The Blur of Thanksgiving

Question: Where do all these people find the time to do all these crafts? It's so not fair!

In addition to our Thanksgiving weekend outings, I had Thanksgiving dinner at our house for about 16 people. Dinner was to start at 4:00 but didn't get served until 6:00. That should give you an indication of how it went.

I thought it was gonna be a breeze. I was really thinking ahead. We picked up the turkey last week before going to see Thomas because I knew it needed time to thaw. I went shopping and cut the veggies the night before so all I had to do was throw them in the oven. So it was 9:30 AM on Thursday morning when my sister called because she was adamant that the stuffing go in the turkey and she knew I had reservations about that. (We compromised and I put it in and around the turkey about an hour before taking it out.) When she found out that I was still sleeping, she thought, "Hmm, well, I guess she's got everything under control."

After waking to find the inside of the turkey still slightly frozen, I dunked it in water for an hour or so. The turkey finally got in the oven at 11:00 AM and I go about vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms and trying to direct Ivan on setting up the patio, where we ate. So it is about 2:30 PM and I'm still in my jammies, not having showered and my sister shows up to drop off the stuffing and some flowers. She was going back to her in-laws and took Joaquin which was really a load off of us, but she also took Grandma, who was gonna peel the potatoes, but before taking Joaquin I had to try to find an appropriate outfit because the kids where she was going were dressed in suits and ties! Joaquin ended up wearing his Thomas shirt and sweats.

I jump in the shower around 4:00 and by 4:30 people, other than my brother, start showing up, hungry. Glad that they know me, Mom and my sister show up and start helping with the rest of the fixin's and we finally had dinner at 6:00.

Now wasn't that fun! No, really. It was fun, and I enjoyed all of my company and the game we played after dinner, even though me and my partner knew squat about movies. Where's the TV edition when you need it! Or, how about the web edition? Yeah, that would work.

Below, the only pictures I got! Joaquin lounging with the dudes (Popo and Tio Danny); Grandma with the turkey that I made and group dinner shot.

Another Confession

So, at Joaquin's most recent check-up, his Dr. asked what he was eating because he's slightly overweight. Daddy didn't want to say "chicken nuggets and fries," so he said "junk."

Of course, his Dr. can just look at Joaquin's parents and figure that if he's just slightly overweight, then he's doing pretty good, but because we want to be responsible parents, we decided we need to do something about it now.

First we need to make sure Joaquin starts eating better. This means less drive-thru. I would get so upset because I'd spend time cooking something, only to have Joaquin not eat, but you know what? Right now we have control, so if he doesn't want to eat what I make, he doesn't have to eat. (Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.)

So to begin with, this weekend, I made soup with turkey leftovers and lots of leftover veggies. It was goooooood. He started to eat it, then asked for a hotdog. I told him to eat the soup, then we'd talk about the dog. He finished the soup and forgot about the dog. Score: 1-Mom.

Then we went to look at gym sets.

Listening To Whatever They Want

We live near this radio station and noticed that they changed their name recently. They now call themselves, The Peak, and their tagline says they play "70's, 80's...Whatever We Want." This just cracked us up when we first saw it. You know how radio stations are constantly trying to keep within a certain format? This one just said, "F-it. We're playing 'whatever we want.'"

Mr. Moody, Meet Santa

I just lost a long post. Hmm, what was it about? I was starting at the end, er, beginning, er, whatever. I was starting with yesterday.

Yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, we found ourselves at the Easter park, which is what Joaquin calls Encanto Park. Later, we made an appearance at one of the kickoff events for the Fiesta of Light, the parade which takes place next week.

Mr. Moody was out in full-force. I felt like I had a surly teenager. Joaquin didn't want to do anything. Didn't want to see Barney or Santa. He just sat on the back steps of the Rosson House and pouted.

That is, until Daddy mentioned that he could ask Santa for the blue tracks for Christmas right then and there. We'd been talking about the guy in the red suit for a couple of days and the opportunity was NOW! Well, by the time he came around, Santa and Barney were long gone. He was too late.

After that though, it was like we got a new kid. He was so obedient and happy, he became a Stepford child. If only we had stayed away from the toy store. Let's just say that in addition to the parental ban from Wal*mart and the 99 cent store, Joaquin is now banned from Toys R Us. We may renegotiate this in ban in the near future because, well, can you imagine a kid not being allowed in a toy store?

