Christmas Checklist

Crazy how crazy people get during the holidays.... That's just it... it's the "HOLIDAYS" people get crazy about.... BUT if we celebrated "CHRISTMAS" a bit more instead of the "HOLIDAYS" i think everyone would slow down. I heard a brief sermon on my XM and the pastor was explaining that the holidays focus mainly on gifts and decorating and parties and such. Christmas focuses on celebrating the birth of Christ. Two different celebrations.

i really wanted to focus on Christmas, but i feel that all the activities hold some sort of magic for the kids (and myself). i like magic. I wanted to connect the magic with the celebration of Christ. i don't know how well we made that connection, but then again how much do i expect from a 5 1/2 year old, a 4 year old, and a 16 month old? There are 40 year olds that still don't get "it."

This blog was intended to keep all my memories and thoughts and inspirations in one place. So here is what Christmas looked like in the Donovan house this year.

We sent our first box for The Box Project to Rosie and the kids.

We wrote letters to Santa. He wrote back :)

We set up our Christmas Village.

Kyle started my collection in 2000. Each year he buys me a new piece :)
It's Department 56 The North pole Series. Love it!

Kienan is making it snow in the village.

I read somewhere about "Christmas Camping." So we decorated our tree and afterwards the kids drank hot cocoa, read some Christmas books and camped under the lit Christmas Tree :)

Another tradition i hope my kids remember and look forward to each year is rediscovering the ornaments. All of our ornaments have a story. My mom used to give us a new ornament each year. i started that tradition with kienan and have continued ever since. i even give kyle a new Harley-Davidson ornament each year. So the tree is filled with our family stories and i love sharing those stories each year.

We made ornaments out of clay. Something i've always wanted to do (thanks Rachel!)
Mackenzie is so artsy and probably spent 20 hours doing the clay thing.

We decorated our gingerbread houses. Kienan and Mackenzie put a lot of effort into them this year. In the previous years the temptation of having all that candy at their fingertips was a bit distracting and overwhelming which resulted in a short gingerbread house activity.
(pictures coming)

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' house. WOW! They decorated like i have never experienced before. I have spent some where in the vicinity of 30 Christmases at that house. Crazy! This was the best decorating yet!!!!
Santa stopped by as he always does. Even when my brothers and i were little he would knock on the door right after dinner. Uncle Don and Peggy were always such an important part of our family Christmas celebrations. Peggy passed away many years ago, but Don passed away right before Thanksgiving this past year. I thank my Uncle Bill for taking over the Big Black Boots.

Christmas morning was pretty magical like i had hoped. i remember always wishing my parents would skip the "bathroom routine", "coffee fix", and "camera set-up" on Christmas Morning and just get straight to the presents. It seemed to take my dad FOREVER!!!!! and you could always see the goodies hanging of the stockings, but couldn't touch just yet.
Now.... that's just funny to me! This Christmas Morning I HAD to do the "bathroom routine" to assess the baggage under my eyes. When kyle and i first started our "wrapping Christmas presents together on Christmas eve" tradition there weren't really a whole lot of presents to wrap. Fun for us to spend the time together, ya know. Now it is a little out of control. We climbed into bed at 3am.... wait.... crawled... ya we crawled into bed. I think at one point we got the giggles 'cuz we could envision ourselves when the kids woke us up at 6:00am (luckily they woke up at 7:30).

Back to Christmas Morning: i now get the whole reason why my parents took sooooo long in the bathroom... they were sleeping in there! I know i was trying to catch a few more seconds of precious sleep while pretending to pee. I threw some water at my face and brushed the lingering six starbucks frappuccinos off my teeth and headed down stairs to experience the magic.
Now the "coffee fix" is obvious. Without the caffeine i'm sure kyle and i would have been nodding off in between the tearing open of presents. I'm not even sure if i was talking in complete sentences until i had a few sips of the java.

And of course this magical frenzy needed to be documented with photos!!!! Gotta make sure the video camera is charged and has enough tape left. Then check the camera for an empty memory card and fresh batteries. I mean, we stayed up most of the night getting this all ready... we BETTER get it on FILM! During all the adult preparation my kids were drooling all over the packages levitating above the carpet because they were SO amped!!!

