Chronicles of a 4 year-old

Evah's First Brush with Death

I just encountered one of the sweetest mommy-daughter moments (it brought a tear or two to my eyes).  I was tucking Evah in bed as usual.  She was all situated so I went to turn her CD player on.  I also flipped the light of her fish tank to feed her fish, "Bingo", and noticed that Bingo wasn't swimming around but rather floating.  I announced the death of her fish and her little heart just sank and the tears rolled as she popped out of bed to see.  Then came the repeated questions..."Why, why is he dead?" (again and again and again)  In which I replied that it's just what happens to all living things that God created.  She rambled on about how sad she was amongst several deep breathes and sighs.  We've talked about things dying before...but she understands more fully now and was utterly heartbroken.  When I told her that we'd take care of it tomorrow by flushing it down the toilet...there rolled even more tears down her cheek and more ramblings of "but I'll be so sad!!".   

Bingo's Funeral Procession

Since I wasn't prepared to clean the tank that night, I told Evah we'd flush Bingo down the toilet the following night and clean the tank so the one remaining fish would have a fighting chance of survival. 

THE DEAD FISH FLUSH

Tonight was the nighte and she flushed without a single tear which I was very surprised at considering how emotional she was the night before... and life with a toddler goes on...

Another Year Gone

New Year's Eve was for us was very low key---afterall, we were still recooperating from all the Christmas celebration.  We stayed home and Mom, Matt, and Sam all came over.  I didn't want to cook a thing and offered to do "baked potatoes topped your way", but Gabe insisted on grilling fajitas.  So as long as he did the majority of the prepping and cooking, which he did, I'd make some rice to go along and we all had a delicious meal.  Next, we played games as we waited for the final countdown of 2008.  Grandma, Evah and I played her new "Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" game.  It was a  really cute game that involved simple charades and a bed that unpredictably "jumped" causing monkeys to fall off.  Evah got so excited when that would happen.  

Evah Brushes Her Teeth

  Gabe and the others were playing Wii of course.  "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....Happy New Year!!"  The ball dropped and we gave our kisses.  Now it was Mom's birthday and Sam had brought her a little something so she opened it.  We would all take her to lunch the following day and give her presents then.  So that was that...everyone packed up and left and we went to bed, thankful that God had given us yet another year of life. 

Christmas--it came, it's gone

I remember Christmas as a child, running hap-hazardly from one family member's house to another, and loving every minute of it.  And while I always remembered the true reason for the season--Jesus--I couldn't help but anticipate the presents.  You see, divorces have one plus-----double the presents!!  So here I am, 34 and still going from family member's house to family member's house and though it's "tuned" down a bit, it's still tiring. 

Let me count how many Christmas gatherings for us this year.........seven...and three birthdays..... plus our 9 year anniversary.  Thankfully they were spaced out nicely so we could catch our breath in between.  The big chunk started on Monday, December 22nd.  We had just driven home from our Laredo trip to take Abuela back...thank goodness we had given the house a good cleaning before we left for Laredo because we needed to sleep in on that Monday before Grandpa Champion's family came over that evening.  We were hosting the Champion family extended family Christmas at the new house.  For several years now we'd gathered at someone's house to share a Christmas dinner, "catch up", and have a white elephant exchange.  This year was no different, except that Chris and Dawn's oldest daughter, Ashton, who usually is unable to come, did come and she even brought her boyfried Jason. 

We munched on (more like chowed down) sandwiches, veggies/chips and dips, fruit, and a multitude of desserts.  Soon after, the game was on.  Since Evah only had a couple presents to open at this occassion, we gave her the "Vanna" job.  After someone opened a present, she'd walk it around so all could take a closer look in case they might want to steal it at some point. 

Evah plays Vanna

This made her feel important and kept her occupied.  The most popular gifts of the night were a personal popcorn popper and the Kung Fu Panda DVD.  Grandpa opened the DVD but he didn't but Matt ended up with it at the end and Brett ended up the popcorn popper. 

 

 

 

Evah opened a "surprise" gift from grandma.  It was a pillowcase printed with a family photo.  She lit up when she saw it.  So the first of many Christmas celebrations had begun....

The next gathering came the following evening.  Our lifegroup (Biblestudy) members, alongside some

Evah holds Hannah's babysister Carley

 friends, came over to celebrate Jesus' birth with ameal, fellowship, and of course Wii.

This brings us to Wednesday, Christmas Eve.  We attended a 5:00 church service and retreated to my mom's house immediately following where our Christmas meal was a lot less traditional this year.  Being burnt out on heavy holiday food already we decided to go easy and "Make Your Own Pizza". 

It was a tasty idea!  Everyone got what they liked and the clean up was super quick, leaving more time for what else---PRESENTS!!! 