Here are a few pics from last night which include Barney, Daddy and the Stepford Child, a view from the overpass over Washington Street, a disappointed looking Joaquin at Santa's House and Mommy and Joaquin in front of the humongous tree (click to see bigger in new window):


Today we got to see a movie in an actual theater. An enjoyable little film about a sponge. Have you heard of it? We give this film two and a half trains. The kiddies really seemed to enjoy seeing Patrick Star's bare behind and "Tranny Pat." Hmmm...this was a children's film?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great day and didn't eat...


Oh, and I'm curious if anybody signed up for a Target Wake-Up Call. What a useless, yet clever idea.

So Much News, So Little Time

You think I haven't written anything, don't you. I have. But for the sake of family harmony, I removed it a mere five hours after I posted it. Let's just say it had something to do with priorities. It is still in draft form. I may still post it later. Believe me, it was a doozy and pretty darned funny, if you ask me.

Anyway, busy, busy. Some of you may be looking for stuff about Joaquin's parties (Sunday and Monday). I'm working on it. Next on the turntable is Thanksgiving dinner. At my house. And this weekend we're going to see Thomas on Tour. See, busy.

I also gathered some stuff for Grandma to sell at her yard sale. A bunch of CLTs (crappy little toys). You know, Happy Meal toys, party favors and the like. Yes, Joaquin gave input. I'd ask him, "Do you want this?" And he'd either say, "Yes, I need that." or "No, that scares me." There was a time recently where Joaquin must have gotten a Happy Meal several times a week because I'll have a bunch of the same toy and don't they change every week? All this purging didn't make a dent in the spare room, but it still feels good for some reason.

IKEA opened November 10th. I'm scared to go. I'm sure it's a madhouse. So I don't think I'll be going on a weekend. Maybe sometime mid-week. Like a Tuesday. I've heard that Tuesdays are the best day to go to Disneyland, so it must be true for IKEA too.

Remind me to tell you about Joaquin's progress report from school. It's a report on what he's not doing, sometimes doing and always doing. My guess is that we want him in the always doing category. I'm not sure what to do with it. Are we supposed to work on his "problem" areas? And how are we supposed to do that, pray tell?

It's late, gotta go. If I don't talk to you, have a good weekend. I'll have so much to share with you when I return.

And He Didn't Even Say Hello

Tia and Mommy had a busy afternoon. After having Joaquin's party at school, we headed over to Popo's house to do some heavy-duty cleaning. With bleach.

We get there and find we need light bulbs. One cannot appropriately bleach a kitchen or bathroom without light and those rooms had no lightbulbs. We call Grandma to ask what she did the with lightbulbs she bought for Popo a couple of weeks ago, but they were gone. It was a cloudy, rainy day today so we needed light bulbs, like tout suite.

Long story short, Grandma ended up bringing the lightbulbs. She was stalling because she asked Gabe to bring them but he was stalling which was why she ended up bringing them. Grandma lives less than five minutes from Popo; Gabe could've made it there and back before taking a shower, cutting his toenails watching ice melt or whatever is so important to someone without a job. Paybacks are a b*itch. That's when the phone calls to Popo's house started.

We were busy cleaning. With bleach. But we had our willing and able assistant, Joaquin, answer the phone. He kept hanging up. He said they wouldn't talk and he'd get upset, shake his head and put it down on the desk. After a while started answering the phone by yelling, "What!? What!? What!!?" while putting the receiver to the back of his head, on his neck and I think on his belly once. He looked exactly like he was on a phone call he didn't want to be on.

Eventually he'd hang up again, upset because the person on the other end wouldn't answer. We, on the other hand, had an idea who was calling because who really calls Popo, unless it's someone looking for Grandma? But you know what? We had real work to do and Popo thought he was very popular with his phone ringing off the hook like that.

After twenty to thirty calls, big bad Tio E. eventually bursts into Popo's apartment, fit to be tied. First he yelled at Grandma for keeping the car when they needed it to go bowling, then Joaquin for hanging up on him. I told Joaquin to tell him he needs to get his own car. Popo was thoroughly confused. "Who was that yelling?" He asked when they left. "Your son," we said. "Hmmph, he didn't even say hello." It was an exciting day for the Popo.

Yeah, we got some real peaches on our family tree. And I'm gonna have to tell Joaquin to remember to ask Tio E. when was the last time he cleaned. With bleach. Need to go bowling, hmmmpf!

