Our 2104 Christmas Recap

The whole month of December has been filled to the brim with jolly awesomeness.

We've had more delicious dinners than I care to count, more laughter fill our home than ever before and more friends and family gathered 'round to watch it all go down. 

Here's a picture walk through all of our Christmas celebrations:

Instead of a large kids xmas party this year, we scaled back a bit and told the kids they can invite over a couple friends each to have a fancy Christmas dinner & movie party. 

I really love throwing kids christmas parties.The energy, the excitement, the games, the magic. It's such a fun way to start out the season and to see my kids share their love for Christmas with other kids who feel the exact same way is so precious. 

 Check out Chance in the reflection below working his mojo on one of Bella's friend. I wanted so badly to lean in and say, "dude, simma down, you're wearing elf pajamas"

The kids dined on Orochetti Bolognese, some pretty great sugar cookies and toasted each other to friendship and Santa--adorable doesn't even begin to describe it. When Bella's friend Nicole asked for more juice in the most proper of English accents I laughed out loud and knew my job was done!

Sleeping bags, popcorn and Santa Claus the movie!

Chance and Mia woke up early on Christmas Eve and decided to decorate the house with posters leading us to the North Pole. Man, I love these kids. The picture below, aside from being my favorite xmas picxture this year, tells so much about Mia.

Groggy and grumpy, Eugene and I followed the signs.....

Chance was super proud of his poster making skills and described to us in detail that this is a... 

picture of Chance and Santa, duh. 

And just when I was ready to give up on the grueling journey from our bedroom to the North Pole, this cute little polar bear, nestled stovetop, wekumed me. And P.S. Mia, that polar bear's three dimensional thought bubble is pretty awesome. 

Our Christmas house elf Dobby was up to his usual hi-jinx on his last morning with us. 

Dressed up for church.

Bella wanted to go for a Taylor Swift Christmas look.....and I gotta say I think she came pretty close!

 Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt's house, as it has been for the past 30 years but this year we set up a photo booth!

Sidenote-- in a weird yet totally not surprising coincidence 4 ladies in our family happened to buy the SAME sweater at different times from the same store. Our bargain hunting genes run deep man.

So of course, we filmed it. Below is the original 4 sweater owners 

(who frequent Ross WAY too much)

But then we got a little jealous so we donned the sweaters too. 

The amount of fun I've had with these ladies throughout my life is immeasurable. Luv ya girls!

More Christmas Eve fun!

For the second year now we make sure to take pictures right before we go to bed when everything's set up, even though we're dead tired and our feet and back ache like crazy--we capture the stillness and magic that only Christmas Eve can bring. I love this tradition. The pictures turn out so beautiful and peaceful and are such a great symbol of the month long fun we've had leading up to this night.

The annual note from Santa. This year's theme was reminding the kids that their love for each other and the people around them will make them loving adults in the future. Just a little life lesson before all the crazy abundance that will soon follow.

The countdown...

Rise and shine it's Christmas morning!

Cookies for breakfast, no complaints there.

Kelle Hampton, an amazing mother and blogger has a tradition from her childhood where they would follow strings all over the house leading to a present. I loved the idea and did this with Bella mainly because her gift was in another room and who wouldn't love searching for a present, right?!

In fact her gift was my most favorite this year. As you may know, she's mildly obsessed with Lego Friends and up until Christmas morning we stored all of her creations on top of our craft cabinets in the craft room. They were not easily accessible, they were shoved together, broken apart and sadly outta sight, outta mind if you know what I mean. I wanted so badly to give Bella a place of her own, a place where she can play and escape and lose herself in her little Lego world. The scary, old and smelly basement was out of the question because it would have been too difficult to prevent the other kids from going down there, so we came up with an alternative.

We gave up a shelf in our dining room storage closet to turn into a Heartlake City Lego Friends village. That's it folks, a shelf.

We hooked it up with battery operated LCD lights that run on a remote control for cool factor, added some green astroturf, rolling hills and some sunshine and you would have thought we gave her the world. She was SO happy. In fact, I'm choking up as I write this because the string, the surprise, the look of utter disbelief as she saw what was behind the door was so, so genuine. 

I wish all gifts could give out this much joy.

