we bought our 7 foot ($20!) tree from ikea the first of the month...just decorated it a few days ago (we've been out of town 2 weekends in a row)...all my holiday cards were printed, address labels and stamps arrived...just couldn't pull the assembly/writing of sentiments together until today...and only the friends in the first half of the alphabet got personal sentiments because i just had to mail them all...here are a few photos of tree decorating...sea almost fell into the tree...nothing the cat and dog haven't both done already...here story is placing "ooh-aah" (rudolph) into the tree...he likes to sing about his "shiny shiny nose"...
sea is placing the snowflakes she cut out...
here is the holiday letter i sent out with details from 2011:
SEAsons greetings from san diego 2011
dear
friends and family,
our
biggest news this year was acquiring a puppy, kyra and a kitten, pablo…the
family photos were taken on our road trip to portland…with that I’ll share what
we’ve been up to, what we hope to be up to, and a section with details about
sea and story.
2011
highlights
we started
out the year at a new year’s day brunch at char and raj’s house. we really
enjoy weekly art class for sea with bhavna at char’s house…sea creates with
children her age while story plays with the younger siblings…riding bikes and playing
with their chickens while I sip chai with char. I’ve also enjoyed weekly meet
ups with my longtime friend cara and her daughter bria (zoo, museums, parks and
walks to name a few activities). I’ve been busy with my role as room mom and
teaching art corps in sea’s class and love being involved in her school
activities.
early this
year I attempted to create/be a part of two cooperative preschools with story…one
with friends from waldorf mommy-and-me preschool and we were briefly a part of
an outdoor preschool. when I was new to being a SAHM I joked I was most
successful at this role when I didn’t stay home and I was out keeping busy with
classes and socialization for sea…now with story I’ve come to believe “less is
more” and I find I most often enjoy our time just being at home together.
we spend a
lot of time outdoors…m will go into work early and get off early so we can
spend the afternoons by the pool, walk/run along the boardwalk at mission
beach, and on weekends we will walk around the local swap meet or pack up the
wagon and gear and take our doggy to coronado dog beach.
in
february m and I ran our first (half) marathon, the surf city marathon in
huntington beach. I originally signed up to support my friend maggie in memory
of family lost but we enjoyed it enough to sign up for another. on feb 12 we
celebrated m's 40th birthday at our house with friends, family
and their children. mid-month sea sang “somewhere over the rainbow” a cappella
at her first school talent show. at the end
of the month I co-hosted a baby shower for becki in sacramento (my first
overnight away from sea and story).
the first
week in march we celebrated story’s 3rd birthday at our house with a
robot theme…crafts, decorations and a huge jumpy castle in the back yard. save
the date for his 4th birthday party on march 4. I chaperoned sea’s first field
trip: we watched an orchestra perform vilvaldi’s four seasons downtown. at the
end of the month our family went on a church retreat at pine springs ranch, the
camp I attended as a child . the children were super excited about playing in
SNOW. on the way home from this trip we decided to stop and look at some
puppies (we’d been trying to find a puppy for over 6 months). I told m he
could choose the dog since he’d been a part of my cat claire’s life for 15 of
her 17 years with several strays acquired in between. I told him I was leaning
away from his favorite, a weimaraner, because they can be hyper and neurotic…well
you can see where this story is going…we stopped to check out some weimaraner
puppies and our whole family fell in love with kyra and brought her home.
a few
weeks later, in april, we acquired our black and white kitten, pablo. I’m a cat
lover but aware that most cats prefer to interact with you on their terms so we
checked out a LOT of kittens before determining this cat wanted to adopt US…evidently
we were successful; he lets the children dress him, carry him upside down, stroll
him in a doll stroller…he purrs the whole time…for easter we hunted for eggs
and shared brunch with friends at our friend kim’s house.
