The Sweet Smell of Christmas - Day Nine

Something Sweet

Yesterday I mentioned the Corner Bakery experience with my sister and her kids. To be fair, and lest you think it was all inappropriate all the time, we did have a very sweet experience there. It was busy after the Light Parade, but we managed to secure a table. Then Jenni and I went to the counter to order for our families. I ordered 3 hot chocolates, a lemon square, a pumpkin gingerbread mini bundt cake, a peppermint brownie, and a raspberry crumble. I figured this way there was plenty to share. Jenni ordered hot chocolate for her family, a molten hot chocolate mini bundt cake and cookies & cream whoopee pies. I think it’s cute how she thinks her kids are still small enough to share deserts with their parents.

When the food came to the table (after the inappropriate bathroom experience) Keenan immediately announced he didn’t want a cookies & cream whoopee pie, he wanted a peppermint brownie! And Naomi did NOT want to share a desert, and looked offended that anyone would suggest it. I assured everyone that we had plenty of deserts and that we would all share, (much to Paul’s disappointment as he had already laid claim to the lemon square). Keenan suggested we all take a bite and then pass the dessert around the table. So we did.

The plates made two circles around the table with giggling and comments about how this was yummy or that was yummy. The second time the peppermint brownie got to Naomi she announced “No more passing, this is what I want!” then she curled her left arm protectively around her plate to fend off any invading forks. Now Naomi may be a Johnson, but that move is pure Kinkade, my cousins and siblings all learned it in defense of my Granddad and my children and their cousins learned it in defense of my dad.

So the dessert passing ended with Naomi getting the peppermint brownie, Paul with the lemon square, Matthew with the pumpkin gingerbread cake, Jenni got the molten chocolate cake, and I got the raspberry crumble. Keenan wound up with the whoopee pie that he did not want, so he shared the pumpkin gingerbread with Matthew, and the chocolate cake with his mom. Naomi was so right when she said “We have the best family ever!”

Christmas Reminders

***HUGE MAJOR DISCLAIMER This blog entry contains some personal information I usually do not share with people because I don’t want to be one of those people who over share. Also I really think that some of this information is my private business and I don’t wish to discuss it, even with family members. Don’t worry, Kat knows about it.  I am sharing this information as it relates to Christmas, and I am not inviting a conversation about my fitness habits.

So here it is.  I work out.  Or, rather I was working out, on average of 3 times a week for the last 15 months or so.  I am on a temporary hiatus at the moment. Finances and a crazy work schedule that has me leaving work at 8pm are the reason for the break. I hate telling people because honestly, it's like I am inviting people to judge me for it. 

Prior to the break I had set alarms on my phone on the days I worked out to remind me to leave work in time to get to the fitness class on time.  Even though I am “on a break” The alarms are still set and they go off 3 days a week and now instead of reminding me to go work out, they remind me that I am not currently making time to take care of myself.

I think that maybe some of the visual and audible signs of Christmas are like those alarms.  Sometimes I see Christmas lights or hear Christmas music and I am annoyed and it makes me irritable because it is interrupting something else I am trying to do.  Sometimes I see the lights and hear the music and I am nostalgic and remember fondly Christmases past. Other times it motivates me to be kind, and do something meaningful for someone. 

What are your Christmas reminders?

2017.1 Santa Paul

Welcome Back.  I had intended to close out last year with a bang and share this amazing thing that happened.  It is Paul’s story, so I had asked him to write about it, and he said he would.  Then in typical Paul fashion he never got around to it.  I think he had intentions of doing it, but I also think all the fuss about it made him uncomfortable.  So, here we are a year later and I am telling the story.  If we are lucky, there may be a follow up to this story.  As of today, Matthew is planning on interviewing Paul about it and writing it up for the blog.

Here is the short version.  Last year Paul lost his wallet.  He had spent the morning with a group of NW Classen students at a local Head Start program passing out presents.  Paul was participating dressed as Santa Claus.  This was the second year he had done this, and I am not sure who enjoyed it more, Paul or the children. 

Not actual Children from the News Story

When they took a break for lunch, the NW Classen students walked across the street to get lunch.  On this walk, Paul’s wallet fell out of his pocket.  Apparently Santa’s pants have shallow pockets.  Wallet fell out, and he did not even notice it when it happened.  He had about $8 in his wallet and his new photo id.  I suspect he was more disappointed in losing the wallet than in losing the money.   

