Double Happiness

New Decade, New Haircut...

I've worn my hair long for the last 18 years but as I inch closer to the big Five-Oh, I'm conscious of the fact that I can't pull off this girlish style forever.  Especially since I usually wear my long hair in a scraggly ponytail to keep it out of the way.  Really, that's not my most attractive look even though it's slowly evolved into my most common look.

I visited my favorite beauty shop for a little trim and some "me" time after a very busy holiday and surprised my beautician, Kathy, by pointing at a picture of a woman sporting a VERY short hairdo and saying "I want that!"  Luckily, she knew me well enough to not cut it that short!  Even so, it's pretty short -- about 1 inch in the back and 8 inches in the front.  And I'm not totally sure but I think I love it!

I took the kids to Kids Park while all this cutting and snipping was going on and when I returned to pick them up, Gwenny pointed at me and playfully screamed "You're not my Mommy!" then she smiled big and ran to hug me.  Pulling away to get a better look, she said I look "like a lady" (???).  Maddy saw my new hairstyle and quickly announced that she wanted her hair cut too.  So back we went to see Kathy! 

Maddy held really still while handfuls of her shiny dark brown hair fell to the floor and I looked at my baby sitting there and marveled at how much she'd changed since we met her a bit over three years ago.    Her hair was short then too but it framed a baby's face and now she's so different!  So much older!   She's a beautiful little girl now!  I really think I like her new hairstyle even more than mine!  

PS:  I clumsily edited the photo above using my new Photoshop CS4 program.   I even added the frame (woo hoo!).  Phew!  I'm pretty excited about Photoshop after years and years and years as a loyal PaintShop Pro user.   The transition is challenging but not as difficult as I feared.  Now I feel like I own a Lamborghini and I've figured out how to get it out of Park and into First and forced it to take me around the block (with the transmission screaming and begging me to shift)! My goal in 2010 is to learn to get it up to 4th gear and cruise at 110 MPH!

Hee hee... The faces of disappointment (but still a wonderful Christmas!)

The girls had some pretty specific requests for Santa and I knew they'd probably not immediately appreciate his particular slant on what they got but their reaction was priceless! 

I guided them (with their eyes squeezed tightly shut) into the family room where they stood quivering with anticipation right in front of Santa's unwrapped offering.  Then I told them they could open their eyes and this was the photo we snapped at that very instant:

I still laugh when I look at that picture!

Gwen was expecting a Star Wars light saber but the one we wanted to get her didn't work with Wii Motion Plus so we had to get the Nerf one instead.  Maddy was expecting a race car game and there was NOTHING in front of her on Christmas morning that looked even remotely like a car of any nomenclature -- race, game, or otherwise. 

They had no idea what any of this stuff was so they stood there and stared at it and tried to readjust their expectations but the disappointment and puzzlement was impossible to hide.

We would have felt really bad about the whole thing were it not for the fact that all of their Santa presents were picked out specifically to go with the new Wii we'd just purchased.  The girls didn't know what a Wii was but they do now and it's a BIG hit!

If you know Gwen, you know she's digging the Fencing competition on the Wii Resort game.  Here she is laying down some serious hurt on her virtual opponent.  You gotta appreciate that final blow...

There was a firetruck from Santa too.  This has been an annual request for the last three years.  Finally Santa got a Tonka truck so maybe this one will last a bit longer?  So far, so good (it's not broken!).

Santa also got them these totally awesome capes!

I think he must have seen them on M3's blog.  The girls put them on before breakfast and enjoyed incredible super powers all day long.

Michael got some presents too. Here he is with a much anticipated new toy...

And Mum (Nana) got a pretty necklace...

Hee hee.... Uncle Chris and Aunt Kate got a Gravy Fountain...

Cousin Paige got to examine the Christmas Tree close up...

Daddy got several new shirts and a tire pressure monitoring system and a camera strap and some other cool stuff and I got a Wii Fit and a knit hat and some ear-rings and socks and a pretty shirt.  But my favorite presents this year were these two very special cat statues that were actually purchased separately by Andrew and Michael after last month's trip to the King Tut exhibit. 

They noticed that I admired this in the gift shop so they (independently) went to great trouble to get me one.... and I ended up with two!  I LOVE that they're different while still being the same and because of all that special effort, I think they're my most favorite presents of all time!  Plus, they're incredibly beautiful! 

Treasures, forever!

