My Very Own Christmas Story

A funny thing happened to me the other day. I felt as thought I was living in a movie. Not an action packed movie like Rambo or anything, but we watched a classic movie with our kids and I had the realization that both of my boys were represented on the screen.

Can you tell who I'm talking about yet? Wyatt is soooo Ralphie. One track mind. Does good things so he can get rewards later. Imitates his dad. Sam is soooooo Randy. Never eats voluntarily. Whines a lot. Very cute, but very annoying to his big brother. Hates to wear his puffy coat.

Needless to say, I love the movie, "A Christmas Story." I love the leg lamp and the neighbor's dogs, the chinese turkey and the pink bunny pajamas. I love the 40s decor and vintage soap boxes in the background. I love the tree with huge lights on it and the dad who cusses all the time. But I really, really love seeing my boys on the screen. Every time Randy hides under the cupboard drinking a glass of milk I think of Sam hiding in the linen closet drinking from his sippy cup. Every time Ralphie tries to convince his parents to buy him that rifle and keeps trying and keeps trying, I think of Wyatt's determination to get things his way whether anyone likes it or not. When I see those two boys fighting each other to get up the stairs first on Christmas Eve I think of my boys, well, fighting to get up the stairs first on Christmas Eve. Sometimes it's good to know a movie by heart. I get to live this one every day.

The Great Brain Dump

Try hard not to notice that I haven't posted on this poor little blog for an entire month. If you are wondering where I've been, let me give you a few key words to fill in the gaps:

Reflections

Strep Throat

Cooking on TV twice

Primary

Those words don't seem like much, but they are potent ones. First of all, never ever let me sign up to do Reflections for the PTA ever again. In fact, I may never do another PTA job after that one. It's a great job for an altruistic person who has loads of time to devote to tedium and paperwork and phone calls. Obviously not me.

Secondly, I never knew strep throat could feel like the flu. It does. I was in bed for four days and felt terrible for four more, and I finally got a call from the doctor's office yesterday saying, "Oh, by the way, you need antibiotics." Ah, gee, really?

Cooking on TV is actually very fun for me to do. But it takes a lot of time, a lot of planning, and a lot of cooking beforehand to pull it off. You have to make sure your cute dishes are clean, you have to get your cute apron ready, trust me, there's loads to do. And doing it two weeks back to back is definitely an exercise in committment to your hobby.

I just got called into the Primary Presidency in my ward after being the music chorister for two and a half years. That's a lot of Primary. But I have some new jobs and projects I have to do for that and my brain is full. I'm ready for a brain dump, but I have misplaced my brain handler's manual.

And the fact that I have been writing on my other food blog as well has really taken a toll on my creativity and my ability to string words together without using the words "simmer" and "mix well."

I was having a conversation with a dear friend of mine yesterday and we were both talking about our super busy lives and how we are rapidly approaching addiction terms with our need to finish projects and be productive all the time. The mental clutter is overwhelming. I had a thought and told her that maybe this is the only way the adversary can get to us. He knows we aren't going to look at porn or do hard drugs. He knows we won't quit going to church and we'll be kind and loving to our families. The only way he can distract us is with the busyness. The constant strain on our abilities wears us down and makes our spirits dull and lifeless.

Today I have four things on my to-do list and none of them involve watching a movie with my children or taking a nap or starting that new Dan Brown book. It's supposed to snow here today and I love to watch it snow. I don't know why. I hate to shovel it, I hate to drive in it, and I hate to dress for it. But I love to watch it come down, in any case. Today may be the day for the great brain dump.

Pumpkin Slime Means Fall Time

It's the time of year when we get to have our yearly rite of traditional vegetable mutilation and Funnest Ever Family Home Evening activity: The Carving of the Pumpkins. Let me educate you on the proper technique for this family adventure, just in case your skills are a little rusty:

First, you have to do it up right and go to the pumpkin patch to pick out your special pumpkin. It should really be the pumpkin patch run by the little old man who grows them in his backyard and has each one priced with a price gun sticker, but whatever you have nearby will do. Your pumpkin must reflect your personality and age appropriately.

And, luckily, they have wagons there so you can knock over all the piles of pumpkins and pretend you are a dump truck.