The story doesn’t end there. In fact, check out the news 9 coverage of the event.

And you can also check out coverage on this channel

And when I looked it up today online for the links to share the store I discovered that it has also been on posted on liftable dot com and littlethings dot com

There are not even words to tell you how proud I am of Paul every day.  Many people said that this recognition could not have happened to a more deserving kid, and that is certainly true.  What I am left wondering about this whole situation is how that little boy who refused to sit on Santa’s lap, ever, and who swore that only he, Paul, was getting presents for his brother, how did that little boy grow up to be Santa?  I’d ask, but senor grouchy pants probably doesn’t have an answer tonight.  I would ask his brother but he is just as grouchy and less likely to answer.  So here is my take away, I think at some point my dear son Paul figured out that not all little kids have brothers like him; looking out for them and ensuring they get presents.  My friend Chelsey asked this week when do you tell your children the truth, and someone on her timeline bemoaned the fact that it is sad when your child “looses the magic.”  I am going to say that as my son got older his knowledge of Santa didn’t take anything away from his enjoyment of the holiday, it only added to Christmas, not just his, but to others as well. 

My Little Paul

This whole situation, the recognition that he received and the generosity of the employees at Pace Butler, really made the whole holiday season for my Paul.  I am forever grateful for that.  More important I love the heart of my boy who was trying to give Christmas to others.  

A little Christmas truth.

I think I have shared that my boys do not believe in Santa.  Kat grew up a non believe and I compromised as a way to appease her on the Christmas tree issue. (Remind me to tell you about the first year I did a Christmas tree with her).  This means we also eschew the whole elf on the shelf thing.  I have also recounted how challenging it was to convince my Matthew that it was not his job to tell his friends “the truth”

Last night at church a friend was saying that she cannot find her elves this year.  She has two children; a boy and a girl, ages 13 and 12, and she has 2 elves for them. She has searched high and low and cannot find the elves from last year.  She has said that if she can’t find them by the 5^th (which is when you are supposed to get them out?) then maybe her kids have out grown them.  It was an interesting conversation to be a part of.  How do you handle it when your children outgrow Santa?

My friend shared that she had asked her daughter if she was going to make a list for Santa of her Christmas wishes, and she got a typical pre-teen eye roll.  She asked the same question of her son and he responded “heck YEAH!”  I don’t know if his response is born of belief, or just a practical one.  If it were me then as long as Santa was bringing me gifts, I would be making lists.

I shared this story with the boys this morning and asked if they thought their friends still believed.  Matthew laughed and chimed in that he was sure his former classmate has known the truth since Kindergarten. I asked him if he was guilty of ruining his friend’s Christmas. Matthew was quiet for a while, then he assured me that he would NEVER have told anyone that Santa wasn’t real.

Yeah right.  That’s my boy, wrecking Christmas for his friends since 2001. 

Stale Christmas cookies.

Today in the office someone offered me a Christmas cookie.  I accepted and was disappointed to discover that not only was it store bought, it was stale.  I was certain my smile gave nothing away, but my coworker was quick to volunteer that even though she would never buy cookies at King Sooper ordinarily, but when it is Christmas, you just do it.

What the WHAT?!?!?!? So now the holiday season and a Nike motto are justification for eating stale cookies?  It truly must be the end times.

In 1999 I compiled all of our Christmas Party photos into a photo album and wrote an introduction that included a statement that I chose not to look at my friends willingness to travel great miles and put up with me for a cup of eggnog and some of Kat’s fudge as some sign of how low society has sunk.  I still am not quite there, although I wonder every year why people come to our party.  Don’t get me wrong.  I want people to come; I’d be pretty blue if no one came. 

So, if you are in the area this Saturday night, stop by.  I promise that my cookie press cookies will not be stale, (if I manage to get around to making them this year).  And Kat’s chocolates? Totally worth putting up with whatever I might say to you.

Joker's Christmas Tree

Last year I wrote about Matthew and his Pink and Green Christmas tree. When we were decorating last year Paul asked who put Matthew in charge and wanted to know if he could choose for next year.  I agreed and he said we were having a purple and green Christmas tree.  The Joker tree is what he called it.