Of course, my best "gift" is the health and happiness of my family.  It's not perfect but we're so grateful for what we do have.  Your favorite present this year?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!   

Just for fun, I thought I'd dig into the archives and post some of our historical Christmas Portraits.  It's fun to see how much the girls have changed from year to year!

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Old Friends, Bacon & Ice Skating

So, here you have it!  Another multi-topic post quickly but lovingly globbed together like one of Gwen's psychedelic Play-Doh sushi rolls.

One of Andrew's college friends came to visit last weekend and brought his 5 year old son, Alec.  The Daddies get together pretty often but the mommies and kids almost never do so this was a special treat. 

After a ridiculously hearty breakfast buffet, we headed to the parking lot where the kids posed briefly for a photo before piling into nearly identical gray Honda Accord mini-vans and heading downtown to the ice rink.

It's been 11 months since we last stood on our wobbly ice skates but we've been roller-skating all year long so the girls were cool with swapping wheels for blades and concrete for ice. Gwen was a speed demon! Judging from this video, she probably doesn't have much of a future in figure skating but I bet she'd kick some serious butt in ice hockey (think Sharks Scott Nichol!)

The video isn't particularly exciting since it's just me chasing my daughter around the ice rink while trying to remain upright and not turn my S90 camera (in video mode) into a really expensive hockey puck.  I'm playing around the iMovie on my new iMac and it's really impressive but I'll be darned if I can figure out how to do anything useful with it yet.  I'm watching tutorials and I think I'll practice on Maddy's Gotcha video since I've never put a video together for her and she's starting to notice that Gwenny has one but she doesn't.  I'm uploading the video from my old Sony Camcorder (that we never used again after Maddy's 2006 adoption) and I have to upload it on my old PC then convert it from AVI to something more Mac friendly then transfer it to the Mac.  Yup, it's tedious.  Anyway, it was fun to the footage of our first minutes together.  I can't believe how little she was!  If I ever get it finished, I'll share it! 

Christmas trees, etc...

We've been busy and there's no chance that I can chunk any of what we've been doing into neat little blog posts so I have to toss it all together like a peanut butter and pickle sandwich except that our sandwich happens to also be smothered in ketchup (or "ktchepy", as Gwenny so adoringly refers to it).

The day after Thanksgiving, just a few hours before Tiger Woods hit a tree (and a bunch of ladies fell out of it), we were digging around in the attic for our Christmas stuff.  Gwen and Maddy decorated our tree almost entirely by themselves but most of the ornaments were in the lower 1/3 so we moved a few of them up.  We only found one Santa hat and Maddy wore it for a while before Gwen insisted on her turn.  If I could read the mind of the cat, I'm pretty sure I'd hear requests for more salmon skin and multiple pleas that she might be spared the humiliation of being forced to wear that hat herself.  Sorry Kitty, looks like tonight isn't your lucky night.

We went to the mall over the weekend and saw these cool animal rides.  I used our Canon S90 to take a few videos.  These things are pretty fun and we found out that we can rent a dozen of them (and a "Zoo Keeper") and have them at our house for a birthday party!   Wow!  We're up for that!  That's going to be incredibly fun and I can hardly wait until next summer!

What you can't tell from this charming video is all of the insanity that descended upon me when I tried to convert the camera's .mov video file to something readable by my PC's default video editing software.  Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!!

I must have spent several hours searching for free software and trying to convert the files and I have a fuzzy memory of stomping into the family room like a felon on PCP with my eyes bulging and screaming a bunch of gibberish about Canon cameras and JFK assassination conspiracies and probably a bunch of other stuff.  It was so bad that Andrew took the kids for a drive to give Mommy some alone time.  Then he returned with this:

Yes, that's an iMac box so Mommy has officially moved to The Dark Side.  Owning a Mac is pretty cool but when I sit in front of it, I can't help but feel as though I'm wearing a Wonder Bra.  Sure, everything looks better (much better!) but I'm insanely uncomfortable!   

The jury is still out but I have to admit that I like the perky youthful look even if I'm squirming in my Aeron.

My cutie loves cuties!

There's nothing this child won't do for one of these miniature orbs of citrusey bliss.  I spotted them during a last minute pre-Thanksgiving run to Trader-Joe's and thought they might be nice in a fruit salad but figured most of them would eventually end up in the trash since they only came in a three pound sack.  But we ate all of them!  Every. Last. One.  Seriously, if Heaven is orbicular and golfball sized and sweet (and seedless), this is it! 

