Christmas fakeout and other news...

Months ago Yo and I decided that no matter the cost we were going to make it to Norway for Christmas to celebrate with his family. Since the last time we had been to Norway (two Christmases ago) there have been four new additions to the family (one brother-in-law, two cousins, and Kai). So this was going to be the first time for all of us to get together.

We couldn't be more excited about our trip, but traveling internationally over Christmas with an infant creates some logistical dilemmas. After some debate we decided that there was no way that we could transport our presents for each other along with those for the rest of the family all the way to Norway in our limited luggage space. So, instead of paying exorbitant shipping costs, we decided that we would simply celebrate Christmas early as an immediate family on the 18th.

While this seemed like a practical solution, cutting my holiday prep time down by a week was a little bit stressful. Kai and I got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Florida on December 1, and I spent the next 2.5 weeks scrambling to get the decorating, shopping, baking, wrapping, and festivity making done in time for the big (fake) day.

 

Kai helping decorate the tree...

...and posing by the fireplace.

By the time the 18th rolled around, I really felt like it was Christmas. And for the first time I got to experience what it is like to be the one staying up late at night assembling toys and stuffing stockings for a little one to discover in the morning. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting, too.

Still, Kai's reaction the next day made all of the effort worth it. Yo went in to get Kai while I went out into the living room with the video camera and waited for Kai to come down the hall and discover the piles of toys that were awaiting him.

Kai was pleasantly preoccupied throughout the day playing with all of his new toys. So I guess that means that Santa and his plethora of helpers (especially those from Florida) did a good job.

A highlight of the day for Kai was definitely the present he got from his Grandma and Grandpa. He spent hours climbing up and sliding down his new toy:

(Incidentally, these videos are courtesy of an awesome pocket-sized HD camcorder that I got Yo for his "fake" birthday that we celebrated on the 17th--his real birthday is on the 27th.)

That night, we kept the Christmas spirit going by joining some friends on a Cable Car tour of San Francisco's most famous holiday decorations. We were driven around town in a cable car strung with Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music and donning our Santa hats.  Unfortunately, our tour guide was totally sub-par. She began the tour by saying that many of the usual participants had not bothered to decorate this year so we would not be seeing as many lights as we expected and then shared a total of 3 random facts during the course of the 1.5 hour tour:

1) Where Mrs. Doubtfire's house is,

2) Where the clothing designer Jessica "McSomething" lives (pretty sure she meant McClintock), and

3) Where the smallest bar in SF is. 

She seemed to know the most about the bar and mentioned at least 3 times that it only sits 8 people and she was pretty sure it was Karaoke night. (I'm pretty sure she is a regular of this establishment.)

But no matter how few Christmas lights we saw and how bad our tour guide was, nothing could dampen our Christmas spirit. It didn't hurt that we had Michelle along with us who knows more about SF than most tour guides do, anyway. Here are a few shots of the tour:

 Michelle and Darrell looking dapper

Christine and Tyler (and baby boy Oakes due Jan 4)

 Kai sucking on a candy cane

Christine and Tyler again

The Drapers in front of a ginormous gingerbread house.

Me and Lindsay (LOVE this girl!)

By the time we got home that night and crawled into bed, exhausted, it really felt like "real" Christmas was over. But the next day we got to wake up bright and early and go to church to be reminded not only that real Christmas was a week away, but what the Christmas season is truly about--celebrating the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love going to church around Christmas time--singing carols, feeling fellowship, and being so grateful that our Savior not only lived, but LIVES. 

Unfortunately, Yo woke up with a terrible cough and generally not feeling well, so I sent him back to bed, but not before he snapped a shot of me and Kai in our Sunday best.

Isn't Kai ridiculously cute in his hat? If he would keep it on for more than 5 seconds I would make him wear it every single day. 

From the time that we got home from church, Yo and I were focused on getting ready for our long flight on Tuesday. As if we wouldn't have been busy enough, life got a whole lot crazier on Monday thanks to our "other news."

A week or so ago I received a formal offer to run a nursing home down in Los Gatos (southwest of San Jose). I accepted the position on Sunday and on Monday Yo and I found a house down in Sunnyvale that we will be moving into in the beginning of the new year. So, yes, it was a hectic day. With our trip to Norway looming and a February 1st start date for my new job, I really wanted to have housing arrangements finalized before we left.

I've been keeping my eye on the rental market for months so I had a good sense of areas that we'd be interested in living in and what a fair price would be for the area, so we felt pretty confident making a snap decision on a home we toured Monday afternoon, but the fact that we were leaving the next day for Norway definitely forced our decision.

Little did we know... our flight to Norway would be canceled. Ok, we had some idea that this might happen because we were routed through Heathrow Airport in London which had been essentially shutdown due to inclement weather all week long. Still, to go from worrying that our flight might possibly be canceled to actually having it canceled was pretty heartbreaking.

Yo immediately called his dad to let him know. We explored purchasing new flights from a different airline, but it would have cost us anywhere from $3,000 to $10,00 a piece. In other words, not an option. For a hot second, Yo even considered canceling the trip altogether, but for fear of breaking his mom's heart, he just couldn't bear to do it. So we finally were able to change the date of our flight to the night of the 25th.

We won't get in until late on the 26th which means we will be having our second "fake" Christmas celebration with the Andersens on the 27th. We are just praying that our rescheduled flight won't be delayed or canceled. And now we find ourselves in the position of not having any celebratory plans for actual Christmas day.

