Christmas Eve Cousins

We went to my brother Jed's house for Christmas Eve. He and his wife Joette have a great tradition of celebrating the foods and traditions of a different country on each Christmas Eve. When we lived in the UK, they did England. Russia and Italy are a few others I remember. This year we were invited to join them for Costa Rica, which is where Jed served his mission.

They were planning to have tamales for dinner, and since that's our own Christmas day tradition, we volunteered (or perhaps I volunteered Damon) to make them. He even looked up a traditional Costa Rican recipe (a little different from the Mexican tamales we usually make). Jed made gallo pinto, a beans and rice dish, and Joette made a yummy salad that wasn't traditional Costa Rican, but rather, as Jed put it, "traditional delicious." Oh, and don't forget the Salsa Lizano. We finished with dulce de leche. Yum.

We drove up to their place in the late afternoon and just enjoyed visiting with them, my brother Pete, and the full-time missionaries while the cousins all played together. Eventually, when the mayhem became a little too much, we settled them down with Mickey's Christmas Carol while we finished prepping dinner. Then, they were so content that we opted to eat in shifts: a quiet grown-up meal while the movie played, and then the kids.

We finished the night opening the gifts from the JAWs to our family. My brothers and I do a gift exhange rotation, and Jed and Joette had us this year. Rather than sending us home to open them on Christmas morning, we did it under their tree on Christmas Eve. Tonight I'm cooking a recipe from the book that Joette gave me!

 

After we read about the night of Christ's birth in the scriptures and watched a small video of the nativity, we put kids in jammies and headed home. Sleepy kids went right to bed.

 

Braden's Birthday and Other Important Things

Our nephew Braden turned three a week before Christmas. We had a blast at his super-hero birthday party.

The helium balloons were an especially big hit. Damon's brother and his wife had purchased a kit that comes with its own small tank of helium. The kiddos loved hearing their dad and uncle with those high-pitched helium voices. I loved that the balloons--or at least fascination with them--were so prominent in all the party photos that my sister-in-law took:

 

 

The other big attraction at the party was our brand-new niece Kara.* She was four weeks old and this was the first time we got to meet her since for at least half of the first month of her life we had colds that we were trying to keep to ourselves.

Maggie loves holding Baby Kara. She's a natural, and it reminded me of when she would hold Holly for me. Mags was only 5 when Holly was born, but maintained a very calm presence at those times when I would ask her to sit on the couch and hold a hungry, crying baby so I could quickly run to the bathroom or help Gunnar or whatever it was that was keeping me from feeding her right that minute. I'd come back in the room, where Holly was screaming frantically, and expect to see Maggie also in tears or at least anxious to hand off her sister. She'd be calmly sitting there, cool as a cucumber, totally unfazed. I think Aunt Dana will be so excited when this girl is old enough to babysit--although Kara won't be a baby by then.

Holly also wanted a turn. Immediately after Kara got into her arms, Holly said, "Baby like me."

I also took my turn--a few times. Now that my baby is 2 1/2, it's such a nostalgic pleasure to hold another tiny one. Here are three generations of McMillan women (Damon's mom, Kara, and me):

Even if only one of us was born a McMillan, we're family and I'm glad to be. These are those "other important things" that make me glad to be here in the Bay Area. We're living closer to family than we ever have in our marriage, and it's a pleasure to share birthdays, holidays, and new babies.

*We also have a niece named Kiera, who is my brother's daughter and also lives nearby. We've already been confusing them!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

First of all, a note about the title of this post: I'm writing this at the end of February, long after the festivity of the Christmas season has been packed away, so nothing to me right now looks like Christmas. But, let's get real, the December weather here in Milpitas didn't look a lot like Christmas either. We had to take care of that ourselves. Luckily I had a few elves to help me.

The Boy Scout Christmas tree lot wasn't exactly the U-cut farm we've visited the last few years, but who can argue with a tree lot next door to Foster's Freeze? An ice cream treat added all the chill and frostiness we needed for our holiday outing.

Back in the garage, all the kids wanted to help trim the end off the trunk:

 

It was a short tree--the tall ones are a bit pricier away from the forest--but we had just as much fun decorating it and filling it with all our favorite ornaments the next Sunday evening.

Pulling out our ornaments each year and being reminded of places we've visited, friends who gave us gifts, and past Christmases is always one of my favorite moments of the Christmas season.

