catching up

It's about a week before Christmas. We are in for over 24 hours of rain, turning to snow tonight. Temperatures are warm. The storm is moving from Flagstaff and across Gallup and looks to be centered in Santa Fe, with more precipitation moving from California. There's no snow predicted ahead for Christmas Day, and very little snow now in the northern mountains. We'd like to take the boys skiing, but I don't see how that is possible at the moment.

Ariel will leave Sunday for Washington. She's busy wrapping things up, and has a few jobs lined up to begin the new year.

We've managed to get some gifts for the boys already. It may be modest this year: a few Beyblades, some Lego building sets, a couple of things to add to the Wii, and a robotic spy camera that Jack wants. I did get Ry a Star Wars Lego set, as he wants. He'd settle for Indiana Jones, but I didn't see any around. He researches Legos on the internet constantly, so I'm not sure I got one that's high on his wish list. He's written several lists of Beyblades he wants (all of them really), and this weekend he constructed a North Pole scene out of paper and glue and color markers. Cyndi has done something very nice. I came home to find she had made bird's nest cookies, my favorite Christmas cookie. Ry says they're his favorite, too. They have walnuts, and Jackson still avoids all nuts for any possible allergic reaction. Jackson and I finished off the summer sausage over the last weekend. We also took out some chicken soup from the freezer and Rylee raved about it for two days, gobbling up bowlfuls.

We had a nice dinner at a new Chinese restaurant we go to since our previous favorite closed when their landlord increased the rent. We were gathered at the table, very talkative and boisterous. Both of the boys were kneeling on their chairs talking about this and that, joking with Cyndi and me. For once, they weren't wandering around from their seats. The boys love their egg drop soup, with a sprinkle of chow mein noodles, and a dash of soya. We get an order of sweet & sour chicken, with the sauce on the side, so that it's like chicken nuggets for the boys. And Jackson loves his rice. I know at one point we were talking about how to deal with YouTube videos that might not be appropriate to watch and we talked about kid's shows on tv, what favorites Jack watched as a toddler, what Rylee at that age watched with Jackson, what Cyndi and I watched.

From there we went to Jackson's third grade holiday concert at the school. The children stood on risers in the gymnasium, which was packed. Well done concert, the children singing with gusto, all in unison, with a few humorous Thanksgiving songs, including one about an Albuquerque Turkey, thrown in and a couple accompanied by rhythm instruments, including, of course, Jingle Bells. Jackson played a triangle and bells. One of the third grade teachers was the music teacher in the past. Jackson always loved her. Ry had a pj party during the day in his classroom. They will be off for two weeks.

Since Comcast has been transitioning to some new digital system (mandated by a law that the cable industry lobbied for, I'm sure, and which should allow them better access to monitor usage), we will be without a tv for about a week. I don't think the boys are really missing it. There's still DVDs, Netflix, internet and IPod.

Ry and I made French toast on Saturday, which was a very good day. We did a run to Costco. No one wanted to go. On the way home, we stopped at the theater to buy tickets for the matinee for Tangled, a Disney movie based on Rapunzel. We put away the milk and turned around to meet Elley and Don and Nicholas and Lauren at the theater. We brought some fruit rollups we bought at Costco, the tickets were cheap for the matinee, but we splurged on theater popcorn and kettle corn. We got there early and saved seats in the middle of the theater. It was a kick for all of us. We've never, all eight of us, gone to a movie together, and the four children sat in a row between Cyndi and me. It was more fun for me to watch their faces lit up by the screen, munching on popcorn. Ry crawled up in Cyndi's lap near the end, when the music became more emphatic. I almost dozed.

On Sunday we went to mass, the second week of advent. The boys went to the children's eulogy. Ry asked again that I not take him. I tell the boys not to sit in the back or in the corners. Ry said he sat on the carpet in front, and he even raised his hand. Finally, Jack has begun to settle into church, not so much squirming or hanging onto Cyndi, no playing, and, of course, Ry follows his lead. We even get the boys to hold hands for the Our Father. This was the first time Jackson received communion as we go up together as a family, with Rylee still crossing his hands for a blessing.

Let's see. We went to the mountain trailhead for pictures of the boys after that and a little visit to Trader Joe's, where we haven't been in a very long time. The weather was perfect, the sky blue.

I got a USAA rebate and a Costco rebate in the mail this week. We may use that to splurge on a King Crab feast with ABQ family, our Christmas gift. I'll say more as that develops.