First off, I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who put in their Christmas card that they like this blog and hope it continues.  I’m right there with you.  I would love to write about everything that is happening to us but lately, by the time the kids go to bed and I have a moment to breathe, my brain has shut off, as it has now.  Did you know that that last sentence took me three minutes to write?  Needless to say, lately I’ve been feeling very trapped by my house.  Two weeks of Christmas break with all three kids, a dog and a husband who has wanted to go back to work for the past week (Boeing shuts down between Christmas Eve and New Years) has left me utterly exhausted and very stir crazy.  But wait, I’m jumping ahead of myself.  Let’s crank back the clock and see if I can give you highlights of the last month.  Let’s see if I can remember the last month.

Think Wayne’s World Time Warp

Mid September – Joel and I had been wanting to take the boys to Legoland for quite a while – I mean – have you looked at our living room?  I looked out into our calendar future while Joel looked at the Internet and we concluded that the second week in December would be the perfect week for the trip.  Kindergarten is important – but so is vacationing when there are no lines.  Besides, I cleared it with Mrs B. (boys’ Kinder teacher) before we booked the tickets and we ended up getting and working through a week of homework during that trip.  Looking back on our decision – while there are not many people vacation the second week in December – it really puts one behind in the whole getting ready for Christmas adventure.

I am and have always been the type of person who gets Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving.  I hate going out in the crowds and I absolutely hate to do things last minute.  My co-workers at Boeing used to tease me about how prepared I was for the holiday.  Being a stay at home mom, one might think that this trend would continue.  I’ve got all the time in the world, right?  I was still shopping 3 days before Christmas.  Upon returning from our trip on December 14th, every spare moment was completing tasks.  The wrapping of presents seemed to go on and on and on…..  We were up until 1am on the 23rd and almost midnight on Christmas Eve.  I did not enjoy Christmas day.  The kids were cranky.  We were cranky.  Bunny trail alert – Dexter has been speaking his mind lately without tact.  So, Joel tried to prep him before present exchange with my folks on Christmas Eve.  ”Now Dexter – when we get a present we don’t necessarily like, we say thank you…bla bla bla bla bla (which is probably how Dexter heard it).  When Dexter opened up this very cool Lego Coastguard present, what do you think he said?  Was it A) Thank you Grandma  B) This is super cool or C) This is the worst present ever?  For those of you who said C, you are correct.  He hated it so much that he left opening gifts Christmas morning in order to finish building it.  I wanted to strangle him.  Anyway, it wasn’t until Christmas dinner at my mom’s house that the cranky cloud lifted.  It was seeing my mom laughing so hard that she started crying that brought joy back into my heart.   Joel was sharing with my mom and dad at the dinner table that Dexter got a great big bin of Legos for Christmas.  Mom asked where they came from.  Joel said Craigslist and Nicky piped up “Macy’s”.  For some odd reason, the Macy’s answer by a 5 year old struck her funny bone and she just started laughing.  Then Joel needed to tell the story of how he had purchased 97 pounds of Legos off of Craigslist before Christmas and then tried to keep me from finding out while at the same time, attempting to wash all 97 lbs because they were covered in cat hair.  It was a gripping saga that ended in tragedy when I stumbled upon the last bit drying in the old au pair room.  Oops.   Christmas ended with us all laughing thus making it a good day.

The next day our house looked like it had puked Legos and toys everywhere.  We were throwing a New Year’s party and thus had 6 days to organize and clean.  After a trip to IKEA, we got everything relatively cleaned up and set up with a couple hours to spare.  I had such a fun night at our kid friendly New Year’s Eve party.  That is until midnight when it sounded like our house was being bombed.  It never pays to go to bed 20 minutes before midnight.  Just as I started to relax into slumber BAM – the house shook and our bedroom lit up from the outside.  A mild heart attack is a wonderful way to ring in the new year.  ;)

So, hear I find myself on Saturday night – typing away.  The only chores left are the ones we don’t want to do.  That’s why I’m writing.  Something other than cleaning or laundry.  Yuck.

