22 Things

It's New Year's Eve, Chad is at work, and the kids are asleep. I can see and hear the neighbor's fireworks through our upper windows. I didn't have the energy for a New Year's Eve "party" with the kids this year. So here I am with my mug of cocoa and my laptop. Party of one. Time to look back and look forward.

I'm chalking this year up to a lack of focus. I was busy, but didn't always choose the best things to be busy with. Moving was stressful for me, and threw a wrench in some of my goals for my 31st year, and I had to change a few of them to accommodate unforeseen issues. But I have discovered that I am totally okay with not having done several of the 31 things on my list. It's been good to evaluate and re-evaluate. And the 22 things I did accomplish feel good.

1. Organize my recipe binder
2. Make ricotta cheese  Attempted and failed. That counts right?
3. Make a pumpkin roll  I made one for Chad's birthday. It got a bit dried out. Oh well. Next time.
   
4. Can butter
5. Give sweet rolls to someone  I dropped some off with a new family in our neighborhood. I had never met her. She and her husband looked very confused. I felt like a crazy person.
6. Donate blood
7. Finish 2011 blog book
8. Reupholster dining chairs  
9. Organize and consolidate my old half-filled, half-finished scrapbooks
10. Complete the "ABCs of Me" challenge
11. Assemble bug-out bags for the family (extreme 72-hour kits)
12. Move
13. Index 20 names a month, for a total of 240 names
14. Attend the temple or Family History Center at least eight times (I honestly lost count here. I know I didn't make it eight times, but I came close.)
15. Reconcile my parents' books of remembrance with familysearch.org  What a cool website.
16. Read the Book of Mormon 
17. Establish a chore routine for the kids, with allowance Need to revisit this one. It got established...and then forgotten.
    
18. Take the family hiking (So easy to do. We are so lame.)
19. Go camping in a place we've never been (We're a little farther from campgrounds now. We'll have to get creative.)
20. Establish a daily schedule for the family, including home-school, preschool, and therapy
21. Play 12 different board games with my family (Made a valiant effort here. We played Dora the Explorer Memory, Dinosaur Train Make a Match, Candy Land, Yatzee, Disney Trivia, Up-Words, Skip-Bo, Big Picture Apples to Apples. We probably played Sorry! too, but I couldn't remember if that was with Chad or not, so it doesn't count. The family got a few new games for Christmas, so we're going to keep working on this one.)
22. Go to a baseball game with Chad
23. Remain at or under my goal weight for longer than one month (Ha! I still haven't gotten back to what I was in January.)
24. Do 20 real pushups with good form (I think the best I did was 15)
25. Learn to draw a cartoon person, worthy of a children's book illustration (nope.)
26. Finish painting Christmas village
27. Read 52 books (I got to 49. So close. I definitely need to watch less TV.)


Megan's bookshelf: read






















Megan's favorite books »
28. Watch a documentary  I watched "The Perfect Human Diet" which was interesting, but not necessarily credible. I started watching "The Dust Bowl" but it was taken off Amazon Prime after I watched the first hour. I would have much preferred it.
29. No TV or movies for one week  I did this at the beginning of November, and it was a great week. I got stuff done around the house, and I finished my 2011 blog book. More importantly, I reevaluated the shows I had been watching on a weekly basis, and decided that 90% of them were not worthy of watching. So my Hulu queue has undergone a major overhaul. No more Vampire Diaries or Bachelor. I'm keeping Master Chef, because, you know, cooking is a vital part of motherhood. And Bob's Burgers...don't ask.
30. Eat Brazilian food  Brazilian steak house. Pretty sure this is not how your average Brazilian eats, but nevertheless delicious.
31. Send flowers to someone  In this day of emails and texts, there is nothing like an actual IRL bouquet of flowers on your doorstep.

Joining the Smart Club

I was doing just fine with my dumb phone, thank you very much. But I was fed up with our contract and its ridiculous price--especially considering that I was paying extra for a measly 250 texts a month. So I shopped around for a new phone provider, and I found a no-contract plan with better features for much less than we were currently paying. And then I realized that I could get a smart phone for just a little more. So, when I saw a Black Friday ad with a Samsung smart phone for $29, I jumped at the chance.

