December 2015

Most Decembers feel pretty epic and exhausting.  It's Mitchell birthday season, Christmas, and all that goes with having two kids in school and different sports and music things. However, December 2015 will go down as a particularly historic one. 

*I turned 40.

*Grace saw her favorite band in concert, in LA, no less.

*Harriet had her first broken bone.

*My Dad (Grandpa Lyle) came to my house for the first time in ELEVEN years! (no, he never came to my house in Boston, and he had never been to Albuquerque either. He hadn't set foot inside my front door since we left our home in Salt Lake in 2004.) 

*Both sets of grandparents saw Harriet's cheer performance in person (during which, she unfortunately had a broken elbow!)

*Grace got her DREAM guitar for Christmas (subsidized heavily by her own savings and the generosity of her crazy Grandpa Lyle. Santa paid the balance owed and delivered it. Definitely a group effort!)

*We traveled to Salt Lake for New Year's and both kids skied at a Utah ski resort for the first time! (Alta - and it kind of doesn't count that Grace and I spent one afternoon there on the free tow rope when she was 4 years old.)

Here's the photo tour. Most have probably appeared on Facebook and this is only a fraction, but these things really matter to me. I sometimes think maybe I take too many pictures, and go on about them too much, but then when I look back on them even a year later, I am grateful for every shot and every memory I can muster. It's a beast to organize and maintain my photo library, but it is my most treasured thing I have.

Harriet's dress first of two dress rehearsals for the Christmas performance... she fell doing a back walkover at the second and broke her elbow:

Cat Christmas Cuteness

 Grandpa Lyle's Epic ABQ Adventure:

I have lived a 15 minute drive from the Unser Racing Museum for 6 years. I have always wanted to go in, but I swore to myself I would save it for my Dad and hope that he came to see me one day so we could go together. Seeing it for the first time with him was one of the sweetest treats. He was like a kid in a candy store. The docent who worked there talked cars with him for hours. I nearly invited him over for dinner after.

 Grace showing Grandpa the guitar she put on layaway at the music store...

 Harriet with Grandma and Grandpa before her performance:

 Harriet with both sets of grandparents after her performance. Things like this just do not happen every day, or every year, maybe not even once a decade for us. It was pretty special.

My one-armed cheerleader, still sticking to her guns. At this point, we still didn't know her elbow was actually broken. It was hurting her so bad and it got bumped so many times. She was such a trooper.

 

 One thing I genuinely miss in December is celebrating my birthday with Dad and Melissa since their shared birthday is 2 days before mine. It was very cool to get to have a birthday cake with my Dad for my 40th.

 Grandpa couldn't stay long and left after a couple of days, but my mom stayed a couple more and was able to see Grace's first rock band concert at her school. This kid couldn't be cooler if she tried (and she doesn't, which is why she is so cool.)

 Finally - we got a cast on that poor broken elbow! She was so relieved to have it not hurt anymore, she was happy to get the cast put on it.

But, it did mean that she couldn't use her new gymnastics mat very well...

 So, she invited her cheer friends over to break it in. They were all thrilled to tumble on it for her.

Oh, and apparently I was in charge of the neighborhood parade again... It was rained out, so we had to push it back a day. It turned out to be a beautiful day with snow all around.

And it really made it feel like Christmas.

I caught a glimpse of Grace's school agenda later in the month... I'm sure mine would have looked the same.

And we threw a few Christmas parties at Harriet's school (first, the cheer girls - these girls are the sweetest girls in the whole world. Harriet is so lucky to have them for friends!)

 Then, her 4th grade class. I brought sparkling cider so they could have a fancy drink. All the kids thought I brought alcohol and I had to explain to them 1000 times that I surely wouldn't bring alcohol for 9 year olds to drink! Apparently, they had never seen sparkling cider before! sheesh.

 I picked going to Pars for my birthday dinner. Grace and Harriet had never been there before, but they fell in love with it - eating at the tiny table on the floor, the amazing hummus and chicken and rice... the fancy setting.

Then, Grace and I took off to LA to meet Melissa and Emily for MY epic birthday weekend and Grace's teenage concert dreams. It was literally a 24 hour trip, but it was pure bliss.

(once we got there, it was bliss. We freaked out for a few hours at the airport when our flight was completely canceled! It was very dicey whether we would make it by concert time, but we finally got on a flight out of ABQ and felt much better. So did the little old lady who thought she was going to miss her cruise!)