Then, you take them home and decide what kind of face you want on it. When the top gets cut off, you can say, gross, these stink! And you can also pull your own seeds out and yell, "Eww, Slime!" If you are doing it right, you should have your copy of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" on the DVD player for your little sister so she doesn't mess you up.

You can also get sad that dad won't let you use the sharp knife, but you can turn that anger to your advantage by hassling him for twenty minutes to carve your pumpkin NEXT. When they are all scooped out and cut up, you can dump the seeds into your garden and hope that more pumpkins will grow next year in your own yard. And then you find the little candles in mom's pantry and light up the neighborhood with really, really spooky pumpkins. I just love Halloween.

Disneyland: A Review

So, most of you will be totally bored by this review, because I'm sure most of you have already been to Disneyland and really like it. However, if you haven't been in a while, or your kids are too old, or you just think it's not worth your time, (ahem, Anna) let me tell you why you should take a trip to SoCal with your family to visit Mickey's place, aside from the fact that there is a giant talking Potato Head there:
They do everything there on a large scale. Nothing is done halfway, and it always looks like it came out of a movie. Even the Halloween decorations are done by the scenery staff and are really cool.

It is SO clean there. This is a place where millions of people visit every year, and I've never even been in a messy bathroom during a trip there. Look at how clean this sidewalk is. Not a piece of smashed gum or litter to be found. I love clean places.They really get into the make believe in every aspect. This is the Winnie-The-Pooh ride, and every detail, including a heffalump bee slurping honey drops on the back of the car, is present and accounted for. You can try to look for holes in the details on every ride at Disneyland, but you just can't find any. The attention to minutiae in creating an atmosphere is amazing.

There are little photo vignette opportunities everywhere in the park. You can pretty much take a million pictures in a million different places, and they would all be picturesque and lovely. And even if you are too cheap to buy the merchandise, you can always be sneaky and snap a picture of it to look at later.

The realness of the lands that they've created is amazing. You feel like you are really in that movie or that region of the world. You want to live with talking cartoon cars? You got it. If you love French things, go to the French Quarter and park yourself in front of one of the shops. If you love pirates, check out that big ship they have floating in the bayou, or the paddleboat that actually works and takes you on a ride around the lake. How about the Indiana Jones ride? My boys thought they died and went to Lego Indiana Jones heaven in that place. You can't tell the difference between Disney and real sometimes.

Even though I really love trips to Disneyland and I would go there every chance I get, there are a few things that are minor annoyances to me when I visit. First, I don't love how the major attractions end in a gift shop. I totally get where they are coming from from a marketing perspective, but when you have little people who have no self control or concept of money and stroller space, you have to pick and choose your exits carefully.Our trips to Disneyland with little kids are mostly to do one thing: meet the people dressed up in the character suit. However, every time we saw a big character-type person they were either drowning in a huge line or running off because their handler gave them "two minutes, Tigger!" My girls all wanted to meet Sleeping Beauty, but the line to see her was over an hour long. Sorry! Wouldn't be prudent. Could they maybe make it so the characters are out longer so more kids could see them? Or have them come out more times during the day? I'm not asking for much...

All in all, the trip was great. I'm so glad we did it with our kids at these ages. We will remember it for a long time to come and I'm going to put some guilt on my husband to go back soon. It could happen.

A Day at the Beach

There are so many lessons to be learned from beach living. We were only there for a few hours during our trip to Disneyland, but here are the things I realized:

1. There are things in this world that are so big that no man can have control over them. Nor should he. You must simply watch them and admire their vastness. It made me think of my life. There are lots of things I can't control, but I have to make peace with them and appreciate the beauty in them.

2. Stay on the safe side. Don't swim out too far or you might not come back. Another great analogy for lots of wicked things floating around us these days. Or you can be like Sam and stay as far away from them as you can.3. Stick together with the people that matter most.

