December 2008

Tradition

Kati Oliver — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:54:51 GMT

In the last two years we've transitioned from traveling to spend Christmas at our parent’s houses to staying home and developing our own traditions as a family. It's interesting to mesh two families traditions and form some of your own as well. Growing up we always got new Pj's on Christmas Eve, this is something we've kept and I even found time to sew the boys some this year. I love that Nick's family wrote letters to Santa and put them in the fireplace and the smoke takes the letter to the North Pole. And that if you know the right elves you can put in a request for Santa to leave you a secret message written in lemon juice that can only be read when you burn it with a candle.

But starting your own isn't always so easy. This year around Thanksgiving time I had been pondering how to make Christmas more meaningful without taking away all the fun traditions that kids enjoyed. Then in a flash of inspiration as I drove to the grocery store (alone) with a little "Mo-Tab" singing "This is the Christ" left in the CD player from Sunday it came to me. This year as a family we needed to study the life of Christ throughout the month of December. The more I pondered the more it was made clear how this would best work for our young family who doesn't sit still for long. And the final result was this, each night starting December 1st the boys took turns opening a special box that held an ornament (all made from basic craft supplies from Michael's for around $30) representing a story from the life of Christ. We had a small tree designated for them to hang the ornaments on and then we read a few verses from the scriptures using pictures from the Gospel Art kit and discussed it. We began with the birth of Christ and continued through his ministry, a few parables, the Atonement, crucifixion, resurrection and finally his appearance and ministry among the Nephites.

In my opinion it was a meaningful way for us to celebrate Christ, not just his birth at this time of year. It didn't take long for the boys to dub this as "our special Christmas thing" and often asked throughout the day whose turn it was to open the box that night. Trust me they didn't let us forget to do it every night! Hopefully it will become a family Christmas tradition for years to come.

Must be a boy thing

Kati Oliver — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:15:41 GMT

All mothers of young boys knows that ANY object (sticks, pencils, sandwich crusts and apparently icicles) can be turned into a weapon regardless of the fact that their TV viewing has been restricted to Noggin and Playhouse Disney. It is also a well known fact that those little boys become big boys (like Dad's and Grandpa's) and are more interested in the real things. And they secretly wish for them for Christmas, even if their wives think "you'll shoot your eye out". And even though we as women don't always understand the fascination we buy them one anyways, because every boy deserves something fun and not just a church sweater on Christmas morning.

Repeat

Kati Oliver — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:46:33 GMT

Looking outside our window it looks as if someone has hit repeat one to many times while listening to "Let it Snow" or "White Christmas". We've gotten a good 24 inches of snow this last week and it finally looks like the weather will be reaching highs of 35 degrees so some of it will melt. I know there are places that get more snow accumulations than ours but Seattle (let alone litlle 'ol Duvall) just isn't equipped to plow all of this and it makes for some pretty interesting travel conditions. What can I say we've still got power, heat, snow clothes, plenty of hot chocolate and no holiday travel plans. And as an added bonus Nick's job allows him to connect from home and "work". All things considered we've got it good. Here are some more pictures of all the snow fun!

Snow Week

Kati Oliver — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:52:22 GMT

4 canceled days of school this week (so far)

10 inches of snow in 8 hours (and counting)

6 days until Christmas

0 % chance we'll be going anywhere anytime soon

100% chance we could all go crazy!

An Apology

Kati Oliver — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:37:47 GMT

Mothers of the world I owe you ALL an apology. For all those times I looked at you out of the corner of my eye and thought "control your child will you"? I know that children have a will of their own but I've always believed that a parents is greater and sometimes it just needs to be forced upon the bad mannered child, especially in public. Well today was my turn to be that parent and I lost terribly, I didn't even see it coming but yes those were my children running amuck throughout Fred Meyer in Monroe. Really I should have been shopping alone but an unexpected snow day canceled school for them both and I was forced to make the trip as a threesome. I thought navigating the icy roads would be dangerous but that was the easy part. I apologize that they played tag and hide and seek in every clothes rack, used glass Christmas ornaments as punching bags, touched EVERY product in EVERY aisle we walked down, used celery as light sabers and opened and closed every freezer case door and that you were subjected to hearing me call their names a million times throughout the store. I tried every "good parent" trick in the book, I got down on their eye level, spoke in a calm voice through clenched teeth, reinforced consequences, tried to involve them in helping me find all 500 items on our list and even resorted to ~~bribery~~ rewards and finally threats (Santa WAS watching in aisle 9 and it DID look like he was exchanging trains and Lego’s for My Little Ponies, a fate worse than coal in our house). But alas they are 3 and 5 and ate nothing but sugar cereal for breakfast (apparently it's all their pregnant mother craves these days). They just wanted to chase, tickle and tease each other not be well mannered shopping helpers. 3/4 through the trip it became obvious I was never going to win and turned my attention to the remaining items on my list and halted my parenting efforts all together. Although I'm sure it appeared as if I didn't discipline at all but I had made my choice and we needed to finish and quick. By the time we left the store I was shaking not from anger but low blood sugar, turns out we had been in there nearly 2 hours. We found the nearest resturaunt, Taco Bell which turned out to be the armpit of Monroe, where my poorly behaved boys fit right in with the other toothless foul mouthed patrons. Thank you Karma my lesson has been learned, my life with 3 young boys has flashed before my eyes and I will now think twice before judging other parents.

Trees, Santa, Candy and Snow

Kati Oliver — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:49:43 GMT

These are a few of my favorite things about this time of year

Cutting down a fresh Christmas tree, a perk of living in the Northwest. Little did I know that the cat would love it even more than me and wouldn't be able to leave it alone. However, thanks to a little "kitty be gone" spray on the tree skirt I have won that battle.

Going to visit Santa Claus who arrives by fire truck at the True Value hardware store (gotta love small town living). Spencer has this all figured out and saved all his cuteness for the man with the presents. Carson on the other hand likes the idea of Santa but has always been a little spooked about seeing him in person. Don't their faces say it all?

Gingerbread house making a true test of a parents patience for their child. 99% of all the candy on that house first went in their mouths to be licked. I don't even think they knew they were doing it but they couldn't be stopped. And finally our first snow of the year came this weekend. It was lovely but ask me again in Febraury when I am 8 months pregnant and Carson has had one too many snow days, I may strike it from my favorite list then.