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2011 Holiday Letter to our Family & Friends

Once again, one of the wonderful by-products of sending our Holiday cards with our blog address is that it forces me to write something! I have "Blog" on my "to-do" list every day, and somehow it just keeps slipping down the list... till these cards get put in the mail that is! So many wonderful things have happened this year, and the desire to document & share is there, but we just keep moving forward to the next happy moment too quickly to stop, take the time and write it down! At least facebook has enabled some of this moment-by-moment sharing, and its been great keeping up with a lot of you through that means as well. But there is nothing like good 'ol fashion letters...storytelling... sharing our reflection of lifes' goings on.  I will do my best to give you a little taste of our year... 

First of all, I have to say that I was sooo excited to finally get a photo of all five of us to send for our card this year - yay! For the past 3 years, the boys have been tough to nail down, but somehow I rounded them all up one recent morning and we had some fun taking a bunch of family pix. For some of you far-away family & friends, this is the first time you've seen them in several years, and I am sure you are astonished at how much they have grown, yes?! They are certainly grown men now and as you can see, just slightly taller than their dad! 

So we started off our year by having to make a much dreaded move. The wonderful home we had rented for the previous 5 years was included in a tear down project of other homes & apartment buildings around it, and the building permit deadline was coming up, so we and several of the neighbors around us had to be out by Jan 31st. We really loved our home & where we live, so it was a bit depressing to have to leave especially knowing the house would be torn down. We of course wanted to stay local, especially as Kelly had started school, so  we were lucky that we did find a place that accommodated us...just one block away! I was not too excited about this house at first - it was old, run down, and had some funky add-ons, colors and decor... but the pluses outweighed the negatives, including being almost the same in rent, and still so close to where we were, and available right when we needed it, so we took it. It didn't take us long to settle in and transform it into a cozy home, and we have come to really like our funky little Leucadia shack now :-)

Just before our move in January, Willie took off on a trip to Asia for what ended up being about 7 months. He started his journey in India, then ventured to Thailand, then back to India before heading home. Quite an experience for him! Once home, he rented a place with some friends just a few blocks from us. He took a couple more trips to Northern California with friends (James went along on one too), then landed back here again in late summer to complete his training to be a yoga instructor. He is currently instructing at a local women's rehab center. He plans to be here through the holidays, but is planning to take off again on his next adventure to Mexico with some other colleagues to start a destination wellness spa that focuses on health & healing. (I'm sure he has a much more accurate description...I'll share the brochure when we get it!)

James is living here at home with us still and has been taking college courses as well as working with Gary on some jobs to make some extra money. As we all read about every day, jobs are hard to come by, and this has really hit home for James as he has put in a bunch of applications, but has not had much luck. He is taking more courses this coming year and will keep doing some soul searching on what he wants to do next. Hopefully the job market will get a little better next year. He plays a lot of tennis and goes hiking often with his friends. Like Willie, James has become a vegan, and has learned a lot about food and healthier cooking. He is a good influence on us!. We love still having him at home with us - Kelly just adores her older brothers and they spend a lot of time together visiting or playing around. We also like having the built-in babysitter for an occasional night out too!

Kelly has continued to grow, blossom, amaze and inspire us! We had her in swimming for almost a year, but decided to take a break early this year, so instead she took cheerleading. At first she was a little fidgety and uncoordinated, but by the last few weeks, she was getting some of the moves down and was totally into it. She also had a week of "hip-hop camp" for spring break which I believe may have solidified her love for dancing. She's a natural and I expect they'll be more of that in her future! She graduated from Kindergarten in June, and I think I cried as much that last day as her first day! Also in June she had her "Olivia the pig" themed 6th birthday party here in our backyard, complete with jumpy, pin-the-tail-on-the-pig, musical chairs, and a pig pinata. We all had a blast! We stayed local over the summer, so she had a lot of beach time, playdates, and trips to Legoland, which is practically our backyard. Kelly became a big 1st grader in mid-August. Now being on the main campus of her little school with all the other kids, she was a little more apprehensive than she'd ever been before, so it took us took us a few weeks to get the routine down and to "cut the cord" again, which was hard. Now she loves it and is pretty comfortable with her new realm. She's started to form some very close friendships with her classmates and with other girls that are in her Girl Scout Daisies Group, which has been going on all year as well. We received her first report card a couple weeks ago which had high marks in all subjects and citizenship. She loves loves LOVES to read, and is constantly surprising us by reading books at 2nd & 3rd grade level! She definitely keeps us all busy, laughing, and on our toes!