4. Find something to do with what you have.

5. Be your own you...no one is looking at how you look in your swimming suit. They are all too busy worrying about how they look in their own swimming suits. 6. Sometimes doing something simple and boring is the funnest thing to do.7. You are stronger than seaweed. Get over your queasiness and just pick it up. It's just seaweed. 8. Take time to stop and smell the sea water.I think these universal lessons are why people gravitate to the oceans and lakes of the world. So often in this whirlwind society of today we forget that we are simply people. We can't hold back the tide. We can't change the wind or move walls of water. We can only do so much, and it's good to be reminded every now and again that we aren't all powerful or all knowing. Sometimes it's good to just be. And it's even better if you can be with the people you love more than anything else.

How to Pack for Disneyland...I'm Not Sure This Is It

Getting the chance to finally go on a family trip to Disneyland was a happy turn of events. It was something we had looked forward to for a long time, but wasn't without its share of dilemmas. Aside from your basic "where will we sleep" questions that needed answers, my dilemma was this: how to fit enough stuff for seven people for five days into the back of a Ford Explorer. Along with food for celiac people and stuff to make our lunches because I am too cheap to buy Disney food. For those of you who don't know, a Ford Explorer is great if you are a guy and you only carry around your golf clubs. Which is who my husband is. And since it was his idea to take his car instead of my (much larger trunk space!) car, I figured it would be his problem fitting all the stuff in that tiny trunk, and I would show him why the Yukon XL is vastly superior for people with little people in tow. However, after he reminded me of the fact that my truck needed tires AND brakes, I relented in the name of safety. Thus began the battle of the bulge.

First, everyone only got to take three outfits. One backpack to put them in. One pair of shoes. No toys. No pillows. (Except for the grown-ups, who know from experience that sleeping on a hotel bed is not always good for bad backs.)And one whole suitcase was devoted to food. One whole day was devoted to the packing of the food. I felt like RJ in "Over the Hedge" with all the thoughts of food. Everyone had their own color-coded items: Water bottles and toothbrushes were everyone's favorite color to keep them from fighting or sharing germs. I decided I would do water bottles to save money instead of buying sodas at the park and to save the environment by not taking disposable bottles. I packed detergent and dryer sheets so I could wash clothes along the way. I had a bag for all the stuff you can never find: wipes, carmex, ziploc bags, kleenex, lotion, nail clippers, medicine, first aid kit, camera, etc. It was basically for all the stuff someone asks you for in the car and you dig around in three bags before you can find it. I had a bag for the snack food for the car ride.

I had enough gum for everyone to have twenty pieces, just in case we were bored or hungry or our ears wouldn't pop in the canyon. I packed only Disney movies to watch in the car. I thought that it would be fun to catch up on our old favorites we haven't seen for a while and get excited to see them at the park. This backfired when my Thomas the Train lover went into major withdrawals on the way home.

I found this really cool hard-sided cooler that was small enough to carry around but big enough to pack all our lunches in. I only packed Pringles and Lay's Stax so the chips wouldn't get smashed.

I even remembered vitamins.

My husband came home from work early and started loading the Explorer. I bet you can guess what happened. We barely had room for our clothes and the baby's diapers, let alone my whole suitcase full of food and my cooler of perishables to make lunches with. We didn't even have room for our water bottles and water supply! At the last minute I was grabbing snacks out of the suicase and throwing them into grocery bags hoping kids could hold them on their laps. I had to leave behind most of the things I had spent a whole day preparing. Sigh. We ended up buying lunch and dinner every day and spending a fortune. We also ended up buying water bottles every day and filling our own landfill. Double sigh. I couldn't figure out if it would have been worth the $400 for brakes and tires and $400 extra gas dollars to drive my larger car or the $1000 we spent on food for those five days and the $200 we saved on gas taking the smaller car. I think the most important thing is we traveled safely, had a great trip, and we all spent a great vacation together in each other's company. Even without homemade sandwiches for lunch.

An Apple a Day...

Well, now that it's just about time to get out the Halloween decorations, I thought I would share a post about a wreath I made right around the time school started back up. Right about the time my life became not mine again. Right about the time I started having almost no time to blog. But I digress.

