Celebrating the Ordinary

So I know that I have complained about January in the Past (remember this post haha?) http://lotsofcalls.blogspot.com/2011/01/i-dont-like-january.html However I feel so different this year. I had to wonder why... but I can tell you I noticed it when I was taking down my Christmas decorations on January 2. This is usually such a depressing task because as you recall my house is a fairy land of white lights. But go figure I didn't even care. I liked the empty canvas and it felt a little refreshing.

OK this doesn't sound like me.

I don't like change and I don't like January.

I usually like to have my feet firmly planted in the previous year. So why am I so willing to put my foot in 2012?

I contemplated 2011. I had so much to be grateful for but I have to be honest it was a particularly turbulent and bumpy year.

I thought about my family.

I thought about how they pulled me through those dark times and didn't know it.

That's how it is with family.

Maybe it was a quick joke from Nicholas or that contagious laughter from Benjamin. It was that little voice from Ella asking to sit on my lap or Little Charlie cuddling on the coach with his Daddy.

And of course it was my Tom...my love,my rock.

It was all these insignificant moments. They gave me that little nudge to keep walking forward and never look back. Well, and that mountain I was climbing, my little family was simply going to push me right to the top. I still don't like change and 2012 promises lots of it, but I still have my family beside me. What joy it is to see this clean canvas laid out in front of me and not dread its uncertainty. So with that said I have both eyes looking forward, holding my families hands and jumping into 2012 and seriously, I can't wait!

Here are the highlights for the last month of the year.

OK first of all this day was hilarious.

It started out with the family wanting to head into San Fran but not really knowing what we wanted to do.

So Tom suggested buying a walking tour book of San Francisco.

Super fun idea and we were all on board.

Hmm what section of the city did we want to explore first. We decided to go with the mission district because well my honey loves all things Latino. so we took the mural tour of all these famous murals all around a 4 mile period around the mission. We highly recommend the tour, the Mexican lunch, (which happened to be voted best Vegetarian Burrito shop in the city. I will have you know it did not disappoint) the ice cream shop and last but not least the amazing art all over the alley ways. What I will tell you is the language your family will hear is extremely foul to say the least and 4 miles with 6 people will take a.l.l. d.a.y. There will be near collapses at the end but ice cream cures all problems and only leaves the good times in its wake.

This might look like regular ice cream. Looks can be deceiving and this is brown butter ice cream that is sooo good the first scoop. The second scoop you realize those delicious bits you thought were maybe crackers are really frozen bits of butter. Maybe I will get a different kind next time in lieu of the fact that I had butter on the roof of my mouth for a couple of hours after my ice cream was done. I know that's gross. I thought so too.

This is Tom's birthday but I accidentally deleted the picture of Tom and this is taking way to long and I don't want to download it again. whew! So Happy birthday to the love of my life!!

more psycho bunny

Christmas Eve

Everyone came over to celebrate with a raquelette dinner and the nativity.

Christmas

Note to self: Never bring out the bike after the Nintendo DS has been opened.

During the break we spent a couple of days with John and Ann and family in Carmel.
Heaven on earth I am telling you.

The first day my boys played golf at MP CC and the girls went to a spa. That left Charlie, Ella and I to spend the day by ourselves on the beach. To say that we enjoyed ourselves is quite the understatement. Given the surroundings, the weather and our little picnic it was a day to go down in the books.

New Years Eve

Day two was spent on the beach with everyone except John, Nicholas and Benjamin because they wanted to play the other MP CC course. However they joined us later and we soaked up every minute.

John and Ann headed home and

our family wandered the streets of Carmel which always transports me into a storybook where moss covered thatched roofs and Hansel and Gretel live.

We noticed the sun was going to set so we ran back down to the beach.

So I sat down and watched the sun melt into the ocean for its final curtain call on 2011. It's spectacular ending was a perfect mental beginning to jump feet first into 2012.

I am grateful for 2012 and all it's wondrous possibilities...I think I am ready for the ride. :)

The Christmas tree is magical.

I have always thought so, along with every other child that has ever sat endlessly below it.
My mom didn't just have one Christmas tree she had many and they were stunning. In fact she had a forest of about five unbelievably decorated trees for many years of my growing up and one in the kitchen and every bedroom. So when I think of Christmas past I picture me and my little sister Annabelle (my constant friend, sidekick that was often referred to as my shadow) in our jammies sitting for hours below those twinkling lights. Between the forest of trees and the presents, sitting under Christmas trees was our favorite December pastime.
We would hold, squeeze and shake each gift smiling endlessly making guesses about what was hidden beneath that Santa wrapping paper. Ahhh the anticipation nearly killed us but we never peeked not even one time.

Well I grew up like all little girls do and then I got married.

It was time for me to get my own tree. Oh how I wanted that tree to be beautiful. I missed my sidekick and I missed my Mom's beautiful trees. There was just one huge problem we had absolutely no money for ornaments. So my friend Michelle and I came up with an economical solution...dried oranges. It was actually quite beautiful and I knew this was a temporary solution until I got my own forest of beautiful trees just like my Mom's.
Just one problem my beautiful trees never came.
Not the trees and not the ornaments.
I ended up with a hodge podge of my growing up ornaments that my Mom had given us and all the homemade pictures from nursery or crocheted who knows what from school and the thingy that someone made at a Christmas party. It is seriously "a whatever you can stick on the branches" Christmas tree. The crazy thing about it is I absolutely love it. I watch my kids decorate it and I don't change one thing. ( Usually I would intervene on something like that.)
That tree represents everything that Christmas is and everything that is closest to my heart. It is memories of years gone by and the reminder that this very Christmas season will someday be a distant memory.
Now its 2011 and my own children sit below that tree for hours. I still ache for my little shadow to help me guess what each present holds but now as I watch my own kiddos sitting beside the tree it makes me so happy and it keeps a smile on my face just the same.

I searched for a picture of me and my little sister. No such luck but I found this beauty taken of all my sisters in 1982 in Canada.