We spent our Sunday out and about - we took the kids sledding - and Melodia for her first time - then we took them to McDonald’s and let them play in their big indoor play structure, and a little later in the evening, we took them to look at some Christmas lights at an amazing house we dubbed, “Winter Wonderland.”  But all of this, Melodia commented on in an earlier post.

What really made that day so wonderful was what happened when we got back home that night.  Grandma Jo was sitting in front of the tv, holding Izzabelle, watching the Hallmark channel, and it was showing made-for-tv movie after made-for-tv movie themed around Christmas. We climbed onto Grandma’s couch with a few bed pillows and finished watching one with her.  Then another came on.  So we kept watching.

Now, I should interrupt and say this - we don’t have a couch right now.  We have 3 amazingly comfortable La-Z-y boy recliner/rockers.  We invested good money to get them, and love them.  Comfy.  But there are times when I miss having a couch.  This reminded me of that.  And it had me wondering about our kids’ need for a couch.  They seemed to treat that thing like a play toy; climbing up and down it often.  And I was reminded of how nice it is to sit in the same space together, rather than in our individual chairs.

We made the kids some toast for an evening snack, and then they climbed onto the pillows on our lap. Soon, they were deep in slumber as we continued to watch this Christmas Hallmark movie. There’s something about the warmth of a child emanating from his/her sleepy body sprawled out on top of you - something special. And sleeping kids are just magnetic to watch - it’s hard not to sit there and stare at them, and kiss those soft cheeks a thousand more times!

So the Hallmark movie played on, and it accomplished its goal - the goal of all those tear-jerker, heart-warming Hallmark flicks - remind us of the everyday wonder that is love, family, kids, and sharing life together.  Melodia and I enjoyed a little hand-handling on Grandma’s couch (shh, don’t tell her!).

Words can hardly capture that time, but it felt like we were in a Hallmark movie.  It was the perfect, slow, appreciative winding down to what had been a wonderful family day.

Last night, I told Melodia that I was still thinking about our time on the couch, and she admitted that she, too, had thought about it and how wonderful it was.  Definitely on the top 10 list of days/times for the Wilsons this year.  It’s things like this that we want to enjoy now, lock into our memories now (for later times), and celebrate. Kids grow up so fast. I think often about the fact that it won’t be long and our kids will no longer sleep in our laps or ask, “Papi, carry me.”  I have to hold and “hug” these times while I can.  We all do.

Melodia and I were chatting about all of this the other day, and were discussing the notion, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Melodia questioned such widespread use of the words, “Holiday Season” to mask and/or avoid calling it “The Christmas Season.”  She was, of course, making the point that society (particularly American) has worked hard to take the “Christ” out of Christmas.  Yet, He is the reason the Holiday exists - and even the historical notion of St. Nick wouldn’t exist if St. Nicholas himself had not believe in that Christ’s birth was more than myth, legend, simple historical fact.

I mentioned to Melodia that I struggle myself with the Christ in Christmas.  Oh, it’s not that I don’t believe in His birth, the price He paid for me, the salvation that comes because of His gift(s) to us — no, it’s just that, I also love the notion of the “Holidays.” I’m not bothered by the word, and am just as happy with the words, “Christmas Season.”  But, as I told her, I love all the things I opened this paragraph with…  the snow, the music, the lights, the baking — and the other things — no, not the beat downs in Walmart as people display their ultimate rudeness all in an attempt to “generously give from their heart” - lol.  But I do appreciate the spirit that some others seem to adopt, which I have to believe is a hint of the reflection that we ourselves are supposed to live daily… opening a door for another, allowing someone to go ahead of them in line, saying thank you, displays of both grace and mercy, and generosity that some seem to show - if only during this season of the year.  I like those hints of His love, and only wish we’d live the Christmas season all year long.

Of course, I have the benefit of now living somewhere with real cold and snow.  And I love that bundling up to go outside adds to the “experience” of this season for me…. and then, after having been outside, returning to the warmth of the house, and drinking hot tea or hot chocolate.  Yummy.

I guess, in the end, I love the experience of it all, and maybe, just maybe, weather we use the word, “Holidays” or “Christmas,” there are things in this season that offer hints of — well, if not the way it should be between us as we journey this path together, perhaps the way it will be in the end.  Oh, I’m not so sure they’ll be endless fountains of hot chocolate in Heaven, but I like to think that somewhere in that warm, cozy, loving, gracious, giving experience of the season, we are glimpsing the stuff of Heaven.