in may I
attended my cousin kate’s baby shower. I also chaperoned sea’s second field
trip to oma’s dairy farm. at the end of the month, bill, nancy and aunt mandy
flew across the country to attend a dedication of my dad's memorial chapel
in the department of social work. this event coincided with the 5th
anniversary of my dad’s death and though this loss continues to be an underlying
ache I’m coming to a place where I can celebrate his life and share with my
children and those around me the positive perspective he had on life through my
words and actions.
in june we
attended our cousin alyssa’s 8th grade graduation (wasn’t she just a
little flower girl in our wedding?!)…manuel and I ran in the san diego rock roll half marathon…sea had
her kindergarten promotion and a class pool party and then soon after we left
on a 2.5 week road trip stopping to spend father’s day with m’s family in
ventura…time playing with cousins skye and ayva, then picked up missy, clarence
and cousin meadow on our way north…we hung out with becki and met her new baby
cleo, hit the hotel pools on our drive, ate at black bear diner and eventually
made it to our destination, portland. the children had a blast playing with
iris and auden…tumbling, climbing, making art and watching mary poppins while
manuel and I caught up with marc and karri. I co-hosted a baby shower for ana,
paul and their new baby skylar at our friend debbie’s house…it was lovely to
hang out with ana in her neck of the woods…a BBQ with many friends at
richard/tomi’s house, and hanging out with ana, karri and michal with all our
kiddos at a neighborhood café.
our friend
wendy spontaneously had us over for a home cooked meal, roasted marshmallows
and a professional photo shoot in the meadow by her house (the main photo on
our holiday card was taken by her there)…her photography is incredible…if you
are anywhere near portland you should have her photograph you http://www.wjcphoto.com/
you can check out her blog post with photos from our photo shoot here: http://wjcphoto.com/blog/?p=244
we briefly
met up with kathy and her grandchildren and then went camping on our road trip
home. this was one of the highlights for the children; we hope to go camping
more regularly! arlene and kenny hosted us in their home in pacifica…homemade
dinner, walk to breakfast and the beach the next morning…lovely times…we spent
much of the day driving around san francisco and walking across the golden gate
bridge (bottom photo on our card)…met up with jeremy and lesley for fun with
dogs, dinner, ice cream and a sleep over and then we met up with the in-laws and went to the local swap meet in ventura on our way home. we spent the fourth
of july back in san diego…spent the day at the beach and then had pizza and
watched fireworks overlooking the bay and downtown with mimi and angee marci…we
met our new cousin, ryder, katie’s son, and went swimming with his sister
chloe. we were sad to say farewell to dear friends sarah, andy, calvin and desmond
who moved to georgia. sea had her annual la jolla shores beach party for her 6th
birthday. over 100 people came! put sunday july 28 on your calendar for her 7th
bday party…
the rest
of the summer was filled with beach and pool days…sea taught herself to ride a
bike in a few tries, the zoo, sea world, making rocket ship popsicles…story
passed the swim test at age 3 with sea’s prompting…they both loved the mary
poppins play (and believed she was flying above the audience…asked for a magic
umbrella so they could fly, too)…in august sea and story participated in cousin
ally’s wedding…walking down the aisle with their cousins kate, lisa and little
chloe…
in
september m and I took our first
weekend away from the children (thank you mimi and angee marci!) and flew to portland
for labor day weekend to celebrate george and lynsey’s wedding at a lovely
reception hosted at richard and tomi’s house. it was great to see so many
friends together…yair & teresa, tony, jeremy, john, marc & karri to
name a few....sea started first grade the day after we returned. later in the
month, sea and story both took their inaugural voyage on surf boards at haley’s
birthday party.
in october
we were blessed to have our friends from australia (we met them on our honey
moon in the cook islands) michelle, tama and atina visit us. manuel and I went
on a string of dates to various music shows including cold cave, washed out and
cut copy, paul simon and a classic band from our high school years OMD…it was
an awesome show! I was part of a 1st café booth at sea’s
school for the fall festival, sea was a “princess mermaid fairy” for her class
Halloween parade and party and story dressed up as a superhero of some sort
with a cape…it was our first year trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and it was nice to run into many neighbors
and classmates.
