Giving 2008 the boot

Good-bye 2008.

Though there were some good moments this year, this wasn't the greatest year on memory. In fact, I think most would agree this year was pretty lame.

2009 has to be better. It be better immediately, at the stroke of twelve, but eventually things will get better for many of us.

I have my grapes ready. I'll be up for the New Year - PST! (I don't care that it was midnight hours ago in New York.)

And though I complain, most annoyances didn't touch Amelia and Diana. There may have been times when we couldn't afford this or that, but in general this was a fun year for the girls.

Amelia and Diana loved going to Disneyland during the holiday season and recount their memories often. (Diana never forgets to mention that we had popcorn in Tomorrowland, some of the best ever.)

The girls had a great Christmas, Amelia got everything she wished for, and Diana was thrilled that Santa's reindeer found our house after she left a sparkling trail on the front lawn Christmas Eve.

For me, 2009 is going to start with a diet. I know it's better to say, "lifestyle change," but the first phase of this plan is a diet, plain and simple. Right now my refrigerator is full of sweet treats, but beginning tomorrow I'll be enjoying a few days' worth of whole grains and fruit.

In 2009 I'd like to continue searching for California historical markers. This is something I've really enjoyed this year that didn't cost much and taught all of us a lot about the history of our most excellent state. I'd also like to write my first children's book. And then there are the standard promises: to lose weight and exercise more.

Most importantly, I just want 2009 to be a helluva lot better than 2008 was, for all of us.

Lisa

P.S. These photos were taken of the girls today at a local mall. As you can see by their faces, they don't care how much our home has been devalued. And they love mommy, no matter what she weighs. I guess this is a wonderful time to be a child.

Mele Kalikimaka!

It is now approximately 0130 PST.

The final gift has been wrapped. I just finished watching "Beavis and Butthead do Christmas" on DVD. I cleaned up the ribbons, tags and tissue, and now it's time for me to finally crawl into bed and wait for Santa.

But before I go to sleep, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and tell you a short story.

Only a couple of days ago Amelia, Diana and I were talking about visiting with Santa Claus. Amelia reminded us that she had asked Santa for a turtle for Christmas.

Monday afternoon, Diana and I went shopping for Amelia's Christmas presents - including a toy turtle. Now I don't know how much Diana understands, or if she knows what's really going on at Christmas time, but as soon as Amelia said something about wanting a turtle Diana said, in her quiet voice, "Mommy, you bought a turtle for Amelia."

I was a tiny bit worried that Diana would think I had something to do with Amelia's Christmas morning gifts, so I said nothing. But after a short pause, Diana wrapped her arms around my neck and told me with a big hug, "I love you, mommy."

And that is the best thing about Christmas.

Lisa

Holiday merry-making

Goodness, we've been busy! Last week the girls and I went to Disneyland with grandma. The weather was spectacular and Disneyland was exceptionally beautiful all decorated for the holidays.

Saturday, Amelia had her school Christmas pageant. After getting back from Anaheim around ten on Friday night, I found myself ironing rhinestones to Amelia's brown "deer costume" at the last possible minute Saturday morning. Amelia was terrific, performing "The Little St. Nick" along with her class of preschoolers. And Amelia knows she's good - in fact, as soon as her performance was over, and she met her dad near the stage, she blurted out to him, "I did a great job!"

Sunday was a day of rest and rain - both things that we could use more of this time of year. Today, the girls learned how to make gingerbread cookies. Daddy recently bought some gingerbread mix at Trader Joe's, and though I've never been a fan, I thought the girls might have fun making cookies with mom.

The girls loved rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters to make snowmen, Christmas trees, candy canes and stars. Once we got down to the last little wad of dough, I let Amelia try making a cookie by herself. She rolled the dough, cut out the gingerbread man, and carefully handed the cookie to mom for placement on the cookie sheet. Amelia was very pleased with the work she had done and told her sister, "I'm a big girl, so I can make cookies by myself!" She then sympathized with her sister, who needed a little assistance making cookies by saying, "I know it isn't easy being two."

It sure is funny hearing my words coming out of Amelia's mouth.

