Happy New Year!

Technically I'm not really even done posting about Christmas...but now it's WAY over (the tree is down, the decorations are put away), and it's New Year's Eve! I feel like the holiday month passed by much too quickly, but then I reflected on the moments I took to enjoy it: strategic holiday shopping when the malls weren't crowded ( 9 p.m. at night-I do enjoy the shopping, listening to the music, smelling the smells of coffee at the mall), two evening holiday parties, and that lovely afternoon we spent at the Grove.

Then there were the days that led up to Christmas. I did have to work, but my mom was in town and she made Chex mix and cookies with the girls, and Kennedy helped her wrap presents. On Christmas Eve we made dinner and set the table festively and then decorated those cookies. Now the girls are enjoying each day of their break from the comfort of their own home, because their daddy is now a full-time work-from-home kind of guy.

This is also working out well because my car keeps breaking down with some electrical fuse issue, so we are a one and a half car family right now! New year, new car? Most likely.

Which leads me to this...we are heading off to Big Bear for the turn of the New Year! Many blessings to all...may your Eve be safe and fun, may all your resolutions from last year be completed (or completely forgotten), and remember that it's the small stuff that counts! Time with friends and family...that's what matters the most, and that's what we plan to do starting this very afternoon for the next few days...no stopping!

Here is a glimpse into our world at Big Bear from years past:

Happy New Year!

Merry Merry Part 6 - Brooke's View

This post is about Brookie and the strange places I caught her sitting on Christmas morning.

Not too strange, she is waiting anxiously in our bed with her sister...they haven't yet seen what Santa has brought to them!


Soon after, she decides to pick herself up off the floor and perch high above the packages to view the present-opening festivities.

This spot was excellent for both watching others open their packages, and for actually opening her own gifts, too!

Eventually she moved to a "regular" spot in the chair.

But that was too "normal", apparently. What is she, a cat???

It's good to be little, isn't it?

I will end this post with a funny conversation I had with Brooke two nights ago:

Mommy: Brookie, your room is a mess. You should clean it before Quinn comes over to play.

Brooke: But he likes it messy, he told me he does. He says it gives him more options.

Mommy looks at Brooke with raised eyebrows.

Brooke: I just made that part up, but it DOES give us more options!

Merry Merry Part 5 - A Very Twilight Christmas

Some years there is "that" theme that interests a child and makes gift-buying a little easier...all you have to do is buy something pertaining to the theme, and you're set! Themes from years past: Wizard of Oz, Barbie, Webkinz.

This year's theme for Kennedy: Twilight

In case you've been on another continent for the past six months (or maybe you just don't have a pre-teen/teen girl in your house), Twilight is the teenage vampire series sweeping the nation's teens (and their mothers, too...see this website if you don't believe me: Twilightmoms.com ) Crazy! And, NO, I do not contribute to that website...but I do have a crush on Edward. :) Click here for the post about the time Kennedy and I went to see the movie.

Here is Kennedy with her Edward t-shirt:



Here is her pile of stuff which includes: Twilight pins, Edward keychain, Twilight soundtrack (thanks, Granny!), Twilight Book 3: Eclipse (thanks Papa & Beppe!), and a Twilight film magazine full of information about the film and its cast.

However, there is one Twilight gift from Granny that wasn't in this pile. This gift was left in Granny's room until all the other gifts were opened. I went into the room and hid behind the gift.

Here is her face when she saw the gift.

A life-size Edward standee. Complete with Santa hat (I added that myself).

Edward is very tall.



So now Edward is part of the family. He had to stay in our room the first two nights. Vampires don't sleep, and he was freaking Kennedy out a little bit just standing there staring at her. Now he stays in her room, but we pull the Santa hat down over his face at night.

Sorry 'bout that, Edward, but welcome to the family!

Merry Merry Part 4

Twas Christmas morning...children waited (im)patiently at the end of the hallway for Mommy to turn on the lights to the tree and ensure that Santa did indeed visit the night before.

Doesn't everybody's ginormous dog sleep on the couch when the mood strikes? No? Hmmm.

Time to come in and see what Santa brought!!!

Remember the story about the little cocoa mug lost on the elevator last weekend? No? Then see Merry Merry Part 2. Anyway, a very sad little girl asked Santa to bring her this lost cocoa mug. The impossible, she asked.

Nothing is impossible for Santa. This was in our fireplace, all by itself.

Someone was happy. A Christmas miracle has occurred.

For the rest of the day, we opened presents, fixed Christmas dinner, and enjoyed presents...spending time with each other with nothing on the agenda. Once a year. We'll take it.

Tomorrow I'll continue the Merry Merry series, because there is so much more to share! Until then, we hope your Christmas was ROCKING!!! Coolest nutcracker ever, thank you Tracy!!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Presents are under the tree (finally)...perhaps we can keep Samoa from unwrapping them for one more night??

Christmas dinner was served.

Cookies were decorated (and sampled).

Christmas Eve presents from Papa & Beppe were opened. This time Samoa was allowed to open a present, and she pulled on the paper as if she'd been doing this for years.

The girls put on their new jammies. (Kennedy's pants have guitar-playing penguins with mohawks, Brooke's have fairies and castles...)

Samoa! Put on this Santa hat for a picture right now!

HA! The scrapbooker always wins the photo op...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Check out the home page to our Shutterfly account for more Christmas photos! http://thecazadrafamily.shutterfly.com/

Check out the Christmas page for shots from 1998 - 2002 (Brookie's first Christmas!) http://thecazadrafamily.shutterfly.com/christmas

Snowzilla!