She LOVES her little shelf and proudly shows it off to anyone who hasn't seen it. We've since added a fold up bar chair and a real padlock and I swear to you this girl is in HEAVEN!

Every Christmas there's a gift or a moment that defines it for me, and this was it. I'll always look back on the "shelf christmas" with such magic and happiness. 

But believe me, the other kids had a memorable Christmas too. Santa brought Mia a pretty awesome fairy house (that was decorated in accordance to Mia's fancy schmancy schmulzy taste level!)

Chancey had himself a Transformer Christmas 

 and little Indy was thrilled with his Daniel Tiger treehouse!

Celebrating our Christmas love with our west coast family, the only way we could.

The Magic of Christmas

Folks, here's my first attempt at a vlog. Enjoy:

The Joy of Presence

Well, hello there.

Yeah, I know, been awhile.

But I assure you we've been having a ball. Our decorations have been up since before Thanksgiving since this year we did a Thanksgivemas and celebrated both holidays. It was kinda nice having everything done because it meant that these 4 weeks before Christmas could be spent enjoying the heck outta the holidays. And while I'm really trying to do that, the days and weeks keep getting busier and busier.

I have to remind myself to stop and enjoy this season. Stop going, going, going and be more present. I've got two weeks left to do it, darn it. I have these thoughts in my head of the 6 of us all cozy on the couch with the Christmas tree lit and a fire blazing, ya know the quintessential Norman Rockwell painting. Except, we haven't really done that yet. We've done a lot of Christmas stuff but none that required little to no effort. No effort, aye? I want more of that! 

Yesterday, the boys woke up from their nap and I opened the shade and the most beautiful late afternoon sunset filled their room. I ran for the camera and captured a little bit of lovely....

Something as simple and routine as a wake-up, for the most part, goes undocumented by me. Three times a day I go into this room to whisk him away and yet I never stop to capture it.  I'm so glad I took the time to record what his little self looks like every time he wakes up and waits for me. 

Being present. My new mantra.

Ciao.

Lion Week

I am so behind in blogging. I always say that I'd like to write a little bit each day but that never seems to happen. I'm also way behind in my weekly video production with Chance. But we're still going strong with our animal studies and he began the first set of Bob books and he's doing so great. Out of the blue the other day, I handed him the first book and sure enough he was reading it. My heart soared.

We're still going to the zoo weekly to see our featured animal, despite weather conditions. Last week it was FREEZING but we did it anyway. This week is going to be even colder--I was saving some of the indoor animals for the peak of the cold winter months but holy moses I think we may be peaking now. It's 16 degrees right now. SIXTEEN!!!!

We're having family over next week for a "Thanksgivmas" so I'm also surrounded by a thousand christmas lights waiting to be hung. Our elf pajamas have been purchased and our Pandora stations are already streaming. Tis the season, my very merry favorite season.

But before I get all holly jolly, here's the montage of Lion Week:

Raising A Budget Minded Child

Budget.

See that word there? Let's read it again shall we,

b u d g e t.

That word has both haunted and excited me over the years. I was never someone who abided by a set budget. If I made money, I spent it--as simple as that.  Shopping gave me an instant gratificiation that was palpable. See, I like to shop. I like the feeling of getting something new. Weekly trips to Old Navy and TJ Maxx were like a family tradition for us.  The problem is that I was never taught the importance of saving. In fact, I can recall my mother giving me a Discover card in college for "emergencies." NEWSFLASH: apparently taking 12 friends out to a Burger King dinner didn't qualify as life threatening. But that's just it, I spent a good portion of my life not knowing or caring about the significance of money.  And when I began making my own money out of college, the rush only worsened. Planning out next weeks paycheck became a ritual. Spending money gave me an aribtrary sense of self-worth which I've only now come to realize was completely irresponsible.

And then I met Eugene, who among many other things, was a genius about the art of money. During our dating years while I spent my face glued to the US Weekly gossip pages, Eugene read every book he could about the importance of money. And though he couldn't keep up with the latest Brangelina news (go Team Aniston), he could balance a budget like nobody's business.

See, it's all about the budget.

