Christmas memories

Another Christmas is in my past and as I sit back and listen to my kids play with all their new "toys" I can't help , but reflect on my own Christmas memories. There is within each one of us a special memory of our "best" Christmas.

Jacob fell asleep on the couch a few moments ago completely surrounded by his stuffed Yoshi dolls. He has a sweet smile on his face as he drifted off to slumber land surrounded by his little fuzzy pals. As I watched him sleeping there I started thinking about my own childhood and the presents that stand out in my mind the most.

My strongest memory is of a plastic black horse named "Thunder". Grandma Fry used to give us the JC Penny catalog on Thanksgiving and tell us to circle what we wanted. We toiled over that thick book for hours on end...dreaming of all the possibilities. I was about 11 years old and totally enthralled with horses. In the boys section of the toys there were Lone Ranger and other various cowboy dolls. They were the size of Barbie, but they had their own horses (sold separately of course). I carefully circled the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver and Tonto's horse (Scout). I dreamt about those horses for the next month...hoping that Grandma would get them for me. On Christmas Day she arrived with her usual car loaded full of presents. She brought so many bright boxes and mysterious packages with her each year. We sat back and marveled at how many trips Paul and Dad made to her car to carry in all those presents.

As she handed me my boxes I tore into them with visions of those horses in my head. My first gift was a Barbie doll. I sat back and tried to smile and hide my disappointment, certain that she didn't understand that I didn't want the dolls, but I wanted the horses. There I sat with a new Barbie and a Barbie jeep...barbie clothes...a new jewelry box...lots of nice stuff, but not what I was dreaming about for a month. Grandma looked at me and said, "Did you open your big box?". I didn't have another box, but we dug through the mountains of shredded paper and we found one last box for me. I tore into it and when I lifted the lid there were 3 horses staring back at me...Silver, Scout, and a black horse named Thunder. I didn't put them down for weeks on end. Their heads and legs moved and my Barbie's could sit on their backs. I played with those horses for years and years. I took them outside and wore them out...to the point that their heads used to pop off and I was very skilled in putting them back together. LOL My favorite horse was "Thunder"...I didn't even see that one in the catalog, but grandma must have noticed it and figured I'd like that one too. They were awesome!

As an adult I have other memorable Christmas's...that stand out in my mind for all time. The birth of my "Christmas baby" , Alex, is one that looms large in my mind. For some reason though, Micah is more of a Christmas baby to me. I think that I was to tired and worn out to realize it was Christmas with Alex. LOL Micah was 3 weeks old for Christmas day and I can still remember snuggling his warm fuzzy head while I watched the older kids open their presents.

There is nothing quite like holding your newborn baby on Christmas morning...you can never forget that feeling. :)

My 2 Christmas babies:

Christmas morning

It's actually 9pm right now ...on Christmas Day. The "men" are watching the Laker game and so I thought it was a good time to slip away and post a few pictures of our morning. There is a video clip of Christmas morning on the YouTube thing on the side.

Jacob woke me up at 8am. I know that isn't incredibly early, but I am fighting the flu and I'm feeling very "blah". Jake is sick too, but that little adrenaline rush that he felt pushed him through the morning. He crashed on the couch after he was done opening his presents and I had to give him Motrin for his headache.

Here is Jake sifting through his mountain of presents. He has had a "plan" for days on which order he was going to open his stuff. LOL

He was VERY happy with his Christmas presents. He got everything he asked for thanks to Amazon. He got his microwave , toy sushi, hot wheels cars, 8 different colored stuffed Yoshi dolls, and a few other things. He was unhappy with mom's choice to buy him the "Ants in the Pants" game, but a few hours later I put it together and showed him how to play and then he liked it...heehee.

I have a tradition in my house that my kids all watch each other open their presents. We go from the youngest to the oldest and each person takes a turn cleaning up the wrapping paper for their sibling. That is why you see someone behind the "main" person in each picture. LOL I like to watch them open everything and it feels more "special" this way. Micah is wearing his new shoes in this picture. Alex bought him new indoor soccer shoes and he loves them. We got him a VCR for his room, 2 videos, 1 Wii game, 1 DS game, and an 8 Gig Ipod Monochrome (engraved with his name). He definitely had a good Christmas!

Caleb was a little disappointed because he didn't get Rock Band 2 for the Wii, but I couldn't find it in time. By the time it hit the store shelves I had already bought him most of the OTHER things on his wish list...so there you go, LOL. He got this lovely LA Dodger shirt, a portable hard drive for his lap top, a Wii game, and a bunch of assorted other things. Alex got a Nintendo DS for her birthday 2 days ago, so I got her a few accessories to go with that for Christmas. She also got a portable hard drive, some Christmas ornaments, and clothes. In this picture she and Caleb are holding up their tape measures. LOL Tilden got them nice 25 foot Craftsman tape measures and utility knives. He said that it was time to start supplying them with tools for their future "on their own" lives. They were pretty thrilled with the utility knives...hahaha. It's a good idea :) I make all the kids their own personalized calendar each year too...they love those.

