Santa Claus is Coming to Town

I did it. I swore I wouldn't, but I did. "Never again," I said after last year, but I did it anyway. Last year loyal readers may recall that we spent Christmas with my sister and her family (this is not the part I said I would never do again). We had a great time. They live in snow country so my kiddies were very happy. It was the whole hauling Christmas out of state, and traveling during the holidays that I swore never to do again. This does not equal total relaxation.

Enter College Daughter. "Wouldn't it be fun to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa? I sure love St. George around the holidays. Wow, it sure is going to be a long, long drive for me to come home at Christmas. Maybe we should meet in the middle, say at Grandma and Grandpa's?" Don't worry folks, I am no dummy. I knew exactly what she was doing, and I let her do it anyway.

Did I mention that her missionary came home to St. George over Christmas break? Hmmm, what an interesting coincidence.

I do have to admit it was a great holiday. We had lots of Grandma and Grandpa time(both sets) and lots of cousin play time. We went to see We Bought a Zoo, played games, and even managed to have Santa visit us.

Bubba was very happy with his remote control car. Pie loves her Holiday Barbie, and College Daughter got spoiled with a new camera.

Cool Dad even managed to keep up with his exercising. I am not entirely sure I will let him post about his 13 mile run. This is a family blog, and I am pretty sure you are not supposed to say nipguards on a G-Rated blog. Nuff said!

Even though we had a great time I didn't really break out the camera. Either of them. How sad. I hauled two cameras all that way and don't have a decent picture to show for it. So I guess you have to look at our Christmas card picture. Don't fret if you haven't received yours yet, they are in the mail.

Why My Six Year Old Cried

Ok, winning and losing are tough lessons for little ones to learn. Games at our house, not always so fun. Sometimes Bubba asks, "why can't we all just win? Why does somebody have to lose?" Let's keep in mind, this is usually after he has lost. He does not seem to be so concerned with this concept when he is the winner.

I think it was College Daughter who taught him the "winner, winner, chicken dinner dance". Yes, I am positive it was her.

This takes us to race day. No, I am not having memory loss(well, not about this anyway). I do remember I just posted about a race, but I don't want any of you out there to think Cool Dad is letting us slack off. He signed us all up for another 5k. This one was called the Reindeer Round-up, and yes, there were seniors there dressed up as elves. Just in case anyone was wondering.

On the the race. If you recall from the previous racing post. We had one child who kicked and screamed her way through the race only to take off on her own and finish a good ten minutes ahead of me. Well, for this race Cool Dad told the kids they could run their own race. They wouldn't have to be saddled with Hot Mom and her slow pace. (We'll get to Cool Dad's punishment, for turning my babies loose with a bunch of maniacs, a little later.)

Bubba, always glad to test new found freedom took of like a gazelle as soon as the race started. Luckily I had some spotters on the course looking for him, and it is somewhat of a loop so I could see him at various points throughout the race.

Oddly enough Pie decided to stick with me. About halfway through the race she commented on what a lovely day it was and how happy she was to be running the race with me. WHAT???? Is this the same child, who when told she has to stay with me freaks out and screams and cries for 44 minutes, but when given her freedom she stays with me? I don't really expect an answer on that one, and I digress, we are talking about winning and losing.

So the results break down like this:

Cool Dad shaves a couple of minutes off his Turkey Trot time.
Bubba blasts his Turkey Trot time and comes in easily nine minutes earlier.
Hot Mom and Pie stroll in leisurely, but Hot Mom still manages to shave a couple of minutes.

Pie wins a silver in her age group and Bubba wins a bronze.

Every time he has thought about it the last two weeks he starts to cry and says, "but I beat her, how come she got a silver and I got a bronze. It isn't fair!" He learned that from College Daughter too!

Thanksgiving and my Love, Hate Relationship

I’m not gonna lie. I don’t love it. Thanksgiving, that is. It was proposed once that maybe it is because I am not thankful. I do not find this to be the case. I am quite thankful for all that I have been blessed with, and I am perfectly happy going around the table with everyone telling what they are thankful for, and then diving into that steaming hot pizza in front of us. I am not opposed to this at all.

What I am opposed to is the obvious unfairness in the grand scheme of Thanksgiving preparation. My mom used to get me up EARLY on Thanksgiving morning to start the pies, and it went downhill from there. Where were the male members of my house you are wondering? Parked on the couch with only one switch in scenery the whole day, to drag themselves to the table. It just seems like so much for work for people who can’t even take their eyes off the TV. They could be eating liver, and probably wouldn’t notice.

