Christmas Celebration

Christmas was great for us. We started off with Christmas Eve Mass. Getting the girls ready was entertaining and added to our entertainment. As we were putting on the dresses that Grandma and Grandpa got for them, we noticed that the security tags were still attached. Not having time to go to the store we figured we'd go to mass (the matching coats covered up the tags) then run by Macy's and get the tags removed. In the mean time, the girls had great fun talking on thier new "cell phones". At Macy's we had to hold the girls up sideways to get the clips off, but all was good, and we were soon on our way to my sisters house for the unveiling of her new billiards room and some Christmas Eve celebrating. After that it was home and to bed, so Santa could come. Santa however, was up until 4:45 in the morning wrapping presents. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz.

Christmas dawned, and though the girls didn't quite get it, they did have fun. Samantha got the raisins out of the top of her stocking and that's all she wanted. She was quite happy to walk around and eat those. Then Sonny and Cher came by for a little breakfast, to help unwrap presents, and to deliver some that Santa had left at their house for the girls.


Stacey got an IPod which she was thrilled with (really), and the girls got ice skates which we tried out today.

They slipped around on the ice quite a bit, but were slightly more stable at the end of the session than at the beginning. We'll have to do this more regularly, so they get the idea. I got a new hockey helmet (thanks Aunties) which the girls are modeling, and some wrist bling from Bill.

And now it's nap time. I hope everyone elses holiday was as nice as ours. Thanks to everyone for their part in making it great. Merry Christmas.

What next? Locusts?

Christmas Eve dawned nice and sunny, and fairly relaxed. We had most everything done, didn't have to set foot in a store (or so we thought), so we were feeling a bit smug with our bad selves. Then it happened. What had been a quiet room moments before was suddenly alive with a glimmering flash of movement and reflected light. I couldn't believe what I was seeing - there were winged creatures flying out of a hole in the wall. Not just one or two, but dozens, probably would have been hundreds if Bill hadn't sprung into action, sprayed poison in the hole, drilled a few more holes, sprayed more poison, then spackled the wall shut. Of course we know this is a temporary solution, and we are probably going to have to tent the house for termites now, yes termites. Yuck.

Visit with Santa, riding the escalator

Today we made our annual trip to have our pictures taken with Santa Claus. We headed first to Stanford to see the Santa there, but no luck. We arrived around noon and Santa was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Bill was informed that Santa would not be back until 1:30. What kind of Santa is that?? Two days before Christmas and he decides to take a 2 hour lunch? Also, there was a line waiting for him that was estimated to be 45 minutes long. We couldn't wait that long so decided to try Vallco (where we usually go), but were unsure if there would be a Santa since most of the mall is under construction. Liz whipped out her handy dandy Sidekick, quickly located the number for the mall, gave them a call and was informed that Santa was on a 10 minute break, but would indeed be there, so off we went.

We arrived at Vallco some 1/2 hour later and Santa was still on a break, but we were assured that he would be back soon, so I waited in line while everyone else wandered or went potty. Within minutes Santa was back and we had to rally the troops which included waking up Samantha, who had been sleeping on my shoulder. Pics taken, came out very well as far as I'm concerned. No crying (though it was tough staving off Bill), just very serious faces from the twins. Stacey looked great in her new do.

Afterwards, the twins got to take their first solo escalator rides (holding hands instead of being carried.) They were very cute and wanted to do it again and again which was a good thing because I missed the first trip down, so we had to reenact it for pictures. Andrea was very good about going round and round with them even when I launched Riley on the escalator 3 steps behind her and gave her a heart attack.

Bill finished his shopping and we headed home where we had the opportunity to meet Marti and Cort Doughty. They were very nice and the girls had a great time playing with them. Samantha was very excited about bringing toys to Cort.

The girls didn't get to nap today, so they fell asleep early, and I'm off to wrap presents. Merry Christmas all.

Letter to Santa

Here's my letter to Santa as composed at Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I have been a good girl.
It really wasn't my fault what happened at Andrea's Office party. It was Liz who spiked the punch with too much Hot Chocolate. I can't help it if I drank 4 glasses. It was so good---smelled and tasted just like lemon.

I thought it was funny when I put Angelica's pants on my head and danced the Hokey Pokey on the Couch while singing `Love me tender'. I didn't mean to break Andrea's Sidekick and don't know why Andrea would accuse me of robbery.

I don't remember calling Rich's wife a hairy pig---even though she looked like one with yellow eye shadow and red lipstick!

And when I threw up on Margueritelyn's husband's arm, it was only because I ate too much of that pizza.

After all that fun, I admit I was a little tired. So I fell asleep on my way home and drove my car through my neighbor's shingles. I don't think that was any reason for my neighbor to call me a soft dog and have me arrested for murder!

