Invasion of the Pearson Clan

We have invaded my mom and dad's house. That is all of us except Eric, he had to work and is on his way here this very second. It has been so fun to see my brothers and sisters who are away at school - and Steven who is just not with me very often. My kids are in LOVE. They have been playing non-stop ever since we got here. They have been outside throwing the football, playing soccer and the twins have been riding their bikes.

On the bike riding, I have found that Caroline is a little clueless with the whole pedaling and steering thing - two basic requirements to riding a bike. I did not think riding a bike with training wheels could be difficult. I guess I was wrong. We are going to have to work with her on it. Michelle has taken some photos with her new camera, and when she wakes up I will have to post them because they are funny. Allie even poses on her bike.

Today we are looking forward to a day of more playing, I think Aunt Melissa is taking the twins to McDonalds for lunch, and some more visiting. When Eric gets here I think we will go and see his mother. Fun times for all.

Tradition

Say that with the gusto of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof! Christmas Eve is a time for great traditions in the Pearson Family - and this year we started some new ones as well.

Ever since I can remember, we eat waffles on Christmas Eve. This started in my fathers family and he carried that tradition to our family growing up. At some point in my early childhood, someone gave my dad a pinata on Christmas Eve and we had so much fun with it, we started to get one each year.

When Eric and I got married, we just adopted those traditions and added to them slightly. We watch Luke II each year, and read the Nativity Story from the Bible. Then, the kids open a gift wich is pajamas which they wear that night. Sophie has told me that she likes Christmas Eve as much or more than Christmas because of our traditions.

So, this year we did the waffles, pinata, watched Luke II, opened PJ's and added the girls doing the Nativity Story in the form of a play. It was fun to see them, and they sure enjoyed putting it together. Although, when Caroline as a pregnant Mary was riding the donkey, Kelsey, and waiving like a beauty queen it made me wonder if she really got it. You will notice Kelsey and Sophie serving as the choir of angels.

One of the big questions is always who will break the pinata. There is alwasy lots of postering about who is the most studly. We go in age order. This year, it was Ryan who busted it open. I can remember, in my youth, going through the family a couple of times to get it open. I just don't think they make them like they used to.

We like to bring the festivities to an end by 8:00 so the little people can go to bed. Since that included Kelsey and Sophie this year and Ryan got to stay up a while, we had all kinds of weeping and wailing and cries of "It's not fair." Since Santa does not come until everyone is asleep they finally gave up.

It was a great night of tradition, family and fun.

Making Christmas Treats

One of the longtime traditions of Christmas is the making of the treats to take to neighbors and friends. This is one of those areas I am not always so good at being a mom. The kids love to come and to help. They live for this kind of stuff. But when they help, the stuff does NOT look like Martha Stewart made it. Let's be real for a second, when I make it does not look like Martha but I can pretend.

Well, this year I decided to go for being a good mom and not Martha. I let Sophie and Kelsey cut out many of the Christmas sugar cookies, until they got bored with it, and I let all four girls frost and decorate the cookies ALL BY THEMSELVES (I did watch for licking of the fingers for those of you who might have been the recipients of said cookies). They had a ball, and made a huge mess. Allie was pretty good at it, but Caroline could not find her groove. She loved piling on the sprinkles, and many of the cookies had more sprinkles than cookie!

I did the Rachel Ray fudge, because it always works. I was going to make English Toffee and Divinity, but lets just say a candy maker I am not. After two batches of English Toffee that did NOT WORK, I gave up and just went for peppermint bark, because again, it always works.

The girls had fun running the treats around and there are even some for Eric's HT families. All in all, I would call it a successsful treat making adventure.

A Day of Family Fun

As promised, we had our day of family fun yesterday. Inspired by the Christmas episode of the Office, we decided to take the kids to Hido for lunch. This is a great place close to us and it is reasonable for lunch. I will say that I think they older kids were more impressed than the little ones. When we first sat down I even caught Ryan trying to figure out his chopsticks - he would not do it again for a photo. Our chef was great and even did the onion volcano. Eric was so impressed he gave like a 40% tip which is just craziness for the man who only likes to dine at places where no tip is required. Caroline was the big surprise of the group - she really seemed to get the hang of the chopsticks the quickest. Of course, they had the helper things on them, but she still figured it out.

After a delicious lunch, we headed "downtown" (the twins new code for Houston) to the Museum of Science for a screening of Night at the Museum at the IMAX theater. This is a great movie. It got a Pearson Family seven thumbs up, and a movie which we all like is hard to find. It was great to see it at the IMAX, and our admission to the theater allowed us to go into the museum at no additional charge. It was fun to see some of the same types of exhibits as were in the movie. Maybe next year when we go to NYC we can see the real museum.

