Goodbye Christmas and California dreamin'

I put the last lingering Christmas decoration, our dancing snowman, away today.  I really miss the way my mantle looked this Christmas.   Steve's Grandma Z knitted his and my stockings and Steve's sister, Sarah, knitted all of my children's stockings.  They are great treasures to us.  I added that mitten garland to my collection just this year and I am in love with it.   I haven't really blogged about any of our Christmas vacation, but I am sort of overwhelmed by how much there is to blog about.

California weather was amazing.  It was in the 70s every single day we were there.  It did make me wonder why we don't just live there, but I do really love the seasons in Virginia.  Even winter has its virtues.  

Several of us ran around the Rose Bowl the morning after Christmas.  It was wonderful.   Even after taking a break from running after the half marathon, Steve and I were able to run the three miles comfortably, which felt good.

Steve and I attended my 10-year high school reunion.  We had a really great time.  I felt so much love for everyone there and I was so happy to hear of everyone's successes.

I loved catching up with the school librarians and our old French teacher, who feel more like my favorite girlfriends than anything else.   Marc, my half-Chinese "brother" and fifth grade boyfriend was there.  Marc and I didn't really talk to each other much in fifth grade, we just held hands during the "couple's skate" on our elementary school's many field trips to Fiesta roller rink.  We were better friends in high school.

Vincent, my cheerful friend with the most infectious laugh, was there with his wonderful and completely-worthy-of-him girlfriend.  Steve enjoyed catching up with old coaches, teachers, and teammates.  None of my close girlfriends attended the reunion, which made me sad, but it is interesting and wonderful how ten years sort of removes old barriers between people.

We attended the all-school reunion afterwards, where I saw a few of my beloved fellow cheerleaders, Alex, Natalie, and Brooke.  I love those girls so much.

Brad and Ie Mei, Jeremy and Michiko, and Steve and I took our families to Santa Monica Pier just to walk around, and then we settled down on the sand to let the cousins play.  I really love this picture of my beautiful sister, Ie Mei:

It was a very dreamy day and it sufficiently tired out all the little ones.

My little sister got married on New Year's Eve and my sweet baby nephew, William, was blessed the day after in San Diego.  We were so happy to be able to participate in both events, but I am kicking myself for not having one single picture of that beautiful child on my iPod Touch.

We spent a couple of days with Zack and Ana in San Diego and made a morning trip to the beach, which turned out to be quite chilly.  Jack, Mei Li and Stephen played so well together.  What a blessing to have so many cousins to love and be loved by.

While in LA, the W cousins played at Lacey park several times.  It's such a pretty park.  We went once more on our last day in California.  Sadly, all the cousins were gone by then.

I'm pretty sure we'll never live in California again, but I'm just grateful it's a place we get to visit at least once a year. Now I just have to blog about Christmas Day before I can move on to present life.  I have this great sense of loss for the days I've neglected to write about.  I hate that.

A year of birthdays

I haven't published any birthday posts this year.  Our morning birthday celebrations are pretty standard and simple.  The banners are strung, there are balloons and a favorite breakfast, and for the girls, there are always flowers from Steve waiting for them on the table.  When it's a child's birthday, we tell them the story of his or her birth.  And that's when I start to cry a little at the remembrance of my three of four very favorite days.  And that's also when I think about my Savior.

You see, I got the idea of telling my children the story of their birth from the Crabb family in California.  The best part about this Crabb family tradition is that it gave the father, Kelly Crabb, the inspiration to write this amazing Christmas song that they performed several times as a family in church.

Kelly would be up there with his guitar, his wife Janice, and their five children.  The sight of them alone was enough to make me cry.  And then they sang about how Mary told Jesus the first Christmas story, the story of his birth.

The chorus was always my favorite:

Mary told Jesus the first Christmas story,

How angels had sung on that night filled with glory,

How rich men and poor men rejoiced from the start,

And Mary kept all of these things in her heart.

 They sang it loudly and beautifully, and sometimes, even the family members themselves would begin to cry because that feeling, the Spirit, was so strong and so sweet.  I get that same feeling when anyone testifies of the Savior.