He learned about short term investments, long term investments, IRA's and stocks. He knew that saving was an integral part of financial freedom but also knew that having fun meant spending money too. Together, we found a balance and I began to see how wrong I really was.

I want my children to do things differently than I did. I want my children to know the value of a dollar. To know that everything in this world comes at a cost, to know what's affordable, what it means to save and what it means to spend within our means. I think the reality of our economic environment shouldn't be taught when they start earning their own money--it should start now. Which is why Eugene and I consistently let our children be a part of our financial decisions. And when we can, we give them the freedom to make their own choices.

Last week we announced to the kids that they were each going to recieve $40 to spend on whatever they'd like on a shopping trip to the city. Seriously folks, if you're going to shop, might as well shop on Michigan Ave, right?! They could spend it at the Disney Store, The Lego Store or American Girl. They were SO excited and spent the whole week cross-referencing catalogues and documenting item costs and weighing pros and cons like they were Suzie bloody Orman.

The excitement leading up to our spree was seen everywhere, from dinner table talks to a side mention while brushing their teeth or even a quick debate before bedtime. They took their soon-to-be purchases very seriously. As we all should, right?

They decorated their cash envelopes and swooned when we gave them their money.

The fancy city landscape totally upped the wow factor, too.

 Both Chance and Mia combed every single item in The Disney Store till they figured out exactly what they wanted. When Chance realized he could get the Spider Man car AND the Big Hero 5 guy he was thrilled. I stood behind him in line and watched how happy he was taking his money out and doing something really adult, like hand over cash. It was precious and empowering and I smiled from ear to ear. He carefully put his .80 left in change back into his envelope, resealed it and grabbed his shopping bags like he was king of the world.

Even little Indy had a $40 budget. A bath set and a couple fancy jammies for the win.

Mia decided to purchase a princess art case and the Palace Pet lineup from Disney. You don't question Mia when she makes up her mind.  That girl knows exactly what she wants and cannot be persuaded otherwise. I love that about her. She had a few dollars left but decided to hold onto it.

Bella, on the other end of the sibling spectrum, is our family's 2nd worst decision maker (I'll take that first place award, thank you.) Bless her heart, she had a list of possible combinations of toy options within her budget and after going back and forth between American Girl and Lego, and stressing the heck out of herself she FINALLY decided on a doll guitar and a new Lego Friends set.

Watching my children make hard choices was SO gratifying. It could have been so easy spending $40 on them during a random shopping trip at Target but giving them this experience, teaching them this lesson and watching their satisfaction as they rewarded themselves made all the difference. When their money started dwindling down, I could see the struggle they felt trying to cherish the most of what they had left.

And just when I thought our little lesson couldn't get any better, this happened.

While we waited for Bella to make up her mind Mia grabbed her dad's hand and asked him to show her all of the items in the Lego store that cost $10. Eugene walked her around and pointed at each item under $10. I watched from across the room as Eugene painstakingly went through every single item, like a broken record "yes Mia, this is $10, this is $10." I could see his frustration building as they arrived at the Star Wars section and Mia politely asked, "but which one is the coolest Daddy?"  He handed her two mini sets and what she did next will be filed in one of my mental folders for the rest of eternity. She walked over and kneeled down by Chance's side and told him she wanted to spend her last ten dollars on him.

On him. 

I was dumbfounded. What 6 year old does that? I couldn't help but get choked up and filled with such admiration for her. Given the same situation, I honestly don't think I would have done that and the fact that she so unselfishly wanted to share makes me the proudest parent ever, right next to Eugene of course. Here we are trying to teach our kids about decision making, math and budgeting and she turns around and teaches us about humility, sacrifice and kindness.

This is the lesson we should all be learning--knowing and recognizing when our glass is really full. So many times I've wanted more, more, more without realizing what I actually had to begin with. That's the beauty of budgeting---the sheer act of committing to a set standard and knowing when enough is really enough. That's a hard lesson to teach young children, but a very, very important one.

As a mother I hope I'm inspiring my children to make the hard choices about their future, to know what decisions are really worth the cost, literally and figuratively.

A Beauty and The Beast Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I raised my freak flag pretty high again this year as we just released our annual family Halloween costume theme....Beauty and the Beast.

