We Are All Heroes...

Guitar Heroes that is.

Daughter "Rocking It"

Our whole family has gone mad over this game. It's the first thing Buddy goes to as soon as he walks in the house. Daughter has no problem sweet talking a turn from her little brother. She has mastered that thing and Buddy is in awe of his sister. Last night he whispered "She's amazing" as she battled AND beat Slash!

I think our whole family could play this for hours. I can definitely see why it is such a huge hit!

Partial Christmas Post

I have so much catching up to do - but most of my pictures are at home so I'll have to wait and post those later.


Christmas was awesome - I was so happy to have my dad in town. I'm like a little girl when it comes to my dad. He's so great.


Every year we try to come up with fun and exciting and different Christmas presents for him. He's got every gadget known to man but doesn't want to use them for fear they will be stolen or get broke. We buy him clothes but I know he's got a closet full with tags because he doesn't want to ruin them.... So this year we decided to go down to the beach and take pictures of us. He loved them.
My sister, brother and I
Sister
Me
Buddy
And a beautiful sunset to end the day.

Merry Christmas!!!

I probably won't have a lot of time to write this week. We will be very busy finishing shopping, wrapping, eating, eating and visiting... My dad arrives today!!!! So Happy!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

In Just 2 Days....

My dad will be here!!!!

I'm a HUGE Daddy's girl and can not wait for my dad to arrive on Saturday. He lives in Oklahoma and flies out every year for Christmas. I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful parents. Even though they divorced when I was 8, they have become really good friends over the years. He even stays at my moms when he visits - in separate rooms of course! But how lucky am I that I don't have to split up my holidays between my mom and dad?

My Dad, Brother and "Buddy"

My Brother arrived yesterday from Austin, Texas. He's actually my step brother from my dad but chooses to spend Christmas out here with us. He also stays at my mom's house.

So this year we will have a full house - combining my family with J's family (mom, brother and sister-in-law) for our usual Christmas morning. All together we should have 12 of us in our Christmas Eve pajamas enjoying our time together. I'm really looking forward to it.

Pictures from Christmas 2006

Christmas morning last year at my house

My sister and brother



It only takes a minute to create memories that last a lifetime.

"Meaningful family traditions provide parents with an invaluable tool for carrying out their divine responsibility to rear children in love and righteousness. As families establish and follow traditions, each family member is strengthened and the family as a whole grows in unity and love."

Christmas Traditions

We have so many wonderful Christmas traditions. Our tree ornaments, Christmas Star, Christmas Eve mouse gifts, Stocking Stuffers, Santa's gifts and Christmas morning breakfast all are a huge part of our Christmas celebration.

When we were little (I can't remember when this started) my mom would let us open a present on Christmas Eve and it was signed Christmas Eve Mouse. It was always new pajamas. So on Christmas morning we were always sporting our new p.j.s. That tradition has continued on through the years. We buy our own Christmas Eve Mouse gifts but it is still fun to have new p.j.s for Christmas morning. My kids look forward to their Mouse gifts. I love my mom for all her fun little traditions.

Stocking Stuffers are a huge part of our Christmas morning. My mom, sister and I always go way overboard on the stockings but they are a highlight of the morning. Each of us will pick up little things here and there that will make it into the stockings - by the time Christmas rolls around we have HUGE stockings. It takes us all easily an hour to go through our stockings. We put in fun stuff, necessary stuff and totally off the wall stuff. Always saying "Santa knew....." as we open gift after gift.

When daughter was little she'd spend the morning with us and then have to go to her dads house by 10 or 11. This made it difficult to get everything done unless we woke up really early. So we still do the same. My family will come over to the house usually by 6:00am (yes, we are crazy) and the adults will wake up the kids. My mom will usually go outside the windows with sleigh bells and wake them. And then they come down the hall to find all the goodies Santa has left for them. Quite the production - quite the memories!

A newer tradition that we have started is carrying over from J's family. His late father used to make a huge Christmas morning breakfast (chorizo, eggs, potatoes, the works). Last Christmas J treated us all to a wonderful breakfast just like his dad used to cook. We will keep this tradition as it is so special to him and so good to eat!!!

Another tradition carried over from J is the Christmas tree topper. His late father's birthday is December 11th. His family used to wait to decorate the tree on his birthday because everyone was usually around on that day. We use this day as the day we put the tree topper - a star on the top of our tree. It's a great way to remember his dad.

I know we have other little things we do every year but those are the big ones that we are sure to do every year. I'm so blessed with my family and our traditions and blessed with the addition of J's family and their traditions.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

I love, love, LOVE decorating our Christmas tree. Every year it's a walk down memory lane for me. My mom started a wonderful tradition for my sister and me when we were very little. Every year she would buy us an ornament, one that signified the events of that year. When I moved out my mom had all my ornaments nicely boxed and ready for me to put on my tree. Keeping with this tradition I've started a box of ornaments for Daughter and Buddy. Both have quite a set accumulating. Every ornament on our tree means something to us.