Gary's business was pretty steady again this year. He had a couple of bigger-than-usual subcontracted jobs that took him north to Pasadena and LA, each taking 2-3 weeks to complete. These larger contracts allowed him to relax a little more in between and take some much deserved and desired time off. He took a quick weekend trip to Vegas in the Spring with his friend Andrew, but other than that has stayed close to home this year enjoying all our little town has to offer. He spent a lot of time developing a little plot of land in our back yard into a wonderfully producing garden. We had 20 lb pumpkins growing by mid-August! As well as tomatoes, beans, guavas, rhubarb, and strawberries. He's increased the size of it recently and has big plans for this spring. After months of research and contemplation, in September, he made a very large purchase, which has benefitted us all...a 47" flat screen TV- Woo-hoo! Football season has never been better, and he has enjoyed hosting barbeques and gatherings here almost every Sunday since.(and Mondays....and Thursdays!).


I am still managing the Carlsbad branch of Century 21 Award, and still loving it. My branch made huge strides this year, producing more transactions with less agents than the year before. I am so grateful to work with such a progressive company and smart, ambitious, caring agents. I have learned so much and enjoyed our team's journey in working hard to turn things around this year. I believe 2012 can and will be another positive year for us, and I look forward to growing the office, adding more great agents to the team and to continuing to help people with all aspects of real estate, which I believe will eventually help in turning around our economy. Although I didn't take any big vacations this year, I did take a few mini-weekender or 3-day trips here and there. But mostly, I too stayed "local" this year. Most of my "me" time (when I was able to get it!) I spent visiting friends, old & new. Through Kelly and her school activities, I have met some great moms that live in our area. I see them at our ladies' bunco group, Daisy meetings, playdates, school functions etc. I've really enjoyed meeting and getting to know some great new friends this year, as well as enjoying time and adventures with my "older" friends and family too.


Even though there were a lot of wonderful little things that happened this year, it was still a pretty laid back year for us all, nothing terribly crazy and exciting I guess....just enjoying all that we have with the ones we love most and feeling content and grateful for the simplicity of it all.

We are thankful to everyone of you who touch our lives making it that much better, and we wish you a beautiful holiday and happy and prosperous new year!!!

With Much Love,

Gary, Kim,

Willie, James & Kelly

Kelly's Tree Weekend

Nana & Papa started a tradition, I believe 2 years ago, where we head up to their house in Murrieta a couple weeks before Christmas and they take Kelly to pick out a little mini-tree that they all decorate together with mini-lights & mini-ornaments...Kelly's Christmas tree! So we went up this past Friday night right after work to spend the weekend and get the Kelly tree. As we were about to head to bed that first night, in walks my brother Johnny and his fiance, Sam! They completely surprised us and drove down from Mammoth that day to spend the weekend with us too! So Saturday afternoon we all piled in the car and headed to the tree lot.

Kelly didn't waste anytime. She walked in, walked right up to the little tree section, pointed and said, THAT ONE!!

We got home, put on the Christmas music, and trimmed the little guy. It turned out soooo cute! 

Their street was amazing - every house had lights on, and most had GOBS of lights! Sam, Johnny, Kelly & I went walking around looking at them all. We had a great time just hanging out as a family and getting into the Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving is easier with two of everything!

Our first Thanksgiving in our big funky double kitchen! I will say it definitely comes in handy to have two of all kitchen appliances at the holidays. I cooked a turkey AND a ham! Everyone was happy! 

 Kelly even tried some of the turkey, a true miracle!

 We had a pretty good crowd. Watched football, ate ourselves silly and had a great time.

Loads of Halloween Fun!

With 5 full weekends in October this year, I made it a point to schedule loads of seriously fun Halloween activities! For some reason, Halloween is one of my very favorite holidays. I just love it! And Kelly seemed pretty excited this year too. 

We kicked off the first weekend by heading to our local little Pumpkin Station pumpkin patch in Del Mar with her buddies Krysta, Skye, Caspian & Cyrus. They have kiddie rides, jumpys, a train ride, a petting zoo and lots of great pumpkins for photo ops! I will be sad when she outgrows this place, we always have a great time there!

As always, sometime in mid-August, I started to have a little trepidation thinking about how the costume thing would all go down this year (see previous 2 years Halloween posts!). She started with wanting to be a cowgirl, but when I showed her some potential costumes, she turned up her nose. She then proclaimed that this year she wanted to be SCARY! So for a while she was saying she would be a ghost. I finally talked her out of that one.

"But honey, then your head and face have to stay covered up the whole time so that people believe you are a ghost...you wanna walk around with a sheet on for a bit and see what you think?" 

She didn't even need to try it, she saw the light without the test run. I decided maybe she was old enough that we could go to the costume store and look together for something (it sooo overwhelming when they are little! yeah, for ME!) We tried a couple fairy-like costumes. She didn't like them. She saw a cutsey lady bug one, but they were out of her size... I reminded her that she said she wanted to be SCARY this year, and as if the fog were lifted away, she said, "OH YEAH That's RIGHT!" 

Then she saw the Bat Girl costume. Her eyes lit up, she jumped around pointing at it saying, I wanna be BAT GIRL!!! 