Amelia was very excited to tell daddy all about how she made a cookie without any help from mom. And though I don't normally like gingerbread much, I have to admit that Trader Joe's gingerbread (like most things they make) is pretty darn good.

Lisa

Amelia's prayer, and marker #534

I'd like to open this blog entry with a prayer. Specifically, I'd like to share Amelia's meal time prayer with all of you:

"Bless my mommy and my daddy,
both so dear to me.
Help me, through the coming day,
a loving child to be. Amen."

Amelia's prayer is great, and she's been reciting it at dinner time for a few days now. After she recited her prayer on Saturday, Diana followed with a prayer of her own:

"Once upon a time,
there was a little bit of Jesus,
and a lot of broccoli."

You can't make this stuff up.

Honestly though, Diana's prayer was sweet and she mentioned both the most important prayer recipient (Jesus) and the healthiest choice on her plate (broccoli). But, on to the blog and the events of the day...

Today the girls and I hit the road hoping to make a little cash by selling used baby clothes at Once Upon a Child. In the off chance that no one would be available to purchase my fine collection, I found a historical marker to visit nearby.

I spent quite a bit of time this morning sorting baby clothes into piles. If the clothes had any stains or showed any sign of wear, they were culled from the pack. When I left my house I left with five grocery bags completely full of clothes for little girls ages newborn to twelve months. When I left Once Upon a Child I left with a used DVD (Pooh's Heffalump Halloween), a check for $27.00, and five almost completely full bags of baby clothes. According to one of the women who had reviewed my bundle, many of my clothes were rejected because they weren't the current style.

You can't make this stuff up.

I guess it was a good thing that I had also planned to visit the Vaca-Pena Adobe. The adobe was relatively easy to find. It wasn't as big or exciting as the Petaluma Adobe - the doors were locked and the museum was closed - but the girls enjoyed the visit. Most importantly, I got a photograph of the girls in front of California State Historical Marker #534.

(I've basically given up on having the girls pose for these photographs. As long as they're in the shot, I guess that's what matters.)

The area around the adobe wasn't especially well maintained. The park had a small pond that was completely green with algae and contained a discarded plastic orange chair, as an example. The park also had a public restroom, but maintenance personnel locked its door sometime between our arrival and the point when we actually needed to use the bathroom. But the grounds had pamphlets available and with the guide I found the "second oldest orange tree in California" and a great shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Next door to the park was a strange sight. An old amusement park for children sat behind a chain-linked fence, falling into ever worse disrepair. The park's owners lived on the property and it had several notices reminding folks to KEEP OUT. Beyond the chain link fence were some cute ponies, who probably used to give little girls rides, an old go-cart track, and a drained lagoon with a bizarrely twisted stairway that likely used to lead kids across the pond and into waiting boats. Very odd to see a place like that looking such a wreck.

Despite the strange imagery of it all, or maybe because of it, this was certainly one of my favorite stops so far. The girls loved the ponies and made a fun game out of rolling pine cones across the empty parking lot. These pine cones were very compact and sounded almost like rocks when they hit the pavement. I mention this because at the end of our trip, poor Diana threw one up in the air and it came down right on top of her head. I felt terrible for the poor girl when she started to cry.

She's fine, of course, but I guess that shows just how dangerous pine cones (and the natural world in general) can be.

Lisa

Holiday whirlwind

Lately, the family has been busy. And I've been too busy to sit down and maintain our family blog. But here are highlights from the past several days...

First, we faced the challenge of the historical marker that doesn't look like a CA historical marker.

According to information from the web, the first historical markers placed in California didn't adhere to any type of strict criteria. So, I guess it's reasonable to assume that all California markers don't look the same. That might explain why I missed this marker in Livermore during all of my previous trips to Portola Park. Even though this plaque doesn't look like others that we have seen, I think we have to assume that this really is California Historical Marker #241 - Livermore Memorial Monument.

On a side note, can you tell by the photograph which daughter wanted to hold hands for the picture and which one didn't?

The next day, Amelia's school was participating in our local holiday parade. Amelia loves parades and thought that being in a parade would be even better than simply watching one from the sidelines.