It has been quite the roller coaster ride, but Yo and I are taking everything in stride and have laughed about how Christmas 2010 is definitely not going to be one that we forget.

Southern belle

A few days ago I was fixing Kai lunch when I realized that the house was a little too quiet, which usually, as all of you parents know, means that a certain someone is up to no good. So I quickly headed down the hall to find Kai. After checking his bedroom and the guest room, it dawned on me that I had left the bathroom door open.

Kai's two favorite activities when he gets into my bathroom are 1) pulling out all of my jewelry and 2) putting things in the toilet (he just figured out how to open the lid a couple of weeks ago). So you can imagine the scene that I was expecting to find when I burst through the closed bathroom door. But instead of finding my jewelry on its way to the fish, I found this...

 

Kai was standing there wearing a single strand of pearls with a headband on his head and a can of hairspray in his hand. Not a drawer was open, nor a single earring on the floor. I literally collapsed to the ground I was laughing so hard. It took me a while to compose myself enough to get my camera and capture the moment. By the time I got back, Kai had removed the headband and dropped the hairspray, but I will forever smile when I see this picture of my proper little man.

Potty Training Pappa

Ladies, we've all come to realize at some point in our marriages that our husbands might be fully grown, but are not fully trained when they become our responsibility. So it is our job as wives to finish the job that our Mothers-in-Law began many years ago. I like to call this process "breaking them in." Our husbands might mix words and claim we're actually breaking them down, but, if we are, it's only to build them up again. So I'm going to argue that the end justifies the means.

After 5 years of "training" Yo, I'm pretty pleased with the results. While he still burps frequently and freely, he usually remembers to say "excuse me" afterward. He remembers to put his dirty dishes in the sink at least half of the time. And sometimes he'll even use a coaster when he puts a drink on my coffee table. I know what you're think, I'm a regular, modern-day miracle-worker.

But there is one miracle I just can't seem to work...getting Yo to put the toilet seat down. I've tried threats. I've tried bribes. I've tried gentle reminders and positive reinforcement. But I never thought of trying this...

Who knew that one curious baby, one slipper, and a toilet that Yo forgot to close was it all it would take to teach Yo a lesson he'll never forget.

Thank you, Kai, for furthering the house-training of Pappa. You taught him a lesson that I hope your future wife/child never has to teach you.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, Kai and I made the long trek to Florida to join my family. We were the first to arrive at my parents house in Miami last Saturday, but were soon joined by sister and her two boys and my youngest brother, Tanner. Unfortunately Devin wasn't able to get the time off from work to join us. While we all missed Devin, this was still the biggest family gathering that we've managed to pull off for Thanksgiving in many years. In fact, it's the first Thanksgiving that I've been able to make it back home at all since I graduated from UF in '02.

My mom, as usual, went out of her way to make the house feel homey and festive, and to make sure that Kai was well accommodated. She even had a whole toy chest set-up for him in the living room that was stocked with new books and toys. It kept Kai entertained all week. This Thomas the Train tunnel was one of his favorites:

This trip had special significance because Kai got to meet his cousins, Austin and Riley, and his Uncle Tanner for the first time. Austin and Riley were so good with Kai. They even brought him some of their old toys that they thought he'd like to play with. He got a dinosaur from Austin and a bunch of Hot Wheels from Riley. And he got lots of attention and playing time from both of them. He was in heaven. I'm sure that Kai is going to grow up just worshipping his older cousins.

My mom cooked a delicious meal with all of the traditional fixings and a few of our family favorites. We ate ourselves into oblivion and then we ate some more.

The next day all of us, but Tanner who was sleeping off a school-induced all-nighter, headed to the Miami Zoo. The highlight of the excursion was not the animals, but our mode of transportation for seeing them...

And what would Thanksgiving weekend be without football? The games were constantly on in the background. Who doesn't love rivalry weekend? Unfortunately things did not bode so well for the Gators, but that didn't stop me and Kai from showing our support.

Monday I took Kai to Dandy Bear for the first time. My nephews spent many hours there over the years.

It has been a great week and a half. This time of year, every year, I feel so grateful for the family that I've been blessed with. This year I felt especially blessed getting to share this time with them. Now we are heading to the airport and home to Yo.

My Nephews

Living in California, I don't get to see my Florida-based nephews nearly enough. The last time I saw them was in August of last year for my sister's wedding. So every time I do see them, I can't believe how much they've grown and changed.

While Riley is frozen at about 3 or 4 in my mind and Austin is frozen at 1 or 2, Riley is actually 12 and Austin 10. It takes me a moment to reconcile the nephews in my mind with the tall, lanky, handsome boys that they are now.

I don't know that I am ready to be an aunt to teenagers, but now that the boys are getting older I love that we can hang out in whole new ways. Austin is sporty and witty. Whenever he is around he keeps the whole family in stitches. And even though he is sprouting up like a beanstalk and has a girlfriend, he is still a mama's boy, too. Riley is my little sweetheart. He is a talented artist and loves to practice his flips and karate moves. He is taller than my mom now and has a girlfriend, too, but he still loves his arm being tickled while he falls asleep.

Both boys are very handsome and are bound to break a lot of hearts. I've decided that I'm willing to share them with other girls, but only as long as I still get to be their favorite aunt.