Loving the Lights

Something I like most at Christmas... 

I'm sure I'm not alone here. I love, love, love looking at our tree lights, late at night, after I've put the house and the kids to bed. It's so fun and peaceful, to turn out all the lights except the tree and Christmas lights, and then sit on the couch, watching them twinkle and glow. That's the feeling of Christmas, to me. And I'm loving it this Christmas... 

Our little town puts on the BEST Winter Wonderland display with lights and music downtown. It's another one of my favorite Christmasy things. We've already been to walk around three different times, looking at the lights...

I even got Brian to take me there on a date, so we could smooch and hold hands as we slowly wandered along the river. It was the best! It even started snowing at the end of our date, super romantic!!

 Here's Natalie, in the "tunnel of lights."

Some of our favorite people (Ella, Dalana, Mark and Cole), looking at the lights with us...

Bridge of lights, over the water -- it's one of my favorite parts of the whole display. It' just looks really cool, even cooler than in my picture, if you can imagine...

Spencer wanted me to take a picture of him by the "green bush, because green is my favorite color." Well, turned out the bush was a rock, and without the flash, you couldn't see Spencer. But with the flash, you can't really see the awesome greenness of the green lights. Oh well...

And, just for fun, here's Natalie, from a few days ago. She dressed herself -- in two shirts and a onesie, a pull-up, a pair of Samantha's tights, and some lady-bug mittens... "Aww weady" (all ready), she tells me!

That's all for now, I guess. I just wanted to say, I love Christmas lights... VERY much! What do YOU love about Christmas??

I sang a solo

I was asked to be in a live Nativity play, and tonight was our performance. It's just a local event -- a woman in our church community organizes it, with live animals, a real baby Jesus, and kids to act out the parts of Mary, Joseph, the wise men, shepherds and angels. It's pretty cool. Tonight our two nephews were two of the wise men, and they got to hold baby alpacas on their laps! So cute!! And, Samantha was the cutest, sweetest little innkeeper I've ever seen, even though her head scarf kept coming off.

In between the narrations and characters' lines, we had several musical numbers. And I was asked to perform a solo for one of the pieces. It was fun. Here I am, dressed as a Bethlehem townsperson, singing my solo...

Well, actually, I was singing it for the second time, in that pic. They asked me to sing it again as postlude, at the end of the performance, as everyone was filing out. It was a Sally DeFord song, called "As Shepherds Kept Their Lonely Vigil." It's not one you'd probably be familiar with, but it has a fun, Celtic-sounding tune.

Anyway, I was proud of myself for doing it. For those who know me, you probably know, I don't really have a "solo" voice. Mine is more of a choir voice, which is fine by me. It's a well-trained voice, even though the training ended roughly 20 years ago. I've still got pitch, range and acceptable breath support. So, I can hold my own. I just don't have any vibrato. None, even when I try to make a little bit come --- it's just not there, people. Never has been. So, solos aren't really my thing these days. But I did it tonight, and lots of people told me I did well. So, ... yay for me! That was fun.

Here's a picture of our darling baby Jesus, who really is the sweetest little chubby-cheeked baby boy, three months old. He slept most of the time, happy in his little manger...

And here's Samantha, posing with her friend Madison, who was Mary, and Zachary, who was a shepherd. They all did a great job, and had a fun time...

One bad thing... Samantha's arm is in a sling, underneath her glitzy innkeeper's robe. She was jumping off a stack of couch cushions yesterday afternoon, and we think she broke it! Not a bad break, but well... long story short, we're waiting for an x-ray review to come back, and then she'll maybe need to go get it set by an orthopedic surgeon. Poor girl. She spent most of today in the doctor's office. ug.

Anyway, this post is about the Nativity. So, here's one more picture, of our nephew, Seth, petting the lamb that was part of the set. Cute! Looks like Sammy Lamb is mugging for the camera, eh?! ;)

Sadly, I didn't really get a picture of our other nephews, John and Cooper, holding the baby alpacas. They were sooo cute, but they were TINY -- only about a month old. And the owner took them back the second the performance was over, so I missed my photo op. Oh well. What a fun, sweet, Christmasy night. I felt a very sweet spirit there, which is helping to set the mood for the next few days.