But don't the 4 of them look so Christmas Morningneeee?

Picture perfect i say. It was all worth it! (the 3 lil' ones have matching pajama shirts on)We celebrated Christmas Day with a feast at our house. This is our garage. Yep. The garage. We hung canvases on the sides to cover the garage looking items, wallpapered the big door, added Christmas scents & Christmas tunes with some heat and voila...A CHRISTMAS DINING ROOM!

Grandma read us the Christmas Story from the Bible. :)

Some other traditions we also did was to take my grandpa & grandma to see the festive Christmas Lights at Candy Cane Lane. Every year it still brings out the "ooohs" and "ahhhs" in all of us. (I'm sure some of the homeowners say the same thing when they open their December electric bills!)

i really wanted to bake cookies for friends and neighbors. But, the cookies never made it past the kitchen :) Next year i will try again.

We sucked on candy canes and danced to Christmas songs. I cranked up the tunes in the car and in the house! :) My kids would beg for a change in music genre, but i insisted in listening to ONLY Christmas music. Poor kids.

We watched the Christmas classics while eating popcorn. Elf is voted #1 in our house!

We missed the Live Navity Scene at the church which we so much enjoyed last year, but not to the lack of attempt. We had the entire evening planned. The kids were stocked with a McDonald's dinner in the back seat. We figured sitting in traffic to see it would go by a whole lot quicker if there was some quiet eating time. After an hour and still a mile away we decided to try again another night. That "another night" slipped away. :(

Overall, i must say Our Christmas was full of spirit. That is what matters most. i love the anticipation of decorating, all the activities, and just the warm fuzzies that Christmastime gives me. Strangely enough, i get antsy when it's all done. i can't wait to get my decorations put away and the tree outta my front room.

But i'm already thinking about things for next Christmas! :)

Debut Music Video

Here is Mackenzie in her debut video. She sang Christmas carols all the time! Her favorites were Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, and Baby It's Cold Outside.

18th Birthday

Josh is the BIG 1 8! I honestly don't remember much about turning 18. I think my parents took me and some friends to Hard Rock Cafe, but really i don't remember. hmmm...

So we took Josh to Universal City Walk for dinner at Bucca de Beppo and we had a blast! We were in a room upstairs with a very large and loud party sitting next to us. When it came time to sing josh happy birthday the ENTIRE ROOM sang at the top of their lungs!!!! You can tell by the look on his face that he was a bit overwhelemed. :)

Kyle figured the coolest legal thing he could do at 18 was play the lottery. So he bought him some lottery scratchers and yes he won a little cash and another lottery ticket!

Christmas Sprirt

Can you feel it when you look at this smile?!?!?!?!? I could just squish HER!

I want this kind of backyard

Just some things...

Can you say, "Mommy, please cut my hair!" I was trying to grow it out and eliminate the whole maintaining bangs thing... but i just couldn't go one more day with the hair in her eyes...

IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY!

...and this is pretty much how her hair look 90% of the time...

So i took her for her FIRST haircut! And now she has bangs and she lost the baby look :(

We went to Castaic Lake to watch a Christmas boat parade and play in man made snow.
snow down daddy's pants...

it's fun to watch the kids play with him as they get older.

he doesn't always have one up on them anymore :)

How fun is our babysitter!!!!!
i came home to this fort in our kitchen! :) so fun!

Kienan was picked as "Super Star" of the week!

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Animal: Cat

Favorite Food: Pizza

When he grows up he wants to be a policeman.

His favorite thing to do is Tech Decks.

His favorite place is Skatelab (skateboard park)

If he had one wish it would be to get a DS (personal gameboy).

Books

This is just a REALLY fun book to read.... the words are wordy and rhythmic and just a cute story. It's my favorite one to read first. We read it on the couch last night.

But my all time favorite is of course: Seriously, if you don't believe... READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i could elaborate all day on Berkley Breathed. He is a top 3 author favorite.

His newest is such a GREAT love story of 2 friends.... i actually choked up when the firemen came.

another super favorite: if my kids lie this is the book i pull off the shelf.

i really love books...............

