What Makes This Night Different From All Other Nights? (It could be the Easter Eggs)

So, if I showed you photos from a holiday that feels like it was weeks ago, would it hold your interest?

Okay, I confess, this post is mostly for the Grandmothers so get over it! Right after the holidays I had some house guests for a few days, and spent a few days preparing for them, so the holiday post went on hiatus.

Michael and I come from mixed backgrounds so we tend to celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays which can really rock if you like holidays!

And I do!

So, over the Passover/Easter holiday weekend, we headed up to Michael's mom's house. The first night we had Passover and it's traditional Seder dinner. This is a very ritualized dinner, and everyone was very excited to see that Noah was finally able to participate this year by reading the children's part, called The Four Questions.

Noah did a really awesome job and was proud when people praised him for sounding out words like "vegetables", "recline", and "Maror"!

Earlier in the day, Mima took the kids (and Michael) to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Center which is an awesome display of hands-on kid-friendly exhibits including dozens of animals made out of everyday objects like violin cases, toilet plungers, springs, oil cans, bicycle horns and the like.

I went shopping.


That evening, after the Seder, we put the eggs and the baskets outside for the Easter Bunny so he could hide them in the backyard after filling them with... you know... KOSHER candy!

Uh huh.

That's how we roll.

Just Another Auld Lang Syne

I have to say, I am a wee bit disappointed.

It's New Year's Eve and my hubby and I are staying in. The kids asleep in their beds with visions of noisemakers and 2009 glasses in their heads. And I am okay with that.

At 9pm we flip on the TV to see the New Yorker's enjoying their countdown and give a perfunctory kiss to each other as a nod to the "us that used to live in the eastern time zone". The ball drops, the confetti falls, the cold revelers in their Nivea Hats (I guess GM couldn't afford to pass out hats this year?) fall into each others' arms singing Auld Lang Syne. Very nice, but it's only 9pm for us, so we settle in for a nice evening together.

Michael makes the coffee. I make some chicken soup. I have been sick ALL DAY and am glad I don't have to show up at any kind of party. We put on a good movie (we got Netflix!) and snuggled up in bed together.

The movie was good, but even so, Michael has trouble staying awake past 10:30 even with coffee, and I, who normally stays up late, am now feeling seasick and on the verge of comatose. The movie ends at about quarter till New Year, so we flip over to the TV channels trying to figure out where best to get our countdown. And channel after channel is "Carson Daly in NEW YORK!" or "Dick Clark's Rockin' Who-Ha Live from NEW YORK!" or "Bill and Hillary smoochin' at midnight Live from NEW YORK!"

I mean, come on, People! We are California! We have HOLLYWOOD! Can we not lead our own countdown? Can we not celebrate with people who are still awake??

Finally, we find some lame local San Diego channel that is broadcasting live from the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where Evel's son Robbie Knievel is preparing to jump his motorcycle over the fake volcano in their front yard. Okay, so we decided to get cool with this as they were in the Pacific time zone, and because they were broadcasting computer created images of all the ways this could go horribly wrong.

We would celebrate with the Las Vegans.

But then, at 30 seconds left to go, the announcer in his spiffy rented tux announces that we are sending it over to Eddie in NEW YORK who will take us into the countdown!! Cut to three hours earlier where Eddie is being told to record this moment like the guy in Las Vegas just passed the feed over to him a moment ago. He thanks Las Vegas Announcer Guy and shows us the ball dropping and we see the ocean of Nivea hats and the same Auld Lang Syne plays as Bill kisses Hillary like they were in the side hall of the Oval Office! Geeeez!!!

Okay, so we don't have a lit up LED ball, and we don't have a Times Square. But we are California! Its actually WARM at midnight!! Can we not gather a few thousand folks, have a good party, and do our own freakin' countdown at midnight? Was there nothing worth broadcasting in all of this vast state? Do they not realize that we have seen this midnight moment three times tonight already?

We gave each other our true New Year's Eve kisses. We were there for each other.

And then Robbie Knievel does his jump over the fiberglass volcano and lands with a perfect flourish, not even giving us the satisfaction of one of the catastrophic scenarios laid out earlier in the program.

And then we turn off the lights, and roll over and go to sleep.

