Feliz Navidad everyone! It's me, Amy!If you've been reading recently, you know that Mom has been keeping us busy. We've been making all these memories TOGETHER. There's the whole Advent calendar thing and it's been a blast. But . . ."Put up personal trees. Decorate rooms. Play Christmas ...
The incredible shrinking woman
Digging through our old photos for the collage we're working on turned out to be a really fun and eye-opening experience. Here we are in front of the giant Christmas tree in Fashion Island, Newport Beach. 1996.Eric is holding Jonathan, who was not yet walking and I am holding three year old Lucy in her sweet little Converse high-tops. Adam ...
I create, therefore I am.
Okay, so here's how our morning goes: We all congregate around the next little advent box to be opened. Jonathan opens it, Lucy takes out the slip of paper and reads it. Questions follow. "What do you mean by: 'Find all the Santa and Christmas tree pictures'? They're for a Christmas collage. I'm so excited about that ...
Counting the days . . . or making the days count?
Today's advent activity:Churros, Hot Chocolate and The Grinch. I cannot even tell you how cool this whole calendar thing has been. There's already so much anticipation! They've already established rules: 1) They open each box together. 2) No peeking ahead. 3) They immediately tell Amy and Adam what the activity will be and ask them to join ...
Pancakes at midnight.
As we started opening advent boxes with my carefully planned suggestions, I realized that I have some very wonderful, if more spontaneous, memories of family time. I guess because of the pace of our life I feel compelled to be more deliberate in creating fun memories together. But something happened the other night, that wasn't exactly ...
Being present
I'm working on being particularly present this holiday season. What I mean by that is that I don't want to get so caught up in making Christmas that I completely miss it and fall down exhausted on the twenty-fifth glad the thing is over. Okay, so I say that every year, but really, my intentions are sincere. ;-) So I went over to the brand ...
Who exactly is “they?”
The cousins range in ages from seventeen to forty-two. After Thanksgiving dinner last week:The cousins didn't want to leave, so they didn't want to leave.The cousins wanted to watch a movie, so they wanted to watch a movie.The cousins wanted to try the Creme de Vie, so they wanted to try the Creme de Vie.The cousins wanted to spend the night, so ...
Crunch Top Applie Pie Recipe: It’s as Cuban-American as “Mami, Pastel de Manzana, y la Bandera” ;-)
I know you were wondering what we did with all those wounded apples from Thanksgiving. Well, wonder no more. The Galas (those are the red and yellow ones) went to my mom's and she reported that they are now two jars of delicious homemade applesauce. The Granny Smiths (the green ones) went into a pie. A good ole homemade Crunch Top ...
Wasn’t that Allstate’s motto?
I know this photo has too much glare.And it's slightly out of focus.And it doesn't show my (ahem..) most attractive side.But let me tell you why I love it.There is a way my husband has of taking my hand, that makes me feel secure. He knows where he's going.I feel safe following his lead. That's why I like it. It speaks to me of our ...
Control issues
"Someone's got to take charge.And I usually like it to be me." ~ Marta =DWhen I was still a young woman and living at home, I started ...