Opening presents took longer than I thought it would, Mom just kept bringing out more and more and more...before passing them out the whole top of the pool table was full!!

PRESENTS!!!!!!!!

We went around in a circle to open the presents, allowing one person to open one gift at a time.  Evah couldn't handle it, though she tried really hard at first.  She lost steam after hitting a magnetic toy that interested her for quite a while. 

 Matt liked the coffee cup I personally painted for him. His girlfriend, Samantha, was digging through her gifts.  Madison sported the record bag we got her.  Louie, well, he definitely got the money he asked for.  Gabe was giddy over his new Wii accessories.  I stocked up on the fun and funky knee-high socks.  Mom actually liked the sweater I picked out, but she was most suprised by the antique telephone bench that Louie and the kids got her. 

 So after some dessert, a cup of coffee or two, and a bedtime story, Gabe, Evah and I headed for home----only to do it all over again.  Well...all but the eating part.  Growing up, Gabe's family celebrated Christmas at 12 midnight on Christmas Eve so we've tried to incorporate his traditions along with mine.  While we had planned to open our gifts at midnight, Evah just couldn't "hang" and fell asleep on the ride home from Grandma's house. 

Baba Louie shares a story

We woke her up to put cookies on the plate for Santa, but she was soooo grumpy while doing that one task, it was easily decided that she needed to go straight to bed.  Gabe and I went along and exchanged our gifts between ourselves.  I must give him credit for actually doing well with the gift buying this year.  Even the handmade gift turned out presentable!!  "Nicely done honey!"  By this time, even we were finding it hard to "hang" and soon turned into bed ourselves, after all Santa was coming....

Christmas morning approached and Evah comes into our room as she usually does every morning, completely bypassing what Santa had left.  We venture out to the living room as a family to spy what she got----those purple Ariel pajamas (the only thing she asked for), some books, an Ariel Barbie doll, and a desktop fishtank with a black fish...the pajamas were definitely her favorite as she tried to strip and put them on, but found she needed help with the fancy, glitter buttons.  Next, we all browsed the stockings to find lots of goodies and finally we checked the plate of

Goooaaallllllll!

 cookies...nothing by crumbs!! 

just cookie crumbs

Happy Birthday Jesus! We just lounged for a while and watchd Evah play with her soccer goal.  The cats got their scratching boards and the dogs got bones.  Nomally, we'd have to rush off to my Dad's side of the family for another Christmas gathering, but this year was going to be different and we would be gathering on the 27th instead.

 

 

While Evah and I still had a lot of time off from school, Gabe had to go back to work on the 26th.  He wasn't able to go with us to Louie's brother's house in Denton to gather for their extended family Christmas.  Unfortunately I forgot the camera.  We did the usual eating, talking, and opening gifts.  The kids did their share of arguing, screaming, and running through the house then we called it a night.  December 27th arrived and we ventured to Oakcliff to Aunt Jenny and Aunt Cindy's house to gather with the Creager family.  We saw everyone but Channing,Teresa and Delisa.  Channing was traveling from N. Carolina, Teresa was in another part of town with her husband's side of the family, and Delisa is serving us proudly in Iraq.  It was great to see everyone, especially my Dad.  Evah was so excited to see her Papa.  It was daylight when we arrived and everyone was just "grazing" on the food and enjoying the spring-like weather in December.  The kids were running amuck, the guys were playing a "target" game of some sort, others were just catching up through conversation.

 

After dark, everyone went indoors unless you wanted to brave the warmth of the fire pit in the backyard, which wasn't too bad an alternative considering how cramped the living room was. 

The annual gift exchange would be different this year.  Two years previous we exchanged names and handmade the gifts, which I personally loved doing, and previous to that we'd just exchanged names and bought gifts.  This year it was the white elephant exchange---the first time this family had ever done it as a group.  It took a while before the actual game started, so we killed some time with a Christmas carol or two. 

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..."

Byron started the game as #1 and opened an oversize John Deer Alarm clock (the kind that rang bells to wake you up).  Some of the more popular gifts were a Crown Royal giftset, a Partini Game, and a Tarantula Tequila giftset.  Dad first opened a bag filled with girlie stuff before getting the chance to steal and settling with the prized Crown Royal.  About 3/4 through the game the stealing really picked up.

Aunt Cindy is looking...

  Brandon and Travis used some "tag team" action to ensure that one of them got the Tarantula.   I took home the Partini game and Gabe ended up with the John Deer alarm clock.  I must say that it certainly does the trick at waking you up (and the house next door).   

"Hands off, it's mine, All Mine!!!"

This being our seventh gathering to celebrate Christmas, and the 6th in a single week, we were a bit exhausted from the holiday hustle and bustle, so we checked out about 9 pm and headed home to do some of what Kamrin was already doing...relaxing.    