While walking the aisles at Wal Mart the other day, I noticed these beautiful, bright red, FAKE apples in the floral section. You know, the section you never walk down because you don't really need any fake daisies at the moment. I am happy to report there are treasures abounding in that aisle. Everything you see here came from that aisle. I bought a grapevine wreath, the red FAKE apples, four packages of yellow grass-looking stuff, and one package of green grass-looking stuff. I also bought floral wire and those wire pick things for the apples because I don't have them just laying around my house. (I know, what self-respecting crafter doesn't have that stuff just laying around the house?) I took them home and got out the trusty old hot glue gun and worked away. The best thing about this project was that I got to have an hour long conversation with a dear friend on the phone while I was doing it. How's that for multi tasking?

If I had really been thinking straight, I would have taken pictures of the step by step instructions for this kind of wreath. But I was too wrapped up in my conversation to be really thinking straight. So here's what I did, in non-photographed order:

1. Lay a small bunch of the yellow wheat-grass onto the wreath form and wire around with floral wire. The grass I used was very fine, so it would not stay on its own just with the wire. I put a little bit of hot glue on the grass and laid the next section of grass's ends on top of the hot glue and then wired it a little further up on the grass.

2. Continue all the way around the wreath, spreading out the grass a little bit as you go to make it look like a fan.

3. Take smaller sections of green wheat-grass and lay on top of the yellow sections, wiring and gluing all the way around the wreath.

4. Insert wire picks into the bottoms of the FAKE apples. Insert pick into the wreath form through the grass, and then hot glue the bottom of the apple to where you want it to hang on the wreath, just for extra stability. You can also add a little bit of glue to the end of the pick, but you really don't need it. Continue with all the apples all the way around the wreath.

5. Find a cute spool of ribbon in your craft room (I used light green gingham wired ribbon), thread it through the wreath, tie a big old bow at the top and artfully hang the ends of ribbon down. Trim the ends of the ribbon into a chevron, or inverted V. Hang it on your door for the PTA ladies to see when they come to your house.

This was actually a really fun project to do. I had always seen those Martha Stewart segments on her old show where she would make wreaths and do this stuff, and I never thought I had the time to do them. They do take time, but the avenue for creativity is open and you can come up with some amazingly darling things if you just take an hour and play around with some hot glue.

A Sea, A Sea, My Kingdom for a Sea....

My husband's day off is Tuesday. Which means that every Tuesday, without fail, I overschedule myself to try and fit in all the things I need to do that week in one day so I can take advantage of the free babysitting. This week I came home from hours of I don't even know what to find a sea of blue striped wrapping paper in the living room. I'm talking a whole roll of Costco wrapping paper. I walked up to my husband with an incredulous look on my face. "What on earth is this huge mess?" I gaped. "Oh, we had a great time while you were gone," he smiled. Obviously.

Moms look at things differently than Dads. What is to a Mom a huge mess or accident waiting to happen is Dad's opportunity for fun and memories. What to a Mom is an chance to teach responsibility for yourself by cleaning up your huge mess is to a Dad something to leave around for the rest of the day in case you want to play with it again. This is the beauty of family. We balance each other out. And not just the parents. Siblings do it, too.

For example, Sam is pretty much a one track minded kid, and I mean that literally. He loves trains. He loves building miles of tracks and will play by himself for hours if you let him. Maggie loves people, so she is always asking Sam to play with her and getting him to laugh with her and hug her. He, in turn, has taught her to appreciate the finer points of Thomas the Tank Engine.

My oldest daughter is sloppy and messy, and my second oldest is neat and tidy. Oldest doesn't care what people think about her and younger is so sensitive she rarely makes it through the school day without tearing up. The other day, oldest decided to write youngest a letter, telling her about all the things oldest thought were totally awesome about youngest. The change in youngest has been palpable. Abby didn't think twice about telling Emma she was smart and insightful and clean and loving because she doesn't care what Emma thinks about her. Emma will always treasure these words from her big sister because she does care what Abby thinks about her. It's the perfect marriage of personality.

Sometimes we fight in our family. It's bound to happen. Seven different personalities under one roof? I call that MTV's Real World. People pay good money to watch that on TV. But when we are fighting, I try to remember this sea of paper and remember that we all are helping each other in ways we don't recognize because we are different. The love and fond memories that come from destroying a whole huge roll of wrapping paper are important ones. As well as the lesson learned by cleaning up when Mom comes home.