Three cheers for three trees

In our old house, I hung Christmas cards in our stairwell.  This house doesn't have a place that lends itself to that so I've been pondering options.  I know there are ready made Christmas card hanging options on Etsy but I have always been a little more in favor of creating my own harebrained ideas.  It lends a certain wonkiness to our house that suits me.

I can't explain it.

I went into Home Depot, pretty sure inspiration would strike.  Walking through the doors, it hit me, a tomato cage!

(Now lest you decide Home Depot may be too dangerous to frequent, a literal tomato cage didn't hit me.  It was the idea.  If you'd have been there, you'd have seen the light bulb floating above my head.)

All ready and waiting for more cards!

Which one do I love more? It's a dead tie between our living room tree and our family room tree. 

The living room tree is harmonious and red is my love language.

My favorite part of it are the pukkis nestled on the branches.

Can a person have too many goats?

I'm asking for a friend.

Our living room tree looks respectable from a distance.

When you get close up, that's when the magic happens.

Here's my mini Christmas village:

Cracker Barrel and nostalgic Fisher Price from my childhood.  I'm in love.

Speaking of nostalgia, these are favorites too:

My angel and Emma's angel, purchased about thirty years apart (hers is shinier).

It was adventurous putting up the family room tree this year.  For one thing, Adam misses Braeden and his strength at times like that.  Good thing for Mark and his growth spurt.  Then there's the light situation.  Our lighted tree is starting to struggle.  Some of the lights don't work.  It reminded me of this by Mitch Hedberg though:

An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.

We still have a tree, we just need to add lights.  Sorry for the convenience.

I was in favor of removing all the bad lights.  Adam said it would take forever.  In just the top piece, none of the lights worked.  Adam fiddled with it and changed the fuses but no luck.  So we started taking the lights off.  They were all wound around and tied in knots and we started snipping wires with scissors which it must be said is quite satisfying.  All four of us were working on it and Adam was right, it did take forever and it was just the little top part of the tree. 

There was no swearing, but it was a pain.  I declared that whoever attached the lights had it out for us and Emma maintained that there was probably no evil intent on their part.

Whatever.

We finally got everything glowing and then added the ornaments.  There was some discussion about whether or not we should put up Braeden's ornaments but in the end, none of us had the heart for it.  We miss that kid.  Emma did put his broken Mickey Mouse on though.  It wouldn't be our tree without it.  She got a stepladder so she could put it near the top like Braeden always does.

Pikkujoulu 2015

It was a different sort of year.  We were small in numbers but it was pretty joyous too.

There may have been some isolated missing Braeden tears shed (and not just by me).

I set the table with a cluster of tea lights and we we ate by candlelight.

The bread bowls were the last four available at the store.  They were a little too browned on top which began some commentary on the "bake."  We're newly fans of the Great British Baking Show.

Emma arranged the fruit.

Things like that make me feel like I am winning.  We ate a lovely dinner and enjoyed everything.

We watched part of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional for our "program."  Like I said, it was a different sort of year.

The kids opened their ornaments:

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, because:

Finally we had our treats.  Two kinds of cookies and six kinds of fudge (I had to cut really small pieces so I could try them all.)  I think Oreo is still my favorite.

More Great British Baking Show commentary ensued.  

I have my own Paul and Mary:

Imagine a lot of talking and with British accents.  These two little parrots are both good imitators.  

Here's Emma eating out of the side of her mouth...

...like Mary:

I had to ruin everything by insisting it was bed time.  The kids started quoting Arrested Development and I kept telling them to go to bed.  I think the fact that Adam and I were laughing so hard at their impersonations of Tobias and Job caused me to lose some credibility but they really needed to go to bed.  I know how things look when they don't get enough sleep.

And it isn't pretty.

So, Pikkujoulu was a happy night.  We laughed a lot and enjoyed our little tradition.  It was definitely not the same without Braeden.  We miss that kid.  He's happy though.  He is learning and progressing and there is nothing about that we don't love.  It's comforting to know he's happy there and we are happy here and we're still a family.  Forever.