Kamrin takes it easy

 A few days later, Evah received her very last gifts from Karen and Aunt Channing.  Needless to say, she loved them right away.  As soon as she saw the new clothes, shoes, and purse she just had to try them out.  Thank you everyone for a wonderful Christmas, the blessing of presents, amazing food, and most of all, new memories for all of us.

Abuela comes to visit

We were in for a real treat in that Gabe's mom, Guadalupe or Abuela (Grandma in Spanish) as Evah calls her, was able to come to our house for a visit.  It had been a very long time since she traveled from Nuevo Laredo to the Dallas area to see us.  Gabe took the week off so she and he could have some good quality time.  Evah and I were still in school, but fortunately an ice day gave us an additional day off.  As soon as she got here, Gabe was requesting mexican dishes and homemade tortillas, but to my surprise he was going to actually help her out in the kitchen!! 

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This is not typical of him---willingly want to help in the kitchen??  Anyhow, he got his hands dirty and he even put on an apron!!! 

The New Improved Gabe

He helped his mom (under her supervision of course) make tortillas, pasole, and a huge heap of tamales. 

Evah also took a shot at making tortillas and I helped out with the tamales, all 10 dozen!!

The Grayhound got here early afternoon, on Monday, Dec. 15 and we would be leaving Friday to drive her back home.  We decided to have her open her gift before we headed out.  We got her a new blender since she had mentioned hers had broke.  Mexican cooks use the blender quite often I've observed.  She liked it!!

Abuela's Gift

We headed out to South Texas that Friday afternoon around 4 and made it to Gabe's Aunt's house in Laredo about 1:30 am.  It wasn't a very pleasant trip.  Evah is not the best traveler lately and knew just how to get on my every last nerve.  I thought she'd sleep after we stopped for dinner, but that didn't happen until about 10:45 (well past her normal bedtime) so she was quite delerious for some time.  Unfortuanately, we didn't get to go across the border as we had planned.  As we drove to the border, we noticed that the lines to cross at the checkpoint were backed up for miles onto the Freeway and the traffic was at a standstill in all lanes.  Cars were just parked liked a parking lot and people were walking around--it was pretty crazy!!  We spent the day visiting some more with Abuela at her sister's house among Gabe's many cousins.  Evah thoroughly enjoyed the company and Gabe indulged in the homecooked Mexican food as usual.  This time however, he indulged a bit too much, for after a week of eating and eating and eating, we came home to several Christmas gatherings and yet more eating.  He's had to take several doses of Malox this evening, but not nearly as many as his trips to the bathroom.  His nonstop buffet finally caught up with him.

 Sunday morning we bid our farewells and left Laredo.  I had called my brother in Austin to let him know we were driving through.  We'd made arrangements to meet at his house and go for some lunch.  He took us downtown Austin to The Spaghetti Warehouse (one of my favorites!!). 

Austin City Limits

We enjoyed a nice long lunch and headed back to his apartment for one final pitstop.  Evah and Matt shared a few songs.  The Itsy, Bitsy Spider was a bit hit. 

Karoake Time

With full bellies, yet again, we headed for home and got into town a little past eight pm.  We still needed some last minute gifts so we were up for the challenge to do some power-shopping at Kohl's on the way to the house.  Not such a good idea with a sugared-up two year old whose already past bedtime, but we managed and got what we needed within an hour.  AAAHHHHHHH--home, sweet home FINALLY!!

Christmas at School

 

MMMM.....icing

Evah attends a mother's day out program and this week was her Christmas Program.  Unfortunately the lighting in the gym where she was sitting didn't allow me to take any recognizable photos or video, but let me tell you, it was too cute.  Evah's featured song was "Away in a Manger" and though she didn't belt it out to the audience that day, she knows it.  I found out this morning (one day after) as she sang it to the dogs.  Afterward, the parents/guests got to visit the classrooms.  Evah's class was decorating cookies.  She was more for licking the icing than anything else.  Eating the cookie itself topped her list also.  Sally, my brother's girlfriend's mother, who's grown quite found of Evah came to watch too.  Her and Evah shared in the cooking eating. 

Wow--Evah is actually sharing her food---she must really like you Sally!!

Santa

Black Friday came and believe it or not we slept in---yes, I know it's hard to believe that we were out at the Allen Outlet Mall by midnight shopping into the morning light, but this year we just needed some rest.  We did get up to do some shopping though, afterall, that's what Black Friday is all about.  We wanted to check out the deals at Toys-r-us.  They had just built one very close in Allen, which was exciting because we didn't have to travel to Plano or Frisco.  It was a cold, dreary, dismal day and as we drove into the shopping center we spotted Santa's Headquarters.  There wasn't much of a line and, even better, it was the very same Santa she'd seen last year!  After manuvering through the crowds and aisles of Toys-r-us empty handed, we decided to sieze the opportunity to see Santa, wait free. 