Rabbi Shmuley

...have you heard of him? i had not until this evening while reading one of my favorite mommy blogs. Kyle said that he has heard about his TV show. I have been reading his articles and listening to some of the You Tube clips for the past hour.

I really, really, really, REALLY liked this article. You can click here to sign the petition and make a difference by December of 2009! We already have established Friday Family Nights. Most of the time we do an activity together. Now i am inspired to do MORE!

I also enjoyed the challenge this article presented and hope to rekindle some of my own. Speaking of marriage: KYLE AND I CELEBRATED OUR 9TH YEAR OF MARRIAGE!!!!! We had initially planned to get a way for the weekend, just the 2 of us. Sounds so super nice, doesn't it? It's just not easy leaving 3 kids with one person and it would be hard to split them for a weekend. We also decided to go away for Thanksgiving instead of hosting the feast. 2 weekends away wasn't going to work. SOOOOOO We had our first date in over a year :) I dressed up like a grown-up and even wore make-up.

As a tribute to you dear here are some of my favorite things about you in no particular order:

* from day one you had me with your hugs

* the thought of growing old together is actually comforting

* how squirmy you get when i can manage to hold you down long enough to tickle you

* i love your determination

* i love your laugh... no, your giggles

* i love singing country music with you

* i love raising a family made of you and me

* i love having a past with you

* i love knowing you would kick the bageesus out of anyone that hurt your family

* i love when you go to the store and come back with ice cream and other goodies

* i love that you never leave your socks on the floor

* i love taking baths with you

* i love your insatiable desire to continue learning

* i love to watch you love your children

* i love that you try so darn hard sometimes

* i love that we celebrated our anniversary with our family :) xoxoxo

A weekend of Thanks

~I AM THANKFUL AND SERIOUSLY BLESSED~

~ First and foremost: FAMILY... the ones that live in this house and mom and dad and brothers and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and nephews and in laws too~

~ Friends: love my small group of friends in my life~

~ Health: as i feel myself aging quicker than i wish, really it could be so much worse~

~ Opportunities: i am not speaking of any specific opportunities.. just that they are there every day masked or unmasked~

~ Materials: not in a shallow way... but i am lucky to have a home and clothing and food and even a few nice things and the best is providing for the kids~

~ Nature: she's a beauty~
~ The Small Things: i really try to cherish them each day and not just today~
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Kienan had a Kindergarten Thanksgiving Performance

He recited a memorized line with another little girl:

"A is for Americans. The earliest Americans were Pilgrims. They sailed to American to be free from their religion."

Long, huh?

and then all 3 classes sang Thanksgiving songs.

How cute is he as a pilgrim!! **************************************

We spent the holiday in Fremont, San Francisco and Monterrey. We visited Kyle's aunt jeannette and uncle vince. Aunt marilyn, uncle matt, ( i didn't get a picture of you 2!!!) ashley, trevor, and vincent were there too. The food was awesome the company awesomer.

kyle, ashley, vincent, and trevor

i have no idea what is on kienan's pants!!!

the fabulous cooks~

We spent Friday at the San Francisco Bay being tourists :)

Kienan was excited to eat Clam Chowder right on Fisherman's Wharf.

Josh had the clam chowder also while the rest of us ate chili.

We walked, shopped, and saw the sea lions on Pier 39.



The kids learned about Alcatraz and i hope i scared them into never going to jail.


~some of my favorites~

We crossed the Bay Bridge going into the city....



... and the Golden Gate Bridge heading outta the city~

We spent the next day in Monterrey and at the Aquarium. The aquarium was AMAZING and well worth the money, but waaaayy too over crowded.

~Monterrey Bay~

There was a baby and toddler section.

I was so impressed with how well it was set-up.

This was "Walking on Waves." It was just like a water bed.

~Sitting in the clam~

~Curious Learners~

***************************************

We ended the trip with dinner at Bubba Gumps which is a restaurant based on the movie Forest Gump.

The food was great, but even better was the atmosphere and dining on the beach.

AND.... the newest little person to be thankful for is our new nephew born November 29th:

Conner Liam Bain

(Kyle's sister Heather & her husband Keith & their son Donovan)