Christmas 2011

Usually the Christmas season is my favorite time of the year.  Why?  I get to celebrate my birthday!  The kids (and I) get two weeks off of school to sleep in, read lots of books, and play.  Dode gets time off from work.  We have a big breakfast with family.  And, there's the giving and receiving of gifts.  What's not to like?

This year, the approach of Christmas felt more like the approach of a run away train with me tied to the tracks than a time of rejoicing.  I think the biggest part of the problem is that I've had a head cold for almost two months.  I'll have headaches, stuffy nose, sore throat, clogged ears for days, get one to two days feeling good, and then right back to sick again.  It's left me run down and weary.  I knew Christmas was coming irregardless if I was ready and excited so I did my best to make it happen.  And it did!

I always buy gifts ahead of time, especially when the kids seem interested in something.   It's so much easier to stuff a stocking with little joys when I pick up things during the year.  Although I've got gifts stocked away a long time in advance, I've learned not to wrap things until after Thanksgiving for two reasons.  One:  once they're wrapped, I can't remember what I bought and end up buying too much.  Two:  Wrapping paper tears so easily and I don't like wrapping the same gift more than once!   As I was wrapping the stocking gifts, I realized that I really need to think more about the boys as I'm visiting places during the year.

I spent a big part of Saturday in the kitchen getting ready for Christmas breakfast and dinner.  By the time Dode and I headed for bed at 9:00, the stockings were stuffed, the presents were all wrapped and under the tree, and everything that could be made ahead of time was chilling in the fridge.

a lady of leisure on Christmas Eve

I was trying everything to get rid of my headache!

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday, we began our day with church.  I always let the kids open their stockings when they wake up and they wait to open the rest of their gifts when I'm ready.  I make sure every stocking has some fun things to play with, including a brain teaser puzzle and every one's favorite candy.  I'd also continued Dear Abby's tradition of giving each child a new book.  Since they all suspected that one was coming, I couldn't surprise them this year.  The girls made it more fun for each other by hiding each other's books in their room and then looking for them.  I think we'll do that in the future for all of them.

this year's books

We managed to get our stockings opened, get ready for church, and arrive by 8:50AM.  I think there were only five other cars in the parking lot when we arrived for the 9:00 am meeting!  Almost everyone came in just a few minutes before or after  9:00.  Church usually runs for three hours but the First Presidency (the leaders of our church) sent out a letter that on Christmas day, church would be Sacrament meeting only, which runs for 70 minutes.  There were lots of musical numbers and a talk on the true meaning of Christmas.  55 minutes after the meeting began, everything planned for the day was complete and they announced the closing hymn.  There was much rejoicing in the Dickson row!

tasty goodness

We hurried home and I got the cinnamon rolls in the oven.  We'd invited Dode's extended family to join us for brunch at 11:00, our Christmas tradition and our gift to the family.  We had to have it so soon after we got home from church because their church meeting began at 1:00.  After breakfast was cooking, I let the kids open three of their gifts.  Then, it was time for a breakfast feast.  I heard the same thing this year that I think I hear every year, "I think the cinnamon rolls are the best ever."  I used the cinnamon my dad had shipped to me from half way around the world and they were pretty good!  I think the cinnamon rolls are just so good that there's no way for a memory to give them justice! 

Once everyone left, the kids finally got to finish opening their presents.  Here's some of the highlights...

Anastaya is crazy about zebras this year and loved her zebra scarf and pillow pet. 

Elizabeth is all about owls.  She got the following owl items: pajamas, watch, clock, calendar, lip gloss, lunch box. 

Her favorite gift of all was the owl watch.  Unfortunately, when it was assembled, they didn't align the hour hand correctly.  Luckily I bought it from amazon so getting a replacement will only take a few days! 

Jacob needed a new skateboard to replace the one that was stolen last month. 

Isaac is in that awkward in between teenage time when he's too old for toys but too young to feel satisfied with more grown up gifts.  He was excited because the biggest box under the tree had his name on it, a rocking gaming chair. 

William added to his car collection.  He especially likes one that can tow other cars around. 

Miriam wanted to add more foods to her kitchen.  We'll have quite a selection by the time she outgrows it!  The white dog next to her is a Fur-Real friend.  It was in "demo" mode in the box.  I bought it in September.  I put it in the bedroom closet, with the front towards the back of the closet and wrapped it with thick black satin.  50% of the time we'd walk by the closet, it would start it's routine: barking, whimpering, panting.  I'm surprised it had any battery left by the time Christmas arrived.  We wrapped it up and set it under the tree and it did the same thing.  Whenever someone would walk by the tree, it would make itself known.  It sure made me smile to hear it.