Evah Plays Shy with Santa

Evah was all worked up to see him but you wouldn't know unless you spoke with her BEFORE she was close enough to see him.  She never cried and went right up to sit on his lap, but she didn't want to speak.  She finally mustered a "Bye" before stepping down from his lap.  We got a great picture with a big smile and that's all that counts.   

Tree Farmin' with the Fam

Thanksgiving is over and now it's time to get ready for Christmas--that's how it's supposed to go, not "get ready for Christmas before Halloween" like the retail stores do it!!!  Matt had come in town from Austin, so the whole family was around, except for Madison who was working.  Gabe and I had decided that we'd like to cut our own tree again as we did a couple years back, but we didn't want to do the 2 hour drive to Tyler to do it, so I googled Texas Tree Farms and found a hit in Van Alstyne, which is just about 20 minutes north.  We opened the idea up to Mom and everyone and they wanted to go to.  So off we go to Van Alstyne to get a tree.  It was really windy that day and the temp had dropped considerately so it was feeling more as it should nearing almost December.  As we entered the farm we were taken by how "Cone-shaped" the trees were.  They were perfectly cone-shaped.  I couldn't help but think that Charlie Brown should have come here to get his tree. 

Found it! Our perfect '08 tree.

We park, get out and approach the "shed".  We find that the shed is where the "store" is with the sale of ornaments, nutcrackers,

I'll Take This One!

 homemade jellies and salsas, and more importantly--the bathroom.  We ask how it works, have a hot cup of cider and wander out to catch a hay ride to the tree farm grounds.  As the hayride stops

along for the hayride

, the driver gives us the directions, a saw and off we go.  We are wondering aimlessly in search of our perfect tree.  Mom and Louie come to discussion on why Louie "can't" have a real tree in the house.  Since they've been married (approximately 20 years) it's always been a fake that we've decorated, but this year was different.  Louie allowed Mom to pick a real tree if he could get a motorcycle helmet.  She took the trade and ended up finding her tree rather quickly.  Me on the other hand, remained wandering in search of our perfect tree.t was finally found, chopped, paid for, shaken, and loaded up top the car roof. 

Timber!!!

 

The drive was so short that we had time to stop and eat with plenty of time left for decorating.  So we did.  Evah hung a bunch of ornaments this year.  She was so grown-up standing on the step stool to reach the higher portions of the tree.  We just looked at her as she hung those ornaments (and listened since she never shuts up anymore) and realized that our "baby" wasn't a baby anymore.

Evah "decks the halls"

 

 

Chef in Training??

 

The Apple of Our Eye (or her own eye)

Thanksgiving---as I grow more mature, it's becoming more and more a favorite holiday, much more so than when I was a child.  I'm learning the old saying "Less is More" is actually making sense these days.  Less hustling and bustling around is more.  More time with family, more time to be productive, and more quality to life.  At Thanksgiving there's not a mad dash to buy presents, but rather gathering amongst family and friends,  giving thanks to God for all his provision, and there's never a shortcoming of food supply.  The one draw back is the cooking (well, actually the cleaning up is probably worse); however, I was fortunate to have had some excellent help this year---Evah.  Seriously, she really did help.  She poured the green beans into the crockpot, dried and stuffed the turkey with citrus fruits and fresh herbs, broke bread crumbs for the dressing and helped me pour the dressing.  She was very uncertain about touching the turkey in anyway at first.  It took a lot of demonstration of how helpless the turkey was before she'd even give it a thought, but she eventually touched it and patted it dry with a papertowel.  I knew that with all the cooking I had to do, if I didn't find some way to keep her occupied she'd drive me bonkers, so she became a chef-in-training.  I knew she'd enjoy it because she's always wanting to help me cook.  She just takes it upon herself to carry her chair from the kitchen table to the counter stating she just wants to see (which is 2 year old code for "hand over the spoon mom!")  This was her lucky day in the kitchen since she got to do a little of everything.  I did get a small amount of help from Gabe.  He and Evah broke the dried out bread pieces for the stuffing, and I guess you could say he helped with the leftovers (by eating them for days after). Below are a few videos of Evah's culinary talents, followed by more photos.

 

 

Trick-or-Treat!!

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Evah dressed as Dumbo this year, and though she doesn't know who Dumbo is exactly, she enjoyed it all the same.  We'd walk from one lit porch to another cued by Evah's demands for more candy.  She completely got what to do this year as you can see for yourself in the video.

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Pumpkin Carving

It was my 34th birthday

Mindi's Mummified Birthday Cupcakes

 and we spent it at home surrounded by family, friends, and pumpkin guts!!  The younger crowd wasn't sure about the pumpkin insides at first, but sooner or later they "dug-in" too.  Their reaction at the pumpkin gut removal is hilarious!!

 

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