Santa Baby

Christmas in Review

I wasn't going to blog until I completed my super office organization project but right now I am in the middle a huge mess and thought I should procrastinate a bit.

So, Santa sent me the following text message on Christmas Eve...
LC, Shorted KFC on the stocking stuffrs, can u help? SC

Apparently Santa went a little crazy on Patrick's stocking and completely overlooked stuffing Keith's stocking. Save the Elmo toothbrush and Spiderman hat. What is going on Santa? You are off your game. And come to find out, Santa had been working on Patrick's stocking for so long he had to call in 6 elves (okay, one super-duper elf) to help him find all of the stocking stuffers. Once he and his elf got it all collected they eliminated duplicates (yes, Santa bought Patrick multiple glitter glue pens and lip balm) and jammed what they could into Patrick's stocking. I helped out and left a few odds and ends for Santa to put in Keith's stocking.

Funny thing, Keith doesn't much care about the stocking stuffers especially when he sees this (Maclaren doll stroller, except we call them babies) :




And this:
BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY
Can someone please get my baby out of this box?!?!?
We (I) named her Beth. Which caused quite a bit of controversy at the Fox house since I apparently had a baby doll named Beth. Everyone laughed at the thought that I had innocently chosen the name Beth (they all pretty much called me a liar to my face). They can't believe that I could have forgotten such a key detail especially since my mother and sister immediately recalled the name and the doll. Anyway, Baby Beth grows teeth (CREEPY!) and all sorts of stuff but all Keith really wants her to do is ride in the stroller and be his friend so she isn't getting into the battery stash.

In other news.... Patrick loved absolutely everything. From Tic Tacs to Leapster. This explains the overstuffed stocking.

Fewer words, more pictures....
Christmas Morning Round-up




We spent Christmas at Mom and Dad's house. The African feast was quite the experience. We all loved it.
Grandma knitted everyone hats. Some of them were made for the dreads.



Flashback to Christmas Eve. Patrick and Keith in their outfits from Nana and Papa.



And still more Christmas



And an incredible evening with the Torosians.... Bouncehouse, Capes, Dress-up, Imagineering, Wii.






Look at Tylee and Patrick. I have no idea what they are doing but their imaginations put together is something to behold.

And my favorite picture (got a really cute frame from Kohls for next Christmas) of all time. I can't help it, choose your fav.....

because it is tradition, now sit down and enjoy it!

I love Christmas traditions. They are comfortable and familiar. And likely much better in theory than in execution, but I still love them. My top three favorites and a possible new tradition....

The Night Before Christmas
My dad usually reads this to the grandkids on Christmas Eve. It is a particularly enjoyable tradition because Grandpa usually delivers the story in his best affected JEJ. He also gets so into it that he messes up parts of the story. So while the kids are listening to the story (or begging for another cookie) we are having a great time watching Grandpa perform. Can't beat it, I'll sell you a ticket for next year's show.

Fried Mush

"Fried what?!?!"
This is a Keith family tradition. My Grandpa Keith loved having it on Christmas morning. Now my Aunt Susan usually makes the fried mush at Grandma's house in Iowa. In California, we all make it at our own houses before our collective Christmas Day festivities.
Fried mush is cornmeal cooked, chilled and fried. You have to cook it the night before so that affords lots of opportunities to worry about "still having to make the fried mush" on Christmas Eve.
We have ours with butter, freezer strawberry jam, syrup and powdered sugar AND bacon on the side. Most of the family doesn't really care for it, but we all eat it and savor our memories of Iowa Christmases.

Christmas Dinner
Several years ago we collectively decided that we would have non-traditional Christmas dinners. It is kind of fun. After Thanksgiving and all, another serving of mashed potatoes isn't usually at the top of my list. In the past my mom has made Mexican food, grilled pizza and hamburgers. This year we are having an African Christmas dinner. I can't help but think about The Office and the Moroccan Christmas episode. But knowing that my mother doesn't watch The Office..... I'm saving room for Peanut Soup (seriously, I am looking forward to trying it even though I have been complaining. What is Christmas without a complaining child right?).

