Our Feliz Navidad etc

 

Lest I should forget to document it. (A couple of more photos to be inserted later, when I find them. Grr!) 

We did have our Feliz Navidad which included two trees, family, Liam's crafts, guava paste and cheese hors d'oeuvres, Christmas music, a roast dinner, chocolate chip cookies, fruit smoothies, musica Colombiana, a bench, BeyBlades, Legos and more!

Musica Maestro
Liam is constantly signing or humming something. He's the son and grandson of classically-trained musicians after all (from Daddy's side, of course). He especially loves Christmas music! He's always busy singing or humming something Christmas-y, all thanks to a light FM radio station that plays Christmas music nonstop from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. Among his favorites are Jingle Bell Rock and Sleigh Ride (?). He dislikes "Santa Baby" because he says that it makes him "nauseous" which is exactly how I feel about "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano -it's the song that never ends. We did however hear a somewhat bearable version of Feliz Navidad by Michael Buble and Thalia. Also, on my least favorite Christmas song category is Feed the World (?) by various rock singers and that one country song about the little boy buying shoes to give as a Christmas gift to his dying mother. I mean, really. Anyway...

We certainly got to listen to a lot of Christmas music one late afternoon while sitting in traffic for 2 whole hours as we drove out to drop off dinner for a  wonderfully large family that just had a new baby. Their 5th! We must have heard about four different versions of Sleigh Ride (?) in just that one sitting. It must have stuck because whenever we talk about the weather being lovely, he always sings out, "Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we. Come on it's lovely weather..." It's pretty hilarious.

Oh Christmas Tree...
Liam loves Christmas! Liam reminds me somewhat of that little boy from the home alone movie in that he loves Christmas trees. He gazes at them almost hypnotically and always requests to have his picture taken by them. Like clockwork, he or I or both have been sick in December since he was born, so we had not been well enough to take him to see the big one at Rockefeller Center. But, this year was it.

 

We met up with daddy in Manhattan after work and made the trek together to see the tree. We got Liam super excited to see "the biggest Christmas tree ever." We even made him close his eyes until right before making the turn into Rockefeller Plaza. His surprise and enthusiasm were priceless, evidenced by his squeals of joy and applause, that is, until he spotted the Lego store and begged to go inside.

Christmas cards:
So, it looks like some people have nowadays elected to send them out electronically. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It sure would be a welcomed relief, but I like to think about my family and friends as I write them. I also like to include our yearly family photo (above photo, minus the tongue which we didn't see him do).

Liam's school:
At school, he was given a choice of either a star, angel, bell or tree cut out to make a Christmas tree ornament (essentially made out of flour and water). He, of course, chose a Christmas tree, painted it green and sprinkled it with glitter. Super cute! He was also pretty busy at school making other Christmas crafts: a reindeer, a gingerbread man, a wreath, and a Christmas card. Here at home, our advent calendar was a printout of Santa that got one cotton ball per day glued onto his beard until it was filled with twenty-five cotton balls.

As a side note, he was also taught all about Chanukah and the menorah, but not about the Nativity or the meaning of the Christmas tree which I thought was unfair. I didn't actually expect him to be taught about anything remotely religious since he is in a public school, but I just wish Liam would have told me about it earlier so that I could have spoken to his teachers about it. We ask him every day about school and all we got was his typical 4-year-old-boy answer, "I don't know... We played, made crafts, read, and sang songs." It wasn't until later when he and I overheard someone at the supermarket talking about the Jewish festivities on the morning of Christmas Eve, when he actually told me that "all they talked about was Chanukah all the time." There was nothing I could do then. Oh well, live and learn. Next year, I will actually speak with the teachers about what will actually be taught over December.

Liam's Christmas parties:
As it turned out he had quite a busy Holiday season with festivities at every turn. He had a Holiday party at school where they had milk and cookies, played secret Santa and sang "Holiday songs". Then, there was the party at Church where he sat ("again") on Santa's lap. He got a little present, a mini football, which he said was not on his Christmas list because he already has one. Oops. Many questions followed. Did Santa not get his letter? Did he not read it? Is he playing tricks? Etc. What an exhausting conversation that was!

Decorating and family traditions:
Anyway, Liam set up our little Nativity set and also "helped" to decorate our Christmas trees at home: the main one in the living room and my little disco ball, table-top tree in the dining room. I never knew how stressful it would be to take on such a task with an over-excited, 4-year old. I'm sad that Liam accidentally broke two of my special ornaments, but it's my own fault for not anticipating the unavoidable. Regardless of how we think it turned out, trimming our trees was memorable for our little family, especially for our little boy. Now that Liam understands a little more, we have now introduced him to some family traditions. We place the really special ornaments, those that have real meaning to us, on the tree on Christmas Eve. These ornaments are our first Christmas as a married couple, Liam's first Christmas, one that my brother had made specially for me years ago, a little ornament that sort of represents my mother and four beautiful glass ornaments that my mother-in-law, Bette, gave us on our first Christmas as a married couple.

