Mom of the Month

Like most families, our lives get pretty hectic around Christmas time. Perhaps the argument could be made that our lives do not need to get any more busy or stressful, but they usually do. So, like those families, December is spent thinking of ways to make the loved ones in our life feel special. Little gifts or goodies to make and send to family far away. This year, while I did not make goodies, I did do a lot of hand-made gifts. I also stepped up the Christmas letter this year.

But, unlike most families, ours has an added little stress. Birthdays. That is correct. Plural. Both of my children are fortunate enough to have their birthday's within a week of each other. However, they are unfortunate that Christmas is right in the middle of their birthdays.

Our odd year solution is wonderful, I think. Family Vacation. Every other year we will skip all the presents for Birthdays and Christmas, and instead, go on an awesome family trip. Last year we went to Disneyland. It was amazing! The kids had a blast, the parents had fun and it was warm. 'Nuff said.

I think our 'even year' celebration will still be a work in progress. We will try new things, and find unique ways to celebrate their birthdays. But this year, I did what most normal moms do for their normal birthday-ed kids. I let each of my children have a birthday party. ON THE ACTUALLY DAY.

Wow. I know. Pretty freaking cool Naomi. You are.

I did have to put a few guidelines down though. Each kid was only allowed to invite three friends. No cake, ice cream, candles, decorations, or goodie-bags. Two hours maximum. Geez. After writing that, I feel like Scrooge. Maybe I am only slightly cool now. But I let them each choose a fun 'dessert decorating' activity. Claire chose to decorate cupcakes and Levi chose to decorate gingerbread men. Except, that turned into gingerbread animals, since I waited till the last minute to get gingerbread men cookie cutouts and Fred Meyer was sold out and I did not feel like driving to Target, K-mart or Walmart at 1o pm.

But whatever, all the kids had fun. Especially Levi and Claire. And for that, I do feel pretty good.

Here are some pictures.

Thing #2's b-day party (hers is first, after all)







Here she is surrounded by her loot:


And thing #1:







It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the girls were all dressed up. Either dresses, or skirts, or fancy shoes, or jewelry. They also were pretty meticulous about their decorating. It probably took them a good half an hour to decorate three cupcakes each.

The boys, however, all have Jedi capes on (I made them put all light sabers on the floor.) They, also in contrast to the girls, slathered on the frosting and really dumped the decorations on. They were done, 10 minutes tops. And there were a lot more cookies than cupcakes.