A New Tradition?
It is now Christmas Eve and I have yet to finish all my wrapping. Usually the tree room is bursting at the seams with gifts at least two weeks before Christmas. This year....
The kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve (luckily Uncle Mike and Auntie Gail came through with that!) and then I am thinking about how exciting would it be to wake up on Christmas morning to Santa gifts and presents under the previously empty tree. See how I turn my procrastination into an opportunity for excitement? I've been doing this for awhile (procrastinating that is).
The other good thing about this tradition? No nagging about opening presents early. Which means that I can't do this so I admit to being a bit torn.


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

The cookies are nice but check out the new dishwasher

Not the appliance kind of dishwasher (although a girl can hope) the kid dishwasher. Reason number 5 for having kids: Built-in dishwasher. Patrick is now hopelessly devoted to the art of dishwashing. I am not sure if I have made/let him wash dishes before but this was the first time that I just let him handle the task on his own. I washed the sharp stuff, because he told me too. He washed the rest of the chocolaty mess.

Oh and we finally made our "Giada Candy Cane Cookies". Patrick originally wanted to make Martha's Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies but Mommy is trying to preserve her sanity. Patrick is convinced the Santa is going to love Giada's cookies. They were a good Patrick baking project. Easy and fun.




Meanwhile, I am going to give my dishpan hands a break and let my son pitch in. Merry Christmas Mommy.

Keith Kringle

This is the face of addiction.







This child has a serious addiction to..

CARAMEL POPCORN



Look at him, he loves it..... (WARNING: that link has explicit content but if you need a little Killin' Them Softly and the kids aren't around, click away)

And just about any other Christmas Delight that is put in front of him.

It started with with the gateway stuff, sneaking a handful of Gingerbread cookie dough here and there. Soon he was hitting the pumpkin bread, the sugar cookies, the hot apple cider, the Neiman Marcus fudge.....

And of course, the EGG NOG



We're planning to have an intervention on December 26th. You are all invited, please no Christmas sweets.

By the way, the other one won't touch the caramel popcorn because his father told him it would rot his teeth. More for me and the Colonel.... I have my problem under control, I am just planning on fasting the entire month of January.

Little Hercules

Please don't think of this blog post as a "Lindsay bragging about her son's abilities-post", instead think of it as a "Lindsay laughing at her son's freakish abilities-post".

The other day Sugar and I were sitting at karate talking/watching the kids kei-i. Okay, we were mostly talking and trying to distract the toddlers (in tow) from distracting the class, big job. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw all four karate kids laying flat on their bellies (not unusual). Then all of the sudden Patrick starts pumping out push-ups. Perfect form and everything, just hammering those push-ups out. The other three kids....still flat on their bellies.

We're both cracking up at this point (Tasks: talk, distract little kids, laugh at big kids, watch karate). I thought Patrick misunderstood the direction but their Sensei actually wanted them to do push-ups. Imagine, Patrick listening... I heart karate.

"Do you have him practice at home?"
No, I think he is just a freak.

Doesn't every kid have a "gift" that is usually realized between the ages of 4 and 6? Singing, throwing a football, catching a baseball, programming the remote, dancing, running, whatever. My child happens to be exceptionally gifted at push-ups. That's marketable right?

Considering Adoption

Here it is.... the moment you have all been waiting for..... The Callahan Christmas Card Reveal......

WAIT.....THESE ARE NOT MY CHILDREN!

If you get a Christmas card with our return address but a card with the Kim children, I apologize. Send me a note and I will send you the photo card with the Callahan children. Or you can just keep the Kim's and better luck next year.

I needed a laugh tonight at 1:55 am (on a break from my work tasks) so thank you Pear Tree Greetings for sneaking Theo and Joelle into my life. I cracked up when I stuffed them in and immediately pulled them out of an envelope. I cracked up harder as I imagined Yulie Kim (God bless her) staring at pictures of Keith and Patrick.

And I watch The Office when I work so...

Kelly: Oh my God, she is so cute, I want to die. Don't you just love kids, Angela?
Angela: I guess I wouldn't mind a pair of small, well-behaved boys.

