Meet my vampirish children:Dwayne Denartery and Anita Lotta Tai-Pei. ;-)(aka: Jonathan and Lucy as their murder mystery characters) Jonathan turned twelve a few days ago. And poor guy, he always gets the short end of the celebration stick around here, since his birthday is five days after Christmas. It's not that we don't ...
My Big, Fat, Cuban Family
Family is everything to me. I love them more than words can describe.
My Sweet Prince
Today Jonathan is twelve years old. TWELVE! Changes I've noticed recently:His stick-straight hair is now coming in uber-curly.He seems to have a bit of lingering dirt on his upper lip.His voice can't decide between alto and soprano.And his personality is fully blooming right now. For his birthday we are having a Murder Mystery Dinner ...
20 Christmases ago. . .
1987. She was four and he was one.She would get this look in her eye and say, "C'mon, Adam. Let's. . . (insert silly and crazy suggestion here)" and he would willingly follow her lead.She could talk him into doing just about anything.Now she's twenty-four and he's twenty-one.And I don't think she has quite as much influence over him . ...
Christmas Greetings
We were all dressed up that day. It was the day of Heather's wedding. "Perfect Christmas card photo op!" (at least that's what I thought. . .) We had tons of pictures taken that day, all dressed up and shiny and smiling pretty, but this is my very favorite. The one where Eric extends the camera with his left hand and we all ...
A Wonderful Christmastime
One week til Christmas and this right here is the very best part of it all for me: The preparations. The houseful of busy Christmas preparations. The crossing stuff off lists. The anticipation of the happy and surprised looks. Christmas music playing and busy people in the house.The girls call out for us to look at a ...
There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles
Hershey's Chocolate is celebrating 100 years of chocolaty happiness. How do I know this? (umm . . . maybe because I'm not supposed to be eating chocolate and am therefore obsessed with it, but that's not important right now. =D) Okay. So, the other day, Lucy and I are cruising through Target and we came upon a big ole Hershey's ...
Look at your life through Heaven’s eyes
I think of questions for him all the time. I remember things I want to discuss with him.And then I remember. He died.Eight years ago today. My dad passed away. And I cried orphan tears. Big, fat, splashing down my face tears. Papi was gone. And I still miss him. My kids, Amy and Adam cut together this video with photos and a little bit of ...
You say you want a Revolution?
My cousin Maria and I were inseparable as little girls in Cuba. Inseparable.We spent summers together on Varadero Beach in Cuba. We spent most weekends playing together as our families were very close. We celebrated every birthday together.We celebrated every Christmas. We were as close as sisters. Together. Celebrating.Inseparable. And then the ...
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 ...
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 ...
