We Need A Little Christmas

Each year during the holiday season I make an effort to play Christmas music throughout the day at home. Not only does it help us get into the more cheerful Christmas spirit, but it's nice to hear songs that bring good memories of my younger days. I first heard the song "We Need a Little Christmas" by Percy Faith and His Orchestra 3 years ago when Ben was just 5 months old and immediately became excited about the song. Now, if you know me, I sometimes enjoy dissecting elaborate musical compositions like a high school girl scrutinizing her boyfriend's free time. It's what makes Bluegrass music so amazing. It's complex. There's a level of talent and higher understanding of music to be capable of writing compositions for an orchestra especially before the arrival of computers. Anyhow, the song is cheerfully amazing from whatever instrument perspective you look at it and I won't go into it on this post.

Ben was laying on the living room floor at the time when I first heard the song and I can recall picking him up to dance to the song with him. I'm not much of a dancer, in fact, my dancing mimics a kid repetitively tripping on his shoelaces while playing jump rope. Yet he seemed to enjoy my distorted dancing techniques. From then on, each time the song played on the radio I made sure to stop everything and dance with him. He grinned happily as I spun him around and laughed when I'd tossed him in the air. By his second year, he recognized the tune and would stop playing with his toys immediately to search for me and dance to the song. It was immense fun 3 years ago and became a fun little tradition of ours each year. This year, I had to turned the radio off after the song and play it on the computer once more so Joey could also get his turn and unsurprisingly, he too enjoys dancing with dad.

I can recall wondering how I would be able to dance with him when he gets bigger and well... I'm not so sure. The song is just 2 minutes with 8 seconds and I am hurting at the end. This year has been bittersweet each time the song plays because I know that next Christmas season I won't be able to pick him up and throw him up in the air any longer. He's a big kid now and with time, dancing with dad won't be fun any longer. It's fine though, I was a kid once and I remember.

It's a common saying among many grandparents that having grand kids is even greater than having kids because you get to spoil them and send them home at the end of the day. Yes, I can see what they are trying to say and I'm sorry your kids were a burden because the responsibility of raising my two boys day after day, after day, after day, after weeks... etc. well, I would do it all again if I could only go back in time. This year I strained my wrist and threw my back out twice after swinging Ben around in our living room from dancing with him. Despite the pain, I did it all over again the following day because after all, it won't be like this for long. Maybe my two boys will have kids in the future and maybe they won't. Who knows? Yet it's the spontaneous moments like dancing to a song, that making parenting all the better. Personally, parenting is exhausting but only because my two boys want to have fun all the time and frankly... that sounds fun. Next year I'll have to get creative when dancing with Ben and in 10 years the song will relive the memories. As for right now, I have 3 more seasons that I can enjoy with Joey and I'm looking forward to that.

Christmas 2014

I sit here thinking that the list of chores will never end. Ben is currently taking a nap and therefore my opportunity to get several things done around the house. But today is different. Today I will sit down, update my blog and finally post the pictures from our Christmas trip to California. So for once, the chores will have to wait.

Christmas was one huge exhausting trip with plenty of driving mixed with fun in the sun. Traci had to work on Christmas Eve so we got a late start on our 16 hour road trip. We took the Pendleton route to I-84 for a change of scenery and began our vacation with plenty of snow although fortunately that was the only snow we encountered. We spent Christmas Eve at the Shilo Inn at Klamath Falls and wish we were surrounded by family rather than being on the road. We got to bed around 1 am and were back on the road at around 6 am. Once again we were reminded of how strange it is to spend Christmas on our own. There was no Christmas Tree, no wrapped gifts, no lights, decorations, music or the smell of mom making a huge feast for the family. However the hotel did have a Christmas Tree beside the main entrance with empty wrapped boxes and since this was Christmas morning, we tucked away a small unwrapped box near the front for Ben to find as he made his way to the car. Last year he was surrounded by a fortress of toys, this year it was just one box with Clifford "The Big Red Dog".

Driving in California reminds me of other occasions when I have said, "I never want to do this again." People will speed, drive recklessly and aggressively simply to celebrate the Holiday. But regardless of our driving adventures, we arrived to Fresno and briefly saw the family before everyone dispersed back to their own homes. Although we spent most of our time at my grandma's, we also had the opportunity to spend two nights in southern California and some quality time at the beach while visiting more family. It felt nostalgic with a certain level of satisfaction to arrive back with my son and wife to the beach where I spent countless hours as a kid. Somehow there's something about the beach that makes me feel at ease. Venice undoubtedly has the best weather all year round with it's light breeze during summer days and warm winters. But anyhow, it had been 19 years since my grandma had been to the beach and my uncle was determined that she would see the beach once again. Apparently the cities along the coast have special wheel chairs for traversing the sand and they actually work quite well. It's pretty impressive I must say.