I used to sort all the ornaments into each family member's pile without any help, but the kids are always so eager to see and touch the ornaments themselves that last year we began a new tradition where I pull out an ornament and tell them its origin. Then each child gets a turn putting an ornament in the correct pile. Once the ornaments are all sorted, we take turns choosing from the "family" pile so that everyone has their own stash from which to decorate. Then we go for it.

We even had a pirate join us for the occasion.

 

Here's Adah showing off a reindeer ornament she made a few years ago from pipe cleaners and buttons:

 

I love this Christmas-tree-decorating tradition and seeing the house transformed by snowmen, stockings, wreaths, jingle bells, and gingerbread houses. I love the Christmas music, the fudge, and peppermint that you encounter everywhere. But mostly, I love seeing the moments when my family recognizes that the season is about the birth of Jesus Christ and celebrating the gift of His life, as when I found Gunnar quietly playing with our Nativity scene.

 

Thanksgiving at the Beach

I know that anyone who's been communicating with me outside of the blog knows that I've had a bit of trouble adjusting to our new life in California. The school situation is definitely less than ideal, the rental house could use some updates, the traffic is a force to reckon with, and I miss my friends.

However, lest you think it's all bad, let me show you the view from where we spent Thanksgiving:

Going . . .

. . . going . . .

. . . gone.

While some of our past Thanksgivings in White Salmon were spent in the pouring rain or even with snow on the ground, this year we were in balmy sunshine at the beach.  These views are from the balcony of Damon's parent's new house. It's a beautiful home on the coast just a bit south of San Luis Obispo. We can be there in about 3 1/2 hours. We saw Damon's parents and brother Justin, my brothers Pete and Jed, and Jed's family for Thanksgiving weekend. That's the other great part of living here in California: we've got family nearby. (Pete is still living in Utah, but came to CA for the holidays, and he's the one to thank for these photos since we didn't take a camera with us, so, sorry, no photos of the house or of any people or any Thanksgiving feast.)

The house, which was barely inhabitable Thanksgiving weekend (no hot water and no gas for the stove; we did have a working dishwasher, ovens, and ELEVATOR!), is about 5 houses up from the stairs down to the beach. There's a nice path walking along the cliff above it; at low tide, these rocks are visible as well as some critters in the tide pools.

We arrived at the house on Wednesday around dinnertime and celebrated Justin's birthday. The next morning we all got up and headed to the pier and beach a few miles away to participate in a Turkey Trot. I did the mile run. I ran the whole way. That is a big deal for me. Damon and Justin did the 10K. No biggie after their 50K last March and Justin's hundred miler (that's right) that fall. Pete and Joanna (Damon's mom) kept an eye on our kids while Damon and I were running. Jed & Joette forgot to pack shoes for their girls (oops!) and had to detour to Walmart before joining us on the beach.

The mile run started just to the left of this photo and went under the pier for about half a mile before turning around:

The rest of Thanksgiving day was spent taking cold showers (a few of us brave ones, at least), preparing an entire feast without a stove (I had prepped the stuffing at home before leaving, but otherwise we didn't miss it), watching the cousins play & then some of them fall asleep in the sunny upstairs, eating our delicious meal, and just generally hanging out. The two young couples (that's Jed & Joette and Damon & me) each took advantage of other adults being in the house with our sleeping children and took moonlit walks along the path above the beach.  It was a great day.

Peter, Jed, Joette, and kids all left late in the morning on Friday. We stayed around until Saturday afternoon, enjoying more time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Justin. We went on an outing to Morro Bay where we had lunch on the waterfront and then walked over to Morro Rock where we saw otters swimming around the inlet. 

I guess living in California isn't so bad after all. : )

Disparate Photos That Show How Cute My Children Can Be:

Holly got the hairdryer out and knew just what to do with it after her bath one night. Her sisters avoid the hairdryer and don't really seem to mind going to bed with wet hair. Holly takes after me and always wants it to be dry before hitting the sack. Luckily, she doesn't have much of it and it usually dries on its own rather quickly.

I know this one is fuzzy, but it was just so adorable to find them together poring over Elephant and Piggie books, that I couldn't resist posting it.

Gunnar, trying on his dad's glasses: He looks just like him, especially wearing the khakis and polo shirt (common work wardrobe for Damon).