So, Santa...here I sit in my jail cell on Christmas Eve, all slimy and squishy. And I'm really not to blame for any of this hard stuff. Please bring me what I want the most---bail money!

Sincerely and super yours,
Susan (Really a nice girl!)

P.S. It's only 14 bucks!

Congrats Rich and Angelica

Congratulations Rich and Angelica on the impending expansion of your family. We are so excited for you guys. Keep the good info coming.

I feel so lucky that some of our best friends are making their dreams come true by expanding their families. First we get Murray in May, and then Dot in August. Congratulations all around.

17th on Viv's blog roll - now that's despicable.

Ok, for my 4 loyal fans out there (and you know who you are) and because I have fallen so low on Viv's blogroll, I guess I'll have to blog, and fess up to what I've been doing the last 6 days.

Friday/Saturday I worked. Nothing new and exciting there. In addition, on Saturday I put one more coat of paint on my soon to be new sewing room/office. One more coat and I'll be done with the painting except for the trim.

Sunday, slept, played hockey - yahoo!, had dinner at Wendy's with the crew, watched the end of the maroon game, had dessert at IHoP (IHoC for Andrea and Jenny), headed home and made about 20 lbs of cookie dough. Why you ask? Continue reading to see what happens Monday.

Monday, baked, baked, baked, shopped, baked, decorated cookies, ate pizza, nursed babies, went to bed. Oh, all the baking? That was in preparation for the cookie party that we hosted here Monday night. It was great to see so many people and I had fun. I hope everyone else did too. I've flickr'd a few photos from the event. We hope to reinstitute this as an annual event in our household.

Tuesday, the MIL, niece, and nephew that showed up for the cookie decoratiing were still here, so we all went up to the city to have lunch with Bill. It was a very nice lunch. After lunch we traipsed across the street to the Embarcadero Center, past the infamous Kristi Yamaguchi ice rink, and over to Bill's office which I got to see for the first time. Noone was really there due to the holidays and meetings, but it was still nice to know where he worked. Headed home, had a yummy fondue dinner, got to meet Ms. Rainie Roo, nursed babies, downloaded photos, went to bed.

Wednesday (today), guests still here. Made breakfast, went shopping, had lunch, home, they left, and I headed down to San Jose for a last minute gift pick up. Auntie Cathy came over to bring the girls their Christmas presents which the girls loved. Babies to bed, and now FINALLY, I'm blogging.

Ta da!! You are all caught up on the exciting (NOT) life of me.

PB&J, Pipes, Police, and Valium

What do these have in common you ask? You see, I was standing out in front of my house eating a PB&J sandwich and looking at the ground underneath this smallish table type thing. A police cruiser goes by slowly on the main street, obviously watching me. About 10 minutes later he comes back on the side street, pulls over and comes to talk to me. He asked me about 2 pipes that were running along the front of our house and our neighbors, half buried in the ground. I told him I wasn't sure what they were, but thought they were probably sewage and water. He didn't say anything, turned and walked back to his cruiser. I presume it was to call backup since a female officer then showed up and they both approached me once again. The first officer stated he was concerned about me and was writing a referral to see the police psychologist. He also wrote me a prescription for Valium. It was interesting as he wrote both of these by holding them up to the side of the building upside down. The female police officer didn't say anything except to comment on his strange manner of writing. After writing the referral (it was apparently mandatory) and the prescription, they both got back in their cruisers and left. And yes, this was a bizzarro dream.

As a footnote, while I was trying to tell Bill the dream this morning, Samantha came right up to him, and rapid fire started "talking" to him, trying to get his attention and obviously tell him a story too. It was really quite cute.

Newsworthy? Probably not, but hey it's my blog.

First off, my wonderful, loving hubby got up and fixed my Christmas tree lights for me (after a little more mocking which I will take if my lights get fixed.) All but the bottom string work now.

The second big thing is that we met with the neurologist at Lucile Packard for Samantha. This was a much better meeting than the last time though I got the feeling that the outside neurologist we went to for a second opinion called him. In any case, I feel like we are on the same page now - he even gave us a direct line to call if she has another seizure (which she won't - she told Bill she was done with that.) He also feels like we should hold off on medicating her since it's been another few months without a seizure. If she does have another one though, then we would be back to talking about medicating her for a year.

Lastly and this was the most emotional for me, we turned the girls carseats around. They are no longer rear-facing infants, but full fledged forward face toddlers. They LOVED it! They thought it was hilarious that they could see Mom and Dad, swing their feet, and see the cars (and a train) in front of us. And while I am 99% happy about it, there is still that 1% of me that is sad because it's one more piece of their infancy that I'll never get back.

