Holiday Memories 2007

As part of a ScrapAddict challenge, I will be posting regular blog entries about this years holiday season. Even if you don't visit ScrapAddict, feel free to play along and jot down your families memories from this festive season.

Colorstrology

Just for fun some of the girls at ScrapAddict have been sharing the pages from their "Colorstrology" book. Something to do with your birth date and how that corresponds to a color and description. Mine is below. I will say that it's a pretty right on description. And it's interesting to note that I'm "compatible" with March 19, however Brian was born on March 20. LOL. The color itself might well fit my attitude, but not my coloring. With red hair and pale skin I look HORRID in yellow -- even if it is disguised as "daffodil".

Good Karma & Bad Timing ...

Well, good karma caught up with us yesterday. If you remember, several weeks ago we found an envelope of money in our local grocery store. I turned it into the customer service desk hoping that they owner would come looking for it. They told us to check back on it so yesterday I went and inquired about it. It was still unclaimed thus, as the finders, we are now entitled to it. So yesterday we walked out of the store with much more money than we walked in with. It was a great bonus to be able to add that money to our vacation fund and to know that we did all we could to return it to it's owner. It was also a great lesson for the kids, who learned a lot about doing the right thing and being good people.

Yesterday afternoon we went Christmas tree hunting. We'd seen the weather forecast and knew that the rest of the week would be rainy so we thought we'd sneak out and get a tree before the rains hit. We went to the tree farm right after picking the kids up off the bus. We had quite a plethera of trees to chose from:

We searched and searched. This one was too small, that one was crooked, the next one had holes in the foliage. We took our time and in retrospect maybe we shouldn't have because after about 20 minutes of hunting in the chilly 30degree air, the precipitation arrived. But since it was so cold outside it fell as sleet. Boy, did that force us to make a decision quickly. Not only were we cold but now we were getting sleeted on. We finally found this tree:

Brian cut the tree down and the boys helped carry (or helped drop it! LOL) to the van.We brought it home and have set it up in our house. Boy, is it a big one. Our angel just barely fits on top, despite our tall ceilings. It must be at least 7 1/2 feet tall. It's great and bushy and we can't wait to decorate it tonight!

Calling the Pixley boys ...

Wow, has the phone been ringing off the hook here. No, it's not for me, it's all part of the newest shift in our lives ... kids phone calls.

This is something that just got started last week and it has taken over like wildfire. Both Chase and Tristan have had friends calling them. Phone calls center mostly over strategy for their favorite video games.

Tristan and his friend Noah are on the phone nonstop to talk about "Animal Crossing". They'll be on the phone for 1/2 an hour and will hang up, only to call back about 15 minutes later. This continues all day long!

Chase and his friend Nick can talk forever about "Spectrobes". Sometimes they're on for an hour straight.

This newest development is going to take some adjustment for me. It used to be that I jumped up and answered the phone every time it rang. Not so anymore. Tristan usually beats me to it and smugly says "It's Noah" when he reads the caller ID.

The kids are growing and our lives are changing in ways I don't even know, but this new development is a stark reminder that the kids are quickly developing into their own independant selves.

Quote of the Day:

We took the kids to see "Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium" yesterday and this line just jumped right out at us:

Life is an occasion - rise to it.

Aaaaaahhhhh ...

... that felt good. 3 months worth of photos finally edited and sent to Costco to be printed. What a weight lifted there. I usually don't let photos back up on me so this has been a thorn in my side for some time. I just feel the need to keep the photos edited and printed in a timely fashion and with all going on I just hadn't been able to do so.

