Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category
In honor of the Year of the Dragon I asked Ava a few questions about dragons so she could clear up any misconceptions I (or you) might have about them.
Here’s what she dictated for me to transcribe:
Description: They are red or green. Maybe gray. Dragons eat gas, chips, cornbread, grass, ham, and fruit snacks. They have wings like butterflies and they flap their wings to fly somewhere to get food. They are so cute. I like dragons, especially Figment. At Chinese New Year, people fit under dragons. (Editor’s note: She’s talking about the dragon dance.)
Where dragons live: Dragons live in China. Not where my sister lives but far, far away. Dragons live in trees.
Size: So big!
Life span: Dragons never die.
Habitat: Cold, rainy sometimes. They live with their moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and their dog.
Diet: (See above)
How do they behave? They don’t listen <insert a grrr and a foot stomp here for full effect>!
So now you know! Hope you enjoyed Ava’s take on the mythical dragon since it turns out he’s apparently not so scary after all.
We wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. Xin Nian Kuai Le!
We officially started our holiday season today with Thanksgiving dinner #1 with my family. (Oh my word, I’m still stuffed HOURS later.)
We haven’t visited my folks in a while and since we have J’s folks coming to our house for the actual holiday we decided to make a quick (quick being relative since it’s a 5+ hour drive) trip up before the holiday. Fortunately my family was game with moving the holiday up to accommodate us so we spent the whole day doing nothing but cooking, socializing, and eating. And make no mistake, we definitely ate. A lot.
My whole entire immediate family (+ an uncle) was here which is always cool. I know these days can’t last forever so it’s especially nice when we can make it happen. Most of the grandkids were also here so Ava had cousins upon cousins to play with. And to be clear, by play with I really mean boss around. She’s the youngest so she tends to be a tad bit spoiled (by everyone) sometimes.
What I really love about these days is that I can relax a bit with Ava. It’s so nice to know that I don’t have to eagle eye her every minute because I know that my mom and my sisters and her cousins are watching her too. On top of that, it warms my heart to know that all of this running about and playing with her cousins are building these lifetime memories for her. I remember all of the holidays with my grandparents/aunts & uncles/cousins and I so want her to have at least a taste of the same. It’s harder, of course, since we don’t live close enough to make it an everyday thing but we’re doing what we can with what we’ve got.
Also nice is making that last minute trip to the grocery store (that’s a Thanksgiving tradition too, isn’t it?) and running into an old childhood friend that you haven’t seen in years and years and years. That can only ever happen in your hometown and you realize how much you miss stuff like that after you’ve moved on and moved away. I mean, running into people we know happens at (now) home but these are people I’ve known for 12 years or less. The gal I ran into today has known me almost my whole life. Even though we don’t often talk there’s just a comfort level with people you’ve known and been friends with forever that you don’t have with anyone else.
You know what I don’t miss about my hometown, though? Trains. Stupid whistle-blowing at all hours of the night gets old fast…
Heading back home tomorrow and will jump right back into the hectic rat race and all of the stress that awaits me in my real life. But today was a really, really nice day and gave both J and I a desperately needed break. The rare opportunity to relax a bit today made the whole drive worth every minute.
To Mamaw and Papaw’s house we go for an early kickoff to our Thanksgiving celebrations.
We have at least a 5 hour drive and we’re leaving at rush hour with nothing prepared in advance. This means throw some clothes in a bag, the kid in the carseat, the dogs in the kennels and hope for the best.
Wish us luck.
Updated: We made it. 6+ hours later with a detour by Wal-Mart for cough medicine for the husband and kid including an impulse purchase of a toddler cheerleader uniform that was strategically placed by the door as I walked into Wal-Mart. Hey, we are in Hokie country now. How could I resist?
Halloween is a big deal around our place, mostly due to J’s fascination with all things ghastly. Our house was decorated (not scary – tacky) in early October, costumes were rounded up, pumpkins were acquired and punctured with thumbtacks and Mr. Potato Head (wait, shouldn’t that be Mr. Pumpkin Head?) decorating kits, and the candy was purchased and waiting patiently for distribution. Score one for self-restraint – we didn’t sneak even one in advance.
We’re the good house, by the way. We’re the ones who give out full size Hershey bars and Reese Cups. Oh, and full size bags of Raisinets that I suspect were purchased with an ulterior motive that somehow involved NOT being given away but instead finding a home in J’s office (and belly).
The avalanche of candy started over the weekend with all of the trunk-or-treat events around our area but we managed to successfully avoid that, mostly because I think residential trick-or-treating (preferably in one’s own neighborhood) is sacrosanct and it’s one of those childhood traditions that I had that I want her to have. And yes, maybe I do want to relive parts of my childhood occasionally. Besides, it’s the one time a year we actually talk to some of our neighbors (sad, I know). We couldn’t, however, avoid Ava’s annual school Fall Festival and Costume Parade and that scored her one whole plastic pail of crappy candy treats right there. For the record, she pretty much hated most of that event. It was cold and she didn’t want to be outside plus she mostly wanted to leave the minute that J and I showed up. She did grudgingly trick-or-treat along with the rest of her classmates before stampeding over them as she bolted for the door – - only to be sadly disappointed to find that she would not be allowed to gorge on candy all the way home. As you can imagine, THAT was a fun ride. So much fun, in fact, that I pulled over halfway home and made J take her in his car the rest of the way.
Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood went a little better. There was a quick change to a much warmer costume and a ride in the wagon to help ease the pain, well – until she fell out of the wagon at the second house and ripped the knee of her pants. No blood due to the 3 layers of tights and leggings but, OH – the DRAMA. I think we made it to about 20 houses (max) before the entreaties to “Carry me, pleeeeaaaasssseeee” became too much to bear and we headed home with wagon in tow. She quite liked that part, actually. And she adored being able to hand out the candy to all of the kids coming to our door.
So – on to the candy. Two and a half buckets full (not counting the aforementioned Raisinets) to be exact and that’s after I levied the Mama tax (all Dots automatically and immediately belong to me) and sorted out all the undesirables like Gobstoppers and other things I deem inappropriate and/or likely to cause death or injury to the child. You know, like Butterfingers. Oh wait, never mind. Those are also Mama taxable items.
My theory on how to distribute candy? Knock yourself out. You get 3 days to eat as much as you want (post-dinner, of course). She ate about 7ish pieces on Halloween.
And hasn’t had even one piece since.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same…
