Favorite moments Christmas 2008

This year was the first time we spent Christmas in our own home after 9 years of marriage! We celebrated German style, with the "Christkind" bringing the presents on Christmas eve while the kids and parents were out for a walk to look at Christmas lights. We lit real candles on the tree, sang Silent Night, O Tannenbaum and a few others. The kids each opened their one "big" present. There were a lot of presents under the tree, but then again there were 9 people in the house! We had the traditional dinner that I grew up with: peas in a cream sauce, rice and ham. Then we were too exhausted to open up anything else, so Christmas continued the next morning. We hung up real socks in stead of stockings and Santa surprised us by switching them for fancy stockings!

Here are a few of my favorite moments:
-when the kids walked in the door after their walk, Rebecca was so overwhelmed she started crying. It was cute.
-Joseph immediately went to the presents but to my surprise, he grabbed the smallest present of all. It was actually a thing of gum wrapped up for Rebecca. He wouldn't let go of it. He kept bringing other people the bigger presents but held on to his little present.
-Rebecca gave me a bunch of shoes for Christmas (I bought them for myself, but had Warren tell her they were a surprise for me). I knew she would enjoy giving me something. After I opened them and showed her how happy and surprised I was she jumped on me with a big bear hug. She was so happy to have made me happy, it was one of those precious motherhood moments.
-Joseph (who hadn't been eating well for days) absolutely LOVED Christmas Eve dinner. He ate and ate and ate.

The magic of Christmas made my little girl cry

Joseph holding on to his tiny present

The doll house (that has been in storage for 5 years!)

Enjoying that Christmas dinner

Just relaxing

Hosting Christmas for the first time

Hanging up our real socks as stockings.

The shock of finding a fancy Princess stocking

Joseph walking off with the right stocking even though no one told him which one to grab!

December 2008 - what a month!

I've been exhausted. Emotionally and physically. I was looking through the recent photos and no wonder-we've had a huge month and a half.

Here's a recap:
-finding out the house was cleared and the sale could go through and closing escrow two and half weeks later. So basically packing up my entire home far quicker than I ever planned on.
-lots of decisions: quickly landscaping my new yard, picking trees per city requirements, driving back and forth lots of times
-the RS Christmas party
-visiting "Auntie Karyns's Christmas house" up by UCLA
-Book club at my place two days before moving
-cleaning my old apartment (with help from friends) till it sparkled
-playing organ for my old ward and my new ward
-Christmas party with my old high school friends
-unpacking, making lots of decisions (I'm not a good decision maker so this is a big stress for me)
-saying goodbye to Rebecca's Kindergarten class and enrolling her in a new school (all very emotional for me)
-a house full of guests
-Christmas and New Year's Celebrations
-new callings in our new ward (Warren and I have started jointly teaching the 12 year old's Sunday School class)
-readjusting to new grocery stores, new streets, new surroundings...

I know this isn't a very interesting post. I guess it's more for me-my justification to myself for feeling so tired. There is still lots to be done. Please keep in touch everyone- at the moment my world feels like it's been turned up side down and I need some familiarity in my life.

Finding places to play - planting a garden - Rebecca's self taken photo

Boxes, boxes everywhere - A room from "The Christmas house"

Some of the ladies from book club

Family time

My little reindeer

It even gets cold in California!

And despite all the stress- finding the joy every day!

Joseph vocab 101

I always thought Joseph would be an early talker because he was so communicative and verbal from the start. I was wrong however and his vocabulary is slow in coming. I really noticed it when he was being babysat by someone with a granddaughter his age who said: "Joseph, let's go outside!" I think Joseph would have meant the same thing by saying: "side, side."