And I still can't get over how many possibilities can fit in the palm of my hand. For instance, I can take pictures...and then actually do something with them! Like, I can take them off my phone! Put them in my computer! Amazing.

So, without further ado, my first phone photo collage:

1. We got a new food place around the corner. Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. Literally around the corner. As in 0.6 miles away from our front door. Dangerously close. And yes, it is as delicious as it sounds.

2. Can you have a favorite child? Yes. Bree is my favorite child when it comes to shopping. Lincoln is my favorite when it's time to snuggle. Mason has my favorite impish grin. He's my favorite when it's time for homework (he's really smart)...he's also my least favorite when it comes to homework (he is SO easily distracted). He's my favorite for pure energy and enthusiasm. Aaaand he's my least favorite when it comes time to deal with bugs (the kid screams like a little girl about to be murdered...unless it's just a regular fly...he has no problem catching those...weird).

3. Our first Christmas in our new home. The tree is my favorite--an eclectic mix of homemade ornaments, mementos from vacations and life events, and cheap unbreakable stuff from the dollar store. It became clear very quickly after we decorated the house this year that we need a whole lot more Christmas stuff to fill up our bigger home

4. Chad and I bought little ceramic houses at Walmart waaaay back when we didn't have kids yet. And we painted them together. Over the years we've added a few more to our town, but the painting kept getting put off (because, by this time, we had kids). I finally finished the last house this year. Actually this little town might tie with our tree for our favorite Christmas decoration.

5. Mason probably wrote and mailed 5 letters to Santa this year. All on his own. I convinced him that letters to Santa are given a postal exemption, and therefore don't need stamps. Most of his letters were sealed before I had a chance to read them. But I am so glad I got to see this one. "I WONT A INDE ANAJONES LEGO SET"

6. Lincoln keeps surprising me with what he can get himself into--and how quickly he gets there. Of course, if sugar is involved, he is very resourceful. He is in a stage where I frequently find myself feeling proud and terrified at the same time."Wow, you climbed on the counter! (Awesome gross motor skills!) But you shouldn't do that, because then when you fall and hit your chin we have to go to the doctor and you get three stitches!" (That visit was fun: trying to entertain him with a smart phone video while the assistant held his head "still" and the doc tried his best to put those stitches in...all three of us sweating profusely).

7. My mom gave Bree and Mason subscriptions to Highlights and High Five magazines. They loved the calendars that came with them. We spent a long time putting all the holiday stickers on the correct dates.

8. Gingerbread houses 2013. Bree designed this one, and I helped her with the frosting. And now that we have a kitchen island, we actually got to display them nicely, instead of shoving them on top of our refrigerator to get them out of the way.

9. I admit that when I took this picture I was trying to channel another blogger who frequently posts pictures of her stockings/shoes which always reflect the season/mood of the particular post. This particular sock/shoe combo not only imbued a holiday spirit to our outing that day, but it included the bonus of me getting asked if I was a Bass Pro Shop employee (to be fair, I was wearing a green Christmas shirt as well, and was standing next to the carousel in the Winter Wonderland).

10. Aaah, the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights. We went last year, and I loved it. The lights were gorgeous, there was a great spirit, we stopped to listen to the message being played through hidden speakers, and I took some great photos. This year...we made the grave mistake of going on a Saturday. It was. So. Crowded. It was impossible to enjoy it. But I did get a couple decent photos without throngs of people in the frame. Still gorgeous. But we won't make that mistake again.

11 & 12. Mason and Bree did a decent job of wrapping their own gifts this year. Bree didn't need any of my help. And I assisted Mason a little. That kid gives up easily on certain tasks, but the excitement of the presents kept him going surprisingly well.

13 & 14. Since we were going to be spending Christmas day at my parents' house, Bree and Mason opened their gifts from Grandma and Papa Wallace before we left. Mason got the whole set of Ninja Turtles and Shredder. Bree got a grown-up purse and some shelves for all the nick nacks in her room (she seriously channels an 70-year-old woman).

15. Laundry is a bi-weekly chore now. We got away with doing all our laundry once a week for quite a while. No more. I think it was the kids school uniforms that sent us over the edge. Chad always helps with the chore. His location preferences for folding vary, and on this particular day the spread was quite impressive.