We also introduced our very own family tradition this year: the Santa sack! That's right, no more wrapping presents. We just gift tag everything, dump it in the sack on Christmas Eve before heading to bed and place the sack right by the Christmas tree. The Christmas sack was made by "Welita" of course. Then, the Santa sack just magically disappears at the close of Christmas day. Santa's elves pick it up! (wink)

Which reminds me... note to self: I must learn how to sew in 2012! My mother is an amazing seamstress. She retired a while ago from working for years in the fashion district for various designers sewing haute couture, while I can barely sew a button. It is an embarrassment that I hope to correct in 2012.

Family and food
Uncle Moe and his huge family (sans Yvie, the eldest niece, who has elected to live upstate with her biological mother for a while) came over and spent Christmas Eve day with us. I cooked arroz con pollo and served it up with a simple side salad. After they left, I went to pick up "Welita" and we spent most of the evening with her, listening to her favorite Colombian music and enjoying special treats: Bill's special fruit smoothies and "bocadillos con queso" (courtesy of Welita) which is guava paste cut into cubes and served with cubes of Muenster cheese with toothpicks. Yummy! I baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch for the first time in my life, because you know, gotta leave cookies out for Santa. Not sure he would have liked the guava and cheese. Once again, he left a note for Liam thanking him for the cookies etc. even though they were kind of hard once they had cooled completely. I'm hopeless at baking. Our Christmas Day dinner was lemon and herb roasted chicken which we ate with roasted potatoes and salad. Again, yummy. I had every intention of making all sorts of Christmas goodies, but I got sick again (laryngitis?) and I just didn't have the energy.

Which brings me to this. The only places I had been to over those weeks was Church, Liam's school, the supermarket and Michaels. Someone somewhere was sick, maybe coughed too close to me, and somehow I got really super duper sick. Why do sick people go out in public? I mean really, I know I'm a big germophobe and all, but I can't really understand why sick people aren't more careful about not spreading their illness. If you've got a bad cough, stay the heck home and nurse yourself back to health. Ugh!

Liam's Star Wars themed Christmas
No big surprise there. Aside from my frilly-woolly scarf, Bill's super warm woolly socks, the bench (our Christmas gift to each other as a family) and a pre-school board game from "Welita", practically everything was about Star Wars from the Legos to the candy dispensers.

The most special family Christmas gift, though, in my opinion, was the bench. Love! It sits by the entrance where we take our shoes off and throw our hats, gloves, scarves inside.

I made baked doughnuts (from scratch) for our Christmas morning breakfast. So good I made them again for New Year's Eve morning. Yum!

Spin tops
Liam also got a special gift that was sent all the way from Japan: a BeyBlade spin top complete with its own string launcher. These spin tops are for ages 8 and up, but our 4 yr old little Liam learned how to play with him back in February 2011 when he was first introduced to them by a kid from senior Primary at Church. Along with Star Wars, it's all the rage here in our house.

Christmas and Boxing Day:
The better part of Christmas Day and Boxing Day were spent spinning tops and building Legos. To say that we were up to our eyeballs in Legos is an understatement. I never knew how satisfying yet stressful it would be to build Legos. You're searching and searching for the next piece, you start to panic, then suddenly you find it. This happens repeatedly, despite our best efforts in sorting the pieces into colors, size etc. Spinning BeyBlades was a welcomed break from all the Lego madness.

Also madness was a side-by-side comparison of the original Star Wars movie as it was released in theaters in 1977 and the edited version called "A New Hope". No words here. Only a pity party of one that included me.

Our New Year's celebration was almost a repeat of last year's in that Liam refused to go to sleep, so we rang in the New Year with the 4 yr old. Welita bought some glittery hats and horns from a sidewalk vendor that make the obnoxious vuvuzela sound. Along with Liam's band-in-a-box and the sounds of fireworks around our neighborhood, it made one noisy but lively New Year.

Well, as I look back, there are some things that I pictured in my head that turned out great and not so great (like some of the photos I took or forgot to take). Some Christmas wishes went unfulfilled, but some wishes that I never dreamed in a million years came true. All in all, it was happy Christmas/New Years with my dear family and family is what matters most.

Now if only I could find all of my photos!

Holiday City Kid

My boy loves Manhattan and Santa probably equally, and he got to visit both in one day.