Only three more sleeps till Christmas!

Little things they say and do.

I've noticed that I forget a lot of the cute little things my kids say, the way they say them, etc. And I want to remember. Some extra cute phrases stick with me, and sometimes I remember what was said but forget which kid said it (yes, I'm already to that phase of mothering, can you believe?!)

I really wish I could remember them all. Like, for example, Samantha called chocolate milk, "chockie lupk." Isn't that the cutest ever?! But so many of her other little cute things are gone with her babyhood.

And Spencer said, "oh, so, so, so!!!" every time he saw Christmas lights on the houses in our neighborhood. Oh, how I miss that little phrase of excitement, coming from his sweet baby mouth.

And Nattie... well, there are some that have come and gone recently, and I wish I was better at keeping track of them.
Bandie -- she now says band-aid, just like everyone else, even when I un-correct her and tell her that, no, she wants a bandie!!
Hundy -- "Mama, I hundie." It's gone... she says she's "hungry" every morning, and usually follows it with, "I want breakfast."

Yogurt.
You'd think that's an easy one for kids to say, right?
Well, all three of my kids have had their own way of saying yogurt for the first year or so of talking. And each one of them has said it differently. It's so cute and funny to me.

Samantha said go-urt. It was darling. And she could spot the tiniest containers of Thomas-the-Train kid-size yogurt on the supermarket shelves from three isles away. She'd be yelling "GO-URT!! GO-URT! THOMAS GO-URT! Momma!!" as I tried to maneuver those all-wheeled English shopping trolley carts quickly to some other part of the store. Too late. We had to take home Thomas for our

Spencer called it logurt. Not to be confused with the disgustingly sickening grossness known as Gogurt. (Seriously? blue and greenish yogurt? ug. Honestly, Gogurt kinda grosses me out... not just the blueness, but the squeezy-ness, and the sickly sweetness of it. ick.) But boy, did Spencer LOVE his logurt! ;)  He liked it mixed with cottage cheese for a long time. Kinda gross, but he thought it was a great treat.

And Natalie calls it yoda. She learned how to help herself to it when we were still in New York. We'd buy a 24-pack at Costco, and she would sneak into our fridge, get herself a yoda, then paw around in the silverware drawer to get a spoon. Then she would climb up onto her highchair tray, and slid herself into her seat, with her yoda cup in hand. I was SHOCKED the first time I turned around to find that she also OPENED the foil cover ALL BY HERSELF, and helped herself. Funny baby! Very self-sufficient of her, eh?

Well anyway, I guess I just wanted to say... I miss my babies. I love the first-talking moments. I love their yogurt, go-urt, logurt, yoda way of saying things!

That's all. (Unless I can get some cute pics to load here sometime...)

It's been too long!

I'm almost wondering whether it's worth trying to resurrect this blog.
It's one of those things that I've just stopped doing, though I'm not sure what it is that I'm now doing instead?!? Well, instead of prattling on about how I should write more, what's stopping me, and what's wrong with the blogging universe altogether... I will just post a bunch of random pictures, without even writing about each one...

And I'll make a commitment, right here and now...
I plan to blog more.
As in, I am setting a goal to blog 10 more times before New Years Day.

I bet you're all about to jump out of your seats, just imagining what some of these next posts will contain. There will be some back-blogging, some theorizing, and some venting, to be sure. And pictures. I have just downloaded two months' worth of pictures onto my computer that now need to be blogged, for posterity's sake.

Here are some blog topics you can anticipate for the next few posts:
-- Happy Thanksgiving, and all its trimmings
-- She Turned SEVEN!
-- Vitamins A to Z... and all their perks
-- Back-blogging: Road Trip Continuation
-- Back-blogging: Road Trip Grand Finale
-- Babysitting Blues
-- Potty-training 103, for the veteran mom
-- Oh Christmas Tree, and other traditional fun

Well, that ought to keep me busy, amid the scores of Christmas cards, baking, shopping, wrapping and whatever else we all decide to do last minute before Christmas. But I'm SERIOUS... check back soon, for more from me. This blog is NOT about to die. I promise.