I know, I may be stretching it a bit considering the commercialized, packaged, mandated gift-giving, competitive light-decorated, government ordained day-off season — but I find the season to be — well — hopeful. And right now, this world needs hope.  Of course, it’s need hope long before a little child was born in a manger; and it’s needed hope long after that same child was a man walking one last time up a hill; but here’s “hoping” that all of us find a renewed hope this season, and that more and more of us will - even in the midst of all the scents, sounds, sights, and feelings - pause to consider the first five letters of “Christmas.”  Merry Christmas, everyone.

You know, when you get married you inherit a whole slew of things.  Not just your spouse, but the entire kit and caboodle.  In-laws, some out-laws, and if you are lucky you get a Grandma Jo.

She lives in Michigan which is where Lonni’s family is from.  She is in her mid 70’s and lives alone but has a great daughter living right next door who looks after her.

Anyway, Grandma Jo is Great! Literally and figuratively.  She remembers all of her families birthdays and anniversaries.

This is no small task.  Grandma Jo has eight children, each of those had at least two children, and now all of her grandchildren have given her (some are about to pop) a total of 20 great grandchildren! (Wil is the 10th in the mix.)

And she remembers us all!

We were able to finally make some time to visit her this past weekend which just happened to be our 5th anniversary.

It’s about a 7 to 8 hour drive. She was thrilled.  We had not seen her since a year ago last August.  Wil was only 2 and McMac was just starting to walk.

Grandma is famous for playing Scrabble, so we made sure to make time for a couple games.  (She beat us on the last one.)

Wil and McMac fell in love all over again and Izzy was quick to  con Grandma into spoiling her all weekend.  Wil started calling her Jo Grandma, which we thought was cute.

The first thing Wil asked her was how many toys she had. Grandma has tons of great toys, all inherited from the growing number of great grandchildren.

Wil and McMac spent the whole weekend without watching one lick of TV.  They entertained themselves with all the great “finds” at grandma’s house.  They made sure to make a great mess as only Wil and McKinley can.

We did get to play out in the snow.  Actually, we had planned to leave on Sunday morning and ended up staying the extra day.  We were able to go sledding with them on Sunday, which was my first time. While Grandma watched Izzy for us. Needless to say, my new winter gear came in pretty handy. (More on our sledding later.)

All in all, we had a wonderful time.

We will actually be heading out to see her again on the 24th because this would have been her first Christmas Eve without family around.  We wanted to be there for her since she is so great at being there for all of us.

The kids keep asking if we can go back to Jo Grandma’s house and we are glad we can tell them “yes, we will be there next week.”

Off to Grandma’s we will go again…

Well, I liked it last year, so I was ready for it again this year, and here it is:

The Wilsons, Elfed

Seriously though, these people have gotten smart now.  This year, there are 4 different songs and environments - one is the classic from last year.  And this year, you can download and keep/save forever your copy if you’re willing to shell out $4.99.  Seriously, I wonder how long it will take them to hit a million buck$ from this thing?  This is the kind of project that I need to develop; make my million, then finally be able to pay off my school loans!  Now that’s good stuff.

If you elf yourselves, drop us a line.

Just so you know I am trying to be a good Christian Mommy; I have tried to instill the meaning of Christmas.  I keep telling him it’s about the baby Jesus and the gift God gave us, and so we give gifts to each other to remember. It seems the only thing Wil hears in that story is, “Blah, blah, blah, gifts, blah, blah, gifts!”

So, needless to say, I had to put up a Christmas tree this year for sure.  Since this will be our first family Christmas staying in Buffalo - without traveling to FL or AZ - I couldn’t wait to put up the tree.

Wil was not aware of how long it would actually take to put the tree together. So from the very minute I opened the bag, Wil was ready to put up ornaments! Have you ever tried to reason with a 3 year old as to the process of Christmas tree decorating? It’s not easy. Especially when you have to use that dreaded word, PATIENCE!

After what seemed like an eternity to Wil, and after he and Papi came back from the store with more lights and a star topper he picked out for the tree, we finally reached the stage he was longing for… hanging the ornaments.

By this time, McKinley was up from her nap and she, too, was ready to “help.”  So, I did what any good mommy would do and let them hang the “beautiful” ornaments.

This year is the first year they will actually get to make their own  ornaments so the tree is pretty streamlined in blue and silver.

What I thought was so cute was that they insisted on putting every ornament right next to the last one they put up.  I kept trying to get them to spread them out but all attempts failed, and I had to break up the clusters when they were not paying attention.