As you know, we go all out over here for Halloween. It started four years ago with Toy Story

 Next came Dr. Seuss

then Willy Wonka

Alice in Wonderland

and this year's....

Here's the details---all costumes except for the Belle dress were assembled/hot glued/sewed from scratch or existing clothing items. Since I do not sew (but plan to learn) I hit up the local childrens consigment shops where I can inexpensively turn a nothing into a something. Take for example, Chance's beast coat--it was originally a size 10 girls blue blazer, that we cut and trimmed and bedazzled it up to look like just like the beast.

The Cogsworth costume was made from foam with wood looking material glued to it! I added felt, gold paper and gold paint to the bottom.  It's amazing what can be done without actually sewing. I made the top of the clock out of foam and felt and glued it to a brown sweatshirt he wore underneath.

The Mrs. Potts costume is originally an "adult baby costume" that I also used for my Violet Boureguarde costume. We used a bunch of stuffing and a king flat sheet and some felt to make the look of the teapot.

Babette's costume used to be a girls black dress that we turned into a long black skirt. We stitched and glued on the feather boas and ostrich feathers to the bottom of the skirt. A simple black turtleneck and lace apron completed the look. Her "handle" was made from foam and the same wood material as Cogsworth and then hot glued to a headband.

Lumier outfit was all spray painted gold. The candlesticks were made from Oatmeal boxes, spray painted white with foam adhesive to represent wax. His headpiece was made from foam and white material. Please know that it was never my intention for his hands to be seen. I thought the suit coat would cover his hands. It wasn't until I saw the pictures on the computer that I realized his hands were exposed. Ugh.

While I look forward to the years when our themes can be wild and crazy, I think I'll always cherish these magical childhood years when my kids are still young and so full of imagination.

This is what Halloween is all about.  

Here's the video from our photo shoot:

Narciso Halloween Photo Shoot from Gina Narciso on Vimeo.



If you have any costume questions please leave a comment or send me an email.

Happy Halloween!

Polar Bear Week

Did you know that a polar bear's fur isn't actually white but more translucent and reflective?  Did you know they have black skin underneath their fur? Yep, totally true.

Another great animal week has come and gone but what's left is some pretty great memories. We met with Erin, one of the bear zookeepers at Brookfield Zoo and she took the time to teach us about how special these bears are. Hudson, one of the male polar bears, smelled her and recognized her voice almost immediately and came right over to the window. It took our breath away to see his massiveness up close. Our visit ended with an amazing splash in the pool that I'm grateful I captured.  It was the most rewarding zoo visit to date. Thank you Erin for taking the time and for spreading the love for these beautiful animals.

I agree with Chance, it was magical.

Love Letters

"Jeez Mom, you really need to brush your teeth" said Mia suspiciously. For a brief moment I was a little offended until I saw that teeny-tiny twinkle in her eye that tells me she's up to something. That twinkle, so instantly recognizable. It's a certain look in their eyes, a curl of their lips and a dodged eye focus that tells me there's a surprise or a trick hiding for me somewhere. It really is one of my favorite parent/child interactions because I'll test the waters to see just how far fetched they'll let their fib go. These kids of mine can get really creative. Bella's getting better these days at perfecting her poker face and Mia's fib face is just precious but Chance is A DEAD GIVEAWAY since he can't get through the fib without giggling. He's made my bed for the past few mornings and will pee his pants with laughter as he tries to think of ways to get me back into my room. (Which, btw, I make my bed every morning when I get up but he likes to un-make it--then make it again. Lovely.)

But back to my bad breath.

"Really Mom, eeewwww." She actually waved the so-called bad breath away from her nose for a dramatic effect. "You should DEFINITELY go brush your teeth right now."

Pretending I was really embarrassed by my heinous breath I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and sure enough, there it was.

This girl has SO much love in her heart. Every single day she'll make a letter, or a card, or a note that melts my heart and makes me love her even more than I already do.

And here's some more from this week alone...

This one below came with two wild flowers taped to the sides--as if the words byoutfloo and amasing weren't gift enough already.

The truth is, one day soon, someone else will be on the other end of her notes and it'll be a lot harder for me than I'll ever let on.

Until then, she's all mine.






I love you Mama Mia!
xoxo