Oh so depressing

Tonight was our annual family decorate the tree night. Normally we have the lights on by the night before, so that we can get down to the serious decorating. This year just didn't work out that way, so while I put lights on the tree my family lovingly mocked my insistance that the entire tree be equally and sufficiently lit (This meant over 1000 lights for me.) In any case, I finally finished lighting the tree (after sending Bill to the store for more lights) and we began to decorate. Bill hung his ornaments and some of the twins, Stacey hung her ornaments, and I hung mine as well as some of the twins and the family ornaments. I put the star on the top (very special antique family star) and literally as I hung the last ornament on the tree I heard a pop and the lights went out. I am so depressed. My beautiful tree is now lightless. I am far too exhausted to trouble shoot tonight (it's after midnight already.) I guess I'll have to start testing individual strings tomorrow. Ugh! I'd like to say something a little stronger, but it is the Christmas season afterall.

And the winner is...

both. Ok, I know I told you that you were not allowed to vote for both options, but the more I looked at the options, the more I knew I couldn't decide between one or the other as they both bring out different things in the quilt. It actually looks pretty good in person - the picture doesn't quite show as well as I'd like. In any case, here it is.

One more iteration

Ok, one more pic with both options to help you decide. (No you can not vote for both.)

What have I been doing? and Please vote.

Ok, it's Thursday already and I haven't blogged all week. What exactly have I been up to? First I've been trying to finish up a quilt top in time for my quilt group meeting tonight. I'm stuck on the final border however, so look at the two pics and tell if you like the one better with the orange/red stars, or the more purplish square pattern border.




The second project I've been up to is painting what will be my sewing room/office. I've been very fortunate to have some great help with this from my sister-in-law, Debbie and my sister, Cathy. Thanks guys! And of course I had my two mini helpers which always add a lot of fun to any project.

Oh, and I had a nice holiday dinner that I got to dress up for on Tuesday night. (Sorry, no pics of that.)

Ok, back to work for me, and on to voting for you.

Weekend update

Friday: Worked - blah
Saturday: Worked - blah

Although I have to say I took care of a fairly complicated cardiac kid both days that was centimeters away from being wisked away to surgery, and I was able to stabilize him so he could grow and get over an infection before going for open heart reconstruction on Monday. Great family, great little guy. Send a few extra prayers his way Monday afternoon. That's all I can say without crossing the lines of patient confidentiality.

Sunday: Came home from work exhausted, took a 3 hour nap, got up, showered, did something though I have no idea what. Got the girls dressed and headed to the California train station to see the Santa train with Santa, Mrs. Claus, elves, carolers, Marines, and the like in tow. It's a yearly event that kicks off the Toys for Tots drive (lots of barrels at the site for donations. We brought a picnic dinner, staked out a spot and waited. The girls got a little antsy, but finally a train arrived, but wait, no lights, no music, no Santa. As it turns out, it was the commuter train that was just ahead of the Santa train. The people getting off were greeted with cheers, whistles, and applause. They were good spirits and made the most of it, waving to the crowd, bowing, smiling, etc.

Finally the Santa train arrived, We didn't get a spot right in front of the flat bed with the carolers, but this was probably a good thing as Sam seemed a little overwhelmed by it all. She loved the Marines, but cried at the giant bear when it tried to high 5 her, and she totally melted when Rudolph came over. Santa was ok though. Riley enjoyed high fiving everybody regardless, and got herself a handful of candycanes to boot.

Afterwards we made our way back out, met Grandma and Grandpa (who couldn't get through the crowds to where we were) and the girls had a nice little visit. Bill offered my Dad a piece of peppermint bark candy and thought he took it, realizing a little too late that it was Riley's quick hand that nabbed it. She was quite happy with herself. Meanwhile Sammi was busy nibbling, sucking, drooling on a piece of the bark the Grandma was holding for her. Apparently it was a successful trip for the girls.

The only bad part is that the camera died (I thought I had it charged), so not much in the way of pictures.

The night was capped off by a visit from Auntie Liz and Auntie Andrea who brought donuts as a bribe to see the girls. Sam demonstrated her new trick, doing the splits. She slides her feet out to either side, and then just before they are all the way out, she leans back so she sits on her butt. Quite entertaining.

Sunday made the weekend.

New month, new blog

New eyebrows. Went to get my eyebrows waxed yesterday by the woman who has been doing my sisters eyebrows for some time now. I have to say she is fabulous! I've had this procedure down before, but never with these results. I actually look like I have eyebrows, AND they are nicely shaped. You probably don't understand what a feat this is - I normally have bald/thin spots in my brows, they don't curve nicely, so just trying to follow the natural line when plucking doesn't work. As it turns out, she left some hairs in that I would normally have plucked out, and she trimmed them before waxing the unwanteds off. It was a little more than I've paid in the past, but WORTH EVERY PENNY. I highly recommend her for those interested in perfect eyebrows. Melissa @ La Belle Day Spa in Palo Alto.