Christmas At Grandma Angelina's

We went over to Armando's moms house to celebrate Christmas with the family on the afternoon of Christmas day. About an hour and a half into Esperanza's nap, I decided to just wake her up and loaded her into the car. Though our Christmas gatherings may sound the same each year (lots of food, family, friends, Santa, gifts, etc), it's the little details, individual conversations and especially the kids that keep it entertaining and fun. This year, I didn't get very many pictures, besides the Santa ones. But here are a few.

Uncle Tony, his 'friend' Teresa and EsperanzaSanta with Cathy and her little ones Tony and Teresa again
Angelina and Armando's brother Quacky (Jose Juan)

Esperanza and Junior danced to the Wii dance game. It was funny, and she was good at it. And here are a couple of videos of her dancing that are pretty darn cute

Santa Clause Visit

Guess who came to Grandma Angelina's house on Christmas? Santa Clause! And guess who had a change of heart and mind about Santa Clause? Esperanza did!

Santa Clause and three of his little elves walked down the stairs in the middle of our family Christmas gathering on Chirstmas day, surprising all the little kids, saying "HO, HO, HO" and handing out candy canes. He and his elves then made their way to the front room where the Christmas tree was. He sat down on the couch and in front of a huge pile of wrapped gifts. He had quite the following too. Over a dozen little toddlers and young children, including Esperanza, sat down on the floor in front of him, waiting for him to call their name so they could go sit next to him and open their gift. When Esperanza caught on to what was really going on and that each kid was getting to open a present if they went and sat next to him, she made her way threw the crowd , climbed right up on the couch, interupted another kids moment with Santa and asked if he had a present for her. She was no longer scared of Santa!

You can see Esperanzas lil head in the bottom right hand corner...before she figured out what was going onOooh, a big box! Whats in it?Yay! Huggies! Um, Huggies? Oh, but wait, is it really? Nope, something even better A big huge plush pink pillow!!

She liked Santa now, and he had one more present for herBut it was also for Ezra, so he got in on the action tooAfter all the gifts were handed out, and most of the crowd dispersed, Santa sat and talked to Clarissa and Esperanza about his reindeer. It was so cute to watch their faces. They were amazed by the stories Santa had.Thank you Gary....Oops, I mean Santa!

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning started off with me waking up, engorged and uncomfortable at 5 am. Ezra had slept threw the night for the first time in months (Merry Christmas to me!)! By 7 am I couldn't take it any longer though cause I couldn't sleep through the pain and didn't have the energy to pump, so I woke Ezra up to nurse. As I was nursing him, Esperanza walked in the room and began crying because she had accidently gone potty while sleeping. Good thing we had a cover over the mattress still, as this was the first time she had had an accident in a long time (and it was only because she'd fallen asleep in the car the night before and didn't go potty before going to bed for the night). After changing Esperanza and getting the bed cleaned up, there was not a chance either kid was going back to sleep. We don't usually begin our day until closer to 9 am. Being Christmas morning and all though, I cheerfully said to Esperanza, 'Merry Christmas, go look to see if Santa brought you presents!'. And so it began...

Esperanza helped Ezra open his gifts
He loved his sippy cup and Sofie the giraffe chew/squeeker toy She got so excited over her hello kitty band-aids

After we opened gifts, Esperanza had fun playing with the cupcake kit her grandma gave her, "HOT, HOT" she exclaimed each time she pulled them out of her the oven with her oven mit on.

We got ready to go over to Armando's moms house for Christmas. Esperanza wore the lovely vintage dress and I put her hair up in pigtails wtih cute little fairies in.
Esperanza helped do some last minute gift wrapping to take over to Grandma Angelina's house

And just before we headed out the door, Esperanza decided it was nap time

Part 2 - Christmas At Grandma Angelina's, to follow...

Christmas Eve

We gathered with my family on Christmas Eve at my moms house. I dressed Esperanza in my old Christmas dress and she loved it, especially after seeing the picture my mom had of me wearing it when I was her age. Tony and Cyndi picked up pizzas from Tony's work, Old Chicago, mom made a delicious salad and I brought those home made sugary treats. We ate, watched Christmas movies and opened gifts. Mary gave each kid a 'love' necklace (Esperanza broke hers the next day) and a wooden flute. Cyndi gave Espernza some stickers and other crafts. Mom and George got Roman a big wooden truck that hauls wooden cars and Esperanza a play cupcake kit. Mom made all of us girls a table runner. I attempted to get a picture of all 6 kids together. Though fuzzy with several pairs of eyes looking in different directions, I guess I succeeded. At the end of the evening, I put my kids' Christmas jammies and as I drove home they both fell fast asleep. I put out our little bundle of gifts and played Santa, then I noticed that the flower bulbs my sister Mary had given me for my birthday had bloomed.