Maddy ate at least five of these per day during the last week and Mommy and Daddy polished off a few too.  Gwen won't eat 'em but she's happy to peel them for free for anyone who'll scratch behind her ears or pat her head.   Oddly enough, the only fruit Gwen will eat is a banana.   That's it!  But she'll drink of the juice of anything (mixed with any fruit juice) -- spinach, cucumber, carrot, you-name-it.  Maddy, on the other hand, would probably prefer to eat nothing at all but fruit.  Okay, fruit and bacon.   That's not weird, right?

We knew she could!

We knew she could do it.  In fact, she probably could have done it long before Gwen did it but today Maddy finally mustered the courage to ride her bike without training wheels and without mommy or daddy holding onto her.  Here's her first solo.  She really good at it too -- not even wobbly! 

We're so proud of you, Madeline Abigail!

"Let Go!"

The bike tires are always flat and two bikes take up too much space in the back of our van so we hardly ever ride them.  Most of the time, we use our Razor Scooters and since the girls mastered those long ago, we suspected they were more than ready to ride a bike without training wheels.  Today, we tested that theory.

Maddy's bike is the smallest so that's the one we took the training wheels off of first.  She cried and cried when we removed them!  Security is so hard to give up!  Maddy did a pretty good job riding without them but she insisted that Daddy run next to her and never let go of the bike even though she was balancing really well and could have survived a solo ride if she was just a teensy bit more brave.   She'll probably do it next time.  She's closer than she thinks!

Meanwhile, Gwen (our fearless one) mastered it almost immediately.  Daddy ran around with her for a few minutes then she started insisting that he let go.  She did great!  Here's a short video of the highlights (only about 1 minute long): 

Giving Thanks - 2009

Like all years, we have much to be thankful for.  We are abundantly blessed and I hope we never take any of our blessings for granted.    My goal this coming year is to be more verbal about giving thanks to God because one of my daughters put her fingers in her ears while I was saying grace before our Thanksgiving meal last night.    This was in sharp contrast to how I felt during that prayer because my heart was so full of gratitude that I had to choke back tears to make it through to the amen at the end. 

We have a strong marriage and three healthy and well adjusted kids.  Our extended family is doing well even though my Dad is getting up there in age and starting to feel it a bit more than he'd like.  But we're all blessed with the sweet gift of friendship and all of our physical needs are being met.   What more could anyone really ask for?

Gwen and Maddy were excited about dinner this Thanksgiving because they've been learning about this holiday in Kindergarten.  When Gwen got up from her nap, the table was set and all the food was there but she was confused because she thought there would be pilgrims and indians too.   Here's our "feast":

Michael was with us again this year. We know we won't always be blessed to share this day with our grown son so it's that much more sweet to have him now.  Especially because he chooses to spend this day with us.  Someday, we'll have to share him with his new family on holidays but, for now, he's ours.   

He's been a vegetarian since 8th grade so, in addition to the traditional bird for the rest of us, I made a Tofurkey Roast for him for thanksgiving.

I also made vegetarian cornbread stuffing with herbs and finely chopped celery, water chestnuts and mushrooms.    I was really good!

Gwen and Maddy are finally starting to figure out that the meat we eat matches up to the type of animal it's named after.  For example, fish sticks actually come from real fish and chicken nuggets come from actual chickens.  Maddy thinks we're kidding when we tell her this.  She just can't fathom it.    Gwen is totally freaked out that a baby bird will tumble out of the egg when she cracks it open for a recipe.  She's relieved every time to not see feathers and feet.

We weren't planning to go out into the Black Friday craziness but it was raining and we couldn't do much else so we went to Fry's to see if there were any great bargains.  

Back in 2005, we purchased a brand new front loading washer and dryer but couldn't bring ourselves to buy the pedestal at the same time because they were ridiculously expensive and seemed like too much of a splurge.  However, I do 5 or 6 loads of laundry per week and each time I load or unload the machine I feel like I'm auditioning for lead contortionist for Cirque Du Soleil.  If they ever need a slightly frumpy middle aged mom who can bend 270 degrees while straddling a plastic laundry basket and cursing simultaneously in three languages, I may have a new career!  

Imagine my pathetic attempt to contain my excitement when I noticed the stupid overpriced pedestals were on sale for 50% off.  Andrew laughed at me and said he wished he had the video camera.  I guess this means I'm not a Diva anymore, huh.   