Maggie and Adah decided to produce a series of photos where the viewer is supposed to find what's wrong in the picture. Most of them, sadly, turned out fuzzy (what is with that camera?), but the next few are some choice examples of their afternoon of silliness.

Can you find the 4 things wrong in this photo?

How about some pumpkinball?

Or upside-down pogo sticking?

And, finally, more sleeping Holly. I'm honestly not sure if the remote control in the pocket was her doing, or that of the "what's wrong" photographers. Who cares?

 

This Month Is Such a Special One

November is birthday month in the McMillan-Wangsgard family. Damon's dad, Jillaire, Damon's brother, Damon, and Jillaire's sister-in-law (in that order) all have birthdays during November. Now that we're in California, we were lucky enough to do some celebrating with all of the McMillans this year.

Damon's parents were still twiddling their thumbs waiting for their new house to pass inspection before they could move, so we invited them to come visit for the weekend of Grandpa's birthday, which was also the Primary (children's Sunday School) program at church. On Saturday we all visited the San Jose Flea Market and then Grandma and Grandpa had take-out Thai with the children while Damon and I headed out for a date.

On Sunday, after church (where Adah and Maggie played a piano-violin duet), we had a birthday lunch, complete with a GIANT Costco cheesecake. Yum!!

We didn't have 69 candles in the house, but Damon and the kids got around that by using our "6" candle and 9 singletons.

Grandpa politely shielded the cake from any germs. : )

A week later, it was my birthday! It was pretty much a normal Monday of running children to and from school and doing laundry, but I don't mind that as long as I can end the day with my triple-layer Darn Good Chocolate Cake with my Mom's Killer Chocolate Frosting. Oh yes, it's as good as it sounds.

Maggie was in charge of embellishments. She used a heart-shaped cookie cutter as a stencil for pink and yellow sugar sprinkles. The extra candles (other than the 34) were merely decorative.

We had to do our Happy Birthday-ing and candle blowing in Adah's bedroom. Poor girl was not feeling well at all and had gone to bed with a cold and no appetite for cake. : (

 

Her bedroom also provided the perfect venue for Damon to give me my gift. He had hidden it behind Adah's sliding closet doors and gave me the choice between Door #1 and Door #2. Since he had already asked me if I "would be mad" if he got me a wireless printer for my birthday, I was quite surprised to find a new set of pots and pans (which I really wanted) behind Door #1. I figured that the printer must be behind Door #2. When I opened up to find a BANANA, I was very pleased (and relieved) by my original choice.

The results of that little birthday gift game show made it very easy to choose Damon's birthday gift: a wireless printer!! His birthday, which is 8 days after mine, happened to fall on the day after Cyber Monday, so I waited for the good sales and ordered it then, meaning he didn't get it in time for his actual birthday. 

This is the only photo I got to document his day. It's not a good one at all. The funny thing about it, though, is that he didn't even notice that I'd hung up the banner after he'd gone to bed the night before so it would be there to greet him at breakfast time. Damon takes a pretty low-key view of his birthday--lucky for me.

And, just because the only photo I got of the birthday boy was a lousy one, here's a bonus shot of him, along with Holly, sleeping on the couch after church. I'm really not sure who fell asleep first. I do know that he had come home from after-church duties and cuddled up on the couch with his little girl. What happened next was inevitable.

 

Back in the Saddle Again

After Adah's first ever trail ride through the hills above White Salmon, she asked if she could go on another ride if she paid for it herself. She immediately started saving her money.  Once she had that $40 saved up, she was just itching to get back on a horse again and was quick to find a stable once we moved to Milpitas.

On a wet and misty Saturday in November, I took Adah to a riding stable in the hills above Milpitas.  She enjoyed her time on the ride, although because of the rain, they didn't take them on the normal trail; it was apparently too muddy and slippery. Instead, they walked down the road and then back up again--right along the exact route that we used to drive there!  I was pretty upset once she got in the car to drive home and I learned about her "trail" ride. I phoned the ranch when we got home to express my dissatisfaction. I told them that because we live nearby, we would have rather rescheduled for another dry day and gotten what we thought we paid for if they had only given us the choice. To their credit, they quickly offered a free ride at a time of our choosing. I scheduled it for the end of January and also reserved a spot for Maggie, since by then she'd be 8 and old enough to go on the ride.

Honestly, I don't think Adah minded her road ride too terribly. This girl loves horses and was just happy to be in the saddle.

Adah & Orchid before their ride

Orchid