The festivus miracle was the lack of fighting and the good time which was had by all. I think everyone got to do something new, and we all enjoyed each others company for real family fun!

A Night With Uncle Markie

So, not only did my single 20 something brother take my three youngest, he took them out on the town, and sent photos to boot. The girls had a great time!!

He took them out to dinner for Pizza, and then to ColdStone for ice cream. He even let Sophie pick as many "mix ins" as she wanted. That does not happen with mom and dad. He then took them out and bought the new Pirates CD and let them watch it all.

The next day he took them downtown, to his old office, to ride the Dart train, and other sites in Houston. The babies were astonished that he could go and get milk for breakfast without getting into a car - they could walk to a store. That just blew their mind.

All in all Uncle Mark is way more fun than mom and dad. He is their hero, and they have had a taste for city living. I think suburban life is not the same for them anymore.

And The Preparations Continue

Today started peaceful. All four girls were gone and it was quite and nice. I got up, late and lazy, and worked for a few hours. Then, I had to kick it into high gear and continue with the Christmas preparations. I sacrificed body and soul and went to Costco.

I am a Costco regular. I buy most of our groceries there. I even, on many occasions, need to get the flatbed instead of a cart (sad, but true). Today, it was not the regulars but the casual Costco user who was at the store. I have as much use for them as I have for the casual traveller at the airport. It was crowded and I was off my game. I hate it when that happens. I muddled through and made it home.

Uncle Markie showed up with three girls, and instantly the voice level increased. They had a blast "in town". Allie did not want to come home, but rather live with Uncle Markie forever. I think he had fun, but was fine returning them to their makers.

I am off to get the cards out, laundry done, and keep from killing kids who did not get enough sleep last night and now need to go to bed. Is 4:30 too early for bedtime?

On Being the Eldest

I am the oldest child in a clan of 12. Yes that is 10 children, plus two parents which equals 12. I have a sister who is three years my younger, and then there was an eight year span after which my parents had eight kids in 10 years (or something like that). My teenage years were spent watching little ones, changing diapers, and swearing I would never have a whole bunch of kids myself - that got me real far.

Now, all those little ones are big ones and I will say they are all great with my kids. They love to be with their aunts and uncles. We were driving in the car the other day and Allie asked me what my brother's names were. We went through the list - Matthew, Mark, Michael, Patrick and Steven. Out of the blue she says, "Uncle Mark I just love that guy!" Of course she loves all her uncles, but this is who she singled out at the time.

Mark, the guy she just loves, has taken the month of December off - it is the December of Mark for you Seinfeld fans. He is threatening to eat a block of cheese as big as a car battery stripped naked to the waist. Anyway, he came by to visit today. The kids were excited to see him and in the course of conversation he offered to take some of them home with him.

I don't know how serious he was, but I am the mother of five so if someone offers to take some of the brood I jump at the chance. I did give him another out, and then said he would take them. He wanted to take the twins and Sophie wanted to come as well so she tagged along. I think the twins were happy to have somone "older" with them (I am not sure what that says about Mark, but hey).

So, Mark, Sophie and the twins are on their way for a rip roaring time in Houston. He is going to bring them back tomorrow afternoon. Now that is service. It makes all those years of watching him more than worth it. The question is will he survive? There are many who have been brought down with less. But since Mark is sure he could take on a large group of 12 year old boys whohave an average knowledge of kung-fu movies, I think he can handle two five year olds and a nine year old.

Here is to a night of quiet and calm, and maybe a date with my husband. THANK YOU UNCLE MARKIE!!!

Big Momma Mixer

So, I have not posted for a week. It has been that kind of a week. I had just started a long and drawn out recap of last week, and we had a power glitch. The power flicked off and on. It was enough to kill the computer and I lost my stuff. I took that as a sign that no one wanted to hear about my crappy week. Lets just say it involved a very bad hotel, a very bad presentation and a meeting with the good ole boys from Tomball ISD (the last one alone could send a sane person over the edge).

Now, on to the bright note. My mixer arrived! When Ryan was about two, I got my KitchenAid mixer. I loved it and thought it would be just what I needed forever. These things last forever, and I was set. Fast forward 14 years and four more children. It just was not big enough to handle the workload for a family of seven. I have been stalking them for a while, and decided that would be a great Christmas present.

I hunted on the web and found a great deal. It was delived on Nov 30. I turned it on and it was dysfunctional. The slow speed was whip and it would time out due to overheating. Of course, I did not find this out intil AFTER I had started to make cinnamon rolls. So, I called KitchenAid and miracle of all miracles they told me they would send out a new one right away and then UPS could come and pick up the old one. (Now that is old fashioned customer service. Take note and buy from KitchenAid) It took a while, but the new one arrived.

