An ode to things that make me happy at Christmas

Thank you portable DVD player-- for saving our daughter and us during 3 days and 20 hours of driving. In your glowing blue screen we found solace, sanity...and Elmo.

Thank you M&M company-- thank you for making mint, pretzel, and peanut butter M&Ms. You made our trip merry and sweet.

Thank you anonymous rich guy in a black escalade for driving me home when I stopped to ask for directions after I got myself helplessly lost when I went running yesterday. Not only was your lawn impeccably decorated with millions of lights, but you truly embodied the spirit of Christmas by helping out a poor soul without a sense of direction. Thank you also for not kidnapping me when I got into your car.

Thank you Oreos for making it so easy to make Christmas candy.

Thank you Christian congregations everywhere for holding Christmas Eve services that welcome everyone to come and participate in honoring the birth of the savior.

Thank you Roosters, for supplying at least one food challenge that still makes my husband sweat.

Thank you, my body, for remembering how to run. I know it has been awhile.

Thank you, sun, for coming out today. Stars, kudos to you as well for shining so bright tonight. You couldn't have timed it more perfectly.

Thank you metabolism for putting up with all the extra holiday treats I have been consuming. I know I make you work really hard this time of year.

Thank you Christmas music. You never get old and you never fail to inspire.

Thank you family and friends for making us feel so loved this holiday season. For showing us how truly blessed we are. For making this the best Christmas ever.

Today we head out, but not before...

I add a bunch of gratuitous Christmas light images...or maybe just 6.
Bellevue has this incredible light display in their Botanical gardens. My pictures just don't do it justice. And if there seems to be a haze in the middle of the pictures...it is because we are so consumed with the spirit of Christmas that we give off a glow...or that there is a fingerprint on the lens that I have yet to clean (but probably the first reason is the most accurate).

can you see my braces? I have the clear brackets.


Anna loved the "pond" they created with lights. They have done some amazing things with Christmas lights.
but don't try to jump in it. Anna did, and she just got covered in mud. Actually, she really did try to get in it, and slipped in some mud.
That is a happy baby. So many lights to see.

So now we head out to Colorado-- a three day drive that will determine if we ever go on a long trip with Anna again. But we have 6 Elmo movies, 2 Baby signing times, some Veggie tales movie, and The Wiggles, and Pride and Prejudice (Anna loves Jane Austen....or she WILL love Jane Austen). In addition, I bought 6 bags of candy-- Kit Kats, York patties, rolos, and 3 varieties of M&Ms.

we are so ready.

A Christmas party

One of my favorite new Christmas traditions, is the yearly gingerbread house party. You could interpret that as a gingerbread house party or a gingerbread house party. This year I was going to be really ambitious and make actual gingerbread...and I DID make gingerbread...but I would be a faulty contractor if I used such sorry materials in making any kind of house. So graham crackers it was.
This is my general store. Someday I will attempt a building that is more than just a box measured by lengths of graham cracker sheets. I have to say, my favorite building material was nerds (were nerds?). And my favorite part about building gingerbread houses is eating the building materials as you go. I ended the afternoon in a sugar coma.
This is as close as I can get to being a home owner.

no party of ours would be complete without the famed Buffalo Chicken Pizza
nothing like mindless cartoons to entertain the kiddies while the adults play.
my friend Monica and her husband built this nod to modernist architecture in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Only very small, very minimalist gingerbread men live there.
this almost would have been a good photo. And I almost would have been a good photographer. But I had to include it, because Anna is so cute.

Just a few random thoughts

This week was an interesting week for me.

I had some continuing legal education classes I attended Tuesday and Wednesday so my mother in law came and stayed with us so that she could watch Anna while I went to class. I learned a few things from this experience.

1) I got intensely jealous whenever I heard Anna laughing in the other room with her grandma (something that happened quite a lot). Anna and her grandma would sit for hours reading together or exploring Anna's toybox or just walking around our little backyard together, and there was a part of me that felt almost replaced-- as if Anna had found a better mother-- one more dedicated to making her happy. A few times I almost felt like I was interrupting them when I would come in and sit next to them on the floor-- as if I was an unwelcome visitor on their time together.

2) when I am jealous, I also become insecure (see above)

3) although I really enjoyed attending the classes...I found my mind wandering back home to where Anna was. I really missed her. I kept wondering what she was doing. And I would find myself re-watching some short video segments of her I had taken on my phone. The highlight of my life came when I arrived home after the first day of classes-- the first full day I have ever been away from my little girl-- and my Anna ran to me full tilt with the biggest smile and giggles I have ever seen and actually let me sweep her up in my arms, and she hugged me back. She has never done that. Not only is she too busy exploring rocks and pine cones, but I have never given her a cause to miss me. I felt validated and sure of my place in her heart. I am the mom!

4) I finally could empathize with my husband Richard. Its funny, I am always demanding that he have some sympathy for my plight as a stay-at-home mom, but I am rarely willing to do the same for him and see that there are definite drawbacks to having a full time job, day after day. Richard misses his daughter sorely when he is at work, and sometimes he even worries that she won't remember him or that their relationship is not as strong because of it. Its hard to only see your child an hour or two a day (if that). I also realized that it is mentally and physically tiring to go off to a job every day. I realized that I am always asking Richard to do so many things for me from the moment he gets home from work, because all I can think of is how hard I worked all day and how much I deserve relief. I think I should let him sit on the couch more!

5) I am definitely drawn to certain areas of the law. During tax law, corporate law, and land use planning, I made dinner menus for the week, wrote a Christmas list for Richard, and started writing an insert for our Christmas card. Those were my less conspicuous methods of diverting boredom. The topics that I stayed alert and focused during were elder law, patent law, and criminal defense.

6) one of the highlights of the whole two days was riding the bus with Richard. I got to see the sun rise and see Mount Ranier on the way to work. And I got to hold my sweethearts hand.

A bit sarcastic...even then.

It is my last night in St. George before heading home to Seattle. I started going through a box of school memorabilia and was quite amazed. I couldn't remember doing half of that stuff. Apparently all my attempts to forget middle school worked.

I found an old paper I wrote entitled "Trout." (original grammatical and spelling errors included) Apparently it was supposed to be a persuasive paper. You will have to let me know if I succeeded in persuading you.

"I think we would be better off with another National Mascot. I really do!! What good comes from having a mascot that might be extinct in a few years. What does the eagle have to do with our nation anyway. Their pretty to look at, sure. But do they really stand for liberty and freedom when their stashed in zoos around the world. Trout, now that's the way to go. There is plenty of fish to go around. They will never die out.
Is there anything more American than fishing? Besides apple pie I mean. We have been doing it for thousands of years and we will do it for another thousand. Just think, every time you catch a fish and eat it you can think of this wonderful nation of ours in which we live. Just look at their slimy scaly backsides, and you can think of our government. What more could you ask for."