P.S. I'm gathering evidence information for a post on Joaquin's birthday blowouts! I'll keep you posted.

Ornery George

George has been very ornery lately. We used to be able to leave nice smelling, or even just regular smelling stuff on the table. Now we can't. Today I found some felt I just bought spewed about on the floor and I can't describe the mess he made with the embroidery floss. I bought some picture holders and he pulled the entire bag off the table. Every time we get home, we have a new suprise. I can't leave my knitting bag on the floor either, because on a couple of different occasions, he's pulled out my yarn and it looked like he wrapped it around the house a couple of times. George, are you mad at us or do you just need some attention?

Joaquin Everywhere

Joaquin absolutely begged me to take him to a small M c Donalds in the center of the downtown area today. This is a no-frills M c Donalds that charges 25 cents more for their small ice cream cones, has no playground and is hard to find parking for. So what do you think I did? Of course I took him, you silly.

I have no idea why he wanted to go to that one, maybe because we pass it when we go look at train tracks. At any rate, he was very satisfied. We sat by a window and looked at all the passersby and he would pretend to scream in fear everytime he saw someone looking through the window. One guy even played the game with him and screamed back--at least I think he was playing. It reminded me of the M c Donalds in Times Square.

I'm thinking I may have to devote a page to Joaquin's M c Donalds' visits like the guy who wants to visit every St arbucks.

To Cook or Not To Cook

They named names, so now will too. Cooks Illustrated sells their mail lists. You may remember my past experience with companies that sell my name. Well, I just received a catalog I never requested.

So, I jotted a quick note to them:
You sold my name and address. I hate junkmail. It is bad for the environment. Do you have an opt-out for this sort of thing?

I will decide whether or not to cancel my subscription based on their response.

Sheesh!

Sneaky

I snuck this post in today since I didn't have a chance to write it last month.

Maxed Out

Very busy working on Joaquin's birthday party. We reserved the same place we had his second birthday, yep, Enchanted Island.

I created this logo for his party stuff. I used it on the invites and may use it on goody bags, etc. I'm pretty pleased with it but I think I've reached my creativeness quota for the year. I'm beat.

Still trying to decide what, besides candy, to put in the goody bags or if I should get the boxes on this page. I've got most of the music I wanted for the cds so just have to purchase some for my brother to burn.

I hope to find someone with a polaroid camera that we can borrow to take pictures of the kids in Joaquin's Halloween costume. Note to self: Look for those poloroid picture holders (or make some with the logo!). Won't that be cute!

I'm hoping to do something at his school too, so I'm actually putting together 2 parties. Oy!

Free Martha. I mean it.

I was perusing my gazillion blog links and I came across one that discusses the Holiday issue of M S Kids. And I just gotta say, I couldn't agree more. There are so many recycled ideas that I thought it was published by Weyerhaeuser. Gum drop ornaments? Loved it...the first time. Meringue mice? Seen it. Felt play book. Made it (not really but I wanted to, oh, two years ago). Oh yeah, the ideas are still very, um, cute, but c'mon.

In The Year 2020.

Joaquin saw a cat when we were at the park the other day. He said, "Ohhhhh, I luff (love) you. I wanna take you home with me." Suddenly, I was fast forwarded to Joaquin, age 20, with girls! Maybe that's why they call them catcalls.

Memories of Halloween Past, 2004

Joaquin really took notice of Halloween this year. He constantly wanted to go around looking at lights and pumpkins and even wanted to “borrow” a pumpkin or two. This is where our constant visits to the library is setting a bad example, because he thinks we can borrow anything now.

He didn’t appear too excited about his costume, but as soon as he put it on, he did want to crash into immobile objects. We took that as a good sign because the trains in his Thomas videos are always crashing into something. Of course, we had to stop him and remind him that James is a “splendid engine” and he’d screw it up if he crashed.

We decided to try going to the Halloween party at Enchanted Island on Sunday. I think I’ve mentioned this place once or twice. Of course, he only wanted to go on the train. This year it was a ghost train with scary people and objects along the ride. Some of the kids got really scared; we’re not sure yet how it has affected him.

Since H-day, he’s been waiting for trick-or-treaters to knock at the door and still wants to look at lights. Hard to explain how a holiday ends and you put away the decorations, but just wait ‘til Christmas, kid. The cutest thing though, is that he’s been putting a blow-up pumpkin that he received as a prize at the Halloween party outside his bedroom door every night. Just like at the houses he saw.