Now that Alex and Caleb have good jobs they buy everyone really NICE presents. All their gifts added a lot to our morning...it was fun to watch them give each other their gifts. Even Jacob got into the gift buying spirit and he got all of us something HYSTERICAL. For example: he got Caleb Super Mario boxer shorts and when Caleb opened them Jake said, " I got you those because you always walk to the bathroom in your underpants". hahahahaa He got me a tiny deer statue with a pine tree and he told me to put them on my table by my bed. hahaha...it was so fun!!

And finally, this is our annual "after the presents" picture. The kids hold
up their favorite gift for a group shot. Notice that Alex is holding her utility knife...hahaha. Silly girl.

busy hands

I woke up this morning to a "Merry Christmas" art display from Jake. He spent a LONG time working on these "Fat mouth Jacob" pictures for the dining room wall. He also hung them on the living room wall. I had to take a picture of it all so that everyone else could enjoy it with me. LOL

He was very proud of himself as you can tell by this picture. Silly child!!

Just in case you don't know Jake...or you've forgotten, he created a Mii character on the Wii that he calls "Fat mouth Jacob". It simply has 2 eyes and a long line as it's mouth (no nose). He LOVES this Mii person and draws it on everything he sees.

Here are a few close -ups. Enjoy!

Christmas is coming...

" The goose is getting fat. Pleased to put a penny in the old man's hat..."

Oh, sorry...just some old Raffi song running through my head. LOL

When you are an adult everything goes by so fast. You "dread" putting up the decorations because you know that they will need to come back down shortly and you just don't don't want the extra work. The days rush by so quickly in a flurry of chores and every day task. Suddenly, it's Christmas Eve and you are wrapping that last present and filling the stockings...again..while you get the feeling of de'javu because you've done this so many times before. There are years when I am not so thrilled about Christmas and this is one of them. It's hard to stay upbeat when your husband has been given a lay off notice. It's difficult to be cheery when the Wii breaks 10 days before Christmas and you've bought several presents that directly relate to that Wii working. :(



But then God sends you a 5 year old who is filled with enough excitement to keep this entire house afloat. You have to smile when he walks into your room each morning with his big smile ( and missing tooth ) giving you a huge hug and saying " 11 more days and it's CHRISTMAS!".

This is a typical day with Jake:

He wakes up very early and runs to the advent calendar to hang the days ornament. Then he counts all the boxes that are left and rushes through the house giving everything that moves a hug and a report on how many more days are left before Christmas. Throughout the day we will all receive several reminders on this count down...followed by this statement given on tippy toes with folded hands, "and I'm sooooo EXCITED!". Even the cat has to sit through his hourly reports. LOL

I've been wrapping 1-3 presents a day and letting Jake put them under the tree. He will spread all the presents around and count them in several different ways -- how many are his, how many are red, how many there are total, ect. Often he will walk up to people and tell them how many presents they have in comparison with him. (he has the most). In the evening he runs through the house and turns off every single light, but plugs in the Christmas tree, fireplace lights and mini snowman tree. Then he does what we like to call, "the parade of presents". He will march past us with one present at a time and as he is passing by he says, "this one is dad's" or "this one is Jake from Alex". We don't do the Santa thing at our house and we never have. This year as Jacob was celebrating the presents I started flashing back to Caleb and Micah doing the same thing and I realized that the Santa believers are missing out on this fun tradition of embracing allllll those mysterious presents and imagining what each box holds.

Last night as I was sitting at the PC near the tree, Jake walked up to me and said, "Hey , we don't have one of those throwing holes where Santa tosses the presents to the tree". LOL LOL I pointed out the fireplace and he quickly ran to it and had a good look and then said, "Oh, well this is probably to far from the tree. If Santa comes here he is going to be lost and he won't know which pile of presents are mine." . I asked him how he knew about Santa and he said, "Haliegh told me that he's bringing all her presents and that he needs a throwing hole". Then I had to tell him that all his presents are already here because mom and dad buy them for him and Santa doesn't come here. He bit a big piece off his candy cane and said, "good , because I don't like him and I don't want him throwing my presents".

He goes to bed early every night on his own because he wants to wake back up and do the next day of the advent calendar. He gives me a big hug and says, "I love you mom....tomorrow are you gonna wrap another present?". heeheee



So....it's really hard to be a "scrooge" when you have a little ball of Christmas cheer living in your house.

shopping shopping...

I have all of my Christmas shopping done!! Well, at least I think that I do, but I am sure that when I wrap all these presents I will notice that someone has less than the rest and I will have to go even out the loot. LOL

I let Jake pick out whatever he wanted to buy for Alex's birthday. He is so funny! Last year he got her one of those bike license plates that says "Alex" on it and he was certain that it was a Wal-Mart gift card. We laughed so hard when he gave it to her. Hey, he was being sincere...heehee. However, he does not have the "spirit of giving" because he is all about himself when we go shopping. I guess that will come in time.

