flexibility

If only we were all still as flexible as we once were.

grandma

We picked Mom up from the airport on Christmas Eve. We were more excited for her arrival that we were for Christmas.

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We have had such a

FABULOUS week with her.

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We:

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took her to the

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went with the kids to the Children's Museum of Manhattan to see the Bob the Builder Exhibit,

Saw a couple

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S

H

O

W

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Fought the crowds to see THE tree,

read a million books,

played Legos and Lincoln Logs a dozen times,

and have given

lots

&

lots

of hugs and kisses.

Grandma, can you stay forever?

star sightings

Mom must be good luck when it comes to seeing famous people. Last year when she was here and she and I went into New York, we crossed paths with Dennis Farina (from Law and Order). And last night as we were heading down 44th Street (to this fabulous Pizzeria) we were stopped by a camera crew were was doing a spot with Tony Danza and Ryan Seacrest. I tried getting a picture, but this was all I got because I was getting pushed out of the way.

Happy Christmas

the sweetest place on earth

With classes and finals all finished for the semester and work off for the day, we packed up and headed to Hershey, PA.

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Did you click on that link? You really ought to. I just love the catchy little jingle they have on the website.

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It really was so fun and all decorated and lit up for Christmas. It was a fun way to celebrate Matt's birthday.

The boys enjoyed being factory workers and taking the chocolate tour. In fact, they liked the tour so much that we did it twice.

Ethan's favorite part was the singing cows.

Oh, and of course all the chocolate.

We even took a Christmas trolley ride through town, complete with Christmas carols and Santa himself. The Hershey Kiss light posts were great- but it was too dark by the time that we got there to get a decent picture.

At any rate- we had a great time and ate lots of chocolate!

happy birthday

It's Matt's 28th birthday today.

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(by the way, it's also Abby's birthday. She's Matt's favorite relative.)

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If that doesn't scream "dig in", I don't know what does.

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Happy Birthday!

my Ethan, the patriot with M&M's

whatever it takes to get him to smile for the family picture!

the red plates

...go to Garrett tonight for dinner because he gave his first talk in Primary today.

He did so well!

santa must be from jersey

why else would he have a jersey accent?

feliz navidad

Feliz Navidad is the boys' favorite Christmas song.

At least once a day, we crank up the volume and

dance our hearts out!

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Glauser family memories in the making.

Dear Matt,

Just in case you're reading blogs during class again, here's what your baby girl is up to today:

She made it all the way to the top.

something familiar

Tonight the boys and I were singing Christmas songs from the Primary Children's Songbook. We started singing Once Within a Lowly Stable, and I had a glimpse of something familiar- something about Christmas as a child, and something about my dad.

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I can't pinpoint it exactly. A lot of my childhood years are fuzzy in my mind, mostly those around the time that my dad was sick and passed away. But I had this remembrance of something- maybe of my family gathered around that big upright piano singing songs together at Christmas time, and maybe that was my dad's favorite Christmas song, or maybe that was my mom's favorite, or maybe it has nothing to do with that particular song at all. I've probably sung that song a million times without feeling so emotional over it. . It was something though- something familiar; something sad because I miss him so much and it's getting harder and harder to remember him; something warm and happy because I was sitting there at the keyboard with my two little boys snuggled on my lap in their pajamas with the Christmas tree all lit up next to us; something nostalgic because of the innocence and joy of childhood; something spiritual because we sang about the birth of our Savior.

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It was a glimpse of something I treasure.

baby blue

Is it any wonder that she gets whatever she wants?

it's Christmas time in the city

We took the kids into the city last night to get a glimpse of the 88 foot Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.

The tree was magnificent with its 30,000 lights. Adding to the excitement, we looked on with hundreds of people as a man proposed to his girlfriend on the ice skating rink beneath the tree. The whole crowd cheered their congratulations.

This is my absolute favorite New York experience. Directly across the street from the tree is Saks 5th Avenue. The entire side of the building is covered in these giant snowflake lights. Every 20 minutes or so, they give a spectacular lights show, choreographed to "Carol of the Bells". It is so loud, so full of energy, and oh so Christmasy!

deck the halls

I LOVE putting up Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Especially while listening to Celine Dion and the Beach Boys Christmas Albums. Garrett tested the lights and figured out that you can stack strand upon strand in one light socket. I'm sure he did it safely. We wondered if it was even worth the effort to put up our wimpy fake Christmas tree (leftover from our Wymount days when we weren't allowed real trees). Lydia's just the right age for 1) pulling all the decorations off of it, 2) trying to climb up it, or 3) knocking the whole thing over.

Still, the kids needed a place to hang their ornaments so we put it up. Surprisingly, Lydia hasn't even gone near it.

