Behind? Who Me?? really???

Ever feel so behind you just don't know how you will catch up? Like when you haven't done laundry for a week, or haven't worked on you photo albums for --or let's say-18 months or more???

Well, let's just say that those could be my current reason for feeling so behind but the real reason is that we just got home from a whirlwind 2 1/2 weeks of travel. To Florida in mid December for my Mimi's funeral and then the day after we arrived home we left for 2 weeks in Colorado to celebrate Christmas with The Dad's mother, brother and his family.

We did lots of fun things that I would love to update you on--and will in the next day or two (or perhaps one of the kid-lettes will). But for now there is a pile of laundry to do, ski clothes to wash and put away (the highs will be in the upper 60s this coming week so i don't think we will ski THIS week), Christmas cards to address and mail (yes, those fell by the wayside in the travelling) and a bed that is calling my name.

Good night for now...

The Mom

white Christmas

the kids have been dreaming of a white Christmas.. and what do you know? their dreams have come true..



From our family to yours.. may you all have a Merry Christmas...

A New Christmas Tradition

So usually the Nam Ladies go out for Christmas Tea in December. But this year...being in Colorado...and being among the far east members of our family...we all (boys, girls, ladies, and gents) went out for Dim Sum.

Yum.

Yum.

YUM.Not so yum...at least to most of us. But Mom N. enjoyed the chicken feet....





Oh and that last picture wasn't part of our dining pleasure...thank goodness...but it did make for an interesting photo.

Of course eating dim sum made is think of our dear friends Derrick and Angela P who first introduced us to the wonders of Dim Sum. Boy aren't we glad!

~The Mom

I. Am. Sore.

Yes, I am.

Very sore.

Even though I am not old like a certain person here at pheonamenaldays (he will go unnamed), my shoulders still hurt. Whose shoulders wouldn't hurt after falling, like, a billion times while snowboarding?

At least I had fun. Chip and Mickey are getting the hang of boarding. I am only sorta kinda getting the hang of it. Minnie is doing fine: wiping out a few times, turning a few times, and being cold most of the time. The Mom and the Dad are just concentrating on being cool while wiping out.

All this to say that we've had a GREAT week.

Let's hope that this Tylenol works soon...

Twinkle

Surprise!

Look what i did today!








Yup...about 10 inches....all packed up and ready to go to Locks of Love...a charity that makes wigs for children who need them.



surprise! I love it!

~Minnie

Christmas Shopping

Well, us kids here at phoenamenaldays have had a fun time Christmas shopping. We nearly blew our budget at the Dollar Tree. Yup, spent a near twelve dollars. Whew! I think I need to get a job.

Anyway, as I was saying...oh, yes, Christmas shopping.

Today I called Old Navy to see if they had a certain pair of pajamas (they have little elves all over them).

But, I decided to throw a fastball at the store-person-who-helps-you-pick-out-clothes. It was a swing-and-a-miss.

Awkward pause on the phone.

So, tomorrow I will go and pick up the elf pajamas.

Under the name of "Ursula."

Twinkle

Colorado

We are in the wild desert of Colorado.


Not.

Actually, we are in the almost-winter-wonderland of Colorado. ("almost" because fresh snow will fall on Friday.) It is 30* or less most days. I am loving it.

The Mom? Well, she spends the day in three sweatshirts, gloves, and sometimes ski socks.

Yeah, she's loving it.

here are some pics of all of us playing in the snow...The Mom came out for a short photo shoot and then passed the picture taking responsibilities to me.

Twinkle

A Life Well Lived

Dear Friends,

It is with sadness that we write to inform you that The Mom's maternal grandmother--affectionately known to us and to many of you as 'Mi-Mi'--passed away Saturday night.

From what we understand she had a nice dinner, wheeled around in her wheel-chair, and was getting ready for bed when she told the nursing home staff she was having trouble breathing. They stabilized her breathing with an oxygen mask and she settled in to rest. Her vitals, however, were not good. While they were calling for the paramedics, she peacefully went to be with the Lord.

We have so much to be grateful for that in the midst of our sadness, we can't help but smile for Mi-Mi.

To think that after 95 years here on earth, the past 28 years without her husband, the past 2 years with declining sight and hearing, she is now in heaven with perfect sight, perfect hearing, seeing so many friends and family members who have gone before her, rejoicing in her salvation.

Mi-Mi is well remembered by the family here at Phoenamenal Days.....she lived with us for a number of years and shared in our first adventure out west to Nevada (almost 10 years ago).

I am not going to try to summarize or eulogize her life here, today. Her life was too full for this little blog.

Please pray for us, for our extended family.

And if you knew Mi-Mi, smile. We are.








~The Mom

Christmas Tradition #1

Have you read this book? No?

Get thee to a bookstore or library and read it.

Aloud.

Over hot chocolate.

With the Christmas lights on.

In one or two or three sittings. It is short and best read that way.


Enjoy! we sure did!

~the mom (who has been a busy poster today:))

Guess who is from the east coast?

