Merry Christmas

I don’t know many people that say they “hate” Christmas…well I know a few. And usually this season isn’t like because it bring about emotion…and of course a lot of us don’t like to be emotional.

Anyway…I don’t want to fill this with words…and sad words at that! I loved our Christmas.

Santa came….Owen was hyped…Ella wasn’t sure what to think.

Owen knew the drill…he started opening and screaming with delight. Skylanders Trap Team and his scooter were his top presents.

Ella opened ONE present and was IN LOVE. She got a double dolly stroller. And she wanted NOTHING else. And i mean NOTHING. She kept asking Daddy to Open…but he wanted her to open more presents. She didn’t like that.

So the rest of the morning was spent trying to make her happy and stop CRYING! She is hard work I tell you. Once she has her heart set on something there is NO changing it!
       
So our family picture is pretty funny….Ella being herself…

But she eventually relaxed a bit and we got a good family one. I may or may not have bribed her with candy at 7am. Mother of The Year.

I will say…my heart skipped a beat when I saw this…

Ella was grumpy all morning. And took it out on Daddy because he wouldn’t open her stroller the  minute she wanted. So she did a lot of crying and givin’ out to us all morning. Then after the presents were done I look over and hear her say “Tant You Dada” Its like she was apologizing for being not nice! haha. Oh girls. They are yelling at you one minute and lovin’ you the next.  She has her daddy WRAPPED!

We then did our usual…hung out, skipped mass (bad catholics), played with our new toys and got our turkey cookin’!  I was worried about our dinner. I told my family to NOT come hungry haha.

ps. Crazy Kinect sand is all LIES! “No mess….blah blah blah” mother-effers…liars! Its messy…and annoying.

We had our usual suspects over, Mother and Father In Law, My parents, My aunt, Yosh’s brother Mike.  BUT this year our New York family are now Cali residents and they added to our festivities, and my Brother-in-Laws Mom came too. It was a good group of people.

Daddy was THRILLED to put together a 4ft Ninja Turtle Sewer thing. It was a nightmare!
 
My dad sat back and watched Yosh put it all together…not helping. He always says “its part of being a dad…putting shi*t together! And I’ve done my time!” haha Poor Yosh. He had a Gin & Scotch and took a few hours and got it together! Its one of Owen’s FAVORITE toys this Xmas! (Thanks Nana and Granda)
 

My house filled up quickly. Our turkey cooked and cooked. I was nervous!

I forgot to get a picture of the turkey before Yosh started slicing it up…but if I say so myself…she was a gorgeous bird!
  
Daddy did GOOD! I got the recipe off the internet and Yosh did all the hard work. And he did GREAT! It was the BEST turkey we all have had. And Bernie would tell me the truth to my face!

 

It tasted DELICIOUS! I was so relieved that everyone loved their dinner!  And then for the first time we did an Adult White Elephant Gift Card Exchange.  There was no mercy with the stealing from the old folk…ask Chris! haha  I had last pick and once I saw the Outback giftcard I knew who I was going to be robbing it from. Poor Uncle Mike!

   

It was a great day/evening.  Love our family!

One of my favorite parts of the day was when Owen proudly handed me the present picked out AND wrapped all by himself.

With the help of Daddy, Owen picked out a book I have been wanting.  But I LOVED his wrapping. His cute picture he drew of the family. I love him.

Christmas Eve

When its warm during Christmas time I have a hard time getting into the holiday spirit.  I know we live in Southern California so we are blessed/cursed with amazing weather BUT sometimes it would be nice to wear our sweaters and boots and scarves without sweating our booties off. I feel like when I was a kid Christmas time was always chilly…but as an adult its warmer (damn you global warming haha)

We skipped our traditional Disneyland trip this year…neither Yosh or I had the energy to brave the crowds OR our 2 wild children! haha

Since this was the first year that Yosh’s sister and family were back in Cali they wanted to host a small gathering for games and snacks on x-mas eve. Sounded right up our alley! 
But first I had to pay a visit to my brother.

All I can say is that the holidays are hard.  When you have a hole in your heart, a hole in your family, this time of year reminds you of just HOW much they are missed and how big that hole really is.   Almost 15 years later you’d think it would be different…well I can say 13 years ago I wished for it to be 15 years later and our hurt would be less…I was wrong. Its still there, still the same. Today I went alone…it was peaceful and I needed that.