Measuring up

The other day, Mark had shoes on and I did not and he was taller!  That made me curious.  How tall was Braeden at this age?

In the absence of one of those cute wall sized measuring sticks, we just have our kids stand next to me to gauge height.  It's all very scientific.

Here's Braeden the week of his thirteenth birthday:

Here's Mark the week of his thirteenth birthday:

So either Mark is going to be taller than Braeden or he's going to peak early and be shorter than Braeden.  Or maybe he'll be about the same size.

I'm pretty sure it will be one of those three.

In praise of light

Yesterday when it was nearing time for school to be out, Emma texted me.  She said they were in lockdown.

At Glacier Peak, the school was in lockdown from time to time for bomb threats that were ever only that, threats.

Maybe because of the recent shooting in California, but this felt different. 

Apparently a student reported seeing someone with a gun.  It turned out that he lied (and is now in custody--naughty kid!). You could say that officials used an abundance of caution and when I consider all of the brave men and women that catapulted into action from police departments all over to hurry to the high school, I feel grateful.  They take the kids' safety very seriously and I applaud them.

 These are pictures taken from the Deseret News website:

It's surreal to think that these pictures are from our quiet little hamlet.

after she got home and we were looking at pictures, Emma pointed out our kid car, Loki

Thank goodness for cell phones.  In the two hours Emma was in lockdown, we were in touch. 
Eventually a SWAT team came into the classroom where Emma was and they all had to put their hands in the air.  With the assault rifles pointed her way, Emma said her heart was pounding.  They swept the entire school and finally gave the all clear and the students were released.

While I was waiting for Emma to come home, I turned on every Christmas light in the house.  Light seemed like a good answer.

To me, Light is the only answer that addresses the crazy world we have for ourselves.  We have a world with terror and mass shootings and teenagers who have to show their hands to SWAT teams on a Thursday afternoon during AP calculus because this might be the real thing.

The need for more Light is why I am grateful Braeden is serving a mission.  There are all sorts of arguments for and against gun control and how to handle all these various situations.  As for me, I sent my boy into the world to preach peace and the Light of the gospel.  It's the only remedy I know.

Late bloomer

Gold star for me and put a stamp in my now-I-am-an-adult passport.  I went on a choir trip, my first time ever chaperoning a school field trip! When you homeschool, you are late to the game on the normal mom stuff.

I was anxious about it.  This introvert does not love new experiences with people she doesn't know and then there are the teenage girls.

(Emma does not help this anxiety.)

Awhile ago, she informed me that I had been awkward with the Young Women in our ward.  (Which is surprising to exactly no one.)

I said, "I'm sorry if I embarrass you."

She said, "It's not so much that you embarrass me, as you embarrass yourself."

(I hope someday she has a whole fleet of snarky teenage girls.)

Anyway, I felt anxiety.

But it wasn't bad.  I walked into the choir room first thing in the morning to hear their angelic voices warming up.  I could listen to those kids all day.  Emma's eyes lit up when she saw me and she smiled at me across the room. (See? She's not a bad kid.)  I was assigned to bus one.  I took roll and the kids were very nice on bus one.  While we drove to Salt Lake City, I chatted with the choir teacher about our sons.  His son Micah, who is Braeden's friend, is serving a mission in Portland.  It's still surreal to be so surrounded by Mormons but it's a good kind of surreal.

We went to the Festival of Trees and one of Emma's friends was feeling faint so I took care of her and felt like I was really getting my money's worth for the chaperone experience.  While we were backstage and the kids performed, I talked with the other moms.  One of the other mothers is in the process of adopting 5 children who are siblings and have been in foster care.  She gave birth to three kids and adopted another so is currently mothering 9 children.  "So how many kids do you have?" she asked.

Um...three.

I felt a little sheepish.

After they performed, I bought Emma and her friends a snack and we walked around looking at the trees and letting Vanessa rest periodically because she still wasn't feeling well.  I enjoyed being with the girls.  Teenage girls aren't really as intimidating in practice as they seem to be in theory to me.  (Teenage boys don't intimidate me at all.  You pretty much just need to feed them and they are on your side for life.)