We also picked up a discounted small flat screen tv to mount on the wall in front of our treadmill.  I walk about four miles outside each day while the girls are at school and I love it (and my good mental health depends on it) so the tv will help keep me entertained and motivated to stick with it through the cold wet winter months ahead. 

Other than that, we've been finished with our holiday shopping since September.  We're not really sure how that happened because we weren't pushing to get it done early.  We just happened to find the perfect gifts early.  REI was a MAJOR source of goodies this year.  Gosh, I love that store!  ToysRus came through too and the girls are getting a Wii and a few Wii games.  They're also getting adorable super hero capes that I saw on the Salsa In China blog.  Michael is getting a new Mac laptop computer that he can use for school (he's a Graphic Design major at The Art Institute in San Francisco).  Andrew is getting some super secret stuff and for me?  Well, I have everything I could ever want or need -- and then some.    Yep, our cup runneth over!

I hope all of our US friends had a nice Thanksgiving and everyone else had reason to be thankful too.    Now I think I'll go make a turkey sandwich!

Santa, Bounce-A-Rama, ISBN, Beef Tamales, Falafel, Weird Stringed Instruments, Tikka Masala and a Nekkid Dip in the Pool!

The weekend started out like any other.  Five of us (two adults, two girls and one cat) snuggled through the usual Saturday morning Nickelodeon cartoon lineup then leaped from bed to the shower into our clothes then into the van for a day of fun and excitement.  As usual, the cat skipped the shower and van excursion. 

The next day, we repeated the process.

I suspect that most of you are totally satisfied by this level of detail about our family's 47th weekend of 2009 but this blog is our family journal so I'm obligated to flesh it out a bit.

Saturday:  We went to breakfast then Great Mall where we encountered a very lonely looking Santa.  No line at all!  So even though the kids weren't dressed for it, we fed them some ideas about what to ask Santa to bring them (stuff we already bought them) and snapped a quick pic with the jolly old guy.    When we got home, I scanned the photo and changed the colors of the girls sweaters to what you see in this photo (originally they were turquoise and purple!).  Curious to know what the kids asked for?

Gwen:   Star Wars Light Saber and Toy Story game
Maddy:  Race Car game

Yes, we've double checked and our daughters really are girls.

After Santa pictures, we walked around the mall some more then headed home so the girls could grab a quick nap to help prepare for what was next - a friend's birthday party at Bounce-A-Rama.  Only three words to describe that experience:  Crazy Delicious Fun!

Sunday:  We went to Campbell's weekly street market for breakfast.  We've been to the market many times over the years but we've never eaten anything other than small tempting samples of the food there.  Today that all changed because we finally decided to make Street Fair food into a main course!

We started with Chicken Tikka Masala and fresh baked Naan for the kids (a favorite).  They'd close their eyes in silent appreciation during every blissfully delicious mouthfull and Mommy and Daddy would use that moment to spork up a bite or two for ourselves.   Then Daddy got a fried falafel sandwich on pita bread with shredded carrots and cucumbers and lettuce and creamy dressing.  Wow.... that was good!    He ate almost all of it and Mommy had two bites too.

Then Mommy got a beef tamale with mild chile sauce and shared a few bites with Daddy before wrapping it up and tucking it away and heading the next course: a spinach and tomato and cheddar crepe with sauteed mushrooms and roasted bell pepper sauce.  Oh My Gosh...... it was heaven!  We only ate 1/4 of it so we could save room for dessert:  A pumpkin nut mini-muffin for Mommy and a double chocolate chip muffin for Daddy!  Plus tasty samples of all sorts of stuff like ripe persimmons and ruby red strawberries and tangy tangerines and red grapes and crisp apples.  Yummmm!

Between all these bites, we strolled casually  through the market and visited the various vendors who were selling everything from home sewn hats and purses to sugar-free biscotti.  There were musicians scattered about and we really enjoyed a blue's singer and a guy playing a big giant stringed instrument (what is that!?).  He was really good! 

There were several stores who wisely chose to open their doors on a Sunday morning to take advantage of all the pedestrian traffic.  One of our favorites was a used book store with a semi-famous kitty named Isbn.  

After fully exploring all of Campbell's streen market, we took the kids to Kid's Park then Daddy and I went to Home Depot to grab some stuff then took in a movie (a lame one called "Men Who Stare At Goats").  It wasn't all bad but it wasn't great either.  Then we picked up our kids and fed them then tossed them into our little pool for some good clean 98 degree splashy fun!   

Ah.... a fun weekend!

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