We had some quiet down time with everyone playing with their new things until my mom and Greg joined us for dinner.  Santa's elf had been busy!  Greg built doll armouries for each of the girls' American Girl dolls.  They are built with solid wood.  There are little drawers for keeping their clothes and shoes in.  Miriam sat and quietly played with hers for over an hour.

a peek inside the drawers, the bottom one is a trundle bed

plenty of room for hanging up clothes

My mom and Greg had been encouraging us to have a family piano recital for quite some time.  I finally relented that we'd do a Christmas recital.  I'd been working on a piano piece to play for our performance.  With a pounding head for much of the last two months, focusing on piano music didn't happen as much as I'd wanted.  Even as I sat there to perform, I could feel a bit of dizziness as I tried to get my fingers to do what the notes said.  I made a lot more errors than I'd like but it just gave me resolve that next year's piece will be so much better!

By the time Christmas night wound to a close, my head was feeling pretty good.  I survived Christmas.  I think the kids were happy with their gifts from us.  I know Greg was! He loves his treat of the month and lists it on his Christmas list several times. The kids love that gift too since they get part of his monthly treat.  No one had a meltdown about not getting what they expected (believe me, it's happened in the past).  As Dode and I lay in bed reviewing the day, he told me we'd done it, we'd accomplished another great Christmas.  I remarked that it was pretty sad, by the time the day was over, four of us were complaining of sickness: Jacob, Anastaya, Elizabeth, and me (all colds).

I spent most of the day after Christmas day restoring our formal living room (otherwise known as mom's living room) back to its neat and clutter free existence.  Unfortunately, I had to chase the clutter around the house before I could finally get it put away where it belonged.  I have great helpers for getting Christmas decorations up but the clean up falls to me.  The next day was restoring Santa's wrapping station (our bedroom) to cleanliness.  By the time we had Christmas, we'd gotten to navigating along small pathways through the clutter. 

One of the drawbacks of buying presents early is, if their interests change, you're left with a gift they'd no longer enjoy.  I'd bought Isaac a Kinnect roller coaster kit in the summer but he's moved on to rebuilding motorcycles and playing around with robots.  Dode suggested that Elizabeth might enjoy it and he was right!  She loved the hours she spent building it with her dad and can't wait to build another one.

The week before Christmas

Isaac goes skiing
On Monday, Janice and Matt took Isaac up skiing to Stevens Pass.  It was Isaac's first time up this year. We've hardly had any rain in December which means no new snow in the mountains.  Even though they expected it to be icy, Isaac was still willing to go.   (When someone else is paying for your ticket, why not?!)  

It didn't take Isaac long to get his "ski legs" under him again.  It ended up being a very icy day.  Janice and Matt are learning to snowboard.  Janice fell on her 1st time down and smacked her tailbone really hard.  So hard that a few days later she went to the doctor to see if she'd broken it.  Just a bad bruise!  Isaac picked up a bruise too.

My 40th birthday
I'm sure glad Dode and my mom had the brilliant idea to celebrate my birthday on Saturday!  In the middle of the night before my birthday, I woke up with the stomach flu.  It lasted the entire day.  Instead of filling my day with fun activities, I curled up in a ball and read on the couch.

My dad took me out to breakfast and all that sounded good was a waffle.  It ended up being the only real food I ate that day.  I told Dode he was off the hook for coming up with a dinner for me, there was no way I wanted to go out to eat.  My dad gave me some cinnamon he'd ordered online from Sri Lanka.  He included the shipping information showing it had come over 9,000 miles in three days, all for $10.  I wish I could travel 9,000 miles for $10!  The cinnamon smells and tastes a lot different than the cinnamon I'm used to buying, in a good way.  I can't wait so see how the Christmas cinnamon rolls turn out.

I did make up for my lack of eating the next day.  For dinner we had creamy vegan mac and cheese with a big salad Jacob made and chocolate lava cakes for dessert.  Yum! 

Nativity Party
On Thursday, we had our annual family Nativity party.  It's the time when Dode's siblings get together to celebrate Christmas.  Randy and Lisa dropped their kids off in the morning to play while they went to the temple.  Since I already had a house full of kids, I thought, "What are two more?"  Seth and Ellie also came over to play.  Bringing my total to 14.  When I called Dode to tell him what was going on he wanted to know who else was helping to keep order.  Just me!  Every where I went in the house, I found children playing.  I wish I always had a house full of kids.