However, as of late he has added a few phrases. The thing that made me smile is that there is a definite indication that he is child number two and is trying to keep up with his older sister. Some of his words/phrases include:
NO!
Wait! (He says this one VERY clearly)
I too.
O-me (this means open-yes, he was really into the Christmas spirit)
Wa-we (which means water and can be heard clearly by the whole congregation during the passing of the sacrament)
BAACKA (screamed at the top of his lungs. Yes, this means his sister.)
And one of our favorites: en garde (said with a deep, raspy animated voice and meaning a sword or any stick like object used as a sword)

"Wait" and "I too" are clear signs to me that although he is following in his sister's footsteps, he is certainly making his own footprints and holding his own. He has become quite the tease, tickling his sister, egging her on and doing whatever he can to make her laugh. My baby is gone. He is a full fledged kid now, big vocabulary or not.

"Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!" (Unless your name is Joseph! Joseph was totally enthralled by this Gingerbread man doll at his daddy's work.)

Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas from the Williams 2008

10 year engagement anniversary Dec. 22 1998- 2008

Some people lament the lack of seasons in Southern California, but we are enjoying every season of life in the Williams household.

Spring: Joseph turned 1 and had a complete mouth full of teeth before he was even 18 months old, a trip to Kauai to fulfill Dorothea’s life long dream of going to Hawaii

Summer: Friday fun adventures all over LA county (Dorothea organized a group of ladies and their kids who toured parks, museums, etc), lots of beach days, camping in Yellowstone National Park and some time in Utah with the extended Williams family, meeting and playing tennis with Steffi Graf, swimming lessons, Hollywood Bowl concerts (our favorite was John Williams!!!)

Fall: Rebecca started Kindergarten, a sudden decision to buy a house and all the craziness that followed, beach days extended into November
Winter: a move into a new house three weeks before Christmas, family visiting from Boston and the Ukraine, a new school for Rebecca, boxes everywhere but joy in our hearts.

Our hearts are full as we reflect on the many miracles that have happened in our life and the lives of those we love during this past year.
We are grateful to celebrate the birth of the Savior and the peace and hope He brings to each of us. May the coming year fill your hearts homes with joy.

Love,
Warren, Dorothea, Rebecca and Joseph

Mommy needs a time out

Ever seen that commercial where the mom puts herself in time out to have a break from her kids before she goes crazy? I have been feeling like that a lot lately. The stress from the move has been huge, having everything in boxes, having company in town, and wanting some form of Christmas in our home, even if it is minimal.
Last night some old friends of my parents took me, my mom, my grandparents and my kids out to dinner to Sizzler to thank my mom for something. Before we went we had a short talk about remembering to use our restaurant manners. Maybe the place where I failed was assuming Rebecca knew what "restaurant manners" were. We had to wait awhile in the waiting area and my kids went crazy. They kept running into the restaurant with Joseph running laps around the salad bar. Suddenly I looked to find Rebecca, in crouch position with her arms as chicken wings strutting around the restaurant saying : "Bock, bock, bock..." I have to admit, I had to laugh at that one even though I was so frustrated at how crazy my kids were being.
Warren wasn't there to help and my mom was trying to visit with the friends who had invited us, so I felt rather overwhelmed. Needless to say, the waitress put us in the banquet room all by ourselves, even though the restaurant only had about 5 other families eating in it. They had seen enough of my kids before we even sat down.
My mom keeps reminding me that my kids are doing rather well considering how stressful everything has been. I don't know. My patience sure runs out quickly these days.

In other news, Rebecca started her new Kindergarten this week. She has a sweet teacher and is blending in nicely. Kindergarten is shorter here, which makes for a less hectic morning for me. I don't know why starting your kid in a new school was so emotional for me, but I did it and she's happy and so now I'm relieved. This week is laid back because it's the last week before winter break, so it was a good time to start. They're just doing lots of crafts and having fun.

