last visit to sea world…

…for the foreseeable future, at any rate.  Our passes expire on Friday, and we ended up going three times this year.  For FL residents, the year pass costs the same as a one day ticket, so we definitely got a bargain.  Maria didn’t feel well, so Timon stayed home with her and Henry and I enjoyed my favorite theme park day of all time.  The weather was gorgeous, the crowds were very manageable, and we had a great day.  

Henry got to meet Shamu…

…and be surrounded by an aquarium full of fish!

We got to see the baby killer whale again, now a few months old.   They named him Brian.  Doesn’t that seem weird?  Brian.  Brian the KILLER WHALE.  Huh.

We saw this gorgeous ocean weed leafy sea dragon…



…and these beautiful (and very terrifying) jellyfish.

 
Henry got to ride the Polar Express…             
          
…and tell Santa all his Christmas dreams.


  
We saw some hungry and persistent seals…

…and Henry got to meet the stars of the dophin-whale-acrobat-high dive-birds-extravaganza.  I LOVE seeing this show.  It’s like Cirque du Soleil or something.  

We saw some really lovely Christmas trees, as well as an outdoor light and music show with the trees on the lake.

Before we left, Henry got to enjoy some snoap (snow made from soap bubbles)!


  Oh, and I was there, too.  The whole time.  Don’t believe me?  Fine, I’ll show you.

Here are some things I observed during our time there:

• They make maternity wetsuits.  Either that, or those things are really stretchy.  Poor trainer at the dolphin-whale extravaganza was squeezed into one so that she could toss fish at the obedient dolphins.  It was adorable.
• Even if the salesman holds it so the writing is backwards, more than one idiot person will still drop $25 on a “Sea World Christmas Celebration – Where The Season Meets The Sea” fleece blanket. 
• season passes are really awesome – you don’t feel rushed to see it all in one go, because you can get back to the park another time.  Henry and I saw things we hadn’t seen the other times we were there, but we still had time to see our favorite shows, go on a ride, meet Santa, and much more in the 7 hours we had that day. 
• We did Sea World instead of the zoo this year (the zoo is much closer).  I am glad we took a year off from the zoo, but I’m REALLY looking forward to going back.  We hope to go on Sunday afternoon – I’ve missed my siamang gibbons!

my kids are hilarious

MMM! CHOC-OH-WIT!!!

Henry’s dream comes true.

Noel

Noël   by Anne Porter

When snow is shaken
From the balsam trees
And they're cut down 
And brought into our houses 

When clustered sparks 
Of many-colored fire
Appear at night 
In ordinary windows 

We hear and sing
The customary carols 

They bring us ragged miracles
And hay and candles 
And flowering weeds of poetry
That are loved all the more
Because they are so common 

But there are carols
That carry phrases 
Of the haunting music
Of the other world 
A music wild and dangerous
As a prophet's message 

Or the fresh truth of children
Who though they come to us
From our own bodies 
Are altogether new
With their small limbs
And birdlike voices 

They look at us
With their clear eyes 
And ask the piercing questions 
God alone can answer.

winter snow

It’s finally cooled off here, hopefully for the rest of “winter.”  Enjoy this gorgeous song along with me, will you?

xxx

My favorite part of Christmas as a young person was always going to my grandparents’ house on Christmas Eve.  Now, my grandfather died when I was six, so I don’t have too many memories of him.  But the house is so amazing and full of meaning for me – My sister, cousin Ben, and I really enjoyed introducing Henry to some of those things this past summer (the laundry chute, the pantry with the sliding door where we played elevator, the coffee table that looks like a spaceship… anyway.  Here is a partial list of what is typically present on Christmas Eve at Gram’s:

• chicken soup on the stove
• plastic cups with Peanuts characters on them (these are still in use after about 30 years – we watched, horrified, one time as a newish family member started to throw one out in the yellow garbage can)
• giant shrimp cocktail tray on the kitchen table
• rolls and cookies made by Anna, MaryLiz, and others
• Hershey’s kisses
• snake skins (real, found in Gram’s basement) strung on the tree *shudder*
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (in English AND Latin) on the living room table
• sausage made by either my dad or Uncle Richard, sometimes both
• stuffed Mr. & Mrs. Claus, standing watch by the stairs so no snooping kids will wander up to look for presents
• MaryLiz’s chocolate peanut butter balls
• a large box of Russell Stover’s chocolates on the table, picked over and the gross ones left behind
• lots of singing
• many, many laughs

I miss it, a lot.  I’m committing here and now to spend Christmas Eve 2011 enjoying all of the above.  It will be Gram’s 88th Christmas on this earth.

