Rachael's Sweet Sixteen

Rachael, my sweet baby, turned 16 today. I am so blessed to have her in my life. She is an interesting, dynamic, sensitive person, and I get to call her daughter.

Rachael had been longing for a furry buddy to keep her company in the basement ever since Emma went off to college. We decided her birthday was a good time to get her the furry buddy. Rae, Em and I went on Tuesday to check out a local shelter. They had dozens of cats and it was a little overwhelming, but we made the rounds. There was one cat named Kara in the first room, in a lower cage, with beautiful green eyes and black fur. Her tag said that she liked to snuggle and really that was the type of cat Rachael wanted. So we took her out and Kara snuggled up tight to Rae's neck and kept rubbing against her. Everything about this kitty felt right. We filled out our application and made a deposit and scheduled to pick her up 2 days later, Rae's birthday. The next big decision was the new name.

On the morning of her birthday we all went to the movies. I saw Moana with Bridget and Hanna, while Jim took the big girls to see Rouge One. Afterward we went to a birthday lunch at Applebees and stopped over at PetSmart to pick up supplies. The shelter didn't open until 5 so we hung out at home for a while, Rachael opened her cards and a few gifts, then she and I drove back out to Small Miracles Rescue. It was a very quick transaction, but we did get to talk to the woman who had fostered the kitty. Rae was just longing to hold her but they loaded her in the carrier and we were off before we knew it.

Rachael sat in the back seat and talked to her new kitty all the way. Rachael cried very happy tears and said it was a lot to get something that you had hoped for so much. I ran into Baskin Robbins to get the sherbet and then we went back home. Rachael took her kitty to her room, where we plan to let her get acclimated prior to introducing her to Cobh and the rest of the house in a few days.

Kitty did so well and was so relaxed, eating and purring that we all got time to hang out with her. After everyone had turns we shared sherbet together before Rachael went back downstairs again. Rachael was torn on the name, She liked Leia and she liked Luna. So Rae has decided to call her Leia Luna.  These 2 have become fast friends.

Happy 16th Birthday!

Love and Prayers,

Momma

Christmas 2016

This Christmas we hosted Christmas Eve and celebrated with our family traditions.

The day started a little differently as Emma was anxious about how having her girlfriend, Claire, join us would go. I meanwhile was not concerned as I trust my family to be gracious and treat people respectfully. Instead I was stressed because they were not being helpful and I was weepy because my Mom wouldn't be with us. I think my need helped them get past their personal concerns and we got everything ready in time.

We had the cousins gather before lunch for the annual cousin picture. They are so good at this and as they are all getting older it is a much easier endeavor. It was sad to not have Anthony with us, as he is in a residential setting right now, but he was not forgotten.

The rest of the family arrived and we feasted on sandwiches, meatballs, and homemade mac and cheese. The kids moved in and out of the dining room filling plates and then up and down the stairs where they played games. The adults visited and soon we transitioned to the younger cousin gift exchange. I love to see the joy on their faces as each gets to deliver a gift to another and watch them open it. Then the adults had our yankee gift exchange. There were lots of laughs as Will, with his clean shaven face, opened a beard themed box of Beard Balm. The teenagers did their exchange downstairs in the basement simultaneously and Emma's gift of silly girly stuff turned into a big laugh.

Soon the family began to head out to Mass, where a number of the cousins sing in the OLV children's choir. We handed out containers of Christmas cookies and it was fun to hear Teresa say she was so happy to have cookies, so they could put some out for Santa.  Shortly thereafter my cousin Steven arrived, he had worked the night before and slept through his alarms. I was happy he would be able to join us for Mass. We started a number of years ago the tradition to go to Mass with Will and Heather's family on Christmas Eve and it has been fun to have Steven join us. And this year Claire as well. The church was packed for the 4:00 Mass already when we got there at 3:40, but luckily the choir section was still open. This has happened a number of times over the years and it always makes us laugh.

After Mass we all returned to the house and ate a random collection of leftovers. It made me laugh to hear Will and Heather's relief at not eating McDonald's drive through after the 6:00 PM Mass, which is usually what they do. We relaxed and talked and Steven was great. He made a point to talk to each kid who didn't exert themselves in conversation, namely Bridget and William.  Emma and Claire had left for Claire's church service so we waited for Emma to return before we continued our Christmas Eve Traditions. Will and Heather and Family headed home and later Steven headed out. We sprinkled our reindeer food in the front yard and the little ones watched a Christmas Movie.