After dinner, the kids got dressed up for the nativity.  My collection of old costumes from day camp comes in handy when we're outfitting everyone.   We always start with the prophecy of Samuel the Lamanite concerning the coming of the Savior.  From there, it was time for the Christmas story found in Luke, followed by an appearance of the wise men.  Once we were finished with the nativity, the older girl cousins each played a piano piece for us.  I realized too late that we should have done it like a formal piano recital with each girl standing in front of Grandpa Dickson, telling him what they would play, and then playing.  His back was to the piano so every time someone got done playing, he had to ask who it was.  I'll be better prepared next year!

I don't know if anyone else has sheep in their nativity, one white and one black, but it works for us!

white sheep (Savannah), black sheep (Miriam)

Mary (Jenna), donkey (Elizabeth), Joseph (William)

Shepherds arrive

(Anastaya and Allison)

three wise men

Isaac, Lainey, Jared

I've been keeping a secret

I guess it's time to let out a secret I've been keeping for a while. (Calm down mom and dad, I'm not pregnant.) In August, I made the move to veganism as a way to lower my cholesterol. The last time I had it checked, I was at 237. I have a family history of heart disease that I'm trying my best to avoid. I'm hoping that through eating a plant based diet, I can lower my cholesterol. My goal? A crazy 130. I'm giving myself a year and I'll see how I do.

How have I done with the diet so far? Surprisingly well. In case you don't know, vegans eat no animal meats or by products (no cheese, milk, eggs, butter, etc.). Most people have a hard time giving up cheese but that's never been my weakness. If you've read my blog for any length of time you know that my weakness is ice cream. I haven't found a vegan substitute yet that is even close to as good as the real thing but I'm still looking. There have been a few times when I've consciously decided to eat meat or animal products. A scoop of vanilla pepper ice cream in Bellingham that was so worth it, when Dode brought home crab from work, and when we ate at the Space Needle. I'd researched the menu ahead of time and there wasn't one vegan choice so I decided to go for it.

I've tried a lot of different recipes at home and most of the time they work out. One fail? I made a pot of chili that was supposed to feed 6-8 (from a vegan fireman's cookbook). I ate it lunch and dinner for a week, that's 14 servings. I was so sick of it by the time I had my last bowl that I was gagging it down but I didn't want to throw the food away. I also haven't perfected the tofu scramble.  Dode actually prefers the vegan cheesecake I make with silken tofu to the real deal.

The produce co-op has really helped me eat lots of produce without blowing the budget. I think 90% of my diet comes from those baskets with the rest make up of grains and beans.  I'm trying to be conscious to be a veg-an, not a carb-an (east tons of breads, cookies, etc with a smattering of fruits and vegetables).

Will it work?  My mom says "No", but I'm stubborn so I'm giving it a try.  All those fruits and vegetables can't hurt!

There are some kitchen items that make being a vegan much easier.  Some I already had and some I needed to invest in.  In no order of preference.

1.  High Power Blender- Gets used at least twice each day.  Smoothies, sauces, grinding flax and oats.  It cleans up much easier than the food processor.

2.  Food Processor-  Some things don't work well in a blender.  Thick sauces are make silky smooth in the food processor.

3. Metal Steamer Basket- (Miriam calls it a UFO) Tempeh out of the package is bitter.  Steamed 20 minutes before going in a  recipe makes it mild.

4.  Tofu Press-  Gives the tofu a firmer texture for when I want to saute it.

5.  Electric Pressure Cooker- I eat A LOT of beans and rice.  The pressure cooker can cook kidney beans in less than 30 minutes and it's so much cheaper than buying can after can.  Brown rice also cooks in just 30 minutes.

6.  Mango cutter, pineapple cutter- When you're getting lots of fresh fruit, you need a way to quickly get it into a form that can be eaten.  These products work perfectly for getting mangoes and pineapples out of their skins and onto my plate!

7.  Juicer-  Sometimes I end up with too much of something from the co-op when people don't take everything when they pick up.  Last weekend I had over 10 pounds of carrots and 12 cucumbers.  Carrots + cucumber + a small piece of ginger= tasty juice.

8.  extra fridge and freezer-  When you get all the produce you're going to eat for the next two weeks on one day, you need a place to put it while you use it up.  We're at the half way point in the cycle right now so the extra fridge is starting to empty out.  Next Saturday, I'll be jamming things in to every available square inch of it!