Restful

Wow, I have really been loving all the comments and I thank you all for popping in and making my day. You know, I sent out this mass email to all my old friends and family (the ones who DON'T come here) and reminded them about this here ol' blog thing, and I am hoping that even if they don't comment, they might still stop by on occasion.

So, I guess in return, I ought to at least update you all once in awhile. Maybe one more before the turn of the year?

Things have been really low-key here in the Shama-Lama household. The hubby is off work for quite a few days in a row (a sudden "use 'em or lose 'em" ultimatum with days off by the end of the year), and we didn't even travel anywhere with all that free time.

Noah is, of course, off of school and the twins don't have "preschool" (air quotes intended since I go with them to preschool) until January. So we have been just snuggling in, being a stay-at-home family.

We did go up to Mima and Papa's house for Birthda-Christm-ukkah over a two day period, but since them, we have just been hanging around the homestead enjoying each other's company.

In desert-y San Diego, winter is the most green and verdant time of year. It's our spring. Today, since the rains have dried up, we tossed everyone in the van and went to do a family hike. San Diego is riddled with these cool canyons all through the city, and most of the ones near our house have trails through them. We took a new one today and ended at a shady little oasis with a sturdy board-bridge six feet above a deep, cool creek. The kids threw rocks in the water and Michael and I flitted around trying to prevent toddlers from sliding down the embankment. Then we balance-beamed our way across the bridge and back a few times before heading home.

It was so nice having family time with all of the family.

I suppose with the new year, I ought to be making some kind of resolution. I don't have it all laid out in proper words, but I think it has something to do with having more moments like this. Less errands and more rock throwing. Fewer schedules and more pointing at moths and saying, "Mommy! Butterfly!!!" Less being too busy and more wondering what we should do with our time.

Something like that.

What is your resolution?

All I Want for Christmas...

...is a little comment from YOU!

Now, if you are one of my regular commenters, I am totally cool with ya'll. I love you, in fact.

But I started this blog way back to keep my family and friends up to date with what I am doing and I sometimes wonder if my Mom's blog friends (and yes, my blog friends) are the only folks reading this here thang.

So for Christmas, I am asking YOU to leave me a comment and tell me that you have stopped by, that I am not shouting out to the void on a weekly basis (basis... basis... basis...).

Its easy, even if you don't have a blogger profile or gmail account. You just click the amount of comments down there at the bottom of this post, check off "Name/Url" and just leave a comment and type in your name!

It would make me feel as warm as a hot cocoa this holiday season.

How 'bout it?

In exchange, I will leave you with some Christmas pics of my kids...

Fair enough?

Luka's first go at the Hanukkah candles.

I love finding gifties under the tree.

He put these on himself.

Is it just me, or are there a lot more pics of Luka than anyone else?

Here is Ethan! Sorta.

Happy Holidays, Everyone. And may your New Year be blessed
with peace and health and happiness.

Now go leave me a comment, wouldja?

A Shama-Lama Christmas Morning

Christmas morning with little kids is SOOOOOO much fun! It was the highlight of my day to see the kids all excited as soon as they woke up. I took a decent amount of video and am posting some of it here (mostly for the grandmas). For those of you not too into home movies, the first one at least is the one to watch.

Noah asked Santa for Trolls. You know... those ugly little 1970s dolls with the long hair. He LOVES them and spent his own money for some at a garage sale. It seems Santa found a dusty box of Trolls in the back of the workshop and since Noah was the only kid on the planet who wanted Trolls, he brought Noah all 28 of them. It seems he snuck into Noah's room and planted the first one in Noah's pile of clothes for the day. This is him discovering it at 6:30 when he woke up. Sorry it's a bit dark.




If you are cool with home movies, here is another. Not sure if I will post all four or not, but here is Ethan looking down at the tree (before coming downstairs the first time) and counting the presents. Kinda cute...





I hope you are all having a lovely holiday. What has been the highlight of your day?

Wordless Wednesday: When Toddlers Decorate the Tree

************************************

Check out other Wordless Wednesday Participants

here and here.

For those just popping in,

my blog is about raising my three sons,

two of whom are twins who are just ending

their terrible twos,

and all the crazyness that comes with all of that.

It's also about my love for photography, photoshop,

and the sweet life.

I grew up in Findlay, Ohio

and now live in San Diego with my family.

