Marci's Village

Christmas and a birthday

Bruce says he was born on Christmas Day so he wouldn't forget when his birthday is. Or maybe it is so we can eat a lot starting with breakfast. This year breakfast was simple -- baked french toast, fruit, and cheese rolls. Grandpa had seconds, which means a lot to me.

There are way too many pictures, and I am way too tired from all the preparations (plus two very intense twelve-hour shifts on Christmas day and the day after) to really think too hard about this post. Sorry for the overload, family and friends.

Stockings first: earrings, Fun Fusion, chocolate, and of course an orange!

Little girl and the cute jingle bell necklace she made in school

Legos before breakfast, always!

Yes, goofball... we're singing for you!

Love Maya's expression

I'm in love with the photo above. I love capturing action.

The boy found the well-hidden pickle ornament. Tradition says he gets to open the first gift.

Grammy Bennie: I thought you would like to see a double dose of Maya wearing her new "hat". She kept it on for the rest of the morning.

"While you people talk [a lot] I am assembling my toy that was sent all the way from California"

Another tradition - the calendar for Grandparents.

Maya gives Bruce a magnifying glass the got at the Santa Shop in school.

Showing mommy his favorite Christmas gift this year. He's been creating things and carrying the set around even in the car. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

One thousand pages? Cool!

Playing a Christmas song for Grandma and Grandpa

Fast forward to our Christmas dinner, which marks the end of this month full of anticipation and celebrations. Not all things I had planned went smoothly (should I have taken a picture of a frazzled momma going to three grocery stores before ten in the morning?), but again we were left with a warm feeling in our hearts -- a feeling of enjoying one more season of traditions and togetherness. 

Cookies for Santa

Yes, more baking. This time sugar cookies for Santa. This time we had Paul with us.

Maya had to hurry and get a few ready before Gymnastics.

The boys gladly finished the rest

I'd better post a picture now because you wouldn't recognize the shape of the cookies after the amount of sprinkles the kids put on them. The more the merrier, they think.

They decorated the cookies together after dinner.

Didn't I warn you?

 

Merry Christmas! 

A week of hard work and festivities

The "hard work" part would be for my dear husband, who worked with a contractor removing popcorn ceiling, re-texturing, painting, cleaning up, and moving furniture back in its place (and a wobbly Christmas tree too!). All the while, he managed to take care of the kids, and do laundry. Wow, now that I see this in writing I really feel bad about complaining he was taking too long to put the Christmas tree back in place. Here is a public apology -- sorry, honey.

I got to do the fun part by going to the different functions in school and getting some gifts together for teachers, coaches, and neighbors. Some of them are baked goods that I will have to sneak out of the house since Bruce is very protective of his snickerdoodle cookies.

Isn't the tree so cute?

Jingle bell necklace

Stacking cups -- what a fun idea!

Phillip had a simple party with lots of pizza and a book exchange. He ended up with a Junie B. Jones book, one of his (and Maya's) favorites.

Today we will be doing some "elving" (distributing the goodies) and waiting for Santa. Did you know he comes a little early when nurses work on Christmas day? Maya received a note from a Santa's elf in school yesterday. The kids are very excited about Christmas this year!

A Brazilian-American celebration

As I was sitting here and waiting for cookie dough to firm up (second attempt at making cookies is going much better), I thought I should go ahead and post pictures of our Christmas celebration last Saturday.

Milene and Tony opened their beautiful home and made us feel welcomed and cozy at their place. Everybody helped with the food and drinks. Even though our group did not have a lot of time for planning this get-together, it was just perfect. The husbands talked and got to know each other a little better, the ladies shared stories, and we played White Elephant at the end. Some of the gifts were just awful (that was the intention -- to bring something from home to re-gift), and that made it even more hilarious.

Me? I worked on a little project during the party. I asked all the couples plus the two friends who came without a husband/significant other if I could take pictures of them. Here is what I got: 

Julia and Jeff

Danielle and Brian - I couldn't choose only one!

Silmara and Eric

Milene and Tony - the hosts

Silvana and James

Katia and Marcos

Flavia and Amador

Our dear friends and Katia had fun posing

Lucia and Harlan

Nanci and Gabriel

And... us! Picture by Julia

Yummy desserts

Cute decor

Amazing combination Brazilian and American style foods

Some of the ladies

All of the ladies (and the sangria :-)

Thank you, Milene and Tony!

The cookies are ready! See you all ladies and gentlemen next year.

A baker...

... I am not. But I try... and the kitchen is a mess because flour flies all over the place, and I have to read the recipe a million times and ask the boy to read it to me, and I check the oven another million times before I know for sure the cookies are ready....

Then the husband comes home late and says the house smells good (he pretends not to notice the flour all over the counter), and the boy says "d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s" and "can I have one with my lunch tomorrow???" and the girl says they are "good" (she's less expressive). All is good now, and I promise myself that next year it will be easier and that I will know what I am doing. Ha!

Christmas card - the outtakes

As many of you know, getting the perfect Christmas picture is not an easy task. The kids and I had a very small window of opportunity this past week, after school and before Gymnastics. I allowed them to goof around a little, so they would be more willing to cooperate with my mission. So, until you receive the final version in the mail, here's a small sample:

And this is just a very small sample.

This cold Saturday in December

We stayed home, cleaned, organized, read, played basketball (they boy's ears were icy-cold when he came back inside), ate homemade burritos for dinner, watched the funniest Christmas movie of all times, ate popcorn, drank hot chocolate, read book number three in our basket, and just spent a lot of time together. This cold, rainy weather makes me plain giddy! It really feels like Christmas now. 

December

Wow! How did it happen?

I refuse to let it all be a blur of rushing, shopping, stressing out, wrapping, and complaining about all of the above. Can we create memories and enjoy our traditions instead?

Today we started eating chocolate from our Advent Calendar (Trader Joe's -- did you pick yourself one? They have different colors this year!). We also started a new tradition inspired by other blogger moms:

See the basket?

It has twenty four Christmas/Winter-themed books wrapped and numbered. We'll read one every night. The kids are loving it! Thank you Glendale Public Library for supplying about ten books for our project!

I used the excuse that today is a "special day" and cooked breakfast for dinner. Trader Joe's has not asked me to advertise their products but I have to say we LOVE their pumpkin pancakes. Actually we love anything pumpkin in this house.

Lastly, a little girl playing with wooden toys taken out of the attic and put under the Christmas tree only at Christmas time. It was given to Phillip by "Uncle Dave" (Bruce's Uncle), who is ninety years old and lives in Wisconsin.

Have I mentioned I love this time of the year?