16 & 17. Ok, so first Freddy's opened up, and then this? Right around the corner! Donuts are one of my favorite food groups. On this particular day I treated myself to a cheesecake filled, double-chocolate topped one.

18. There's no real explanation for this photo other than it was cracking me up watching Lincoln chasing the chin strap of this hat with his tongue. Totally counts as speech therapy, right?

I continue to work on figuring out my camera phone. Sometimes the pictures turn out great, and sometimes they're blurry beyond all recognition. Not sure if I'll relegate them to their own unique posts (like this one), or mix them in with the others. Time will tell.

But I do know one thing: I love being in the Smart Club.

Scenes of Christmas

December began in earnest, with a Christmas concert at Bree and Mason's school. I hated that we couldn't see Bree during her performance. She was on the floor--I barely caught a glimpse of her when she stood on her toes. But I loved that we were treated to "Away in a Manger," and "Silent Night," and a Hanukkah song (I didn't realize that the kids were singing in Hebrew until half-way through the song). I love our Charter School.

12/4/13

I think Chad and I began our little Christmas Village venture about 10 years ago. I know for a fact that it was before we had kids, and I'm pretty sure we were living in our house in North Las Vegas. We bought four or five ceramic buildings at Walmart, and we started painting. I remember getting paint on our hand-me-down sofa (which was later reupholstered), and that it wouldn't wash out. Chad mixed a custom green for the one-room schoolhouse. I painted the blue and white Victorian-style house.That seems like a lifetime ago.

We added a few more buildings over the years, but with kids now in the picture, the painstaking painting project got more difficult to devote time to. Luckily, this year we moved into a home with a room I can use just for my office and crafts! I am loving it! It's much easier to work with paint when I'm not constantly worried that little two-year-old fingers are going to get involved.

And finally, it's finished. I am in love with it.

We have decorated gingerbread houses in the past, but due to our lack of space the beautiful results got relegated to the top of our fridge. But this year my mom bought two for our family, after I reassured her that there is SO much space on our kitchen island for them to be displayed. Bree designed one, and Chad designed the other. Mason ate candy, and I spilled a little packet of tiny red and green sugar balls all over the table and floor. I also made some wicked-cool icing icicles.

12/13/13

We made the drive to the Bass Pro Shops for a visit to Santa and his Winter Wonderland. We were very miffed to learn that we didn't have the option to wait in line without a Bass Pass, and the next Bass Pass time was 4 hours away. Not to mention that the "elf" at the counter got snippy after we told him that the policy should be on the website (which I had previously checked, of course). So, sadly, we didn't get to see Santa. The kids did have fun playing with the free toys and writing letters to Santa. But we most likely won't be back next year. *tear*

12/14/13

We went to see the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights again this year. They are truly breathtaking. However...if we go again next year, we will go on a weeknight since my dad, brother, and I are all borderline agoraphobics.

12/14/13

We spent Christmas at my parents' house this year. We played games, ate WAY too much food, and enjoyed our time together. We also passed some delightful germs around, but that's what the winter holidays are about, after all.

The kids got new Christmas outfits for church. Bree was ecstatic. Mason tried to be a good sport.

We celebrated my mom's birthday a few days late, but we wanted to wait 'til we were all together. I made a chocolate layer cake with ganache frosting and chocolate bark. It was amazing. And rich. It should come with a warning: "Have a glass of milk in close proximity before consuming."

I don't know how many times Papa read The Foot Book to Lincoln. He never gets tired of being read to.

He did, however get tired.

Mom got us matching Christmas pajamas again this year. They were adorable and comfy. She even surprised Zelda with a set of her own doggy PJs.

The gifts were generous and plentiful. The kids were excited to get so many things on their wish lists. Lincoln was enthralled with his play kitchen (Chad wasn't too excited about that gift...or the baby doll for that matter... but it is such a great way for him to practice imaginative play and learn to do things in order). Bree and Mason tried out their bikes in the courtyard. Bree was wishing her bike had come with training wheels that first day, but we knew she was ready for a step up.

It was an eventful week. We came home exhausted, recovering from our (*ahem*) intestinal illnesses, but with many fond memories.

This was truly a wonderful Christmas season. One of my all-time favorites.

A Blogger's Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

From Lincoln,

Mason, 

Bree,

and Chad and Megan.

Thanks for reading!

Love, the Wallace Family