Call me crazy, but I pulled Liam out of school on Dec. 1st to go to see Santa at Macy's in the Herald Square flagship store. I didn't feel too bad since I knew he wouldn't miss out on much. Besides another mother did it, too. (That always makes it okay, no?) The weather was fairly warm (in the 50s) and we wanted to beat the crowds. It was perfect.

It played out like this: The wonder woman mom of four kiddos walked with a double stroller (for daughters: 6-month old and 2-year old) and her 5-year old daughter in tow, the prego mom with her own 2-year old toddler daughter, and I had Liam and his buddy (from mom number 1) both 4-years old, one in each hand. Whew! Needless to say, my arms got quite the workout.

The plan was to see Santa and then check out as many Christmas window displays as we could. It proved a bit much since we had to squeeze in lunch and all. Hooray for the dollar pizzeria just two short blocks away from Macy's! Liam had karate later in the afternoon, so all we had time for was Santa and the Macy's window displays. Still fun though, even with three school-aged children, two toddlers, one baby, three tired moms, one of which was preggers.

All six of these wonderful children were surprisingly well-behaved and cooperative. Of course, we played the Santa card quite a few times, especially on the boys, but everyone was super excited. (Not pictured are the two little girls in their strollers and the five-year old pleading to these ones to hurry up.)

The countdown!

Would have enjoyed these wonderful displays a lot more had we not flown by them because of the shortness of the line. No complaints here though.

Once there, after some photos opps with Santa, Liam got some one-on-one time with the big man who asked him point blank if he was a good boy and what he wanted for Christmas. Before Santa could even finish his sentence, Liam blurted out, "Star Wars Lego!" which rather startled Santa. He repeated Liam's request looking at me square in the eyes. Nicely done, Santa.

 

When we got to the ground floor, they took a moment to write and "mail" letters to Santa. Never mind that they had just seen him upstairs in "Santaland" and had made their request verbally. I guess they wanted it to be official, so no mistakes later.

Yes, Liam! There is a Santa Claus!

"If it's in The Sun it must be so."

They also "made" ornaments at the front window display, because, you know...

...ornaments represent Christmas wishes. So fun!

Yes, they wanted to hop on the NYPD motorcycles and no, I didn't let them. I convinced boys that a photo with them was just as cool.

Gazing up at the Empire State Building while discussing how to climb it!

Did I mention that my arms got quite the workout with these two? Love 'em! So fun!

We came home and he was glued to the ToysRUs magazine. 

Liam, my darling boy, I hope you love your presents!

Celebrations

Let's lump up the year's end activities in one post, shall we?

That horrendous flu back in the beginning of November took a lot out of us. I was still in recovery mode when my birthday rolled in. Thankfully, my birthday came and went rather quietly. We celebrated with Junior's Cheesecake which didn't exactly help my cough and congestion, but I was craving all sorts of comfort foods. Finally recovering from that monster flu was enough reason to celebrate.

We managed to rake and clean up the backyard nice and tidy. We put up the blinds in the living room. We also got to work full speed on the dining room a week before Thanksgiving. We wanted it ready once and for all, especially for our holiday dinners. I wish people could have seen us running around like chickens without a head to try to get the dining room ready just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Bill and I looked like we could have been on a reality TV show with a time clock ticking away. Between bastings, I was vacuuming and helping to remove the painter's tape. Bill was cleaning up, moving furniture, and trying to install the baseboards. Thank goodness Welita was here to help me with Thanksgiving dinner.

We kept it really simple: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and my long-overdue birthday cake from my favorite Latino bakery. We had plenty of leftovers since we ended up having dinner alone with my mother, so we bagged the leftovers and set aside the carcass for turkey soup the next day. A tradition in my family since childhood. Yummy!

He started with dessert, but upon seeing his daddy with a turkey leg, he immediately requested the other one and went to work on it.

I had to tickle Liam to keep him from digging his little fingers into my cake again.

Liam helping Welita make turkey noodle soup
(I got the fake smile. Clearly, he didn't want to be disturbed.)

Two weeks later, we picked up our Christmas tree. 

Liam is holding one of two baby trees that we got as a bonus.

Welita also came over for Christmas Eve and stayed over till the next day. We had turkey dinner (frozen from Thanksgiving) and pumpkin pie. Boring, I know, but my husband is crazy about pumpkin pie, little Liam too (but a la mode). I wanted to make my husband's family's traditional Christmas lasagna, but I just didn't have the time nor the energy to embark on such a project. Actually, I didn't have my late mother-in-law's recipe. Next year, I will make sure to have all of the ingredients to make my mother-in-law's best loved dishes for our holiday dinners.