When Emma returned we gathered in front of the tree to open our ornaments and gifts from Colorado. The girls all got fuzzy pajamas and coloring books so they quickly changed and enjoyed some relaxing time coloring before it was time for bed.

After setting out Christmas Cookies and Beer for Santa, we sent them all to bed. After much deliberating we agreed on a 7:30 wake up time.

The girls arrived in our bedroom a few moments before 7:30 and squeezed in and around our bed. We did our "Christmas things that begin with _" alphabet game tradition and sang some carols. The tree was calling more and more loudly, so we headed to the living room. We took turns opening gifts and enjoying each other. I popped the casserole, I had prepared the night before, into the oven and the relaxing and playing took over until it was time to eat.

Everyone gathered at the table for a big breakfast of hashbrown/egg casserole, pineapple, and cinnamon rolls. Then with full bellies we played games. We played Megan's new Fantastic Beasts game and one of our family favorites Tsuro and ate peppermint nougat candies. Jim put together his new Yellow Submarine lego set while I got food ready to take to my Dad's house. Bridget had asked to make Jesus a birthday cake, she wound up making and decorating a pan of brownies. It was delicious.

We got our selves dressed and drove to my Dad's house. I was a little surprised that he had said he wanted to host. He proved he was up to the task. He had a crock pot full of scalloped potatoes, and a wonderful ham sliced and ready to go. Christmas dinner is always a relaxed event. Will and Heather spend the day with her family, and our extended family hosts their own, plus this year Sarah got a stomach flu so she and Becky weren't there either, and our numbers were much lower than the day before. It made for a peaceful evening with good conversation, but it had a hint of sadness to it as well. As the evening got late, we all pitched in to clean up and said our good-byes.

Bridget turned 10

Our Bridget Rose turned 10 on Thursday. It was the last day of school before break and therefor had more fun than usual. Bridget asked me to bring in fruit snacks for her to hand out to her class so I visited her in her classroom to drop them off. She picked fruit snacks this year because she has friends with food allergies and they can't have the typical cupcake. Bridget is naturally a considerate person and it adds to her beauty.

Bridget was glad to have everyone home to celebrate with her that evening. She picked Dimitris restaurant for her birthday dinner, and even though she didn't loved her chicken Caesar salad she had a a good time. She asked if she could go somewhere else to get dessert, and since it was still early and not a school night we said yes. She made a few suggestions and then sisters jumped in with opinions. But being her birthday she was happy to get the final say without anyone arguing with her or trying to talk her into their first choice. She picked Baskin Robbins, so we piled in and made the short drive down Frederick Road. She was momentarily confused as we pulled into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. That huge glass case of ice cream tubs cleared up the confusion and then we had to make our choices. It took a little while and the employees got a kick out of us. Bridget went with rainbow sherbet on a sugar cone, and she was not disappointed.

After dessert we went back to the house and gather around Bridget as she received her cards and opened her gifts. Her big gift this year was a camera and she was very grateful.

Bridget is such a good kid. She enters this next decade of her life as a considerate, discerning, intentional child who values relationships more than stuff. Bridget is creative and likes to make things with repurposed items. She is gentle and fierce when pushed to defend something of worth. Bridget is a gift to our family. She is an example of sincerity and loyalty and goodness. I ask God's blessing upon her as her age hits double digits.

Preparing for Christmas

O Come Let us Adore Him!

We baked our cookies in 2 separate weekends. We needed to get some done to get packaged and shipped out but we also wanted to bake with Emma so we did a 2nd round when Emma could come home the weekend before finals.

Johanna and Bridget were my main bakers the first weekend and they were great in the kitchen. They both enjoyed adding ingredients into our oatmeal chocolate chips cookies and were astonished at the sheer mass of dough. We did the 7 layer bars first, it is one of the simplest recipes and is my holiday favorite. It has been a tradition since the girls were little and it has always been my favorite to make with little helpers. The pressing of the graham cracker crust takes a little finesse, but only Hanna needed help on that this year. Bridget worked at it until it was beautiful, all on her own. Then it is just pouring 1 cup full of each ingredient. I hope they continue to make these as they grow up and move out. The sugar cookies though are the girls favorites to make. The rolling and cutting and decorating is a creative endeavor I love to watch. Jim assisted Johanna on her batch this year. Her first tray was all blue and then she sat down for a 2nd tray and meticulously placed pearl balls on a stocking cookie, following the example of her sisters. Megan had been out shopping with Jim for the first part but was there to roll and decorate sugar cookies. Rachael also came in and did a very efficient pan of Christmas tree cookies and a pan of 7 layers. I set aside ingredients for Emma to do a pan of bars the following weekend and also refrigerated sugar cookie dough.