So what does a person who doesn't enjoy Thanksgiving do for Thanksgiving??

The whole shebang at my brother’s house. Turkey, potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, etc. I would now like to thank my brother and his wife for making the Thanksgiving memories of my youth come to life. It felt so right, almost like they had rehearsed it for my benefit. She would yell for him to come in the kitchen and help her, and he would yell from the couch that he couldn’t because he was watching football. Oh the memories.

Despite the years of therapy this is going to require for me, we still had a lovely time getting together. The entire family was there which hasn’t happened for five years or so. We took advantage by having a family picture taken. Our weekend included, shopping, basketball, football, movies, games, shooting, food and Magic Mountain, and some very happy kids, which I am THANKFUL for.

Next year…pizza at my house!

College Days

I am a terrible parent.

Just ask Bubba.

He tells me all of the time.

Bubba has quite a few ideas about what he wants to do. He often comes to me at random times and asks questions which I am pretty sure he already knows the answer to.

"Mom, can I grow my hair super long?" No!

"Mom, can I buy a car?" Ummm NO!

So this goes on pretty much all day, every day.

Bubba has decided that if he can't do these things now, he will do ALL of them when he gets to college...He has started a list.

Things Bubba will do in college.

1. Grow his hair really long.
2. Dye said hair a crazy color.
3. Chew gum (no, this is not an activity currently allowed in my house).
4. Play music REALLY loud.
5. Buy his own car.
6. Become a jockey.
7. Eat desert every day.
8. Tease his sister without me knowing.
9. Check his room for cameras every day to make sure I am not spying on him. Not sure why this will be in issue in college, but he must be planning on being really BAD, and really scared I will find out.
10. Eat pizza every day.
11. Wear whatever he wants.
12. Watch sports after his bedtime.
13. Never do homework again.
14. Ride his bike without a helmet.
15. Ride his bike in the street without permission.
16. Walk to the store by himself.

Yes, as you can see, I am a terrible parent.

This list will continue to grow. Every day he comes in with a new question. When I say no, he just walks out and says, "I am adding it to my list".

I am actually getting a little afraid for Bubba to go to college. I don't think my nerves are going to be able to handle it.

A Shout Out to Grandparents

Earlier this fall we were lucky enough to have both sets of Grandparents come visit us. Last time they came we rushed off to San Diego and Julian to show them how cool "our town" was. This time we decided to stay a bit closer to home.

Grandma and Grandpa H were lucky enough to get to watch Bubba play football, and Pie at her gymnastics class. We girls got to do a little shopping, and the boys watched some football. It was a great relaxing weekend. My little kids were great with my dad. Tt is hard to see what Alzheimers is doing to him. He doesn't know our names anymore, but he knows we look familiar, and that he loves us. He tossed the ball around with Bubba, and he would sit and watch him and say, "that little one, he is a firecracker". My kids were so good with him. When he would get antsy they would take his hand and go for a little walk down the street. I especially like it when I would sit on the couch with him and he would launch into a song. He can still sing a mean version of The Old Grey Mare, Rise and Shout, and Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder. We loved having them, and already have some exciting things planned for the Spring when they come back.

Grandma and Grandpa J came on a weekend when we already had some activities planned so they were "lucky" enough to get drug around town with us, sometimes early in the morning. As you know, Cool Dad has been an exercising machine(sometimes I want to hurt him when he mentions my lack of motivation for exercising, but I still love him)so in his excitement with his new found lifestyle he signed us all up for the 5k Turkey trot. We were all excited, especially Grandma and Grandpa who had to get up early and sit and watch us.

It turned out not to be as painful as I thought. I actually started out pretty strong, but had to slow down for my screaming child who didn't want to be there, and why do we have to run so early, you get the picture. About halfway through Bubba had to go to the bathroom so we had to pull off at a tree. Screaming child then shot by us on a dead run and we didn't see her again until the finish. Apparently it wasn't that she didn't want to run she just didn't want to run with me. Bubba ended up with a bronze medal in his age group and Pie missed a bronze by three seconds, and yes, she does blame me.





Don't worry, we finished our race day strong with a trip to I-Hop!! Cool Dad and I went straight home for a nap while Grandpa and Bubba watched sports and Grandma and Pie went to a movie.










Later that night we went to the Balloon Festival Nighttime Glow. the weather was perfect and the kids loved sharing it with Grandma and Grandpa. They also loved this balloon which was a new addition to the Balloon Festival. Spidey Pig.


Even though we miss living so close to Grandmas and Grandpas we love that they can come visit us. They are very special to us.