I clicked on the link about the doofus who set his apartment building on fire by using a blow torch to clear the snow. After reading this, I see links to "related" articles and I find a travesty which has occurred in Anchorage, Alaska!!!
...
Snowzilla no more...how could it be??? See the story here...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28358077/

UPDATE: I turned on my computer this morning, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a link to a revised Snowzilla article! Someone has rebuilt Snowzilla! That rules.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28378976/

Merry Merry Part 3

Several weeks ago I started a new page on our Shutterfly picture site for Christmas memories.

And then work & life got super busy...so I've got a bit more work to do. However, in the meantime, please check out 1998 - 2001.

http://thecazadrafamily.shutterfly.com/christmas

And, most importantly, I hope you are enjoying your holiday season!!!

Merry Merry Interruptus

I interrupt my Merry Merry series to bring you a little story. This story begins countless years ago when I was Kennedy's age. A little movie by the name of Star Wars was released and I developed my first crush. Not on that goody two-shoes, Luke Skywalker, no! This was my earliest realization that I would be attracted to the dark-haired "bad boy". Han Solo was my man.

I loved him dearly. I had the action figure. I WROTE HIM A LETTER, and in response I got an autographed picture in an envelope postmarked from Van Nuys!!! I didn't know it at the time, being the sixth grade girl from Texas that I was, that when I grew up, I would fall in love with a dark-haired guitar-playing boy (who just LOOKED like the bad boy, but was really a sweet boy **perfect combo for real life!) and would actually move to California and would actually live near Van Nuys!

Seems that sometimes two worlds do collide, yes?

And to continue this story, the other night August and I were playing around on the computer and we saw a random ad for a t-shirt shop with a funny t-shirt that August liked (and which will be featured on a Merry Merry post soon!). On this site, http://www.bustedtees.com/, we found the shirt of my dreams.

Two worlds collide, indeed.

Han Solo.

Guitar solo.

GET IT?????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!


This is my favorite shirt EVER!!!

Merry Merry Part 2

Yesterday was Brooke's class holiday party and book exchange. The children were very excited about giving each other books, it was very cute to witness this excitement. Here is Brooke with Quinn, on the right, and Reilly on the left. Seriously, Brooke and Reilly featured together in one photo is almost too much to take. I mean really, should this much cuteness even be allowed together in the same room???

We spent the afternoon today together as a family. We wanted to go somewhere that felt a little "Christmas-y". Our original plan did not work out, so we decided to be brave and venture out to The Grove in Los Angeles. The Grove is an outdoor shopping area, with a Farmer's Market and lots of food options. We chose to eat Italian food for lunch...it was delish.

...

Here is Santa's workshop! The line was VERY, very long. He's a popular guy this time of year, apparently.

Whoa...is that him flying over us as we shop????? Check out the ginormous Christmas tree. It was REAL.

See...ginormous.... The girls were patient each time I instructed them to smile for a photo op.

Brooke let me have a little photography fun...such a willing participant!

Then the family started getting a little too comfortable in Crate and Barrel, so I decided it was time to go home before they found a display bed and tucked themselves in.

You cannot see it in this photo, but Brooke is clutching a little white cocoa mug with a red reindeer on it. She carried it all around the store. I bought it for her, along with a little polar bear ornament that Daddy liked, and the guy that rang us up was so attentive to her and put them in a little box with red tissue paper on the top and put it in the bag and handed it to her. She was very thrilled with this, and told her Daddy all about the box and the tissue paper. We left to go to our car...and she left the bag in the elevator. 45 seconds later the elevator came back to our floor without the bag. We looked for it, but to no avail.

Little silent tears streamed down her cheek as we left the parking garage...each one breaking my heart just a tiny bit more. Here I sit, wondering just how in the world I can work a trip back to a Crate and Barrel before Christmas... Do we ever stop wishing for our children to be happy, and wanting to do whatever it takes to help? Will her tears of sadness forever cause me as much pain as they cause her? Yes, I know...the answer is that forever and ever their hearts, these girls of ours, are bound to ours. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Merry Merry Part 1

Twas one week before Christmas...but it CAN'T be, can it??? Yet the calendar says that it is, so it must be.

Part of me is a little freaked out by this. Not because I'm not "ready". I don't have a ton of shopping left to do. This season has seemed a little easier because I've intentionally made it easier for myself. I had to let a few things go. I didn't handmake anything...didn't do clever tags on the gifts with pictures of the girls, no cute crafty item will you find in your box of goodies delivered by your friendly mailman. I simplified gift-buying overall. Partly due to the spirit of the current economy (hunker down! save your resources!), partly because, well, I have been extremely short on time due to an unprecedented workload!

The part of me that is freaked out is the part that wonders "where has this month gone"? It's even been cold enough to FEEL like December! It's time to turn up the Christmas carols (I could listen to TSO Christmas Eve and Other Stories over and over and over and over), bake some cookies and enjoy this Christmas 2008!!!

August and I have attended one Christmas party, last weekend. That was a start. Yesterday was the school's holiday performance. Kennedy is in middle school and participation was voluntary and she opted out. Which was good, because she stayed home sick yesterday after all, poor girl.

Brooke's first grade class sang "Up on the Housetop" and "Shalom Shalom". I love listening to little children singing holiday songs. Especially when they are as cute as this one...



After school, Brooke and I ran a quick errand to the movie theater to grab some gift certificates for the teachers (yes, on the very last day possible since today is the last day of school before winter break). We stopped to take a few pictures by the beautiful, glimmering, ginormous Christmas tree.

And THEN I realized that I left the bag of gift certificates upstairs in the theater gift shop!!! We ran and ran and fortunately, there they were sitting right where I left them. Whew!!!

Today is Brooke's holiday party and Kennedy's girl scout holiday party, and I am determined to find some Christmas fun this weekend, so stay tuned!

What are YOU doing this season to make it feel like it's "beginning to look a lot like Christmas"?