Mr. Wilcock thanked me profusely when we got back to the school.  (I had after all, taken roll again when we loaded up to return.  My job was quite vital!)

As I was driving up the hill to my house in the sunshine, with snowy Mt. Timpanogas filling my view, I reflected that it really is a pretty good life.

Performing arts make me happy.  The kids that perform make me happy.

Maybe I'll sign up for another field trip sometime.  I feel like I'm practically a grown up.

Time to get festive

Adam's brother Brian asked him if I had a hard time on Thanksgiving, missing Braeden.  Let's just say he knows I can be a little...emotional.  Adam reported that I was no different on Thanksgiving.  (I miss Braeden everyday, not just holidays.)

I missed him for sure when we were decorating for Christmas.  He brings a lot of enthusiasm to the table.  A lot.

If he'd been here, he would have been running boxes up and down the stairs and when he came to the Christmas bears' box, he would have dropped everything and ripped into it.  Then he would have played with the bears for awhile.

He's good at lifting heavy boxes and reaching tall precipices.

I guess I commented one too many times about missing him because Emma got a little huffy, like I wasn't appreciating her.

But I was.

Braeden has all the eagerness and fire you could ask for and then he fizzles.  Emma is more of a slow burn.  She is steady and doesn't abandon the ship until the task it done.

As for Mark, his staying power leaves something to be desired but he's just so good at everything.

He put this display together in no time:

He knows where to find batteries and extension cords and he can repair anything.  You just have to keep finding him when he wanders off....

Adam helped with a lot of the lifting and reaching and he was also working a lot.  Thanksgiving weekend tends to be rather intense when you work in e-commerce.

It's a big effort but I always love the Christmas decorations, both in the sunshine and after dark:

Emma and Mark arranged and told me in great detail the names of all the characters in our little Christmas village.

yes, those white cords sort of bug me...just not enough to do anything about it

It's a narrative all three kids came up with together and Braeden would be glad to know Emma and Mark are continuing the tradition.

Also, even without Braeden, the bears got a lot of love:

Bonus:  they stay nicely arranged.  That didn't happened when I had three little people around here.

Books I read in November 2015

November was a pretty good book month.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman ***

This was a young adult book but I liked it (as old as I am).  It's about a teenage girl who is in a car accident.  She is in a coma and spends the book deciding if she wants to live or die.  That's a terrible description.  Why do I even write these reviews?  Mostly so I can remember what I read.  You can always google a book for a real review.

Sorry.

Girl Meets Change by Kristen Strong ****

I don't have enough stars to tell you how much I liked this book.  It's sort of a self help book written by a woman who has had a lot of change in her life because she married a military man so moved around a lot.  It was full of hope and understanding and I felt like we were friends.  Everyone has life changes so I recommend it!

Room by Emma Donoghue ****

I was fully prepared to not like this book.  It was selected for book club and when I heard the premise, I was nervous.  I gathered my courage to read it because I want to be a part of my new book club.  It's written from the perspective of a five year old boy who was born to a young mother who had been kidnapped and kept in captivity for years.  I was afraid that horrific parts of a young woman being held against her will would be scary and upsetting but since it was expertly told in a little boy voice, it was much less graphic than it could have been.  It is mostly a story about a really fabulous mother who managed to raise a secure and smart little boy in terrible circumstances.  Hurray for mothers!

Invaluable by Holly J. Wood **

Another YA fiction.  It was OK.  It reminded me of this:

It was recommended to me and I thought that it may have some good info for my YW president gig.  It's about a young woman who has a series of dreams where her great grandmother visits her and gives her lessons about the YW values.  It was an alright book, I'm just not a teenager.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen ***

Don't you just love those authors that never disappoint?  I like everything I've ever read by Sarah Addison Allen.  This book is about a woman who reconnected with a great aunt who owned a ramshackle lake resort in rural Georgia, Lost Lake.  It was a little far fetched at times...and I don't mean the little magical touches Sarah Addison Allen always adds.  I like those.  I just didn't always believe the characters' motivations.  Still a good book.