Is That You Santa Claus?

It's Christmas Eve and I am so freakin' deekin' excited! Jack just popped open a tin can of chocolate and they flew all over. So now he's frantically running around, trying to collect them all and shove them in his mouth before I get them. The man loves his chocolate, just like his Mamma.

Due to our conflicting schedules and our promise to give as a family, we have extended our Twelve Random Acts to be completed by the New Year. Next year, our goal will be Christmas.

I'm slowly learning to slow down. I hate it. I want to go go go. There is so much I want to do, so much to show Jack and so many pictures I want to take, but the baby likes me to sit. I don't like to sit.

Sorry to cut this short, but that's how everything goes around here. All done in small increments. Merry Christmas!

Skipped Out

Tis' three mornings before Christmas. Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.

Better not be a mouse.

Jose and Jack are sleeping and I have a quiet morning to myself. Paving the way for Christmas traditions today, cookie baking and present wrapping. This month has been all about teaching Jack the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of giving.

Last week was a blur of worries, frustrations and tissues. Nothing was accomplished. We won't be sending out Christmas cards this year. There just wasn't enough time.

We had a little scare. I thought the baby was kicking. Hard, because I could feel it in my throat. Getting winded so easily is not uncommon when you're seven months pregnant with a toddler to chase after. It turns out my heart was skipping every fourth beat, consistently.

Skipped beats are no biggie, usually. However, when Mom had this during her second pregnancy, Jeff was diagnosed with SVT in utero. His heart rate exceeded past 240, way too fast. They put Mom on heart medicine (Digoxin), induced her early and took him out for a plethora of tests, needle pokes, ice baths and cruel torture. This was twenty years ago yesterday. Happy birthday Jeffrey!

So we were scared. I was afraid to think about being in a hospital (not clocked in). About disputing silly tests with the doctor. I don't want an xray. I don't want any medicine. I want to be natural and have my baby at home. I want him to be healthy. I want to welcome him into a warm room with only the voices he knows.

After some short observation, making sure my electrolytes were okay and the baby's heart beat was perfect, I went home. I just have to take it easy, cut the coffee and cut the dark chocolate.

We did manage to sneak in some time to meet Santa. The mall had a wonderland of presents and trees and elves and reindeer. Perfect icons to teach Jack about the beauty of the characters. I did some research and learned that we have a melting pot of Christmas culture. Traditions blended from all over the world to create a mythical fairy tale.

We met Aunt Stephanie at the mall with her beautiful boys. Jose and I got to practice having a baby and a toddler out to lunch. Haha! Who am I kidding? Out to lunch? Ain't gonna happen.

When Jack caught sight of the cookie counter, there was no passing GO until we paid the toll. And we did, dutifully, hand over his M&M chocolate chip cookie like a good mommy and daddy would.

We stopped by this cool playground to run out some of Jack's energy while hopefully preserving our own. We worked him. He climbed this wall all by himself.

All he can ever talk about is the bide (slide). I feared these as a kid. He's not a fan of the swings, but he'll climb great heights to fly down a slide. Cautious Daddy follows him the whole way.

I'll post the official Santa pictures later. Due to the mayhem of last week, I couldn't round us up for a good Christmas picture. So no Christmas cards this year. My super mom cape couldn't pull through. I'm limited in what I can accomplish. It takes me two days to complete two-hour tasks. I'm not sure if it's from the lack of coffee, lack of chocolate or this slot in my pregnancy, but I'm pooped. I'm hoping to get something out by New Years. Ideas are brewing and I'm excited.

What's in a name?

I don't speak photography jargon. But I was playing with my aperture, whatever that is, on my new gadget and took a picture of my sparkling cup of coffee. Because every morning, my coffee sparkles, it calls to me.

And everything else fades into the background until my coffee can be ingested and the motors in my head start turning and I can see clearly again.

And move onto the finer things in my life. There is one thing finer than fine coffee. Well, two more and soon to be three.

Houston, we might have a name. No, it ain't Houston. We're going to play with it for a week and see if it sticks. Dad and Jem were sitting down at the dining room table looking over the periodic table in hopes of finding a name. Argon? Hydrogen?

When desperate times call for naming your kid after fruits and vegetables, we need to go back to basics. That's what we liked about Jack. How about Staphylococcus?

My heart melted today at the cash register at Target and I cried. I could blame the pregnancy hormones, but I'd rather give credit where it's due. This one is due to the beauty of the Christmas spirit.