We texted my dad in the airport with the picture above and said "waiting for our plane" and he texted this back and said "waiting for a customer." He is so hilarious. Love that guy.

FINALLY! After sweating it in the airport, Emily picked us up in LA,  and then some more serious stress going back and forth to LAX in insane Friday night Christmas traffic, trying to find Melissa... we were all finally together and made it to the hotel. David was super nice and gave us a ton of his Marriott points so that we could get a sweet room. Too bad we couldn't enjoy it for very long, but we had a concert to get to!

We had some fun hanging out at LA Live before the show trying to find some food. The lines were all so long and Grace was so nervous to get into the arena that she and I gave up on real food and went in. Melissa and Emily found a spot at a restaurant and joined us later. We found a McDonald's inside and made do. We didn't care - we just wanted to see MUSE!

I mean, how many 12 year olds get to see the band they worship, play live? She is one lucky kid.

 Inside the Staples Center, there's a little tribute to Taylor Swift. We took this for Harriet.

The stage was amazing. This was the first show of the tour where they had the stage set up in the center like this. It was incredible. We were on the very last row of the stadium and it didn't seem to matter. The show was amazing from every seat.

 I took at least 500 pictures and videos. What a night. Grace pumped her fist and played air guitar for the entire show. They played Grace's favorite song for the finale (her favorite ever since she started playing guitar hero at the age of 5) - Knights of Cydonia. Watching her see that song played live was just one of the best things I've ever seen. We were literally basking in concert glow and on the best high (and no it wasn't because of the druggie teenagers sitting next to us.)

 Having Melissa and Emily come made it all the better. It was one of the first times since being adults that Lissy and I have done anything fun together for our birthdays and Emily is always a favorite concert buddy. I need more sister/girl weekends like this in my life for sure. Best way to celebrate a big 40th birthday, in my opinion.

As amazing as it was, leaving town the weekend before Christmas definitely felt stressful because it put things on hold/behind for getting ready for Christmas. But, it was SO NICE to have that kind of mental and physical break during the craziest part of the holidays, that I almost want to do it every year. I might need to figure out how to make that happen.

I came back, and bam, it really was time for Christmas. So, on went the Christmas outfits (poor Harriet - we had to shop for something she could get over her big cast. Getting a dress on was pretty much impossible. We finally found a pretty sweater that did the trick.) She is always my Christmas dolly.

 I also convinced Grace to put on something sparkly. She was invited to play Silent Night on her guitar in church for our Christmas service (a nod to the origins of Silent Night). I know she doesn't like sparkly things, but I'm sorry - she just looked like a Christmas angel in that golden skirt and sweater with her golden hair. She's going to have to deal with her ethereal beauty... it can't be hidden.

 And after 3 weeks of patience, sweet Hattie was able to get her cast off on December 23rd so that she could be cast-free for Christmas! We were so happy because it meant she could shower again, and go skiing, and hot tub with her cousins in Salt Lake.

 Harriet's new favorite part of Christmas Eve is that she gets to play with the elves. Since Santa picks them up that night, it's ok if they lose their magic for a bit.

 We had our traditional "friend party" for Christmas Eve and tried to invite some families who don't have other family in town. We had the Stokes over (they are a military family who moved in down the street) and the Bradshaws (David works with Geoff and he is married to a German woman, Julianne and they just had their first baby together.) We pulled off a manger scene with my best scarves.

Later Christmas Eve, the girls always open gifts from my family while we FaceTime them and then we get a pj pic under the tree.

This year, Harriet was pretty excited that MoDeb gave her the American Girl pjs that match her Grace doll!

Then, Christmas morning! I have so many pics of Christmas morning, and I don't show them to brag about what my kids got, but for myself- it is fun to remember what they got and what they were excited about that year. This isn't everything, but these are some fun ones:

David is pretty excited about something in his stocking!

MUSE poster for Grace

Taylor Swift poster for Harriet

Nerdy t-shirt for David from Grace

And, a very jokey, hilarious gift from Grace to me "someone special." (She's watched Elf too many times. haha..)

We had finished opening gifts and I know Grace was kind of hoping her guitar might be under the tree, but it wasn't there. Until - Harriet noticed that there were two huge gifts over in the other room, still untouched. Yes, one of them was the guitar. The video of her finding it and opening it is absolutely priceless. As is the one of Harriet finding her doll jeep and camper that she kind of forgot she wanted very badly, and it had fallen off of her radar. She could not believe Santa remembered and brought it to her!