"Honey, Krysta was Bat Girl last year, and I bet she still has the costume. Do you want to just, em, borrow it from her?" 

"YEAH MOM!!! I wanna borrow Krysta's BAT GIRL costume!!! YAY!!! Call Miss Michele RIGHT NOW!!!" 

So we high-fived each other as I pulled out my cell phone and walked out of the Party City having spent an hour, but not even a dime.... yessss!

So our little angels this year went from ballerinas, princesses, and fairies to Goth, gore and darkness! Mu-ha-ha! She had plenty of BATITUDE too!

First stop, Legoland's Brick or Treat Nights...we were thinking it might be pretty crazy crowded, but it wasn't too bad, and it was really fun - the decorations were awesome and they had lots of great entertainment. We had a super fun time - highly recommend!

 
Next, we took our first visit ever trip to Bate's Nut Farm.... ok, so now we've been there done that. It was fun, but I probably won't need to do that again. It was soooo ridiculously crowded! And really hot that day too, which probably didn't help matters. But we enjoyed and had fun regardless.

 We went to our first combined kid AND adult costume party at one of her classmate's (and fellow bunco babe mom's) house. All her school and Daisy friends were there and they had a blast! (as did the parents I will say) In preparation I got all domestic and made these pumpkin cake pops. They didn't look exactly like the cover photo of my Family Circle mag, but they were still a huge hit with the kids!

Next up, a visit to a haunted house, which is put on by the Boys Scouts every year in this old historic farmhouse in Olivenhein. I was not sure how Kelly would handle it. They take it easy on the little kids, but still some of the rooms were pretty gruesome & scary. But she was a total trooper, in fact, I think I screamed way more than she did. She is really digging the scary stuff this year!

 I continued my domestic bent through the month and made another recipe from my Family Circle mag, a cemetary cake. YUM!

 Finally, THE night we had been actually celebrating for weeks now, Halloween!!! (which was on a MONDAY night and was the day all the kids went BACK to school after a two-week fall break. Brilliant!) We went trick-or-treating with our usual gang in our usual little neighborhood behind Leucadia Oaks park where auntie Lynda lives. They had a blast and got ridiculous amounts of candy. All-in-all, it was a spectacular Halloween month!

The Zombiekins Take Over!

 So we were at the Encinitas library for a Daisy meeting today where they also got to decorate cookies. So all sugared up and on our way out, Kelly saw this book and begged me to check it out for her. It was called Zombiekins and had all kinds of strange kids-style semi-gory animations in it. I looked it over and then tried to convince her it was a book for older kids, but she insisted we get it. I paused and thought, this is one of those moments where we pick our fights, and this one was not worth picking. I figured what's the harm in checking it out, her getting bored with it in 2 minutes flat, it ending up in the corner floor of her room, and I taking it back to the library in a few days with the rest of our books. No big deal!

Was I was proven wrong! Once we were in the car, I realized I had not heard a peep out of her in several minutes. I looked in my rear-view mirror. Her nose was buried in the book. I had earlier decided (during the "sugared-up" time) that I was going to abandon a much needed trip to the grocery store with her. Seeing her engrossed, I decided to give it a try and said, "Hey Kelly, wanna go to the grocery store w/me right now?" To which she replied, "Noooowwwaa, I wanna ready my new boooookkk!!!"
"Well, how about I put you in the cart and you can read it while were shopping?"
"OK!! Yeah, mommy, let's do THAT!!! It will be FUN!!!"
I was not so sure... but I jumped on it.
It was one of the most amazing grocery trips I had ever been on with her! She sat quietly in the cart, reading the WHOLE time, barely even looked up, no whining, no negotiating...never asked me to buy anything even ONCE! I could not believe it! I had found pure gold! Oh man, I hoped this was gonna work more in the future! I dreamed of more perfect shopping trips like this!

  And it didn't stop there. She sat quietly in the big chair almost all night reading that gory little book! Giggling and laughing every couple minutes (apparently the gore is mixed in with a lot of humor)

At one point she starting laughing hysterically and ran over to me, pointing at the front cover of the book, "mom, MOM, guess what the other book by this author is called?? Sir Fartsalot Hunts the BOOGER!!! hahahahaha! Can I get that one at the libary next mom, PLEEEEAZE??!!"

Hello, um YEAAAH, I think YES!

Her First 5k

Here's Kelly doing her victory dance at the finish line/after party at the National Lung Cancer Partnership's Free-to-Breathe 5k fun run/walk event at Liberty Station today

Kelly Turns 6!

Showing off her St. Patrick's Day "green"

Neither of us have much green in our closets, but Kelly found these cute pants (which I have been saving for summer, but oh well...) and was very proud to model it for the camera before we went off to school. A little non-traditional, but it worked! Happy St. Patrick's Day!