Random Act Number Three: Teeny, tiny, last minute decision. Jose, Jack and I stood at the register checking out our many bags of frozen fruit, cart half full for a family of three and a half. This old lady was standing in line behind us with a Christmas card. Normally, we'd let her skip us, but that cashier had already started ringing us up. So I snatched her card (a bit aggressively) and handed it to the cashier to scan with our things. Then handed it back and said, "Merry Christmas." She started crying. And hugged us both. Then I started crying. And it was sweet.

This, by far, is the best Christmas tradition.

Jack is very organized. He puts everything away, tucks in all the chairs, lines up his puzzles before playing with them. It's unusual. But cool.

Lately, he's been putting away his chocolate milk cups. In the pantry, the bar cabinet, the pan cupboard. We're finding them everywhere, just not soon enough. Not until we catch him pulling them out a day later at his leisure for a sip. Yuck.

Tonight starts another Christmas tradition. The boot. We're putting Jack's boot in his window sill for one of the thirteen Icelandic Santas to fly down to sunny Florida and leave him a treat. One will come each night until Christmas. Pictures to come!

Twelve Random Acts of Kindness

I have been quite the slacker in the blog department. I couldn't justify blabbing on a computer when I had school work piling up. Now that it's all done, I'm writing a very long post.

To start, I got a new lens! Jose let me open my Christmas present very early, as soon as UPS dropped it off. He has been talking about it for months. There is good to say about a man who doesn't keep secrets from his wife. He is a great gift giver, but as much as he talks about it, you think you've had the gift for years.

Welcome home my awesome wide angle lens.

With my new shnazzy lens, I had to plan an outing. Just in time for the Winter Garden Christmas Parade. We were right up close to all the goods and my camera got it all. Know why? Because it's wide angle!

A huge difference from my zoom lens. Still adapting, lots to play with.

The perk to best city Christmas parade in the state is having ties. That's my cousin on the right with her dance team. Rock out Eydis!

There's that good feeling you get when you take your first born to see something brand new, like a Christmas parade. And you get all excited. You dress him up in cute clothes, you pack your camera with every lens and filter, you invite the grandparents, you get there early, you find the perfect spot... because this is his first parade. We gotta do it up right.

And it's picture perfect in every way. The parade has fire trucks and big trucks and dancers and horses...

The parade has Mr. Clause and his wife riding on a sleigh behind reindeer (it's the real Santa, you know).

And then you turn around to get a great shot of your kid's face all lit up for the first time seeing this great parade, to find he's gone. Because Amma took him to check out the shops!

Next year, I plan to bring a shield. A big one. The kids in the parade like to belt their patrons with hard candy. Nice gesture, but I brought home a welt or two.

Jack is at a great age. He is figuring things out on his own, making them up as he goes. Becoming his own person with his own big ideas. Like eating macaroni out of a shoe.

I think there is nothing more important than letting your child be creative. Exercise the right brain so it doesn't shrivel when math and science and state exams are enforced and music is pushed aside. Paint the walls, glue pennies to the carpet, draw on Daddy while he's sleeping. As long as everything is Elmer's and Crayola, expand his imagination.

It's Christmas time. And time to deck the halls. No child labor laws were broken during this event, even though it may appear they were.

I want one, I want one! Think pooper scooper, odor eater, chewed up socks, shed hair, chasing behind pup with a grocery bag... okay, I'm good.

Don't you just love my new lens?

Peek

A

Boo

Jack learned a new word: Lucky. He says is over and over. I taught it to him when I bought him his first scratch off lottery ticket. He continued to repeat the word while holding the losing ticket over his head and dancing around the house. True optimist.

We have a new family tradition. I love it. It brings on the feel good, giving Christmas spirit. We're calling it Twelve Random Acts of Kindness. I was inspired by a woman who turned 32 and decided she was going to pay it forward with all of her 32 years of greatness. We chose twelve because it sounds like a good Christmas number, like the twelve days of Christmas. The plan is this: make someone's day. Someone random, a stranger, an acquaintance. Do it twelve times before Christmas.

Random Act Number One: A five dollar gift card to Axum Coffee, the best coffee shop in Winter Garden where we happened to give away our first gift.

Extra plus: Axum Coffee donates 100% of their net profit to greater organizations who word to stop human trafficking and bring water wells to Ethiopia.

Random Act Number Two: We found two cute lovebirds sitting on a swing in front of the downtown Christmas Tree. They were snuggled and cozy. We love snuggle and cozy. They got a card with a scratch off. Hope Jack rubbed off some of his lucky.

Maybe we made someone else's day, but in the end, it made our day. Ten more to come. Cheers!