I love Kids (part 3)

My third and last child...Cameron. He is now 15 and very proud to be much taller than me. (He will always be my 'little guy'.) Where did the years go? Today he is going to apply for a job. His sister has connections in this town and he will benefit from this.

I had so worried about him growing up. My worries were for nothing. He grew up going to very small private schools. Then he started public high school...wow! Going from 25 kids to 3000. He has taken to it like a fish to water.

He was my one child that could not resist touching things in stores. If it moved, he touched it and tried to figure out how it all worked. Drove me crazy! Come to think of it...he still does this! When he was 2 years old he would say, "What dat?". You answer. Then, "What it doos?" I just couldn't ever correct that knowing that it would soon be gone.

The Holiday Season

Wow! The time ran away from me.

My mother came to town the week before Christmas. For the last 3 years she has spent the holidays with me. It is great to have her with us at this time. She will be flying home to Lodi, CA tomorrow.

It was so busy this time around that we didn't get to do our usual 'Starbucks in the morning' until yesterday!

It is interesting to realize what Christmas traditions you carry on and what ones you've created. What are some of your traditions? I would love to hear.

The main one that I have carried on is Christmas cut-out cookies. My mother did them every year. She would invite the kids on the block to help frost and sprinkle with colored sugar. Well this year I finally got them baked on the eve of Christmas Eve.

You read that one right. My daughter informed me that it wouldn't be Christmas without those cookies. That made me think of when I said the exact same thing to my mother! So we all gathered around on Christmas Eve afternoon and frosted cookies. Yum!

I love Kids (part 2)

My second is my daughter, Alexa.

I remember when she was born. All I could say to myself..."It's a girl." And is she a girl through and through!

She would not wear pants until she was in second grade. Her words - "Pants are for boys." Even though I would point out that the pants were pink or had lace or something girly about them. Not only would she not wear pants but she would put 5 skirts on at one time when she was 2. Then she would get mad at me because she had run out of skirts before wash day. I told her that she didn't have enough to wear 5 skirts at once, she switched to 3 skirts. Way too cute!

She is married now and a fabulous daughter to do stuff with.

The Holidays

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?

Mine was very nice. I made the Thanksgiving feast as usual. I love making Thanksgiving dinner! Colin (son), Alexa (daughter), Jake (son-in-law) and Cameron (son) were all there. Perfect!

This year I tried dry brining my turkey and it work very well. Cameron had mentioned he didn't like the breast meat because of it being dry. Now my turkeys are moist, but...I thought to myself...why not try and make it more moist!

Colin always does the honor of carving the turkey and every year he tells me this is the best turkey. Then he turns to me and says, "I know I say that every year but this is the best."

All the food turned out tasty and warm on the table. Yum!

I Love Kids

I love kids. Kids a give me the warmest, fuzziest feeling in the world.

Colin is my oldest...sheesh, he is going to be 30 next year!!! How did that happen? I remember the day the doctor laid him on my stomach after being born. It was like..."Well hello! Long time no see."

He was the prettiest little boy you ever saw. I will try and dig up some pictures and scan them in. He looked like a little angel. Giant brown eyes with lashes you could trip over if they got any longer. Colin went every where with me and he would just tag along, happy to enjoy the ride.

I remember trying to explain the use of "me" and "you". He would confuse them and used 'me' when he should use 'you' and visa versa. That was a challenge to get straightened out!

I so enjoyed our "talks". He would try to figure out the physical universe from his 2 year old viewpoint. My favorite being - "Mommy, the sun melts into the trees at night and when the moon comes up it freezes it and the sun comes back up."

One of his favorite things to do was take walks and collect things. I always had to remember to bring a bag to carry rocks, sticks and whatever else caught his eye.

Now he is grown and loves to carry on a debate over anything! He likes to think that he is smarter than me, he can think that. But I do learn new viewpoints from him! And I love it when I can pull one over on him!

First Blog

I am new to this blogging...so bear with me.

There is a lot that goes on inside my head and I thought I would put some of them out there for all to read and comment on. Maybe, just maybe, it will help to organize my thoughts. They are all over the place!

So stay tuned and I promise to try and post something weekly.