So we went to our CG christmas party. Had a great time...laughed alot and ate alot and just enjoyed being together...never got to the Christmas carols or anything but still had a great time.

It was chilly here the night of the party...like in the low 60's.

SO I thought--hey, it's a Christmas party, it is chilly out...time to wear boots!.... It is DECEMBER for goodness sake....time to put the open-toed shoes away!! ...... er, um, or maybe not.....







Guess who the east-coast-transplants are??

~The mom, off to polish her toe nails for all the open-toed shoe days still left in the year!

I love getting mail!

Especially when it is from friends back home!

~Minnie

what young ladies think..

well, if it's true that the most important thing about a 'formal social' for a young lady is the dress.... then we are more than half-way there.
Just a few more things to be totally ready for the youth banquet this weekend.

Caregroup Christmas Party

Well, we just got home from a fun fun Christmas party with our CG out here. And no matter where you live or who you are, the ol' 'chinese' gift exchange is always a ton of fun and brings lot of laughter.

Now here is a blast from the past...like 14 years ago because I remember I was pregnant with Twinkle. How many of you remember the Cg Christmas gift exchange where one poor guy-who always got THE WORST white elephant gifts every year--received the lace collar? Remember how we all laughed at that? Kathe couldn't stop laughing enough to smile for the picture. All of the pictures from that part of the evening show her in full laugh-mode, tears streaming down her checks, hugging her husband as he modeled the lace collar. Ha! that is one of those stories that gets re-told every time certain groups of friends are together--kinda like the 'where is the milk...if my wife ever' exchange...but that is another post for another day:)

SO the party was lots of fun...good food, good talks and, of course, the gift exchange. It is funny to me how that 'game' always rouses people up...husbands and wives are conniving for the right plan to take the right gift in the right order. The person with the last number always snickering to themselves that they will get just what they want, only to have the gift be passed too many times around by the time it is their turn....yes , yes, we all remember those moments. And I gotta tell you--it is as fun here in Phoenix as it has been in Maryland.

Minus the lace collar exchange, but that was a once in a life time, legendary event.

Nothing could compete with that one.



I'll be posting some pictures tomorrow....

see you then!

~the Mom

childhood wishes

sometimes do come true. i've always wanted to throw a ball in the house when i was a kid. no surprise, it wasn't allowed when i was growing up..

well, this video proves i still haven't grown up.....

..... but now I can get away with it
(notice the Mom catching us at the very end)..

also, some of you might enjoy the photo we caught of the sunset tonight.. we played a nine-hole course not far from our house.. great practice area and perfect yardage for kids (50-130 yard par 3 course)..

Almost like home...

last week, we went to see the movie "enchanted." twice...(once with the grandparents, the other with the Macs.)
and the kids have been singing in the house all week....

the kids were telling us they miss the music that used to be generated in our home... so, after some saving... we went and picked up a guitar... it helped that we can use it for caregroup worship...

now.. how to get the piano here....

Oh. My. Word.

It is still raining.

No flooding in the wash behind our house yet, but there is a steady stream across the road in our neighborhood, down into the wash across from us.


WOW.

Now it really does feel like fall....caramel apples, rainy weather and all!


~The Mom

Look!! It's Raining!!

And it is suppose to rain all day long!

I can't wait to get the school work done so we can snuggle in for some hot chocolate, reading and maybe some good inspiring food-tv.

~the Mom

My Very Own Twilight Zone and The Caramel Apples That Helped Me Escape...temporarily...

Fall.

Fall means crisp mornings, cool night, falling leaves, rainy, cloudy, cuddle-up-with-a-good-book days, wet leaves in the driveway, jean, sweaters, cute brown boots, hot cider in the morning, fires at night.

Fall in Phoenix? Well. Let's see.
We ate Thanksgiving dinner outside..comfortably. The kids got so hot playing Bball and football that they jumped into the pool.

Hmmmm...still thinking... We've had 2 cloudy days. Two. That's right. No cloudy , rainy, fall day upon day (the kind Twinkle loves). No, just two days like that. I enjoyed the first one...and couldn't wait to see the sun the next morning. And true to form, the sun appeared and brought 85 degree weather with it.

Almost Christmas? How can that be? It doesn't feel like Christmas...no freezing rain, promises of snow or heavy winter coats.

Welcome to my twilight zone of seasons.

So over the past few days I have tried to 'make' the feeling of fall for me and my family. We've had soup for lunch 2 days in a row now. The first time we ate it outside and I got so hot I considered jumping into the pool. I didn't. It's not that warm and I'm not that crazy.

Today I thought we could make caramel apples for a fall-ish type snack. Have any of you ever made caramel apples before? We have. We've unwrapped all of those little square caramels, melted them slowly over a double boiler, washed and dried our perfectly round apples and pressed a craft stick into each one. Then ever so slowly, like dipping candles, we dipped our apples in the the luscious goodness of the caramel. Our mouths watered at the delicious prospect ahead of us. Dip, twist, dip, twist...until the entire apple was covered. Oh they looked glorious. We could hardly wait for them to 'set' and cool so we could enjoy them.