The next weekend Johanna had a Christmas program at the church of her preschool. She had been practicing the songs for weeks and was really excited to perform. Emma came home for the program and the whole family squeezed into the church to watch. The "Follow the Signs" program was very well done. Hanna's class was a herd of sheep and they sang "No Vacancy". They wore white and had sweet ear pieces. They were on the altar for the main songs and then were herded to a space in front of the manger. They also sang "Away in a Manger" and "Come Follow Me". Hanna sang as she moved in her space, and physically bounded down the aisle during the recessional. It was a wonderful  experience to share in.

The next morning we were going to go out to pick up our tree and decorate, but we awoke to thick ice on our road and terrible reports of accidents. We decided to stay home and instead did our cookie baking. Emma did her pan of bars, while Meg, Bridge and I did chocolate cookies. Then Emma and Rachael worked the refrigerated dough to roll out more sugar cookies. It was a process to roll out but they stuck with it. Emma made a pan of star wars cookies and Rachael personalized a whole pan. Jim helped do a pan with Hanna and made sure to get a few Millennium Falcons in there.

When the roads cleared up a little went to buy our tree. It was not ideal as the trees were covered in ice and the ground was a slushy mess. Luckily Megan wore her snow gloves and was helpful standing and inspecting trees. Jim and Rachael, and then everyone tossed frozen slush at each other. This was interrupted by Hanna who had an accident and peed in a pile of snow. That made us focus and get the task done. I brought her out to the van to clean her up, while Jim and the girls paid for te tree and bought a bunch of succulents in the process.

The tree was too wet to decorate right away so we stood it up in the living room on a tablecloth surrounded by towels. It dripped in our warm living room but it was still not ready to be decorated, prior to Emma's evening plans. So we decided to get up and decorate before church in the morning.

The morning decorating worked out really well. The girls unpacked their ornaments and proceeded to hang them. Emma clustered her Snow Buddies and the tree looked immediately crowded, but there were of course plenty of branches on our Fraser fir to fit more and more ornaments. Rachael was feeling overwhelmed and asked for help to get her ornaments onto the tree. There were lots of willing elves.  Hanna was most interested in anyone's ornament that made noise, but controlled her excitement. In the end the tree looked like "our tree" changing and similar every year.

I am so glad we were able to do it together. We then went to Mass together, which I had forgotten was said for my mom. After Mass Emma went back to TU to work on her final projects and studying for exams.

Johanna turned 4

The force in strong with this one and growing stronger every year.

Johanna celebrated her birthday with a family birthday party in October at our house. It was originally going to be at Will and Heather's but they came down with lice so we moved it a week later and moved it to our house.

We celebrated Ben and Lilian turning 8, Johanna turning 4, and Ellie turning 2. With the last minute plan changing, we went with a simple theme of animals. The girls got out our bucket of animals and placed them around the house, then we did animal stickers on the  table runner.

Johanna asked for an O the Owl cake. He is the young owl from Mr. Rodger's Land of Make Believe remake, called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. I did a first run the eve before the 1st party cancellation and then a 2nd version for the actual party at our house. No one complained about the extra cake.

On Johanna's actual birthday, she brought mini yellow and blue cupcakes to school to share. As we prepared to walk to school she went out on the porch first and yelled across the street to our neighbor "It's my Birthday!" She was oozing excitement all day. After school, she got a happy birthday phone call from Emma. Hanna picked Mathew's 1800 for her dinner out and we shared a big ice cream sundae. Hanna bounded about with a big smile all day.

Johanna has such a strong personality, and a streak of tenderness. She looks at the world with awe and wonder, and such a level of inquisitiveness. There is sometimes a glint in her eye that says "I will rule the world", for now at least her desire for world domination is contained to her immediate bubble and we are her world. Now we need to figure out how God wants us to direct her power, because I feel like I have no idea most of the time. I do know that she was created for something and it is really good.

 Hanna is growing and changing, and there are many things that she is growing beyond. Just the other night as we were getting ready for bed, she said to me "Can we run like I did when I was little?"  And so she did a lap around the house as each clothing item came off and a lap as each clothing item went on. It has probably been a year since we did that and it made me pause to realize that she has grown out of so much already. These moments are so temporary and I am so lucky to get to experience them.

Happy 4th Birthday Johanna!