Now, if you don’t know this about our family yet, we live in a virtual candy  store thanks to my hubby who just loves the stuff and likes variety.

So when it comes to the tree I have to accept the fact that when I send him to the store for candy canes, he is going to come back with a box of each kind!

The kids were in heaven. They wanted to eat them right away, so getting them to actually help PUT THEM ON THE TREE was a  task in itself.

Finally, after all was said and done, we ended up with a beautiful tree, worthy of lots of Christmas presents and some very happy kids.

Now to keep them from eating themselves into a candy cane induced coma is another story…

We headed down to Adam and Danelle Padd’s in Bemus Point (near Jamestown), NY on Thanksgiving morning. We’ve spent the last 3 Thanksgivings with them at their place and it’s been quite fun.  We also bought 4 acres just up the road from their 27-acre place this last summer, and are thinking about building a small cabin there next spring/summer so that we can continue to enjoy weekends near them and/or even move there.

The nice (ok, this depends on your personality) thing about where they live is that their area gets even more lake effect snow than Buffalo (ours).  They had about 1.5 to 2 feet on the ground when we arrived.  We can still see grass up here.  I much prefer to be somewhere the winter’s white.

I’m not sure if it’s the whole global warming thing, or a product of where we live, or a child’s memory… but I grew up in Harrison, Michigan, with a nice size sledding hill across the street, out in the country, and it seems that once the snow started about mid-Nov to December, we had snow on the ground until early April. Our snow up here, at least in the Buffalo area, seems to come and go, big lake effect blocks of snow, then bare grass on the ground for a couple weeks.

Now me, I prefer the snow.  It makes a winter. Look, if I’m going to be somewhere cold, then I’d rather have a blanket of white on the ground.  In addition to making winter, it also brightens the sky’s gray up a bit, and on the whole, just makes my mood a little more cheery… causing me to reach for the ipod and click on the Christmas playlist.

But I’ve digressed, what I was saying before that little sidebar is that we arrived to much snow, which completely pleased the kids, and Wil made sure he was out in it with Zechariah in no time.

Thursday lunch was great and the day was just relaxing.  Of course, I say that, but I have to give a hand to Danelle, her mom, and Melodia who really put some time in with food preparation.  Their gracious work allowed for a really peaceful and joyous time of sharing and reacquainting ourselves with the happenings in each others’ lives.

At night, after we put the kids to bed, we pulled out a boardgame we had brought to play with them, “Trailer Park Wars.“  We had a good time with it, even if the girls did gang up on us and usher in a win for Melodia.

We spent the night at their house - as we have often done in the past.  Wil and McKinley were great, and Izzabelle? I think she wanted to just sleep the whole trip away.  Wil surely enjoyed having Zechariah to play with, and another boy was there as well, albeit a little bit older, Matthew.

In the morning, the kids were up early, but our hosts graciously watched the kids and let Melodia and I sleep in a bit longer. Hey, we’ll take it wherever we can get it!  Sleep seems a lost commodity these days.

Once up, all the boys were talking sledding.  The girls had decided to stay in and make some Christmas ornaments with the bulbs, paint, and other supplies Melodia had brought. McKinley sided with the boys at the thought of going outside in the snow - she hadn’t previously made it outside on Thursday, so she was itching to go.

So we loaded up, Adam and Zechariah, John (Adam’s cousin) and his son, Matthew, and myself with Wil and McKinley, and headed over to a hill 5 minutes from their house.  We arrived as the first group, but we quickly got up to about 5 groups - most of whom were the Padd Families friends.

The kids loved sledding.  This was their first “true” sledding experience beyond two years of Papi’s preparing them by pulling them around in our purple, “Kiddie Boggin’” sled.  But having an actual hill to go down really fast, and then walk back up - well, Wil walked up a few times; I pulled McKinley back up in the sled every time, and Wil at least a half dozen times with her! lol.

Papi was excited to get sledding again.  I grew up on this.  And it is exactly the sort of thing I’ve wanted my kids to be able to experience with the snow. Now only if I could get Mami out in it.

But — sort of sidebar here — I did finally do something I should have done 3.5 years ago when we moved here. On Saturday, we went out shopping to pick up some necessities from Target and then a couple things from the mall. While at the mall, I went into Dick’s to buy a new sled (we’d borrowed one of Adam’s).  Once there, I thought, you know, it’s about time to just do this right.  So we went over to the snow gear section and bought mami the full gear (and if you know anything about snow gear, pants, jackets, etc., you know it takes a bit of $$ to outfit a person in some good waterproof gear.