I love my Savior.  I know that He lives. This knowledge has brought so much sweetness, peace, and hope to my life.  I am so grateful that so many will celebrate and remember Him today.  But let us pray to remember Him all year long.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

"Welcome, welcome to our house!"

I'm guilty.  I lost the true meaning of Christmas sometime last week.  I am buried in a pile of to-do's and my mouth is stuck in a perpetual, painful grimace.


I called Steve at 5:15, and asked if he was leaving work soon.  He always leaves around 5:15 these days so I'm not sure why I call.  Sure enough, he said he'd wrap up and leave, but I sensed that he had much more he would have liked to finish.  So I told him to stay and just get some work done.  I would get the kids to bed early.


This year, I am doing a Christmas book advent with the kids, an idea I got from my friend, Eliza. Tonight, the book they unwrapped was Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate.


It's the story of stable animals preparing their home to welcome some special guests.  They clear the floor, dust the beams, sweep the earth, and stack the hay.  The spider spins new webs, the goose lines the crib with eider, the hen lays an egg, and the peacock spreads its tail.  We all loved the book so much that I read it to them again, with Stephen repeating after me.


The rhythm of the verse feels very busy and very much like my long to-do list.  It actually gave me quite a lot of comfort, reminding me that all of my busyness is not for nothing. The animals, however, did seem much more cheerful in their service than I do presently.


After Mi Na went to bed, I went to work with Mei Li and Stephen cleaning up the explosion of toys in the basement.  We were only about halfway through when we all just quit cleaning.  It was Stephen's bed time and I was exhausted.  So I put Stephen to bed.


I started addressing Christmas cards, not wanting to finish what we started in the basement.  Mei Li came up to me and told me she had a surprise for me.  She took me to the basement, which was sparkling clean once again.


I felt immediately like a huge burden had been lifted.  I wept and hugged Mei Li.  I couldn't stop thanking my sweet daughter for serving me that way.  Honestly, why would she do that for such a grumpy mother?  I certainly wouldn't have done it.  Clearly, my daughter is a much better human being than I am.


So, I still have a ton of stuff to do, but I have renewed strength.  I do believe that by Christmas day, we will be ready to say, as the stable animals did to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, "welcome, welcome to our house!"

Christmas Day

We flew to LA on Christmas Day. Ie Ling, Jonathan, and the four Taylor kids greeted us at baggage claim. I wondered how we would all fit in one car. I soon got my answer.

Ie Mei and Brad pulled up in my parents' motor home. How many could say they've been picked up at the airport in a motor home? I love my family.

In the evening, all families but Jeremy's gathered in my parents' home for food and the nativity. All the cousins picked their nativity roles out of a hat. Mei Li played Mary and Stephen played a wise man. There is nothing quite as funny or touching as watching little children perform the nativity.

I also reunited with my BYU hula friend, Marisa, who also happens to be my sister-in-law's sister. Our first awareness of each other was when someone mistook us for sisters at BYU.


I am ashamed to say that leading up to our trip, I wondered if it would be worth the expense. We quickly learned that we made a great decision to be with family for Christmas. Being with family is always worth the expense.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated Christmas because we traveled to California on Christmas Day. We arranged for Santa to come one day early.

Santa stuck with the "something to play with, something to wear, and something to read" rule. He also brought sugar cereal and juice. With a few additional presents from cousins, parents, and grandparents, our kids felt pretty lucky.

The kids did their first gift exchange with each other. Their gifts showed just how well they knew each other. Stephen gave Mei Li her "My Little Pony" set, and Mei Li picked out a toy light saber and Annikan action figure. After the exchange, they hugged and expressed gratitude. I cried real good after witnessing such sibling love. I'm sure it will always be a favorite memory. Steve caught it all on video. What a treasure.

12/23

We went to Ray's H-Burger with the Fitzgeralds. Those burgers were humongous and very delicious.

No pictures.

