Christmas Eve.

I love Christmas Eve.  

I think it is my favorite- the kids behave really well, since the anticipation of Santa coming creates angelic behavior in almost every child. 

We played with legos and made dinner- tacos! Complete with beef from Australia. 

We read the bible story of the birth of Jesus, in Luke 2.

Complete with pictures.

And proof that Jack picks his nose and checks out what came out. 

You're welcome.

Then we opened the traditional pajamas and took the obligatory picture in front of the Christmas tree.

Then we scattered magic reindeer food in the backyard (thanks Grandpa and Lani).

All ready for Santa.

And now for tomorrow.  

Ben and I have a bet on which child is going to cry first, most likely from disappointment, since each child has changed their "lists" at least five times in the last week. (And if you are lucky, we will photo-document that moment.)  

But let's not focus on the negative.  

Let's focus on the fact that this evening was perfect.

How we celebrate around here.

It's the New Year here. As in Sri Lankan/Tamil New Year.

It is a pretty big deal, and we have joined in the festivities. When I say we, I really mean Jack and myself.  We really know how to celebrate.

Jack's school had an awesome assembly that included dancing and audience participation, and man, we both KILLED it.

Here I am participating in the traditional bun eating contest:

I had some fantastic pictures of him dancing, but unfortunately there were too many other children in the picture for me to post. 

(You know, not having permission from parents, and not sure how comfortable people are with their children's pictures on the interwebz.)

Jack getting ready to perform.  

 Jack smashing a clay pot. I really don't know much about what is behind smashing the clay pot, but it is a tradition, and I love traditions.

Thank you friends for all the pictures. 

None of these pictures were taken by me or with my camera, but obviously, I have chosen friends wisely.

Oh, and if you didn't already know, I chopped my hair.  Again. 

How we spent our Christmas Eve.

We went for a walk along the beach, and found a lighthouse with some cannons around it.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the lighthouse, so here are some shots of the cannons.

Thomas was in this picture, but he ran behind the cannon before the timer went off.

And we opened Christmas pajamas.

Most of our traditions are for Christmas Eve.  We had huge plans, but they kind of all fell through- due to Ben being called into work.  We will have to see next year if these traditions are going to fade away, or if this year was a fluke.  

I wasn't in the best mood when Ben got home after the boys were in bed, but we ordered some really yummy food and watched a silly movie.

Even though we didn't set out any cookies or milk, Santa still came.  I hope next year will be a little more traditional (at least for us) or we are in a really nice hotel.

Oh my, another week has gone by.

This week has been fun and full of adventures. Here are some of the pictures of our week. Because as you all know, if you don't take a picture and document it in a least two ways, how do you know it really happened?

 

What I have been working on: Christmas decorations. This year, I wanted to do an angel theme, so I have been busy making angel wings and collecting all sorts of different angels. It has been really fun. Oh, and if you were ever wondering if paper mâché goes bad if left in the fridge too long, the answer is yes, and it smells quite nasty.

 

While I have been crafting, the boys have also been working on their artistic abilities.

 

They are totally cute, and face painting was a wonderful way for them to have fun when I was working on my projects.

 

 

We have also been exploring around town.

The man on the right is carrying cut up pineapple on his head.

 

And, this is what I wore. Have I told you for the last year have been documenting my outfits almost daily? I can't remember if I told you before, in fact, I think I did. Either way, now you know. It has been fun to see the good, bad, and strange things I have worn over the last year. But this is about last week.

 

 

This week has been great, and next week is Thanksgiving, and I can already smell the turkey, which is much better than the rancid paper mâché smell.

I have cooking preparations all week, so wish me luck...I am pretty sure I am going to need it.

This is the first time I am attempting a turkey since 2008 when it ended in tears (raw turkey is never a good thing). This time the stakes are a little higher as we have invited people over...maybe you should be wishing them luck.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Fly Me Away.

I had a really clever idea this year for sending off our letters to Santa.  BALLOONS!  We were going to write our letters, attach them to some balloons, and send them off to the North Pole.  Brilliant, creative, and just amazing, right?  Yeah...no.

I had high hopes- see they love the balloons.

It could have been a great idea if every thing went as planned, but it didn't.  First, we got the balloons, and the boys were so excited!  We went home to write our letters, and I wrote mine, just as I was supposed to.  I asked for some outrageous things like world peace, ginormous diamond earrings, a new car, you know totally non-realistic, but AWESOME requests.   The kids started out strong, but ended up throwing their lists on the ground, refusing to finish, and refusing to pose for the camera so that I could document my amazing idea.  Seriously, kids. They obviously don't understand my need to record every moment of creative genius that I have.
It all deflated from there.  The fits continued and I gave up.  Fine.  I guess Santa won't get his letter this year.  Fine.
Then Ben came home from work, and I went to bed.  It was a rough day.

We could save the balloons for tomorrow.

Maybe not.

Deflated. 

My genius.

My creativity.

The balloons.

Deflated.

Now on to my next amazing idea...

Traditions.

I heard a story once about a woman and a roast.  One day a woman was making her traditional roast, and her husband was watching her get everything together.  He watched as she gathered the vegetables, took out the meat, and put everything in the pot.  Before she put the meat in the pot, she trimmed off both of the ends.  Her husband (lovingly, I'm sure) asked why she trimmed it.  She told him (in a non-confrontational way) that was the way her mom taught her to make a roast.  The husband waited until the next family gathering, and took the opportunity to ask his mother-in-law why it was his wife trimmed the ends of the meat in a roast.  She told him that was the way her mother taught her to prepare a roast.  The husband then asked his wife's grandmother why it was they all trimmed the roast before putting it in the pan.  She looked confused, thought about it for a moment, and laughed.  She told him that the reason she had trimmed the roast was because the pot was too small and would only fit after she trimmed the ends off. 
The mystery was solved.

Traditions have become an important part of our family.  There are traditions Ben and I have started ourselves, and there are traditions Ben and I bring from the families we grew up with.  Christmas time seems to be a clash of all of these traditions.  When we were first married I found it hard to part with what I knew for my entire life.  Ben was much better at relenting, but I am finding that there are several {good} ways to do things. 
This year one of my beloved traditions is going to be changed, and although it is beloved, I am excited to try something new. 
This year, we are going to ask Santa to wrap our Christmas presents.  Growing up, Santa brought our presents and Christmas morning we would file down the stairs (youngest to oldest) to find our Santa piles.  The presents were just there, lit up by the Christmas tree lights (some years a fireplace), unwrapped, ready to be played with.  It was one of my favorite parts of Christmas.  This year, I am excited to try something new.  It should be an adventure.
Traditions are an amazing part of life, and I like that Ben and I will be able to create traditions together that mean something to our family.  For instance, I just had to replace our copy of Fiddler on the Roof (our copy was ruined by mold in our move), which is our traditional movie to watch Christmas Eve.  You see, the first year we were married, we went to Blockbuster on the eve of Christmas Eve, and the Christmas movie selection was quite limited.  A tradition was born. 
I hope that I will be able to be open to new things, even if I have done it a certain way my entire life. There was certainly no harm done trimming the extra meat on the roast; there was a lot of wasted meat.