Holiday Traditions

For the last couple of years John and I have tried to start some holiday traditions.  Strangely, both of us came together with only one or two family traditions to pass down to our boys.  Aside from Santa, there are very few things John and I do with our boys that remind us of our own childhood Christmases.  For John the big thing has always been to put the presents on the couch.  Personally, I'm a presents-under-the-tree kind of girl, but having the boys come out of their rooms on Christmas morning and seeing a pile of gifts on the sofa makes John really happy, so, that's what we do.  This year Santa will start leaving notes to the boys along with their gifts, something Santa always did for me.  And, that's pretty much it. 

Seeing the Salt Lake LDS temple lights was something I usually got around to most years, sometimes with my mom and dad, sometimes with my grandma, more often with friends.  There was a year here and a year there when I would have a holiday choir concert at a local mall or we'd have family over for Christmas or I was in a Christmas pageant at whatever church I was attending at the time...One of my fondest holiday memories was the little puppet show my mother made with puff balls that was put on to the poem "The Night Before Christmas", in particular I remember the moon with the boobs ("...the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow...") and the one little beleaguered reindeer puppet attached to a sleigh overflowing with a morbidly obese Santa with tags hanging off of him with all the other reindeer names.  I think my mother made that with my half-sister Krissie when I was smaller, I think it came out for a few years, but it is long since lost.

So, we're making our own traditions.  Decorating begins the day after Thanksgiving (much to my chagrin...not a decoration fan. I dont' like clutter, it makes me twitchy.) and the boys put up their tiny little tree with their handmade ornaments.  Right now that's the only tree we have because our place is too small for a bigger one.  The stockings go up over the fireplace and throughout the season the boys get to make art projects and hang them all over the walls (who knows how long they'll want to do this, but right now, they LOVE it.)

 

This year for the first time we watched the parades on TV and we went to see zoo lights, which will definately become a tradition, it was awesome. 

Zoo Lights

John joined us for the Beaverton Christmas tree lighting ceremony which was WAY better than last year when I took the boys by myself. We saw the Christmas Ship Parade on the Willamette (this year we saw it at the end of their route in Lake Oswego which turned out WAY better than last year when we went up to Vancouver to see it at the beginning of the route.) This week we'll go to the Portland International Raceway to see the Winter Wonderland lights which was a huge hit with the boys last year. Not sure if it was the lights or the fact that we were driving on a REAL! LIVE! RACETRACK!

Seeing Santa at the Beaverton City Tree Lighting Ceremony

Beaverton Tree Lighting Ceremony

Christmas Ship Parade

I am fortunate enough to have a group of wonderful friends here and this was the second year that we've had a kid's gift exchange and party.  This year we had Santa come and it was brain exlodingly awesome for the kids who like Santa (Alex), and kind of torturous for the kids who don't (Max).  The same group of friends ditched our husbands and kids for the afternoon yesterday for the second annual white elephant gift exchange and booze fest.  In years past John and I attended eBay's holiday party together which was always fun, but his current company doesn't do a party.  I'm hoping next year John and I can find time and money to go out and do something just the two of us.

I'd love to go to the Festival of Lights at The Grotto, but John's not too interested.  I also hope to take the boys to Peacock Lane this year, but if we don't make it, maybe next.

Last year we went to Utah early in December to see family and exchange presents, this year we'll be going after Christmas until the new year.  While I prefer to go before the holiday, this year's plan will likely become the tradition because John always takes the last week of the year off work and that coincides with Alex's winter break.

 I'm getting less grinchy about the holidays as the years go by and as I watch my boys get excited about the things they remembered from last year, it's impossible not to feel the holiday spirit.

Then and Now

John and I started on a diet (or as John insists a "Lifestyle") the first of October.  We've both lost weight, but he's been wildly more successful than I have.  I suppose my post-baby body just doesn't lose weight the way it used to.  Anyhow, he's recently gone out to our storage unit and brought in several boxes of his skinny clothes  In one of those boxes was my favorite sweater of his. 

I remember this sweater well.  I remember he came over to pick me up for a date, only, John and I didn't really "date" we "hung out" so I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and he came to my door wearing this sweater, nice pants and smelling like he'd put cologne on, which he'd never done.  We were in between "dating" and "relationship" at the time.  It was such an odd thing for him to be all dressed up to come see me that I took a picture:

Today he put on the sweater for the first time since that day

I think he's WAY hotter now in that sweater than he was then!