We decorated graham cracker houses with premium candy (instead of the yucky dollar store candy), so we nibbled away at them carefree for days after Christmas. Liam made out like a bandit with some great toys and clothes. We got a great deal on a game cartridge and he loved his truck. He also got some great clothes from a dear friend, and my aunt and cousin sent him a box full from Texas. We stashed away the rest of the toys we bought on sale before the holidays to give it to him for his birthday the next month.

Our Christmas family photo. 

Liam was in the middle of his wardrobe issues and we couldn't wait any longer. We took a break from decorating our tree and took the pic.

Our window decor

Hooray for our new windows!

 

We were given these glitter pine cones and two baby Christmas "trees". I gave a baby tree to our next door neighbor. Once they are bigger we can plant them outside in our backyards, respectively. We were told they would grow as tall as the Christmas tree we brought home.

Daddy helping Liam play with his new video game cartridge 

(that I bought for $6.49, tax free and free shipping, yipee!)

His hips are so slender that he actually fit in it.

Liam was thrilled to see that Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk.
("Santa" was in such a hurry that he accidentally misspelled reindeer.)

Welita's cool Christmas sweatshirt

Modeling a few of his gifts. 

(The other cute clothing was slightly bigger and has been put away until it fits him comfortably.)

We tried really hard to put Liam down to bed on New Year's Eve, but he knew something was up and wanted in on all the action. He fought bedtime tooth and nail and so the little stinker stayed awake to ring in the new year with us. (Picture me rolling my eyes now.)  To his delight, we rang in the new year with his tambourines and maracas. We even heard fireworks around our neighborhood. Super fun!

"Cheers, Welita!" He finished his sparkling apple cider before I was finished pouring the last glass. (And yes, he peed in bed that night. Happy New Year to me. Grrr!)

We watched Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on the tele and Liam danced the night away.

He wasn't tired at all as evidenced in this pic. I just might have to sedate him next year. Kidding!! Or feed him tons of turkey (Tryptophan!!).

Thus ended 2010 and a decade that brought us:
- the good  
(Bill's wonderful conversion, our marriage, our baby boy, Bill's calling as an LDS Bishop and our new house)
- the bad
(September 11th, and the passing away of dear family members: my wonderful mother-in-law Bette, Bill's sweet grandmother Mary, and my favorite uncle Gonzalo)
- and the ugly  
(the beast of a flu that Liam and I caught at year's end).

This decade, so far, is starting out happy and hopeful too, especially as we continue to celebrate our little Liam's many milestones.

"Snowed in"

There is something magical about having a white Christmas here in New York City. It's picture perfect and if you're like me, it makes singing Christmas carols that much more fun. Well, we had our first big snowfall of the winter season and almost in time for Christmas. (We got a whopping 12 inches, more in other parts of the NYC and about 25 inches in parts of Long Island. Our local Church leaders even canceled services yesterday.) Just six days later and we well and truly would have had our white Christmas!

Okay, I must admit that for those who have to trek out in the snow and use public transportation it is a hassle, not to mention a real pain when home and business owners don't shovel and salt the streets as they should. Likewise, for those of us who own cars, the snow is a quite a nuisance.

Just this morning a lady from down our street, who had parked her car right on the corner of our busy intersection, was seen complaining to two police officers. I thought, "Really? Are your serious?!" Maybe she was complaining about all the hard snow around her car. (It had almost turned into ice from the low temperatures overnight.) Maybe she got a big fat ticket because it was 10am on Monday and she was still parked by a sign that reads no parking from 7am to 4pm on school days. I don't know. I saw the lady and the police officers pointing at each other and the snow by her car. A short time later, they walked away shaking their heads. Then, of course, the lady and her son went to work to "dig out" their car. Less than an hour later, she drove away.


This scene made me remember our big snowfall of winter 2002. So, I dug up these these couple of photos that I took from my bedroom window in my apartment in Queens -while it was still snowing!

THIS is what I call, being "snowed in" and quite literally digging your car out!

You see, the trick to making your life easier in a scenario like this one is to go out periodically during the snowfall to brush and shovel the snow off and away from your car, that way when it finally stops snowing, you don't have the daunting task of the massive snow removal, (I like to compare it to raking the leaves in Autumn), that is, of course, if you are one of those people who needs to have a snow-free car for a quick getaway. Otherwise, I would opt to just stay in and sleep, eat and have some quality uninterrupted family time.

Was my car one of the unfortunate cars deeply buried in that snow? My car was parked in a climate-controlled, indoor parking garage around the corner from my building. HA! I was so pleased that I didn't have to deal with the whole situation, that I sang: "...Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!..." that whole weekend.

So, where is my car now? It is parked outside on our street, "buried" in our pre-Christmas snow of 2009.

Maybe it's time to buy a shovel? Maybe we will get one as a Christmas present? (Hint! Hint!)