 One of my favorite things to watch the kids do is give gifts to their pets. It is so sweet and it seems like the animals genuinely appreciate being involved in the celebration.

 My kids both say that their very favorite part of Christmas is staying in their pj's all day and playing with their things, watching movies, building LEGOs, and just hanging out as a family all day long. I have to admit - after the wringer that the year puts you through, and all that is done to get ready for Christmas Day, it's probably my favorite part too - to finally rest and enjoy the day and each other with no responsibility or expectation. I love the giant Christmas mess too.

 We do have David's family over on Christmas Day too. It is nice to have some family around so that we can see a few folks in person. We always have them over for brunch and gifts.

 A few more pics of guitar love. I've never seen her so happy.  Well maybe last weekend at MUSE. What a lucky kid!

 In her zone.

 Okay - definitely one of my favorite traditions we have as a family, is one we started while living in Boston. Since we didn't have any extended family at all nearby, and we used to spend Christmas Eve with friends, we would make a very fancy candle light dinner on Christmas Day, just for the four of us, and eat it in our pjs (which we are always still wearing.) We've done it every year and the kids love it as much I do.

I have to say - the kids were kind of disappointed to clean up everything and put it away a day later so we could drive to Salt Lake for the rest of break. It's a catch 22 - go see family and have a fun trip, or stay home and play with your new things? Both are fun, both have prices to pay.

 This is my price to pay: being cold in Utah. Oh. My. Gosh. Driving over Soldier Summit the night of the 27th... just looking at the outside temp from inside the warm car just about put me over the edge. MINUS NINE.

 For some reason, the kids don't seem to care how cold they are. They are just happy to see snow and play with cousins. So was Stryder.

 We had some great cousin time. I do wish we could have more moments like these, but then again, if we lived there, I don't know how many more we would really have - how often would we really have them all snuggled down in pjs watching a movie at night?

 As always - Grandma Primmer sightings are favorite things! This lady is THE BEST.

 And Grandma Pearlie sightings are always entertaining too.

 Sloan and Lyla are perennial cuties. Harriet and Kate always fight over Lyla time.

Our Swedish Bathing Beauties... crazy kids and dog!

 And, I snapped this early one morning when I went to check on the cousins... Harriet and Kate...

 One of the main reasons we went up this year was to get the kids on a real Utah ski slope. David and Brian's favorite spot is Alta (it IS nice to ski without snowboarders.) Without sounding too whiny... I hope I can simply report the weather that day... THREE degrees. That is all.

 Harriet and I skied together the whole day because the rest of the bunch ditched us for the top of the mountain. Not only are my ski skills not good enough to follow them, I was trying to stay the heck off of the top where the wind would make it even colder. Not that 3 degrees at the bottom of the lift was any comfort, but, seriously people!

 We did find them at one point and went in the lodge to thaw our frosty finger tips and toes.

 Okay, fine. I saw one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen while Harriet and I were freezing our keesters off in line at the lift. The snow was falling softly and constantly and all of a sudden we noticed that you could SEE the individual snowflakes! I have never seen that before. Whatever the conditions we were in - obviously cold, and apparently perfect humidity... caused the crystals to be BIG and separate and last long enough that they didn't melt when they landed on you (obviously - nothing is melting at 3 degrees.) My phone was so cold, it would barely work if I took it out of my inside pocket, and my hands were so cold I could barely work it with my glove off. So, I only got this one picture. I watched dozens fall on the sleeves of our jackets and on top of Harriet's helmet. This one landed on her glove and I was able to grab a pic. We were mesmerized. It definitely made the rest of the day more worth it.

 And finally, the other guys came to hang with us for a minute and Harriet got to do a couple of runs with Clare. She was so happy to get to ski with her cousin.

No, Grace isn't cold (yeah right kid.)

Grace and Sean have been drifting apart a bit since she hit middle school. It has been very sad, but I'm glad they still have a few things in common that bring them together. They suited up for Star Wars one afternoon.

And Harriet and Kate bond and fight like sisters. They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies every 5 minutes. It's exhausting, but I'm so glad they have each other since Harriet really doesn't have a single cousin who is remotely close to her in age. (Except that she and Sean are 10 months apart, but they couldn't be more different so they have never played together.)

Ringing in the New Year!

Baking with Grandma! (pretty sure they were scowling and screaming at each other mere seconds before they made a heart with their hands and posed. GIRLS!)

 Can we call it a year already?! Thanks 2015! Epic doesn't begin to describe.