And finally, we once again have a land line, internet and TV! It's been almost two weeks and it was okay, except I did miss having the internet and staying caught up with everyone and venting my own stress now and again. Bit by bit we're getting through the boxes. But it's going to take awhile. One more thing. I was so determined to return all my library books before moving. I counted them to make sure I had the right amount of books. The library is saying I still have a book and it's driving me crazy! Why do I have such a hard time letting stuff like that go? It's only money, right? But sometimes it feels like it all adds up. Other than that life is great and you're all in our thoughts. Rebecca misses her friends. Stay in touch!

Fish out of Water

I don't have internet access at home right now, so I'm not able to contact everyone the way I normally would want to. I'm at a friend's home right now in our new neighborhood. For anyone reading this, I just wanted to let you know that I miss all of you. I know we made the right decision to move at this time, but I'm completely out of my comfort zone and homesick for my friends and my routines and everything I knew and was used to. It will take some time to adjust. Hope you're having a wonderful Christmas season. Thank you to everyone who has been sending Christmas card. They are bringing me such joy. I don't know if we'll get one out this year or not. Keep in touch. More later....

I think I'm going to like it here...

That is the song that kept going through my mind the first day in our new house. YES, OUR NEW HOUSE! We are home owners (or should we say home borrowers from the bank???) but anyhow, we closed escrow on Friday and moved in Saturday in the craziest move ever. New years resolutions: we are going to downsize our stuff. Please hold me to it. I really mean it. After we took everything out to the front lawn of our apartment the whole lawn was covered. We should have just had a garage sale right there and then. We had rented one truck but had to go rent a second one. And we even filled that one. Were we living in a black hole? I know we were bursting at the seams, but seriously, where was all that stuff coming from? And the scariest part was that we had already taken a bunch of car loads over to the new house. But enough about that.
WE HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS IN THE WORLD!!!!
Thank you thank you thank you... I can't say enough to all the people who came to help us. Friends and even a couple people who don't know us or don't know us well came from all over the stake to help load up the truck. Some of our closest friends even drove to the new house and spent hours unloading with Warren. My dearest friends even came over (voluntarily!) and cleaned and scrubbed and kept me company all day long so that we could get our sizable cleaning deposit back. Once again, I can not even say enough about how much that all meant to me, and the friends who watched my kids and brought me food Sat. night etc. I couldn't have done it without all of you. I LOVE YOU!!!
I finally gave up cleaning that night at 10 pm and drove to our new home. When I walked in the house and saw all my furniture inside I just started crying. We couldn't find anything, not even the toothbrushes I had so carefully set aside so that we would have them that night. Warren went to go buy more but I was asleep before he got back.
The next day we went back to SM II ward for some final goodbyes. Warren and I both bore our testimonies. I had lived longer in that ward than anywhere in my whole entire life. So it was an emotional good bye for me. But it is the right time for us to start a new chapter of life.
Sunday we didn't get much done. Rebecca told us she wanted to unpack everything the next day. It has been stressful on her not to know where her things are.
There are so many emotions going on in my heart. I'm so happy to be here. Excited for the future. But homesick for my comfort zone, and my dear friends and Rebecca's little rascals group. She really has such a sweet group of friends that she is very close to. But kids adapt well and we still hope to see everyone once in awhile. I needed to talk to someone Sunday night and so I had a nice chat with Lindy, since I didn't get a chance to see her last week. I have been so blessed to have wonderful women with whom to associate with these past years. I have learned so much from each of them. I would love to write about it sometime.
Anyway, today we kept moving furniture and unpacking. There is still a lot to do but luckily my mom shows up tomorrow!!! HURRAY for moms. That will help a ton. It is still so dangerous around here since it has been a construction site and the builders still have lots of tools etc lying around but hopefull that will get cleaned up soon. We're excited to have everyone come visit us. We already had 4 guests here our first night! We're super close to Disneyland and Knott's, so please, do come. Sorry this post is so long, but I just wanted to thank everyone and update you on the move. I know this isn't the story about how we found the house, but that will have to come another time...
I'll post a picture once we get our computer hooked up. I'm using someone elses, so I can't download anything yet. More later!