I did have a great time looking at all the photos while editing. There were some absolutely adorable ones. Like this one from one of our summer beach trips (Tucker LOVES the ocean!):

And this one of the kids on the last weekend of summer:

I love this "mirror" photo of my Dad when we were out on his boat:

And the kids pumpkins from Halloween:

This one my neighbor took of our kids on Halloween is great: So is this one of Carissa's soccer team:

All in all, a great group of pictures and I'm so glad they'll be in my scrapbooks soon. :)

Ride Along

I had the chance to go on a ride-along with the local police department this weekend. I was originally scheduled to ride with one of the other officers but at the last minute I got assigned to ride with Brian instead. It was a bit of a surprise, as they do not customarily get to have riders during their probationary period (the first 18mos.). But I was happy to get to spend the evening riding with him, especially since I hadn't seen him all day as I'd been at Disney on Ice with Carissa.

Anyways, I rode with him from 8pm until 4am ... quite a bit longer than I expected to ride. At first he just pulled over people who had headlights out (surprisingly, a LOT of people drive around with one headlight out), those who didn't stop at a stop sign or other minor traffic violations. But later on in the evening (or morning, as it was after midnight) he headed to the only place in town with traffic this late - the highway. We rode the highway for a while and he pulled over a few people. Nothing exciting. Yet on one of his trips he clocked someone going 12 over the speed limit and decided to pull them over. Come to find out, it was a drunk driver. He did the field sobriety tests and located some drugs in the vehicle. I hung out with him long enough to watch the breathalizer test and while he took the suspect to jail. By then it was 4am and he had a mountain of reports to write. I was getting VERY tired so he dropped me at home and I headed to bed.

I loved riding along with him and seeing exactly what he does. It gave me a sense of peace to see how careful he is, how he protects himself while on the job and how he takes bad people and things off the streets. I am so proud of him and all that he does for our community.

Halloween has come and gone ...

and left a huge pile of candy in it's wake. Ugh. What am I going to do with it all?!? And no, don't say eat it. I REALLY don't need it!

Halloween was fun but very LONG this year. It started a week before Halloween with the scout Halloween party. Then there was the party at Abel & Nia's house last weekend. We topped it all off with Halloween and trick-or-treating here on home. Whew, am I glad it's over!

This years costumes were a change of pace. Chase originally wanted to be the Egyptian God Seth, who is depicted by a person in a robe with a horse/dog head. I thought it was such a neat idea and I would have LOVED to make this work for Chase. But alas, no dog or horse head to be found and I didn't know how to make one so we went with his plan B, a skeleton. We bought the shirt at Old Navy and then I cut and sewed fleece "bones" to a pair of sweats. It took quite a while but it was worth it... he really liked it and I didn't spend an arm and a leg on it.

Tristan loved his costume but was slightly disgruntled by everyone asking him "who are you?" Since his world revolves around Pokemon, he thought everyone else must certainly know that he was Mudkip. Who? Mudkip ... one of those little characters on the trading cards. Well, there is no such thing as a Mudkip costume so alas, a trip to the fabric aisle and a pair of sweats turns into this Mudkip costume. Add the blue and orange face paint and he truly looked like something out of this world.

Carissa decided that this was her year to be different. She decided to forego the Disney Princess line this Halloween ... the first year she hasn't been a Disney Princess since she was born. It was a bit of a sad moment for me and yet another reminder that she is growing up. But alas, she's not too grown up. She may have strayed from the Disney Princesses, but she couldn't leave the "pretty" behind. From the first moment she wanted to be a witch and when we came up on this "pretty witch" costume we knew it was just perfect. She was the sweetest witch in the world.

Brian had to work, so no costume for him. Well, I guess you could say he went as a police officer. LOL I, on the other hand, am working at the preschool this year and I couldn't put a damper on their Halloween festivities. So for the first time since I was a youngster myself I decided to dress up. Taking a cue from Carissa, I went with a witch costume. Mine was also of the "pretty" variety so as not to scare the little kids at school. It was sort of fun to dress up for a change.

All in all a pretty good Halloween season. I'm glad it's over and now I'm eagerly anticipating Christmas. Yes, I know that Thanksgiving is coming too but that's just a day to eat turkey and pass the time while we wait for the next big excitement, Christmas!!!