When you look at the difference it is amazing. I guess this is just one more example of the fact I have a large family. Sometime I forget I have a big family. I think it just is. But, then I look at the mixers and it hits me - I have FIVE kids!!!! Oh well, now I can even make a double batch of rolls easily. I can't wait.

So, here is hoping next week is better than this one has been. I am home all week and taking vacation most of the days. The Christmas shopping is 95% done and we can just have some fun family time (is that an oxymoron?).

Firetruck Santa

Each year Santa comes to Lakewood Grove with some help from our friends at the Cypress Creek Volunteer Fire Dept. This year was no exception. The fun thing about this year is Kelsey and Sophie got to ride on the truck as he went through the neighborhood, compliments of Mike Huffman. Megan called and asked the girls if they wanted to go, and of course they jumped on it (look for them on the right hand side of the long pic).

Allie and Caroline, see how I did not say babies, were upset because they did not get to go. Allie asked me, "How come me and Caroline don't get to go on the firetruck?" (see how honest I am - I did not write the question with correct grammar, but rather how she said it. I did correct her but the two of them have some real issues with speech and they both do the same things which only exacerbates the problem) I digress. Back to the conversation. I told her she could not go because she was not big.

Enter the firetruck and Santa. On top of the truck is a boy from her class. This of course prompts the question, "How come Collin gets to go on the firetruck? I am as old as he is." I can't win for losing. The answer, because you were not invited and the girls were invited.

Now, Allie is in a race for the most dramatic member of our family - and let me tell you that is quite a tight race. Four girls and one teenage boy create lots of drama. The problem with Allie is she is such a faker. She got all teared up to give me her sob story about how it was not fair. I looked at her and said, "Knock it off." Her response. She stopped, and started laughing. See what I mean - DRAMA QUEEN.

So, we have had our second run in with Santa this year. All without a trip to the mall!! It's a festivus miracle.

Boeing 767

I spend most of my time flying around on MD80 airplanes. They are like a big bus. Long and jam packed full of people. They are not what I would call deluxe - just a workhorse.

Today, when I came to Syracuse I flew on a 767. Now let me tell you, that makes the MD-80 look like a Greyhound bus. This is a plane that they use for international flights, each seat has its own TV screen with a list of 8 different movies/TV shows you can pick from. It is like you have the remote control! There is more room and you don't feel so crampt. Of course, it helps that they plane was not full so I did not have anyone next to me. It made for a nice flight - then of course I had the connection and had to get on a little commuter flight. That is pretty much what you get into Syracuse.

It is snowing and freezing here. I really don't know how you could live with this. Crazy thing is this is not the coldest it gets. I need to come back in February when, I am told, it is really cold. EEK.

I head home today - I will take the Houston heat after this!!

The Ward Christmas Party

It is that time of year - the ward Christmas Party. It is always interesting to me what this becomes. You have the traditional party, meal, songs Santa and then you have the person who tries to do something different - something new.

We had the traditional party this year. There was a dinner and then a replaying of the nativity story. It was sweet and the little kids even sang Silent Night. Then, there is the awkward transition to Santa and Mrs. Claus. It has always struck me as weird that you make the move from the spiritual to the commercial.

When I was the ward Activities person I tried everything I could do NOT to have Santa at the party. In my opinion, if we are focusing on what we should be, Santa did not have to be there. The moms and dads could take their kids to the mall and see Santa. It only worked one time when we did the Night In Bethlehem. After that, I was forced to have Santa - something about majority opinion.

This year did provide for a fun night and the twins got to see Santa and let him know what they wanted for Christmas. I guess that saves me from taking them to the mall. So, I guess that makes me a hypocrite. If I had my way I still would not mix them, but when in Rome...

Sophie and the iPOD

((I thought I had posted this yesterday. I think I wrote it and waited to take a picture of her. So much for my memory))

Sophie decided last year she wanted to save her money and get an iPOD. She has been saving her money, and has not bought herself anything in the last year. Well, she has finally saved enough money and has purchased a new Nano.

It is so fun to see her so excited about it. She wears it all over the house. We now hear the sounds of Sophie's voice carrying in the house. She does not always listen now when you call her, but she is having a great time.

Once again, I wonder at how different all my kids are. Raised in the same house, there are some of my kids who if they have $5.00 in their pocket HAVE to go to the store and spend it. I have others who are always broke and looking for bucks. Then we have Sophie who has saved her money all year. It is nice to know maybe we are doing something right with someone...