Christmas came to an end today. Usually I wait till the first but I felt ready to be done so we packed it all up today. For the first time Ale experienced his post Christmas sadness. "Why can't we have Christmas every day? I don't want to get rid of the tree. etc..." Last year I made the kids hot chocolate as we took the decorations down as an attempt to make the undoing as ceremonial as the doing. I wasn't quite as patient this year and do feel a bit badly...Oh well, I'll be more planned and organized next year for the Christmas season...

The house feels so blase now that everything has been put away. I've had all these good intentions of "moving in" for the last year. With some progress made on the kitchen this month I'm desperate to do the bedrooms, living room, dining room...basically the entire house needs to looked lived in (minus the dirt and dust we are quite good at leaving behind.)

Enjoying the clean yet boring house this afternoon and feeling a little depressed by the staleness of it all I made a table runner. I bought the above fabric at famous Marden's last September. Hadn't done anything with it so I whipped this up in less than an hour. I tell you, I can sow a mean rectangle...

As I was putting our journal back on the shelf today where the stockings had been hung I decided to pull it out and leave it on the table so David and I could write anything about the year in list form. It's short and I should mention that the last entry was December 14, 2006...Guess we'll have some lost years (not to mention the absence of mention of the birth of one child).
Here it is:

• Maiden voyage raising 3 chickens
• Bealtemania hits the Ruiz boys
• Christmas (Presents!) --Ale's contribution
• Crafty Katie (David)
• Discovering Palos Verdes
• Muscle obsessed David (katie)
• Fed up with Sam (david) we did try to give him away unsuccessfully
• Chicago, Maine, Massachusetts
• Ke'ano road a bike
• Ke'ano grew his hair long
• Yeva walked
• Katie tried unsuccessfully to drop out of school
• Ale discovered the Wii
• David finished a book

Here's to 2010!

Look at me! I knit a sweater!

Try searching for a non-toxic BPA free doll and you'll be hard pressed to come up with much. These however, rock my world. Mom and Dad, you helped buy this for Yeva's birthday.
Made in the Netherlands. Shipped from the UK. Arrived today.

She loves her baby...

Merry Christmas!

"Hey Mom, what does dammit mean? Is it a not nice word?"

"Yes Ale, it's not a very nice word. "

"Well, is it something that we say to Sam?"

"Sometimes... But you probably shouldn't say it."

oh yes, i've been outed by my three year old.

It's official. Pig tail length hair has officially arrived.

I don't have many material items that are very special to me. I'm in no way a pack rat, I purge all the time. I hate having excess crap on hand. This quilt (picture quality sucks...it was taken with my phone) is something I will keep forever. It means the world to me. Last year, two weeks before Yeva was born, my good friends gathered to give me a mother blessing. Good food, hennad belly, good female energy...Each one brought a piece of fabric to the blessing that they had chosen. Tiff pieced them all together to make this quilt for me. What a beautiful way to commemorate such a powerful time in life and the people who were (and continue to be) part of it. She just finished it and gave it to me last week. I'm in love...

I love this picture because it so acuratly depicts Ale. He was playing in the garage a few weeks ago and he'd shut the door. After some time passed and my curiosity got the better of me and threw open the door to find him with his baby in one hand and a gun in the other. Sweet tender side meets boyish gun obsessed side.