New year, old resolutions

Happy New Year!

Did you stay up until midnight to greet 2012? I had a rare look into the future at 9am on January 31, 2011, when I helped my parents greet the New Year in Korea via Skype.

My family and I celebrated the eve of the new year with a road trip to a favorite vacation spot—my parents' cabin at Bright Star Ranch. Our family activity for the night involved introducing my son to s'mores, made with impressive Texas-sized marshmallows. Son settled on eating the ingredients separately, despite my repeated offers of completed s'mores "sandwiches."

I must admit that I didn't quite make it to midnight here in the US. Sadly, my night owl status has been slipping since the birth of my son. Instead of staying up until 3 or 4am on weekends, I tend to collapse into bed around 11pm. Hubby and I called it a night at 11:30pm. This time I blame an exhausting day that involved a road trip and a broken lock at our destination. (It took us an hour to get into the cabin, negating any chance we might have at a future as cat burglars.) However, it may be more accurate to pinpoint the energy drain as a certain adorable toddler with boundless energy.

In honor of 2012, and in order to take advantage of the motivational opportunity, I am actually going to make New Year's resolutions. The resolution that is cogent to this blog: Finish and publish my book. Sadly, this has taken back burner for a while (I'm a notorious procrastinator with a wonderfully full life), but I'm jumping back in with a veangence. I plan to finish re-writes by the end of February (happy birthday to me). In order to achieve this, blogging is being relegated to a once-weekly activity or shorter notes and updates. Then it's off to my editor, who has been waiting ever-so-patiently for the manuscript.

Did you make New Year's resolutions? Why or why not? If so, what were they? Please share in the comments section below.

Son as blogger, hives, and story structure

Proud of his decorating

Son is sitting at the computer to the right of me in our small, home office. If he had a blog it would be all about his favorite things: trucks, elephants, books, outside, and (more recently) Christmas decorations.

As I write, son is imitating my typing and occasionally pausing to scribble an imaginary note. He keeps switching the pen from one hand to the other. Time will tell whether he is a left-handed like his daddy and Papa.

The past couple of days have been hard. We arrived at day care on Tuesday to find son covered in hives. Today included a trip to son's Pediatrician, who said it was one of the worst cases of hives he had seen (75% of son's body), but he also gave us a good prognosis (recovery in 3-5 days) and a prescription. Son already looks a bit better, just hours later. Still, our family photo session tomorrow is out.

In light of this and other holiday preparations still to come, I'm going to depart from my usual detailed thoughts on what I have been reading and just insert a link. This is an interview with Rebecca Skloot, the author of one of the real gems of my extensive reading experience. If you haven't read the book, I urge you pick up a copy.

How Rebecca Skloot built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Christmas preparations, family traditions, and the joy of the season

Yes, I'm still here, though I'm caught up in the Christmas rush. My list might look familiar to most of you, though I feel like I'm a bit behind on a couple of things.

• I started decorating a couple of weeks ago with Christmas garland and snowflake window clings.
• Lights are mostly up. We still have a string of lights to add to the outside of the house, but there are color-changing stars and flickering candles in the front windows. I love Christmas lights! My son is thrilled as well; we're hearing a lot of, "iiight, iiight!"
• The tree has been up for a while, but it only had lights and our star topper on it until last night. The photo at right is a cell phone snap of my work-in-progress. I'll be putting on the finishing touches over the coming evenings.
• Goodies (Christmas and birthdays) packed and mailed to Korea for my parents. The postage was painful, but I like knowing that they'll have something from home to celebrate the holidays.
• Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers went out to my sister and her family yesterday. The post office loves me!
• We have our Christmas cards, personalized with photos of our family, but we still need to get them ready for mailing.
• I'm working on the third edition of our family cookbook, which will be released on or around Christmas.
• I made Red Velvet cake for an office holiday party and plan on making it again for my Newsletter Committee. The red looks so festive, particularly with the addition of green-tinted sugar crystals. More baking and cooking to come over the holiday.

I also planned a Christmas art project to do with my son. Last year we made clay ornaments with his hand and foot impression. This year it's a snowflake-shaped blank ornament for him to color. It will be more of a scribble, but he loves crayons so markers should be even more fun. I plan to make this a Christmas tradition, choosing a project each year that suits his interests and development level.

I still need to purchase a couple of gifts, but I'm almost done. The gift-wrapping frenzy will commence this weekend. It's a task I enjoy, but not all at once, so I will be working on it over several days. Hopefully I can put my house in order and get rid of the excess boxes (saved for wrapping purposes) before my husband's family arrive on December 23rd.