And with that…

xvii

Almost every year I decorate our house for Christmas on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Well, yesterday my sister-in-law Amy and I went over to church to help decorate over there and then it was raining in the afternoon, so the outdoor lights did not get put up as usual.  I put them up today instead, along with the stockings.  My mom made all our stockings, mine is close to 33 years old.  Timon’s is the biggest, probably because she loves him best.  <grin>

Will someone please leave a list of questions you want answered in the comments, so I’ll have some things to post on the 29th and 30th?  A special guest post is coming tomorrow, but I’ve run out of ideas.

xxvi

Scenes from Thanksgiving:

xxv

Today’s things to be thankful for:

• good food
• good family
• good neighbors
• not crying over a broken irreplaceable wine glass
• sweet potato souffle
• gorgeous flowers on the table
• using my grandparents’ silverplate flatware from 1943
• using Timon’s grandparents’ china set from the 40’s
• Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on tv
• laughing a lot
• eating under an oak tree and not having acorns fall into the food
• leftovers
• the place cards Henry made
• love all around

xxiii

I went to renew my drivers license today.  I made the observation that the parking lot of the Tax Collector’s office would be a gold mine for identity thieves, since new regulations require you to bring along every conceivable personal identity document.  I brought my passport (if I hadn’t had one, I would have needed my birth certificate), my social security card, my W2 and voter registration (to prove my address – most people who don’t live in a church-owned home could bring utilities), and my marriage certificate.  I don’t want to give identity thieves ideas or anything, but if they were to hold up people in the parking lot at gunpoint, they’d make off with an entire life’s information on the spot.  Perhaps most importantly, my new picture looks great!  I’m so much more pleased with it than I was with the old one, in which I resembled Michelle Duggar a bit too much. 

The in-laws have arrived, Auntie Amy has arrived, and preparations have begun.  I bought our biggest turkey ever (20lbs!) and can’t wait to get that thing in the brine and into the oven around 11 on Thursday morning.

viii

I like to cook.  In fact, this year we’re hosting my parents-in-law, my sister-in-law, and the new neighbors for Thanksgiving.  I’ve almost decided on the menu.  I am a control-freak when it comes to Thanksgiving.  I wake up and watch the Macy’s parade in my pajamas.  Depending on when we’re eating, I may take a break to put the turkey in the oven.  Then I shower and get dressed, and get to it in the kitchen.  I will have made the mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, and set the turkey to brine the day before.  Mashed potatoes live in the crockpot.  After I get the turkey in, I prepare the green bean casserole, pie(s?), and get the table ready.  We’ll be using the china given to us when Timon’s grandfather died, which has lived in the boxes in which it came to us a few years ago.  I love the work of Thanksgiving.  Perhaps I will let all the other people clean up, while I put White Christmas in the dvd player.  (Timon always thinks he’ll stop me from doing this, but he is wrong time and time again.)

Easter

 
Maria’s ready to hunt for some eggs.

Henry found a giant egg with a Cars puzzle in it!

She only had to be guided a little – she knew what to do.

 

 
Yes, it’s very sunny today – why do you ask?

Can you stand the cute?  No, I didn’t think so.

still here

I know I’ve spent most of my blogging attention on the photoblog (which you should totally check out, if only to click on the links to other people’s 365 projects.  They are so awesome!) but I will still post here also.  Today I finally took down our Christmas tree and am truly sad about it.  We have actually gotten some winter-like weather here in the past 2 weeks and I was just starting to get in the Christmas spirit!  I really should get some kind of indoor plant to decorate for each holiday, but let’s not kid ourselves… it would surely die under my care.

Here’s Maria, just being her normal sweet self. 

Christmas Day

I woke up around 5:30 Christmas Day for some unknown reason.  It did give me a little time to put the breakfast casserole in the oven so that we could eat before opening presents.  The kids got up at their usual time of 7:15.  Henry was super excited to come see what Santa left under the tree (and in the case of his new fish, beside the tree).

He hath named him Skit.

We opened up our stockings on our bed - Maria was in fine spirits, thankfully.

Henry was thrilled to receive the number one item on his list for Santa – walkie talkies!  He has barely put them down since opening them.  He also got a cool Super-Why computer notepad (from us), and a real wooden baseball bat (from a lovely couple in our church).  V. exciting.