Good Stuff

A couple of weeks ago John changed his work schedule.  He used to work 2pm-11pm (but he'd actually leave for work at noon and come home well after midnight), now he is working 5am-2pm (but he's getting home closer to 3 or 4 most days).  This has changed everything about our family life.  With his old schedule he'd get up at 10am, eat breakfast and get ready for work then leave.  We hardly ever saw him.  Now we see him every night, for several hours!  We eat dinner together, we watch TV in the evenings, John reads bedtime stories to the boys by the fire, we get some couple time after the boys go to bed...It's like a whole new life.  After two years of hardly seeing each other during the week, we appreciate these "normal" evenings so much more.

I'd been pushing John to look into changing his schedule because next year Alex will be going to school all day and Alex would only get to see his dad on the weekends.  This opportunity came up and John was unsure of it at first because of the early start time, but it turns out to be perfect.  Even if he works late (as he often does), he's still home in time for dinner. 

***

Alex brought home his first ever report card yesterday and we couldn't be more proud.  He's meeting all of the academic expectations even exceeding a few.  The best and most informative part of the report card were the teacher's comments:

Alex is a pleasure to work with.  He is very affectionate and caring.  He loves to create and make things.  He has a little trouble with transitions.  He doesn't want to quit a project he's working on when it is time to move on to another activity.  He also needs to work on solving problems in a positive way instead of outbursts.  I compliment him on trying to do his best.  This trimester we have worked on letter and letter sound recognition, identifying beginning, ending and middle sounds of words, blending syllables, listening for rhyming words, alliteration and "robust" vocabulary words.  Alex has been successful in working on these skills.  He reads 11 high frequency words.  He should continue to practice blending sounds together to sound out new words as he practices reading at home.  his handwriting is progressing as he gains more skill through practice.  I am pleased with the progress he has made and look forward to watching his skills grow and grow.

In math, he does what is asked and tries his best. He understands the concept of patterning.  He counts to 39 by 1s. He should practice counting to 100 by 10s and then 1s.  He needs to practice writing numbers to 20.  He knows math facts up to 5.  Our goal for the end of the year is to know math facts to 6.  He needs to learn his address, phone number and birthday.

He is doing a good job on his homework. He has completed 7 out of 7 homework assignments.  During our group time, he is attentive, participates, raises his hand and does what is asked.  He gets along well with the other children. He seems to enjoy his association with his classmates.  He is cooperative and helpful. He is a great member of our class.

Outbursts and trouble transitioning have been issues since his first year of preschool and is something we try to work on with him.  He is much better than he was last year, and I'm sure that he'll continue to get better as he gets older.  Also I'm positive he knows his birthday, he must not have been paying attention when she was asking him, because if there is one thing Alex knows, it is September 25th.  Maybe not the year though.  We'll work on that. 

The way she describes what he's like in class makes me glow with pride.  I volunteer in his classroom every month and I see how he is in class, but it's great to know that's really what he's like everyday and he's not just on his best behavior because Mom's here today.  Kindergarten has been great for Alex, he's happy, he's learning, he's growing and gaining valuable social skills.  Seems he's started his school career on the right foot, I hope we can keep up this momentum for the next 12 years!

***

Also in Alex news, he has a girlfriend, Zoe, who makes him little projects that he brings home every day. 

Zoe drew a picture of the two of them holding hands.

 ***

Poor Max doesn't have much going on these days.  He won't start preschool until next fall, so he gets to just hang out with me in the afternoons while Big Brother is in school.  We've been walking to the park on nice days and it's been very fun to spend some one on one time with my baby.

***

Life has just been really good lately.  Our finances are still in the toilet, but because everything else is going so well, it's kind of just an afterthought.  We're working on making it better, but not stressing out about it at all.  For the first time in my life I really feel like I'm living in the moment.  Enjoying life right now.  It's a big deal for me, I've always been so focused on making a plan for the future, I've often missed out on everything happening in the present.  What are my goals for 2012?  I don't know.  I don't much care.  I think I'll just go play hide and seek with my boys and not worry about it.