in november
I chaperoned sea’s first 1st grade field trip to a play performance
of sound of music…sea knows most of the songs (story jumps in and sings along
with her in the car) and informed us she wants to sing “my favorite things” for
this year’s talent show. she has also mentioned on several occasions she wants
to “be on stage someday”. we went jogging at mission beach alongside sea and
story riding their bikes (replacing the double stroller from earlier this year),
la jolla scripps aquarium…thanksgiving with uncle dave and family at the beach
house and met our new cousin clara…spent the weekend with manuel’s family…the
children loved playing with their cousins…I was missing lorie on what would
have been her 40th bday the end of the month…
it is now
december…we just got back from our 2nd trip to sacramento—1st to
celebrate john’s 40th birthday and to try to “catch” auntie missy
giving birth to our new cousin…roman decided to arrive the week after…lovely
cousin time and we had fun making music in missy and clarence’s garage…we have
various holiday parties we will attend, class activities…music…story is singing
how rudolph had a “shiny shiny nose”…we enjoy decorating and singing xmas songs
as a family…drinking “egg milk” by the fire…sea is diligently making
decorations with special emphasis on cutting out snowflakes (fascinated since
she doesn’t see snow here in san diego).
I am
considering picking up a few substitute teaching assignments teaching
psychology at mesa college nearby in anticipation I may return to teaching once
story is in kindergarten; for now I’m loving staying home and being involved in
sea’s school.
2011 goals
one of our
top goals is to slow down and enjoy what is…we have no immediate trips,
weddings or major life events on our horizon…I turn 40 february 15 so I’m
trying to figure out if I’ll do something low key with family or m
suggested I type “keep the weekend of February 17-20 (president’s day weekend)
open for a surprise party for denise” J This will be my last full year to enjoy
having story home with me before he starts kindergarten 2013. I hope to walk sea to school, garden, cook,
read and write but mostly to enjoy playing, drawing, building, parks, etc.
before sea and story grow up too much more and don’t need me as much (or at
least don’t think that they do).
blog update
I continue to enjoy blogging…combining my love for writing, photography,
and noticing the minutia of my daily life as mommy… my goal is to post 2 or 3
times a week…I’ve had my google blogspot account for 4 years now and it is
almost full so I’m going to be migrating elsewhere this year...any web/blog
advice is appreciated! for now you can catch up with us here: http://mommysjourney.blogspot.com/
as always I hope to balance writing
about life with living it…you can follow my photo chronicle of our life on
flickr my user name is “sea and story’s mommy”
sea and
story
I record a
lot of the “little things” about sea and story on my blog…they both love art
and creating things…recently they’ve been singing together or making music on
the piano/drums/instruments they create…they play well together role playing
doggies or kitties or that they are married (when they aren’t fighting)…both
love to ride bikes, climb trees, explore outdoors and “down the hill”…sea has
recently gotten into reading and has gone from sounding out words to reading
full books…I couldn’t be more excited that she can share this passion with me
now…she still loves writing and illustrating her own stories…usually about
mermaids or fairies…story is all boy in some ways…collecting and noticing
garbage trucks, cranes, fork lifts, “ollicopters” and zooming around in his
superman shirt and cape…on our recent road trips they were both asking to “do
math” where we give them problems to solve…story calls his “hard finger math”…they
said “we are going to catch some winks” for a “couple whiles” and like watching
the “bouncy bears” (berenstain bears)…in between “hugs and snugs” …trying to
hold on to all our little things…
staying in
touch
please
update us with any address, phone or e-mail changes. all our info is the same.
we are on and off facebook…a blessing and a curse in trying to be more present with
our family yet connected to you all…we love and miss all of you so keep us
updated on your lives. we’d love to have you visit! time goes so fast…we thank
God for our blessings daily…appreciating the “couple whiles” we have…
Love
always,