Let me tell you briefly about our trip to San Diego.  If you are wondering what happened to Goldilocks, she took her own vacation that same week and stayed with a delightful couple in a city nearby.  Our trip was a Saturday to Saturday trip.  We had planned two days for Legoland, one day for SeaWorld, one day for touring the Midway, one day for the Wild Safari Park, and we were hoping to also see the Air and Space Museum.  We had a morning flight and everything went like clockwork.  It was amazing.  Our flight landed early and thus, we were ready to go see stuff in San Diego by 1pm that afternoon.  It was a gray day with just a tiny bit a drizzle.  We got our rental car and debated what to do next.  Let’s try for the Air and Space museum.  Joel navigated while I drove.  As we got close to area where the museum was, streets were blocked off, roads were backed up, police were directing traffic.  We had no idea what was going on.  Even the handicap parking was full.  We turned around and started back towards the downtown area when we spotted a parking spot.  We decided to walk the mile back to the museum.  Half way there, the rain started to pick up.  I was the only one in a rain coat.  It had no lining.  We sheltered under a tree.  The rain came down harder.  Ummm.  Not knowing how long it would last, we made the fateful decision to run for it.  The sky opened up.  Joel picked up Nicky and ran.  I picked up Dexter and put him back down.  Our pants were soaked through.  The pavement looked like a river.  When Dexter gets a drop of water on his clothes and he’s feeling a little overwhelmed, he loses it.  He started to cry.  I turned to him and apologized and probably told him to man up.  We found Joel and Nicky next to the locked door of the museum.  IT DID NOT OPEN FOR ANOTHER HOUR.  We were all soaked to the bone.  It was cold.  WHAT THE HECK, SAN DIEGO.  Where was the sun?  Apparently, there was a carnival going on in that park and all the museums were open for free in the afternoon.  We found a dry patch of concrete, Joel got out the IPAD which was in the backpack I was carrying (way to go Joel!) and he made the boys forget they were wet by playing a game called Stick Man.  We picked up two more kids to boot.  An hour went by without a fit.  The museum doors opened and we went in to an air conditioned museum.  It had some very cool planes though.  By the time we left, we were dry.  Here is how the rest of our week went: Sunday, we trooped all over the Midway.  Monday – LEGOLAND where we scored an amazing behind the scene tour of how they make Legos, touch raw Lego brick material and had a one of a kind Lego Christmas ornament made.  Utterly Awesome!  Tuesday – SeaWorld.  Wednesday – day of rest.  The boys hung out at the hotel, playing Ace Patrol (flying missions in WWI and WWII) on the iPad and swimming while I drove up to Long Beach to visit my friend Beth and her brand new daughter Gwen.   The boys had so much fun that Joel forgot to get them to do their homework for the day.  They looked so guilty when I got back.  ;)  Most dinners were picnics in our hotel room.  The boys are a nightmare to feed on trips and eat little.  Thursday had us back up in Legoland.  That night, while looking for somewhere to eat dinner in order to sit out the traffic, we stumbled upon a Panera Breads.  WOW – that was my favorite event of the whole trip.  Everyone ate all their meal and there were no fits.  IT WAS AWESOME.  Friday we hit the Wild Animal Safari park and rode the Seal (San Diego’s version of the Seattle Duck ride).  We were wiped out.  The boys did a ton of walking without a grumble.  Then, on Monday, when we were back home and it was time to walk home from school, both Nicky and Dexter threw a fit because they didn’t want to walk the 10 minutes it took to get home.  I love the irony of life, sometimes.

Included are pictures from our trip.  Enjoy.  It’s so hard to post pictures and stuff and not talk about Goldilocks but I’ll try.

https://plus.google.com/photos/108903742019117947095/albums/5965656489150495281?authkey=CN-tt9iqxubTjQE

(Oh, we still can’t turn on comments.  We’re on someone’s spam list and the load was overwhelming the servers of Alison’s husband’s company that hosts the website.  I tried a few different solutions, and none worked.  Maybe I’ll be able to figure it out soon, but in the meantime you can comment on the photos if you like on Google+.-Joel)