Micah has Christmas money to spend this year. I've taken him shopping twice and it's like taking a card board cut out of Micah to the store. He says nothing, he makes no expressions, and he has no opinions. I get exhausted from the constant..."Micah, what do you WANT to buy?" dialog. He always shrugs his shoulders and says nothing. I forced Tilden and Micah to come with me to kraynak's yesterday because I wanted to buy stocking stuffers and I knew that Micah still needed to get gifts for most of his siblings. It was super crowded there and I suddenly realized something... Micah is exactly like his dad when it comes to shopping!! They both hovered close to me as if I was their guide in a foreign land. Neither of them had any advice or opinions, but if I asked them to specifically look for something they were helpful. At one point I actually had to ask them to STEP BACK because they were hovering so close to me that I couldn't even see the stuff on the shelves. Tilden could only say a few phrases while we were there and I heard them over and over. "People are crazy", "why is it so crowded?" and "are you almost done?".
We went to Quaker Steak and Lube afterwards and the many tv sets were playing the Sunday football games. Suddenly , Micah and Tilden became extremely interested in their surroundings and could carry on a lengthy conversation. However, those conversations were all football based. Who is injured, who is going to win today, who is getting the best draft pick. They were all smiles and chipper. NOTHING like the 2 "men" who just went shopping with me. I am convinced that all stores have some type of force surrounding them that sucks the willpower and the brain from the male human. They can't think or react while in the store, but once they leave their full powers of thought are restored.

I MISS ALEX!!! I am not a real 'girl" when it comes to shopping. I don't delight in the whole process nor do I care to browse and stay longer than needed, but at least my brain works. LOL I go with a mission in mind and I follow through with that mission...even if it means hitting 3 or 4 stores to find the item I was looking for. I don't think that I will make the boys go shopping with me anymore. In fact, I am going to make Tilden take Micah Christmas shopping. It won't frustrate me and they will both be happier, LOL.

Thanksgiving with the Tatebe's

Before I begin...there are 2 new video's to watch in my youtube bar. One of them was taken immediately after Jake lost his first tooth. It's pretty short. The other are my 4 kids playing Rock Band together while waiting for dinner on Thanksgiving day.

Almost everyone took part in helping cook dinner this year. Alex chopped up all the onions and celery for the stuffing, Micah made pumpkin pies, Caleb chopped up the veggies and Jake helped in whatever way he could. I let him dump the stuffing bags into the big bowl and peel an onion. LOL

Caleb felt that it was imperative to use his latex gloves from work because "squash and zucchini are deadly". Hey, those are HIS exact words. He made a wonderful light dish of broiled zucchini and yellow squash. We were trying to think of a new vegetable to serve this year and he suggested making that. I loved it!

Several years ago I found Indian and Pilgrim hats in a dollar store. We get them out every Thanksgiving and everyone will take a turn wearing them at some point throughout the day. It's just silly fun!! Here is Alex showing off her "style" as she prepares to baste the turkey.

Micah wore his Indian feathers while he played Rock Band. He must be part of the Village People. LOL Now that I think about it...most of the time they pick the Indian feathers over the Pilgrim hat. tsk tsk

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....dinner was finally done and we all gathered around our fancy table and enjoyed a wonderfully delicious feast. We stuffed ourselves and then fought over the couches so we could lay down and moan about eating to much.

Happy Thanksgiving!! This picture is priceless...I can't believe Tilden let me take it. heeheee

Pumpkin Pie

Another classic Jake moment...
I made 4 pumpkin pies on Wednesday. Two for us and two for my parents. Traditionally we cut them on Thanksgiving morning and eat pie w hile we watch the parade. I had them on the kitchen table cooling and Jake kept asking me when he could eat a pumpkin pie. I told him to wait until tomorrow morning when the parade was on and he could eat some for breakfast. Frankly, I was tired from cooking most of the day and my feet hurt so I didn't want to deal with all his demands. Well, I went into the kitchen later and the center of a pie was eaten away with his little grubby finger prints all over the place! I called him into the kitchen and he said, "that wasn't ME!". Little liar! LOL Know what I did? I cut the pie up and gave him a piece. What was the point in punishing him? His eyes were huge as I got the knife to cut the pie and he said, "WHAT are you gonna do with that?". As if I were Freddy Kruger or some other crazy person, LOL. He had to smell those pies all day long and he just couldn't stand it...the damage was done already. No sense in getting into a fight over something a 5 year old did. I DID yell at him a little bit and told him to NEVER do that again. He said, "I'll try mom, but they are to good to just smell". HAHAHAHA. After he ate his pie I said, "Jake you better never destroy a pie like that again. That was very naughty." He looked at me with his tiny innocent face and said, "it wasn't me!". Man! He is going to be TROUBLE when he's a teenager.