Sugar Love

Quick sidenote before I get to my original blog post topic: Did you know that sugar gives users a similar type of euphoric feeling as heorin does? Without giving details and getting myself into trouble, I will share that I have a close and personal relationship with 2 heroin addicts and guess what they turn to when they don't have their first drug of choice? Good ol' fashioned sugar cane. Sugar is also more addictive than heroin yet it is handed out to children to show ones love, sold in stores by the pound and considered a normal part of most peoples diet despite it's deadly effects and negative impact on their bodies, attitudes, personalities, teeth, etc. Yup. Bad stuff it is, sugar and heroin. Curious about the comparison as well as the history of how sugar and heorin began, read Sugar Blues - great book.

On the Eve of Christmas Eve I picked up Anycia and Antonio from their dads house, stopped to visit my mom for a bit then headed home where we began an afternoon and evening filled with baking and cooking, with lots of sugar. I had volunteered to do desserts for our family gathering. Typically, I cook goodies with whole wheat flower, honey, some nuts and/or dried fruits and maybe even some cocoa nibs or carob chips. They turn out delicious, yet also very healthy. Something took ahold of me this time around though and I decided to do holiday cut out sugar cookies with neon colored icing and peppermint bark with white and dark chocolate! Oooh, la, la! I think it was the kids, gotta show the love.

2011 Family Pictures

A grade school friend that I reconnected with via Facebook took family pictures for us back in November. She began a ministry called Simply Olive Photography to provide professional photography for those who cannot otherwise afford it. She does not charge or ask for anything in return! She will however accept donations which go back into her ministry. Not only is this an amazing gift that she provides, she truly is very talented. Professional pictures are so expensive and definately not something remotely close to showing up in our budget any time soon, so I'm forever greatful for her and her gift to us. We hope she will take our pictures again in the coming year when a certain child of mine is in better spirits and the weather is warmer. Here are the few shots that she was able to capture of us in the few moments we had before Esperanza was taken over by her evil twin...Brienne really liked the hat that Ezra was wearing the day we had our pictures done so part of what I donated to her and her ministry were these knitted baby hats for her to use when she photographs babies.

This one fit Ezra. He looks good in pinkAnd this one fit the snowglobe Thank You Olive!

Choo Choo At The Zoo Zoo Lights

Our first trip to Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo! We met Armando's sister Eva and her kiddos there one evening last week. We had a cloud cover that night so it wasn't freezing, a little drizzle here and there, but for the most part the weather was good for us. It was a school night before the winter vacation kicked in so it wasn't very busy either. Overall, the perfect day for our adventure.Eva's children: Rafa with a big fake smile, Celeste with her eyes closed and Kiko in the stroller distracted and looking at the lights Look at that smile Armando! Wow, thats a first.An outting would not be complete without some tears and drama from Miss Esperanza. I purposely try to get photos of these moments rather than just the 'happy' smiles we all typically attempt to capture on camera. This is truly how our outtings, days and life go. A whole lot of drama with a few good moments in between. I don't want these memories to be forgotten or go unnoticed when Esperanza looks back one day at all these wonderous adventures we have. She'll thank me one day for capturing these pictures of her. Maybe then she will be able to talk to me about how she was feeling.Armando, Ezra and some ghostly fog or somethingEva is camera shy, she hides her face any time I try to sneak a picture of her. This is the best I got. Her and three boys...holding Ezra, pushing Kiko and Rafa hanging on her. What a mama.We took the lit up zoo train ride at the end of our zoo rounds. Ezra zonked out just before we got on and stayed that way most of the ride. While on the train watching all the lights, we warmed up and re-energized with some hot chocolate and snacks I brought from home. Eva bought each kid their very own battery operated train with track set from the gift shop. They were so excited about the whole choo choo train expereince. Esperanza spent at least the next 48 hours running around yelling 'Choo, choo...chuga,chuga, chuga...choo, choo' This was my favorite illumination. Esperanza and Rafa with Armando and their choo choo's