we brought her home on christmas day. now, in the space of time that seems like nothin', she's 8 and in 2nd grade and loving school, gymnastics, brownies, and just being her own beautiful self.

irene has a style all her own, and while i wish she'd let me brush her hair a bit more, i do love her style - whether it's all stripes, or plaid with stripes with polka dots, it's all her own and i'm overjoyed that she doesn't just do whatever her friends do.

this morning she got a wonderful message and books from the fairies - and there were bits of pixie dust all over the little notes (they had written out Happy 8th Birthday, Irene with each letter on a different piece of unique paper), then we had pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes and we were off to gymnastics where she then tested to go to the next level in gymnastics - as you can see in the previous picture, she passed and is now a blue belt (you start at white, then go to red, then blue and finally rainbow). she worked really hard today to pass the tests and was so proud of herself (as was I).

we're going to go to black rock for dinner tonight (well, late afternoon), then back here to open presents.


it's just amazing to me that she's already 8. I'm so proud of her and the person she's becoming.

i love you, Irene!
-mama

to see pictures of her when she was wee bitty, you can go here

She is now BLUE BELT!!

Yea! She tested to move up today and she made it!!

What a great birthday!!!

My baby is EIGHT!!

Here's Irene with a gift from the fairies

Cleaning ojas

ojas are the dried cornhusks onto which goes the masa (ON THE SMOOTH SIDE ONLY DADGUMMIT!!!). once you have that part done, you pass it down to the fillers who fill it with either the amazingly good pork or with chili and cheese.

this is my favorite holiday - no it's not really a holiday, but my family makes tamales every year. our immediate family is now 31 members strong!!! it makes for a hugely good time - and santa comes in the evening and it's just very special. and, of course, the tamales are delicious. we made a record 82 dozen this year and i got to bring home 4 dozen! YUMMILICIOUS!!!!!

Stirring the chili

Bernie and Gramma

Discussing the chili

Really big tree!!!

this was the first leg of our 1400 mile trip (one prius, one mama, two kids - rob flew down on friday and flew home on sunday). we stopped in tracy at my cousin's house. they had the most enormous tree i've ever seen in a home. it was pretty cool - and the looks on irene and rhys' faces were priceless.

Chef Rhys hard at work

Irene's tree

Tree all decorated

Irene put the angel on top.

Entry niche thing

By the tree

Little scheming boys

cancer sucks.

i don't know if i have any more than that. because it just does. it sucks. it sucks rocks.
My wonderful mother-in-law has been fighting this beast for the past 2 years - and she's coming to the end of the battle and it sucks! a hospice nurse started today.

i think she's more worried about everyone else more than herself. we'll be with them for christmas. i think the kids and i will stop on our way back home from tamale day as well.

Rhys in snow

7:00 am snow angel & Irene

picture help -- please?

can anyone tell me why it is that suddenly my pictures are not clickable? when i click on the pictures starting on 11/30, it wants to download instad of just showing it a little bigger.

any clues? anyone? anyone?

fanx ever so.

Post parade

Parade waiting

Cleo in profile

Playmobil

Advent calendar and crèche

Advent calendars

Advent stockings

Jaye asked for more words - i'm sorry i've been lax at the words part - life being busy and all that.

Advent stockings are like advent calendars. except there is a little giftie every day. We do these with my sister and cousin and Nana and Oma help too. We each buy or make little presents for each of the 6 kids - it's complicated new math - but it works out. last year we decided to try and do more heartfelt and non-monetary gifts. i did a bit better with that last year than this - but i found some neat pens and pencils and things like rubber cement and mini staplers :) all good things for the crowd we buy/make for.

when i was little, my mom and a few of her dear friends did this for us. they are fun and the kids enjoy it. today rhys got some butteflies to paint and irene got a cardinal to make. they were both delighted.

later in the day, we were in a christmas parade. did i take a picture of the props? no - argle. oh well.

:)

Backyard

Snowball fight

Snowing on Sparks Blvd

Snow at target

Big giant tree & Irene

Janty''s 90th

Olive

Silly

Yams

Sad for us

Self portrait on swings

Totally fun!

I got it, irene!!

Success!

Looking for the cache

Geo-cachers

Harry helps look for the cache

However they get to the mouth

Chopping noodles

Chop stick lessons

Windy

Attempting a photoshoot