Friendship Drama

The Christmas festivities are complete.  I have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, I'm glad that it's all wrapped up and life can return to normal, especially eating life since I have continued to put on weight.  On the other hand, there's always so much anticipation and then it seems to be over so quickly that it's a little sad.  Both my daughter and I have been fighting the blues a little bit today.  My husband went downtown to spend his Christmas money at the record shops (yes, buying actual vinyl records).  My son begged me to take him to Target to spend a gift card he got since he'd already built all of his new Lego sets and the gift card was burning a hole in his pocket.  He's saving the rest of his money for a trip to the Lego store with one of his friends.  I'm always a bit amazed that my son and this boy are still friends.  This boy and my son met when the boy was in 2nd grade and my son was in Kindergarten.  They became fast friends because they had so much in common, and they're still friends even now when my son is in 5th grade and still in elementary school and this boy is in 7th grade and at middle school.  But I'm glad they're still friends because this boy is so kind and smart, and he's a very good influence on my son.

Some of my son's other friends I'm not so happy about.  I know that it makes no sense to be angry with 9- and 10-year old boys, but when the maternal instinct kicks in, rational thought tends to exit.  There are two boys who are a year younger than my son, so who are currently in 4th grade, who live a couple of blocks away from us.  My son can walk right to their houses on the creek that runs behind our house.  They live across the green belt from each other, so not on the same street, but very close.  One of the boys I've never been overly fond of; he's like the antithesis of the older boy who brings out the best in my son.  This 4th grade boy and my son tend to bring out the worst in each other, and they've always been on-again, off-again friends.  They've been on the outs for some time now, which doesn't bother me (or frankly, my son) all that much.  But the problem is that he's a bit of a bully.  He tells the other boy who lives near him who he should be friends with, and gets angry if he doesn't listen.

For several weeks now, my son and the other 4th grade boy, who's also very nice, haven't been able to be friends because the nice boy is afraid of the other boy who lives near him.  But then the other day, while we're out on winter break, this nice boy came over to play with my son again.  They played for hours and my son told him that he'd continue to stay away from him at school so he didn't have any problems.  The boy left his gloves at our house, so the next morning, Christmas Eve, we walked over to return his gloves.  He asked if he could come and play again, so again the boys spent hours together playing Legos, running around in the yard, and playing the Wii.  It was starting to get dark when it was time for this boy to head home, so I told him we'd walk him home.  I don't think his parents worry about it too much, and I'm alright with the boys playing on the creek alone during daylight, but not after dark.  Just as we turned off the creek to go to his house, we saw the other boy playing on the greenbelt.  The boy who had just spent two days playing with my son screamed out, "my parents made me!"

It hurt my heart that my son had to hear that, and that this other little boy was so scared that he felt he had to lie and hurt my son to protect himself.  My son hasn't been an angel in this situation, and I know that he's brought some of the ire on himself.  These are children, who of course want to protect themselves and don't stop to think about how they're impacting others.  But I have to admit that I wanted to go over and have strong words with the boy who's being mean to my son and scaring his neighbor so badly that he can't admit he still wants to be friends with my son.  I don't want the unkind boy and my son to be friends again, because they cause too much trouble together.  I just don't want him to destroy my son's friendships with people with whom he plays well.  But I can't yell at him for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is because I don't want to scare a child, even if a small, mean part of me feels he deserves it.

I just keep reminding myself that next year my son will be going to middle school and these boys will still be at elementary school.  He'll make new friends there, and hopefully find himself as a student a bit more.  At my son's request, we got him entered into the lottery to attend the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) middle school, so maybe he'll go there and never have to see this particular child again.  Even if his name isn't drawn in that lottery, he'll have a year at middle school before he'll be at the same school as this boy again.  A year in which he'll hopefully mature even more and move on from this.  It's really hard not to be able to fix this for my son.  But maybe he's learning some valuable life and relationship lessons in this mess.

On another topic, it's quite beautiful here right now with our Christmas snow.  The day after Christmas (Boxing Day) we didn't get much sun and it continued to snow lightly off and on all day.  That was also the day we had our final Christmas celebration.  My in-laws (who I adore) came over, along with my father-in-law's parents.  They are a bit harder to take, and I fully admit that I had to have a couple of glasses of wine to get through that event!  At least the view out the window was lovely.

The waxing moon behind the snow-covered trees

I love the way these LED rope lights color and light the snow 

 The sun came out today and the snow sparkled under the blue sky .

White Christmas

We got our white Christmas this year!  I think we got about 3 - 4 inches of snow and everything looks simply lovely right now.

Snow-covered trees this morning

Snow and Christmas lights last night

Snow and Christmas lights on our deck last night

We had the most wonderful day yesterday.  I just feel so blessed to have a loving husband and two healthy children.  I have my frustrations (many would say "first-world problems") in life, but those don't prevent me from recognizing how fortunate I truly am to have my wonderful family.