The theme of Amelia's school float was "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Amelia wanted to dress like Tinkerbell for the parade. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy convincing Amelia that there were no fairies in a "A Charlie Brown Christmas." (Eventually, I found the program on YouTube, and then the concept seemed to make a lot more sense to her.)

Dressing like a Peanuts character isn't as easy as it sounds (but dancing like one, is a lot of fun). After looking at Amelia objectively, I decided that she would make a great Marcie. Looking at images of Marcie online I bought an orange shirt, some black pipe cleaners, and a fabric pen. Tracing an image of Marcie onto her new t-shirt was easier than I expected, and I think she looks great.

Not only did Amelia look terrific (in my humble opinion), but she also completely mastered the parade "smile and wave" routine. (If you don't believe me, watch this.) Amelia's school won first place in the parade, and I like to think we did our small part for the school's victory.

The following weekend, wanderlust drove us to UC Davis where alumni and their children enjoyed playing with eggheads and chasing ducks at the arboretum.

Watching Diana running after ducks reminded mommy of visiting UC Davis with Amelia when she was a toddler. When Amelia was even younger than Diana is now, she raced after ducks at almost their exact same pace (and degree of grace in movement). I'm sure I still have this on film somewhere...

Since we're reviewing the events of late November, I have to mention Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was spent at the girls' great-grandmother's house. Dinner was very good, and the bread stuffing might have been the best I'd ever had.

The girls had a great time playing all of the musical instruments that they could get their hands on. The flutes were squeaky, the piano was funny, and the clown horn was...a clown horn.

Amelia's best instrument is probably still the harmonica. If we had just a little more money, I think we'd invest it in music lessons for the girls.

From our secondary base of operations in Santa Rosa we travelled to two California historical markers. The first was at an old hop kiln. (Apparently, wine country was previously known as "beer country.") The building was really interesting and beautiful in its way, and it now housing a wine tasting room. I drink so little anymore that even tasting wine is enough to make me giggle - and open my wallet.

If you're wondering what I'm doing in this photograph, it's because we had to wake poor Diana from a deep sleep to get this picture. It amazes me that a little girl who's never tired in the least can fall asleep so quickly on a long drive in the car.

Down the road we spotted the previously elusive, California Historical Marker #835 - Cooper's Sawmill. However, it seems someone thought the plaque was set up to designate parking for a big, red truck.

And I thought the truck in Morro Bay was bad!

In the guy's defense, they did place this marker in a parking lot. And locals I had spoken to before had never heard of the place. More than that, no one would have expected a bored housewife and her daughters to come by looking for a snapshot of the marker.

Luckily, this marker isn't too, too far out of the way. Now that we know where it is, we can always try, try again. And if you're reading this, red truck driver, find another place to park during the Christmas season por favor.

On to historical markers that truly are out of the way...Here is a picture of the girls in front of California Historical Marker #296 - Copperopolis.

Read it aloud, it's fun to say - Copper-opolis.

This marker wasn't far off highway four, and just down the street from a small park that housed antique copper mining equipment. The girls were relieved to get out of the car after such a long drive and danced around the marker (literally) and ran back and forth through the Copper mining park.

On a side note, this was one of the first parks I've ever seen that had no parking whatsoever. All of the signs read, "Private road" and "No parking" and all the curbs were painted red. We wound up parking across Main Street and walking to the park.

(The girls were pretty good about keeping off the antique mining equipment, but Diana liked climbing atop nearby signs and markers.)

Following the curvy bit of highway four for another dozen miles or so we reached Angel's Camp. I had been through Angel's Camp before, and remembered that there were markers in Angel's Camp, but I didn't think I had ever seen one. Logic told me that if I hadn't seen a marker in Angel's Camp, I needed to drive a different road to stand any chance of finding one.

Sure enough, not far down the road was California Historical Marker #499 - Red Brick Grammar School. The school serves as a museum now, but we arrived too late to go inside. Still, from the windows you could see everything. Again, it was almost impossible to get the girls to stand still for a photograph, but it felt good to hit two distant markers in one trip.

And the beat goes on...

Lisa