If that sounds at all interesting,

bookmark me and stop by again sometime!

I know... yer busy WW-hopping right now.

Me too!

PHOTO ESSAY: That Time of Year Again

This time last year, we had the van packed up with everything that truly mattered to us, on the edge of the evacuation zone, waiting for the call telling us we were next to escape the wildfires. We had gone to the pumpkin patch that morning, and dealt with the crazy winds that(unknown to us and to the owners) were about to blow a wildfire down into the valley and burn down the patch, and the adjacent Christmas Tree farm not four hours later!

This year, we had been told about this really great pumpkin patch out in the country, inland from us. It was called Oma's Pumpkin Patch, and it was so homespun, I felt like I was back in Ohio.

They had wagons all over the place for carting pumpkins and small people. Papa Gus was glad to oblige!

There was a sledding mountain inside a feed barn made out of cotton seeds. It was soft but not as slick as one would like. Still great fun to climb around on!

The kids loved the petting zoo, and Luka LOVED the "lambies" as he is wont to do. (For those not in the know, his "lovey" toy is a lamb named Lambie that he has to keep with him at nearly all times.

They hay bale maze looked so fun, I had to duck inside and join them.

Noah honed his skills at bowling with basketballs and calf milking bottles. We got to see a calf on wobbly legs that had been born just a few hours earlier.

They had all kinds of games of skill, including roping fake cows, tossing games, throw things through the hole games, a big hill of sand and a hundred toy dump trucks, all kinds of farm equipment you could climb up on and inside of, play grounds, hay rides, and nearly anything else you could imagine!

Daddy and Luka tried out the four wheeler. Luka has taken to giving two thumbs up and saying, "Awesome!" lately.

There was a long tunnel made of tractor tires. Ethan enjoyed hanging out in there.

Noah joined him and kicked up the dust.

It was nice spending a little holiday time with Mima and Papa!

Father's Day

Michael's parents came down for the weekend to spend Father's Day weekend with us. Yesterday, they spent a little time with us around the house and then took Michael and the kids out to dinner (I went to a little goin-away-picnic for a friend). This morning, I stayed home with the twins while Michael and Noah went off to the grand's hotel for breakfast and some frolicking in the room.

Noah went on to visit his cousins with Mima and Papa (Michael's parents) and Michael came home to me. The twins are now napping so we are having a romantic afternoon alone, sorting laundry, downloading photos and changing light bulbs.

Tonight, Daddy is off with some friends to see our friend Jason in his play, Three Days of Rain at the Compass Theater. I went last week (this is how we do dates, mostly... we take turns staying home with the kids and compare notes later!). He is also meeting everyone for dinner beforehand which is great since he is always ushering me out the door for social outings, but rarely goes himself. I am glad he decided to actually get out for some fun on Father's Day. He deserves it. A lot.

Happy Father's Day, honey. You could not be more loved.

Come Blow Your Horn!

Today is my sweet niece's 11th birthday! Ain't she a doll?

She lives way over on the other side of the country from our family since we came back to California, and we miss her dearly.

She and Noah had a great kinship when they lived near one another. You can just see how sad he is that they will be separated soon, in this picture taken in the last month before we moved.

Erin rocks. She really, really, does!

Go check out my mom's blog for an awesome tribute to Erin (that I could never out-do so I won't even try!) complete with "then and now" photos.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We miss you BUNCHES!!

The Good News

I never got around to writing about my Valentine’s Day.

It was a day like most others, although kind of fun to see Noah participating in that rite of exchanging little grocery-store valentines with his classmates. His, were, of course Star Wars Valentines, because nothing says love like a picture of Darth Vader coming at you with a light saber. Noah gave all the boys pictures of the bad guys and the girls got pictures of the good guys. There were, shockingly, NO pictures of Leia or Amidala (which to me would at least hint at love).
I made a little card for Noah out of construction paper since I had spent so much time the previous night looking for JUST the right card for Michael that I never got one for Noah. He liked it better that I made it anyway.

Of course.

We all exchanged cards after dinner. I had read Michael’s card earlier as he had left it on the keyboard, (knowing of course I was sure to go there!). Noah’s to me was very cute and included a little folded-up piece of paper. I opened it to find a gift certificate for a massage! Michael had done that for me before, and I had loved it. I read through to find out where the massage would take place: at the Ali’i Massage Center.