Christmas Day for Real

Christmas day blessings:

smooth sailing through security
an on-time departure in Virginia
an early arrival in Utah
Cousins!
almost everyone was together
AND
best of all, we finally met baby Huck

Christmas Day 12/24

It was a little weird having Christmas day on Christmas Eve, but the kids of course couldn't tell the difference, and we had just as much fun.

Christmas Eve 12/23

Since we had a plane to catch early Christmas morning, we had Christmas eve on the 23rd and Christmas day on the 24th.

I think we chose well.

Christmas Pageant 12/14

Mei Li loves joy school, and I'm so happy that she does. She has wonderful mothers to teach her and loving classmates. Holly taught the kids the Christmas program and it turned out really well. The kids were adorable in their costumes and they followed direction with exactness.

Our Mei proved to be the cutest little shepherd girl and quite the singer. Stephen managed to steal the spotlight a couple of times as he ran onto the stage saying, "I want to be a shepherd!" Steve and I are proud of both of our children.

Drive Thru Christmas Lights 12/13

Aunt Rachel joined us as we went to the Festival of Lights at Bull Run. Seeing Christmas lights always makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. It also helped that we didn't have to leave our car to see all of them.

First Snow 12/05

We couldn't believe that it actually snowed before Christmas this year. It was a happy sight. It was a blessing that it came on a Saturday so that Steve could enjoy the snow with all of us.

Happy Winter!

Trimming the tree 12/01

Mei Li and Stephen loved decorating our Christmas tree.

Stephen got tired halfway through the process and went to sleep. Mei Li, however, is our marathon tree-trimmer. She had to hang every last red ball and was up past 10.

Do you see how deliriously happy she is with her work?



Here is our beautiful tree after BOTH kids were in bed:



Here is our tree the morning after:


Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Christmas Beginnings 11/30

A trip to the Christmas tree lot was the perfect activity for Monday's family home evening. We weren't the only ones who thought so. Taunya and Jonathan and their family showed up at the lot in search of their perfect tree as well.

I love going to the Cox Farms lot because it feels they sell beautiful, great-smelling trees, and they have complimentary hot cider for all. Sadly, we arrived just a tad too late for the cider this year.

Considering that we were not going to be in town on Christmas day, we thought we should find a small tree. We thought a 3-footer would do nicely, but then we saw this 5-foot beauty:

Isn't she beautiful?

We told the worker that this was the one we wanted and in an accent that I didn't quite recognize he said, "This is a Douglas Fir. It is from Ore-GON. It is a very fine tree." And this is another reason I love going to the Cox Farms lot. I'm sure no other lot has a guy that talks like that. He was a genuine tree lover.

We strapped that tree to our car, tipped that sweet tree lover, and rode away.

Once at home, we drank hot cocoa, the only natural thing to do after a Christmas tree lot trip.


And that, my friends, is how we began our amazingly happy Christmas season together. Stay tuned for more.

"Oh Mama, Look!"

Thanks to Blizzard 2009, we had Steve home for one more day. This morning, we went to the mall to finish up Christmas shopping. We have had most of our Christmas shopping done for a while, but we're missing the "something to wear" gift for our children. I failed to make a dress for Mei Li. The dress I really want to make will take much more time than I have. Steve and Stephen went to one store while Mei Li and I hunted for some shoes for the kids.

After visiting three stores, we found ourselves in Gymboree. While I was looking at the shoes, Mei Li did some looking too. Then I heard, "Oh Mama, look!" Her voice was happy and hopeful and sounded like she had just seen the most beautiful thing in the world. She was pointing to a dress up high that was pink velour with ballet shoes on it. I had actually seen this dress online and thought how much Mei Li would love it, but I didn't do anything about it because, to be honest, I don't love it.

I walked up to her and told her, "Mei Li, that is a beautiful dress, but we can't get it right now." And she was completely okay with that. While she was distracted with something else, I walked up to the dress, grabbed the right size, and purchased it along with Stephen's shoes. Steve and I are totally taking credit for this one. I can't wait to see her face when she opens it. She's going to want to wear it to joy school, church, and around the house. She'll be tiptoeing with her arms rounded above her head. It will be beautiful. I'm in love with this dress because Mei Li will love it.