 
 
Maria was thrilled with her present from Henry, a Princess Presto doll:

And she also loved her new outfit and hairbows from Nana & Papa.  It was a good dress for dancing, too:

  
After we all ate homemade pizza for lunch, napped, and had a delicious ham dinner, we drove out to see some really neat Christmas lights across town.  I didn’t spend too much time being sad over not being in CT with my immediate and extended family, but they were on my mind and heart all day long.  It was still a lovely, lovely Christmas.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve I made sure to get a photo of Maria in her dress early in the day.  You’ll see why in a second.  I mean, isn’t this a PRECIOUS dress?  It would be just perfect for her cousin Julia next year, if it weren’t for the Velvet Ban in their house.  (Blame her mother.)

Aaaaaaaand THIS is why I made sure to take a photo of her while she was in good spirits.  The service ended around 8 and Maria was READY FOR BED, as you can see here:

 

She cheered up slightly for a quick photo with her brother in their matching jammies: 

Photos from Christmas Day coming tomorrow…

because we’re a touch off in the head…

…Andrea and I took Henry to the Magic Kingdom on Monday. INSANE CROWDS. Don’t do it during this week of the year, if you’re given the choice. Anyhow, we had a lot of fun despite all the other people. The key is to not plan on getting a whole lot in on a day like that. We got there at 11:30ish and left around 3:30ish, and only rode one ride. BUT! Here’s what else we did:

We entered the property through the Grand Floridian Resort parking lot so we could see this amazing giant gingerbread house inside the lobby area. It was really amazing and if you look through the window you can see the cast member inside. Also in the lobby was this gorgeous giant Christmas tree – for size reference Andrea is on the right with Henry, she’s 5’ 1&1/2”.

Andrea, having spent several years of her life that she’ll never get back practically living in the Magic Kingdom as a manager in Tomorrowland, knows her way around pretty speedily. So after catching the monorail from the GF into the park, we took ourselves over to the Buzz Lightyear ride, obtained our Fast Passes to come back just over an hour later, and then took an empty out of the way path so that we could hit up Mickey’s house. We waited for about 20 minutes and then Henry got to meet these lovely characters:

After this we decided to find somewhere to eat lunch – the Harbor House was our choice and after enjoying that lovely experience we headed back around Cinderella’s Castle (A probably too-long aside: where for some reason, parents are okay with spending $50-$190 to give their child a “Princess Makeover” including bizarre hairstyle, glitter spray, tarty makeup, and costume with uncomfortable looking shoes. We saw probably 30 little girls made over in this way and I thought it looked terrible, plus without fail, the girls looked MISERABLE. To be fair, we also saw lots of girls whose parents have retained some rational sense and allowed their daughters to wear a princess dress over a turtleneck and jeans with sneakers so they can walk further than 100 yards. Anyway…) and made it over to Buzz’s ride, where Andrea kicked our butts shooting aliens but Henry beat me. I can’t imagine why Andrea might be an expert at this ride. When we got off, we glanced over and THERE HE WAS. So we got in a short line to meet the Space Ranger.

Following that very exciting rendezvous we headed back towards the center of the park to get good seats and wait for the Christmas parade.

We found wonderful seats without issue and hung out there for about an hour, enjoying ice cream and some other fun activities:

After we had the joy of seeing and hearing two GROWN ADULTS behind us argue over who was going to sit where to watch the parade, it got underway. And it was lovely- lots of sights and smells (!) and music and fun. Andrea had a (probably against policy) shout-out from a former cast member of hers, and we eventually got to see the big guy:

The weather was gorgeous, and it was really a fun day. The night before, Henry and I had left home mid-afternoon to head over across the state. We had dinner with Andrea & Frank and then they took us to Hollywood Studios (apparently that’s what they call MGM now) and saw the dancing Christmas lights and even a little snow. I took some neat pictures. Of course I can’t show them to you, because my memory card, containing over 1000 photos that I had not yet dumped, decided to have a little hissy-fit and refuse to work. I had to reformat it and lost all my photos. Lesson learned. I borrowed a card for the day at the Magic Kingdom and slowly got over the heart attack of losing all those pictures. The important thing is that Henry had a blast!

second child

I don’t want Maria to feel neglected on the old blog… the other night after Henry’s Christmas program we decorated the Christmas tree. She thought it was really pretty, and in fact will say “pih-ee” when she’s grabbing at gently enjoying the lights and ornaments.

And this is from our Christmas card photo-shoot, which I did without assistance and will never do that way again if I can possibly help it. This is one rare photo where she’s actually smiling.