Six People in December.

This picture was taken on December 4, 2011. It was Sunday morning after mass, we spent over an hour at CSU Stanislaus taking pictures and goofing off. I took the tripod and we just played with the camera until we were sick of it and afterwards we went to lunch. It was a pretty great morning. I was so excited to have the family pictures done and I was planning my Christmas card and then reeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrh. [That was supposed to be the sound of a record being scratched, like when something is bumping along nicely and then is abruptly stopped, except that I have no idea how that would be spelled]. I didn't actually get anything in the mail until the day before Christmas. Can you say lame? Or is loser more accurate? Bah!

I love these pictures. I love these pictures. I wish I could share all of them but I don't have that kind of time and you would stop pretending you like them after the first 50.

Here are some of my favorites.

















Since someday I really am going to print all my blog posts up and make a book for each year I can't decide if I am going to pretend that this post was done in 2011 or if I should let it fall into mid-January 2012. Hmmm, I think 2011 wins.

Reindeer Games.

Tony took three of his nephews, three of his ahijados (godchildren) as well as Emily, Sarah and Wyatt to play laser tag in Modesto yesterday. It was the first time for Sarah and Wyatt. Let me tell you that my kids had a blast! They came home with their game sheets and told stories about all the fun they had. One of the stories in particular, I find so funny [we are laughing hysterically each time it is repeated] that I wanted to make sure I preserved it here on the old blog.

I've never played, but how it works is that you pick your nickname from a predetermined list of names and the laser tag people scan your nickname into the little computer that attaches to your weapon.

My son Wyatt told them he wanted the name "Ranger" and so they gave him his little computer and when he attached it to his laser gun. When he attached his LED screen, it lit up and said to him, "WELCOME REINDEER!" To that my son said "what the heck?" They played the game, which lasted 15-20 minutes. After the first round, they presented the scorecards to all the players by announcing their nicknames and their placement in the game to the group. When they called up "Reindeer," Emily looked puzzled and said loudly, "who the heck is Reindeer?" Wyatt popped out of the group and said, "that's me!" To that, the group laughed out loud at the bold little Reindeer who proudly accepted his game card! 21st place, woop woop! Go Reindeer boy!

At the start of the second round [they ended up playing three altogether], Wyatt was first in line to ask for his new nickname But this time he told the man behind the counter "Ranger." The man said, "Reindeer?" and Wyatt told him..."NO, NOT REINDEER, RAAAANNNNNGGGEEEERRRRR!"

After the second round, it was clear that Ranger kicked Reindeer's butt. Wyatt placed 17th! Go Ranger!

Off to play Blokus with the family, happy New Year's Eve! I want to get my December and holiday posts up before the day is over [that's mighty ambitious I know].

Dear 2011.

i read 17 books
i went back to work
i ran a mile, don't laugh, it was a big deal for me
i visited my homeland of Tennessee
I became the parent of a teenager

I went from this phone to this one

Thanksgiving 2011.

Better late than never, right? Ahem.

Thanksgiving 2011 was memorable because we were all together. For a refresher, my mother married Jim when I was around five and my sister Renee was four.  Jim had two children, Brad and Alicia, who were just a little bit older than Renee and I Then a bit later my brother Jimmy came along, I was almost seven when he was born. So that's how my mom and Jim came to have five of us.

When we were all young, we were always together for Thanksgiving. Brad and Alicia lived with their mother, Kathy, but they always spent Thanksgiving with us. Even as we got older, before most of the kids came along, we still always got together for this holiday. Then later, as more kids came, and more distance came between us all, we fragmented and these days it is rare that we all come together.

So that is why this year was so special for me.  Even if only for part of a day, a few hours really, we were all together again.  And it felt really good.

And here we are, when everyone had arrived, in our sweet first moments of complete reunion.



It was really a happy day. And because I cannot pick favorites, I am sharing seventy bajillion pictures with some nice collaging.



Oh look, there's more:



Geez man, more pictures!



Other things I loved about the day:

Sarah's thanksgiving prayer that she was too embarrassed to read

The wine Alicia brought from her winery, Niner Wine Estates

How much the kids loved being with their cousins

Mom's dressing and the way we all work to put everything together

The kids playing football in the street

Mom & Jim's happiness at having the family together

The one big table that we made that stretched from my dining room through the entire living room

The placeholders Emily made that looked like little Mayflower boats

The love that bubbled out of everyone that day

And mostly, just being with my people

Six People in November.

This installment is a little boring but that's not stopping me now when I almost have all twelve months done! I look super stressed but my family looks happy so I'm rolling with this one. We just got our tree up and decorations out and about when we took a few minutes on the couch together.  We never do this unless we are watching a movie so it was totally posed.  It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for this crazy little family of mine!

All the kids helped Tony put the lights up outside and we had instant Christmas before December 1st, though we saved the tree decorating until December. I was not quite ready to put away the Thanksgiving stuff (and truly it made me a bit sad to do so) but we magically had some extra time those three days we had off together after Thanksgiving, and I know better than to wait. Now that I'm thinking about Thanksgiving I realized that I took some awfully good pictures of my family that day and I need to share and make a whole post for that. It was remarkable because all my immediate family was here with all their spouses and small and small-big (you know what I mean by that don't you?) people.





Four days into it and I still can't believe it is already December of this year 2011!