On the other hand...within one hour of having it up and completely decorated, ETHAN knocked the whole thing over. We had two ornament casualties.

We put it all back together and now it feels, looks and sounds like Christmas around here. Next year we'll get a real tree, but as a stand in, we got a real pine wreath so it also smells like Christmas.

giving thanks

...and I'm done.

okay, not completely done, but almost. I'm still going to make homemade rolls and a couple family favorite side dishes (creamed corn & maple-glazed sweet potatoes), but the rest of our Thanksgiving Dinner is now sitting in my refrigerator, waiting to be warmed and served tomorrow afternoon. . I took this year off. You can imagine the thrill I get out of this. Bring on the pre-feast nap.

squirrels

There are so many stinkin' squirrels around here. I've seen them climbing up my windows, eating our pumpkins, digging up and stealing my tulip bulbs, and the other day when I took the trash out to the dumpster, one jumped out and scared the living daylights out of me. They're so fast and scurry around going about their work. I've really never lived somewhere with such a dense squirrel population. We see more of the squirrels than we do of our neighbors. I don't have a picture of them, so I thought I'd post this one of my own little squirrels. They're much cuter than the gray furry ones...but just as fast and just as much trouble!

wise woman

In her book, Small and Simple Things, Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley wrote: "I love the scripture in Mosiah: 'And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.' Choose carefully each day that which you will do and that which you will not do, and the Lord will bless you to accomplish the important things that have eternal consequences..." (page 104). Thanks, Sister Hinckley. I needed that tonight.

a story by garrett

My Magic Sea Rock

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This is my magic sea rock that I got at the beach in New Jersey. It lives in the midnight zone of the ocean. It's a magic sea rock. See those red specs? They're shiny parts that hurt the fangtooth or viper fish's eyes so that they'll swim away and not eat it.

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The nice fish that didn't want to eat it gave it to me. But not really, when I was there it didn't come up and give it to me. It was an octopus that can go in all different zones. And it came up through all the different zones onto the top of the water and its head sticked out and it put it's tentacle out and threw it far up on the sea shore. Like 50 miles away so that the crabs couldn't get it. They live in the wet sand. The rock was way far away in the dry sand. And that's where I found it. And I took it home with me.

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The End

Mom's note: Garrett told me this story tonight at bedtime. After about 1 minute into it, I interrupted him so that I could get a pen and paper in order to transcribe it for him. Aside from the magic part and the rock throwing octopus, he's accurate. Get your encyclopedia and check him on it- fangtooth and viper fish do live in the midnight zone of the ocean, and octopuses can live in all the ocean zones.

complaining

Top 10 Reasons why I want out of this apartment:

10. No dishwasher plus no disposal in the kitchen sink is such a nasty pain in the neck.

9. I have to nearly silence the boys (or evacuate) twice a day in order for Lydia to take a decent nap.

8. Garrett uses the kitchen/living room/dining room as his personal racetrack on his bike.

7. Hardwood floors; They look nice, but they cover the entire apartment and I'm ALWAYS sweeping. These ones aren't glued down very well either. If you walk around without socks on, some boards stick to your feet and come out. (The boys do enjoy the puzzle of trying to put them back together in the right pattern though!)

6. 3 kids + a lot of laundry + community laundry.....it's getting old.

5. I REALLY want a garden! I'd take any sort of yard at this point, but a garden would just be swell.

4. It's only a matter of time before the upstairs neighbor calls DCFS on me. It certainly SOUNDS like I'm beating the heck out of Ethan when he lets out one of his ear piercing wails when something terrible happens, like when he drops his fork during dinner for example. And since I can hear his alarm when it goes off at 6 am, I'm certain he can hear each and every cry.

3. Sharing a bathroom with toilet training boys...

2. The hallway has become our newest storage closet.

1. In a desperate attempt to experience the elusive 'full night's sleep', we've started moving Lydia's port-a-crib into the living room each night. Then we move it back to our bedroom during the day for naps.

On the bright side...

I can clean the entire place in a matter of hours.

The boys have learned to sleep through pretty much anything (we've been known to rearrange their room, use a power drill, and vacuum in their room after they've gone to sleep).

Paper goods are cheap and Costco sells them in bulk

We don't have to mow the law.

I can call maintenance instead of paying a repairman.

manhattan, monet, and the temple

 Matt gave me the day off yesterday. It was so wonderful.

I took the train into the city and had a peaceful day all to myself.

I did a session at the temple,

strolled around the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

ate lunch at a cute European Cafe (and finished it off with a chocolate eclair, of course).

It was such a perfect day.

Lydia took a bottle just fine, and the kids all had a grand time with Dad.

I came home recharged. .

Matt, thanks for being SO good to me!