We spent about 2 hours at Dick’s trying it all on for the right fit, and I made sure she bought everything she needed despite her concern over cost.  I wanted her to feel prepared for going out into the snow with her kids in the future.   So, we picked out the red waterproof pants, which led to the black waterproof jacket with gray zip out fleece liner, then to the white, down, quilt-stitched vest for under the jacket, then to a set of new waterproof gloves, and what the heck, why not a new beanie (with ear flaps) for a cute way of topping it off?!  Good stuff.

I walked away feeling good about helping Dick’s bottom line there and wondering why I hadn’t done that sooner, for Melodia’s comfort and fun.  Now I just need to buy her a couple more sets of quality under garments (smart wool) and some new snow boots, and she’ll have it all.  Me?  I’ll still be wearing my Jeans, rubber boots, down puffy jacket, beanie and leather gloves. The scarf keeps me warm. LOL.  Besides, I’ve put on a few pounds, so I can weather the outdoors a little better.

But, rest assured, after seeing how good she looked, and knowing how good our kids look in their snow gear, I was starting to feel the itch for some new gear for Papi!  Course, that’s a few paychecks away!

Sidebar over — It was a super fun time sledding with the kids, and I only hope to be doing it again soon, with Mami present and having lots of pics of her enjoying it too.  Only issue is, who’s watching Izzabelle while we’re zooming down the hills?  Any takers?!

Cool thing is, Izzabelle is getting bigger all the time, and not just bigger, but starting to become a little “person.” She’s really able to push and hold her head up for longer periods when she’s on her tummy; and she reacts to us a lot more these days… all smiles, of course!

Well, that about sums up Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the Wilsons.  Happy Thanksgiving, now onto a Merry Christmas!

Wil was dressed and out the door first.  “Papi, will you come outside?” And with that, I was roped into it.  So out we went while Mami dressed McKinley.

Wil and I grabbed the sled from the garage and the kids “snow” shovels.  They’re really garden plastic shovels, but they’re kid-sized, and Wil’s used it since last winter as his snow shovel while Papi’s out shoveling walkways.

Of course, that was when we owned the house and the 70′ driveway. LOL.  Nice thing about apartment life for the year, I won’t be doing any shoveling - or at least, not much.  Of course, don’t be fooled, I do secretly love shoveling snow.

Thing is, having grown up in Michigan and moved away from snow at 15, I always secretly longed to get back, at least for a little while.  Melodia, being both Puerto Rican and a Tampa girl, won’t agree with me on the snow issue, but the truth is, if I’m in a cold Northern city, hey, baby, I want snow.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

That’s just good music.  And, as I told Melodia back when we were dating, I wanted to raise our kids in snow, at least for a little while.  I had that in Michigan, and in some ways, I think I was better for it.  I remember being a college kid in California, with a good number of born-and-bred Californian kids, many of whom had never lived in snow, some had never seen snow other than at a distance or in pictures.  I thought, “what? Seriously?”

I just don’t want that for my kids.  And having them here, they don’t want that for themselves.  Wil loves snow.  So does McKinley. And I’m sure Izzabelle will love it, too.

McKinley only stayed outside about half an hour, then she was ready to go in for “warmies” and a snack. I couldn’t pry Wil away from the outdoors.  So I used the time to clean up in the garage while Wil upgraded to Papi’s shovel and started pushing snow up and down the apartment parking lot.  Slowly the sun came out and began to compete with him, melting away most of the snow not covered in shade.  Lucky for Wil, the front of the garage faces west and is shadowed in the morning from the eastern sun… so he was quite content to have his snow still staying while the rest was rappidly reduced to the appearance of morning dew.

We eventually made it inside the house. We enjoyed a few pieces of toast, with butter and jam (the kids got to have both! lol).  Then we bundled up again to head over to the airport.  Melodia’s mom, Maria (aka: Lala) flew into town for 5 days today.  The kids are so excited to have her here, and in truth, so are Melodia and I… with 3 kids under 4, Mami and Papi date time is either: a) few and far between or b) costly  or c) all of the above.

The kids enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with and around Lala.  As I write, the clock says 1159pm, and I teach tomorrow.  Everyone’s asleep, but here I sit.  It’s just hard to find time to post; and I wanted to get something up.  Since bringing Izzabelle home from the hospital, we’ve moved away from daily posts (Facebook time has also affected this - we spend too much time on it! lol). Now I’m trying to keep to about one post every 5 days.  I don’t feel as if I’ve neglected our site too badly if I keep to that regimen.

