Ummm...it's almost Christmas and stuff

Each year, it's the same thing.

I swear I'l l be more on top of "it". Whatever "it" is. I'll buy presents earlier and smarter, I'll mail things earlier and smarter. I'll do more enjoyable things during the month to really soak in the season.

Yeah right.

I mailed two things today. Hope they get there by Thursday. I ordered my Christmas cards on Saturday morning. They won't get anywhere by Thursday. Good thing I said "Happy New Year" on them, too.

Working late the week before Christmas didn't help, either, and I've still got some shopping to do. My job sure did pick an inconvenient time to get all busy and stressful.

But we have enjoyed some things this season...Brooke was in a holiday show at school and August did sound for the performance AND played guitar on one song. She had a holiday party in her classroom. August flew to Chicago for his company party AND double-dipped by taking me to the LA office's party last Saturday. Kennedy baked cookies with Samantha yesterday, and hung snowflakes all over the living room last night to surprise me when I got home after working a little side gig taking pictures at a dance party (which I refuse to get into at this moment for fear of scaring you all. Let's just say...Hollywood is full of whackadoodles...and really super old whackadoodles make for quite an interesting dance party, although I will say that the woman who hosted the party is very lovely).

Ah, and the girls got to attend Kennedy's friend's ice skating holiday show, which they enjoyed!

But our tree has been up for weeks, presents are wrapped, the stereo is filled with Christmas CDs, Kennedy loves to light all the candles so the house glows....

We are ready for Christmas. (Almost...how late does Target stay open?)

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!

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

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 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.

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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"?

Weekend blur

Last night, Sunday, around 7 p.m. I walked into my bedroom, looked at the big basket of folded-but-not-put-away laundry and got THAT feeling again. That familiar feeling.

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The feeling that the weekend is over, yet there is much to be done.

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What DID get done:

Friday: Kennedy was awarded Student of the Month for scholastic achievement. Her teacher told me that she has the highest percentage grade of all the kids in the honors English AND honors History classes. We are very proud of her! That afternoon, she went to a girl scout meeting and Brooke went on a playdate. I was able to do a little bit of Christmas present assessment (what HAVE I already purchased and shoved in the closet?) This was productive.

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Saturday: took Brooke to tennis, took Kennedy & two friends to the mall. Bought a birthday gift for a friend, and did a tiny bit of holiday shopping. That night, went out with girlfriends to celebrate Shan's birthday because she is a special person! The mall trip was mildly productive, girls' night out was tons of fun.

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Sunday: Brooke and I started the day by heading down to Hollywood Boulevard. Our friend's son, Josh, is in a program called Join the Band, and groups of small children learn three songs and every so often they have a "show" at a real club in Hollywood. Kennedy didn't feel great, so Brooke and I went. Yep, we were cruising the Boulevard by 10 a.m.

When we got home, we all went and got our Christmas tree! We love buying our Christmas tree. It smells so good in the house right now. We spent the evening decorating it while listening to Christmas music.

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Samoa has eaten approximately two ornaments so far. And counting.

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Buying and decorating the Christmas tree was productive, fun and heart-warming. It is also time-consuming, which leads me to the "what didn't get done" part.

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The laundry basket, wrapping, tagging, and boxing for shipment all our out-of-town-heading gifts, pulling together more donations for the fire victim collection at school, doing all my still-undone duties as secretary of the parents' club (oy vey...), finishing up and ordering the Christmas card from Shutterfly, making a flyer for the book exchange for Brooke's class, writing a check for the 6th grade class gift, making calls to, well, anyone...plus so much more that I can't even remember.

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But, hey...our tree is beautiful!!!!

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Tree hugger:

Gnome hugger (love the caution sign):

New tree topper:

Samoa getting in on the photo shoot:

Hope your weekend was a little productive, a lot of fun, and that at least one more special memory is filed away in that book of life you call your own!!!

Merry December

Today is December 1. I've barely begun the holiday shopping, but already today, here at my desk, I've listened to TSO's Christmas Eve and Other Stories. {TSO=Trans Siberian Orchestra}

Hands down the best Christmas music ever made.

Thanks to August and his dad, we have Christmas lights on the outside of our house!

Someone outside of my office is decorating their work area with jingle bells.

It sounds like reindeer.

TSO, lights, reindeer...

I love December!

{Keep scrolling for our weekend recap...closure to November and all things fall...onto wintry, Christmasy themes!}