A Christmas Story

Today we really got into the Christmas Spirit with a visit to the “A Christmas Story” house. It’s such a wonderful classic… and even more fun to check out in real life! The girls had a lot of fun ‘recognizing’ bits and pieces from the movie… and of course Allie ran around exclaiming “OH FUDGE!” numerous times, lol.

“you’ll shoot your eye out!”

(the classic view of the smokestacks from the backyard)

We headed over to Public Square and Tower City Mall in downtown Cleveland to check out the Christmas tree, maybe find Santa, and do a little window shopping. The kids talked us into an expensive stupid train ride around the mall – but it made for some fun childhood memories.

(This was the tree in Public Square, but it was a tid bit ghetto out in these parts – so we didn’t bother catching these lights at night…)

(these are the same window shops used in “A Christmas Story” and actually, it was fun to walk the block and see all the window displays)

We never found Santa – but we did find ‘Bruce the Spruce’ – a talking tree that was a lot like Siri but better! He asked the girls what they wanted for Christmas and promised to relay the message to Santa. But, in my awe for how much the tree interacted to individual conversations differently, I forgot to take a picture!

(Cleveland has always got guitars in random places)

To finish off the night we celebrated the end of a successful semester, great starts at school for Malia and Allie, best DAD award for Aaron and… the exciting news of Hoku receiving a Health Professions Scholarship from the Air Force. We are really excited for the opportunities ahead! So… we celebrated, thanks to the gracious gift from the Dr. I’ve been temping for, and blew it all on the many delicious courses offered at the Cheesecake Factory. (and in the restaurant complex – they had this beautiful tree)

We look forward to more celebrations of the Season!

December- part I

Our class has been going to different elementary schools in the Cleveland area to place sealants – it’s a protective coating in the grooves of the teeth to prevent caries. We worked in a pretty small space, but the driving accommodations were pretty sweet.

We had quite the Christmas tree experience. We didn’t have time to drive out into the country to pick out an already cut tree (there aren’t really u-cuts here), so decided upon a tent. Yeah right… check out that price! For only $40 we could get that small not even Christmas tree one. So we went to a store with trees in front and they were just so sad looking and way too overpriced – at least for what we are used to. So then we went to several different stores in search of an affordable artificial tree, which was super frustrating since sales had just ended and stock was limited… sad face. But, once decorated it’s not so bad.

I made an advent calendar out of muffin tins. Every day has some treats and a fun to-do.

Hoku got in a car accident. The roads here are so inefficient. With only two lanes of traffic going in one direction, the right is always clogged with parked cars or buses, and the left is always backed up with left-turners. Anyways, I came up to a stopped bus in the right lane in front of the intersection, changed lanes into the left in front of cars waiting to turn left, and what I didn’t see (because I turned to check my blind spot) was a car make a complete spot to avoid running over an idiot pedestrian trying to catch the bus. I was many seconds too late, slammed on the brakes, and to avoid a complete impact (which may have been good for my engine), I turned slightly to the right and bounced off the car in front of me, and then side swiped the bus that was stopped on the right. AHHH! So irritating. The lady in front took a very much unnecessary trip to the hospital, and the bus passengers were all mad that I had made them late because the bus couldn’t go anywhere without first following their protocol. After two hours of the police officer making his report, he handed me a freakin ticket for driving too close – which was not the case. So I plan to fight it – but it does suck laying in bed and thinking about how it could have all ended differently – both better and worse. Ugh.

Not so Christmasy sugar cookies (Malia wanted pink frosting) – but still fun to make.

November Re-cap

We had a beautiful fall – so many changing colors!

I studied like a mad woman for finals – Allie helped. I also extracted my first tooth at the Free Clinic!

We went to New York for Thanksgiving at the Beck’s home.

We made Gingerbread houses.

We tried for family pictures for Christmas cards – they were ok, but not great.