Flashback Friday - Trimming the Tree

My blogger friend Tia has inspired me to flashback on Fridays (when I remember) and this Friday her flashback inspired mine as well.

Since getting married, my husband and I have established the tradition of getting our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Now that Aaron works on that Friday serving a huge Thanksgiving feast to the homeless community, we've pushed our tree expedition back to Saturday or Sunday dependent on weather, but we like to get our tree as soon as possible so we can enjoy it for as long as we can.

Getting a real tree is a must for both of us. It is what we grew up with, and living where we do, I can't imagine celebrating Christmas without the crisp heady aroma of a real tree scenting the air! Last year was our first Christmas in our new home, and my husband managed to catch the sweetest photos of the kids as we started to decorate the tree.

Isaac was six last year, and took the task of decorating very seriously. You can see how intent he is upon his job.

Thaddeus has some developmental delay and is very sensitive about getting his hair cut, so in order to get through the ordeal as quickly as possible, my husband completely buzzes it twice a year. Last year he did it for the first time just before Christmas. So Thad looks like a recovering cancer patient in all his photos - but apart from choking on a bit of hair and throwing up, it was the least painful haircut he'd had in four years.

Also, see how he put all the jingle bells on the end of one branch? That was his decorating style last year. We had four very over-laden branches where he'd chosen to decorate. I left them like that because it was too cute!

Miriam was 21 months and this was the first year she was aware of the hoopla surrounding Christmas. She saw her older brother sniff the tree, so of course she had to as well.

This set of three photos makes my heart swell with love, and maybe with a touch of sadness because already the kids have grown up more since this time last year and have left these stages behind, and I just want to gather those moments up and hide them inside me, where I can keep my kids safe and no one can ever ever hurt them.

Of course, that's not possible, and I wouldn't be where I am today if my mom had done the same to me, after all. So as I look back over this past year, all our ups and downs, all the tears cried (many by me), all the stress, worry, fear, angst over my children (it's been a hard year), and even the laughter too - I realize that my kids will grow up no matter what I do, so I'd better just do the best I can and take lots of pictures along the way.

Give the Gift of Luxury!

I created a treasury at Etsy - a collection of 16 items that I focused around the theme of giving luxury to your friends and family, because you know they deserve it (well, some of them anyway, ha).


Of course, you can always find luxe gifts for body, bath, and home by searching for "teamluxe" on Etsy!

Flashback Friday - Oh Where Oh Where Did the Sippy Cup Go?

Inspired by a fellow mommy blogger, I'm posting my very first Flashback Friday blog post!

A few years ago, I was attempting to teach my kids to start picking up after themselves (ha, moms get some crazy ideas in their heads sometimes). So I was busy with the baby and told my 2nd son, age three, to put his sippy cup in the kitchen.

Later, I went into the kitchen to make lunch and was annoyed to see that his sippy wasn't anywhere to be seen. I had to grab a clean one from the cupboard and make a mental note to hunt down the morning one so we didn't find it someday with 3 weeks-worth of nasty chocolate milk inside.

Sure enough, after lunch I found it.

You know, I mentioned the kitchen sink - I just didn't specify which one! That is the blue play kitchen that Santa brought for our two boys for Christmas the year before. It was a huge hit!

And here is the culprit, age three. It is almost as if he is remembering the sippy cup incident and saying to me, "But I did put the sippy in the kitchen!"


Share your flashback here!

Brrrr! It is cold and rainy and I love it!

I know the world is full of sun-lovers. Thus the popularity of the Caribbean, Florida, and Mexico, to name a few. However, I also know that hiding beneath the branches of towering cedars and fir trees, there are the rain-lovers like me. We love a drizzly day, so we can curl up by the window with a good book and alternately read and watch the rain drops race down the panes. We love a windy rain storm that batters the house and howls through the trees. We love the green that the rain brings afterward, and how fresh and clean the air smells once it stops.

Here are some of my favorite photos, all possible because of the rain!

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Berenstein Bears

Are you familiar with the Berenstein Bears? The books were popular during my childhood years and my mother-in-law saved all of her boys' Berenstein Bears books. For those in the dark, it is a storyline created by Jan and Stan Berenstein about a family of bears who live in a tree house in Bear Country. Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Brother Bear and Sister Bear (and I think there was a baby born into the family in later years).

Now, from what I remember of the books when I was younger, the stories all had a good message about life, family, etc. Brother and Sister learn to share, going to the dentist isn't scary, going to school is fun, and so on.

Recently my kids have discovered my mother-in-law's stash of books and subsequently we've discovered there is a cartoon series too. Here is where the love/hate part enters. I do love the lessons they insert into most of their episodes, just like in the books. My kids love watching the Berenstein Bears so this is added-value in my opinion, as I've found that children do pick up on the subtleties presented in what they watch. However, the message that the Berenstein Bears videos presents is somewhat erratic and varied.

In my experience of these videos, Papa Bear is the wise head-of-the-family figure one moment and in the next episode, he's a complete idiot. In one episode he's teaching the cubs an important lesson on taking care of responsibility first so that you can enjoy the rewards afterward. The next episode he's obsessed with growing the biggest pumpkin in the country (and acting embarrassingly stupid about it) and when the cubs teach him a lesson in humility, he doesn't even get it.

Now, I know that we as parents are not infallible and in reality we sometimes act like good parents one moment and the like complete idiots the next but I really don't need a cartoon to drive this fact home to my own children, thank you very much. It makes teaching my kids to respect their father that much harder (for we all have an in-born tendency to push against authority, do we not?) when the show they love to watch sets the father up for ridicule and contempt. What is worse, is that he isn't contemptible all the time, so you can't write him off as an undesirable character or a joke. Since the series does present him in a serious light as a wise figure in some episodes, it frustrates me because inevitably the children watching are going to be confused in how to view him. Is he a role model or a dunce? Should they take what he says seriously or ignore it as silliness? I give young children enough credit for them to tell the difference between these two, for my kids know that VeggieTales  stories are based on real stories from the Bible but that Spongebob Squarepants is just plain silliness. However, if the ridiculous (and indeed, duncelike) behavior and the upstanding and admirable behavior are presented by one and the same character, how are they to tell what to take to heart and what to slough off as so much nonsense?

So I've found myself trying to wean my kids off the series, because seeing Papa Bear go from wise and instructional to a bumbling idiot is just too painful for me to watch and I find myself cringing inside. I wonder if Jan and Stan Berenstein are cringing inside too.