Then after nap we gathered at my sis-in-laws house for family fun.  It pays to have a 14 year old around…she was hell bent on getting the family to play card games. NO ONE had the motivation to do it though. She brought out the games and started asking where we should play.  No ONE was budging.  BUT I’m happy she got the game going. I, of course, didn’t get to sit long enough to play ((Ella had other plans for her mama)) but Owen had SO much fun!

 

Thankfully with the help of Aunt Missy, Owen was able to really play Apples to Apples.  I loved hearing him BURST out laughing!!

And this girl…she had her stand-off with TJ the dog. 

And then found a TV upstairs to watch some of her quality cartoons! Whatever kept her quiet for a few minutes suited me JUST fine!! haha

 

After the family fun we prepped for Santa. Left out some cookies, milk, a candy cane and carrots for his reindeer. And of course the note he left Santa too!!

Ella wasn’t liking the idea of leaving stuff out…she wanted some for herself. It was pretty funny.

 

Good night my littles…time for Santa to get his act together.

Christmas Cards.

I LOVE sending out Christmas cards.

Yes I guess I’m considered “an old fashioned nerd” because I have an old lady address book where I even write down the kids names and birthdates so I can remember how old they are. When they move I put a line through the slot and write ‘moved’ by it.  And as the years go on and on I giggle when I see whole pages marked off since a lot of us are at the stages in our lives where moving around happens a lot.  My friends were making fun of me for the address book….apparently girls my age use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of all their addresses. Who knew.

But I love sitting down, picking a good pen and handwriting everyone’s addresses on Christmas cards.  We send out a lot. I gripe about postage but in the end I justify it by telling myself its only once a year!  For a long time I was sending birthday cards to all my friends and family…costing me $25 a month or so…yeah that has ended. Unfortunately I don’t have THAT much time on my hands.

If you didn’t receive a Christmas card this year I apologize…I sent them out in 2 waves…and when I forgot WHO was in the first wave I realized that some people might be getting 2 and some might be getting zero…whoooops!! Lesson learned…don’t post ANY until completely done addresses and adding postage!

I felt the need to blog about our cards this year…the back story is pretty funny.

Don’t we look so cute and relaxed. Yes we usually lounge in our spa with snow bubbles while laughing and have a grand ol’ time…can’t you tell….hahaha yeaaaahhhhh not exactly.

I’ll have to say this idea wasn’t my own. I have a girlfriend who did this a few years ago…but I thought since we got our pool this year we had to take advantage of it.  She warned me about the bubbles…yes we used regular ol’ bath bubbles! Yosh was freaking out that it would ruin our pool….I googled it and was willing to risk it! haha My friend said “a little goes a LONG way!!”  So I squirted a tiny bit in and nothing happened (immediately!).  So I give her a REAL squirt and went inside to get the kids and myself ready.

When I came back outside I was a little nervous….Yosh was going to kill me.

We started pushing the bubbles into the pool so we could get into the spa for a picture.  Ella was NOT a fan of the bubbles…she is a deprived 2nd child who doesn’t get the enjoyment of bubble bathes like her brother did.

Owen was in heaven. He was DIEING to play…and I was firmly telling him to just stand there until the picture was done.  Ella was NOT happy! And wanted NOTHING to do with Daddy! 

The camera was on a tripod…on a timer. For some reason I’m the only one that can set the camera up and click the button and RUN into the spa. Yeah thats hard…the bubbles hid the step..I was trying to keep my hair lookin’ fly…and she was screaming for me to hold her!  I didn’t make it in time for this one…

Barely made it in but unhappy Ella and Owen being dragged by his arm to get close…hahahaha Oh gosh.

We made it in…BUT Ella was pissed that bubbles were on her hands.  She was screaming during the entire course of this photo session…it was really enjoyable.

Ok…Daddy holding Ella wasn’t going to work. So I had to hold Ella, set the camera, hustle in WHLE carrying my 22lb scream child. Oh if someone was watching us it had to have been pretty darnn funny!!!  We got Ella in and not scream and OF COURSE the older child wasn’t looking at the camera! grrrrrrrrrrr.  I was gonna kill him.  Up and out again for mama. I was gonna break my neck with all the in and outs!

Oh my goodness…we almost gave up BUT we didn’t torture ourselves this much to NOT get a picture….This was the last attempt. All eyes on the camera…we didn’t necessarily need all smiles (Ella usually kinda has a bad attitude anyway so its fitting)…Owens santa hat wasn’t placed perfectly BUT thats ok too!  This one would work…

So just because our Christmas cards reflect how “amazing” we are…we are fooling you!! This was hell!! haha But I can’t wait to tell this story in years to come!!

Merry Christmas, Love The Souza’s.

2 more days!