We had a nice time at my mom's house yesterday also.  My nephew is still only five, so he really keeps the holiday magic alive for all of us.  My poor mom, who has never been a detail person (but is a wonderful and amazing nurse) was going through the holiday for the first time in over 40 years without my dad.  She ordered gifts for all of us, but didn't realize that once gifts were ordered, they no longer showed up on the Amazon wish lists.  She didn't remember who had asked for what and thought she got it all figured out.  But...my nephew unwrapped my new camera bag, and my husband unwrapped my new wireless remote camera trigger.  My mom was so embarrassed, but the rest of us found it endearing.

The drive home last evening from my mom's house was a little dicey, but we took it slow (actually way too slow, the person in the Jeep in front of me thought they couldn't go faster than 20 mph) and made it home safely.  Once we got back home we all changed into our pajamas and spent the evening together.  I love snow, and I especially love it when we're all cozy and warm together at home.  I think tonight after we have our final holiday celebration with my father-in-law's parents, we're going to change into pajamas again, start a fire, and watch Guardians of the Galaxy together.  At one of my previous jobs, we used to have field managers come into the office and they'd have a scavenger hunt where they had to go around the office and find people based on interesting facts we had listed about ourselves on this sheet.  I never knew what to put on that sheet that others would find interesting, because I live such a boring life.  But I'm alright with boring.  I feel loved and blessed, and while my evening may sound boring to some, it sounds like the perfect evening to me!

I hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday, and that you get to enjoy the rest of the holiday season with people you care about.

Our Extended Christmas Story

It's Christmas morning and it's been a wonderful day so far.  Our Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve and don't end until the day after Christmas.  Last night we kicked off the holiday with The Feast of the Seven Fishes.  My mother-in-law is Italian, and her parents were the first generation born in the United States.  In fact, some of her grandparents didn't even speak English.  So we carry on the Italian tradition of the fish feast on Christmas Eve.  When my husband and I started dating, and for the first few years after we were married, we went to his grandparents' house, and it was a huge event.  Now that my husband's grandparents are more elderly, and his grandmother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, his mom hosts the celebration.

My husband grilled a whole grouper for the meal.  Here are the before and after pictures.

One of the fish dishes is spaghetti with anchovy sauce.  When I first started attending these feasts with my husband, I must admit that I stuck to the meat sauce.  But over the years I've gotten more adventurous and I enjoy the special spaghetti now.  In fact the only two people who ate the meat sauce last night were my son and my husband's uncle.  Another one of the dishes was smoked rainbow trout that my husband's grandfather caught.  It's a fun evening, and the kids get to open their stockings at their Papa and Gran's house.

This morning we woke the kids up (it's sort of bittersweet that we have to wake them now, rather than them being so excited that they just had to wake us) and did our family gift exchange.  I'd post pictures but I promised my teen-aged daughter that there would be no pictures of her in her pajamas on social media.  There are Legos all over our family room floor now!  I got Adobe Lightroom for my gift, and I'm very excited to start using that on some of my photos.  We'll be going to my mom's house for a late Christmas lunch today and we'll exchange gifts with my family there.

Then tomorrow we'll finally wrap up when my in-laws come over to our house with my father-in-law's parents.  We'll do our final gift exchange at that time and finally be done with the holiday.  It's kind of fun to spread it out like this, and it's also always kind of nice to be done.

It's sunny and relatively warm right now, though it looks like I'm going to get my wish of a white Christmas after all.  We're under a Winter Weather Advisory right now.  It's supposed to start snowing this afternoon and we're supposed to get 4 to 6 inches.  I have visions of sitting in our living room and staring out at the falling snow as a background to our Christmas Tree, just like the parents do at the end of A Christmas Story (one of my favorite holiday movies).

I hope that all my readers are having a peaceful and blessed day and enjoying time with the special people in your lives today!

Hoping for Snow

I know that not everyone likes snow, but I really enjoy it.  I listen to people at work talk about how they can't stand any snow and they're already ready for summer.  Me, I get too hot during the summer and love this time of year.  Plus, while it's fun to hike in the summer, it's more fun to snowshoe in the winter and be several feet ABOVE the hiking trail.

We were supposed to get snow today, and I guess we did, though not nearly enough for my tastes.  When I awoke this morning (after I got my workout in), I looked out and we had the lightest dusting of snow.  It was so light that it barely counted as more than just frost.

The flatirons did look really nice in their covering of white, especially with the morning sun lighting them up.

It started to snow again this afternoon, and we did get a little more snow than earlier, it definitely qualifies as more than just frost now.  But it's still not enough.  We need to get at least a couple of inches in order for it not to just melt as soon as the sun comes out, which it does nearly every day in Denver.

Yesterday when I looked at the forecast, it was calling for snow on Christmas.  But today it says it's supposed to 50 degrees, and there's no longer a chance for snow listed.  Oh well.  I'll still be with my family and get to enjoy time away from work!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...my family room's a mess!

This is what it looks like when you have a wrapping station in your family room.  I was feeling very fortunate though because my children actually helped with the wrapping this year.  I still have to wrap their presents and my husband's gifts, but everything is all ready for the extended family.  Now it's just up-in-the-air when we'll actually see them since my father-in-law just came down with influenza.