We're getting ready for Christmas

Nativity Festival

Dode, me, Jacob, Isaac and another boy from church

Sunday night, we participated in the Living Nativity at the Festival of the Nativities.  The festival was a huge event with hundreds of hours of planning behind the scenes.  All I had to do was donate some artificial Christmas trees and our nativities.  Sheri was in charge of decorating the gym and it looked great when she was done.  She'd picked up our five artificial trees (too much after Christmas bargain shopping) and later Dode told her, "Whatever happens, make sure Miriam's tree doesn't get lost."  She was convinced she'd never received it.  Dode even made a special trip down to the festival when it was closed and looked at every tree in the place (at least 100) trying to find Miriam's tree.  It was not to be found.  When everything was taken down and returned to us, the tree was found on the shelf in the trailer, it had never made it out to be displayed!  They tried really hard to make sure everyone made it home with everything they donated for the festival.  Sheri brought two of my nativities home with our trees and trailer but one was still missing.  When I went to pick it up, all I could find was the empty Styrofoam container it came in.  Sheri had already told me that a few nativities had been lost and I figured mine was another of the casualties.  Dode started digging through the boxes that were left and found it in someone elses' box.  So, whoever Amanda is, she's missing a nativity.  I know I got my own back since my shepherd was broken in half and re-glued.

We signed up to be part of the living nativity.  I asked if Jacob could be Joseph.  The person in charge smiled and said, "He'll make a great shepherd!"  The boys found it quite embarrassing to stand their dressed up while people stared at them and took photos.  They passed the 30 minute time slot we had by playing an "I Spy" game.  They'd name something they could see, then the other would have to name something they could see that started with the last letter of the word their brother used.  Dode whispered to me, "You know that's not a real baby don't you?"   I was just doing as I was told, looking at the doll with adoration.  Dode was supposed to show adoration towards the baby and me.  I tried to get Dode to scoot in close to me so he'd look like he liked me.  The photo above shows him after he moved in a few feet.   I told him to put his arm around me, it's lightly resting on my shoulder.  And, I'm not even a doll, I should be easier to appear to adore!  The girls didn't have a part to play but my mom had come to see the festival so they walked around with them. 

Leading up to the nativity festival, the kids marched in the Christmas parade in town.

Elizabeth passed out suckers

William and Miriam are behind her

Anastaya passed out invitations to the event

Miriam and her friend Paige dressed as angels.  Under their angelic garb, they wore  warm puffy coats.  They realized they could painlessly bounce off each other and soon were sumo wrestling.  Dode thought it looked pretty funny to have angles sumo wrestling.

Gingerbread houses

Thursday night I attended a women's Christmas party at church and while I was gone, Dode decided to build gingerbread houses with the kids.  He used our left over Halloween candy, supplemented with some fresh candy from Haggen.  Miriam wanted chocolate frosting so her house isn't made with traditional white snow.  It must be in an area with lots of pollution!  Miriam really wanted gingerbread men on her house but all Dode could find were green gummy army men.  She stuck them in the mud in her front yard.  She was almost OK with the substitution.

once the houses were finished, it was time to eat them

Miriam's house had an earthquake!

Time for a new hair style

After years of no bangs, Wednesday morning I got the desire to get some bangs.  I didn't have time to get to a hair stylist so in between getting Miriam and William off to school, I kept going back to the bathroom to cut my bangs.  A little here, a little there, soon I had bangs.  I kept fine tuning them throughout the day and by the time Dode got home from work, I was 90% presentable.  Dode said, "I thought you'd never go back to bangs."  (I'm not sure if that was a compliment or criticism but I didn't delve deeper.)   I told him, "I know, it's the danger of reading people's blogs!"  I'm so suggestible.  Isaac saw me and said, "Mom, you look like an old lady!"  When Jacob saw me, he knew something was different but couldn't figure out what.  He had a moment where he thought I'd been replaced by an impostor like invasion of the body snatchers.  When he figured out it was my hair, he was greatly relieved.

before

after

My Saturday Surprise

seated at the restaurant, watching the view go by

Saturday, Dode and I went to the Space Needle Restaurant for my birthday celebration.  My birthday isn't until Tuesday but if we wanted to see anything out the windows besides lights, we had to go on a weekend.  Dode had received a gift card at his 2010 employee Christmas party and we finally got around to using it.  My mom came up to watch the kids while we went. 

On the weekend, the Space Needle has a price fix brunch where you choose an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  I thought that eating in a fancy restaurant meant we'd get little portions and leave hungry but I was wrong.  We started off with a selection of quick breads: pumpkin, banana, and lemon.  Dode says mine are much tastier and don't feel like sawdust; I don't like dry quick breads so I always make mine moist.  I chose the smoked salmon appetizer and Dode chose a Caesar salad.  I think my choice was the best, the croutons in Dode's salad were hard enough to break a tooth on. 