We will have our Christmas feast and present unwrapping on Christmas Eve night. I'll have my camera charged and ready to snap lots of pictures, particularly of my 20-month-old toddler. My son was too little to really understand last year (he fell asleep in the midst of the package unwrapping), but this year he'll be in the thick of it. Don't tell, but Daddy and Mommy are giving him red wagon for Christmas. Good thing he can't read yet (though books, "buk, buk," are one of his favorite things).

In the midst of the rush, I try to remain mindful of the true spirit of the season. Often, all I need to do is to take a look through my son's eyes. His joyful exclamations over Christmas lights and decorations, giggles and grins while reading Christmas stories, and cheerful insistence on praying after reading are all reminders of the joy of this special, family-oriented season. 

What are you doing as Christmas approaches, and what are your plans for celebrating? I'd also love to hear about your family traditions. We wouldn't mind adding a few new traditions of our own.

Celebrating fall and family

Fall is my favorite time of year. We are finally getting a break from the scorching Texas summer. The cooler temperatures are pleasant, without the cold bite of winter. It's the perfect setting for family adventures, particularly with my son old enough to really appreciate the fun brought by the changing seasons. His pronunciation of his favorite word (outside) is improving. "OUT-tide, OUT-tide," he says in a sweet, little exclamation; the emphasis and rise and fall of his voice make it almost a song.

Yesterday evening, son helped me carve his first pumpkin (selected during our earlier Pumpkin Patch outing). He watched, somewhat impatiently, while I cut a lid into the top of our pumpkin, and then he eagerly dove into the gooey center with his spoon. He would pause to flick the seeds off of his spoon or figure out how the pumpkin lid fit back into place. After a while, son ran into the yard to get a better look at a dog passing on the trail. He shared his excitement with an enthusiastic imitation: "awoo, awoo!" He circled back to my pumpkin-cleaning project between other investigations, such as his sand/water table, the grill, the back door, etc. Hubby snapped pictures as I turned my hands and wrists orange in the struggle to gut the pumpkin.

We eventually moved inside to do the more intricate carving. Son took a break to read a book on the couch, checked out mommy's progress in the kitchen, played music on a long-standing favorite toy, and found himself a snack in the pantry (he brought me a box of the tubes we keep around for on-the-go snacking). We have been opening our windows in the evening, and I think the cool air only ups son's energy level. We can barely keep up!

On Halloween, son will dress up as a Starfleet Academy science cadet for day care festivities. I am making pumpkin sandwiches (grilled cheese cut into pumpkin shapes) that he can share with the other toddlers in his room. Other moms are bringing their contributions in the form of fruits and sweets. The children will also parade through the rooms in the day care for goodies and participate in other Halloween-related games. That evening, his Aunt and Uncle are coming over to help son hand out goodies to the bigger kids.

Family and friends are planning to visit us in our new home in November. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming up next weekend, as are some friends and their young son. Our church and community are both holding Fall Festivals, which we hope son will enjoy. We are also taking him to weekly swimming lessons (indoors). Thanksgiving brings my parents home from Korea for a short visit, so the Ripley family gathering will commence with their arrival. We are planning to ply them with Tex-Mex, Dr Pepper, and Blue Bell, but we will also savor our traditional potluck-style Thanksgiving dinner.

Please share your family traditions and adventures. Feel free to include recipes. With the weather cooling, I'm ready to make use of my oven again. I already made pumpkin bread to share with my Newsletter Committee and co-workers. What are you doing to celebrate fall and family?

How do you celebrate the 4th of July?

Happy fourth of July!

As a child, I remember family celebrations where we enjoyed potato salad, burgers, and so much more. My siblings and I would swoop and dance as we used sparklers to write our names in the hot summer evening. We oohed and aahed over my dad's fireworks show just as much as we did the professional displayes at a nearby park.

July 4th continues to be a family celebration. The focus has shifted to a birthday festivities with my husband's family as he shares his July 5th birthday with his twin sister. This year we enjoyed my mother-in-law's yummy homemade enchaladas, rice, beans, and salsa. I made Decadant Chocolate Orange Cake for the birthday boy and girl. We worked off the abundance playing with my toddler. He is becoming frighteningly proficient at walking. His favorite game is pulling any available and willing family member around by the finger. He laughs, talks, and squeals as he investigates his world on a whole new level.

Being able to celebrate in your own way is a wonderful gift that began long ago, following from the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. What did today and the preceeding weekend bring for you?