On the Road...

... again... someday soon... Winter has me dreaming!  Here's a fun map of where we've been - check bighugelabs.com to make your own fun stuff :)

Our Road Show

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

The gig is (almost) up!

So, it's Christmas, more or less!  And our five year old boy is thinking.  A lot.

The other day, he tells me he "just knows" that Santa will bring him a specific toy.  "Hmm," I said, "but you just wrote him a letter, and you only asked for ONE toy, and that wasn't it.  How can he bring you a toy if you didn't ask him for it?"   He thought about that, and then explained to me (!):  "Well, Mom, doncha know that Santa watches me all the time?  He knows if I'm bad or good.  So he knows what I want, too!"

This Santa business- I don't know how long it can last, if he's thinking like that.  At FIVE.  We were with some good friends the other day, and I loved watching their 3 kids write their letters to Santa.  The oldest started with "I still believe in you, even though I'm 10 and some of my friends don't."  Heartwarming, yes?  Then she closed with "and I know I've been good, so I deserve some presents."  I had to snort my coffee so I didn't laugh out loud.  She really is sweet, and the rest of the letter was not demanding at all, which made the ending so surprising!   Her younger brother, on the other hand, was not demanding at all in his gentle suggestions for toys.  He ended the letter with "and I hope I've been good enough."  Clearly aware of his areas for growth :)

Last week, the kids had a *scheduled* 2 hour delay, that I missed the memo on.  So after walking to the bus stop, then driving to school, then standing outside for 5 minutes... someone clued us in, and we decided to head to Starbucks for a treat.  Today, we had a *winter weather* 2 hour delay- and I totally got the memo on this one!  So we bundled up and carefully trudged out to the bus stop.  The girls were more or less lined up, chatting with each other.  The boys found a pile of snow/ice to destroy by stomping or grabbing and throwing.  On the way there, Kaden mentioned how walking on ice "was kinda like skating" and how he couldn't wait until recess, so he could throw snowballs.  "Hey bud, I don't know if they let you do that at recess.  I've never had a snow recess, so I don't know how it works."  He looked at me very seriously.  "I've never had a snow recess EITHER."  Then he smiled, "so I guess we'll find out TODAY."

This weekend was also the feast day of St. Nickolas.  Kaden was thrilled to see him, even before he realized there was chocolate coins involved.  We were around most of the morning, long enough to see St. Nick 3 times. One of those times, it was his dad playing St Nick.  When St. JimNick entered the room, Kaden stared at him for a minute, then started stroking his own imaginary beard (no lie, he does this often when he's thinking).  HEY! (he jumped out of his chair and yelled) YOU REMIND ME OF SOMEONE.   "Santa Claus? I'm the original one, you know."  Kaden shook his head, "no, that's not it.." and thankfully his teacher jumped in and moved the class along.

Later that day, Kaden told me he thought Jim was dressed as St. Nick.  "He had the same shoes, Mom."
Jim piped up:  Just a coincidence.  
Kaden:  "And the same voice..."
Jim:  a lot of people sound alike, buddy.
~ pause ~
Kaden:  and the SAME GREEN EYES, Dad!  (then he smiles and starts nodding his head)
Jim: (flabbergasted)
Me:  well, the way to tell if Daddy is St. Nick's special helper, is to go see St. Nick again.  If you see St. Nick and Daddy *together*, then they can't be the same person, right?!
Kaden:  hmmm.

Thankfully, I knew we had one more St. Nick sighting to go- and it wasn't Jim.  So we were sure to have Jim in the same room with Kaden and St. Nick.  We haven't heard any further arguments, but we're not sure he's convinced either!!

North Pole Breakfast?!?

File this under "Keeping up with Pinterest Jones"...

I was somewhere - online - and someone (also online) mentioned a North Pole Breakfast.  I had no idea what it was, but the accompanying photo of powdered donuts made to look like a snowman was pretty cool.  So off I went to pinterest...

Twenty minutes later, I have a vague idea of what it is...

A) a non-healthy breakfast that the Elf on the Shelf brings to welcome himself into your home (and if that doesn't spell T.R.O.U.B.L.E, people, then what does?).

B) a non-healthy breakfast undertaken sometime during the Christmas season, for the fun of it.

C) a semi-healthy breakfast specifically on Christmas, or as an "event" with invited guests...

D) any mixture of the above.

E) whatever the mistletoe you want it to me.

Anywho, I'm not up for adding another event to my December calendar.  Unless, possibly, we have some cousins over for a fun breakfast- at dinnertime.   BUT I'm thinking, it's more likely that I'll be able to add *some* sort of North Pole element into our breakfast once a week.  On a day I'm not working, of course.  My favorite ideas involve Christmas Tree pancakes, rudolph mini donuts, peppermint bark donuts (mmm), snowmen pancakes, and - this is awesome- reused frappacino bottles to make a drinkable snowman.

I'm tempted to post the inspiration photos I found, but then I wouldn't post the "what it actually looked like" photos.  For whenever I get around to doing this.  (I've already missed the deadline to make pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving and St Nick cookies on his feast day- whoops!)   Besides, you NEED another reason to go search pinterest, doncha?

Anywho, is this North Pole Breakfast just a Pinterest fantasy?  Or have any of you done one? or something like it?  Send me your ideas.

It's Chri---- Wait!

It's Advent! Which has become one of my favorite seasons.  Even if half the world ignores it.  Even though "wait" is one of the most frustrating responses to my prayers.  Even when I rush through it and forget all sorts of things, or when my plans downshift suddenly and disappear.  There's something... comforting about this kind of hopeful waiting.  All the church-y songs have such a great wellspring of hope in them...


 

This will be our first Christmas without my brother Steve.  Which seems unbelievable, really.  It's amazing how much I miss him, when we didn't *see* each other regularly... but we did talk often.  And he loved Christmas.  A few weeks ago, Kaden asked us, "Remember when Uncle Steve drove his motorcycle to see us for Christmas? (pause as we say yes, and he gets a faraway look in his eyes)   That was nice."   It was, buddy, it really really was.  And the memories are nice, too.

Today I found out a friend of mine lost her younger brother.  He died unexpectedly due to heart failure...  at 34. I didn't know him well, per se, but I knew he was one of the good guys.  My heart goes out to their family... and another person goes on our prayer list.  It's really odd to have so many friends who have lost brothers- at different ages (late 20s to early 60s) and in different circumstances (most accidents or undiagnosed health issues)... none of them were expected.  Not a club I imagined joining.

Today (yesterday, actually 11/30) started the St. Andrew Christmas Novena.  In the past, I've never been big on novena prayers.  But I just finished one for our new-to-us parish namesake, St. Catherine Laboure, and I've missed it the last few days.  So when I heard about this one (again), I thought- this is the perfect one to do for all the brothers who've passed.  (St. Andrew being the brother to St. Peter).  Although, honestly, I'm not aiming for saying the short prayer 15x a day, but rather 3x (at meals) (actually, that might be 5x daily, given my pregnancy habits).  If you have any intentions you'd like me to remember, just send them along (email, fb message, comment below- however :).

For Steve, Rick, Chris, Andy, Vince, Jim S. and Henry...