Word, Angela, word. I'm all about it.

It isn't actually about the tree though.

Instead it is about Sugar, my toddler and the tree of the future.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Sugar's text message said: The tree looks great!
She wasn't standing in my house sending me a text (although not unheard of) she was driving past my house. She was right, my tree does look great....from the street. My tree is really best viewed from the street, that is a fact. My neighbors love it, it makes everyone happy. Seeing a glowing tree in someone's front window is like a nice hot cup of cider.

At the time of Sugar's observation and compliment, the tree was naked but for the lights. I briefly considered taking minimalism to a new level and not putting anything on it.

BALL!
I only considered the minimalism notion for a week or so and then decided one night to decorate the tree. I quickly regretted the decision.

Keith is convinced that all of my ornament balls are actually balls. The first box we opened on the day after Thanksgiving had a large (beautiful and expensive) ornament ball in it. He did not hesitate one bit. He picked it up and chucked it down the hall. Except instead of bouncing down the hall it smashed into 569 million pieces on the tile. Since then I have been trying to protect my significant investment in Christmas decorations from my second born. So use your imagination and think fiasco.

Then there is Patrick. The boy who has been putting 14 ornaments on one branch since he was two. I was just trying to wrap the tree in ribbon and fluff the branches. But once the icicles became weapons and I was over it. I stopped the whole process mid-stream, told the boys that it was done AND beautiful (it was neither) and packed up shop.

This year our tree isn't dripping ornaments but the good news is I stopped before I started to yell and make a big deal out of a Christmas tree. And we moved on and had hot chocolate or danced to the snowmen or something of the sort.

THE TREE of the FUTURE (echo effect please)
This is at least the second Christmas that I have threatened to get a new faux tree. Issues with the current tree are as follows:
1) the week after we bought the tree (6 years ago?) the dogs chewed through the box and the lights have never been the same
2) our storage of the tree (crumbly bag) does not keep the storage unit dust off of it
3) are fake trees supposed to shed so much you have to vaccum every time someone touches it?
4) our ceilings dwarf the tree and we need at least a couple more feet to really feel like we're in business.

In reference to #4 the "we" is "me". Kevin proclaimed that he was done with this tree as he gerry-rigged the lights (again) this year (I think there are still sections that are out). But he is hot for a real tree. He says that this one is not going back into storage no matter what we agree on come December 26.

So here she is, here last time on the Callahan stage. Our tree....

Notice the recession Christmas we are apparently having this year. No gifts! Actually if you click on the picture you might be able to make out two small presents. They are leftovers from last year, I have no idea what is in those packages. I haven't had time to wrap anything AND I have a curious toddler who will likely get a jump-start on his Christmas gift opening. Seriously, wrapping it once is a chore, wrapping it again.... someone might just get a gift bag.


Santa brought these for Patrick when he was 2 (notice the clustering). They have worked like a charm with Keith. So far he hasn't even paid attention to any of the other ornaments because there is a Crackmo I mean Elmo ornament right at his sight line.


Fox ornaments...clustered


Unicorns don't get enough play anymore.

I like this Santa with his big stick, very TR. Shouldn't every Santa have a big stick for that annoying child who just needs a good whooping? Just kidding, your child is precious.

Next year when Keith is a responsible 2 1/2 year old I am quite certain my tree will be dreamy and delicous.

In the meantime, another moment with my butterflies

My Everyday Unwrapped: Part Two

If you didn't read Part One, start here.

This face, this smile, this laugh are locked in my memory forever.

The day that was so much like everyday, but in high heels and a nice skirt ended nicely.

It isn't "everyday" without a catastrophic event. Keith managed to knock his barstool over, while he was still strapped to it. He cried, I gave him a hug, Patrick gave him a cuddle and he climbed right back up on the next barstool. When you fall as much as Keith does, getting back up is the most important part.


Dad finally made it home (Patrick was missing him all day) and got some time with Patrick. Dad also got his share of the Cinnamon Twists, which he shared with Patrick of course.
There it is, my everyday, which will soon become my remember when's and will hopefully lay a foundation that is built to last.