Daughter's "Baby's First Christmas"


Buddy's "Baby's First Christmas"

This weekend was time to decorate the tree. We put on a Christmas movie - this year was the Elf. Daughter has never seen it so we enjoyed watching the movie and decorating the tree together. Well, she sat there while I reminisced about every ornament... "awww I remember this one"... "oh, I got this when I was pregnant with you"... "Baby's First Christmas... oh how cute!". I've been collecting the Hallmark's Mary's Angels before she was born.

Her collection

This is the first one I bought back in 1990.

The tree turned out very pretty - it looks much better at night all lit up.


It's more than a Christmas tree - it's more like a memory tree.

Loooong Weekend Recap

Today is the Monday after Thanksgiving. I'm still full, tired and really not wanting to be at work today. It was a great weekend spent with family and friends.

Thanksgiving

I had volunteered to make the mashed potatoes, stuffing and green bean casserole this year. J has fried the turkey for the past 2 years so keeping with tradition we also brought the turkey to my mom's.

(my sister and Cousin)

(my cute mom)

My cousin from Oklahoma is working in Los Angeles right now so she was able to spend the day with us. We had so much food (as we always do) and were too stuffed to do too much after dinner.

I have to make a special note about my mom's pumpkin roll. This thing is to die for. She says it is easy to make but I'm too scared to tackle this one. Maybe for Christmas...

Also keeping with tradition we spread out the ads for Black Friday and mapped out our plan for our shopping trip.

Sister and I have gone out shopping the day after Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. Kohls opened up at 4am this year so this meant getting up and out there around 2am. We have our system down. We take our chairs, blankets and DVD player. By the time the movie is over it's time to put away the chairs and get ready for them to open up the doors.

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Besides having to get up at 1:30am - it's really pleasant. Until you have someone cut in line!!! It's just so rude - especially to all the people that got up sooo early to have some inconsiderate people just slide in line right before the doors open. I was ready to go to blows but I didn't have time - I had to get in and get my shop on!!!

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These pictures do not show how incredibly long the line was but we were about the 15th in line I tried to get a picture of the cutters but couldn't without being too obvious. The front of the line

The end of the line is wwwwwwwwwwayyyy back there.

I did pick up a couple things for me - including this cute little hat...

We spent the rest of the day shopping until I literally dropped. I'm too old for this. I, I mean Santa did find the long sought after Wii for Buddy and a great deal on a camera for Daughter.

Saturday we went to J's mom's house in Laguna Beach for Thanksgiving with his family. Thank goodness she completely understands the lack of desire to travel on holidays. I brought my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dish - sweet potatoes.



Buddy was so good and patient while we waited and waited and waited for the turkey to finish. J's mom's oven is old and needs to be replaced... He helped himself to his fave - black olives.

Is there any wonder why I love this boy so much!!!


Sunday we (Me, J, Buddy, Daughter, "B" Daughter's boyfriend) all went bowling. It was the first time I've actually ever bowled with Daughter - it was a lot of fun. After bowling we hit the arcade. All I hear is "mom - quit taking pictures".

Even J showed his appreciation for the constantly taking pictures....

I have so much to be thankful for - I need to remember to appreciate every day and thank God every day for what I have.

Sisterly Love

I'm so very blessed to have such a great relationship with my sister. We are 2 1/2 years apart (I'm the oldest) but we are so much alike.

There is not a day goes by that I don't talk to her (either phone, text, IM, etc.).
I'm not sure when it started but we don't call each other by name - only "Sister". Even my kids call her "Sister". She is soo soo good to my kids - they adore "Sister".
We talk about how rare it is (we guess) to have such a tight relationship. We have many friends that have siblings but talk seldom. And think WE are strange because we are so tight. I can not imagine my life without my sister. I absolutely love this girl. My life would not be the same without her. She is not just my sister - she is truly my best friend.

My Weekend

The weekend started off great. J had gotten tickets for the Lakers from one of our vendors. We had a good time. We don't get the chance to go out just the two of us too often so this was a nice "date".

J loves the Lakers and was in heaven all night. They won too!!! Woo Hoo!!!

All good things must come to an end.... The Green Extreme had their play off game Saturday morning against the Evil Leprechauns (first place team). It was such an exciting game - right up to the last minute of the game. We scored first and then they came right back and scored three making it 3 - 1. Our little guys battled and tied it up only to have them (Leprechauns) score in the last minute winning the game. So sadly, the season ended then. The boys played their little hearts out and it was a great game!!

After the game Buddy went with one of his friends. Mom, sister, daughter and I all went to lunch and then Tarjay! Very fun. I found what I want for Christmas from mom & dad....

Come to mama......

Continuing on with the busy day Buddy had a birthday party to go to that afternoon and then we went to dinner at China Dynasty. I love this place - we had hot and spicy chicken, orange chicken and chicken chow mien. So yummy!

Sunday morning I was in the mood to make crepes. They turned out soooo good. Buddy was loving them. I made his with blueberry syrup and mine with orange/pineapple marmalade and maple syrup. They were very tasty.

The day was drizzly and grey so I stayed in most of the day - only got out to go grocery shopping - weee! I also made my first batch of pumpkin bread. So very tasty!!!

That was it - so very exciting. The end.