Unfortunately I am blanking out most of the trip because it has been 4 months. I do recall spending just about every day attempting to visit various family members since who knows when we will be down there again. We were exhausted by the time arrived back home yet once again, we had a great time. We got to see Sutter Buttes (The worlds smallest mountain range) from a distance, Ben got play with a Labrador on Christmas morning and I even got a chance to visit the small elementary school where I began my scholastic years. It was great to see the family and I only wish I could have spent more time with them. It's interesting how I never stop missing them, it's simply that seeing them reminds me how much I miss them.

Christmas in Seattle 2014

It's interesting how different the city of Seattle is during the winter months in comparison to the summer months. The streets are less busy, everyone is bundled, and of course the city is decorated with a holiday cheer. Although I enjoy living in a small town, I will admit that seeing the Christmas Light shows and various North Pole villages throughout the city makes me wish I would get into model trains and begin a new hobby. But we will leave that subject for another time.

This year we had the opportunity to stay with my good-ol' friend Heidi. We met during our first semester in college and had lost contact through out the years so I was excited to catch up and she was excited to spend time with Ben. We ate and slept like royalty and Ben had the time of his life playing with her well trained dog, which I didn't take any pictures of. Anyhow, our plans for Saturday included a trip to the children museum and the aquarium yet after I accidentally kicked Ben at the playground, he lost his mood to be anywhere. But anyway, that afternoon we ate at Jonny and Deb's for lunch and had some pretty good haystacks for lunch with an in-meal entertainment of Ben playing with two dogs. That evening we visited the Bellevue Botanical garden where the light show has quadrupled since my days of living Bellevue. It's unfortunate that it's no longer free admission yet somebody has to pay for that electric bill. Ben fell asleep while we stood in line and was amazed and overjoyed when he woke up surrounded by Christmas lights... perhaps one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. It was fun hearing him say, "Woah!" as we wandered around looking at Christmas lights.

I always enjoy catching the ferry when I'm in Seattle. It's a great time to obtain an unobstructed view the Olympic Mountain Range off in the distance and Mt. Rainier while enjoying a nice boat ride. It's a glimpse of how serene life was before the asphalt, steel and seahawk fans arrived. We are fortunate to have family in Bremerton so just getting to their house is half the fun. On Sunday morning after racing against the clock to catch the 7:30 am ferry, we enjoyed the most amazing desolated ferry ride. There was a nice level of tranquility throughout our ride as we briefly got see a view of the sunrise, then later had fun trying to see where the clouds began and the ocean ended. Once in Bremerton, Ben had a blast playing with his cousin and his trains, trains and more trains. Unfortunately, I had to learn how to share with kids younger than myself. Since the seahawks were playing later that day, we wanted to avoid the crowds of fans on the ferry so we went north and crossed the sound to arrive at Edmonds. Since it was a nice warm winter day, we visited Juanita Park then ate some delicious veggie burgers at Kidd Valley in Kirkland.

On Monday we took our time getting back to Walla Walla. I had been wanting to see the old wagon road on the west side of Snoqualmie Pass so I made sure to take opportunity to see it. I was afraid we would not be able to traverse it due to snow yet I figured, what's the point on buying a Jeep? It turns out that the road was fine for the most part and I was impressed at the technology these new 4x4 rigs have. It's interesting how much more scenic the road is with waterfalls and views of the rivers despite that it runs between the east and west bound traffic. There is even a campground nestled between the interstate. Although the section we traveled is paved it does quickly gain altitude which made me wonder how enjoyable would it have been to cross the summit in a wagon. Anyhow, I had read about the old Milwaukee Road Depot still stands in Kittitas so after briefly seeing a nearby railroad bridge, we enjoyed some cupcakes by the old water tower. Sounds like one more thing off my bucket list to see in Washington. Once again, the trip to Seattle was great especially with the amazing hospitality from our hostess and worth the hassle of traveling during the holidays since Christmas day was spent driving in California. But I will leave that for my next post.