A Quiet Christmas And New Year's

I don't know what happened this year but it seemed there was a lot of things we wanted to do and never did.  For example:

Our Christmas Cards.  For as much as we tried to take the pictures for them it never got done.  At one attempt to do a last minute photo, we took advantage of our trip to Temple Square to dress up the kids and take pictures of them.  We had gone there to watch Frankie perform and so he was already dressed up.  I dressed up the girls and we gave it a shot.  It is an amazing place and the lights are so beautiful.  I figured it would be perfect.  But with all the lights and distractions, getting a good picture of C.C was impossible.  We had borrowed my father-in-law's camera and as we took it out to start the photo shoot, we realized that it wasn't charged.  Then we resorted to my iPhone which was also dying, then Scarlet's cell phone,She was also running out of memory in her phone. Then we resorted to Pinky's cell phone.  We all attempted to get ONE...just ONE good picture, but I don't think any of us succeeded.  I was so disappointed and discouraged that I just decided to not send out a Christmas card this year (as you probably noticed).  I being such a perfectionist, looked over all the pictures and none of them were good enough.  As I looked over them right now, I realized, I could have probably put something together, even if it wasn't with all three kids in one shot.  I also could have compiled pictures of them individually and gotten a decent card.  SIGH!

Then Christmas Eve came and my cousin Carol and her family were in the U.S. visiting from Guatemala.  We tried and tried to arrange for her to fly from New York, were she was staying with my aunt Sonia and as much as we tried it didn't work out.  I listed her standby on JetBlue flights like 5 days in a row and it just didn't work out.  SIGH! Then, we tried again after Christmas so she can spend New Year's here with no success! SIGH SIGH! I was really disappointed.

New Year's, we had lots of family come over and we played games and had fun, but by 10 o'clock everyone had left.  We then, just sat around and watched TV until midnight and cheered for a brief moment and went to bed.  Again! disappointed.

Looking back I realized that I was just looking at the glass half empty...


We did have an awesome Christmas! We had family surrounding us and the kids were blessed with many gifts. We felt the spirit as we reminded the kids of what Christmas was about in the days leading to it and on Christmas day.

As always it was such a wonderful moment to see my kids wake up to the sound of Christmas bells at midnight, with their sleepy eyes and crazy hair, running down the stairs with excitement to see what Santa had brought them.

Drew always has that sparkle in her eye when she starts remembering that she heard him leave, or saw Rudolph's nose flashing in the sky.

Drew was excited to find that Santa had brought her what she asked for...roller blades, Orbeez among other things.  She got a brand new dress from Abuelita and Abuelito and a bike from grandma and grandpa.

C.C. was also so excited, although she didn't quite understand were the presents came from.  She was excited about every single one of them.  Even when she opened some tights we got her to keep warm, she hugged them tight and kissed them.  She was also excited that she got a horsey and puzzles.    

Frankie was away to California this Christmas.  As always it's hard, but I know he had a good one with his dad. He got to open his presents when he got home.

One the weeks before Christmas we got to go hear him sing several times.  'Tis the season.  He sang at Temple Square, The Orem Library and had a few concerts at his school. Always so proud of him and his great talent. 

It was also great to also add Scarlet to the list of family that surrounds us with charity and love. It has been nice having her around.  Not only she helps our family tremendously, but she brings laughter into our home.  Drew said to me the other day "Scarlet is always laughing".  I realized it's true! She IS always laughing or making us laugh! 

As always, we also are surrounded by close friends.  Now that we are in our new neighborhood it is a blessing to see the many friends that we have around here and the beginning of great friendships.  

Thanks to one of our friends across the street, we now have a nice trampoline that the kids love.

We are so grateful for the snow.  YES...I said "SNOW".  Really, we are grateful for all the seasons.  Each season brings new adventures and new ways to create memories with our family.
As soon as there was enough snow, we went outside and attempted to build a snowman.  I say "attempted" because the snow was very powdery and it was hard to make the snowballs.  So, we just made a body-less snowman!
Uncle Sam had a snowball fight with Drew and Ruby! The thought it was so much fun! When Sam was leaving  that day Ruby said "now, who are we going to have a snowball fight with?"  It was so cute.  I think she was trying to give uncle Sam a guilt trip.
  The girls also made snow angels!

Snow also means that we can go tubing.  This year, we took my best friend Verity's son Andrew who was visiting from California.  We all had so much fun. 

Having him here was great! Drew and C.C. really liked having him and here and he played great with them.  We hope he comes back next year.

Just like the Christmas pictures, I have realized that things weren't as bad as they seemed.  Not that they seemed that horrible, but just not quite what I expected.  I realize now that I was just looking at the glass half empty and in retrospect, I should have been looking at the glass half full.