Well, that’s it… until next time.

Melodia took Izzabelle with her to the retreat this weekend.  Fun time for the two girls.  Before they left, I snapped a quick photo outside.  We’re missing them already.

But, we’re still managing to have fun while eating popcorn and watching Garfield: The Movie.

At least, until McKinley accidentally knocked over Papi’s glass of red KoolAid.

Sigh… of course, she did. Not a glass of water.  Kids - and the adventure continues…

Mami left for a retreat tonight (Fri, 11/14).  It was a warm day today, around 60… warm for November in Buffalo. So I put the kids in their mudboots and we headed out in search of puddles!

The kids love wearing their mudboots and doing some puddle walking.  Of course, they love splashing and stomping, too.  It took about 32.4 seconds for McKinley to splash her pants soaked.  We were loading Mami up when we first went out, and Melodia was a little frustrated with their ability to stomp themselves wet.  But you know, as I thought about it, what’s the big deal?

I remember my parents not wanting us to splash and soak our clothes.  I mean, what’s the big deal? Look if you’re heading to puddles, getting wet comes with the territory.

Now, I should warn, the kids got sick about two nights ago, and last night passed it onto me; so all 3 of us are sick with sniffles and sore throats right now.  But, it was warm, and a little outdoor mudpuddle time is a nice relief.

So in the end, I’m left thinking, you know what kids, go ahead. Stomp away.  Get wet.  It’ll wash. It’ll dry.  It’s not a big deal.  Let’s just have some fun.

After Melodia left, I put Wil and McKinley in the car and drove down the road by the volleyball facility.  It’s on a dead-end road that runs into some wetlands.  I knew there’d be a nice, big puddle down there, and there was.  The kids enjoyed their time there.

In a smaller, isolated puddle, Wil suddenly stopped and pointed, “look, Papi, a worm.”  I swear, if there’s a worm within 30 feet of this kid, he’ll find it!  And he LOVES worms.  He found at least four this summer under the same tree.  Little buggers are one-hour, all-inclusive, Wil-musement parks.

So there in the bottom of the puddle is a drowning worm.  Actually, we must have come along at just the right time.  Wil pulled him out, and he was still alive. So Wil held and held him for the next 10 minutes.   Then I managed to convince him to let the worm return to his worm house.  So Wil set him down in the grass, and i wrangled he and McKinley into the truck to head home, dry off, and warm up. Good fun. But seriously, Wil and worms, hilarious.  Where there’s a Wil, there’s a worm.

She’s been wanting a Nintendo DS gaming system (a small, handheld video game system) for a while, and I just bought it for her this week.  She’s been playing a few hours a night… can you say, “addict.”  Of course, I love that my wife love’s video games.  That can only lead to more family fun… or to the kids being totally ignored while we game… hmm…

The kids have been good. McKinley’s still on the old time… she’s falling asleep at night about 650p-700p.  I love this picture I took the other night.

Wil’s been close behind her. The other night, she was out at 650p and he was out at 727p… right after asking me for another popsicle.  Hmm.  Well, it tasted good to me, anyway!

We really have taken some new and great photos recently, but we’ve done them with our good digital camera.  So we haven’t yet uploaded them. We managed to break Melodia’s laptop physically (a hinge holding the screen) and it’s in the shop for 3 weeks.  It has been our primary camera-uploading computer, thus the delay.

We’d love to be taking more photos and on our long-term wish list are thinking about a higher level digital camera (our Digital Rebel is great, and we have multiple lenses for it, but both of us would like a little more - and a digital photography course to go with it! LOL).  We also our interested in our own portable lights for portrait style pics inside. But that’s a side interest.  All that’s to say, we’ll try to get some photos up on Flickr again soon.

We had our first snowfall the other night, so I know we have some photos of the kids playing in that one inch of snow to add. I can’t wait for more snow - Melodia does not share my enthusiasm.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some mami and papi time where we can retreat for a whole day to get some of these projects done.  Melodia’s mom comes to visit us Nov. 18-23, so we’ll be able to have some-much needed time together without paying the babysitter a fortune.

We’ve not yet figured out our Christmas Holiday plans. I am basically off work from Dec. 10-Jan. 20. But I have several commitments around here (volleyball, work projects, etc.) that keep me close, and the cost of air travel for 4 of us, plus baby means that we may be spending Christmas completely in Buffalo.

Well, I’m off to class. Just wanted to post a quick update for those reading.