Then.

Later.

You know what happened.... yes, the sad sad truth.... all that delicious , luscious caramel....? it slid right off of those perfect apples and puddled at their feet. (figuratively speaking, of course...I know apples don't really have feet.)

Sigh.

So the next year we tried another technique.

Same result.

And so we figured we were destined to only enjoy caramel apples on the very rare occasion of a visit to a candy store.

Until this year.

This year, Nora recommended the caramel apple wraps.




So we thought we'd try again.

We purchased our selection of red and green apples.




Wrapped the caramel.


and put them in the oven.

and waited.


And look at our snack......

Perfect.

and actually, I warmed mine in the microwave and it was even better.
Finally. A caramel apple worth making. well, at least a caramel apple that stays a caramel apple.

Welcome Fall.


And hey! don't remind me it is almost Christmas, ok? One season at a time OK...next week we'll start some family Christmas traditions....

Until then, we are off the fly Minnie's RC airplane in the local field. No coats, no boots, no rain, no falling leaves....

.....Hmmm, I might need another caramel apple to help me rediscover fall.


~The Mom

~I'm .. .dreamin... of a white......~

it's that time of year.. yuletide, chestnuts roasting, and white Christmases.... um, not in the desert it's not.. so we're going where there is plenty of sub-freezing temps and lots of snow..

it won't be for a few weeks but to get everyone in the mood, enjoy a tasting from winter's past..

that's Minnie and her friend Noelle... along with a father (who will go unnamed)... he almost bought a one-way ticket down the side of a 10,000 ft mountain top. (and he's supposed to be an expert).

The New Wing at the Local Library

Just wanted you all to know I made my first 'donation' to the local public library system. At this rate the new wing out here will be done well before the wing on the library back home.


and Jen, don't tell me that all i have to do is renew online!!!


anyway, thought you'd want to know.


~The Mom

Silence is golden

when we've had too much fun making memories this past week to actually sit down and memorialize them for our out-of-town friends and fam.

more to come soon.. but it was hard to beat football/ping pong..(err.. table tennis for the serious players who showed up)/basketball/fires/tons of food/our first watching of "White Christmas"/ listening to the 'Back Porch Boys" perform their signature christmas carols - (CD coming soon your way after the real-time audition with the music producer - (another story for another family)....... sorry for the rambling..

and what's more?

a dip in the pool on Thanksgiving evening..

to join the Polar Bear club the easy way...

Juvenile Delinquents on the Golf Course

You see, this evening, just before sunset, we decided to run up to the local golf course and get some special sunset pictures. this is a faithful narrative from three of the children present.

TWINKLE:

little did we know that that kind of behavior was "a problem." And we never ever not-in-our-wildest-dreams thought that a closed golf course with a very tempting sand pit would be "not a playground." Who am i quoting? A very very very nice girl was also very very very upset. We all are willing to believe that 1) she didn't see the Dad in the sand pit, taking pictures of us kids or 2) she was having a bad day or 3) she did not like us. i'm definitely willing to believe number 3.

KILEY:

all i can say is... what a PhoeNamenal day! =D Our day started off with some pancakes... and was ended with a 2 hour soak in the not-so-hot-hot tub. ( after swimming the English Channel, a.k.a, our pool! ) And sandwiched in between; a round of "knockout". "fun times, fun times, had by all!" : )

BRYNN:

um.... i have NO clue what to say.....taylor just shoved the computer in my face and told me to type :D well let me just say i am LOVING having the nams here!!!! i am having an awesome time with them!!! are the pictures not amazing???? gotta love them :D

From Sea to Shining Sea

In the spirit of the early pioneers, we finally made it to the left coast. can you see the excitement in the faces just before we hit the road again!?!?!

below is footage (pardon the pun) of our kids making touchdown on the California seaside, Redondo/Manhattan Beach, to be exact. by the way, that's NOT Dad's feet in the shot. that's the big brother's size 9.5 and counting...

The boys ran to the water, ran away..then discovered a distraction..

You can magnify the picture below, but they discovered whether man can outrun a thousand pigeons on the beach... (can't imagine what they would have done if they actually caught a pigeon - yuck)... they had to release all that testosterone builtup from the ride west.

No visit to the west coast is complete without an obligatory visit to our most excellent part of LA - Koreatown

and to make it really personal? a visit with Donald, Sohee and new boy Liam - dear friends whom we met from the caregroup back east. they head out of country soon and we were thrilled to see them again before they launch for more adventures!

the BEST korean bbque this side of the orient--- can you almost taste it?

we just topped off the weekend with a seaside restaurant down in Redondo Beach - frequented by all of the 'homeys.. crab, korean soup and a platter of sashimi... anyone remember high school biology? there's sea cucumber on that platter!

Little man and his crab:

we stopped at a dessert shop - over the top

In spite of the challenges of a new town, friends, church, house etc.. there have been some major upsides...this weekend was one of them. (work hard, play hard)