For my entree, I got my traditional birthday splurge, Eggs Benedict.  I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a photo!  Instead of ham, it had crab piled high and it was really tasty.  Dode got the salmon special which was cooked to his liking (think over cooked).  He was absolutely not impressed with the slice of polenta the salmon rested on.  He doesn't like mushy things!  For dessert, I got the white chocolate macadamia bread pudding and Dode got apple cobbler.  The bread pudding was OK, but not worth the calories.  The macadamia nuts weren't chopped up so it was a strange clash of soft bread pudding with occasional marble sized crunchy nuts. 

The space needle restaurant slowly revolves around, making a complete circle in about 50 minutes.  We went around almost twice while we were there.  The traffic getting to the restaurant was terrible, it took us about 20 minutes to go two miles, but looking down from the restaurant, Seattle looked so peaceful below us.  After a quick stop on the observation deck one floor about the restaurant, we went over to the International Fountain.  Dode wanted to check out how it works because he's thinking of building one on a smaller scale. 

Since we were already down in Seattle, we stopped at what has to be the best name ever for a grocery store, Sidecar for Pigs Peace.  It's Washington's only 100% vegan grocery.  As we were driving there, I asked Dode if he thought anyone would notice I was wearing leather shoes.  (True vegans not only abstain from all animal products in their food, they don't wear animal products either.)  He just rolled his eyes at me.  It's a tiny store and they were extra busy since they were having a bake sale.  Poor Dode, every time he tried to stand out of the way, someone was wanting to get at the shelf he was standing in front of.  I picked up some things I'm not able to find around home or online and we headed for home. 

We pulled into the driveway and I saw it was full of cars.  I turned to Dode and said, "Why are all these cars here?"  His response, "It's your birthday!"  He and my mom had been planning a surprise party for months!  I had absolutely no idea it was happening.  Poor Dode, he'd been trying to get us home by 2:45 but I was in no hurry.  I figured my mom would be fine with the kids and if she needed to leave, she would.  I was enjoying my day of freedom.  We made it home around 3:15 and everyone was waiting for us.

My mom had made a slide show movie of photos of me growing up.  In some of my old photos, Miriam looks just like me!  As we squished together on the couch watching the movie, Jacob said to me, "Pretty typical, here you are surrounded by kids." 

Yes sir, that's when I'm happiest! 

After the movie, I got to open some presents.  Fun!  Some of those children crowded around me just couldn't resist helping.  Aunt Viv made me some earrings, Sharon got me a laminator, Matthew got me some fancy chocolates, my grandpa gave me $40 (one for each year) and my mom and Greg bought me a new computer, an iMac with a 22" screen.  (4 GB Ram, 500 GB Hard Drive I'm sure when the kids read this again in 10 years it will sound like such a dinosaur!)

opening gifts with plenty of helpers

Anastaya made me this bouquet of paper flowers, 40 of them!  She's been working on them secretly for weeks.

My mom and Millie had spent hours making huge tissue paper flowers to decorate the dining room.  While Dode and I were having fun in Seattle, my mom and Millie put the kids to work straitening up the house and decorating.

The table filled with beautiful flowers.

The girls have already claimed them for their room.  I'm thinking they'd go well with our jungle theme at day camp this year, if it doesn't rain!

Dode and I were still completely stuffed from our lunch but everyone had been waiting hungrily for a tasty potluck.  My mom was nice enough to buy two cakes, one regular,  one vegan.

look how we light our candles, a torch!

Grandma Dickson got a little crazy at the party and went down the fire pole

(Just kidding!)

1st use of the new computer, the kids watching Looney Tunes

I felt very blessed to have such a loving family. 

Time for a new camera

We've had our camera for quite a while.  It's our first digital camera and has served us well.  It started malfunctioning in the spring, taking only pink tinged photos.  We sent it in for warranty work and it worked good as new.  Then, a few months ago, it started giving me an error message and turning off when I tried to turn it on.  For a while, it was an intermittent problem but over time, the camera became more and more unreliable.  We took advantage of the Black Friday sales to replace it.  There used to be quite a delay between the time I pushed down the button to take a photo and when it would actually take on.  No longer!

original camera receipt

1st photo with old camera

Spencer Island, Everett

Elizabeth, Jacob, Isaac (wearing a helmet because we'd biked there)

Elizabeth at Spencer Island

1st photo on the new camera

They can only get better!