In HAWAII!!!

Yeah, in Hawaii!! Apparently, my husband and my mother-in-law have been scheming to get the two of us and Noah to Kailua-Kona on the big island for a medical conference Michael wanted to attend! His mom is going to actually take time off from her medical practice to take care of our twins for 5 days!! Does that not ROCK??

So, now, I am spending all my free time trying to research the island, trying to plan what we will do. I have NEVER been to Hawaii, and am so freaking excited I can’t even tell you! Plus, the trip spans both of our birthdays, so its just perfect.

So, if you know anything of the big island and want to give me tips or advice, the perfect restaurant that still has a kiddie menu, the best luau, a waterfall you can swim in, cool places off the beaten track, etc, feel free to tell me!!

Alo----HA!!

Amour

This poem was printed in the program at our wedding.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!


Sonnet XVII
by: Pablo Neruda


I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly,

between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom

and carries hidden within itself

the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love,

darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply,

without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

but this,

in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep...

it is your eyes that close.

Happy Birthday, Mima!

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday.

She is just about everything you would hope for in a mother-in-law: a good friend, a good cook, generous, loving, has great advice and knows when to give it, and when not to give it.

She is fun! She loves a good party and knows how to throw one. She always looks on the bright side of things and helps those around her do the same. She is great with the kids, and knows the balance between treating and spoiling them.

She basically rocks!

Can you join me here in wishing her a happy birthday!!

We love you, Mima!!

Happy New Year!!

It's just past midnight (okay by almost an hour) and I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Happy New Year filled with blessings and happiness!

Michael and I put the kids to bed, sat up and watched a couple episodes of TV we had taped about 8 months ago, trying to catch up on our shows!! Ha! Then we watched 15 minutes of TV, flipping back and forth between Ryan Seacrest/Dick Clark, Carson Daly, and the local festivities live from the Midway Air Craft Carrier.

Is it just me, or does Carson Daly look freakishly like Dick Clark (post stroke no less!) and the guy is only about 30!

We had a couple glasses of wine, watched a couple bands we had never heard of (old age setting in there quickly, uh huh.) and toasted in the new year together on the couch.

The kids will be awake in five hours, but I just wanted you all to know I am thinkin' of ya, and hope you all had a safe and festive night.

How did YOU spend it??

Belated Photo Essays: Twas the Night Before Christmas...

All right... moving on with the belated photo essays of our family at Christmas time!

We last saw the family gathered round the noble fir (okay the plasticky flame resistant fakey tree) decorating and adorning with abandon. (Okay, maybe not the whole family... we purposely leave the twins out of a lot of things. Its amazing what gets done around here at nap time!)

I am mostly disappointed with how these photographs turned out. But I have to blame half of that on the fact that I STILL hate flash photography and its unnatural look, and so I tend to go without. So my pics either come out garish or yellow and blurry.

The other problem is I have recently upgraded to the ultimo pinnacle of Photoshoppy goodness, Photoshop CS3!!! And I have since downloaded a plethora of brushes and actions. What are actions, you ask? Let me tell you! It seems you can record some of the steps you take to "shop" your photos to make them look a certain way, and if you seem to take the same steps over and over, you can record the steps as an action, open a photo, press one button and a dozen or so steps can play out right before your eyes!

Of course, I downloaded nearly every free action I can find, so I have been playing with them all, and all my pics now look WAY over processed, and likely will for awhile until the fun of new actions wears off and I go back to a more natural look.

So, anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, the night before Christmas. Christmas Eve! We tried to gather the three kids beneath the tree right before bed, just after baths. We even plied them with ginger snaps and sugar plums. This was the best picture out of 4,237. And it shows why I hate flash photography.

Then we tossed the babies placed our sweet angels lovingly into their snug little beds. It was time to get ready for Santa! So, we read Santa's blog one more time, saw he was in South America and heading north, and that he wanted carrots placed out for the reindeer as well as cookies in every home for himself, the tubby little elf!

So, we got Santa a few cookies, picked out a green plate for Santa and a red bowl for reindeer carrots, because they were Christmas colors, and Noah poured the milk by himself down there on the floor and placed them all on the hearth. Then, we moved the out-of-reach stockings and hung them by the chimney with care.