So periodically he’s checked out Pinterest and done some internet research, but never really came up with the solid plans that Matthew had.  Solid plan or not, he held to his idea.  So last week the boys and I hit up Michael’s with a 40% coupon to see what we could find.  Initially I was thinking I could steer him towards some sort of peacock themed tree.  Not that I was in love with that idea but it was the best I could come up with that involved green and purple.

When we got there Matthew scoped out the decorations and explained to Paul that we could either go with bright colors, like the pink and green he did last year, or go with darker colors like burgundy and dark green. ‘Like in the olden days’.  Paul pondered and chose bright colors.  Matthew helped him pick some green Christmas balls.  Paul found some giant purple silk poinsettias. A few aisles over the Christmas picks were half off.  The boys pretty much loaded up the cart with green and purple glittery things. 

I am not a real big fan of those Christmas picks as tree decorations, but you know what I am a fan of?  Watching my boys work on things together.  Paul has particular tastes and he was doing a good job picking the things he liked, and Matthew was doing a good job of keeping Paul focused on the task at hand. “Is that purple or is that green?  It seems pink to me, let’s go with this one, it is really purple.”

They also chose supplies for several Christmas crafts.  I am not sure if we will have time for them before Christmas or not, but I am interested in what they come up with.  Paul chose 4 large wooden letters that spell out XMAS.  I asked if he was concerned people would say he was taking Christ out Christmas. He just rolled his eyes, and Matthew explained that in ancient times the X stood for Christ. “Really Papa, what are you thinking?”

On our way home Paul confided to me that he wasn’t as good at crafts as Matthew was.  I said I didn’t think that was true.  Then Paul gave me a shopping list of all the crafts that Matthew has thought up.  I agreed that Matthew is pretty creative, but that reminded Paul that everyone has their own special talents, and that as long as he enjoyed doing crafts I didn’t think it mattered whether or not he was the one to think them up.  Then I asked if he could tell which of the picture frames from last year he did and which Matthew did.  He admitted that they all looked the same.  Which was exactly my point.

Last night Paul decorated his purple and green tree.  I culled through our other ornaments and pulled out some dark green balls, and a purple fan from pier one in 1992. It did not take him very long.  Now I admit that the back of the tree is a little bare but you can’t tell.  I had asked Matthew if he wanted to help, but he declined.  He said it was Paul’s project and he didn’t want to be too much in charge.  Plus he has his silver tree to decorate later.

Again, I do not love this type of tree decoration, but I adore my boys, and Paul is really proud of his tree.  Therefore I freakin LOVE this tree.  Matthew even told Paul he couldn’t have done it better himself.

White Christmas

Dreaming of a winter wonderland? Come to Colorado!  It is freakishly cold here! Somewhere between -11 and 7 degrees.  That is really cold!  How cold you ask?  Well Matthew wore a jacket over his hoodie today, and mittens.  So, pretty cold.

It was snowing when I took them to school this morning, and still snowing when I left work to come home.  Traffic was something of a nightmare, I thought people in Colorado knew how to drive in the snow? I guess I was wrong.

When I finally got home I was SHOCKED!  Not only had the boys turned on the Christmas lights, but they had shoveled the driveway.  Without being asked.  It was like a Christmas miracle.

*I wrote this last Wednesday night 12/4 I posted it to the blog, and then promptly deleted it because I hated it.  I looked at again today and I don’t hate it so here it is.

**When I got home Thursday the sidewalks had been shoved as well.  Kat was convinced the neighbors had done it since the walks all the way to their driveway had been done.  Turns out Matthew and Paul went ahead and did their walk too. “Papa there are a lot of little kids that live there, they probably don’t know how to shovel yet.”

Olivia Helps with Christmas - Day Thirteen

Kids Christmas party

If you have been reading for a while you may have heard me mention the kids ornament party. We aren’t doing it this year so instead I thought I would share a little about this event. I miss not doing it with the boys, and I know that they miss it, but the timing didn’t work out this year.

When I was a child my Mom made ornaments with Jenni and I. I still have some of those ornaments that we hang on our tree today. When I was a little older our church in Tucson used to have a big ornament making event the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I can remember over several years learning to make southwest gods eye ornaments, wax paper stars, and some very overdone beaded and bejeweled Christmas balls.