Our Christmas tree is very festive and fun, especially at night time.  I just love how cozy the house feels when it's all decked out like this.

We did our annual lights drive tonight, and I'm happy to report that we officially hit a new milestone in our family:  For the first year since we've had children, no one cried on the lights drive!  When the kids were really little the tears were from exhaustion and too long in the car.  Then as they got older it was either from fighting and/or getting in trouble.  But this year we enjoyed the lights and made it home with no tears!

Our city building always has a wonderful display.  This year they wrapped the tree trunks in white lights and then did colored lights in the canopies.

The city used to have an entire elf village, and while they don't do that any longer, they always have this little train out.

Even the statue of the police officer had a scarf on!

My daughter and I have been participating in a monthly virtual 5K, and this weekend was our last one for the year.  I took a few pictures while we were walking today, and I'm getting anxious for the snow that we're supposed to get on Monday and on Christmas because everything is sort of brown right now.

I also had to work today.  My two-week vacation was supposed to start yesterday, but my boss decided to give me a new project about an hour before I had to leave, while she was running out the door.  So of course I didn't give her exactly what she wanted and she emailed yesterday after work asking for more information.  I decided I'd better just do it so I didn't have to take a phone call.  I really hope I get some time off, and don't have to be logged in to my work computer every day of my "vacation."

Anyway, I'm starting to get into the Christmas spirit and I'm feeling very ready for the holiday.  I hope that all of you are feeling festive and are ready to celebrate (or are already enjoying) whichever holiday(s) you celebrate at this time of year!

Busy Winding Down

It's been a few days since I've posted because I've been so busy lately.  I'm taking two weeks off over the holidays (you should see the grin on my face right now!) so I've got several things at work that have to be wrapped up in a bow (pun totally intended) before my vacation starts.  It's also year-end which means people need reports and data, and in the particular industry where I work things are sort of in crisis mode so I have more on my plate than I'd been planning on this week.

Plus the kids have band concerts, piano recitals, and year-end holiday parties at school.  My brother's birthday is on Saturday.  I still haven't mailed my Christmas cards.  So not only has work been busy, but home has been also.  But I have really been making an effort to enjoy this season and not just feel busy, and I'm pleased to report that I don't feel overwhelmed and I am feeling very merry.

Yesterday we had our department holiday lunch at work.  My boss and another co-worker didn't attend because my boss doesn't like to eat lunch and decided to choose that day to go to a field office for an investigation.  Now, chances are in this case that was really necessary and the timing was just unfortunate.  But it's hard to be understanding because my boss has accepted, and then cancelled at the last minute, EVERY SINGLE department lunch we've ever had.  I kind of want to send her this article about re-framing "have to" as "choose to."  But it was a nice lunch and Union Station in downtown  Denver is an architecturally beautiful building that is all dressed in it's holiday finery.

I hope your holiday preparations are going well and that you're able to relax and enjoy time with friends and family at this time of year!

Weekly Progress Report # 19

I had been doing really well with my eating this week and my weight was headed back down.  But in two days (Friday and Saturday) of poor food choices, I managed to put all that back on plus another pound.  Now I'm to the point where I need to lose about twenty pounds.  I may stop doing weekly weigh-ins with the holidays coming up.  My husband's family has food as a major part of their holiday traditions, so I never do more than hold my own during that time.  So this may be last weigh-in until after the first of the year when I have to get serious.

Weight:  142.4 (I almost weighed a second time because I was so shocked by this number).

It's starting to feel more like Christmas with our tree up now, and we're getting some snow today.  I would like to see a great deal more, but I suppose I should be grateful for anything.  This time of year everything is so brown, dead, and naked without a mantel of white snow.

What I'd really like to see is a storm like we had right before Christmas in 2006.  It was rather difficult to travel, but it sure felt cozy and secluded in the house.  It makes me rather nostalgic looking at these pictures and how little my kids were.  Another thing that no one tells you about parenting (actually they probably do tell you, we just can't understand until we're there) is how bitter-sweet it is to watch your children grow up.  Of course I want them to grow up, but I miss them being little terribly.

I did not get up at 4:15 this morning.  My work holiday party was last night, and we didn't get home until after 10:00, so I slept until I awoke without the alarm at 6:00 today.  I don't like parties because I'm such an introvert.  I especially don't like work holiday parties where I'm obligated to mingle and make small-talk with people I don't know that well.  It was pretty awful driving to the party between the Avalanche game and the police closing roads intermittently due to protesters marching.  I was just about to tell my husband to forget it when we found a parking lot with spaces on Larimer and Speer downtown.

We dressed up and put in our appearance.  I was worried that the skirt I was planning on wearing wouldn't fit me any longer.  It was a little tighter than I would have liked, but even my 13-year-old told me I looked nice, so I guess it was passable.  My daughter did my makeup for me and we're done with that for at least another year!  Phew!

My husband and I all decked out for the party