Lastly, we cleaned the living room of toys, so that Santa wouldn't be appalled with how we sometimes live, and we headed upstairs for a long winter's nap.

I read Noah the Night Before Christmas story, and stopped repeatedly to explain things like kerchiefs, and sashes, "stirring", and "wondering eyes". Kinda ruined the flow, but what can you do?

Then Daddy and I drifted off in bed for a little while before waking and heading downstairs to place our presents to the kids under the tree, but would you believe Santa had come and gone already?? There were only crumbs left on the cookie plate, and there were a few toys scattered around the tree.

Santa had even left Noah an unwrapped Razor scooter and six little Nutcracker soldiers. Noah has been so taken with nutcrackers the last two Christmases, we knew he would love having a few of his own. Santa is so smart.

The stockings were stuffed, too (some much more than others) and all was well.

Michael and I sat ourselves under the tree around midnight and set up the camera to take a couple pictures of ourselves in our rarely quiet home.

It was so much fun, seeing the magic through a child's eyes who was finally old enough to really understand what magical things were about to happen in his very own home that night, and really believe. Its going to be triply fun in a couple more years, I believe.

And probably triply expensive.

But what the hell? It was so worth it!

Belated Photo Essays: Trimming the Tree!

Okay, Okay...

Everyone has been bitchin' and moanin' about "where are your Christmas pictures!!??" and "don't you have a blog to update??". Okay, maybe those are the voices of guilt in my head. But either way, I have a bajillion photos that I have taken of the Christmas season, only most of them are crappy because I absolutely refuse to use flash indoors, so all my pics are yellow and blurry. But the few that are not blurry look a bajillion times better than those with flash.

If only I had a new camera with a lens that could stop down further, to let in more light so that I could shoot indoors with no flash... so that I could get that much narrower depth of field that I have been in lust with since I signed up for the evil flickr account that makes me realize what a better photographer I could be if I worked at it.

Oh but wait! I AM getting a beauteous new camera for Christmas, and while it doesn't have the $1400 lens I so covet, it does have a rather nifty and awesome little lens that is the next best for a thousand dollars less! It just hasn't arrived in the mail yet.

More on that later. Darn tootin', there will be a LOT more on that later, baby!

But until then, I give you the first installment of my family Christmas photos... the Trimming of the Tree!!!

Why haven't I shown you this before? Why do I show them now, the very day I took the tree down? YOU try buying presents for a bajillion people while jugging twin toddler's second birthday parties, researching daycamps, while stopping a plethora of "he took my toy" fights and "he threw a truck at my head" tantrums, and getting all these crazy people fed. Just do all that and keep your blog up to date! I dare ya!

So, be still and enjoy.

You just know, we waited until the twins went down for their nap before opening the boxes of decorations. I am a "real pine tree girl" but with the chaos and the 2-year-oldness that abounds in my house, we just opted to put up the tree and be done with it, no watering, no mess.

We also went with the all-plastic ornaments, which proved wise what with Ethan's penchant for yanking balls off the tree, screaming "OH NO!!!!!!" and throwing them across the room.

We did add in the special ornaments that were made by the NICU nurses the day after the twins were born, to celebrate their first Christmas in this world. They put their wee footprints and their names on them, and hung them on their isolettes.

It turned out to be a really awesome Christmas for us. Noah is five now, and was fully immersed in the Santa story, was trying to be good for Santa, kept worrying that he was going to get a "rock of coal" in his stocking.

He asked all the tricky questions about how Santa gets down the chimney and all. He didn't believe in Rudolph, though, because there is no way reindeer's noses can light up. That's where the whole story lost credibility, you know.

Of course, that all turned around when we watched Santa's progress on NORAD's satellites, and he actually SAW Rudolph out there in front of the sleigh. "Whoa... there really IS a Rudolph! THERE REALLY IS A RUDOLPH!!"

Christmas generally rocked this year.

I was really dreading the season, what with the whole Halloween slide into Thanksgiving with Noah's birthday the very next day, twin birthdays just before Christmas, and don't forget we do Hanukkah, too!

But it wasn't the complete insanity I expected! It was rather enjoyable, and while I didn't exactly have time to reflect much, I did get a few chances to sit back and see how good I have it, and to give thanks.