When Paul was 2 I decided that it might be fun to have an ornament making party for Paul and some of his friends. I invited the Hankins clan, baby Scott, Rachel, and Julia Beth. I also invited Paul’s best friend for life Katie, and baby Elijah, although we weren’t expecting Lige to actually make an ornaments.

I think I had two projects planned. The first involved gluing things to a votive candle and then covering it all with glitter spray. The second project involved balls the older children painted, and Paul and Katie rolled round in glue then coated in glitter. In the process Paul and Katie both got coated in glitter. There is not much in this world better than happy children with glitter and glue in their hair and smiles on their faces.

The next year we had a brand new baby, and I don’t know that we would have done it again, but Julia Beth asked me when we were going to do that ornament thing, so we did. We have done it just about every year since then. Sometimes the cast is different. We have had Elisa Gail, Lexi and Thalia Rodriquez, Rachel and Julia, Katie, Elijah, Sammy, John Bailey, Andrew, Kyle, Max Perkins, Hilda, my sisters kids Keenan and Naomi and possibly others. We have decorated stars, snowflakes, gingerbread people, trains, snow people, and tiny wardrobes that were mistaken for outhouses. We have made mini wreaths, picture frames, candles, gingerbread houses, and I think even decorated cookies. Painted ornaments are more popular and glitter is VERY popular. In recent years I have discovered that Katie Powell is not only great with a glue gun, but also when Katie says “stop playing with star wars action figures we are making ornaments”, certain children listen and cooperate much better than when I make the same suggestion.

Could I purchase better looking ornaments? Absolutely. Will the children’s ornaments be collector’s items someday? Only to me, and I am ok with that. Scott was a child the first year we did it, and he just got married a few weeks ago. Elisa Gail is married, Rachel is married, Julia Beth, Lexi, and Thalia are all growing into beautiful young women. Even Paul and Katie might be getting too old to really enjoy it. So I am going to keep my painted and glittered ornaments and remember those children with glue and glitter and smiles. I am so proud of the adults they are all becoming, and I am glad I had them for a few minutes when they were small.

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree - Day Eleven

The tree is up.

As I mentioned yesterday, we brought it up from the basement over the weekend, but I lacked the energy to get it decorated. At some point Sunday I had the boys help me go through the 10 or so giant Rubbermaid tubs and pulled out the ornaments I thought we would use. That is not such an easy task. Have I mentioned that we have more ornaments than one family really needs? We do. Don’t laugh, I am not sure exactly how it happened.

Well, partly it is because I brought home my Mom’s ornaments at some point, both the ones that were our family ornaments, plus a set that had been Fred-Dick’s as a child that he had gifted her, and also a set of ornaments that a teacher accumulates over a lifetime of teaching. To be fair, my Mom told me specifically not to hold on to those. Kat and I already had enough to decorate a big tree before I tripled the collection. Then the children, and the kids ornament party have contributed to at least another full set. Yes, I am one string of chile lights from an episode of Holiday Hoarders.

In any case, I went through the massive amounts of ornaments and culled just enough for our tree. This year I went for mini stockings, and painted wood ornaments. So the ornaments from Fred-Dick’s childhood; hand painted snowmen, candles, candy canes, and angels. Ornaments from my childhood; a rocking horse I made in the first grade, the infamous 1976 ornaments purchased in 1984, pull string ornaments my mom brought back from a trip to San Francisco one year, the wooden clothespin reindeer ornaments we made in 1982. Plus ornaments the boys have made; painted gingerbread people in pajamas, snow men with googley eyes, stars and snowflakes. Lastly there are hearts that Kat and I made the second year we were married.

The boys did a good job hanging them on the tree. Matthew liked the stockings. His favorite was the green one, and not only because it has his name on it. He also liked the one with Paul’s name on it from when Paul was a baby. “It was so small, whoever made that one didn’t know how big Paul was going to get! “ Paul preferred to hang the ornaments, and once again this year he prefers to hang 2 or 3 ornaments on the same branch. I am not sure what his motivation is with this, but he has done it since he was little, and no amount of encouragement from me to do otherwise has made him change this habit.

Then after the tree was done I took the requisite picture with the boy behind the tree with his arms sticking out to the side. Those boys do make me laugh.